My Lesson

A few months ago, I felt like God asked me to sponsor a kid in a foreign country. I asked him over and over again-as if He might be joking with me. Eventually, he gave me a verse that talked about lifting orphans and widows out of the dust. That did it for me. God was definantly outright telling me to do something. So, I picked the cutest little boy in the history of the universe. His name is Kato. I don't have a picture of him, because I am not sure how to use my scanner. But just imagine the cutest little eight-year-old African boy you have ever seen. :<)

Anyway, yesterday was the day that I needed to send in the money. I was really struggling, because my eyes had gotten unfocused on what I was doing. My heart wasn't in it, and I was getting all stressed about the money. I thought I would have to get out money from savings, and I really don't like to do that. (I only had seven dollars in my wallet.) But then God talked to me about my attitude. Ooops. It was really bad. I have so many awesome things, and a small amount of money each month to a little boy who REALLY needs it shouldn't be a problem. So, I basically took a chill pill and straightened out my 'tude. I decided I would just have to make a trip to the bank. But before I did that, I went into my closet and for some reason I haven't quite figured out, I flipped through a notebook I keep of all my money records and stuff. In it, I have envelopes where I put money for savings, gas money, etc. I had totally spaced out that money was in there-for who knows how long. In it, I found more than the money I needed for the payment. I could NOT believe it. God totally "gave" me some money. I was really excited and reminded that God always provides-especially when it is something He has asked us to do.

By the way, here are two websites that allow a person or a family to sponsor a kid. If you feel God's leading, try it. It is way cool! I even get to write letters to Kato. Hooray!

Website #1
Website #2

Swim Meet

Hooray! I feel so happy. I just finished a swim meet yesterday. It was a blast! The first day-Saturday-I only had one event, because we got stormed out before the meet could be finished. But that was okay. The one event that I did-200 free-I made a league time. Wicked cool! On Sunday, I had five events. Big difference from Saturday! I wanted to make a league time on the 50 free which I believe I did. That was very exciting. I also had a 400 relay, 100 breaststroke, and a 200 IM. I didn't have goals for the first two except to do my best. They went well. My goal on the IM was just to finish. Last time I did an IM-two years ago-I did awful. Embaressingly enough, I stopped in the middle of my butterfly. I hate fly. A lot. So, this time, I didn't aspire to any great times. Just finishing. And I did! And amazingly enough, I was really close to a league time. Bizarre! So, I am feeling very happy. It is probably the best meet I have ever been to. It wasn't that way because of the goals I met, but because I was really focusing on just having fun and not being stressed. Usually I get all anxious about things and this time I didn't. It was awesome!

Roller Coasters

While in Pennsylvania, my Dad surprised us by taking us to an amusement park-Dorney Park. (Where the heck did that name come from?) Here are some pics of the roller coasters we went on.

This one was probably the best. The drop was like 205 feet. Wow! All the people and cars looked like little ants. :<) It was a blast. Talk about stomach in your mouth.

Talon

I went on this one like five times-literally. It was a blast!

Another

This was another good one. It was kinda creepy, cause you went upside down, but you were just sitting in a seat, so it felt like you could fall out. Obviously that isn't physically possible, but it still felt weird.

The Scoop of the Century-In My Opinion

All I can say is I wish I was there when it happened. That would be AWESOME!

Read here.

My Sister + The New York Pretzel

Here is one of the pictures from vacation. It is Tootie and a New York pretzel. :<)

New York was probably one of the best parts of the vacation! It was so bizarre compared to, well, Canon City. I felt like such a country bumpkin! I was fascinated by taxis, tons of traffic, and lines of police cars 10 vehicles long. (I really wondered where they were going.) Yeah, it may be dorky, but I loved it. We went to Central Park and ate lunch there. My sister actually had a hot dog. This is amazing, because she is basically a vegetarian! I was so proud. :<)

Then we walked 44 blocks to the Metropolitain Art Museum. Seriously. It was worth it though. I saw so many interesting things along the way. An Irish cabby, Broadway (Yes-Broadway!), the Trump Tower, neato statues, street performers, and interesting people. That was probably the coolest part. The people were so diverse!

I would really like to go again someday and see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Ground Zero!

By the way, I really am going to try and keep up with blogging over the summer, but I am SO busy with working full time and swimming a gazillion hours a week. So, I will do my best, but I might be on a little less than usual.

Hi!

Hi! I'm back in Colorado. Hooray! I have to be quick again, but it's okay. One of the first things we did on vacation was meet Jasmine. Her, my Mom, and I go on each other's blogs. We met at Quiznos. Ha ha! It was so cool to meet someone you only know from the internet. She was a very sweet lady. And her kids were so cute! Here is a picture of all of us.

Part Two...or Three?

Okay, I have a little time, so I will tell about *buh buh buh buh* secret intelligence camp. Yay! While I was there, my name was Molly Denise Durham. Funny name, huh? I like the name Molly, but it is SO not me! The whole week we had to "keep cover". My cover was that I was in the country (It was called Ferrislovakia after the founder of the college) to see the Olympic games. I was with my father-General Durham-to watch field hockey. So, the whole week, whenever people introduced themselves or whatever or asked where we were from, we had to give them our cover. So, by the time I left, I didn't know the truth about anyone, and no one knew the truth about me. It was way bizarre! If we did "break cover" we risked being interrogated by Ferrislovakian security guards. Ach! Scary people. They did such a good job of playing scary that everyone was nervous about being caught or questioned. Some people did a great job of keeping cover-like the guy who made actual business cards for his part. Some didn't-they were "executed" or deported and had to get a whole new identity. How sad.

(By the way, I met one of the guys from Rogueskies-Red October-and he ended up being a security guard. Cool! I also met a girl from RS named Destiny. She was very sweet. And, lastly, Churchpunk and Covenantflood-from RS-had a brother there who taught our case studies and helped in our "missions".)

Anyway, I already told about lectures and the coolio people and "cover". We also went on some field trips-in gigantic tour buses. It was way too cool. I've never been in one of those buses. They're very comfy. And big. We went to the cryptological museum (history of codes and such), Air and Space Museum (where I saw the Enola Gay-it dropped the first atomic bomb used in warfare-awesome), and also the National Spy Museum. That was awesome. I love all that spy stuff. If you ever get to D.C., try it out.

Now the best part of camp: the missions. The whole plot was that this country we were in-Ferrislovakia-had the components to make an atomic bomb. We-Americans under the guise of going to the Ferrislovakian Olympics-were supposed to get this person to sell the stuff to us. There were twelve different agencies trying to do this. (We were basically competing against each other.) My agency was INSCOM (or PONDSCUM as we fondly call it) and we came in fourth. Hooray! Altogether, we had four different missions.....

This is getting really long, so I will save the rest for later. Sorry to stop at a bad place-bwahahaha.

Part One of a Gazillion Part Series

Hi all! I am so happy to be blogging. The whole time I was at camp I thought about it. "Hey, I could blog about this. This will make a great picture to post, etc.". Sadly, at this point, I can't put any pictures on here, because I am not on my own computer. But I will as soon as I get home. Which will be like Sunday or Monday.

Well, we obviously started out by driving. It took two whole days-like 27 hours. Ugh! It was so boring. One can only take so much reading, listening to Dismen, and playing car games. But, it's okay, we finally arrived. The highlight of driving here was seeing an armadillo. Okay, so it was dead on the side of a road, but it was still an armadillo. I've never seen one before....

On Sunday, I got dropped off at camp. It is really weird to just be dropped off somewhere you've never been with people you totally don't know. But it turned out to be great. All the people in my wing were amazing. I really wish they lived close to me. I'm sure we would all be friends!!

Okay, my Grandma wants to get on the computer, so I will have to write more later. I have SO much to write about. Wow!!!

Here is a quick quiz. I was tagged by Spunky Jr.
Total Number of Books Owned: A whole lot! Maybe one to two hundred. I LOVE books!

Last Book I Bought: I don't usuallybuy books. I get them from the library. But my Mom bought me Shakespeare's complete works for my birthday. Awesome!!

Last Book I Read: If you call it a book: KingHenry by Shakespeare. Didn't really like that one. But it was his first, so he was inexperienced I guess. Hadn't developed his style maybe.

Currently I'm reading A book by Erich Maria Remarque one of my fav authors. Um, I think it's called "In LOve and War" or something.

Books That Mean A Lot To Me: 1. The Bible 2. Army of Angels 3. Grapes of Wrath 4. When God Writes Your Love Story 5. All Quiet on the Western Front-Basically my favs.

Quick Hi

I'm back!!! But only halfway. I'm at my Grandpa's house for a week, so I still won't have time to be on regular. Man, I am going to have to do a twenty part blog to get all the info on what I did on this vacation in. :<) It's been great. But, sadly, I can't even start. I will say it includes meeting mysterious people, interrogations, long drives, and secret identities. Yay!! :<)

Ach! I have to go. Darn!

Bon Voyage!

No, I'm not leaving the country. But I AM going on vacation. I am very excited! We are leaving Friday morning-way too early. :<) We are first going to go to Virginia where I will be dropped off at Secret Intelligence Camp. Seriously! Isn't that awesome? Supposedly, we get a secret identity and everything. Wow! It feels like a TV show.

One way cool thing is that I get to meet some people I know from Rogueskies. It is going to meet someone in real life that I only know from the internet. Wow!

I will be at camp for like 5 days and then I will get picked up to go to my grandparent's house. They live in Pennsylvania. I believe we are going to go to the beach and maybe some museums.

I am not sure if I will be on again before we leave, but I might post while there. Also, when I get back, I will post some pictures and some stuff about what the trip was like.

Adios!