"Wait, what's the number for 9-1-1?"

One of the amazing opportunities I have here at school is to help lead youth retreats. Weekend retreats, one-night events, lock-ins, etc. My ministry team and I do them all. This weekend we helped lead a youth ski trip. Can you say fun?!

Here are some highlights:

• Using an ironing board as a sled...
• The Oreo Olympics: What started as a game to get a half-an-Oreo from the forehead to the mouth sans hands turned into "If I flip this whole Oreo from one shoulder to the other shoulder before kicking it, will you catch it in your mouth?"
• "Patrick, I could hearing you giggling in my bed," complained a female adult chaperone. Please, let's all enjoy her misplaced modifier... and then we'll adjust the sentence to say, "From my bed I could hear you laughing, Patrick!"
• I was the only one sitting at the kitchen table in our house. Please note this kitchen table seats at least ten people and all of the other seats were unoccupied. A girl came into the house to dodge a snowball. Well, she was successful... I was not. The snowball hit one chair and one chair only: mine.
• Kevin and Jeanie had never skied before. Brad and I are intermediate skiers. Somehow the two newbies ended up on the lift together while Brad and I were in the next chair. Acrophobia Kevin screamed the whole way!
• [Quite possibly my favorite] We were playing a game called "Body Parts" where two partners are separated and have to run to each other and touch the called body parts. For example, if the caller says, "Nose to toes," partner one's nose goes to partner two's toes. I took full advantage of my role as caller by saying things like, "tongue to ear" but then I got bored and began to take requests. Somewhere in the game bones started appearing, and "That is not your femur." The very last call wasn't mine but someone screamed, "Cranium to femur." Well, the cranium missed...

However, it wasn't about skumping (aka "skiing the humps"... also known as "monguls" or "moguls"). It wasn't about making sure we had enough bananas just in case monkeys attacked in the middle of the night. It wasn't about who can force-feed his partner a cup of soda and blow pop the fastest (without spilling or, worse, puking).

As we were driving back this afternoon, we took a twenty-minute prayer break. No iPods, no books, no conversations, no music, nothing.

I looked out of the bus, noticing the stunning mountains, and started my prayer. Except that'll have to be a different blog! This is me resisting the urge to say "Sundays don't count in Lent" and update again. See you Tuesday!

<>< Katie
PS: If you can tell me what skit the title of this post is from you win fifty-points.

Bananas and Apples

This evening Mom and I were scrapbooking when she announced, "Dad says we're allowed to scrapbook until 6, then we're eating dinner and doing some sort of family something."
"He's bored."
"I asked that. He said he's not; he's avoiding work."
"Then I won't tell you it's currently 6:04, so we can keep scrapbooking until Dad notices."

Inside I was screaming, "MORE family activities?" We had family over from the time I went to bed yesterday! All of this just a few days after Marathon Christmas. Besides, we're partying with family again in two days for New Years. All we do is "family somethings."

We call ourselves the Banana Bunch. Every spring for probably the last ten years we've gone to visit my aunt and uncle in Florida. On their counter they always have a full bowl of bananas. Within two days of our arrival, all of the bananas are gone. Noticing this as they pack a lunch for the day in the morning, my aunt and uncle BOTH make special stops on the way home from work that day. Crud! Now there are two things of bananas. Not to fear; the Banana Bunch is here! Two days later, we're out of bananas again.

Well, we have recently put a new spin on our title. Our latest "family something" has been the Scrabble-like game Bananagrams. As with all of our other "family somethings" all five of us don't love the game. For some unknown reason dyslexics have this thing against playing word games with English majors. I'm sorry! I didn't ask for eloquence!

Deciding on "family something" has become a challenge. Someone refuses to watching House; someone else refuses to watch anything but House. Someone refuses to play Bananagrams, and someone else refuses to play Scattergories. That settles it! We have to play Apples to Apples.

Ladies and gennifers, the Banana Bunch is civily playing Apples to Apples. There is something wrong with this photo!?

<>< Kate

Hello, Tokyo?

There's a banana sitting on my desk that I was supposed to eat for breakfast and didn't. I am strongly resisting the urge to pick it up and the conversation would follow something like this,

"Hello? Uh huh. Uh huh. Oh, you want Laura? Ok, here she is."

Even though I am a firm believer that Laura is a four year old somedays, her reaction would probably be, "What the crap?"
Although it would go perfectly both with what the speaker was discussing tonight and an "argument" Laura and I were having.

Laura and I were trying to decide who loves the other more. She said she loves me more and wins the argument because she's older (this is my friend Laura). I came back with the fact that I love her more because I am younger and come with the love of a child. I won even if I did have to call myself a child. Sometimes being a child is a good thing, sometimes it's not. Natalie would love to discuss how breast milk is perfect for babies but not so good for adults...

The speaker tonight was discussing Matthew 16:13-16 and how we need to go deeper with our relationship with Christ than just what we learned in VBS and Sunday School. VeggieTales only teach one so much. If you're still thinking the Babylonians prevented their wall from being knocked down by throwing slurpies, you need to think again. Great story for kids, not so good for college students. Dig deeper, respond to God. It's not just find "A", "B", and "C" plug them in and get "X" (Thank goodness because I hate math!), it's a lot harder than that and we need to search and answer who Jesus is for ourselves.

Good news: God doesn't need a banana "phone" to talk to you. That way it doesn't get all mushy in your hair! He's calling, go pick up!

In Christ,
<>< Katie
"'But what about you?' He asked. 'Who do you say I am?" Matthew 16:15 (emphasis mine).