Beach

Stephen and I finally made it down to the beach. It was only for an overnight stay but it was well worth it. Stephen's sister, Sarah (yes it does get confusing both having sisters named Sarah), and her boyfriend, Chris, invited us to stay at Chris's parents beach house. We eargerly accepted and went down on Wednesday night. We had a nice time playing games (we invented a great one which we played for hours), eating, and laughing alot. It was supposed to storm all day on Thursday but it turned out to be a beautiful day! I was so happy to just sit on the beach and stare at the ocean. We left around 5 and found a cute little diner that was straight out of a movie to eat at and got home with bad sunburn. Poor Stephen can barely walk. It was a good time though.

Brat Pack

I love music. I am a big fan of lyrics. It's usually what makes me love certain bands or certain songs. Every since I heard the song "Brat Pack" by The Rocket Summer I've been hooked. I guess it's about 4 years old now and I still listen to it and sing along with zeal. And altough I loved it from the start, only now does it really apply to my life. I just love when that happens. When there is a song that just encompasses so much of what you feel. It a song that talks about growing up and moving away and hating everything about where you live but never wanting to leave and loving everything about it all at the same time.

For about four years I’ve hated this town
Yeah, so much I just wanna get out
Since graduation was long ago
Please somebody get me out of this hole
Cause I don’t want to get stuck in here
When I am thirty-four just talkin' 'bout high school years
No I don’t wanna be there, and feel so stuck right here
Back and forth, side to side, oh my dear

My foot to the floor I will drive to the place
Where I can kick it with friends through the night
A place we'll talk about now and the past what the future holds
Hanging out with not much to do
Just aimless with each other - is what we do

...Cause' we were singing along to Peter Gabriel's "sledgehammer" song
You know it’s clear that tonight we belong in this place
So I step back to reflect in this town I hate
And at least just for a second I think I might stay...

Collecting

I love to collect things in my mind. Yes, that sounds completely crazy. But I really do it. When my sister first told me she was pregnant I told everyone with whom I was remotely acquainted and would listen. I heard alot of strange reactions. Some people were thrilled and some were confused as to why I was so excited. So I started "collecting" peoples reactions. Don't ask me why exactly. But I remember the one that was the strangest to me. I told this girl I knew who was about 21 at the time and after a slight pause she says "Oh. That's cute" Weird response. I also like peoples reactions to my moving to Michigan for Stephen. Most people at church look confused and afraid and ask, sometimes tactfully sometimes not, if we will be living together. I reply that we are not and they always look so relieved. I find it tremendously amusing. And, yes, I am completely crazy.

Summer of Alex Update

So my summer is about halfway over I guess and I feel pretty good about it. I haven't seen very many friends or done any late night coffee drinking yet but I know it'll come in time. So far I've been to see my sister, gone on a great road trip with friends, camped for a week, learned how to love a little better, watched SO many movies, and I am currently learning to play basketball (kinda). I have to say I'm really enjoying basketball! My friend Mitch has always wanted to be a NBA star, and since he played in high school he has some great pointers. Now anyone who knows me well knows that I am terrible at most sports but I really want to try something new and since I can walk down to the park where they have a nicely lit courts I can play whenever. So Stephen and I had our first lesson with Coach Mitch and he gave us some good tips. Stephen and I even played one on one the other day and it was a great work out! Although I know I'll never be a star I'm trying to expand the things that I do. That's what I've done so far and as far as what I still have/want to do seems overwhelming. I still have to pack, go on about four double dates, see a ton of people, go to the beach a few times, and so much more. But I do know that tomorrow night I'm going to see "The Dark Knight" with friends. I can't wait!

Cornerstone

I've been back from Illinois for a week now and had time to recover and think over everything that happened. I had a great time and came back feeling very edified and excited. Although the week ended well it started a little rough. We left on a rainy Sunday morning and the first thing was that we couldn't fit everything in the 3 vehicles which meant we had to leave behind the big fire pit, the boom box, and a cooler. I was most bummed about the boom box which meant very little music at the camp site for the week. Everyone else was upset about the fire pit cause you can't have fires on the ground at c-stone. But we took off and drove through the night with none of us really sleeping. I think I got about 5 minutes in about 36 hours. We arrived at about 5:30am and waited in a 2 mile long line until about 9am (the guys in the band got in early and set us the camp site!). Once at the site, which looked great thanks to our churches 10x20ft circus tent, I realized our roof rack had locked on itself. My dad instructed me to "jam something in there until it pops open", so I asked Scott, the bands drummer, to help me. He grabbed a pocket knife, bad idea, and jammed away. Then he sliced his finger open, almost passed out, had to be taken to the emergency room to get four stitches, and then play 3 shows that week. I'm not sure how he managed it but he did! It was such a bad way to start things off. The week only went up from there though. We enjoyed a slew of great bands, I heard a fantastic seminar on living in community, and just had some great laughs. Even though by the end of the week we were all more than happy to say good bye to one another I believe it was worth feeling completely wiped out for almost a week for it. I suggest going to Cornerstone with friends and enjoying the challenge of living among other people with no plumbing, canned food, and loud music. It really changed me.

Here are some pics. There is a great one of Scott's finger after about 4 days.

Here you go, Grandpa

One of my favorite beverages has to be Ale-8-One (A Late One). It is a delicious soda only sold in the Lexington, KY area and I always enjoy it while visiting Sarah and Alan. I remember after they had first moved down there to Kentucky I was in Nashville, TN for the summer and they came to visit me one weekend. And they brought my some Ale-8! I was very skeptical at first since I'm not a huge soda fan but after trying it I was hooked. It has a ginger ale type flavor but slightly more fruity and since it often comes in glass bottles (it's so old timey!) it isn't too fizzy. I would recommend trying it next time you are at the Wilmore IGA in Kentucky. At least that's where I always buy mine! :-p

Pictures

Here are pictures of Lucy (they are mixed in with older pics so go to page 3 for the most recent). I will post about Illinois soon. I feel a little out of it still as far as computers and phones go so bear with me.

Get Ready Cause Here I Come!

I'm leaving for Illinois today! We are starting off at 12 noon today for Cornerstone. We will be driving through the night (keep us in your prayers) and will arrive out there at about 8am tomorrow morning. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself! It'll be a week of laughing with friends, listening to some great music, eating lots of canned food, and hopefully learning a little more about myself. But I think one of the best things of all is I'll be a week with out computers, cell phones, or TV. I always find it refreshing to get away from those things. So I will be gone until July 7th. But if you'd like to leave me some love on here, send me an email or a text, or leave me a message on my cell (which I will check daily) I will greatly enjoy them!

Kentucky at it's Finest

I just got back from spending almost a week with my sister, brother in law, and neice. What a nice time! Mostly we just hung around, which was a nice break after finishing work a few days earlier, drank lots of Ale-8, and watched "Flight of the Concords" on DVD. It was great to hang out with Lucy and see how much she's grown and how smart she is. She is a super eater (loves peas), loves to be read to, jump, play, and laugh. A true joy. I also had to chance to see all of Sarah and Alans old friends, meet some new ones, and get to know everyone a little bit better. It's so nice to see what a great life they have made for themselves and how happy they are. I look to them as the inspiration for my life as I grow up and start my new life on my own. I will post pictures of little Lucy soon.

Redlight Ivan

Part 3 of 3 (see two posts below for the whole story):





Stephen had taken his fathers mini-van that morning so that we could drive more kids, smart idea! Well, you would think so. It wouldn't start. Dead battery. It had happened before so Stephen felt confident jumping it would do the trick. Gina, a fellow youth leader, started calling AAA while one of the moms looked for jumper cables. We located the cables before AAA answered and got the car started in a matter of minutes. Whew, we all sighed with relief. It was still about 80 degrees out and the thought of standing in the parking lot waiting for AAA was not a fun prospect. We loaded up the car with 3 Brinbaum kids (they are a nice family and we know them well), Evan (14), Forrest (12), and Grace (8), we also had two of their friends with us, Aaron (12), and his brother Charlie (14). Off we went. Everyone else in the other two cars were driving through at McDonald's but we didn't want to stop and risk not starting again so we headed straight home. Right outside the McDonald's, which was right outside Six Flags, we stopped at a red light and the car just died. I panicked! Stephen gabbed his phone to call AAA and found out it was dead so I gave him mine and he started dialing. The kids asked what was going on and Stephen was so calm, he told the kids to get out of the car, take Grace's hand,walk over to the grass outside of WaWa, sit down in the center and wait. Stephen was so smart about that cause we didn't have any lights on the car and it was dark and he was afraid we might get hit. After a few minutes of holding with AAA a tow truck pulls up next to us! He asked if we needed help and we said yes please. He was a AAA guy too! So he tried jumping us with no luck. He than pushed the car over to the shoulder and out of the intersection. I decided to take the kids into McDonald's and get them some food and out of the heat. It was there that I almost lost my head.



Grace asked to go the bathroom. I said yes but immediately after she was gone I was thinking "is it ok for her to do that? are 8 year old girls allowed to do that?!". I ordered the food set the other kids at a table and went into the bathroom. She was washing her hands and smiled at me when I came in. She was fine. My heart started beating again. So there we are sitting in McDonald's. I had no idea what was going on. I wanted to cry s. Than Michelle walked in, Larissa and Joes step-mom. She had gotten a call from Gina (whom Stephen had called when we broke down), and told me what was going on. Between her and her husband Gary, Gina, and the other youth leader the kids could fit in the cars and they would take them all home. I had to ride in the tow truck with Stephen. So I thanked them, told them the whole thing scared me out of having kids for quite some time, and ran out to meet Stephen.



We hopped in the truck and I wanted to cry again. We were still over an hour from Stephens and I had to drive myself home from there. I don't even know what time it was at that point. But the guy was so nice. He was eastern european of some sort, young, and very talkative and kind. We told him funny stories from the day and he asked us questions about this and that while listening to rap music. Then he got pulled over. We pull into the WaWa parking lot in Flemington (so close to home!). He had apparently run a red light. No ticket for that just for a burnt out license plate light. He announced he needed a cigarette after that experience so I treated Stephen to a coffee and some donuts. We got back into the truck, made it to Stephens house, and I got home by 12am with sore legs, a sun burnt nose, and a terrible head ache.



It was such a stressful day to say the least. But I laughed alot and got the chance to get to know some genuinely nice kids. So I'd say it was worth it. I'm never going back to Great Adventure though.