Life Is Good, My Friends. Yes, Life Is Good.

Today has been a bitter-sweet day for me. It was bitter because today was the last confirmation class with my small group. It is crazy that two years have already gone by since the first class when we all started our journey. I must say I felt like a proud mamma hen today as my whole group, without me even prompting them, were excited to share with me about the saint they chose and why they chose that specific saint. It made me happy to know that they really did their own research and did not just choose a saint because their name sounded cool. I have become pretty close with these kids and am proud of how they grew in these past two years and I cannot wait to be able to watch them as they are confirmed next week-end. St. Michael the Arch Angel, St. Sebastian, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Catherine of Sienna, and St. Francis of Assisi please pray for these kids and watch over them as they journey through the rest of their life! :)

It was a sweet day as today is Mother's Day and who could have asked for better weather than what we had in my hometown? It was gorgeous and even more appreciated as in the majority of the past few weeks all we have seen are thunderstorms and rain. My whole family gathered together for a wonderful Mother's Day meal of grilled-out steak, baked potatoes, salad, and stuffed eggs. I must say it was all delicious, but I could not finish my plate. I felt so stuffed. My stomach really must have shrunk over the past few months because before I would have been able to eat it all. I was also blessed to see two of my three god-children today, which was a pleasant surprise.

Part of me is very surprised at how fast my week-end has flown by, but the other part is actually very excited to know that in six days it will be my birthday. I am even more excited about it this year as I will be spending part of my birthday at a Jason Aldean concert with two of my friends. I happen to be a HUGE Jason Aldean fan and own all of his albums except his newest one (which is the next cd I will be adding to my collection of music) and so to know I will be seeing him on my birthday is so cool. Along with that, the night before my birthday I will be going out with friends to celebrate, so I won't be getting much rest next week-end either. Go figure!

A Local Youth Group From My Home Town On News About March...

St. John's youth group being interviewed about the March for Life. The young girl who speaks happens to have been part of my homeschool group during my senior year of high school. I am so proud of this. :)

"All Good Things Must Come To And End..." :(

I finally have been able to really sit down and write another blog post. Yesterday I guess I could have written one, but I was a bit sleep deprived from the retreat and ended up choosing to go to bed instead. When I say sleep-deprived I really do mean it. I believe I had about four hours of sleep Saturday night. Anyway, I am getting off-track....

I want to thank those of you who prayed for the confirmation II retreat. Your prayers worked! I have to say this past retreat was the best confirmation II retreat I have helped chaperone. The kids were well-behaved, and the talks were superb. It was a blast! I was very sad for it to come to an end.

My two very favorite part of this past retreat week-end was adoration time. The kids were all really great during this part. I did not go to confession because the kids were the one's that needed to go, and I also had gone the week-end before in preparation for the retreat. My other favorite part was hanging-out with my friends and the kid's after adoration and confessions were all done. We were all so slap-happy by that time that most of the night was spent laughing at the most random things ( most of which I do not even remember what we were laughing at) and me getting a work-out running up and down the stairs to find out what the score to the Colt's football game was every few minutes.

It is interesting to me how when I am on a retreat, no matter which one it has been, I always feel as though I never want to leave. I would not mind staying around the group an extra day or even longer. I guess that is partly why I enjoy helping out with so many different retreats... In fact, I had an Antioch retreat reunion meeting I went to pretty much as soon as I got home from the confirmation II retreat, and I have another one I will be helping out with next month. As soon as one retreat is done another one tends to take my focus.

Just Some Prayer Requests.

Hello readers. I just wanted to say I will be away this week-end helping chaperone a Confirmation II retreat. My own small group will be attending and I am very excited to watch them open up even more this week-end. Please keep us all in your prayers. :)

Also one of the girls in my small group will not be able to attend the retreat this week-end because she is having surgery done on her shoulders. This girl is a cancer survivor. The reason she had to have surgery is because the chemo ended up messing with her body so bad that only surgery can help it. She will also have to have hip surgery done later on this year as well. Please keep her in your prayers. She may be cancer free, but she still has a long road to recovery to go through. Her attitude throughout all of this has really inspired me. I have learned a lot from her and probably more than I ever helped her learn in the past few years. She is amazing!

Some Of My Favorite 2010 Memories Caught On Film

These are a few photos from this past year off of facebook... This brought back some great memories...

From top to bottom and left to right....

1.) My K20 small group in our meeting room. I grew very fond of that room. My small group was the BEST!!!
2.) My nephew's baptism... when I became a "godmommy." :)
3.) Two of my kid's from my daycare over the Summer. Love them!
4.) Part of my K20 small group... at pancakes night for spring finals week. Miss them!
5.) Me and some of my favorite girls!
6.)Rascal Flatts concert!!! :)
7.) 4th of July with my family... waiting for the parade.
8.) Me and my sister. :)
9.) Me and two of my favorite guys at my birthday dinner! Good times!!!
10.) St. Paul's camp-out in the Spring semester.
11.) 4th of July with the little guy... waiting for the fireworks to begin.
12.) Me and Chuck Wicks.. Enough said. (those of you who have never heard of him should check out his song 'Stealing Cinderella')
13.) Confirmation I retreat just a few months ago. Good times.
14.) Thanksgiving with the family
15.) The group of people at my birthday dinner. I have some of the BEST friends in the world. :) I am a lucky girl.
16.) Two more of my favorite guy friends that I hang-out with all the time at St. Paul's.

A Poem About Antioch 2010

We were called together
To somewhat "get away"
From our stresses and burdens
We are here today
To get to know God
And deepen our love.
A not so long distance relationship
With the man above.
I thank you for what you have done
and what you will do.
I'm glad you came to Antioch.
I'm glad to have known you!
~Andrew Brinkman~

The above poem was written to me by one of the retreatants and I thought I would share. It is really a nice poem. :) Gotta love it!!!!

I'm "Alive Again!"

This past week-end I spent with an amazing group of high schoolers leading a high school retreat... Antioch 2010, "Alive Again." I have worked on four of these Antioch retreat now, and I have to say I think we finally got it right this time. This team of leaders had each attended many deep and life changing retreats, whereas in the past not everyone had... it makes a huge difference when the leaders all have the common goal of wanting to make a powerful retreat experience. It was a very special week-end.

Within the team I also believe we each ended up giving the most perfect talk topics for us to reach these kids on a deeper level than before. I gave the one on "homecoming," otherwise known as the confession talk. I must admit all these years I have kind of known I should give this talk, but this one has always scared me. I opened up more deeply than I have ever really wanted to for a group of mostly strangers. It was an incredibly humbling experience for me and to be honest everything that came out of my mouth I know was from God. I fought the talk, and I ended up winning. I know that because one of the kids came up to me after my talk and told me that she had made up her mind before the retreat that she was not going to go to confession, but then after hearing my talk she changed her mind... I talked about my own "homecoming" story. I focused on how as we go to a doctor when we are physically ill we should go to a priest for confession to help our soul get well... Just like a doctor needs to have all of our medical history to best know how to help us get better the priest needs to know everything to give us the spiritual medicine and advice to help us get better... How it is time to take a good look at ourselves because every single person has something that we want to keep hidden and are ashamed about, but to really be touched and heal and really come closer to God it is time to come clean about those things in a safe environment. How waiting in line thinking about what we will tell is ten times more terrifying than actually saying it in the confessional. It is the most worthwhile thing they can do for themselves on this retreat... There was way more than that, but to be honest I do not remember everything that came out of my mouth.

Other than the team members helping make this retreat amazing I have to hand it to the kids themselves. They rose to the occasion... all the challenges we put to them they did. As a small group leader my favorite part is watching how the kids come in the first day versus how they leave on the last day. The change is amazing. A good third of the retreatants came because they were offered some confirmation service hours by helping out cleaning after meals and preparing meals and being in charge of the ice breakers. These kids obviously came just because they thought it would be an easy way to get most of their hours out of the way. They had no idea what they were walking into. A few of them were in my small group and the transformation from not really into this to completely all in was awesome. They let themselves be open-minded and open to God which is the true key for a retreat to work.

I am truly in awe with the whole week-end. God is really amazing. Knowing I was a part of that makes it even more meaningful for me. The whole group came out of this week-end feeling "Alive Again!" It is a retreat I know I will never forget. Thank-you for all who did pray as I asked. I am more grateful than you could know. Praise be God!!!! :)

Just A Little Side-Tracked Lately

I must admit, I am usually on top of my game when it comes to scheduling and not forgetting things I have scheduled. This week, however, I have somehow messed up a number of things. I know why I have had my mind on other things, but that is still no excuse when it comes to missing meetings and such. My mind has been going from work, to school, to more family issues than usual, to hanging-out with friends, the retreat on my mind, my talk that I will be giving. It is a lot to think about that it is no wonder I forgot about a confirmation facilitator meeting I had tonight, which I am very sad I missed considering it was going to be focused our Confirmation II retreat that I am helping with. Not really one I needed to miss.

Tonight I was praying with the Antioch retreat team for the week-end to go smoothly. We prayed a rosary together. After that we talked a lot about last minute details that needed to be smoothed over. It was a productive time. I am pretty confident this will be a great week-end. I hope that I am right about that.

So my lesson learned for tonight... Always check my calendar before saying I am free for a spontaneous get-together.

So Much To Do...And So Little Time

This week has been my spiritual preparation week for the Antioch retreat I am doing. As a spiritual bouquet for the two dozen retreatants who will be attending I have decided to do a number of things. I started my week off with fasting. Not at all an easy endeavor, but so far I have been doing great. Though I must say my stomach has been growling now off and on for three hours. Not at all a fun feeling, but I am very strong-willed and stubborn. Once I decide to do something I will do it no matter what. I also made it to confession this week to prepare myself even more to help lead the high schoolers closer to God. I spent my Holy hour with Jesus in Eucharistic adoration and prayed about this retreat among many other things in my life that I need to give to God. Tomorrow evening along with the many other last minute things I MUST get done in preparation for this upcoming week-end, the team and I are meeting together to pray about the retreat for about a half hour or so.

There is so much I have to do left to leave for this retreat with a free mind. I have to get some laundry done, clean up my room, polish off my retreat talk out-line. I need to remember to print off directions to the retreat center. I also need to do my work-out, because I won't have much free time for that at all on the week-end. Obviously I have to pack for the trip. That has to be done. Add in work all day for the next two days and there is not that much time to get everything done...with sleep included that is. The only reason I am typing this last paragraph out is because it is to help remind me of what I need to do.

Those of you who happen upon this post within this week I would appreciate prayers for this retreat week-end to go smoothly. The more prayers the better! Thanks very much. :)

Everyone Has A Role To Play In Life....

Today is the feast of St. Andrew. I have always liked this apostle. He did not really like being in the spot light too much, unlike his older brother, St. Peter. St. Andrew did have some pretty big roles he played in the Gospels. He introduced Peter to Jesus. He also was the one who found the boy with the fish when Jesus fed the hungry crowd. I like St. Andrew because he is a lot like me. He did not need to be the main leader, the one who received all the attention. He was there to help, but did not want to be in charge. I feel the same way. I do not mind hopping on board with things such as retreat leadership teams, teaching confirmation, Bible studies, and even with my own job when I am part of the group. If someone were to ask me to actually be in charge of putting the leadership teams together or be the director of my daycare, I would refuse. I am sure I could do it, but all the pressure that comes with that role adds to much stress to my already hectic life. Each role is equally important in life, and St. Andrew helps remind me that sometimes it can be those who stay in the back ground that deserve some recognition just as the main spokesperson does.

Feeling Just A Little Frustrated...

There are times when I feel defeated while trying to help the youth at my parish. Just yesterday was our Eucharistic Adoration night for the high schoolers. We had announcements for it at Mass, in the confirmation classes, and even in our small groups. With all the publicity about this first big night it was pretty hard for us when NO high schoolers attended. We had two grad students come and join us along with an older woman, but not who we were hoping to see. It is times like that when I feel the most frustrated. I have heard from these kids time and time again how they want to do more with the youth group, and yet when it comes down to it they don't show. It was hard for all of us college students to take time out of our hectic schedules to plan this and carry it out. It felt like wasted time. Not actually being in adoration, but the planning of it. I know that this is pretty much a self-pity blog, but I am really frustrated. Hopefully when we plan our next event there will be some sort of turn-out. I just gotta keep praying because in the back of my mind I know that God will help get the kids that need it the most there.

Did I Mention I Am A "Retreat Junkie?" Well I Am. :)

As I mentioned in my last post I have had a busy day. After confirmation classes a portion of us college students who are helping out with the youth group this year got together to brainstorm ideas on a retreat we will be holding for the kids. It will be a three-day week-end retreat that will be held in February. I have a feeling that there will be some good things that will come out of this, that is if we get kids to actually come. We are planning on sending fliers home with the parents as well as the kids in hopes that with the parents knowing about it then they will be more apt to send encourage their children to go. Hopefully with their help we will have a nice sized group. I am not sure exactly what will all be going on in this retreat except for the important things... Mass, Eucharistic adoration, and confession. I know a lot of community building will be happening on this retreat as well.

After this meeting I came home and began working on the talk that I will be giving on another retreat which will happen on the first week-end of Dec. My talk is all about confession. I know what I will talk about in my head. It is the actual organization of it all that I am struggling with at the moment... That and knowing that what I will talk about is not going to be easy at all for me to tell. It will be incredibly personal, but I hope that it will help change some of the kids and bring them closer to God.

I have had a hard time deciding on which two songs I will be using for my talk. In fact just now four different ones have gone through my head. I feel that the two below are going to be the most effective...most meaningful

Empty And Beautiful
Matt Maher

My past won't stop haunting me
In this prison there's a fight between
Who I am and who I used to be

This thorn in my side is a grace
For because of it the flesh and blood of God
Was offered in my place, my place

You fought the fight in me
You chased me down and finished the race
I was blind but now I see
Jesus You kept the faith in me

Where did my best friends go?
In my defense they disappeared
Just like Your friends did to You, oh Lord

But You were there, You gave me strength
So this little one might come to know
The glory of Your name, Your name

You fought the fight in me
You chased me down and finished the race
I was blind but now I see
Jesus You kept the faith in me

Awaiting, set apart like incense to Your heart
A libation I'm pouring out
Empty and beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

You fought the fight in me
You chased me down and finished the race
I was blind but now I see
Jesus You kept the faith in me

You fought the fight in me
You chased me down and finished the race
I was blind but now I see
Jesus You kept the faith in me
Jesus You kept the faith in me
Savior, You kept the faith in me


Unstoppable
Rascal Flatts

Yeah yeah yeah..
Hey

So, so you made a lot of mistakes
Walked down the road a little sideways
Cracked a brick when you hit the wall
Yeah, you've had a pocket full of regrets
Pull you down faster than a sunset
Hey, it happens to us all

When the cold hard rain just won't quit
And you can't see your way out of it

CHORUS
You find your faith has been lost and shaken
You take back what's been taken
Get on your knees and dig down deep
You can do what you think is impossible
Keep on believing, don't give in
It'll come and make you whole again
It always will, it always does
Love is unstoppable

Love, it can weather any storm
Bring you back to being born again
oh, it's a helping hand when you need it most
A lighthouse shinning on the coast
That never goes dim

When your heart is full of doubt
And you think that there's no way out

CHORUS
You find your faith has been lost and shaken
You take back what's been taken
Get on your knees and dig down deep
You can do what you think is impossible
Keep on believing, don't give in
It'll come and make you whole again
It always will, it always does
Love is unstoppable

Like a river keeps on rolling
Like the north wind blowing
Don't it feel good knowing
Yeah

CHORUS
You find your faith has been lost and shaken
You take back what's been taken
Get on your knees and dig down deep
You can do what you think is impossible
Keep on believing, don't give in
It'll come and make you whole again
It always will, it always does
Love is unstoppable

Love is unstoppable
So you made a lot of mistakes
Walked down the road a little sideways
Love, love is unstoppable

Moral Choice Making

Today has been a very busy day for me. Confirmation class was today. The topic was "Moral Choice Making." The speaker was incredible, as usual. I have heard him speak a number of times now, and still it does not get old. He talked about how people seem to think of morals and ethics as the same thing, but they really are not the same thing at all. In his talk he left the kids with three things to try and do from now on.

1. Always form and listen to your good conscience.
2. Choose wonderful teachers/mentors
3. Keep good friends

In my small group today we mostly focused on the first of the three things. To always form and listen to your good conscience. This always so tricky for me, and apparently for the rest of my small group. We have no problem realizing what is morally right, but listening to our conscience and following what it is telling us to do is another story. I mentioned Matthew Kelley and how whenever he speaks he always says, "What will help make you become the better version of yourself?" I said that maybe if we think of our choices in life more as what will really make us better than it might be easier to follow our conscience more than just wanting to have "fun." Not everything that is "fun" is really going to help us become better people.

I really enjoy my small group. We have had a lot of great discussions in the short time we have together. They have surprised me so much in the way they are growing deeper in their faith. I have learned a lot from them, and hopefully I have been a positive enough role model for them as well.

I'm A Fighter, Well Atleast This Past Week-end I Was

I fail with blogging lately. Not that I do not enjoy it, I just have not had much time for it. I got hit pretty hard with strep throat this past Friday, so I spent my day at the doctor and then sleeping... no blogging or anything much else got done that day.

Saturday was our confirmation I retreat (the photo is of our retreat group). I think it went over very well. The kids seemed to enjoy it, which is the most important thing. There was adoration, morning prayer, ice breakers, community building activities. Discussion about why being catholic is the right way to go, prayer life, chastity, and modesty. There was time for watching a quick vocations video. We had confession, and ended it with Mass. That is just a quick recap of the day. If you are interested in reading more about our retreat you can visit my friend, Mike's, blog. He put a lot more detail into his entry on it. I guess I will let him win this time since he was our fearless retreat leader.

Sunday was spent still recovering from being sick, because I pushed myself probably a little harder than I should have. Saturday I came home and felt spent. I hardly spent time on the computer at all. I let myself sleep in a little bit before going to Bible study.

Today I am happy to say I am completely back to my old self. I even did some tae-bo because I felt so lazy after being sick this week-end... not that I was being lazy. I just felt like I was.

My Life is Crazy

I have just realized I have not really blogged once this whole week. I have been one busy girl with hardly any free-time.... So what am I up too?!?!?

Monday

9:00 - 5:30: work
6:00 - 7:30: class
7:30 - 8:15: quick dinner with a friend
8:30 - 11:30: colt's game (I know... some may say sad excuse, but those people are not colt's fans...)

Tuesday

8:30 - 8:45: Vote!
9:00 - 5:30: work
5:30 - 6:15: Mass
6:30 - 7:15: Youth group Eucharistic Adoration planning meeting
7:30 - 8:00: work-out
8:00 - ?: Reading Homework

Wednesday

9:00 - 5:30: Work
6:00 - 7:00: Confirmation Facilitator's Meeting
7:30 - 8:00: Dinner with friends
8:00 - 9:00: Eucharistic Adoration (Holy Hour)
9:00 - 10:30: Drop-in/catching up with friends

Thursday

9:00 - 5:30: Work
5:30 - morning next day: Baby-sitting my four nephews/ catching up on homework after they are asleep

Friday

9:00 - 5:30: Work
6:00 - 7:00: Dinner with a Friend
7:15 - ?: Cleaning up my room (must be done)/hanging out with my sister

Saturday

8:30 - 6:00: Confirmation I retreat
6:00 - ?: NOTHING PLANNED!!! (possibly catch my breath)

So as you can see I will not have too much free time at all the rest of the week. I just wanted to put this up as a reminder to myself of what I have to do. I have a lot! There is just not enough time in the day....

It's The Possiblity That Excites Me

Tonight I had the pleasure of sitting down for a meeting with an amazing group of people over dinner. Fr. Bill took a group of us college students out to dinner and to talk about how we can help the high school youth group this year. Our parish is in search of a new youth minister, and since we will probably not find one till sometime next year we assembled this group to work together until the youth minister is hired. Usually the youth group is run by college students, so that is nothing too new for the parish. What is different right now is that the group will be much larger than usual, and it is filled with some pretty fun and very Catholic people.

Tonight we all decided that next month we will begin our youth group with a night of Eucharistic Adoration (I personally wanted to add the option of confession too, but that did not go over that well, sadly), pizza, ice breakers, games with prizes, and some sort of sporting event.... There will be notifications sent in the mail directly to the kids along with announcements made at each Mass. AT the next confirmation there will be a mandatory survey for the kids to fill out about what they want in the youth group. With their input hopefully we will have a nice turn-out. I am really feeling excited by the possibility of what the youth group can be. Hopefully it will be a great turn-out.

"What About Now?"

This past Sunday was an eventful one for me. I was even more excited because it was the day of the first meeting for another retreat leadership team I am on... Surprise, surprise. Me helping lead another retreat. It is another Antioch retreat, which is a week-end long retreat for high schoolers. Right now our leadership team is rather small, which makes me somewhat worried, but even with that small amount I feel as though somehow it will all come together. I am praying for a few more people to volunteer to help-out so as to take the load off of all of us having to give two talks each.

This year I volunteered to give probably the most challenging talk I have personally ever given. It is the confession talk. I will be getting into some interesting things in this talk, some very personal things. It will be difficult because I try to avoid talking about these things just because I am not like the person I once was in a lot of ways. It is also intimidating because I have to make confession seem not so awkward to go to... I personally like going to confession now, but I do remember a time when I hated it. I am sure a few of the retreatants will feel that same way, so I have to kind of do a "promo" talk about confession. I think I am up to this challenge.



This year's theme song will be,
"What About Now?"
by Daughtry...

Shadows fill an empty heart
As love is fading,
From all the things that we are
But are not saying.
Can we see beyond the scars
And make it to the dawn?

Change the colors of the sky.
And open up to
The ways you made me feel alive,
The ways I loved you.
For all the things that never died,
To make it through the night,
Love will find you.

What about now?
What about today?
What if you're making me all that I was meant to be?
What if our love never went away?
What if it's lost behind words we could never find?
Baby, before it's too late,
What about now?

The sun is breaking in your eyes
To start a new day.
This broken heart can still survive
With a touch of your grace.
Shadows fade into the light.
I am by your side,
Where love will find you.

What about now?
What about today?
What if you're making me all that I was meant to be?
What if our love, it never went away?
What if it's lost behind words we could never find?
Baby, before it's too late,
What about now?

Now that we're here,
Now that we've come this far,
Just hold on.
There is nothing to fear,
For I am right beside you.
For all my life,
I am yours.

What about now?
What about today?
What if you're making me all that I was meant to be?
What if our love never went away?
What if it's lost behind words we could never find?

Send "What About Now" Ringtone to your Cell

"Prayer For Teachers"

Prayer for Teachers

From A Catholic Prayer Book

Heavenly Father, who promised that all those who instruct others in the ways of holiness will shine as stars for all eternity, fill our hearts and minds with true knowledge and the art of teaching. Give us patience and understanding, justice and prudence, humility and fear of the Lord. Grant us wisdom and charity so that with a pure and holy love of God we ourselves may enjoy all these gifts and impart them to our pupils. Teach our children to be obedient to your laws and docile to your inspirations. Let them be instruments of your peace in their homes, in our land, and in the family of nations as becomes children of the sons of God in the Mystical Body of Christ. May the blessings of your sevenfold Gifts be in all who teach and in all who learn through the Holy Spirit who is the Love of the Father and the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

"I Am Starting To Realize That Maybe The Reason We Are Here Is To Help Change Someone Else's Life."

I was messing around on facebook today and going through the bumper sticker app because I can sometimes find some really great quotes that I really end up liking. Some of them have actually become my favorites. I tend to write them down in one of my many quote notebooks... where I keep all of my very favorite quotes.

Today I found a bumper sticker that stated, "I am starting to realize that maybe the reason we are here is to help change someone else's life." I found this a very insightful quote. The fact is I am sure that part of God's plan for us in this life is to help change someone else's in a positive way. It might not seem like it at the time to us, but to that person we helped it could be something huge. I like to think at my job as a teacher I do a lot of helping change a person's life. When the kids are having a harder time missing their parents I try to give them a little extra attention and bring smiles to their faces. Maybe that is God's work for me that day... Or when a friend is going through an incredibly hard time and even though I do not know the right words to help them through, maybe just being there and giving them a hug and listening is just what they needed and that is another task God wanted me to accomplish that day. The truth is we all will never really know for sure what God has us here for, except to bring others closer to Him, and it makes sense that in helping change another person's life, we can easily help bring them closer to God. That is just my thought for the day.

Top memories of my twenty-second year. :)

My 22nd year started off with a bang... and finished off in somewhat of a bang... It was filled with ups and downs, hellos, and goodbyes, family drama and fun, hanging-out with so many great people... I have a lot to be thankful for. :)

With that being said... my favorite moments of my 22nd year are...

My 22nd birthday party last year. It was so much fun. :)

My good friend, Steph P.'s birthday was also a highlight. That was a blast!

St. Charles' youth group Summer Bible studies and ultimate frisbee games afterwords

Teaching confirmation classes this year

Helping lead the Antioch retreat

"Holy" hours and drop-ins with St. Paul's

Christmas break- too many fun things happened over that break. :)

Being with my sister while she was in labor with Keegan.

Kairos retreat!!!!

Hanging-out with my Kairos small group after the retreat was so much fun!

St. paul's S.L.T. camp-out was so much fun!

The ice cream sundae party I had at my house almost a month ago.

Officially becoming Keegan's Godmother, and the nice get-together after. :)

There are so many more memories.... Thank-you, God, for blessing me with these times that I had with all the great people in my life. :)