Sunday, December 5, 2010

Midland Trip - Denise Visits

This weekend was filled with a wonderful visit with an lifelong friend of our family. I have known Denise for 23 years of my life and when growing up she was like a second mom to my sister and myself. I remember spending many evenings watching movies, having dinner, going shopping, we laughed together, cried together, etc... I spent summers at her home in Friday Harbor, WA after she moved from Pasco (where I was raised) until I moved to Texas.

This weekend she was on her way to Dallas for a conference with work and so she came a bit early and spent the weekend with our family at Midland where my sister lives. I took off some time from Ceta and made a quick trip up so I could have some time with her while she was here. My sister's children fell in love with her! My sister and I went for a walk in the morning with her and was able to have a wonderful time of catching up. Denise and I later was able to make a Starbucks run and she treated us with all sorts of goodies which was so much fun.

Denise with Kate after our walk
We all got ready ready so that we could have a girls day out and go shopping, have lunch, and just hang out. My brother-in-law Chris was wonderful and kept my nephews at home with him. It was such a fun girls day out. Here are a few pictures before our adventure:


While Denise was here we had some of our all time favorite meals that she made while we were growing up. She prepped some cinnamon rolls that are absolutely fabulous and sent a few home with me which I really enjoyed having. :) I am so thankful for the time we were able to have together and I can't wait till the next time we can all get together. It is so nice to have lifelong friends that you know will always be a big part of our lives! God is so good!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

A Transition in Life!

Today it was announced to all the staff at Ceta Canyon that I was resigning effective January 16th.


God is so good and I have been led to switch camps after much prayer and a few visits the Lord has provided a place for me on the team at Sacramento Methodist Assembly (SMA). I went up for a vacation back in August and that was all the trip was but then after almost 2 months the Lord placed SMA on my heart and all I wanted to do was go back again. I shot the camp director there Bill McCuaig a message through Facebook and asked if there was a position that camp open I would love to be considered to join his team there. I explained what I was making, what I would like to do in camping, and my needs all the way around. I wasn't expecting a reply right away because jobs don't just happen to be there whenever it pleases a person but Bill responded immediately and from there the prayers started with Bill and I because he was thinking of adding a position at SMA and needed to get approval from the Board of Trustees for it to happen. Our prayer was that the Lord would do whatever was best for SMA. Bill went to work on planning what the details would be of the position for the Board and myself and the Board approved the position. I waited to hear back from Bill for about a week (I didn't know the Board had approved it at this point) and then curiosity was about to kill me so I shot him a message and asked about how the meeting went and what the Board decided. I also shared that I understood that if the position was approved that he needed to make the right decision for SMA and that I trusted him to do what was best for them and me. About a day or 2 later I got a phone call and he had been checking references with past Ceta staff about me and the possibility of hiring me. The position was offered the week of Thanksgiving and during that time I prayed and spent much time in the Word desiring to tell Ceta as soon as I was able. I wanted to be sensitive to them and that this wouldn't be what they were expecting. I have seen much change in my time at Ceta and change is really hard to go through.

God is so good and throughout time, prayer, guidance in His Word, and counsel from family/friends the Lord led me in the direction to accept this position and leave Ceta to move onto a new adventure at Sacramento. My last day at Ceta is January 16th and my family shows up with the U-Haul on the 17th to help me load up and move. Please pray for Ceta as they transition and work through this change. It is always hard. Pray for me in the transition period (packing, planning, moving, adjusting, etc...). I love Ceta Canyon so much and am going to miss it!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010

This Thanksgiving was a whirlwind of things! I took off a week from Ceta and went to Snyder to spend some time with the family. On the way the pups and I stopped at Greg and Wendy Lavo's house to visit for a bit where the pups made 2 new friends. Greg and Wendy have a goldendoodle whose name is Roo and Hayden and Callie (their son and daughter-in-law) also have one and her name is Bernadette. The pups took a while to all get to know each other but after a few hours visiting outside with them they started doing really well together. The goldendoodles really enjoyed Daisy-Rose because she isn't quite as hyper and she was small so they would lay down and play with her. Wreckless is just so full of energy and wants to play so bad that it can be overwhelming at times for other dogs. :) Our visit was a wonderful one and I am so glad that they have a big yard for all the pups to hang out in.







The next stop made was Snyder and then the next morning my Mom and I took a day trip to Midland so I could help my sister get her house cleaned up before her company all showed up for Thanksgiving. She has her mother-in-law's side of the family come every year on Friday to have Thanksgiving together because she has a home that will fit everyone. I offered to help my sister due to having a baby and she was feeling very behind. She worked really hard though to clean up some before we got there.


That day I had a little helper that followed me around and cleaned right next to me. Thanks to being around my dear friend Wendy Lavo like I had when I lived in Lubbock I had learned how to have a 3 year old help me. :) Kate and I cleaned the bathrooms together as well as kitchen, we dusted, cleaned bedrooms, etc... While we were cleaning my mobile phone rang and it was a camp director (Bill McCuaig) at Sacramento Methodist Assembly and he asked me to join their team full time at the first of the year. That was such an exciting time for me. I contacted him about it a while back and told him that if he ever had an opening to please consider me and after receiving approval to add a new year round staff member he called (I will share more soon). I was able to share the news immediately with my sister and Mom and I am so thankful I was able to enjoy that time with them.





My Mom's job in coming to help was to watch baby Wade and her job was made easy because he fell asleep and stayed asleep (something that doesn't happen to my sister). My Mom picked up the dusting rag and pitched in till Wade woke up wanting his bottle but then right back asleep he went. He was such a good baby that day for us. We got a lot accomplished and I am so thankful I could go and help her out. This is a huge perk to being in camping ministry to be able to have off time during the holidays. :)





Kate decided she wanted to come home with my Mom and me when we got ready to leave. So Kate came and spent a few days with Pepaw and Memaw. She sure did have a good time and she has won the heart of my Dad by looking at him and saying to him, "I sure do like your car!" He loved that and she has wiggled her way into his heart. She also said that about his Total Gym too while he was working out. :)



This is where Wreckless and Daisy spend their time when visiting my parents. It is a really good area for the pups. The yard is sectioned off from the main yard and they are much easier to control. We use to let Daisy run free but then we learned that Wreckless doesn't bark hardly at all or say much if she is with him so she has been booted out. :) Poor Daisy but she does really well out there unless she sees me through the back door window then she feels the need to remind me they are still out there waiting patiently. :)



Over Thanksgiving we had a really bad stomach bug hit the family. My Grandma and Dad were the first to get it and it was a couple of days before Thanksgiving. After the bug ran it's course I cleaned up Grandma's bathroom for her and then I got it right after my Sister and her family left on Thanksgiving Day. It really was a vicious bug. I am telling you. I was feeling alright and then it hit me hard. I went to Grandma's house, took the pups out to use the bathroom (she doesn't have a yard and I didn't want to mess with taking them out), and locked myself in my room which has a bathroom off of it. I didn't come out till I was finished with it. Wreckless and Daisy were so sweet though. Wreckless followed me every step and just kept an eye on me. My sister was texting me and keeping an eye on things from a distance. Thankfully none of the children picked it up. Kate was around my Dad when he was sick and Luke was around me a lot before I caught it. God was so good to my sister.



The pictures below are a couple my sister got on Thanksgiving. The first is of my parents with the kids (Rachel-9, Luke-6, Kate-3, Wade-3 almost 4 months) and the second is them with my Grandma.


I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Family Pictures


There was somthing interesting happening that kept the pups attention :)

Finally they are looking at the camera but I guess Wreckless got bored he decided to take a cat nap (his eyes are closed) :)

Okay, Okay everyone decided to cooperate! :)



The joys of taking pictures with my pups! Thank God for the invention of digital cameras because it takes about 20 pictures to get a good one.

My Poor Little Car!

I was in a little accident while picking up a friend at the college in Canyon. So sad!


This is what my car looked like at the scene of the accident


Thankfully my little dent popped out all by itself! :)

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Charlie's Pounding

Today we took out some time to welcome Charlie as a full time staff member. Welcome Charlie!

Do you feel the love? :)

Monday, August 16, 2010

Sacramento New Mexico Vacation

I just wanted to share a few pictures from my vacation at Sacramento Methodist Assembly. It is a sister camp in New Mexico that is about 30 miles south of Cloudcroft.


View from the Cabin I stayed in


The Cabin I stayed in


Cows taking a stroll outside my cabin :)


If you look close this is a picture of where where the forest fire stopped that almost took out the camp

Yes this is some snow I found while driving through the National Forest and this is in August

Poor Daisy was worn out after all our hiking and walking :)

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Steve Wade Stansell

My little nephew made it into the world screaming his head off! :)

His name is Steve Wade Stansell but we will be calling him Wade.


Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Finished and Just in Time

I am so excited I got the quilt done and just in time! I finished it on the way to the hospital in the car. I had half to hem and an hour and a half to do it in and I finished just as we got into Odessa. :)


Sunday, August 1, 2010

Ceta Canyon Parade

Mate, Carly, Josh, and Matt coming from the Ceta Glen side to the Ceta Canyon side.
As they passed us Matt who is at the very end on the golf cart started waving and acting like he was throwing candy to us.
It was so funny!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Ceta Summer Staff Memories 2010

Meet Our Summer Staff
Kitchen Staff
Kitchen Staff with Christina (far right) and Me
All of our Summer Staff
Ty, Hope, Lindsey, and Beata found a new way of washing the dishes!
Oopsie Christina forgot to put the mixer on low before turning it on!
Hash browns everywhere to show for it. LOL!
Aleyne and Niki grilling up the grill cheese which would take over an hour.
They were always so sweet to come and let me eat when they got to work
Beata and Anett doing the never ending task of pots and pans
Girls night out
Anna, Hope, and Ty hard at work
Hope and Ty getting ready to mop
My friend Amber who Wreckless loves
Ty ready to enter into the freezer
Anett's creative rain attire
Someone decided to Saran wrap the cars one night

Though we love the morning shift it isn't easy to get going in the mornings :)

This is our halfway mark!