Delicious!

I tried these today. Lay's Ketchup Chips - only sold in Canada. I know it sounds gross, but they are REALLY good. I'm salivating right now thinking about it! :) A couple of kids visited Canada and brought Jon back a couple of bags so he let us try today (his wife's Canadian so that's how he knew about them).

Here's the bum deal... They're manufactured in the U.S., but only sold in Canada. And get this... I saw an ad on ebay where a Canadian is selling one bag for $4.99 plus $9.00 shipping! Highway robbery! Guess I won't be getting some more of these anytime soon!

Just Another Day At The "Office"

Ok, my job is pretty sweet. For example today... I invited one of my leaders to lunch and she told me, "Maybe I can get you to do some hot laps with us before we get food." "Alright," I said, thinking she was talking about power walking around her building with the ladies or something. Nope. Carol (the leader) works at Bondurant (as in Bob Bondurant the race car driver) School of High Performance Driving. I drove up to her "work" and found that it was a professional course and stadium for race tracks and high performance cars. She does HR there and had something special all set up for me.

Before I knew it, I had a helmet on and a driver named Craig strapping me into a Corvette. I screamed the entire time (and laughed nervously). And yes, we went well over 100 mph. Everyone's asking, "How fast did you go?" Do you think I was looking at the spedometer while my sweaty palms were gripping the door handle? LOL I am so proud of myself for being so adventurous. Thank God they took me out BEFORE lunch! :)

Instant Friends

Isn't it strange how some people you meet you can become instant friends with, and with others you don't quite click or only click a little? I'm trying to understand this, but I think I never will.

I met a girl at the church named Ashley. She's actually my admin, and when I first interviewed I didn't think she really liked me. I was kinda worried about how that working relationship would go - her reporting to me and all. But when I got here, her and I instantly connected. And Jake with her husband Ryan too - they're playing on a softball league tomorrow night. I was so excited to find out that we had made such good friends so quickly. We all got each others' personalities and it was so easy to hang out. You know how with some people it feels like work? :) I could tell we were all going to have alot of fun together.
PS - These 2 are not the ones I cooked for with my onion goggles on Tuesday night.

So about a week ago I found out that Ashley resigned her position at Central. Her and Ryan decided that they wanted to move back to Indiana for more affordable living. She can buy her dream house for like $150,000 - 5 bedrooms, a basement, a porch, acres of land. I know you Californians are about to gag right now. Yesterday I said goodbye to her. It's such a bummer.

It's not often you meet someone you instantly connect with, that takes no effort. Only God knows why some people can easily be friends and others can't. Making friends sometimes feels alot like dating. You make efforts and only sometimes it truly works out. It's just something I've been pondering lately. Hopefully I'll find more friends like this.

Onion Goggles

Ok, so here's my crazy story. I saw these in a magazine and HAD to have them. They're goggles you wear so your eyes don't hurt and cry while chopping onions. Let me tell you, I have tried everything to prevent my nose and eyes from being affected by onions, but nothing works. So, my super sweet brother Chris bought these for me for Christmas (or maybe my birthday; I don't remember) because I wanted to try them so bad. They're 20 bucks. Yes, 20 bucks for goggles. I'm a freak.

A couple here from the youth staff kinda invited themselves over for dinner Tuesday night. We were actually happy to be able to have a place to host new friends so we went along with it. They're younger and dating and don't have a place to hang out so they suggested our place. Little did I know that I would finally get to break out the onion goggles.

On an complete side note - this couple wanted me to cook dinner with only an hour of prep time, and... last minute they tell me that they don't like chicken for dinner or anything chocolate for dessert. What the heck was I to do? Make filet minon and creme brulee??? My mom gave me a quick and easy recipe for homemade salisbury steak and mashed potatoes, I threw in a bag of salad and told the couple to bring dessert. They brought over a vanilla birthday cake with the caption "Happy Birthday Jeniffer" - yep spelled weird and none of us are named Jeniffer. Kinda funny.

So here I am! Check me out below with my super cool goggles! I think I look like a cross between Joon from Bennie and Joon and Thelma from Scooby Doo. But let's be honest, they're all about function and THEY WORKED! :)

Goodbye CA

It's official. I had to turn in my CA plates (they threw them out right in front of me) and get an AZ license. So crazy. I never thought I'd have anything besides CA stuff.

Update

This is from an email I sent to a couple of friends about how we're doing here...

Things with me and Jake are going great. He started a job here on Monday and is getting acclimated. I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for him with this company. He’ll be managing cases of severely mentally disturbed adults and helping them with life skills. For example, he has an alcoholic agoraphobic 63 year old man on his case right now. How do you help a guy that is addicted to alcohol but afraid to leave his place to go buy some? Jake’s been doing a ton of research and taking some classes to equip him for these cases. I think it’s way interesting.

I’m doing really good too. At first I was so bored because they’ve been operating for so long without me. I didn’t really know where I was going to fit in and what my purpose was going to be… so I’ve just been sitting back and observing. And you guys know me, I can’t stand to not DO or SAY something so it’s been hard. But then things have come up that they haven’t know what to do about (conflict with leaders, parent issues, spiritual formation and teaching, etc.) and I’m starting to understand more and more that God brought me here because I’ve been through so much with Adventure and have something to teach the staff out here. It’s pretty awesome.

The kids and leaders here couldn’t have given me a more warm welcome --- tons of cheers and hellos when they had me on stage. Very very sweet. I’ve even been to a football game with the whole group. I guess I made headlines with some of the veterans and staff of this church – it’s 50 years old. I am the only woman on staff that is called “pastor”. For some people I’ve had to just try and win them over with my good looks --- JK JK JK. LOL It was a challenge. I had one bad day with it. But now it’s actually going good. I think those people have warmed up to me. I’ve spent ALL of my time meeting with leaders and parents so that I can connect with them on a heart level before I lead them. I’ll have my first leader meeting at our house (SO COOL) on October 8th. And the student ministries staff here is great. We had them over for dinner and Wii Thursday night and had a blast. God is definitely taking care of us in all areas of our lives.

Well, that's it. I'll keep you posted as we experience more in this desert land!

PS - The sand storm didn't freak us out. We're definitely experiencing crazy weather.

As Ryan Would Say, "What's With the Crazies?"

Ok, so some of the fam already got a preview of this because Jake accidentally sent it out on my blog. We came across this youtube video and thought it was hilarious. For those of you that don't know what I do as a pastor, this is NOT it. LOL

Click here to see the video and make sure to have your speakers turned up!