Stop the World

This summer has been amazing in so many ways, trying in so many ways, exhausting and exhilarating in so many ways. I can't believe it is starting to come to a close...although, if you looked at the weather today, you'd say I was lying (at 10:30am, it is 61 degrees. It's supposed to get up to 77. It is so clear and bright, I am wearing a tank top and flip flops!) But, alas, school starts in two weeks, rain is coming, soon to be followed by freezing weather and snow. Remind me why I live here again?

Linda came to visit for three weeks. It was so sad to see her leave! But alas, I guess real life has to happen sometime...Here are some pictures:







We had so much fun exploring. Linda almost died on the mountain, but I'll let her tell you that story...It was very sad to see her go!

Since she left, I have been doing a ton of sleeping! I didn't realize how drained I was. I was always on the go, stressing about what my visitors were doing, trying to fit things in that I thought they would like to do. I really didn't stop and think about me. Not that I am a conceited person or anything, but I didn't have any down time. If you know me well, you know that I love my alone time. I haven't had true alone time since June!

My small group at church talked about the noise in our lives. Cell phones, radios, TV's, computers, traffic, people, etc. It's everywhere - it's near impossible to get away from. But we also subject ourselves to noise too. Where is God in the noise? Is He in the traffic, in the computer, in the phone? Or are we so busy that we forget to listen for His whisper? Do we tune him out like we tune other people out? I know I have. I've been so disconnected all summer from God - I've forgotten where to find Him - where and how to listen to Him. He hasn't gone anywhere.

Today is a beautiful day. Maybe it's a good day to go to the beach and reconnect with my Savior...

Blessings!

Exhausted

So the last two weeks have been incredible and insane and fun and trying. Let's start with the parents.

Mom and Dad came the last week and a half of June. It was SO fun to have them here! We did all sorts of crazy things - boated to a glacier, watched it calf (spelling???), Ziplined, hiked, played games, and ate out a lot! Oh, and we went halibut fishing! Dad and I loved that, but Mom wasn't a big fan of that...I hated to see them go...there's a reason I've been wanting to go home!!!









Mom and Dad left on the 30th, and my very very good friend Laura came to visit on the 1st! Talk about turn around! The only sad thing about Laura's visit was that it was cloudy and rainy the WHOLE time...literally. But we still had tons of fun. I got to show her around so many places (without the amazing views) and we did the "tourist" thing downtown...We went to Taku Lodge, ate amazing salmon, and got to see a bear!!! We also did Juneau 4th of July festivities, although the fireworks were a day late... It was sad to see her go too - especially since the next day it was super sunny!









The rest of the summer will bring more visitors, but for now I have a little bit of a break. I miss you all and hope that you are all doing well!

Blessings!

Getting There...

As many of you I have a friend here in Juneau (I actually have a lot of friends in Juneau, but this story revolves around one...) who I've gotten close to over the last six months. We have a great time taking her dog, Murphy, for walks, going to the gym, trying all sorts of different culinary endeavors. This Memorial Day, we tackled the biggest adventure: New York City!

The idea started two weeks ago - literally. She began talking about different places she wanted to visit. New York came up. As we were sitting right there, I said, "I'll go to New York with you!" I was actually completely kidding. She said, "You want to?" "Yeah!" "OK, let's go!" Me: "Great! When?" Stacee: "How's Memorial Day weekend?" Holy cow! That's soon! The next day, I ask for two days off during Memorial Day weekend, and my boss actually granted it! I called Stacee and said, "We're going to NYC!!!" The rest of the story goes like this:

We don't have a plan. When I say we don't have a plan, I literally mean we don't have a plan. I mean, we don't have a map. We don't have a place to stay. We don't know what we'll be doing once we get there. We don't know how we're going to get around the city. We don't have a plan. When I call my Uncle Leo to tell him, "We're going to New York and landing in New Jersey (you should have heard the smile on his face) and then tell him we have no plan (you should have heard the doubt in his voice) he actually began to get very excited I was FINALLY going to New Jersey.

As I'm talking with my mom, she reminds me Becky (my cousin) lives in New York. So Becky and I start talking on Facebook. She offers us a place to stay (THANK YOU!!!!!!!) and offers to show us around a bit. Perfect! Our own private tour guide (no map needed) and a place to stay! Bring it on!

So we pack and get on a plane to get to Seattle, still no plan, mind you. We overnight at Seatac (Terminal A has the best benches to sleep on) and get ready to catch the flight to Newark. By sleep, I mean rest - I didn't sleep. With all the lights and the vacuums and people going from one terminal to the other, there was no way I was sleeping.

We “got up” at about 5 in the morning…actually, closer to 4:30 – we had coffee by 5 in the morning. We laughed at how terrible we probably looked from our rough night, but our excitement about New York couldn’t taint our mood at all! We got to the terminal we were supposed to be at, and luckily got on the plane (It was sold at capacity, but a few folks didn’t come, so we got on!). Before we knew it, we were off to New York!

As we were flying, about 3.5 hours into the trip, I looked out the window and saw hundreds – quite literally! – of lakes. I thought to myself, ‘We must be over MN....’ Sure enough, the captain came on and said we were flying over MN, and that we would be coming into some turbulence for the remainder of the flight. Man, he wasn’t kidding.

We continued flying, and I looked out my window and saw this massive body of water! ‘We made it!!! We’re here!’ is what I was thinking. However, our captain came on and dashed my hopes: “We’re now flying over Lake Superior – this is why we have all this turbulence.” They don’t call them “the Great Lakes” for nothing! My word, they were huge!!! And there were Thunder Bumpers everywhere. It made for an interesting ride…

So we arrived in Newark right on schedule (not two hours in advance like I thought originally…) and the adventures began. Oh man. Becky had given us directions on how to get to a place she had picked out to pick us up from. Problem was, we had no idea what we were doing, where we were going, or a map to speak of. We learned that the “people in red” are very helpful. Our directions said to get a train ticket from the airport to Penn Station. Great! How hard can that really be? So we see all these folks lining up at a kiosk that we assume is for train tickets. So we wait our turn, and the man in red comes over and gets our ticket for us and tells us to get off on the third exit, go down the stairs, and get on the train to Penn Station. How hard can THIS be? So we get on the AirTrain, and Stacee wants to get off at the first exit because there is a sign that said, “Penn Station this way”. I tell her to wait to get off at the third. She questions me but decides to trust me (good plan!) and we get off at the train station that leads us right to the train! We walk on, the doors close, and we’re on our way!

By this time we’re giddy with exhaustion and excitement. We’re in New York!!!! And we’re on a real train! With a man who punches tickets and everything! Our directions tell us we’ll be on this train for about 35 minutes, but to get off at Penn Station. We ride for about 7 minutes and the conductor comes on the loudspeaker and says, “Next stop Penn Station Newark.” Crap. Our directions don’t tell us if it’s supposed to be Penn Station Newark or not…not good. I try to call Becky, but she’s not answering. So we make a split second decision and begin to gather our things together. Another passenger looks at us and says, “You don’t want to get off here. Trust me. You want to get off at Penn Station New York.” Ok…I guess we’ll have to take this guys word for it. So we ride on.

We arrive at Penn Station New York (with no idea that we are under NYC…). Our next direction tells us to get a Metro card and get on train E. Metro card, no problem. Train E, a bit of a problem. What I didn’t know was that Becky uses “train” and “subway” interchangeably. Not helpful when you don’t know what you’re doing. So we’re looking for train E. There are plenty of signs for Subway E, but none for train E. So we call Becky, and she confirms that we want Subway E. So I tell Becky we’re getting on the Subway, and we’ll call her when we get to Jamaica Station.

We arrive at Jamaica Station, leave the subway and make our way to the street. Now, being a girl from the LA area, I know a little bit about places that are not safe. The area around Jamaica station was not safe. I There are bars on all the windows, trash on the street, and we are quite literally the only two white people on the street. Plus, we have baggage – we have targets on our backs that say, “TOURIST!!!” Stacee is super excited: “We’re in New York!” I haven’t had any sleep in about 52 hours at this point, and knowing how LA is, I know it’s a bad situation. So I tell Stacee, “Stacee, we are not having fun yet. We need to be paying attention. I need you to walk like you have a purpose, don’t be nice, and pay attention. I will tell you when we are having fun. Right now is not the time.” So I call Becky – she says she hasn’t left her place yet. Not a good thing. She tells us to go get dinner. I’m thinking, where are we going to get dinner? We don’t have a map, we’re in a bad part of town, and have no idea where there is food. Not good. We go in a Subway Station to get sandwiches (fitting, I know) and order sandwiches. As we are sitting eating, waiting for Becky to come, we get many stares (we ARE the only white people…) and a man comes in with a handful of pills that he offers the customers in the store. Like I said, not a good place…I finally call Becky after not hearing from her in 45 minutes. She said that she missed us and is turning around.

Long story short, kinda, We find Becky and begin our crazy adventure in New York…I’ll post more on that later…

NYC

As many of you know, I recently got back from a quick trip to NYC. Pictures are up on facebook, and I am working on a post for the trip on this blog...check back in a few days for more!

Lately...

It's been busy! So much has happened, but too much to write about in great detail...

Let me sum up:

-Job = Insane (on so many levels...)
-Preschool = 3 weeks more! Need I say anything else?
-Youth Group = all-nighters, prom, me speaking = AHHHH!
-Friends = doing well - for the most part...A couple are going through some really rough times.
-Family = the parents have adopted two kittens - Strat and Telly. They're super cute!!! I wish I could be there!
-Uncle Leo came to visit! Had fun showing him around Juneau, but kinda sad that it was so cloudy. Looking forward to the rest of that family coming in July!

That's about it! Short, and sweet, but a summary of life these past few weeks! Hope you all are well!

Love you!
Blessings!

News Flash: Easter Beagle Reaches Juneau AK!

I can't remember a time I have ever sat in a full Easter Sunday service at church. Actually, I should say, I can't remember a time I have ever heard and Easter sermon preached. Seriously. I've been going to church all my life, and never once! I love the Easter songs, taking the offering, greeting everyone Easter Sunday. But when the pastor gets up to the stage and begins the sermon, me, my siblings, my Grandpa and Bill would sneak out of church, and the fun would begin.

Actually, the fun began a few evenings before Easter Sunday. My family would go over to Grandma and Grandpa's house and do "the Easter Beagle". Grandpa got bags and bags and bags of jelly beans, robin eggs, and peanut m&m's. We would put some Easter grass in baggies with a note, and then fill the bags with the candy. We got an assembly line going, and made fun of people who were falling behind. Of course, when each new bag of candy was opened, you would "check for ugly candy" and dispose of it right away...I even remember picking out the black jelly beans because Grandpa said they were not an "Easter color". We would spend a good 2 hours putting these things together and just wait for Easter Sunday.

So, back to church - well, sneaking out of church. My siblings, Grandpa, and Bill would sneak out of church and meet at Grandma's car to get the Easter Beagle candy out. We then went around the parking lot and street along the church and hung the bags of candy on the driver-side mirror. It was the Easter Beagle's way of saying Happy Easter! It's a tradition I grew up doing, and has now become part of my Easter tradition.

I am pleased to say that I still have not been to a single Easter sermon! This year I got some friends together, and we did the Easter Beagle! I explained to them the story behind it, and they all loved it. So we got together Saturday night to make the bags - 272 to be exact (as you can see from the picture below)



Sunday morning rolls around. The night before it decides to snow about six inches. So here we are, getting ready to do Easter Beagle at church in about six inches of slush in our Easter best. Not ideal, but welcome to Juneau. We were laughing at the rediculousness of the situation. But we did it! It was so fun watching people get the bags off their cars and look at it very confused.

So I'm happy to announce that the Easter Beagle has reached Juneau Alaska! I'm sure my Grandpa is so proud and laughed at us all morning from heaven. But shhhh! Don't tell anyone - the Easter Beagle is supposed to be a secret...

Blessings!

Life in the Fast Lane

The past two weeks have been absolutely insane. So many things have happened - some good, some bad. There is so much to write, but I am not going to take the time to write it all...I'll summarize and give you the jist of it all.

Two weeks ago, I stayed home from church because I wasn't feeling well. One of my coworkers called me at about noon. She had news about my former supervisor from Lighthouse. Sonja's body had been found in the water, an apparent drowning. Totally shocked me and devastated me. Although I wasn't super close to her, it was still very sad and heartbreaking. I haven't lost someone in Juneau up to that point...I began thinking of all the lost opportunities and the sadness that her family must be feeling.

Her family came up to Juneau to have a service and to bring Sonja back to Washington (that's where she's from). There are some pretty incredible stories about her family and the conversations we had. Linda, Sonja's mom, told me that I was the only "vibrant Christian" she met up in Juneau, and it broke her heart. She then told me that she would be praying for me. SHE would be praying for ME? She, the woman who just lost her daughter, would be praying for me? Wow...that's crazy.

That same week, I got some sad news about a good family friend back home. It's hard getting sad news and not being able to be home with everyone.

This week, my coworker went to San Diego to get married! So I am living at her house for the next two weeks...taking care of her dog named CHAOS (the name says it all...). So my routine is a bit crazy, but it's all good. I haven't gotten home before 9-10 at night every night this week due to plans and classes. I took a wilderness first aid class over the past three days, and am now certified to give first aid to people in the wilderness...not that I ever want to, but it's good to be prepared, right?

It's been busy, but life is going well up here. I'm really looking forward to the summer when I get to see people from home!

Miss you and love you!
Blessings!