A week and a day - I'm back to long periods of time between posts - SORRY!!! I thought that I had posted something last Sunday night, apparently it didn't go through. I don't remember everything that was in it, I do know that I said I was VERY excited, but I didn't tell you why. In fact, I believe I said that it would all make sense on Tuesday night. The reason? Lemme tell you:

Monday - I went to three classes and then my sister picked me up and we rushed home and picked up mom and then rushed the airport. We flew from Sacramento to LAX where my grandfather picked us up and took us back to his house.
Tuesday - we got up and that afternoon my sister took me to CBU (California Baptist University) to surprise (and I mean SURPRISE) my best friend, Rebecca. She had ABSOLUTELY no idea that I was coming!!! It was SOOOOO much fun!!!!
On Wednesday Grandpa brought us into Anaheim and dropped us off at the Disneyland hotel. We spent Wednesday in Disneyland and went to dinner at a place by the hotel called Hook's Pointe.
Thursday we went into Fantasyland (early entry!!!) and then over to California Adventure. This was Mom's first time on Soarin, and she loved it!!!!! Jocelyn, although she has been on this ride several times, still loves it, as do I.
Today (Friday) we're headed to Goofy's Kitchen for a character brunch, and then into Disneyland to finish up. We're watching the parade of dreams this afternoon, and the last thing on the agenda is the 50th Fireworks show. Inbetween the parade and the fireworks is my FAVORITE part of the whole place - Fantasmic. It is the best music!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!

Okay, I have to go now. I must finish getting ready so we can be down at the restaurant on time.
Love to all!!!
Skippy

From the Skippy . . . take 2?

So. What do you want? Updates? Trivia questions? RBI's? (Random Bits of Information - I just came up with that myself, right now!!)

K - updates = life is crazy. Class is awesome. Work is tolerable.
It has been brought to my attention again that I have learned a lot this summer. Through the whole thing with Dad I was learning; and the month at Magalia was an EXTREMELY educational experience. Now I'm back in classes (which is the obvious place of learning) plus I'm in meetings and at games and being a prayer leader and all that stuff. So all around - I'm learning a lot.

Random bits of information - we had a theft in the dorm. It's a sad thing when your home isn't safe. Like my home-home is safe. But this is my school home and it makes me sad that the home that I'm at now is not safe.

TRIVIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When did Slovakia split from Czech? And what is that split known as?

Skippy

God is good!!! All the time!!!!

Three days!!! How's that for a change?!?!?!?

Not a WHOLE lot has happened since my last post. But there are a few things. First off, Harold got to come home from the hospital yesterday!!!!!! The second thing is that the rally went really well!!!! (Thanks again Duane!!!) And the third thing is . . . last night I had a conversation with an old friend, and I feel like I have the friend back better than ever. YEAH GOD!!!!! Oh, and another thing to say YAY God to - my financial aid is (finally) finished and I get to continue to go to school!!!! God has blessed me (once again) with money from an unexpected source and has continued to provide for me!!!!

Lastly - I REALLY love my sweatshirt!!!! And I love sleeping under so many covers that you don't really move throughout the night because of all the weight. Good stuff!!!

Okay, going now. I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and I'll begin to post more often and post shortened posts.

Coming next time:

the first trivia question of the semester!!!!!

Until then;

Major Skippy

From the Skippy:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. That's about how I feel, and about how I'll continue to feel, until oh . . . say . . . graduation????

So I know its been a while (18 days to be exact, although the first 10 don't count cuz I TOLD you I couldn't post then) and I really am sorry. Every time I go online I keep meaning to post, and then I forget or I don't have time or I have to work on that pesky little thing called homework.

And I know that you all know that my life is CRAZY insane, but let me give you an idea of my normal week. 15 units (that means 15 hours of in class time and 30 hours of homework). 15 hours a week for my Athletic Student Clerk job; three hours a week for my Book Repair job; plus whatever home games we have that week (I'm working pretty much all of them.) So pretty much - life is insane!!!!

However, there are some other things going on in my life that I'd like to share with you!!!! This year I'm a prayer-leader on my floor. I have ten girls who have been 'assigned' to me, and we meet once a week and pray and hang out and talk and whatever. We had our first real meeting on Monday night, and it went really well!!!! We talked about the ground rules and about the importance of going to God with confidence. I had 8 out of those 10 show up and we just about filled my room!!!

That's a total praise, here's a total prayer request: my brother-in-law is in the ICU right now, he had a series of small strokes. They are running all sorts of tests (yesterday and today) and we don't have a prognosis but it looks like he's getting better.

In other news - we have a RALLY this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SO excited!!!! I can't wait to see everyone again!!!!!! (Heather, are you coming? I still can't finish that scarf!!!! :( )

Anyway, I think I'm done now . . . . . . so love to you all,

Major Skippy

So, I week and a day . . . I'm on a roll!!!!!

Actually things have been crazy this week . . . wait a minute, that's nothing unusual. I moved to school this week, but I'm home for the weekend: RALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I go back to school tonight, but I'll be home next weekend for the baby's 1st birthday party, and then I go back to school and start classes.

Anyway, I won't be able to post much for about a week and a half because I don't have my computer so I can't post from my room and that's really the only time I have to post. I did get all the way moved in to my room. I know who my suitemates are, and I can't wait til they get here!!!! (there, whatever) But it turns out that I won't have a roommate, which is pretty awesome. It means that I have more space and I have alone time. And it also means that when I have prayer meetings I won't have to talk to anyone about making sure its okay that the group of girls is in my room.

Nothing else is really going on . . . that I can think of. Lemme know what's goin on with y'all - I feel very far out of the loop/

Love to all my Magalians!!!!

Major Skippy

Okay - so it's been a whole week. Sorry - I've been a little busy. Nothing really is new, worked all week and did a destructive recovery on my dear Jimmy - I've finally gotten everything downloaded again and all is well!!!! The problem is that now all the hardware still needs to be fixed but its taking forever!!!

Congrats to Chris and Mandy on their beautiful wedding today and good luck for your future!!!!

It was REALLY great to get to see everyone (Doug, Duane, Corinne, Lesa, Cathy, Heatherly and Sam, Rebecca, Debra etc etc) and great to hang out with Lesa!!!!

Tonight I'm in Corning (go figure) with my sister and her roommates, I'm going home tomorrow for Church. Monday I've got stuff to do in Chico and I have to say goodbye to one of my best friends. Tuesday is goodbye to two of my other best friends. Wednesday is load up day and moving day and saying goodbye to my other best friend and my mom! :( That's the plan for next week - and after that its all work and school.

Going now, stuff to do - people to email, organizational needs to be met!!!

Well . . . my wonderful lovely absolutely awesome southern girls and guy are gone. :) I took them out to LP's house last night, and we shed lots of tears, and then I found out I had locked my keys in the truck. I'm so brilliant, I know it, you don't have to say it. So my sister came and bailed me out and then I came home and stayed up too late knitting and working on my computer. This past week has been interesting. Monday I did lockers, and since then I've done locker combos and entering them into the computer, and between the girls and I we finished two hundred packets and sorted all of the stuff that needs to be filed. Yesterday Karen and I cleaned the house like CRAZY before the summer missionaries came over (Erica is allergic to cats). It was really fun to get to spend all that time with my nieces and my sister while we were actually getting something done!!! I can't wait to get to church tomorrow and see all the kids and Grandpa Emmons!!!!! I smile just thinking about it!!!

Also, I have an announcement to make: as of Tuesday evening - thanks to the Duane-n-ator, I am officially-

MAJOR Skippy.

Yes, that means that I got a promotion!!!!! And it makes me very happy!!!! And I have every intention of living up to that promotion!!!!!
So, on that note, I'll sign off:
Yours forever,
Major Skippy

So I'm home now. I'm still sad that I had to leave Magalia. I should have posted before I left, and the day that I had to leave, but I didn't have time. So here's some back tracking.

Last week we had two VBS's. We had around 100 people every day at Magalia, we had three kids make professions of faith and we had lots of fun singing the songs!!!! Saturday I was up at the crack of dawn to go down to Yuba City to help set up the tent for the Migrant VBS that is taking place this week. We got back around 11, and I crashed out for a couple of hours. Sunday was a long, LONG day, and it was a sad day. The evening service went well, I think. I miss everyone so much already its not even cool.

Today I spent the day at work with Mom doing lockers - yeah! not really, but I got them all on!!! - and then I sorted the filing. There was a whole mail tub of it that hadn't been filed since spring of 2005.

This week I'm working with Mom and spending time with my wonderful missionary friends before they leave. :(

Here's some pictures!!! The first two are of the putting up of the tent.
It went from this:


To this:


And ended like this:


And this is me and my WONDERFUL missionary friends:


So I'm going now, what with pictures and all this post is long enough.

Love to all - Skippy

I of course forgot to post a picture - thanks for pointing that out!!!!

So here is Georgie (foreground, big and black) and Gunner (smaller and brown and in the back) along with Doug (green shirt) and Duane (he's with Gunner). Getting up on Gunner was new and interesting. Getting up on Georgie was an adventure.

La, la, la, la

So the carnival went REALLY well. We did have the dunk tank and the bounce house and the pony rides!!!! And I got to help with the horseys!!! Duane and Doug brought Gunner (who belongs to and is strangely similar to Duane) and Georgie (who belongs to and is strangely similar to Corinne) to the church for the pony rides. Doug led Georgie with Jody walking behind him with her hand on the saddle in case the child started to slip. Duane led Gunner and I walked behind him doing what Jody was doing. I held the lead rope while Duane loaded kids and Gunner kept snotting all over me and biting me (he got smacked for that) and nudging me (he kinda got smacked for that). We had over forty helpers and at one point we had over 100 people there. And, after it was all over and done with, I got to ride the horses!!!! Both of them, not at the same time. I had never ridden a horse, and so I told Duane that I didn’t want a pony ride, I wanted him to teach me how to ride, and he did…kind of. Anyway, so I got up on Gunner and rode around the building pad (they’re getting ready to build another building, so there’s the pad that they’re going to build on.) once and then I got up on Georgie (that was an adventure, you can see why in the picture) and rode her for quite a while – at least it seemed like a while, I’m not really sure how long I was on her – but it was REALLY fun!!!!!! And then I cleaned up and then I went to a concert at the church where I got to see a few of my favorite people.

Sunday was fun: church, lunch (at Happy Days, where else when you’re going with Doug?) and then the missionaries and I went back to the church and started decorating for VBS this week. About 4:30, the four of them found out that they were not only speaking in the evening service, they were leading the music as well!!! So we went to dinner (GREAT pizza – I have really got to stop eating that stuff, but its just SO good!!!) and then we rushed back to the church and started to frantically get ready for the evening service. I ran the power point, so I was trying to put in all the words for the songs they were singing. And then Matt got up and gave a presentation on his trip to Brazil which lasted . . . a long time. What was funny was that he thought he was controlling the power point with the remote, but he wasn’t because for some reason the remote wouldn’t work. Anyway . . . then we did a slide show of the pictures from the carnival, and that was fun. And then . . . we were done. So I went home with Duane and Corinne (YEAH for the Honda!!!!!!!) and took a shower and went to BED!!!!

This morning started bright and early; up at 6am, ready at 7am, out the door at 7:20 when my ride got there. Rewrote the Bible study that I was going to do; did the power point for the worship rally; learned all about hooking up the computer to the projector, and had Chex Mix (traditional style) for breakfast – good times. The actual VBS went really well: we had 64 kids and 34 helper-teacher-leader people. We were late getting started, but that’s usual for Monday of VBS; but the rally went well and the kids liked Arctic Edge fairly well. The time between the rallies I did my Bible study and I walked around taking pictures. The closing rally went well, Erica taught them “I Know that I Know that I Know” and we sang Arctic Edge again.

Then we went down to Stirling City (oh, side note, they almost forgot my lunch!!!!) and did VBS there. We had 10 kids, and it went fairly well. But it bugged because we didn’t have as much time . . . and I REALLY wanted to make a scrapbook and didn’t get to – but it’s okay because there’s still time!!!

Anyway, I’m leaving now, because I have things to do and sleep to catch up on etc.

Love from: Skippy

Free Carnival Today!!!! (Tomorrow) from 10 am til noon!!! Dunk tank! Bounce house! Pony Rides! Games, prizes, food!!!! That's what I'm doing tomorrow, the kickoff Carnival for the Magalia Pines (and Stirling City) Vacation Bible School(s) 2006!!!!

Other than getting ready for VBS, and the Carnival, I haven't done much. VBS this and VBS that and Carnival this and Carnival that and we're doing two VBSs so that adds to it all the more!!!! Magalia Pines does their own VBS and then they put the VBS at Stirling City on as well. It should be fun!!!!!

I'm finding more and more that I am less and less of a perfectionist . . . in some things. Some things that I used to FREAK OUT about, I don't so much care anymore. Other things I still definitely care about, but there are some things that I'm losing my perfectionist grip on.

Going now, hopefully for some food. Later!!

Skippy

Sunday to Wednesday, Wednesday to Saturday. It's a definite pattern.

So, last night I went home for a few hours - that was AWESOME. Not only did I get to see my cat (YEAH T.K.!!!!!!!!!!!) but I got to see all my cute little nieces (pinching the cheek, pinching the cheek) and my sister and my MOM (YEAH MOM!!!!) and my two bestest friends in the whole wide world!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I did an outreach thingy at the Billie Park in Paradise, and it went fairly well. The best part was getting to hang out with two of the girls from here in Magalia and the hike that I took with Duane before the picnic started.

Now I'm sitting in an empty church (having keys is AWESOME) doing all my 'online' stuff before I head up to my pastor's house for the night. Next week is 'call back week' for VBS: I'm going to spend the whole week calling parents back and reminding them and getting addresses for the bus route, and Cathy is going to spend the whole week calling back the workers making sure they're all ready to go!!! That Saturday is the Carnival - with horsey rides and fun games and balloons (hopefully) and snow cones (hopefully) and lots of fun stuff!!!! And then Monday starts VBS, and I'll actually be doing 2 VBSs. I'll do the one here in Magalia from 9 to noon - doing the music and one Bible study (maybe) - and then I'll do the one up in Stirling City - doing music and crafts - from 1:30 - 3:30 and then I'll come home and crash.

The Sunday after VBS is my last Sunday here, and then I'm home for two weeks and then I go to school to work for a week and a half and then school starts. 18 units, 15 hours of work, leadership position on the floor. That's the plan. Am I insane you ask? Probably. Are you? Probably, after all - you are reading this!!!

Going now, lots to do!!! Love to all, esp those I saw last night!!!

Skippy

Ya know, in the grand scheme of things, Sunday to Wednesday is not that long. Not that long at all. Anywho, so far this week I have gone door to door twice, spent yesterday putting up signs, took Duane out to lunch today for his birthday,

Happy Birthday Duane!!!!!!!!

and . . . talked to my mom a few times (she's in Nashville. Well, actually at the moment I believe that she's getting on the plane in Atlanta to come home, but that's beside the point.) And I can't think of anything else that I've done. At the moment I'm at the church in Magalia, waiting for Bible Study to start. Better go make sure they didn't start without me!!!


Love you all tons, hope to hear from you!!!


Skippy

What? You want me to update? Wait, that means that I have to think . . . and form sentences not only in my brain, but on the computer . . . and they have to make sense?????? You might be asking too much, but I'll see what I can do.

First off, typing makes my finger hurt. Know why? Because I cut it, diagonally across the nail all the way through the nail to the skin on whatever day it was that my phone got stolen. Its my index finger, so its pretty important when it comes to typing, and it hurts.

Second, its hot - but I'm much better now that I'm back inside the church building. We (Cathy and I) were out going door to door to register kids for Vacation Bible School. We got like 80% of our area done, and got one child registered and several promising families. But, like I said, I'm back in the church building now and its much better in here.

Thirdly, what else has happened? Well, this week I got my phone stolen and then returned (CREEPY situation) the same day that I cut my finger and that we went out and didn't get ANYTHING. Last night Corinne and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean II and LOVED it!!! And, it was really great to hang out with Corinnne and go to a movie and just have fun.

Other than that, not much is going on . . . I don't think. I spent the week going out door to door and getting stuff ready here for today (we had three groups of people go out door to door) and sorted through a ZILLION camp pics. Which reminds me, if you have any camp pictures, PLEASE email them too me!!! I would LOVE to have them!!!!! If anyone in your youth group has camp pictures, I would LOVE to have them!!!!

Anyway, I'm hoping to put together something soon that I can upload so you guys can see a lot of the GREAT pictures we got from camp. . . any suggestions???

Okay, I'm leaving now. I hope that everyone is keeping cool but still ON FIRE for Christ!!!

Love you all loads!!!! Skippy

Sunday

Okay, so I’m late again, deal.

Sunday of Missions Camp: Sunday consisted of two main things: the electric fence and the all night vigil. We did our other Bible studies, and we ate and all that, but the main things were the fence and vigil. Getting over the electric fence (in 6 minutes flat, I might add) was totally NOT my team, it was GOD. We know that because we were all so physically, mentally, emotionally exhausted, that there was no way that we could have done that on our own. SO it was AWESOME to get to see God work through us for that. The other thing was the prayer vigil, and that was also cool. Much needed, intimate, one-on-one time with God. AMAZING. We finally got to bed around 5 in the morning, and then had to get up for youth camp. Hey, no one EVER said you got to sleep at camp!!

Friday AND Saturday

Okay, so I’m late; what’s new?

Friday:

Missions Camp: Goodbyes are never easy, but for Missions Camp, they don’t come for a while!!! We did, however, have to say goodbye to the children who had been at children’s camp. We did a final skit, helped them to build pyramids (showed them one of our really cool ones), and then watched as they left. That afternoon we reverted to 1^st year, there was need for some knee bending back arching, but it didn’t happen. (If you understood that, laugh, if you didn’t, don’t try.) Friday was the first day that we tried to get up the tree and get the stick that Duane pointed at. It didn’t happen, we failed. And we failed not because we didn’t get the stick, but because we didn’t communicate, prepare, or think at all let alone think it through.

Youth Camp: Goodbyes. It such a sad thing. And for Youth Camp, they are on Friday. We started the morning hurrying to pack, and then I got yanked from bathroom duty (YEAH!!!) to go belay Tim for him to help Duane take Jacob’s Ladder down. That was . . . interesting. Long and hard, and much MUCH harder for Tim and Duane than it was for us. At one point, I had Tim on belay all the way, because that he wasn’t standing on anything or holding onto anything. YEAH for Rachel being on my rope behind me giving me extra weight, balance and pull. After Jacob’s Ladder was down, we sang, took pictures, cried, hugged . . . and then everyone left.

And now (drum roll please . . . ) Saturday!!!!!!

Missions Camp: Camp on the weekend? DEFINITELY!!!!! Saturday consisted of two and a half things. The half is Duane beating up Corinne and me breaking in to help and only adding to the problem AND getting dirty!!!!! The first, was taking the first years on the blind walk. (picture a BIG, HUGE, mischievous grin on my face.) And the second thing was the second attempt to get the stick on the tree. Today was much different: today we planned, we prepared, we worked it through, we talked about it, through it, we communicated, we PRAYED. It was amazing, absolutely AMAZING. No, we didn’t get the stick, but we did accomplish one thing: teamwork. After we tried for a while to get it and couldn’t, once we were done, we gathered in a circle and each one of us prayed. That day, we succeeded.

Okay, okay. I'll stop rambling now. Love to all, Skippy

Thursday:

Missions Camp: Thursday was probably the highlight of the week; Duane and Lisa got baptized!!!! Now no jumping to conclusions. Duane has been saved for several years, and while baptized as a child, he had never been baptized when he actually understood the significance. Lisa has also been saved but is making a decision in her life to live for Christ no matter what. It was AMAZING!!!! Also, two of the children’s campers were baptized, and that was pretty cool too!!!

Youth Camp: Thursday was pretty normal, we did Sword Drills, Bible Study, lunch, afternoon activities. We also stayed late at the ropes course and up on the rock so that people who wanted to go again had the chance too. AND we had cake for the birthdays of three of our campers!!! DON’T LOSE YOUR PLATE, THERE WILL BE CAKE!!! Thursday evening was filled with cabin bond builders and games: that was fun to watch!!!! Thursday night was, of course, campfire. It was a great time of sharing and getting to know each other, as well as worship and praise and fellowship.

Wednesday

Missions Camp: Wednesday is the real official first day of Missions Camp. We did our Love Bible study in the morning and then we (well, we had lunch, but then we) headed up the big hill to the rock. We started with pyramids, and after working our heads out a little we moved onto our study on God. Much to our delight, on our return (from somewhere, I don’t remember where) we found that the first year mission campers had been taped together!!!! The boys (Matt and Brock) and then the girls (Chrissy, Nicole, and Kristin) were TAPED together at the wrists!!!! It was AWESOME, and we spent a large portion of the afternoon congratulating Corinne on being so brilliant. I believe Wednesday night was the first night tears came at camp fire, but it was great all the same.

Youth Camp: Again, Sword Drills and Bible Study preceded by the boys having to do wall sits (Don’t sleep in) and followed by (for my cabin at least) some trust building exercises. We did some trust leans, a group sit, and then trust falls off not only our cabin porch, but a rather high stump. My girls of course did WONDERFULLY and I got some great pictures. Again off to the afternoon activities. That evening, after Duane spoke, God moved in that place like I have never seen before. The entire camp was in tears, just being broken and put back together, leaning on each other and God like crazy and it was just amazing. People all over the place were on their knees crying out to God, we were encouraging each other and getting to know each other. It was just awesome. The weird thing was that it usually happens on Thursday night, so us old times (Tim, DJ, Me) were all messed up on our time lines because usually after people finally get their heads out of their butts its time to go home; but this year, we still had a whole other day!!

Tuesday!!!!!

Missions Camp: YEAH!!! Finally!!! After a year of waiting, we were finally back at Missions Camp!!! And what did we start with? The luggage move. Over, under, over, under, over, under, over, under . . . ALL the way to our cabins, with Tim muted and Lisa blinded and my EXTREMELY heavy bag. It was great. That even we started a skit series for the children’s campers in which I played the tomboy who…yeah, I’ll save that one for later. Anyway.

Youth Camp: Tuesday was my first every counselor meeting, that was interesting. We did the first official Sword Drills, and our first Bible Study. We had Mac and Cheese for lunch, and then headed off to do our afternoon activities. I couldn’t tell you what happened on the field or up at the rock because I was down at the ropes course. Tuesday I belayed my first person ever, not really though cuz I belayed Tim on Monday while Jody was registering people. I can’t really think of anything interesting on Tuesday.

So . . .

. . . I have decided that what I’m going to do to debrief all of you about camp is this: each day this week I will post a section on Missions camp for that day and on Youth camp for that day. So, here’s Monday:

Missions Camp: Unfortunately, Missions Camp doesn’t start until Tuesday. So, for me, Monday was spent cleaning and getting ready and packing and freaking out.

Youth Camp: Do to our exhausting Missions Sunday Night (more on that later) we slept in until around 10 on Monday morning. I got up and got clean (only stayed that way for about an hour but it was a nice shower all the same) and then I went up to the ropes course. The boys, Tim and Duane, were putting up Jacob’s Ladder (five rungs, each progressively farther apart, hung up in a tree, you must climb it using only the boards and your partner, climbers were roped into a person on belay, one of which was me). Jody taught me what I was doing and I roped in and then I took over Tim’s rope and Jody went to register kids. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting my cabin, meeting my girls, moving into my cabin, moving my girls into my cabin, getting to know each other, finding out that my watch was an hour fast, and then dinner. We did a demonstration Sword Drill, which was the only Drill of the week that I got to be involved in. Then worship, sermon, and Capture the Flag!!! No flag was caught, but Duane basically turned himself in so the girls got to say that we got him.