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!!