A Long Time Gone

Where has the time gone? Oh yeah I was at camp for two weeks. But have no fear... I will be making up for lost time. I guess I can just chronical the past few weeks in sequential order. We've been back for a week but I have not even had time to tap into my blogging mind and really make a blog post worthy of posting.

First I need to add to the post about tweeting. After I wrote that post Will came into the house with 250 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. All of them needed to be refridgerated. I documented it.

You know it is summer when:

 Freezer 1:

Freezer 2:

Gosh. August come soon so I can reclaim my house. 

Not that I actually use the freezers but I just want the peace of mind that they are available. 

In other news...

Beginning...June 11th. It was a peaceful morning that began a little like this.

This was the day that we were supposed to leave for Blue Haven. But there were still like a million things to do before we left. We got up around 6 or so and began cleaning the house and finishing our packing. No  major problems here. 1 thing you should know before we go any further in this chronicle...my great aunt died earlier in the week and her funeral was on Saturday June 11 at 11 in North Dallas. We were to leave for Blue Haven at 1...from Grand Prairie. It was ok though. We would get everything we needed done before the funeral and then after just roll into the parking lot just in time for the kids to load their stuff and we would leave. Why were we so naive? At 9:30 we leave the house to go pick up the trailer at UHAUL. Plenty of time to make it to the funeral. Except the trailer lights were not working on the trailer. So an hour and a half, switching cars with the children's minister and one tense "discussion" later, it was 10:25 and I was on the phone with my dad. "Uh where are ya'll? Oh wow, well you may just want to abort the mission. You'll never make it here by the time the funeral starts and its only a graveside." NO! We have made it this far to turn back! Will not turn back! We drove that church van like we were in a the greatest of police chases over to North Dallas. GP to Greenville Ave in 0-20 minutes. Do NOT try that at home. We pull into the cemetery jump out of the 15 passenger capps van, spot the funeral, and quickly jog as quietly as we can up behind the group. Just in time for the last verse of the ending song and the prayer. It was like a movie. The type of scene where you are running slow motion toward where you are supposed to be just as where you are supposed to be disperses. We said hi and then turned around and left again. We love you Aunt Vera. You would have been proud.

So we get to Blue Haven uneventfully. SIKE! Have you ever seen Sister Wives? Do you remember the episode where they are trying to move the family from Utah to Nevada quickly and secretly to get away from the persecution of the police? Well, leaving for Blue Haven was kinda like that. Just call us Kody and Meri.

So in the episode they leave with their suburbans and trailers at like some unreal hour of the morning. According to the show it is 8 hours from where they are starting to where they are going. They start out and one mom gets a flat within like 10 miles. They get that one fixed and then someone else gets a flat. There are no more spare tires and it is like 4 hours later. They end up spending the night 20 miles from home and starting over. That is what I felt like leaving for Blue Haven. It took probably 3 hours to leave from the church because of trailer and van problems. But eventually Will and I and our 19 children were off to camp. When we got to camp...the trailer fell off the van...right in the middle of church. 

This is the part of the post where I thank my parents for what they do. As an adult and front seat passenger you get asked many questions. Some are good questions like, "What do you enjoy doing in your free time Kelsie?" "Will what is your spiritual life like?" "I'm having some serious relationship problems with my boyfriend and need some advice from an older more mature woman." Some however are not good questions. Like "Can you turn the air down?" "Can I plug in my phone?" (This one is always followed by strict directions on how to do it, how long to leave it in, and if they receive any important calls or texts that they should be notified immediately.) And my favorite...."How much longer." Thanks to my dad I have an answer. So dad...here's to you. The "Bout an hour" answer continues on. We could be five hours away or 15 seconds away on a road trip and my dad would always answer this question with "Bout an hour." So I do too. A few other questions I heard from the back row were "Is Padre Island really an Island?" "Where is Ontario? and a few more that are too embarrassing to mention.  (not all were geographical questions) And speaking of "Are we there yet?" We were planning on stopping at Rosa's on the way back home at the end of our two weeks and you would have thought Jonas Brothers, Selena Gomez and Bieber were going to be there. The kid's excitement was way too much. I'm pretty sure they started asking when we would be at Rosas on Wednesday....We didn't eat there until Friday afternoon. Chill out kids. It's just a taco. 

Leave it to me to come home from camp... as an adult... with a dress code violation story. First of all I'll post a picture of my very liberal hair color. 

It is alot more red than orange. I promise, I'm not carrot top. So, I was feeling pretty rebellious going to a conservative church camp with red hair. Kinda like the time on the senior class church retreat when my friend Christin and I wore two pieces to the lake. Rebellion, I tell you. But this is not what startled the staff of CBH. One mid morning, maybe a week in, I woke up from my nap 9:00-10:00 nap. Quickly found some shoes and headed to bible class. Will caught me as instructed me to go to the office to get pens and paper. So I did. Thinking nothing of it and possibly still semi asleep. I walk in the office ask for what I need and get this response "Sure, and um...I'm going to need you to change shoes." Uh really? I'm an adult and am pretty sure that my toes are not a modestly issue. I did however have a hot pink pedicure. Maybe that was it? Who knows. I'm not going to sue you for a stubbed toe. Rebellion I tell you. Make an MTV show about me. Call me Lindsey Lohan or Jamie Lyn Spears. So I did what any rule following young woman who is trying out her rebellious side would do. I politely said, "oh yeah sure thing." and left with my tail between my legs and put on my closed toed shoes and socks...even though they DID NOT match my outfit that day and complained about it later. But oh that's not the end of my rule breaking streak. A few days after that after my 1:00-3:00 nap I woke up a little hungry. I needed that twix bar I had spied earlier. So I put on my flipflops and carefully walked the 10 feet the the canteen place. I walk in, eye the options and carefully take my time making my choice and who else walks in but the lady who busted me for my shoes a few days earlier. So I did what felt right at that particular moment. I stared at the choices and because I am a theater teacher, put on quite a show of trying to choose just the right snack for my post nap munchies. Oh the agony. Do I choose twix or pringles? Chex Mix or butterfinger? WHYYYY does it take 10 minutes to make this decision...or until that lady was out of there or turned around so I could make a quick exit to the next counter to cover my bare toes. Don't worry. I made it out of there before she saw my toes. 

And now we are back home...where I have become a wife youth minister's wife again. Gosh ACU come through on that wife intern program I suggested. I could really use it this summer. 

Beiber Fever

Yes. The Beibs.

Will came home from work camp this week and told me this story. Maybe the highlight of my week.

Girl 1: Justin Beiber is SOOO cool.
Girl 2: Uh uh. Its Selena Gomez who makes him cool.

Pause

Girl 1: "Yeah, I used to not like Justin Beiber but then I saw the movie and it really changed the way I thought of him."

Yup. Me too.

We are off to Blue Haven. Here is to two full weeks and 20 hours of van ride of talking about Beiber. Excuse me while I go buy a copy of Tiger Beat.

Tweet Tweet

If I had a twitter I would have tweeted many 120 character phrases over the past couple of weeks. I think Will and I both would have. Some appropriate and some not.

For example, I would have tweeted:

"Some people have Sonic cups in their cup holders. I have tempra paint." 

"This is what your car looks like as a youth minister wife during work camp."

"SANDY the Pig!"

One I have thought of frequently... "They should have internships for youth minister wives." ACU encourages the marriage of the youth minister but they sure fail to mention that it is a full time job. Not that I do not love each and every moment ... ok the majority of each and every moment of serving Will and his ministry but lets get real here. He gets someone for the summer to share his work load. I have the PERFECT idea that I need to pitch to ACU.  Will and I will adopt a "bible department" couple. A guy that is a youth ministry major and a girl who is an education major or plans to marry that baseball playing, hebrew tattoo wearing, frat boy, bible major. The boy will spend his days with Will doing things like paper work, calling kids, counseling parents, reading up on the latest ministry philosophy, solving the teenage world problems. And the girl will hang out with me. She will run errands and fill her days making sure Will's ducks are in a row so that the three minutes you spend between 4 and 5 tonight will be worth while. Then she will do laundry, fold clothes, do the tasks that don't look too big in the morning but pile up on you and by 6 you think "Where has the day gone...dang it, I'm late for the evening activity." Honestly, I just want an intern too. 

" O yes it takes a woman, A dainty woman, A sweetheart, a mistress, a wife, O yes it takes a woman, A fragile woman, To bring you the sweet things in life"

Not even a lie. I was so enthralled with explaining my new concept to ACU that I neglected to pay attention to what I chose on the DVR. Hello Dolly. And guess what song was playing? It takes a woman. Hmmm.  Irony? I think so. Thanks Horace Vandergelder for putting my thoughts so precisely. 

"At the ballpark....in the tornado...kinda feel like Rose in Titanic. 

Women and children to safety first. WILLLL...DONT EVER LET GO!"

Yep, we were at the ballpark the night of the infamous tornadic storms in North Texas. Might I add, I was convinced by a certain someone who is shown with the Rangers shirt above that I should leave my rainboots in the car. It was only until the hail came pounding down that I regretted that. My bestest and her beau and her parents invited us to the game. Well... as with any story with Will and I there is a long story behind it. The ballpark experience can not be summed up in 120 characters. That's why I have a blog cause I was never the one in school to write a correct summary. 

So I spent most of the day that day watching the weather and in contact with Christin to finalize plans for that evening. Once it "looked" like the storms would "miss" us we went for it. Will and I were to meet Christin and Tony when they got off work by the ball park. We met Christin but Tony was missing. We waited about 30 minutes for the beau to arrive. He had just come from the car dealership with his brand new car. While Tony was on his way Christin went to her car to get the tickets. Come to find out, once Tony showed up, the tickets were still in Mansfield and it was like the third inning. So quick thinking Will devises a plan. This is like an episode of I love Lucy. Come to think of it, that is not a bad comparison. Sorry to which ever one of the boys claims Fred. He was always a sour attitude. Anyway Will says that we will buy the cheap 8 dollar tickets and then when we get in, We will just get Karen (Christin's mom, who is already there) to come out with tickets so that we can get down to the seats in which we had tickets for in Mansfield. So we did just that. And it worked. 16$ for bottom tier, 3rd base like. Not too shabby. I guess. And two rain checks now. HA. Jokes on you Rangers! So we get like three bats in and the wind is going crazy. It seriously looks like a dump ground on the field. The poor outfielders are swimming in nacho napkins and hotdog foil. Then the rain. Then the hail. Then the rain. THEN the "tornado." There was no tornado where we were but in surrounding areas there were. But we got a free tour of the tunnels in the ball park. While being hearded down to the field (step on the DIRT, Not the GRASS - The grass is more important than any patron's life will ever be) it was kinda a weird feeling. I can't really explain it. All I can compare it to is what the Titanic passengers may have felt like with out the impending doom of a sinking ship and frigid waters. 

That is about all I got. Glad I survived the tornado to tell the story.