A retreat recap

I have had a few friends email me wondering how the retreat went. And I can happily report that it was fantastic. The sixteen men and women who came were delightful and built community so quickly. I love this age group...no one has anything to prove, people actually act like themselves and are excited to learn, enjoy conversation and are enthused about whatever activity you throw at them.

My dad came and led three sessions on the Parables. He knocked it out of the park and everyone enjoyed him, mentioning many times they would like him to teach at the Spring adult retreat. I think we'll try to rotate our speakers and teachers a bit, but I did think that this was the greatest compliment.

My sessions went really, really well and I loved every minute of it. I forget how much I LOVE teaching. This was my undergrad degree and it felt so good to exercise those muscles of taking a larger issue and breaking it down into teaching points, discussion starters and ways to act regarding what was just learned. I love public speaking and storytelling, so to get to share in this sort of way was just a joy. I hope there are more of these events in my future.

This is too great...

No, these pictures are not of me, or anyone I know. (Though if this is you, I'd LOVE to be your friend.) I found these pictures on a new favorite website sent to me by my sister-in-law, devoted to awkward family photos. This one became a quick favorite because of the upper right hand picture. I guess I had just never seen this effect done with a cabbage patch kid before.

My first retreat...

This Sunday I have 16 people coming out to camp for a retreat called, "Love to Tell the Story." The focus is on passing on our faith stories to the next generation, and providing ideas and tools for preserving our faith experiences and beliefs and being sure we communicate those beliefs to the next generation.

I am so proud of this retreat already. And I'm so excited for how God will show up in the stories that I will get to hear of ways he has moved in the lives of the people gathered together.

The best part is that my folks, grandma and aunt annie are all coming. Honestly, the gift of family support and unconditional love and encouragement is just overwhelming to me lately. I feel so ready and able because of my cheerleaders. Dad is going to be the morning teacher, teaching about Jesus' stories and I can't wait. He's my favorite preacher/teacher and to get to lead an event with him is just about the coolest thing I could ever dream of.

So keep us in your prayers. I'm hopeful to do more of these things in the future.

I love planning kid's events and...

...little things like this make me want to have kids just so I can start throwing sweet theme birthday parties.

4 years!

Rory and I are celebrating four adventurous, nomadic, creative years of marriage today! I think the thing that has surprised me the most about these first years of our marriage is how fun it would be each other's cheerleaders in terms of work and career. Not that I thought this would be not fun. But these first years have been filled with so much dreaming and visioning and believing in each other. I remember this from dating, but it's so great when it's your very own husband saying, "then let's do it. I'm with you."

Actually, I think those seven words sum up our marriage the best so far. We said them when we decided to rent out Minneapolis house out so we could live in Montana while I wrote my thesis and he programmed Weather Defender. We said them when we moved back to Minnesota to try out my dream of camp directing, and said them again when we hopped in the jeep for a 6600 mile road trip last fall, and again when we moved to Nebraska. Those words fit lots of lesser decisions too...like going to a late night movie last Sunday, trying to squeeze out the last moments of weekend before Monday morning.

The picture below is one of my favorites from the big day. After the reception, my head filled with a horrible cold and we had to stop at a gas station for sudafed. I just remember giggling and laughing with Rory as we wandered the aisles in our wedding attire saying things like, "I kind of want some mike and ike's." We still say those eight words a lot too.