feminar & manfrence

sorry its been a while... i get into this routine and time just flies!!

we had a staff meeting tonight and we shared different things that God has been doing in the lives of the students here this session and it was really cool to hear the stories of people glad to be here. then eric(staff director) told us what a great job we were doing but that we are going to be held accountable face to face and stuff. i'm glad we are! its too easy to get complacent when you're on the job. oo and i found out that both joshua harris and donald miller have worked at summit... weird i know. we also had a guy here to do music this week... http://www.joshbales.com/ he was really good!!

so tonight was the feminar and the manfrence which is when the guys all meet in the classroom and talk about who know what and the girls all meet in the dining room. a couple of staff girls all share something they have struggled with. i love it at summit because we are not afraid to talk about things that the american church avoids. NO sin is too dark or disgusting for God! he wants to bring ALL of them to Light and heal us. so i actually shared about my experience (or non experience) with the whole dating relationships ordeal and the loneliness and depression that can follow. i'm really grateful for all of the public speaking experience i've had because it made it really easy to just share my heart with the girls.

then we had small groups with the students to talk about the things they heard in the feminar. i made white chocolate peanut butter and sliced apples and mish made nightwatch iced coffee... it was soo good. the girls really opened up tonight about stuff they struggle with and things their friends struggle with that they don't know how to handle.

two more days till i get a day off... i think i can make it!

lemons out of lemonade

haha! so today we made this really amazing chili at lunch and we also made cornbread from scratch. so i put all these ingredients together in the mixer bowl and asked abby(the boss) how to work this particular mixer. apparently she didn't remember to read the directions on the tape on the mixer... she she turns it on and the batter flies everywhere! including all over the people... i kept finding cornmeal in my hair all day. but we laughed about it instead of crying about it... and lunch ended up being reallyreallyreally good. so hence the post title... lemons out of lemonade.

today at sport time, i was going to nap on the grass... but then it started raining. so i went up under the shelter and ended up talking to two students for the rest of the time. it was fun :)

we have had staff choir practice the past two nights. the staff sings at graduation each session. its pretty fun cause i haven't been in a choir in a long time.

i'm getting really tired... i need to catch up on sleep, but there seems to be no time. i'd better figure out when to rest now cause i have a while left to go. and i'm supposed to climb the incline tomorrow with my girls. so maybe prayers will help me get up that mountain. i purposefully didn't play sports today at sports time so i wouldn't be so sore tomorrow i couldn't do the incline.

so i'm going to go to bed. gnight.

ok so i finally took more pictures

today was my day off so i didn't wake up and cook. i got up around nine and went to the classroom to hear dr. bauman make the students really mad by playing the devils advocate. he talked about the meaning of meaning, the problem of pain, and then augustine vs palegius. that last one really gets them riled up! but is a debate that has been going on for over 1600 years... wasn't solved today.

sports time this afternoon was fun. it rained on us for a little while, but that always happens here. we played right on through! i played volleyball for three hours and the time just flew. tonight, we had staff small groups and then student small groups. i'm in jen's small group and it was really fun. we went to the mate factor and then we all just talked about really random things like is God really omnipresent? and why are guys so entertaining? then for student small group, me and mish took our girls to the mate factor... so two in one night for me! we all shared our "spiritual journey" and it is amazing how well i identified with different things in each girls' story.

you might be wondering... mate is a tea full of chlorophyll and antioxidants and is a really popular drink in south america. i had hibiscus-lime mate cold and it was soooo good. twice. it was deep pink in color and tart/sweet.

now i'm exhausted from my day off so gnight!

first real day of kitchen duty

so in the kitchen at 6am here is like being in an 8am class at home... so its not really that bad. we made french toast with french bread this morning and sausage... and it was sooo good!! at least that is what i heard. i didn't eat much of it because when you cook it, you aren't as hungry for some reason. but it was a lot of fun getting to know the people i'll be working with. there is one guy on morning kitchen crew and his name is wesley... but ms. honken kept calling him paul. over and over. so now that is what we call him sometimes and its pretty funny. idk maybe you had to be here.

then we made lunch which was tacos. 50 pounds of hamburger meat! that was fun to cook. and i found out that salad bars can be most tedious. after i got off work which was around 1 after lunch, it felt like it was 6pm or something. it felt like lunch was dinner. then i talked to mom on the phone for a while and stuff. i got this amazing care package from the fam that had cookies and a large plastic tarantula in it lol. and a really sweet letter from taylor :) thanks so much!! i love mail.

tonight was praise and worship then staff meeting then girls staff meeting to talk about the feminar. i'm pretty excited about the music situation this summer... definitely better than the last two summers!

i also made sweet tea today... yeah amazing i know. i'm finding all the staffers that love sweet tea and sharing the love because withdrawl symptoms are brutal.

first students are here!!

wow it has been two whole weeks! and students are finally here... what in the world did i do for that long? work part was not too bad today cause all we had to do was put stuff out for sandwiches. but this is summit, so we had to slice all our meat like a sub shop. no fingers gone yet!

after i got off kitchen duty, i went to find students to talk to... and it was so much fun!! its amazing how much easier it is to make friends here when you are wearing a staff polo :) this session is the one a lot of homeschoolers come too because a lot of other schools are not out yet. i don't think there is anyone from south carolina here this session... at least i haven't found them yet. dinner was lasagna and it was SOO good. afternoon kitchen did a very nice job with their first meal. then we had orientation and it was so good to hear Doc-isms again. the staff introduced themselves at the end and then we broke into our small groups. i really think my small group girls are amazing and so diverse! one plays ice hockey! how nifty. anyway, then we had the "hall meeting" which means guys meet in the classroom to talk about who know what and girls meet in the dining room to talk about mostly dress code. we do this little fashion show to show them what is not cool like rolled up shorts or inappropriate shirts and the skit involves two boy characters played by girls to gawk at the models. i got to be one of the guys and it was sooo hard not to laugh!! but i did it. and it was funny.

reading over that sounds weird... but it has a purpose lol.

then we had a fire alarm which sounded like a dying duck.

now lights out for staff is at midnight but since i have to be up early, i'm going to bed.

by the way. tomorrow i'm going to have my phone with me from 2-5 my time in the afternoon... so call me if you want. that is mountain time so it would be 4-7 eastern. i think. maybe.

i GET to wake up early

yes, you read correctly. i am on morning kitchen staff. so my hours are from 6am to 1pm. i am actually really excited about that because i get to sit in the classroom during my time off. and i won't feel like i've wasted the morning hours! and i get to learn how to cook a really good breakfast :)

today we had more staff training in the morning and then lunch and then prince caspian!!! i liked the movie. a lot of people didn't like the ending... i don't want to spoil it, but it reminded us of PDA on graduation night here in the hotel. after that, we went to 36 acres for dinner, which is a piece of land owned by summit with a little one room building for the faculty and staff to enjoy. we had steak for dinner and it was like my dad made it! and a guy named phil from NC made SWEET TEA. i think i was going through withdrawls... i'm going to have to just make some. and i can now that i'm on kitchen staff :) doc showed up and said a few words. i looove it when he talks because you never know what he is going to say! and i could really tell he cares a lot about the students and only wants the best for them... which means a lot of hard work on our parts.

i got my official summit polo today! don't worry mom, it is a large. it is navy with a white logo... and it is so surreal having one! i wear it tomorrow because students arrive tomorrow. actually, one student got here tonight and experienced 36 acres with us. lucky him. anyway... i'm thinking i might just watch a newspring service online for church in the morning because i have to be in the kitchen by 11 tomorrow. real work starts monday. i do get one day a week off... but it will probably be filled with appointments or something of that sort with the girls in my small group.

speaking of small group, i'm co-leading with mish!! my roommate. she's amazing and i'm soo excited! we wrote notes to our four girls tonight and put them in their notebooks on their desks and prayed over their desks. wow, talk about powerful. they are going to go through a lot in those desks!

so that is pretty much it for tonight. cept i got a really sad voicemail from allison that she left while i was in the movie... I LOVE YOU ALLISON!! MISS YOU TOO!!! i'm sure stuff will start happening soon... you should call taylor or LG and go to grouchos for me :)

beaver

sorry its been so long since i've updated... once staff training started, time seemed to disappear!! its been fun though. lots of intro stuff to the rules and the basics of worldview stuff... always good to review. last night we took a personality test and i am a beaver. this means i'm organized and i think that there is a right way to do everything and i want to do it that way. beavers also desire to solve everything... hence the math major :) they do not like sudden change and need reassurance. so comment on my blogs to reassure me. my strengths are high standards, order, and respect while my weaknesses are unrealistic expectations of self and others. it also said i was too perfect... but whatever. i thought it was pretty accurate. there are not a lot of beavers here, but there are a lot of otters. those are the silly ones that love to be the center of attention and make everyone laugh. this is fun because that means i don't have to be much of an otter at all.

anyway, if that made any sense then congratulations because i'm still thinking about it! we have also been reading some C.S. Lewis essays about getting along with others. one called The Problem with X and the other called The Sermon and the Lunch. look them up and read them if you're interested or just really bored cause its summer :)

we just finished lunch and are about to do some MORE cleanup work... we made all the beds yesterday and it was such a blessing to have so many people helping! not that they had a choice... its just that before there were only four of us and now there are over 30.

we are going to the park tonight for BBQ dinner and "play" haha this should be fun. maybe its supposed to be like sports time or something. i still don't know what work crew i'm going to be on, but i think they take into account the personality test so i'm not too worried.

i can't believe students get here on sunday!! crazy how fast the summer flies...

couscous!

so today was fun. we finished up a lot and are almost done cleaning... i'll try to get pics of the finished product up soon. today i replaced light bulbs for at least five hours all over the hotel. my arms were tired is an understatement! but at least they're doing something.

saw chuck edwards today and he said Go Cocks! i thought he was saved...

dinner was amazing again tonight. ruthann said she felt heavy cause of all this food and i have to agree... time for smaller portions.

then mish and i went to Starbucks for coffee and i had a honey latte(amazing). there were some pretty strange people there... then we went to walmart(our favorite place) and got a fish!! its name is couscous and i can't really explain why except to say that we eat a lot of it here and it is really good.

i heard we got a lot of new staffers tonight, but we got in late(like 10 something) and so they have all gone to their rooms... so i'll tell you about them tomorrow.

gnight!

one week down...

monday. that pretty much describes it. it was a good day overall and went by really fast compared to saturday. i cleaned the laundry room and then proceeded to do laundry in it for a few hours. i wasn't sore today from the hike on the incline... and that weird cause i expected to be dying. i guess going to clemson did me some good! just found out today that a group on their senior class trip from Oklahoma is going to be staying here until thursday morning... kinda feel like we are going to have to reclean a lot of stuff, but that just means everything will be extra clean! we should be really close to done by tomorrow night, which is good because a lot of the staffers get here wednesday. we start "staff training" wednesday night. i'm looking forward to everyone being here.

short post. i think we're going to watch horton hears a who. thanks lindsay for the movies :)

the incline... ugh

so i climbed a mountain today! actually its called the incline and it is 1 mile long and you go up 3000 feet in elevation. yeah, ridiculous. but it was pretty fun! i went with angela(ohio) and jess(florida). i almost didn't go because i wanted to take a nap, but i'm glad i went and hopefully i will catch up on sleep later. not that i'm behind on sleep, just tired because, well, i climbed a mountain. we said we are going to try to do the incline at least twice a week and do pike's peak by the end of the summer. i think we can do it :)

this morning we went to a church called woodmen calvary chapel. it was pretty cool. the guy taught from romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. so it was all about hope and wether or not we have any. after church we had cereal and raspberries for lunch. then we did the incline. then when we got back, we had a new staffer!! his name is trevor and he is from pensylvania and he goes to Auburn. so we had something in common. he is a gymnast and on the cheerleading team so he was on the field at the bowl game. pretty cool huh? he is a finance major and will be a senior next year.

tonight's dinner was salmon and couscous and asparagus and amazing fruit salad. yes. i think i'm going to have to make sweet tea soon because this whole green tea thing is just not the same. i think i am also going to have to make some ms. field's cookies soon in this very large kitchen we have.

tomorrow is more cleaning. yay! hopefully we will get a lot done with the new help we have. there is so much left to do. staffers get here wednesday so we need to be done with most of it by then. prayers for energy and motivation are appreciated :)

yay saturday!

so today we had the help of jen, olivia, and tori from the office... what a day off for them lol. so we pretty much finished the third floor and most of the second floor, aka the dungeon. yes that is what it is called. the room that the 16 year old boys stay in, aka the princess room, has three bunk beds in it. there are all sorts of things written on them. one of them said Spartan. one said Kennan, lord of the nightwatchmen, bestowed mercy on us... blahblah it was kinda funny. some of the things written on the bathroom were just crude. silly boys.

today we got another staffer!! her name is jess and she is from Florida. but she has never had sweet tea, so she doesn't count as a southerner. she is pretty neato. tomorrow we are supposed to get a boy... oh what fun. i'm not sure what we are doing tomorrow... seeing as it is Sunday and all, i think we might not be working. but we might be. i really don't know. shold probably figure that out soon.

we just went on another walmart run. this time because jess didn't bring any toiletries. so we all went and we all got stuff even though we just went two days ago! we are such girls.

you know you're at summit when... part one

i have a feeling there are going to be many posts like this. so here's the first.

you know you're at summit when the after-dinner conversation is all about "what is art?" is it anything that is created? the phonebook? is it anything that conveys a message? the crucifixion? is it ordered? tessellations? is it self expression? the angry carrot at Winthrop? :) is there a difference between good art and bad art? should bad art really be called art? what about movies? are good movies only movies that make you think? is there a place in art for nonsensical comedy? this conversation went for at least an hour. so much fun!!

funny story. so i just walked into the room after that convo at the honkens and i said to mish, "its only 10? it feels like midnight!" and she said, "are you used to the time difference yet?" and then i was like, "DUH it is midnight where i'm from." so the moral of the story is: i'm not used to the time difference yet. that is why i'm so exhausted even though it is only 10pm here. that and we work our behinds off every day. so since i'm so tired, i'm going to go to bed and get 10 hours of sleep :)

AHHH the high tomorrow is 56!! that means the high on pikes peak tomorrow is 29. ridiculous.

third floor fun begins

so today was full of fun. not really lol. we started on the third floor and then after lunch we got the wonderful job of putting blankets, pillows, and mattress covers on ALL the beds in the hotel. on all four floors. it was quite exciting... and so we felt like we had accomplished nothing on the third floor. but after we were done with all those linens, we went back to working on the third floor and now we feel like we accomplished something. the boys' staff lounge was the dirtiest room we have done so far! why are boys so dirty?

when we were getting ready for dinner (spaghetti) the song 24 by switchfoot came on. i have always loved that song, but these lyrics really stuck out to me this time:

I want to see miracles, see the world change

Wrestled the angel, for more than a name

For more than a feeling

For more than a cause

I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

And You're raising the dead in me

Twenty four voices

With twenty four hearts

With all of my symphonies

In twenty four parts.

I'm not copping out.

Not copping out.

Not copping out.

a second spring

just got back from the first walmart run! i got cute sticky notes so that i can leave notes for my girls in my small group on their binders. i also got some andes mints :) when we were walking back inside the hotel, we were talking about how we are experiencing our second spring of the year because the leaves are just starting to sprout here. its so brown! but green will come. it always does.

today was cleaning the fourth floor. that might sound small, but it isn't. we wiped down all of the furniture and walls and floors and baseboards and scrubbed all the bathrooms and vaccuumed all the carpets... etc. it was quite tiring but it went by fast! tomorrow is the third floor.

we met brian's girlfriend today, rachel, and she is really cool. she biked over here from focus on the family. she asked really good questions while we were cleaning together like "if you could do anything in the world, what would it be?" "if you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?" etc. they really made me think about what i want to do with my life. i feel like i get asked a lot about what i want to do after school because saying you're a math major doesn't give a clear picture of one certain job. i kinda like not knowing exactly what area of business or education i'm going to go into beacuse i am the kind of person that would go straight into that job without asking God if He wanted me to do something else.

anyway, its not even nine and i'm exhausted. so time for bed.

hail

so this morning at like 5am i was awakened by the thunder and lightning! the building literally shook from the thunder and i thought the lightning was outside my window. pretty crazy! not to mention, the sun is up by 6am every morning so i was up early today. when i looked out the window, i discovered that it had hailed last night. or snowed or something.

I was talking to Angela last night about the differences in our school and stuff cause she goes to cedarville (small christian school) in ohio. we talked about what God is doing in each place. so i told her about what is going on in clemson and she told me about this really cool ministry she's involved in that lets her "adopt a grandma." she gets to spend time with an elderly lady at least once a week and just spend time with her! i think that would be awesome. then i told her about how God revolutionized the way i look at prayer this year in NOLA and she shared this verse with me: In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. -Psalm 5:3 I think its really cool how when you pray with expectaion for God to do His will... He always does.

we finished cleaning the kitchen today! it is probably still dirty though compared to how it should be. oh well. everything is washed and dusted and mopped. woohoo! we are doing the fourth floor next.



ok time for dinner.

first real day of cleaning

so we are going to cleain from 9 to 5 for at least seven days. today was day number one! there is so much to be done, but it helps being able to take turns doing different things. we are about done with the kitchen after today. it was filthy! its amazing how much dirt blows in over the winter. lunch is each day at noon and dinner at six. i love mrs. honken's random hugs :) just as much as her cooking.

i took some pictures today... enjoy


here's the obligatory picture before i leave for the airport... thanks mom :)







this is landing in colorado springs. it is so brown here! and pike's peak still has snow on it. jen said that it snowed last week and it was 80 the day before! crazy weather.






this is the front of the hotel.








this is the dining hall. much work to be done!








top bunk! yeah baby. i love the pink they got for us :)









this is my room from last year! kathryn, i told it hello for you







this is the classroom without all of the desks out... weird








mish! one of my roomies. she goes to covanent and i heard clemson beat them in ultimate frisbee. she said when she visited clemson she thought, "what's with all the paw prints?!"






here's the top level of the classroom... and there are the desks! and a random ficus.






angela is on the right, ruthann is in the middle, and thats brian on the left. yay for cleaning the kitchen!

safe and sound

Made it safely to the rockies… and it is really weird being here before everything is set up. I mean, I am now allowed to go into the kitchen! Not only am I allowed in the kitchen, but we get to clean it. It’s like spring cleaning at the Summit Hotel.

The flights were good. I watched Enchanted on the first flight and I sat next to a little blonde girl named Ariel the second flight. She thought I was pretty funny. We talked about pets and she loved the fact I have a bird at home. When I told her it talked, she proceeded to repeat, “Hello Pickles” for the rest of the flight. I’m sure her parents will love me for that. Then when I got to the Colorado Springs Airport, Jen was there to pick me up. We got my (very heavy) luggage and came to the Hotel.

Now when I say “Hotel” I mean this amazing building built in the 1800s that is made completely of wood (no candles allowed). I’m rooming with three girls named Mish, Angela, and RuthAnn. They are pretty amazing as well. I went right to work with them cleaning the kitchen and they quickly pointed out that I have an accent. They had been working for a while when I got here, so we stopped around 5 and got ready for dinner at 6. Dinner was sooo good! Mrs. Honken cooked for us and we ate at her house. I can’t believe I get to eat her cooking for ten weeks… better start hiking up those mountains soon.

Now I’m exhausted… and its only 8pm here! But it is 10 at home and I had quite the day.

finally packed!

i am finally packed... this is a big deal for me. i am a procrastinator when it comes to many things, one of these things being packing. i had a hard time narrowing down what clothes to bring. mom made the comment that i wan't very observant of the staff the past two years because i really didn't know what to bring! but hopefully i will not be freezing. i'm not ready for weather in the 40s and 50s!

i'll try and post tomorrow during my layover in dallas and when i get to colorado so you know i made it safely. thanks for all your prayers!! i have a feeling i will be flying with an army of angels surrrounding my plane. pray that i am bold during my travels... i mean the person sitting next to me is stuck for a few hours... ;)