2007: Revisited

Everywhere you look, you'll find signs of the times: after-Christmas sales, year-end closeouts, the debate over Time's Person of the Year (hopefully this year's won't be a joke like last year's), the best and worst dressed ... it's all rather silly, but, we're humans. We like reflecting. We like knowing where we come from, and where we're headed in the future.

You know, the news will talk about the big stuff (or the completely obnoxious stuff - frankly, I could care less what Britney Spears did this year ...). But those stories come and go, and will have little importance in our lives in a few weeks. The things that remain close to our hearts, though, are the things that happen to us. The small victories, the happy memories. I thought I'd take a few moments to reflect upon some of the things that happened in my own life. Let the countdown, begin!

January:

• Kick off the New Year in St. Louis, MO at the Urbana Missions Conference, ringing it in with worship and prayer with close college friends (Supporting the "W" Movement - Whatever, Whenever, Wherever ... For Jesus!)
  

• Spend break driving around in my "sweet new ride" and watching a lot of LOST and Lord of the Rings with my camp loves
• Have an amazing dinner party with the Euchre Crew, some of the greatest people EVER

• Get hired for SALT Staff at Camp Phillip for a second summer
  
• Take my first ever impromptu cross-country road trip to our nation's capital! (This was huge, guys. Huge. As Jones and I like to say, "A Formative Experience.")
  

February:

• Turn the Big 2-0! (And was kind of depressed about if for awhile. I got over it. Jones' Brownie / Cigar cake really helped.)

• Deal with crazy-awful Theory class and want to bash my brains out
• Get lost in a parking garage
• I get my lost duffel bag back from a Maryland Police Department!
  

March:

• Get snowed in ...
  
• Take a mini-vacay in Naples, FL to relax with the fam and celebrate Jen's birthday

April:

• Get sick of school and change my major to Comm Arts. Does this surprise you?
• Try my hand at skiing at the Canyons in Park City, UT with Tracy, the whole fam, AND Chuck Norris ...

• ... and continue the best Spring Break of my life by visiting Chrissy in Boston along with other Camp girls (shown below after completing the entire Freedom Trail!)
  

May:

• Help host another excellent dinner party, this time for my roommate Shanti's 20th ... but then had to say goodbye to my amazing apartment : (

• Dominate final papers and exams
• Go on a hardcore camping and canoing trip with the high school girls to the Kickapoo River Valley

• Kick off Summer '07 at Camp Phillip! We're RUNNING WILD ... "I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free." (Ps. 119:32)

June:

• The summer trucks along - Ropes Course Training, SALT Staff Training (seen below at the SALT Opening Banquet), Jr. Staff Training, Family Fest ... and finally, finally campers!
  

July:

• Find out about Tracy's engagement - AND become her Maid of Honor!
  
• Spend some time at home: Relax with friends and family, head to Chicago for the 4th of July, and attend Summerfest
  
• Hang out at the Ropes Course and play camp photographer for a few weeks on Program Staff - and enjoy Kristen's company during her time on Jr. Staff (Below: Me playing photographer, Kristen on Ropes)
  

• Fake counsel a Teen Camp for a half week, and then take a 36 hour road-trip to freaking New Ulm, MN and Rapid City, SD ... Mt. Rushmore or Bust!

• Revel in the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the most anticipated book to ever find its way into my hands. Finishing the series was DEFINITELY one of the highlights of the year! (Seen below at the Midnight Release Party in Steven's Point)

August:

• Have an insanely fun Outdoor Adventure Cabin - go climbing at Devil's Lake, celebrate Hippie Wednesday, AND build a raft

• Get dominated in a all-staff mud-fight ... we don't need any more pictures of that floating around the internet ...
  
• Spend one exceptional week in Jackson, WI for Day Camp

• Say goodbye to Camp : (
• Road-trip to Marquette, MI and Ontario, Canada for one last hurrah with Camp friends - we camp, we kayak, we climb around on rocks, we drive (a lot), and we jump off sand dunes. Good times.
  

• Move into a new house in Madison!

September:

• Spend endless hours fixing a new house in Madison! (Seen below giving up valuable lung tissue to evil caulk ...)

• Start classes ... again ... and switch my major ... again - back to English!
• By God's grace, Grandpa Johnson gets a second lease on life
  
• Have an AMAZING Camp reunion in Madison for the Iowa / Badger game. Who games a damn about the whole state of Iowa?!

• Head back up to Wautoma for a smashing good Pirate themed Teen Retreat ... yarr!

October:

• Venture down to Shreveport, LA to visit Doug in the Air Force with Tracy and Ann. A non-Camp adventure?! SHOCKING.
  

• Witness another Packer victory at Lambeau with the family

• Celebrate the marriage of Elliott and Karen Kasprzak with - you guessed it! - Camp folk

November:

• Have an amazing urban ministry experience in the Twin Cities
• Take another trip to the Twin Cities a two weeks later to cheer on the Badgers at the Metrodome - fancy dinners, hott waiters, and foam fingers included!

• Celebrate Thanksgiving AND early Christmas with the family

December:

• The House gets in the Christmas spirit by hosting an Elf party and putting up decorations galore!
• Together, the roommates brave papers, finals, and blizzards ... lots and lots of blizzards ... mostly by procrastinating, and sometimes by trips to Dairy Queen
  
• The House celebrates the Joyous Day of Feasting by, well, feasting!
  
• I return home for the holidays and survive all final papers in the nick of time ... another semester, down.
  
• The family celebrates Christmas

• I make this non-exhaustive list, which turned out to be quite the exhausting process ...

I must say, I myself didn't even realize what all went into this year ... I'm shocked, really.

In this year, I traveled through or visited 16 places: Illinois and Missouri; Illinois again (what a pity), Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia (very briefly, I believe), Maryland, and D.C.; Florida; Utah; Massachusetts; Minnesota and South Dakota; the UP and Canada; Louisiana; and Minnesota again, a few times, for good measure. I had never been to 10 of them, so that is very cool for me.

I read some amazing books: The Ragamuffin Gospel, Through Painted Deserts, Harry Potter, Velvet Elvis, A Severe Mercy, Searching for God Knows What ... there are more, but those were some of the more life-changing ones. Really. Books change lives.

I had made such incredible memories with my friends, whether we were taking on the world or sitting on the couch, doing everything or doing nothing at all. Camp friends, high school friends, college friends ... how blessed am I!?

Despite being gone so much, I was able to spend time with my family this year. Vacations and time home, seeing new sights and keeping old traditions. It's really quite beautiful, and again, I am so blessed. I certainly don't deserve the life or the loved ones that I have, but God is so incredibly gracious.

And, through all this, I think God has brought me into a deeper relationship with Him. Yeah, I suck. I screw up all the freakin' time. I hurt the people that He's brought into my life, I worry about stupid things, and I don't always make time with Him the priority that they should be. And yet, He has taught me a lot about loving people - and therefore, a lot about what it means to follow Him. I can't begin to imagine what 2008 will have in store, but if it's half as good as what I've known, I'll be blessed indeed.

The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
Ecclesiastes 1:5

Jeepers, Creepers!

My poor Jeep. The wintery blasts of weather that we've been having have been making good ole' Teddy (yes, it has a name - don't even judge me for naming my cars) quite cold! I needed to run some errands yesterday, and therefore had to dig my car out of piles of snow. It was rather inconvenient. Then, when I tried to brush the snow off the top of the car, I noticed that the entire roof was not just covered in snow, but a layer of ice over two inches thick! My arms are a little sore from breaking it all off ... Oh, the joys of winter in Wisconsin : )

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I had such a Christmas-y weekend; it was so fun!

Friday started out rather domestic ... just a lot cleaning the messy house, but the house that needed to look good with all our new Christmas decorations! But it ended up pretty amazing; Tracy came over from Milwaukee and we hit the slopes at Tyrol Basin, west of Madison in Mt. Horeb. It took us awhile and a couple of adventures to find our way (seriously, it's so hidden), but when we finally got there it felt so good to be on skis again ... though, it did take quite some time to feel even a little comfortable again. (Frankly, I'm more afraid of going out of control than of falling - so I did a lot of falling. And I forgot how to stop. And turn. And pretty much everything that you need to remember to ski successfully. Needless to say, I'm still sore. )

We ended our skiing adventures a little earlier than we would have wanted because it was just so cold, and I was so excited to just get back to my warm and cozy house. Unfortunately, I was just a little bit locked out. It was sad. Luckily, my roommates got back a few minutes later from the grocery store, and we commenced our Elf-watching party. I was exhausted, but happy I stayed up for the fun. There was hot chocolate and candles and CHRISTMAS SWEATERS, and, of course, cameras. Naturally, a photo shoot commenced:

(Notice the knit snowmen and the bells. Supreme.) I must say, we are so fun.

Things got even more fun the next day, if that is possible. I went out to breakfast with some high school friends, which was great. And then I went to the chiropractor. In the 10 minutes or so that it took me to get from the edge of campus to the chiropractor, it had snowed like, half an inch. So much for starting in the afternoon, right? When I got home I got some stuff done, but then said ... screw it. It's blizzarding. I want to snuggle. I got drawn into the living room when I found out Parent Trap was on (great film) ... I didn't move the rest of the day. Parent Trap was followed by Little Women, which was followed by Chronicles of Narnia, which was followed by High Fidelity, which was followed by Love Actually. WOW. WHAT A GOOD DAY!

A (mostly) Christmas movie extravaganza. Roommates came and went, but Jones and I remained constant. Well, it's not every day that you're snowed in before Christmas ... so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow ...