Welcome to New York!

This past weekend, myself and the other "EDGErs" (the program I am a part of) took a weekend trip to Nate's grandparent's house and his aunt and uncle's lakehouse in Watkins Glen, NY. It is about a 2 hour drive from State College - crazy to think in 2 hours I can be in the state of New York...a radical thought for someone from Colorado. Again, as a reminder, Nate and Sam are two housemates that live next door, and Janeen and Meghan our my roommates (Meghan is my direct roommate). The 5 of us traveled. We got to go to the Corning Museum of Glass - which was incredible. The building was so intricate inside, and I loved the design of it... I also liked watching them blow glass and make a beautiful bowl. I'd of bought many things at their store if they didn't cost my soul..haha.

I got to know Nate's grandpa (papa) well - who I will call my "dentist" and reference him as so. He is a retired dentist, and I have been having minor "toothache" in a tooth that has caused me problems a couple months ago - and so my dentist (ha) took a look at it and comforted me by letting me know it looks ok, and to give it 6 months or so before acting on it (praise GOD because I don't have insurance for dental stuff, and so that was good news...) plus I informed him that I would call HIM if something happens...apparently he does "pro-bono" tooth fixings for those of us without insurance and money. = ) So who knows. Good to know people in high places, right? Here's pictures of him - we were teammates at a game of tennis. 75 and still amazing at playing the game. Sam and Janeen opposed us. This was an outdoor court that he had on his huge beautiful property.



Meet "papa", my dentist.



Here's my dentist and I winning - which we did. We won.



Here's is Sam and Janeen opposing the most powerful team, dentist and Maryn.

Early Sunday morning, Nate's grandparent's dog Hannah and I went for a walk. Here are some things we saw...



Hannah in all her glory.



More real-life barns! Barns seem to be a theme of the eastcoast....



A quite romantic gazebo found on a pond on the property...((mom I thought you'd love this...))



The SOLE reason I moved here... RED LEAAAVVVEEESSSSS!!!! Ok. That might be an exageration for why I moved here - but still.



New York - gorgeous!



Check out this blue crisp clear sky - NO CLOUDS. Soak it in...won't last for long they say.



It was breathtaking really.



A picture of us girls at the lakehouse.



Janeen and Nate on the drive from the lakehouse to Nate's grandparent's house.... This is when Sam got into the car (he didn't go to the lakehouse but stayed at a restaraunt and watch the Penn State game vs. Michigan...and then he later got in the car and was WAY bummed because we lost, again, for like the 12th or 13th time in a row??)



See Sam. See Sam talking with a friend about how bummed he is. See Maryn. See Maryn attempting to bring optimism into the vehicle. A beam of sunlight, one might call her. ; )



This is the last photo - before our weekend trip we bought fish and frogs for both sides of the house - girls vs. guys. If our goldfish outlived theirs, we'd get the guys to cook us dinner, and vice versa. We came home and OUR FISH WAS DEAD. Foster died while we were away. 2 days later their fish died. What a travesty!

The fall retreat is this coming weekend - so you can be praying for that! Pray I would meet more girls and get to know the ones in my study better - I think 6 of the girls in my study are coming...I'll post more about that weekend after it happens!

Miss you all.

Barn Dance!

The barn dance was SO much fun...I really enjoyed it. We had tons of chili, square dancing, students, staff, in a barn with tables and a beautiful sunset outside....it was wonderful. Here's a picture of me and some of my Bible study girls...from left to right you have Courtney, Me, Jessica, Sarah, and Dana. The little blonde girl with the big smile is Hannah (Justin Hester, the Nav director's, daughter). These girls are some that come to the Bible study Tuesday night and have started coming to Nav Nite on Friday nights. I have enjoyed getting to know them...we are facebook friends (and we all know that means BIG TIME friends...ha)

I feel Autumn Coming...

This morning I walked downstairs and it was COLD in our house....that to me is the first official sign of autumn. I sat outside and read this morning and noticed that the air was CRISP and it smelled wonderful. Little to no humidity and the sun was shining really bright with little white clouds here and there, a cool breeze and an incredibly deep blue sky. It was wonderful!!! I'll show you a picture of me and the tomatoes outside our house waiting to become red.



here's me. enjoying my "day off" which I take on wednesdays since most saturdays I'll be working the concession stand at the football games and this saturday we have a chili-cookoff and barn dance after an 8 hour concession stand day....BUSY!



here is our back porch and our tomatoes.

Today I also got to clip some flowers and bring them to our 86 (?) year old neighbor RoseMary. We met her the other day because she had a small incident of falling and not being able to get back up...so we had the 911 guys come over ... but she is so sweet and quite alert. Her sister is one year younger (I believe 85) and is still able to drive so she comes and visits and does grocery shopping etc...so the flowers were a good way to see if she was doing ok. She plans on making muffins tomorrow with another friend who is coming to visit her. I should ask her to teach me how to cook...haha.

Last night was my first official Bible study and 13 girls showed! We were crammed into a small dorm room, and were practically sitting on each other's laps. Its going to be a good study I feel - the girls are so individual and really have distinct personalities - I hope they are able to become close friends. The girls had really great things to say in the discussions - I do think a lot of them must have had some type of "Christian" background due to the knowledge they were sharing. It will be a challenge to see where they all are individually and how we can help them grow as a group.

I also met yesterday with a girl from the study, Sara, and she is really nice. Her family is in Chambersburg, PA and she is an avid football fan! I hope to meet with each girl in the study at least a couple times this semester... and the girls are starting to facebook me, which is fun. = )

I love autumn (as my sisters and family know)...it is my ALL TIME FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR!!! I am almost sad because its almost here, and when its here, that means it will leave....so being the pessimist I sometimes am, I am going to miss the anticipation of fall once its here, because then I have to wait a whole year to see it again. BUT let me say I AM SO EXCITED to see fall here in PA. I saw it last year for a week in October, but it was towards the end of it. I'd like to buy a pumpkin and roll in the leaves at least once, and maybe even peruze the craft store aisles where the halloween stuff reside - because that's just what I do each year.

I miss you all. This is not home... but the people here are incredible. . . and I feel I have known most of them a lifetime. But its still no match for my friends and family.

OH! Meghan and I (my direct roommate) saw a daddy-long-leg that was the BIGGEST bug I have ever seen. My thoughts are that the humidity allows these bugs to grow extra big. It was sitting on our screen outside our back door - we didn't know what to do, so we just shut the door so it wouldn't come inside. Its gone now, praise God.

Oh, Hi. Its me.

I bought stuff to make enchiladas...gonna bust that out tomorrow night and have dinner with Steph, the girl that I lead study with. We're going to make cookies before tomorrow night. We have our first Bible study tomorrow night (not informational meeting, but the actual study in some girls' dorm room) and we will see who ends up showing up! Its from 7:30-8:30pm on Tuesday nights. I also will be meeting up with another girl thats in the study later this week which should be fun - glad to start getting to know some of the girls here. . .

I went to a softball game that a lot of the junior guys with Navs are a part of, and that was fun to stand and cheer on the side with some of the Nav girls here. They played really well. One guy knocked another guy down, and he started screaming so loud I really truly believed he broke a rib...but then like 2 seconds later he jumped up and kept playing. Maybe he was a drama king?? ... = )

Biblio Studio

Last night Steph (the junior who is coleading the Bible study with me) and myself met outside of the Big Onion, which is a small cafe in the commons of the dorms I'm working in. We met at 7:30pm and watched TWELVE girls show up that wanted to hear more about our Bible study! So we had our first informational meeting, which consisted of the girls and us having ice cream at an outside pavilion, introducing ourselves to each other, and outlining what the study would look like. It was a lot of fun actually - I was super nervous the 5 hours before the meeting (not sure why!) and then afterward was super giddy and laughed for a couple hours because I was free of that pre-study stress. Ha. It is neat to see how the girls heard of the study, why they decided to come to the info meeting, and see that some girls brought 3 friends or so from other dorms. They're all so different personality wise - its going to be an interesting but FUN study!!! To be honest, I wouldn't mind some girls not coming back to make it a little smaller group - a little more personal. But if they all stay, I definitely won't complain either....both ways are great. Currently: eating string cheese (cheese sticks) and talking to a friend back home over iChat! What a day. ; )

And the Year Begins!!

As I type this, I'm looking out my window in State College, PA and watching clouds float by as the sun sets. It's quite beautiful actually -- so many green trees everywhere, and I can hear the crickets and other outside animals chirping. It has been sunny for almost a week or two straight now - and I am THANKFUL! Everyone keeps saying, "Enjoy the sun now, because in a month or so we'll hit 6 months of no sun..." ... ... ... and that slightly scares me. But I move forward!

Lately it has been an interesting couple weeks. It seems like I have spun in a few circles, had my life (which was packed in a car) thrown upside down and then resituated all within hours...and so I sit here, thinking of what I have come from and looking toward what I have ahead of me - and I'm excited!!

People keep asking me (some of you included, I'm sure!) what I have been up to lately! And that's an interesting question...because I'm not sure how the time or days pass, but they do, and at a quick rate it seems. Its weird to think I just graduated college, raised support, packed up my life, moved here, and have begun a whole new job description, all new friends and roommates and housemates...its been so nuts! But things are beginning to pan out, and I feel like I understand a little bit more what I'll be doing. Let me try and outline it as best I know thus far...

Things that will happen once a week:
- an EDGE Bible study led by Dave, a director of Navs (EDGE is the name of the program I'm doing, so this study is to help me) - this is on Thursdays
- another EDGE study, but this is a book study, led by Justin, another director of Navs - this is on Tuesdays
- Five Aspects of Woman - this is another study for me to be in -
- me leading a Bible study for freshmen girls - this is on Tuesday nights
- me meeting up with this lady Barb as she trains me to lead the freshmen girls better - this will be on Thursdays
- me and Meghan (my direct roommate) doing a "beauty" ministry (I'll explain more) - this will be on Thursdays
- NavNite, which is a weekly meeting (mini-church service type) every Friday night for all Nav students
- Staff meetings on Monday
- meeting up one - on - one with freshmen girls that will be in my Bible study

PHEW! So that's kind of my weekly activities. On top of this there will be weekend football games that we will sell food at the concession stands to raise money for the ministry here to give scholarships to students so they can come on retreats. We'll have a fall retreat, dances, staff training (in November in St. Louis!), and much more.

So the year seems to be in full gear now. I have noticed that some of the leaves are already beginning to change.

I'll also be reading a few books that are on my "curriculum" to read, and its just crazy! I feel like there's a lot that is going to be happening soon, and I am in a "downtime" right now because I don't know many girls well.

But this Thursday night I'm having an informational meeting with the girls that are interested in being in my Bible study - so far I know of about 6 that want to come! YAY!

This beauty ministry that will happen on Thursdays will basically be myself and my roommate Meghan going to one of the floors on the dorm I'm in charge of (and then the next week we'll go to her dorm) and we'll offer free pedicures and manicures for 2 hours. We hope this will get the girls to come by and meet us and then as we work on their nails we will have a solid 15 minutes of face-to-face time with them - we hope that this will result in good conversations and relationship building...hopefully we can make good connections with them and get them invovled here or simply share the message of Christ with them. Please pray for this! = ) Plus its just fun to do this.

So today in preparation for it, Meghan and I practiced pedicures on our other roommate Janeen and our other housemates (some of the guys that live on the other side of our duplex), Nate, Jamie and Tim. This evening I think my other roommate Christine wants one, and maybe Sam also. It was really funny to see a bunch of guys waiting around to have pedicures (don't worry, we didn't paint their nails)...

Here's a description of my house situation:

I live about 3 or so blocks away from downtown, so I can walk basically everywhere. My street has tons and tons of LARGE green trees framing the street and I live in a duplex. When you face the house, I live on the right side. The guys live on the left. There are 4 girls on my side, and 5 guys on the other side which we call our housemates.

Girls:
Christine (about to get married and move out January 5th)
Janeen (on her 2nd year of EDGE)
Meghan (my direct roommate and also on her 2nd year of EDGE)
Me!

Guys:
Sam (2nd year of EDGE)
Nate (2nd year of EDGE)
Jamie (engaged and moving out Dec 22)
Justin (last year of school)
Tim (last year of school)

It is a ton of fun and we have house dinners a lot and sit on the back porch at night and talk or have a backyard fire-pit. It has been a blessing to move into such an already established community of friends. YAY!

Ok. This is far too long. I'll include a photo of my house! And me and my sister! (she visited this last weekend).

Alright! Miss you all. Feel free to comment....haha = )

<3



This is my house from the front (622 W. Foster Ave.) I live on the right side (the white part)



This is the back of the house where we often sit....My house is now on the left of this picture.



This is a picture of me outside my favorite building on campus - Old Main! I frequent this building after a run or a walk...sometimes I'll get starbucks (as you see here in this photo) and I will sit on the stairs and listen to music or just think and ponder.



This is me and one of my sissies, my seeeester, Stacia. We had fun last weekend as she came and hung out. YAY!