chaos ensues

i love crazy days.

really, i do.

i love when life throws you curveballs and expects you to be able to deal. cause that is what i do best. i survive.

not that i can play baseball. cause i can't. i really can't. but i like the metaphor.

so last weekend with its constant chaos was amazing.

here is what my week was like last week: monday was totally boring at work all day in a church building where i was the only one there. then tuesday there was pastors text study and council that night. wednesday bible study (where i almost fell asleep cause i for some reason was not getting sleep) and youth stuff that night. thursday was a bit more relaxed as i visited people from the congregation, had bell choir practice at night then drove to concordia college in moorhead. so i was suffering from a lack of sleep.

on both friday and saturday, i was up early since i was a page at the Northwest Minnesota Synod Assembly (henceforth nwmn synod). 8 am reported for duty where i was assigned to hand out papers to conference 11, which is technically the island of misfit toys. seriously. conference 11 doesn't exist and was simply given a number for those poor unfortunate people who don't have a home conference. like the synod staff (including the bishop). or the guests. or the keynote speakers. for example, i sat with mark allen powell and sunitha mortha. it was fun to be able to be at ease with the important people. only major downfall about the assembly: stupid beds at concordia. i have never slept on harder, less comfortable beds in my life. it was bad. really bad.

highlights of the assembly:
- being around the other intern pastors. love reconnecting with my peers and being reminded that i'm not alone
- pastor party. yay for the chance to drink and hang out with other pastors and not feel as though you are being judged because you have a glass of wine or beer or whatever alcohol in hand. or to play silly games. which others did. anyone heard of "bang!" before?
- growth groups (better known as break-out sessions to most of us) where i got to think about "lutheran buzzwords" with mark allen powell and hear about youth ministry in roseau minnesota.
- worship services. where i was not leading or helping out in any way, shape or form. i could have easily volunteered to help out with ushering or serving communion. but i didn't. cause i wanted to be able to worship for myself. which i did. and loved every minute!
- getting some insight about being a cheerful giver. aha moment of learning that what you do and say will lead your heart. so if you decide that you want to be generous, act generous even when you are not feeling so generous because eventually your heart catches up with you. i like this idea that your heart follows where your actions lead it. fits into my "preach the gospel. use words when necessary" way of living. or the "actions speak louder than words."
- getting out early. we were done by 3 pm. which was nice. cause i had another five hours to spend on the road that night.

arrived at home at 8:30 pm. which included a stop along the way so i could pick up some melons for kiana's graduation open house. otherwise i would have been there earlier. stayed up way too late being with mom and sisters and working on my contribution to kiana's scrapbook. i wanted to go to bed at 10 (which is about 2 hrs earlier than my usualy bedtime) since i was suffering from an extreme lack of sleep. hadn't had more than 6 hours a night in over a week. most nights had been more like 5. and i operate best at 7. but stayed up til after 1 and was the last one in bed.

was presented with my new phone: samsung with the full keyboard. and it's red. very pretty. and now i have unlimited texting. which is awesome!

got up and ready for church. took kiana and libby (cause this way the toddler would not be underfoot for kendra, kayla and mom to get stuff ready for the open house). went to salem lutheran in parkston. which is my new congregation (yay for the awkwardness of transferring membership during seminary so you can stay a member in an elca congregation). kiana had to go cause she was being honored as a graduating senior (prospective member who was active in the youth group despite not being a member).

i had the noisy kid at church. she was not horrible by any means. but libby is most definitely not used to sitting in one pew for an hour. so by the end she just wanted to run around.

at church sat next to gary and jan coleman, friends from church. and gary is a former teacher to boot. poor jan later on volunteered to run out to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for cake decorating and took libby with. amazing woman.

graduation was interesting. some people talked to me about their families as though i knew who they were. and i didn't. but i can schmooze with the best of em. and did.

sad fact: krissa was unable to make it back. so kendra was texting her back and forth with updates and progress of the ceremony. and krissa would respond with pictures taken at a zoo. cause that's where krissa was. at a zoo.

schmoozed a lot at the open house with family and friends. met the band director kevin, who is a grad from bemidji state. we know some of the same peeps. he and his wife have an adorable little girl. three weeks old. tiny. lots of hair.

went to "letters to juliet" with kiana and one of her cronies, becky. really cute movie. and enjoyed the friend who was energetic and funny. and kudos to her for being willing to sit in between kiana and i at the movie theater. cause she had the popcorn so it just made more sense for her to sit between us. never had that happen before since friends usually don't sit between the siblings. especially when you just met one of them...

monday tried to sleep in. and was up and moving by 8:30. which was kinda sad. i mean, that is far from sleeping in on my day off. but rack it up to being up and moving no later than 8 for the previous 5 days. watched some movies. and some episodes of bones. left later than planned (about 4 pm) to head back to bemidji. where i arrived at 11 pm.

then yesterday (tuesday) i went to the pastors text study. and went out to lunch with melody. had some great conversation with her as we connected on some approaches to theology, reading the Bible, thinking about the Holy Spirit. then showed up for a women's circle and bible study. then went home to prep for my bible study on proverbs. and watched some superman on tv.

proverbs bible study part 1 went well. i'm looking forward to seeing what else i come up with to discuss over the next couple weeks.

now (as in 2 pm on wednesday), i'm trying to think up a very simple worship service for tonight. cause that's what i'm going to do...