ive been volunteering at the teen center (kids ages 9-18 can go there to hang out) and today i had a funny conversation with a 4th grader named jade. it went something like this:
jade: "are you married?"
me: "no"
jade: "good. i dont want to be married. i dont need a man and i dont want to deal with all that"
me: "thats very independent of you"
jade: "ya, but i still want kids so i'll adopt, cuz i dont want to deal with the whole pregnancy thing, and i dont want to do something gross with a boy"

it made me laugh. i wanted to tell her to write that in a journal and look at it in 10 years...but i didnt.

just wanted to share that little moment in my life with you all.


jade and me with our clay dogs we made.

so i said that i'd keep y'all posted on what happened with soccer. i went to the coach on tuesday to see if it was just a misunderstanding and she told me that she really didnt want my help. i was pretty bummed but i know that its not because of anything i did (or didnt do). i'm trusting that God has a reason for that which makes it a little easier. so thats the update. kind of a bummer.
on a better note we had an open mic night on tuesday at club and it was really awesome, the kids did great. and then we showed a short lou giglio clip and i spoke about how God is a big God but He's also a God of details and design. i often wonder if kids really pay attention but tonight God let me have a bit of affirmation and while we were talking about something completely different one of the girls was like 'ya, God loves us so much He even put this cross shaped protein in us to help hold us together' it was cute. and i'm thankful for moments like that when God lets us see that He doesnt need us but still chooses to work through us.

middle school club

peeps baseball at the lock-in

mini golf at the lock-in

just starting to snow

joe during our battle for the most awkward dance move

samzies chapstick

"games with adam" (we had put games with adam on the schedule for the lock-in from 7-8am but adam was far too tired to run them so this became 'games with adam')

driving home the next morning

i legitimately spent a saturday night playing the game of life with some friends

open mic night

i dont know whats wrong with me but i have not been sleeping at all recently. i think i have this tendency to get really excited about things and then not be able to sleep. but i am excited about a lot of things in my life right now. i'm excited about Jesus; God has been answering my prayers like crazy and ive been really enjoying time spent with Him. i'm excited about new friends and the boldness God has been giving me in relationships with old friends, i feel like ive really been learning how to be a friend recently. i'm excited (and a little nervous) about our lock-in on friday (pray that kids will come and not be sketchy). i'm excited about the kids coming on our poland trip. i'm excited about the fact that laura and alyssa are coming out to see me at the end of the month. i'm excited that meghan marell and rob calame are thinking/praying about coming out to be interns during the spring/summer-ish time. i'm excited that its been sunny for three days in a row. i'm excited about the next steps in my life and the fact that we have started the fundrasing process for young life at dougherty (oh hey, thats some new and big news for some of you...as of now i'm planning on coming back mid-july...yay! so thats the plan unless God changes it..but i'm pretty sure its His anyway).
but all of this excitement has equated to lack of sleep, which isnt good (especially with the lock-in coming up).

i really want to leave you with that as most of it is happy news but i do have a prayer request for those of you that like to pray about things...
for the last two years ive coached soccer at the high school, its my favorite part of everything that i do. (its 6 days a week with kids playing soccer, whats not to love?) but we got a new coach this year and i emailed her asking if i could help out again and she didnt seem real excited about having any help. so pray either that God would soften her heart to the possibility or that i wouldnt be too bummed about not helping out. i'll keep you all updated on how it turns out.

now some pictures:

rock climbing in ramstein

our knights at mideval club

jousting at mideval club

pumpkin gnocchi in balsanno del grappa, italy (where the liquor grappa comes from)

on our way to asiago, italy (where the cheese comes from)

these are for real baby foods

really big cheese wheel in asiago italy

up there with the grossest games ever...i was sick so i couldnt smell these but then all of a sudden it didnt matter that i couldnt smell, i could taste it. i almost puked.


thats all for today folks.