Happy's and Crappy's

Before bed, some parents go through "happy's and crappy's" with their children (a good thing about their day and a bad thing). This was never a practice at my house, but we've kinda done it a couple times here for either worship or dinner time conversation. So I thought I'd share some of my recent "happy's and crappy's" with you now.

Some highlights of the past several weeks:

• Making a pumpkin pie completely from scratch. We noticed that we were growing a pumpkin in our compost pile a while back. Mike (my leader) picked it and I went to all the trouble of making it into a pie. It was a rainy weekend and we didn't have much to do, so I spent a long afternoon cooking the pumpkin, pureeing it into a baby food-like consistency in the blender, making pie crust out of my Grandma's recipe (failing the first time and having to start completely over again), and finally baking the pie (forgetting to set the timer and burning it just a little). But despite some initial difficulty, it actually turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Next time though, I'll probably just buy the canned pumpkin!
• Going canoeing. It's so much harder than it looks! A river runs through town right behind our house, so one of the church members took us all for a spin in it in his canoes last Sunday. Keeping those things going in a straight line is so much harder than you would think! After a while, we were getting tired and frustrated. So my partner Renee and I decided to just float downstream for a while, which was nice. We laid back and enjoyed the sun that had just come out after a rainy couple days. Even though it was difficult, I'm glad I got the experience!
• Getting to know my host family. I have a really fantastic host family, Jim and Karen Skidmore, their dog Tovah, and three cats, whose names I cannot spell, unfortunately. The Skidmores are very creative with their pet naming. Anyway, they are the host family to end all host families. Jim and Karen have hosted a Service Adventure participant every year since 1992 and have pictures of every one of them on their fridge, along with every unit since then. So I'm very excited to make it on their fridge Hall of Fame! They also share many of my interests such as music, baking, and cats. Karen and I have already done a song for creative worship in church and are planning more to do later. Jim loves to cook and bake, and has shared some of his fantastic recipes with me that I can't wait to try out! I hope sometime soon we can make something together. I also discovered that Jim and Karen love to watch Dancing with the Stars. I don't usually regularly watch the show back home, but I enjoy critiquing the dancers with Karen during the commercial breaks.
• Starting work with the Kid Reach program. I love working with little kids, so being able to tutor them two days a week after school has been a blast. It's a pretty strict program. Those kids get down to business for the first about 45 minutes to an hour, but after that we get to play games. It's a bit stressful when there are four kids at a time who need your help with their homework, but generally there are some older kids in the group who are willing to help the younger ones, which I really appreciate.

Things that have been difficult/stressful:

• Chores at home. While living in community with 4 other people my age is a blast, this is our first time away from home, without our parents telling us to clean our rooms and pick up after ourselves. We have a chore rotation here, but there have been several small arguments already over people not keeping up their end of the bargain. I'm finding out that I really like a clean house, and not everyone here has the same standards as me, which is something I'm struggling with right now. 
• Homesickness. This hasn't been a huge deal, but I have been missing my family and friends lately. It's good to get many letters from them though, I have been putting the cards the things up on my wall and it's getting full quickly! It's also very reassuring that I have so many people from the church keeping me in mind and praying for me too.

Things I'm looking forward to in the near future:

• Visits from the East Coast units. The Johnstown, PA and Raleigh, NC units are visiting us this weekend. We're going to the Forest Festival in a town about 30 minutes from here, having a bonfire and cookout at the farm where several families from church live, going to church and the potluck afterwards, and making cider. There will be 15 extra people crowded into the house, so it should be a good time!
• Halloween. Ian and Ella (and possibly Renee, Allison, and I) will be dressing up and I look forward to taking them around trick-or-treating!
• Pumpkin foods. I go crazy for anything with pumpkin in it, and it's finally that season! I know what I'll be spending my $30 stipend on this month....

One month

As of today, I've been in Philippi, West Virginia for one month. I immediately liked it here. There are so many beautiful trees, hills, and green grass - something I really appreciated after our dry Kansas summer! Our first week here was orientation. We spent several days just getting to know each other, going over house logistics, and touring everyone's work places.

 Our unit, from the back row left: Micah, Ian (5), leader Mike, Ben. Front row: Ella (3), Me, Allison, Renee,  leader Heidi


At the end of the week we went for a three day backpacking trip led by one of the former Philippi Service Adventure leaders. I'm not real big on camping and hiking, but I had a lot of fun roughing it with my housemates and one of our leaders, Mike. We hiked along a creek about 2 hours from our house called Otter Creek. At the end of our hike Ben, our hiking leader Jair, and I all got to jump off some big rocks into the creek which was a highlight for me!

Once orientation week was over, we all started our jobs. I am working at the Myers Clinic. It's a small clinic that serves people in the area, many of whom don't have insurance. I started in the walk in center working with three other nurses and two Physician's Assistants. I really enjoyed getting to know the nurses there. They're really fun to be around and were very nice about teaching me everything I needed to know, and not making too much fun of me when I almost passed out watching one of the PA's drain fluid from a boy's knee! (I got over that, I can handle watching those type of procedures now.) Last week I changed positions and now work in another part of the clinic with the actual doctors who take scheduled appointments. At the walk in center and my new location I have been taking patients' vitals, faxing, updating patient records on the computer, and doing anything else the nurses need done. I'm enjoying getting to know the many regular patients and seeing all the little kids that come in!

This month has gone fast and I'm very grateful that God has blessed me with great people and a wonderful location! I definitely feel that He has led me here and I look forward to his plans for the future!

I've decided to start a blog instead of sending email updates! So here it is. More to come soon!