Sunburns, sweat, and silliness

Ok, I suck at updating. Let's see...it's been absolutely lovely weather this past week! A few days in the 80s, a few days in the 90s, I love it! Part of the fun of not having a job is the ability to just grab a book, lay out in the sun, and read. Right now I'm at about my half-way point. Meaning that half of my summer is over. Once it becomes August, I'll stop applying for jobs because it won't be worth my time anymore...I'd spend too much time training and not enough time working.

Thursday I met with the people at the church where I'm directing the drama portion of their VBS. It sounds like it'll be a good week...I've missed playing with kids all summer! That afternoon I helped with the SWAT training for RPD which was a little slow at first, but once we started enacting scenarios, it was much more fun. I got carried out by SWAT once, and got to see how long it would take them to find me many times. They're amazing, and I feel very very safe having been a part of that!

On Friday Sam, Janda, and I trekked into Seattle and hung out in the U-district. I love Sam. And Sam loves Janda. So it was a good day.

I was going to go to a concert that night but it was too hot, and in a kind of sketchy part of Seattle, so I decided to take Janda home early. I love that dog.

Saturday allll day I worked security at Derby Days with the Explorer post. Those are the greatest kids. First I was directing traffic and answering dumb parking questions and then I got moved to the race track. We were supposed to make sure no one crossed the track while the bikers were racing, and we didn't have any problems. So I ended up just talking with Jake for a while. He's a cool kid. I know I'm not that much older than most of them, but I still feel like they're "my boys".

After 14 hours in uniform, and a really great sunburn on my face, I got to hang out with some of the cg girls, and then sleeeeeeeep.

Sunday Sutter left for guide dog training. Super sad. But it made me realize that I really want another puppy. So I e-mailed the disability people at Central, trying to make my case for why they should make me an exception and let me raise a puppy on campus. So we'll see how that goes.

Applied for a few more jobs today, went on a 3-mile run, bought my bedding set for school, shopped for shorts with Small, and bought smoothies at Tully's with Small.

It's been a good summer.

And I'm just trying to love you, in any way that I can

Spent the evening with my little bro. He drives me NUTS sometimes, but he's still an okay kid and an ever-ready companion. For instance, I decided that my car was looking a little sad and dusty so it needed to be washed! Small was more than eager to help me wash it if it meant getting to play with the hose. Then we watched Pirates of the Caribbean (the last spelling bee I ever participated in, I got out because of the word Caribbean. I've been able to spell it fine ever since) and ate popcorn with butter on it--inspired by Jill.

Tomorrow will be a long, but hopefully fun, day. Making brownies in the morning followed by a meeting with Kirsten's new boyfriend, a walk with Nicole, and coffee with Jess...all in 5 hours. Then will be our last ever meeting as one big community group--so we're having a BBQ at Hannah's. After this week, we're splitting in half. Hugely sad, but I have confidence that God will grow each of our groups to be unique and a huge blessing to its community. I'm excited to see how we grow in these next 3 months.

Thinking of college, I found out my orientation date is July 28th. SUPER excited and a little nervous. At orientation I'll get to meet with academic advisors in both of my departments, get my picture taken for the ID card, and find out my dorm assignment. Afterwards, I'm planning on hunting down the local restaurants and finding out if they're hiring for the school year. If the Ellensburg PD gets back to me, I might have to meet with someone there to find out about volunteering, too. So like I said, super exciting but kind of nerve-wracking....hoping I get everything done that needs to get done, etc.

Oh, and I've been doing a little bit of reading these days. The first book I've gotten to dig in to is

I've started the book of James and have been trying a different approach with reading my Bible. I get a lot of application out of it, but it's easy for me to forget the "application" 3 weeks later. So I'm trying to read it just to get a better picture of Jesus and look more for the attributes of God. When I was in James 2, the section on partiality jumped out at me. The fact that we shouldn't pick favorites because someone is popular--that's in the Bible. Ugh. So convicting.

Second book I've been reading is

Yes, Radical Reformission by Mr. Driscoll. Last chapter I read was on how important it is to engage the culture without becoming just like it. What is frustrating to me is if you're living in a way that's relateable to the average person, why would they ask you about Jesus? I guess if you give Him glory for all the good in your life....but I've been a re-focused Christian for 2 years and no one has asked me about God. Fail.

Third book (and one I highly recommend if you like suspense/action novels) is

Separation of Power from Vince Flynn's collection of super amazing books. I don't want to give away too much plot, but they're political thrillers... plenty of assassinations and assassins involved.

That's a snippet for the day. Have a lovely Thursday y'all.