Operation: Distraction

When bad things happen, I almost always resort to distracting myself so that I don't become too upset and drive myself crazy.

Last night, I wasn't thinking and so didn't have anything planned to keep myself busy. Luckily my friends were able to talk on the phone at the ridiculous hours I was still up and were able to provide comforting words to allow me to calm down enough to get some sleep.

This morning, I woke up with a game plan. I rolled out of bed and hopped right in the shower. After the shower, I turned up the volume on my radio and began to clean my room. I spent about an hour going through two 1 foot x 1 foot boxes in my room, before getting ready to go to Kole's baseball game. At that time, Dad decides he wanted to head up to Iowa to be with his side of the family while his mom is in the hospital.

Mom drives Dad to the airport, and I end up going to Kole's baseball game for moral support. I bawled the entire way there, but pulled myself together enough by the time I got there. Luckily, most people there knew what was going on by the time I got there, and so I didn't have to do much explaining. After about 10 minutes I was driving myself crazy. I normally LOVE to watch Kole play ball, but I wasn't into it today. I called Renee and talked to her for a few minutes just explaining what was going on. Then I called my camp friends.

Within 45 minutes of updating Kristen and Carley about what was going on, they were pulling up to the baseball park to offer moral support, and warm cookies. We talked and cheered Kole on for the remaining hour, and then we came home. They followed me here and we just talked about who-knows-what for about an hour before they had to leave so Carley could drive back to League City for work (she was spending the weekend with Kristen in Memorial, about 20 minutes from Cypress). I don't know what I would've done without Carley and Kristen, they were able to cheer me up and provide an unplanned Cho-Yeh distraction!

Now they are on their way home, and I am back sitting in my room with the music turned up. I figured, if I have to "do" something for the rest of today, I might as well clean every square millimeter of my room! Not only am I being productive, but I'm also providing my own distraction!

Tonight will be hard, as driving and quiet nights are always the two times where I break down the most. Maybe I'll even tackle my closet tonight or the bathroom and be super productive!?

I know that my God is in the hospital with Grandma, with the doctors, with my grandfather, with my uncles as they are driving, and my dad as he is flying. I know He is up there with all of them, and I know that He is down here with us too. Heck yes this is hard, but I know that my God has a plan, and I will take comfort in that!

I'm Glad My Twin Has Better Computer Luck Than I Do!

One of my now best friends named Carley is a fellow Cho-Yeh-er... We have so much in common it is absolutely insanely ridiculous, and hints why we (and all our mutual friends) are convinced we are twins. The only problem is that she lives in League City which is down by Galveston, so we don't get to see each other too much.

BUT!! Carley will be road-tripping it up to Houston next Friday night! We had been talking about going with some other Cho-Yeh'ers to the Hillsong United Concert that is playing at the Berry Center about a mile from my house for quite some time, but that plan fell through as nobody else could go. I went on with the hopes that there might still be some tickets left and that Carley and I could go, but had no luck.

WELL... Carley did have luck! She secured 2 tickets for us for the March 4th concert! So, Friday afternoon she will be coming up to the wonderful H-town to meet the rest of her "family", have an amazing time at the concert, and spend the night! I cannot wait!!! :D

Interruptions

I have always been one to keep my thoughts to myself. My freshman and sophomore year was spent with these thoughts and emotions bottled up, never being expressed. I would write more than anybody knew as a way to get out everything that was seemingly trapped in my head. I had a camp friend call me out on that very thing at the beginning of my junior year, and then started this blog in December of that same year. I got better about talking about what I thought: about my day, about what I was looking forward to, about what all was going on in that often not-so-normal brain of mine.

Tonight, I realized why I always had the standardized response to any question... "How was your day?" "How are you?" "How's your year going?" "How are things going with your friends?" "How is swimming going? How about work". The answer was ALWAYS "fine". My day was fine, I was fine, my year was going fine, my friends were fine, swimming and work were fine. Life was fine.

The definition of fine is simply put as "alright". Fine is a word that requires no further conversation, but can express a wide variety of emotion.

So this afternoon/evening I had a lot on my mind that I was talking about. About water polo and possibly not having a team, about anatomy and catching my teacher jacking me of 20 points on a test, about a Quidditch club at Cy-Falls that has it's first meeting on Wednesday. About a wide variety of things that would have answered the "how was your day" question much better than "fine".

All afternoon not a sentence could be spoken without somebody butting in. All afternoon. When somebody butts in and asks the person I'm speaking to a question of not 9-1-1 emergency and the person I'm speaking to answers them and begins having a conversation with them, I feel as if they didn't really care how my day was. I know they probably do, and might not have realized that they cut me off. They might not have even realized when they in fact cut me off themselves. We're human, I get it. But today I realized that maybe that is why the answer has always been "fine". There is no way that you can be interrupted in that one syllable response!

So there, there is my frustrations poured out in a blog post!! Now off to do homework, as my camp-twin and I telepathically pinky-promised each other that we weren't going to let senioritis get the best of us this week!

New Job?!

I was offered a new job today! I spent the day with my girls today at their meet, and a coach from another team asked me if I would take over their entire learn-to-swim program at that team! He offered me more $ and more/fewer hours (Depending on what I wanted), but nothing could take me away from Dennis and Kris! I think this coach new that too... I know the assistant coach on that team, and I'm pretty sure he had told the head coach to ask me. Haha, it was funny regardless!!

Assistant Coach!

I absolutely love being able to go to swim meets when I'm not swimming to help out. I enjoy getting to cheer on some of my little girls and to be a support system for them in the pool and out.

At practices, these are the girls that are always asking to swim in lane 7, so that we can talk sometimes when I'm working in the LTS lane, lane 8. These are the girls that I can look at them and instantly know if something is wrong. These are the girls that never leave without giving me a hug, regardless if that means sprinting the middle part of a set to get that extra 15 seconds of rest. These are the girls that love the water, and are passionate about swimming. These are the girls that bring so much joy to my nights spent at the pool. These are the girls.

So, spending today at the pool deck for their championship meet was so much fun! Let's see, they got me SOAKED, the other Kylie (yes, there's 2 of us!) farted on me, I fell down the stairs.... BUT I had such a great time! I know when I was little, I was elated when a senior swimmer would watch me swim, and so I love being able to return that favor for these girls. I am so content and joyous just getting to be there for them and be that "big sister" that they all call me!

I'm definitely going to miss these girls next year!!!

Midwinter Memories :)

Being greeted at Cho with a "Hope you brought warm clothing"... CHECK!
The car barely making it up the hill... CHECK!
Handing out papers with gloves on... CHECK!
Lumping luggage in 25 degree weather... CHECK!
Taking a hot shower, only to remember you have to run through the cold to get back to where you're sleeping... CHECK!
Sleeping in a 1947 A-frame that has no heat in 18 degree weather.... CHECK! (thank goodness for space heaters!)
Waking up and adding layers under the covers before bracing the cold... CHECK!
Standing outside to greet campers for 2 hours at breakfast while shivering... CHECK!
Frozen fingers and toes... CHECK!
Getting pelted with flour bombs by our Work Crew Dad, "Papa K"... CHECK!
Being responsible of radios only to realize that resulted in more work... CHECK!
Volunteering to watch the infirmary, and then having to skip dinner... CHECK!
Sweating in 35 degree weather... CHECK!

Having an amazing weekend serving our God and getting to love on campers and friends... CHECK!

I hope everybody else had a Valentine's Weekend that was as rewarding as mine was!

Like a Youngin' on Christmas Morning!

My mom had it right when she said "Cho-Yeh is like Christmas morning to Ky!"

I had NO problem waking up bright and early this morning to get to school by 6:30 for Eco-Fair. Eco-Fair was first period (it's where you make 15 "products" and sell/buy products for "Ecobucks"... really dumb, but whatever). Ready Set Teach went by SO SLOWLY and so did calculus. I was too excited to sit still for long stretches of time! Anatomy went by semi-fast, maybe because my table just has a really good time together in anatomy every day. English drug on (the fact that we were doing busy work on a computer wasn't helping), and I kept checking my phone to see when I would get to leave. I checked into 7th period, then signed out with attendance! I came home to eat lunch and finish any last minute packing. I cleaned up my room, and am getting ready to go load up the car so that I can head off to one of my favorite places on Earth!

There are 240 campers coming (that's the number we heard this morning), and that's a whole bunch of lives to be changed for Christ! If you are interested in knowing what exactly Midwinter Madness consists of, check out the MWM Page for a general idea (although I'm sure the "lights out" times will be delayed quite a bit)!

Be expecting lots of pictures and a long blog post come Monday!

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. " --Colossians 2:6-7

Just a tad bit excited...

... because I get to go to Cho-Yeh this weekend!

I don't think anybody (other than possibly Renee and my Cho friends) understand just how much this place means to me. My mom got the opportunity to meet some of my Cho friends 2 weeks ago, and I think she started to see how much I love Cho and everybody there.

I'm working a retreat this weekend called Midwinter Madness (aka... all of the countdown pictures I have been posting on Facebook this past month), which is a weekend where campers are able to come back to camp, and new campers are able to experience a glimpse at summer camp. It's like a week of summer camp packed into 3 days! WOAH!

So... here is my plan for the next 2 days.

Thursday:
School (maybe)
Come home to pack
Go to work (maybe... depending on if school is canceled again)
Have a mini Bible Study with Carley (camp friend) on the phone over the memory/theme verses for the weekend.
Make sure everything is packed.

Friday:
School till 1:40
Home to probably switch cars with dad and eat a big snack.
2:30--leave for Cho-Yeh till Sunday night!!

AH! It's going to be the best! Not only will we have the opportunity to impact 220 campers lives in one short weekend, but the staff will also be able to reconnect, and we will all be able to forget about school and such for the weekend and rather think and focus on how awesome our God is!

Sounds perfect doesn't it :)

Meet... Genny!

Name: Genevieve Ford
Birthdate: December 17
Hometown: Kingwood, Texas
Major: Chemistry (blech!)

Random Facts:
She loves to be outside.
She golfs in high school.
Used to be a competitive swimmer and loves the water.
Has lived in Singapore and Australia.
Has 2 older sisters--one goes to OU and the other to UT.
Very Aggie-Spirited (but then again... who goes to A&M and isn't?)
Does not like to party or drink or hang around those who do.
Favorite colors are bright blue and green.
Does not like the color black or purple.
Is not a huge TV-person.
Enjoys reading books for fun.
Grades are important.

Oh, and more importantly? She's going to be my roomie next year!

Maybe it's God's Plan...

Throughout the past semester I have been looking for a roommate for A&M next year. I have talked to quite a few people it seems, but either they are already rooming with somebody, or they don't want to live where I do, or I don't get a good vibe about them, it's getting really annoying!

And I don't mind going and dorming with somebody I don't know. Honestly, that doesn't bother me at all. What does concern me is getting stuck with a partier or somebody like that. I'm not sure how well I would deal with that!

This has been very frustrating! The fact that I don't know who I'm rooming with just makes me nervous.

I was on facebook and messaging a possible roommate. She had responded to a post I had put on an "Aggie Class of 2015" wall. So, as we are messaging back in forth with the typical describe yourself, what are you majoring in, where do you want to live type questions, somebody from camp's status comes across my newsfeed. It was the simple phrase "Maybe it's God's Plan". I don't know what she was referring to within her own life, or how/if this symbol is to relate to my own roommate dilemma right now. But, I'm sure we'll see!

SNOW DAY! (Well... kinda)

At 10:00 yesterday they can on the announcements during school announcing that due to weather school would be canceled for Friday. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! No eco-fair, no anatomy test, no English quiz... Yipee! We were all pretty excited.

The news stations were forecasting 3-5 inches of snow. Say WHAT? In Houston, Texas... home of 114 temperatures in the summer with humidity... That's what we were told!

We were told to "hunker down". OK... that's definitely a hurricane term. Maybe the newspeople were expecting a blizzard?

Woke up this morning around 7 and raced to my window to see the blankets of snow that we were promised. Ha. Ha. Ha. It looked cold for sure, but no snow!

Although we did get a lot of ice, it was nothing like they were predicting. I mean, as far as snow goes. The ice did cause quite a few problems for the idiots that didn't know not to drive 60 miles on ice on overpasses and bridges... but nothing worth freaking out as much as people did. And definitely nothing as pretty as we were hoping!

So.. I went back to bed. I cleaned my room and started a scholarship essay. I searched A&M's website for new possible roommates. Our family played Rock Band. I watched The Biggest Loser. Yah... it's been a GREAT snow day!

I wish we would have gotten the snow we were hoping for, or it wouldn't have iced. Either one I would've been cool with. But this in between freezing cold icky mess. Nah!

Breaking the Birthday Bad Luck Charm!

Over the past 14 years my parents birthday week's have always meant bad days for our family...

We have encountered:
-All three of my great-grandparents have died within that week
-Kole was ambulanced to Texas Children's on February 1st
-The Challenger blew up within that week
-Somebody has always called from school sick
-I passed out and wore a heart monitor for that week

Well... today I broke that Birthday Bad Luck!

Today, February 1st is my mom's birthday. I was scheduled to teach my 3rd Grade Math Lesson over Fractions today and was warned many times "WHY would you do it on that day? WHY? You know nothing good ever happens!".

Well... the day started off by screaming "HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TWINSIE" on the phone to my "twinsie" at 12:01 AM. By 12:04 AM I had successfully registered for my New Student Conference at A&M (there is only one week that I could go this summer, so it was a priority to get scheduled into that one session, which required staying up till midnight when registration opened. School was a breeze today, and my 3rd grade math lesson went SO stinkin' well! I was so happy that the kids stayed engaged the entire time and loved the manipulatives. I think I only had to remind them once to stay quiet, which was miraculous for that rambunctious class! I left the class with a class-wide "goodbye Ms. Suddendorf". They were so sweet and well-behaved today and I was so proud of them! They TOTALLY understand fractions, WHOOP! Now I'm off to work, then probably going to bed early tonight!

On the negative side today... it is FREEZING cold and I broke a glass which resulted in me burning my snack and having glass everywhere. But hey, we can take that if that is the extent of the Birthday Bad Luck!!