Step Up

So to quickly wrap up Austin:

Chelsea and I stayed in Austin with her family Monday and Tuesday. We hit up more coffee shops, thrift stores, vintage stores, a Thai restaurant with Thai Basil Lime ice cream (yum!), and many other things. We were also treated to some pretty great Gelato by her parents. Thank you!! I picked the pink grapefruit sorbetto. Oh, so good! Tuesday night, we drove north to stay with my aunt and uncle in Collinsville. Then, Wednesday we headed back to the home-front. And, of course, there was rain...a lot of rain...for the drive home. Thank you, Lord, for watering our earth.


*And on to Saturday, July 10th*

Springfield had an event called "Step Up for Downs Syndrome." Brock and I took a few students from our youth group to volunteer with crafts and face painting. Can I just say, "What a blast!" There is nothing better than a child or an adult with downs syndrome smiling at you from ear to ear because of the not-so-good rainbow you painted on their face. The smiling faces of the students that volunteered and put everything they had into the event were just as heartwarming. My heart was full with so much compassion and love for these beautiful children of God that I could hardly contain it. Even now, I am overwhelmed by the beauty and joy that was displayed last Saturday. God does not make mistakes. I believe he has made each one of us different and unique in every way so we can learn from each other. We can learn how to love deeply as He loves us.

After the main event at the ice arena, everyone lined up to take a walk to the Springfield Cardinals stadium. When they arrived, they took a walk around the ball field, waved, shook some hands, and just had a great time. Almost everyone stayed for the Cardinals game as well. I'm not really into baseball, so I mainly just chatted with my friend, Jenny, from church. Here are a few pictures of the day:


The Hat Makers :)



The Face Painters :)


Helping make a hat:



Face Painting:


This is my absolute favorite photo. It took a lot of convincing for her to get her face painted and when she decided to do it, she couldn't stop smiling! :)



The crew that volunteered minus Brock because he was taking the picture :)

Austin! Day 2

Sunday, July 4th

Independence Day! The first thing on the agenda for us was to hit up the coffee shop called "The Houndstooth," recommended by Tom at The Coffee Ethic in Springfield. When we walked through the door and I saw "cortado" on the menu I was in a state of bliss. The Ethic introduced this tasty drink just this summer and I fell in love. I knew right away that we would have to visit The Houndstooth just about everyday we were in Austin. :) If you're ever in the Austin area, you should definitely step in and check it out.



After our caffeine fix, we visited the farmer's market on 5th street. A few of the booths mentioned that the pickings were a little slim due to the holiday. Nevertheless, the area was very cute and had plentiful produce. After the market we took a stroll down 6th street and stopped in a few shops. The street was made up of mostly pubs, but we ended up purchasing a bumper sticker for our friend, Leslie. Her one request was a bumper sticker that said "Keep Austin Weird." Mission: Accomplished. :)



For lunch we went to Chelsea's aunt and uncle's house for hamburger's and ribs. I ended up talking with her uncle for about an hour or two about Pittsburgh. He visits up there often and loves the city and Primanti Bros., of course. This means "instant friend" in my book. (twinge of homesickness) Oh yes, and he loves Volkswagen so that was a topic of conversation as well. If only Brock and I had purchased The Thing in Marionville last year...

After lunch, we drove downtown to the Congress Bridge to watch the hundreds of thousands of bats that are supposed to fly out and fill the sky at dusk. They made plenty of noise, but decided not to make an appearance, so we just sat and waited for the city fireworks. The fireworks were not much to look at, so we ended up leaving about five minutes before they were over to beat the majority of the traffic. This definitely did not happen...we were stuck in traffic (human and vehicle traffic) for two hours...craziness...I don't even want to relive that, so we'll just leave it at that.

As soon as we got back to the house we were staying at, we put on some B. B. King and relaxed on the couch reading our books. After all of the chaos of traffic, it was a great end to the night with the King.

Austin!

Here is a quick rundown of my adventures in Austin with Chelsea :)

Day 1: Saturday, July 3rd

We drove down to Austin in my new Kia Soul! I love this car: great ride, gas mileage, sound system, and just plain awesome. I started out the day with a purchase from The Coffee Ethic for the both of us: Earl Grey for me and Caramel Latte for Chelsea. From there I picked up Chels and we were off to Austin, TX. We had our iPods stocked and ready to go for the (supposed to be) 11 hour drive.



The first major event of the day happened right after our pit stop at the McDonald's that stretches over the highway in Oklahoma. Right after paying the toll and driving into a construction zone, (with the flow of traffic, I might add, since there were no signs for the speed limit)I was pulled over for the first time in my life (after 10 years of record free driving)...by a state trooper!! When he came to the passenger side window, he never told me why I was pulled over, he just asked for my driver's license. So I decided to ask, "Was I speeding?" With a look that sarcastically said, "Are you serious?" he verbally responded, "Yes...you were going 65 in a 55 mph zone." After taking my driver's license he asked me to come back to the car. What??? So the first time to get pulled over and sit in a police car all in one day after only 2 hours of driving...not the greatest start to a trip. Well, to make the story short, he ended up giving me just a warning because I probably looked like I was going to throw up from the anxiety. When he asked me to sign the piece of paper with the warning, I couldn't even sign my name right I was shaking so hard. Oh yeah, and he wanted to know what kind of gas mileage my new car was getting. I think he just pulled me over because deep down inside he feels like he needs some Soul.





Soon after our incident with the state trooper, the hurricane from the south decided to water the earth and dump endless amounts of rain on the highway. What should have taken two hours to reach Oklahoma City ended up taking four hours. We decided lunch sounded like a pretty good idea, so we ended up asking Jillian to search for a Panera Bread close by (Jillian is the name of my Garmin.) She found us one that took 15 minutes to get to, only to find out that it was closed...permanently. We searched again and found another one about five minutes away. Chelsea had the smart idea to call before we drove to see if this one was up for business. Hallelujah it was open! Meanwhile, the rain is still pouring and flooding the earth. Needless to say, we ended up eating a hot meal at Panera and taking a much needed break.





As soon as we reached Oklahoma City, the rest of our trip was pretty uneventful. The plan was to meet Chelsea's family at a ranch three hours south of Austin, but decided against it after driving for 13 or 14 hours. Since all of the family was at the ranch, one of Addie's friends in Austin (Addie is Chelsea's sister) graciously offered for us to stay in her house for a couple of nights while she was away. This woman's house was the epitome of eclectic decorating: so beautiful. She didn't have a T.V. but there was a record player, which was just as welcoming! After a crazy day of driving, we hit our pillows within minutes of arriving.

Whirlwind

So the past few weeks have been quite an event. First, my husband and I took our youth group to Super Summer at Hannibal-LaGrange college June 14th-18th. Camp was amazing and God spoke deeply to each and every person that attended. I love Super Summer because the staff invest not only in the lives of the students, but also in the restoration of the youth leaders. When the students have their study time, the adults have theirs as well. Getting to know other youth leaders from different churches and different ministries is so great and encouraging. The encouragement comes from learning that we're not the only ones that deal with certain circumstances and attitudes when it comes to youth ministry. It's really great. The students also came away knowing more of who God is and what it means to have a relationship with Him. I absolutely love listening to their ambitions and answering questions like, "How do I know God is speaking to me?" So beautiful to see God working. :)

Since this post has been waiting to be published for a couple weeks now, I'm going to just go for it and update the rest of the "whirlwind" tomorrow. :)

Elaina

Finding God in This Storm

I am a girl that grew up a half an hour north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where a thunderstorm was just that: a thunderstorm. There were no threats of tornadoes as long as I lived there, except on the one occasion in 1998 with the series of F0 and F1 tornadoes. Even then the most people lost were a bunch of trees in their yard or a roof to their garage. Now that I live in Southwest Missouri, I have a whole new perspective on stormy weather.

I remember my first experience with tornado weather like it was just yesterday. (I know that’s a cliché saying, but it’s true!) I decided to go to college at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO in the fall of 2002 after high school. (That’s a story for another time.) My second semester of classes in 2003 was my first spring in the Midwest. I remember living on 3^rd East of the Leslie dorm when the alarm went off and we all had to grab our pillow and run down to the first floor. I was so scared because I’d never had to react to such a threat. This, of course, happened to be the spring when Stockton and Pierce City were leveled by the tornadoes. Missouri’s way of saying “welcome,” I guess.

Well, today we had another thunderstorm. No severe threat was involved, but the rapid way the wind and rain picked up happened to get my heart racing, as usual. As soon as the rain started to fall, it was blown sideways because the wind was so fierce. Soon thereafter, quarter-sized hail started to fall from the sky and fly sideways hitting our screen door. Of course, if you’re from the Midwest, quarter-sized hail is nothing compared to the size you’ve seen in the past. From my perspective, the short storm was pretty fierce and the rain let up within about a half an hour. When the precipitation was over, the wind stilled blew something fierce and our electricity went out. Awesome.

Within what, I think, may have been about 20 minutes, there was absolutely no breath of wind, the sun was shining and the clouds were scarce and feathery. As Liz Lemon would say, “What the what?” This Missouri weather is so emotionally unstable and unpredictable that I am completely blown away every single time (no pun intended.) This instability, however, leads me to a constant fear whenever there is any threat of a thunderstorm. Good thing I have a husband that will step out into the middle of the street to stare up at the sky and see what the clouds are going to do. In the meantime, I’m taking cover in the basement or bathtub as soon as those sirens go off!

This all brings me to remember the magnificent majesty of my God. Even though the storm may frighten me, I need to remember that God is the one causing this storm to occur. The beautiful calm after the psychotic storm is the part that I look forward to every time. There is such a peace that I can’t help but think of my King. There is a lesson after each physical storm that reminds me there is a calm and peace after the whirlwind of life. The only One that can provide that perfect peace is my Beloved. What a good lesson for this season of my life. Thank you, Jesus.

~Elaina

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

First-time Blogger

Ok...so this is going to be interesting. I've always wanted to do this, but never had the courage to do it. I'm always afraid this really isn't going to be of interest to anyone, but I'm going to do it for me. So read if you want to...or not. Either way, I just need to let my thoughts out sometimes. :)

I'm supposed to be doing my homework at the moment, but looking at the stock reports for Starbucks was starting to get a little old. I'm working on a Corporate Stock Research paper for my Personal Finance class. But enough about that! I went into college this semester thinking I wanted to pursue a degree in Accounting.

(*side note* My tv is on in the other room and I heard someone saying "hello....hello?...hello!" and I definitely thought someone was just feeling like they would make themselves right at home in my house...but it was just the tv, so *whew*! It's all good. I should probably mention I'm pretty ADD sometimes, even though I've never been medically diagnosed. But, then again, in today's society I believe we all have adapted to ADD in one form or another. ok, moving on...)

So Accounting...definitely not for me! I now understand why this job has the highest rate of suicidal deaths. (I'm not really sure if that's a fact, but I've heard it and I believe it.) So I've decided maybe I would try and pursue English. I've always loved English and have scored highest on any exams relating to the subject. So we'll see how that goes. The only problem is my short attention span. If I had it my way, I would be the proud owner of a coffee house called "Bello Caffe" somewhere in the city. Now that, is the life. However, God has other plans for me at the moment, but I believe someday He will allow this desire of mine to be filled. More on that later. At the moment there is other homework that is in need of my attention.

Elaina <><