it is raining.

^ that is the story of my summer. it is cold and rainy. this is not the summer i ordered. (i would take a pic, but its too sad)

on a brighter note, i leave for Maryland this afternoon :) then i'm going to a wedding in harrisburg on saturday that i almost forgot about (how bad would it have been if i showed up with no wedding attire!) and the plan for the rest of the week is kind of up in the air. originally we were going to the beach. and then we found out that it is going to rain every day i am there. (except for saturday, when we'll be at the wedding) but i am not complaining (surprise, surprise) because it has been three weeks since i last saw my boy and i miss him greatly and i am very excited to see him.

what i will complain about is that i still dont have plans for my wyoming trip and i have not seen my family in almost three months and i miss them atonandahalfandthensome and i have to call wyoming to see if they are going to give me a job and i am still waiting to hear back from the interview i had in pittsburgh yesterday and i dont think that i can wait til the end of september to visit at the same time as my sister and i would really like someone to just make all of these decisions for me!

things i would like to have today:
1. a decision-maker
2. a job that pays
3. a teleporter
4. sunshine

well, there's always tomorrow for dreams to come true...

i love mahaffey.

Mahaffey Camp Song 2009
(the talent show has gone digital)

the milkshakes. (and waiting in line for four or five hours for them)
the interns.
the golf carts. (the most reliable form of transportation)
the sports tournaments. (that got rained out)
the mud.
the speaker in the youth tab.
the old people. (they've been here since 1894 too.. and the reason the dining hall exists)
the maintenance men.

but seriously. the milkshakes.

I havent missed a year of Mahaffey Camp since I was 2. Even if i only ever made it up for a couple days, (or just a day the past two years) I made sure I got there. There is photographic evidence of this (for most years at least). Let me tell you, it wasnt about the pristine accomodations, or the amazing food, the great t-shirts at the craft store, the cool buzzing bees from the bookstore, or the giant beach ball at game time, or even those wicked cool crafts in the afternoon. and while i looked forward very much to the sno-cones after craft time (and those bees were the bomb), the main reason i went and kept going back was because of who showed up. My family was there. my friends were there. (the ones who you grow up with and even though you only see them once or twice a year you still consider them among your best friends)
and God shows up at Mahaffey Camp. without fail.
"For where two or three (or a couple hundred) come together in my name, there am I with them" Matt 18:20

(AND the milkshakes! It has been said that you can't go to Heaven until you have been to Mahaffey Camp. and you can't say that you have been to Mahaffey Camp until you've had a milkshake. i think i'm pretty well covered)

i need to vent.

**DISCLAIMER** i have to preface this post by saying that i love my grandparents very much and i really appreciate them letting me live in their house for the past 6 weeks.

Top Ten Things my Grandma has said to/about me:

1. "I just dont understand how you can wear THAT many clothes!"

2. "...and i dont know what she needs so many goddam shoes for..." "she just has a god-awful amount of shoes!" "she has a GIANT tub of SHOES!" (i dont even)

3. Uncle M: "are you still living out of your car? wont gram let you move anything in?"
Gram: "she has enough stuff up in that room already." (three duffel bags of clothes, a backpack, a computer bag, and of course ALL my shoes.)

4. "i know your mother made you kids do your own laundry. i never made my kids do that."

5. "i know i dont get upstairs very often, but could you keep your room a little neater? ...i know thats how you keep your room at your house - but this is not your house." (i dont know what she was talking about... the piles of clothes are clean. and check out how much of the carpet you can see!)

6. "why do you wear your pants so long? theyre such a mess at the bottom. you are a professional now. let me hem your jeans." (my WORK jeans that i've been wearing for the past two years on the road crew)

7. "every time i see you you're wearing a different shirt!" (i was wearing the same t-shirt that i had been wearing to work all week)

8. "i raised seven kids in this house and i NEVER... (insert whatever i (or anyone else for that matter) am doing)"

9. "if i can find a place to put those hats, you can have those two little drawers in that dresser thing in your room." (emphasis on the word little. she had ten hats, she's one crazy mother... six in one drawer and four in the other!)

10. "you are just so independent - but i guess you HAVE to be since your mom and dad moved way out there." (i love you mom and dad. get my room ready cuz im sure if gram hears about this post she'll kick me out)

PS: Aunt Danielle if you could NOT mention this blogpost to Gram i'd really appreciate it cuz she might really kick me out...

opinions please.

so my best friend Julie told me a story the other day about a lady she works with. apparantly this lady and her best friend, to celebrate turning 40, went out and got matching tattoos so that the nice guys that come to take them away will know not to separate them in the nursing home. Julie thought that sounded like a great idea, but why wait til we're 40? 22 seems like as good a time as any to get matching tattoos with your best friend. so we decided that to celebrate when we both get jobs with benefits and whatnot, we will get our matching tattoos.
we're thinking that our ankles or feet are our best bet for a lasting tattoo that wont stretch out funny over time. so since Julie signed a contract yesterday with a school in Maryland, i figured that i should start planning so we have time to really get attached to a design before it gets attached to us. ive been workin on this all afternoon. heres what ive got:

the first one is my favorite. it says "changed for good" in cursive in between two aquamarine stars for our birthstones. and cuz the star is apparantly a symbol of protection against evil, femininity, and mathematical perfection :)
the other star designs are pretty self explanatory, just variations on a theme.
the loopy one is some sort of symbol of friendship. i drew it upside down on my own ankle. it would look way cooler in real life.



any opinions that you may have will be greatly appreciated and taken into consideration. the amount of time that we have to decide on a design is kind of up in the air, since i dont have a job yet. (keep praying about that too.) but if you could let me know sooner than later, then i can start trying to wash off the ones we dont want :)

speaking of birds...

hey Stasia... i think we may have found your goose-ducks... in the Bronx of all places :)

tell me Art Bagotti... whaddaya think of that?

supplementary to 'the poser.'

contrary to the appearance of being a 'puddle of discontent,' we really did have a great time at the Bronx Zoo. Claire takes after her Dad, who also managed to talk and make friends with the birds.


even New Baby Nick caught the jungle fever: this is him roaring like the lion on his shirt. honest :)

baby come back.

i miss my camera cord. i had it for a while. i posted pictures. i came to new york. i brought my camera to take pictures of ClareMarie the Fabulous and New Baby Nick. i did not bring my cord. i have a lot of fun pictures. i cannot share them yet. i have been posting borrowed pictures from GB and Abi. check back again tonight. i might find time once i get back to my computer and my camera cord to post some of my own pictures.

denise and denephew.

the life of a vagabond is a beautiful thing. you can go where you want, work when you want, and take as many days off as you need. this week i decided i needed a break only three days into the week. so i packed a bag, started my weekend early, and met my mom in New York City to visit the sister with the babies.

New Baby Nick is precious cute and oh so little. i could hold him forever.
Claire Marie the Fabulous is as wonderful as ever. she thinks i'm great. i like that. i feel the same way about her.life is good.

i am my mothers daughter.

not only did i inherit her brown eyes, thick hair, and sense of humor, but i also share in her picture taking skills.

this past weekend i went to my roommates wedding. it was really pretty they had a nice church and precious dresses and a wonderful color scheme. i have very few pictures of the ceremony to begin with, because our seats were not so great, but the ones i have are pretty telling. you know the part where the pastor "now presents to you Adam and Colleen Kauffman" and the couple turns around and smiles out at everyone so they can clap and take pictures? it happens at every wedding ive been to. well, i was gonna be real smart and get one of the first pictures of them as a married couple when they did that. they stood there and posed so nice for so long to make sure everyone got their pictures. and here's the shot i got:


turning and walking away. There goes Lassie.

extravagant.

Your love is deep.
Your love is high.
Your love is long.
Your love is wide.

Your love is deeper than my view of grace.
Higher than this worldly place.
Longer than this road I travel.
Wider than the gap you've filled.

I went to a new church yesterday - Crossroads Alliance in Ebensburg. it was a really different church experience, like nothing i have ever seen on a sunday morning. everybody was just doin their own thing during the worship time - wandering around, chatting with people, waving praise flags, going up to the altar, standing, kneeling, sitting, and even lying face down on the floor. and communion was just left on the table in the front, and you could go and take it at any time during the worship time. i didnt really know what to do with that, so i stayed in my pew which was marked "reserved for visitors." (i would have taken a picture, but i figured that would be a lil bit much, it was my first time there after all)

once i got past the shock of this new style, it kind of intrigued me. after all, worship isnt about what God can do for us or how it makes us feel, it is about what we have to say to God and how each individual does that differently and it was kind of nice to see that on a sunday morning, in a church setting rather than just at an evening service on a college campus.

the sermon was about the prophetic process which also intrigued me, because i dont think people really talk much about it. i'm still not sure i agree with absolutely everything that was said with regards to actual prophesy, but i felt that the general pattern was extremely practical and i saw how it worked out in the life of Joseph, and in my own life as well. God has great things planned for us, but we're not always ready for them right away, so He has to take time to teach us the things we need to know to get us to where we need to be. and the way that God gets us to trust fully in Him is to strip away all the other things we have placed our trust in. it is only after he has completely broken us and we have nothing left but Him that He starts to build us up again, and along the way we learn the things that we need to be ready to do the great things He has called us to.

I am still in the development stage. i have been shaken, broken, and brought to my knees. but God is with me, and i know that he will never leave me or forsake me, and that he's still workin on me. after all, "Greater things are still to be done in this city."

otra dia, otra adventura.

Thursday: i did not have a good day. i missed my family and i was depressed about perpetually job searching and never finding and i spent my evening crying on the phone to anyone who would listen to me whine.
Friday: i locked my keys in my car at a gas station just outside of Indiana. both sets of them. and my phone. and the g-rents had already left for Clearfield for the evening. many thanks to Gas Station Lady for keeping me company, letting me borrow her screwdriver, and tear apart her flyswatter. also thanks to Guy Volunteered by His Mother and Cute Boy in the MonteCarlo for their valiant efforts. my favorite people of the day though had to be Man in a Truck and His Wife for driving home to get the proper tools for unlocking my car and actually coming back to save the day. i only spent an hour stranded at the gas station in the middle of nowhere, and i didnt even cry :)
Saturday: Day-Oh-Fun in F-town (aka Franklin). (There would be pictures, but my camera battery died early in the day). Gretchen got a bath, Timmy came to play, we played in the woods, made popcorn strings to decorate the outside shrubbery for Christmas in July (complete with lights, santa hats, festive earrings, and a gift exchange), baked cookies, grilled hotdogs and corn on the cob, watched fireworks in the park, learned how to build a fire, and ate s'mores. in an attempt to forcefully include Timmy in a Christmas picture, i stepped on a brick and sliced my foot open, a wound which bled through two bandaids and onto one pair of socks. and i didnt even cry :)
Sunday: i cleaned out my center console. i think the rootbeer that was in there was leftover from fall break of last year... but i figured since Gretchen had gotten her first bath in almost a year, her interior could use a little love as well. she is now completely trash free! (well, depending on how you choose to classify some of the junk still packed in there)
Monday: i went for a bike ride. as i was turning around at the half-way mark, i had one of those slow motion moments when you know you are not going to make the turn but you keep turning anyway and end up in the ditch. i have a nice bruise forming on my right shin. and i didnt even cry :)
I cant wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for me :)

thankful for you (yester)day.

for always being my big sister, even if you didnt always want to. for knowing all my craziness and joining in on it (some of the time anyway) for loving me just as i am and cheering for me every step of the way. you've always got my back, no matter what, cuz thats what sisters are for, right?
and for giving me the greatest niece (and new nephew!) that anyone could ask for. congrats and welcome to Baby Nicholas (the Fantastic?) :)