Dfoucs: Part 1

In the twenty minutes or so I have to blog, I'm going to try to tell you about my experience--so far--at Discipleship Focus 2011. I will not be successful. That is ok.

During each summer of my college career, God has shown me some overarching theme/big lesson that is important for me to learn. 2009 at camp: He works through brokenness. 2010 in Uganda: I need to lean on Him daily, everywhere. 2011 at Dfocus: "Look at me, Laura! I am really big and I LOVE YOU!!"

I've been a "real" Christian since I was ten and loved Jesus since before I can remember. Part of me thought I had this walk all figured out. WRONG. The intense study we are doing at Dfocus has gone very deep into some simple concepts that I never thought about so much before and the foundations of my relationship with Him are being shifted and shaken.

One huge truth I've seen especially in these last few weeks? God is love (have you ever REALLY thought about the implications of that??). Because He is love, nothing is more glorious to Him than showing love and being loved in return. "Bringing God glory", which I always knew was the purpose of my life, is not really something I have to do. I don't have to be concerned about going out and showing people how big and great God is--He can do that all by Himself. It's just about loving Him. A lot. And his love is HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE.

I think I'm falling in love.

But just because I'm doing all this concentrated I-love-God stuff doesn't mean it doesn't get a little crazy around here. There are 53 college students living on a campground together with access to free stuff in Pigeon Forge. It's impossible for it not to get crazy. I would put up pictures, but my home internet is being as slow as a snake in winter. I'll make a list instead.

Hillbilly night at Dixie Stampede.

Stabucks. A lot. 

The Track.

Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. 

Dance parties. 

Gatlinburg Motion Ride.

Donuts. 

Ultimate Frisbee. 

Hammocks. 

Skin---I mean, swimming. 

Froyo.

Neon Cosmic Bowling.

Jurassic Boat Ride. 

Mini Golf. 

Neon Bowling. 

Walmart.

Spooning. 

It's a great time. My cabinmates are hilarious--Baba Larve is now an established member and one of my roommates also likes to play the part of a small Mexican boy named Oscar. They make a great team. We hung a hammock from bunk to bunk in my bedroom. The girls in my small group like to dive into deep discussion, and I'm all about that. It's also nice to finally have some guy friends that aren't befriending me because they want to creep on me later. Genuinely nice Christian boys that show me the love of Christ in a brotherly way---that is a beautiful and rare thing. I'm also learning to buy groceries like a grownup and cook for myself. 

Oh yeah, and I have a job working all over Splash Country in different concessions booths, since part of dfocus is that everyone works at Dollywood or Splash Country. Because of this job, I never want to eat hotdogs or nachos again and I will NEVER get a tattoo. 

I've got seven weeks left of this adventure. Yee-haw.

Dfocus FTW!

Discipleship Focus starts tomorrow. 

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

My bags are not packed, my clothes are not washed, my shopping is not done, and I have a list of stuff that needs to be crossed off before I can take the ten-minute drive to the campground where I will be living for the rest of the summer. I. AM. SO. READY.

My May-time adventures have been sweet, though. In the last few weeks I have: 

-prepared for, gone to, and teared up at my brother's graduation. 

-given a Mongolian boy my number. 

-gone on a family hike and held hands with my sister as we chatted, sloshing through the mud and rain. 

-seen my missionary aunt and uncle for the first time in three years. 

-gone to a benefit concert thrown by two of my friends. 

-made a lot of coffee, the fancy way.

-been swimming roughly every other day. 

-turned two shades darker than my regular peach color. 

-been shopping. A lot. 

-had homemade ice cream. 

-shared laughs and heartaches with dear friends. 

-watched an infomercial for the genie bra. ("Bra-vo, genie bra!")

-written a book entitled "Puppy Laura and Lisa Lion's Fun Party"

-mailed a package to my kids in Uganda.

-babysat little second cousins who I had never met.

-seen the new Pirates movie.

-finished two scrapbooks.

-read Peter and the Starcatchers and A Little Princess.

-been awesome.

But now it's time to get on with things. A job, fifty new friends, dance parties all the time, ultimate frisbee, hiking, rocking chairs, and general silliness await me for the next ten weeks. So does the chance to deepen my relationship with my Savior, which is something I have not been doing enough of lately. 

I also won't have a laptop for ten weeks, so I'm not sure how this blog will come along. Oh well.

Let the fun begin!

Limbo

I'm in limbo. 

No, not the embarrassing kind with that stupid stick that my inflexibility will never allow me to win. Limbo is that place between places and it's really not a bad place to be. It's been 20 days since we were told to leave school and there are 14 days left until Discipleship Focus begins. What's this mean for Laura? A plethora of coffee dates, sleepovers, princess books, and being broke.

Oh, and a lot of time with my mom. The one in the middle--that's her. Usually she's not quite so gangster, but I thought it would show you a more interesting side of her personality.

My mom is the person you want to have around when you're making a joke, because she will laugh at anything. ANYTHING. She's usually pretty sweet and mild and gets excited easily. There are a lot of times when she is unintentionally funny. For example:

"Do you like tomatoes? Dad can't eat tomatoes....I miss tomatoes."

"That cat is weird--like it's been smoking crack or something."

(hold on--my mom knows what crack is??)

I've also had a lot of quality time with my sister (who is tall). 

Notice the word "quality" here. Our time together usually consists of her talking a lot and me pretending to listen. This time, we've had meaningful interaction. YES! Mom is determined to keep her away from boys in high school at any cost, and I am determined to help her make wise decisions concerning boys by telling her about my own past mistakes. 

And I'm having a lot of time with Morgan, especially since she is parent-less for ten days and needs a supervisor....even though I'm younger than she is....

And we do stuff like this:

These are the books I've read since being home:

And these are some of the movies I've watched:

  

I'm such a grownup. 

Of course, I've done more than sit around. I've visited friends, gone hiking, had dinner with Thai students, cleaned and organized (well, kind of), done my sister's hair for a banquet, gone shopping for summer clothes, finished two scrapbooks...and some other stuff. Most importantly, I've enjoyed spending time with the people I love, getting a summer break with them before my summer really begins. 

Without this dumb thing:

Princess Ruby

In the last week, I have acquired three sunburns. THREE. I even have sunscreen fingerprints from where I tried to unsuccessfully protect myself from sunburn. A few days ago, an old man accosted me as I sat out in the sunshine at Starbucks and told me to get in the shade before I developed melanoma. I really don't think I have that, but all this red skin has made me think back to my childhood, when I would go to the waterpark for a day, turn into an absolute lobster, and play "Princess Ruby" for the rest of the week.

Anyway, what everyone wants to know now is, "How did the rest of crazy week turn out?"

I'll tell you. It became excellent. 

Sunburn-Monday (hooray for reading outside) became shishkabob night with my old RA and her best friend.

On Tuesday, Alyssa and I went to see the new Jane Eyre, which was quite a sad, dark shocker for the girl who's never read the book (even though her English major friends won't let her live it down). That was when we got the call that power had returned to the house on the mountain and made plans to head for Chatty the next day.

And that night we played Wii. This was my Wii Me--or WiiMii--or WeeMee--whatever. I actually changed it's gender-confused name to "Vanester".

Wednesday and Thursday were a blur of babysitting and good-byes. Little Ariel (you remember her, right? Ok, so her name isn't really Ariel, but I kind of wish it was.) graciously had me over for dinner on Thursday night and it was delicious (actually, I would say her mom Amy did most of the cooking and deserves the credit). It was also a time of shoving everything I left in my dorm room during evacuation into my car. Beaulah was not pleased.

On Friday, Alyssa's family hosted a pre-graduation dinner at the Terminal. You know what that meant? FREE SALMON CAKES, STEAK, AND CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR LAURA.

The real occasion, of course, was graduation on Saturday. My high school graduation was fun--they had to call less than 50 names to come up and get their diplomas. It doesn't work that way with college graduations. At college graduations, over 300 people have to come up and get diplomas. That's a lot of people.

Sunday was Mother's Day. Most people go out to eat or see a movie on Mother's Day. The Love Family spent the day opening and cleaning our pool (hello, sunburn #3). Audrey and I (as the good daughters we are) also made mom some special brownies (not those special brownies, you weirdo), cut her some roses, and made her a book.

(That piece of chocolate in the middle has "Happy Mother's Day" inscribed on it via kitchen knife)

So Mother's Day was a success. 

Now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of the month as my funds rapidly decrease. At the moment, I'm crossing my fingers that some desperate Sevierville mother is frantically searching for my number as I type, or that my own mother will give me some money for cleaning windows and vacuuming around the house (aka that thing called "allowance" that I thought I would never need again). 

In the meantime, maybe my crocodile-leather, ruby-red skin will smooth out into a beautiful, mellow brown. 

Here's to hoping. 

The week of storms, filth, and the best dogs in the world.

Here I sit on a leather sofa, watching a show about cake while the best dog in the world pokes my arm with her wet, black snout, begging for my attention. Ah, someone else's home sweet home. It almost feels like the last week didn't happen--the week of that awful, ridiculous storm that threw a wrench in the plans of thousands of people across the South.

It began well. I came back from Easter Break ready for two more weeks of school. My roommate and I had another wonderful Twin Twosday.  **inserting cute photo here**

On Tuesday night, I looked at the weather app on my phone and thought to myself, "Oh, some thunderstorms...that means I'll have curly hair tomorrow. No big deal." The next morning, I woke up to a stomach ache and the sound of my RA banging on the door and yelling something about a tornado warning and get down to the basement right now and panic panic panic. Best start to a day I've ever had.

We went down the the basement six times that day--spent most of the day down there, in fact. My legs got buff from climbing up and down 5 1/2 flights of stairs half a dozen times. But the ladies of The Fritz were prepared with pillows, blankets, homework, entertainment, snacks, and teddy bears.

Comfy, no?
Then we lost our regular power as well as generator power--but the latter only on our floor because my RA blew a fuse. The Fritz was dark for the next three days and looked much like the set of a horror film. And then they (the powers that be) told us that we were running low on water so don't take showers please, even though all of you smell like dogs. 


The next day, my roommate and I went down the mountain to survey the damage down below and stock up on supplies at Walmart. Ends up we didn't need to do that. At 2:30 that afternoon, as I was studying for my exams, all of campus received an email saying that we only had enough water left for a day and everyone needed to get off campus ("evacuate" was the calming word used in the email)--for the year--by 3:00 the next afternoon. Skip cleaning day, exams, end of the year goodbyes, just throw everything in a bag and GET OUT.

AAAH. 

Campus went into mass chaos. Nobody was quite sure what to do. We were all calling our parents, figuring out how to get home, knocking down the doors of storage to put away items that were too big to get into the car, and running 50 pound items that would fit in the car down four flights of stairs before daylight went out.

By that evening, campus had officially run out of water--yes, less than a day after the email was sent. Port-a-potties were put up in parking lots and bottled water was distributed. Everyone was greasy and smelly.

After sunset that evening, trying to do anything productive was useless. So The Fritz spent our night well by chasing each other down with flashlights, having a glowstick dance party on the veranda, and sitting around telling stories. My roommate and I stayed up way too late trying to savor our last night of living in the same room after three years together. We were upset about being jipped a week.

The next day was a blur. Somehow the room got clean and rearranged and all of my belongings made their way into bags. Then I was in the car with Alyssa, heading to her house in Atlanta. We had decided to go there for the weekend and then go back to her house on the mountain to wait for graduation on Saturday. Despite the crazy day, we were renewed by showers (FINALLY CLEAN!!) so that we could then watch the royal wedding {Alyssa INSISTED I go back and insert that} before going out for froyo and bowling. Yay.

Saturday afternoon was spent at Ikea, and today was spent finishing every last piece of homework. I was thanking my lucky stars exams were cancelled. I was also QUITE enjoying the company of my two new favorite dogs, Baron and Daisy.

Today we also heard that the power at Alyssa's house on the mountain will be out for another week and that the water is undrinkable, so we will be spending the rest of the week in this big house with comfy chairs. needy dogs, and delicious food. Of course, this means not getting to spend time with people who are still in Chatty, which makes me sad.

I still feel like ends are untied. All my work is done, which officially makes me a senior in college (HOL-Y SMOKES). Some of my belongings are still on campus and I will be going to get them this weekend. And then I will be home for the summer.

I thank the Lord that our campus was spared, though I ache for those who were hit. And even though He threw us all for a loop right at the end of the semester, I know He has the best in mind. He always does.

The H Word

There are a lot of bad words that begin with "H". A few of these include horrendous, hell, hate, humiliation, harlot, hunger, hag, hangnail, horrible, henchmen, hiccups, and hickory switches. But there's one other word that tops them all, and I bet everyone reading this knows what it is.

Homework. 

That insidious, ironic, evil thing that I plan to burden young children with for the rest of my life. I am tired of it. So here we are, near the end of the semester, taking a two-second breather before diving in again.

And, because it's been ten thousand years since I last updated, we're simply going to do some snapshots of my life.

1. Andreas Building Leaders Retreat. Fun fun fun out in the woods until BAM--it's three am, my heartburn is going crazy, I am in a leaky tent, and it's raining cats and dogs. By 5 am, the rest of the girls in the tent were up and whining about the wet all over us, so we rolled up our gear and hiked a half-mile back to the cars through the trees and thunder. There we waited until the gates to the campground were open and we high-tailed it out of there. Anyway, here is a picture of us while we were still happy.

2. Fritz Retreat. A weekend full of golf carts, bathing suits, roller blades, ice cream, and silly girls.

3. Andreas VS. This involved each hall of Andreas playing games on a tarp covered in water and baby oil. The Fritz didn't win the Golden Lampstand trophy, but we had the most team spirit by far. See the wet all down my shirt? That's a mixture of water, baby oil, orange fanta, and sweat. Mmmm.

4. Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's--which was also the same day as Twin Tuesday, which was the second day of Matcher's Week in room 424 of The Fritz (in other words, my roommate and I wore matching shirts for several days in a row. On purpose.)

5. Amy, you'll have to forgive me, but this is such a classic picture I couldn't resist--it makes me laugh every time. I've really enjoyed my time with this young lady who looks like Ariel from The Little Mermaid (when she's not smiling hysterically with a cat in the background).

6. Random sculptures have been popping up around campus. This one in the mailroom is my favorite.

7. I found out that Vinny and I share a soul connection. When I'm upset, he's upset, and when I'm happy, he's happy. Yes, folks, stress actually does make you sick, and getting away from it can make you better. I've discovered that sleep (that rare and glorious gift), exercise, eating less, and chill music are good for me, and when I use them my acid reflux goes away. It's fantastic. And no, I do not have a picture for this.

There are only 2 1/2 weeks left in the semester. 

I'm chest-deep in the H-word. 

I'm trying to savor the last few weeks I have with my roommate, my bed tent, my giant handicap shower, and room 424. 

And Easter is almost here. 

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. 

Time goes by so fast it's almost heinous.

The Fantastic Weekend of March 2011

This is what I imagine Vinny looks like, but a bit meaner. He and I are on bad terms. As of last week, I tried to make him offerings of a new medicine that was fan-tastic at first, but five days into it Vinny got bored and gave me arrhythmia. Thanks, Vin. I switched back to less effective medicine and he started going to town on me again every few hours. Now it is a matter of finding whatever triggers him.

Stress?
Acid?
Gluten?
Anything nice?

I started a gluten diet a few days ago to see if it would help and it will be a few more weeks before I know if it works. Do you know what has gluten in it? ALL THINGS THAT ARE GOOD TO EAT. For a cereal-addict, that is a problem.

You know what, though? Even though I've hated it, this week has made me closer in my walk with God. On the night when my heartburn wouldn't stop and everyone else was eating chocolate chip cookies, I had to stop myself from writhing in self-pity and say, "I don't know what's going on with my body, God, but for some reason you've restricted me from getting what I want." (ha, listen to that. When does he ever do things like that? HA!) "I have to trust that you know what you're doing." ...So even though this stresses me out to the point of tears (when can I eat? what can I eat? did I take my medicine? what is triggering it this time? when will I have time to exercise and de-stress?), I have to see that an enforced fast may be a good thing. However, watching everyone else eat chocolate cupcakes today was rough...

Apart from that, this weekend was awesome and will forever be know as "The Fantastic Weekend of March 2011".

NIGHT ONE: My sister's 15th birthday party.

Me, five high school girls, and a minivan with blaring music. A skating rink with men who leered at any girl over the age of 20 without kids (namely, me). "Decaf" Starbucks drinks for them. UTTER EXHAUSTION by ten o' clock for me.

And they loved it.

NIGHT TWO: Fritz Formal

We classy ladies of The Fritz decided to ditch Spring Formal and go out on our own. Fancy dresses, Olive Garden (where virtually everything has flour in it...POO), the mall, Tangled at the cheap theater, and Disney music all the way home. 

Tremendously good time. 

NIGHT (well, afternoon) THREE: Bridal shower. 

Shelly lived on the hall last year and now she's getting married (like half of Covenant campus). So we showered her. Some fun girly games, a tad bit of awkward conversation, and some good finger foods. 

She'll definitely be using this wine bottle holder from The Fritz....especially since she won't be on contract anymore. 

ALSO. I found a house for next year! I'll be living with a couple girls (one of whom I was in Uganda with...YAY) one minute down the road from campus in a quaint yellow house with a dog. This should be lovely. 

And now to begin another week of "God knows what he's doing, Laura. Promise."