Official

My license finally made it here.

Which means, that I'm officially official!

I had my first client session yesterday, and I have 2 more sessions today.

I cannot tell you how excited I was yesterday.

Here is the text I sent Michael:

"Hi!! I made money today!"

It has been a long time since I made money, and I have missed the feeling of contributing.

Of course, I didn't actually get the money yesterday...I don't even know when payday is...and really I'm just coming out even after paying my supervisor,

but still - I have a real paying job!!

Now I'm just praying that my client load will pick up.
I am beyond ready to start this new chapter of my life, and to be doing the work that God has called me to do.

Foster's Mission 2013

Have you ever had an experience that was equal parts awesome, exhausting, completely terrible, and uplifting all at the same?

That's what our mission trip to Foster's Home for Children was like.

Really, the entire trip was just awesome and fulfulling,

and then the last day was completely terrible, 

and when I got home I was exhausted...for the next 4 days.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous about the trip this year.

We doubled in size from last year to this year (from 16 to 31), and I was the only female adult with 15 youth girls.

That's the stuff nightmares are made of!

The kids were so wonderful though, and we had such a successful week!

The schedule was pretty much the same as last year: work projects in the morning, VBS in the afternoon, dinner and free time with the kids in the evening, and then a devotional at night.

My assignment for the week was to organize the clothing room.

We found some funny stuff in there:

Yikes!

Perfect fit!

Pink Ladies of Fosters

Samantha loves overalls

Oh hey Luis!

These were the bags that we filled from the clothing center.

Our kids worked so hard, and that place looked PERFECT when we finished!

Our theme for the week of VBS was Noah's Ark.

This was always my favorite time of the day because our kids got to be with the Foster's kids.

And they just love each other!

This year was even more successful because we had built the foundation by being her last year.

That is why we decided to come back every year - because these kids have groups come in and out all the time, but rarely do they ever see those people again.

We wanted to change that - and it worked!

The Foster's kids were so excited when they saw their friends back again this year.

 There was also a fun activity planned every night.

One day our girls painted the little girls' nails.

One night we watched a movie with the kids.

And another night we went to a Rangers game.

And one day we had a devotional with the Foster's residents.

Girls in the shirts they got from the clothing room at the Rangers game

Now for the completely terrible:

We spent the week in the campus library.

All the kids split up into little classrooms, boys on one side, girls on the other.

Michael, myself and another male adult slept in the common room.

*This is the first youth trip that Michael and I have shared a bed.

And we got creeped on by a middle school girl.

Anyways, on Tuesday morning one of the guys threw up in a trash can in their room.

He left it in the room all day, until someone found it around 11:30pm.

By Thursday morning, Michael, the other guy adult, and 3 of the kids were sick.

I stayed with the other adult until he felt well enough to get in the car.

Michael and Luis drove the rest of the group to the Waco Zoo.

Once they arrived at the zoo, Michael and 3 kids were barfing.

Michael slept in the shade on a bench like a homeless man.

By the time they left the zoo and drove home 8 people in our group had gotten the stomach bug.

Unfortunately for our intern Luis, the kid sitting behind him woke up vomiting...

all over the back of Luis's head.

Talk about a welcome to youth ministry!

By Sunday I think the total had risen to about 15-16 of our group that had the bug.

Somehow, by the grace of God and my wet wipes, I escaped the wrath of the bug.

My terrible came on Wednesday night.

The girls all had to shower, and we didn't get home from the Ranger game until after 1:00am.

I took the girls over to the home, and found 4 showers.

One of the girls told me that one shower was too corroded to turn on the shower.

So we used 3 showers.

It took us an hour and a half.

When we were about done I did a bathroom check to make sure that they were clean.

The shower that was "too corroded" worked.

There was also one across the hall.

We could've been out of there so. much. earlier.

I was not the happiest.

The girls chose that moment to tell me that they hadn't seen me without a smile all week.

I started laughing...hysterically.

I guess I really do have a great poker face!

Really though, it was such a great week!

I'm so glad that I got to go on the trip again this year.

The best part of the week for me was spending time with this girl!!

 Love her so much!!

And I was so happy that she remembered me!!

Our group loves Fosters so much.

I am pretty sure that I can't wait a whole year to go back, so I am already planning a winter break trip.

Monsters University

As I've mentioned before, Michael and I love a good costume.

And we will take any excuse to dress up for something...especially with the youth group.

This time, it was the movie Monster's University.

We have dressed up for movies before:

Summer 2009 and Summer 2010

and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to dress up for this movie!

I cannot tell you how many random strangers we took photos with at the movie.

Most of the children were scared of us.

Most of the teenagers took photos of us across the lobby, instead of with us.

And everyone thought that we worked for the theater.

I chose not to inform them that we are just weirdos.

We had so much fun though.

I am seriously considering packing up, moving to Orlando, and becoming a Disney character!

What makes it even more fun, is when other people dress up with you.

This family had awesome costumes!

They even researched the movie and dressed accordingly.

It was so much fun, and now Michael and I are looking for our next costume opportunity.

A Little Catch-Up

Wow.

I'm such a bad blogger.

Summer started, and Michael and I got really busy with the youth group,

we went on a mission trip where I didn't have much access to blogging...

and then my brain turned to mush.

It could be the total lack of sleep, or the small amounts of technology, or just summer laziness.

Who knows.

Here is a little bit of what we have been up to since the last post:

- Sixth Grade Sunday

We started the afternoon by going to the new 6th graders homes and "kidnapping" them.

I can't tell you how excited these kids were.

They had huge smiles all day long.

After picking them up, we went to one of the new trampoline places close to the church.

New 6th Graders

Intern Luis!!

I made it to the top of the pyramid

Michael being Michael

- Finding Kind Girls' Retreat

The first Friday and Saturday after the kids got out of school was the retreat that I put together for the girls.

We had a screening of the Finding Kind documentary while at Memorial, and I loved it,

so I was very excited to show it to the JV girls.

We have been having a little bit of girl drama/mean girl attitudes this past year,

and that is what I focused the retreat on.

We had 3 lessons, watched the documentary, had craft time, went out to dinner, had a scavenger hunt at the mall, and spent lots of time getting to know each other.

Overall, I was very happy with how the retreat went, and I hope that at least a few things I had to say sunk in with the girls. 

Speed Dating

My favorite part of the day was an activity that I found on Pinterest.

One at a time, each girl sat in front of a white board.

As they sat there, all the other girls came and wrote a short description of them.

Before the girls were allowed to turn around and read what was written about them, I took a picture.

It was so neat to see their faces when they turned around and read their description.

Before the end of the sleepover, we printed their picture and put it in the frames they had made.

- Beach Day

This week we took the youth group to Galveston for the day.

It was the perfect time to get away and relax a little bit at the beach.

We brought lots of sand, and burned skin back with us, but everyone had a great day.

Blessed to have my great friend Helen to spend the day with!

- There was also a mission trip in there somewhere, but it deserves it's own post, if not two!

It will come soon.

Promise.

In other news - I finally got my license number, signed the contract, and will be starting work as a real LMFT-A next week!

I am so excited to get back to doing what I love!

Galveston Sand Castle Competition

This past Saturday was the Galveston Sand Castle Competition.

I didn't know much about it before we went, and to be honest I still don't know much about it.

A friend from church had heard great things about it, so a group of us loaded up and drove down to Galveston Saturday morning.

Well, we left in the morning, and 3 hours later we had a parking spot at the beach.

Yikes.

It was so packed.

I could not even believe it. 

As for the competition, businesses sign up to compete, and they have 4-5 hours finish.

The public can walk around and watch as they build, 

but at 3:00 the competition stops and the judges make their rounds.

Some of the "castles" were very creative, some were not so much.

We saw more than enough Carnival Cruise ships paired with a toilet somehow, 

several Wizard of Oz-es, and even a few Duck Dynasty castles.

The bummer was that I walked through while they were still building, so I mostly saw peoples' rear ends.

Luckily, my friend went through at the end and got some great pictures.

Wreck It Ralph - My Main Man!

Get it??

This competiton is something that Michael and I would probably never have done on our own.

I mean, I don't even think we would know it existed.

But we had a great time.

Aside from the crazy traffic, and the crazier people, it was a good day.

And Bonus: I only got sunburned in one small spot - my right shoulder.

Random, but better than being a lobster!