Aud's Odds

Last week was Junior High Camp. Jadon was the director and I was one of the speakers. I've never spoken for anything like that and I wasn't sure how it would go. The theme was "Be Transformed" and our verse was Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transofrmed by he renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will." The first day I focused on Romans 12:1 which says that we need to give ourselves to God as a living sacrafice. I talked about accepting Christ and making the decision to give yourself to HIm to be used by Him. The second day I talked about renewing your mind. And the third day I talked about knowing what Gods will is. I think it went really well. It's hard to read Junior High kids sometimes. Are they listening? Does this make sense to them? Am I talking way over their heads? Are they bored to death? I wondered all of those things...

Yesterday was my 25th Birthday. 25 seems old to me. It means I'm a quarter of the way to 100. Before yesterday 100 wasn't even on the radar. I was still a kid and that fact that I'm getting older didn't even occur to me. But yesterday I thought about it. It was a great day though. It started with Jadon singing Happy Birthday to me and giving me the best gifts ever. I got new running shoes, new hiking boots and an awesome new back packing pack. What more could I ask for. Then it was off to Pella for the day. Pella is a cute touristy Dutch town. Our first stop was "Smokey Row" where we got coffee, talked and took lots of goofy pictures. Then we checked out some of the shops on the square and ended up buying really nice hiking socks for all of the Wyoming adventures we hope to enjoy. After we had our fill of Dutch knick-knacks, pastries and shoes we ate lunch at the “Windmill Café”. It was delicious! I had Fish and Jadon had a gyro. Both wer...

Maya makes a nice pillow! We're finally home after being gone for 10 days. It always feels good to be back in my own house. We had a wonderful time in Kansas and Wyoming. I feel crammed in all these Iowa trees after being in the wide, wide, open of the the west. Today was a day to recoup and tomorrow I start in on my list of things to do. The list is always longer after vacation. I'm going to go catch up on some shows I missed now. Adios!

This past week and weekend have been a whirlwind. So many things happened that I can hardly take them all in. On Thursday we drove to Haviland to see my brother graduate from college. There where so many people to catch-up with; family, friends, teachers. It was completely wonderful and completely draining. Today at about 4:00 I reached my social interaction saturation point. I was done talking. On Friday and Saturday I got to see Aaron and Molly's house and spend some time with them. It was so wonderful. Aaron and I always were close and so it was great to spend some quality time with him and get to discuss life as married people. Sunday consisted of graduation, church and a lot of graduation celebration. It was full of family, friends and food. All wonderful and at times, all stressful :-) Today I was able to catch up with my best girlfriend. It's always crazy to try and fit a few years worth of experience and life into an hour of talking, but it was good. Tomorrow ...

Just got back from a two day pastor's retreat. I feel like I learned a lot but the crazy thing about a retreat is that you're more tired afterwards than you are before. I feel completely wiped out. While we were there Jadon and I took a hike through the woods. It was beautiful. We saw deer (lots of them) a falcon that had just caught a fish. I can't explain what being out in nature does to me. I feel more alive, I feel closer to God, the pace of life seems to slow down and come into focus. All that to say - I loved it! So with those few fleeting words I'm going to go lay down and read my book and hopefully get rested up from the retreat :-)

It's been ages since I've blogged. Our computer is on the fritz and hooking up the laptop takes a little more work. So I've put in the effort and here I am with the laptop, blogging. I'm not totally sure what I'll blog about yet though. Um, the fact that there is snow on the ground from November and it's -10 degrees outiside. - Nope. How the garbage truck hit our expedition this morning. - Naw. How I beat Jadon at a very intense game of checkers last night. - I shouldn't. I've got it. My topic is, "How middle aged women us weight room equipment incorrectly" - Perfect. Yesterday, Jadon and I went to Snap Fitness for a little work out. Before we even went inside Jadon started laughing. I looked in the front window and there was a lady using one of those machine where you sit and then pull the bar down to your shoulders (you know which one I'm talking about?) Anyways, this lady was using all her weight to muscle the bar down, she...

I saw the sun today and in Iowa that is a very rare thing. Probably 80 percent of days during the winter in Iowa are overcast, gray and gloomy. Sometimes I don't see the sun for three or four days. Coming from Wyoming where the sky is almost always clear and blue Iowa is a little difficult to deal with. It's funny how if the sun always shines you don't notice that the sun is shining all the time, but if it's cloudy all the time, you definately notice. No matter where I live for the rest of my life I think I will be more grateful for the days when the sun does shine