Summer Flashback

On my way home from our family vacation in Michigan I took time to write out a bunch of things that I did over the summer. It is for real just a list. Pretty much strictly for memory purposes.

So here it is: Summer 2012 everyone!

• At the start of the summer I cleaned my room/ closet so that I could fit all my college stuff back into that space
• Grant graduated college so we went down to EIU to celebrate that.   
• Ayla hosted a 31 bag party
• My friend Nathan came to visit for memorial day weekend.
• I did an internship- I was paid, and got college credit and lots of experience.
• It included but was not limited to: planning and facilitating college ministries, designing and mailing postcards, designing and implementing a mural on the south side of Chicago (Roseland), attending middle school sunday school and TREK.
• I meet weekly with a group of peers to study the bible and hold each other accountable (PUREL). 
• My mom and I read the book Cold Tangerines and discussed it.
• I took fine arts online- and along with that it included a trip to the Chicago art institute
• I went Kayaking in the Fox River with my friend Claire.
• I went to Mongolian BBQ with friends a few times on Monday nights for college night.
• I had the chance to visit my dear friend Jordan at her lake house. It was such a blessing to catch up with her. 
• I was in Roseland, a neighborhood on the south side, for a missions trip with students in 9th and 10th grade. 
• I ended up getting heat exhaustion and throwing up all night and having to go home early.
• I went Kayaking downtown Chicago with my family for fathers day.
• I attended the wedding of Travis and Christina Meeks. 
• We (PUREL) went to Willow Creek to hear Tony Campolo speak. 
• I met up with Emily to have dinner and frozen yogurt and great talks. 
• I spent the 4th of July playing the American Girl game with Kelsey and Claire and went to Mr. LeVan's for fireworks.
• We went to Feed My Starving Children as a college group.
• I did a tour of Indiana- Surprise visited Katie and Grant (via planning with Nick). I also went to an Indiana wedding reception for my cousin Annette.
• Emily came to my house for a sleep over. 
• Lead222 Week happend and was intense. In the middle of the week I got to attend a cougars game for free (props to Jordan Coffey). 
• I went to the midnight showing of Dark Knight Rises..I still hate midnight showings.
• I helped lead a group of 5th grade girls during Summer Impact (VBS-like)
• I donated the plasma from my blood and ended up passing out for the first time in my life... find that story here. 
• Our family hosted a family camp reunion party. 
• I watched all 3 Bourne movies in 3 days...and saw the 4th.
• I taught on the book of Habakkuk to middle schoolers and in TREK. 
• My family rented a house in Michigan for a week. 

This summer would not have been complete without a host of coffee dates with the following:

   Alli Crawford, Dana Taylor, Susy, Claire, Allie Thomas and Emily to plan bible study, maybe a few I am missing :(

I also shared my fair share of meals with some great people: 

I took the Chinnault girls for ice cream,  shared a few meals with Elizabeth Dannan,  had ice cream with girls from the Roseland trip. Ate with Allie Thomas. Experienced bien trucha (and had a coming of age moment), a few lunches with Jordan Coffey. Lunch with Jordan and Katie Mcnutt. A meal with Michael Olsen and Katrina. One day Alexandra brought lunch to me. I went to dinner at the end of the summer with the lady lead hosts. I also had a few meals with PUREL and Tom etc. 

I guess I did some stuff. 

It was great. 

Training

I'd like to start off by stating that it is so good to be back. I am so at home here and I am incredibly blessed by that. It has been a crazy start but it has been good. Training takes up most of my time and when I am not training I am bonding with my staff. These weeks are seriously some of the best in the entire year. I feel at peace about returning to Eastside. I am loving this years staff.

Formerly North Hall is not Beckett Hall. Which is awesome. 

My sweet best friend Katie turned 22! We celebrated in various ways that day. Think picnic at President Smiths house (with all of Reslife).

This crazy lady and I got to act together in Behind Closed Doors which is a training activity. We were fighting roommates. It was beautiful. She makes me laugh. 

Last night in the 630 v2

Again the time has come. What time is that? Time for transition again. We college students learn a lot about flexibility during these years. We live here for a little while, live there a little while, have this job for a bit, then have that one. This year is a bit easier in a few aspects. For one, I am returning to the same hall, the same room, and the same job (but I know it'll be a complete new experience). I am going back to the same school. My major is the same. So like I said a lot of things are going to be constant.

However, I will be living alone. I think it is going to be an extremely growing experience for me. I also have gotten so use to living at home again. I think that is so strange how only a few months ago being back in the 630 was so strange and now it feels so natural again.

I want to write a post listing events of the summer. So hopefully soon I will get to that. I also have yet to blog about vacation.

Anyways...as I enter into this time of training and preparing my heart, and mind for this school year I want to take a moment to remember how blessed and thankful I am for the way that this summer has been everything I needed it to be. God has met me in amazing ways. I have grown, learned, been challenged and encouraged. I want to laugh when I think about how much thought and time I put into thinking about this past summer, what it would be like, what I would do, and how God has just blown me away with His faithfulness and sovereignty. I am blessed. I have had so many people in my life this summer play such crazy important roles that I never could have thought. I have been loved incredibly by my family. Again, my heart is so full.

Let's sell our plasma

Have you ever thought about selling your plasma? I have. I've researched it many time before. It is always nice to have a little extra cash. However, usually my mom says no.. because either I am going out of the country soon, or I am just getting over being sick or something like that. She just wants me to be healthy...what a lady :) .

Well it happened again this summer. I thought about selling my plasma. Then I had a friend, Jordan, who was itchin for some cash flow and I said "you should sell your plasma" and he had thought about it before and so I think I just pushed the idea over the edge. So...it was real. He researched it again. We got all our paperwork in order. We found a time that we could set aside 3 hours (thats how long they tell you to allow for a first time donation). Awesome. It was going to happen. We were pumped. It was going to be an adventure for sure.

It was a Wednesday afternoon. We arrived at the donation place in the "hood" around 2:40. Signed in and waited. They put you through a lot of different "rounds." We were asked questions but multiple people in small rooms. Signed lots of papers. Answered questions on a touch screen thingy. Had our fingers pricked. Had our fingers blacklighted. The questions crack me up... "have you had your tooth #22 removed in the past 3 days?"... "have you left your neighborhood in the past 5 days?" "are you currently projectile vomiting?" "Have you talked to your birth father in the past 24 hours?...can we talk to him?" "Do you spend more than 6 hours a day on a couch made of leather from Bolivia?" ... OK so none of those were really questions but they felt like those questions. It was funny. Jordan and I made jokes about it.

There were 2 other guys there that Jordan knew from high school and they were a bit ahead of us in the process. One of the steps was called "the physical" haha. It seemed to take people an eternity. I was like what the heck are they running the pacer and doing the push up test? Anyways. 3.5 hours had passed. Jordan finally got to the physical stage and was turned down... Like was told he could not give today because he had has surgery in the past 6 months. He would have to get a form signed by his doctor. Could they have told him that on the website? Yes. Could they have told him that in any of the earlier stages? Yes. It was frustrating for both of us. At that point I was willing to get up and leave. I had bible study that night and was worried I would be late. I offered to leave but Jordan and I both decided that we had already waited this long..at least one of us should get a needle to the arm... and maybe make some $$$.

So, I pass the physical stage. They look between my toes to see if I have any needle marks there.. push on my tummy etc. I go to the bathroom...which I had been holding for 4+ hours incase they needed a urine sample (tmi? probably). Then I get to the back room where everyone is donating. I finally got a needle put in my arm and I was rockin. I was pumping my fist as fast as I could hoping that I would go faster. I felt bad because Jordan was now waiting for me... and would walk away with nothing from the long day. I get to what I think is like 2/3 of the way done. All of the sudden my chest starts to feel hot and tight and fuzzy. My head starts to cloud and everything starts to slow down. I raise my arm to get the attention of the guy who hooked me up. I maybe even make a sound but everything sounds weird and my own voice sounds insanely loud.


I wake up to people I dont know saying my name. I have an icepack on my chest and behind my neck. I am scared and totally confused. What the heck just happened??? They tell me I passed out. I am just trying to breath normally. I ask if I can be done giving my plasma now and they say yes but they are trying to return as much blood as they can. I text Jordan and tell him I passed out. He asks if I am ok and offers to drive home. My blood pressure when I woke up was 88/58. They started to put in a bag of saline. It was crazy cold. I was shaking. They didnt have any blankets. Eventually I sat up... and stabbed myself in the arm with the needle. Then they went and got Jordan. They had to see if I could stand etc. So that all took a while. They told me that I needed to eat a really good dinner and drink tons of water and that I should not drive. AWESOME. I was a mess.

We walked out of the building and I stated how much of an epic fail that whole process had been. I had missed bible study. I felt awful. Jordan had to drive. Jordan was walking away empty handed. It was just funny how much of a fail it was.

 He was going to drive me home.. he called his mom and she insisted that we stop at their house and have dinner. So I got a good meal in my system and we got to tell the crazy story. Then a huge storm came. So I waited till that calmed down to leave. When I was driving home there was tons of lighting I was sure I would be hit by lightning that night..it was just how things were working.

All in all. I lost a little plasma. Made $50 and got a great story.