2009

Happy New Year's Eve to all! I'm going to attempt to reflect on some of the highlights and lowlights from each month in 2009...



January: It snowed a lot in Kentucky and there was an ice storm. We had school 1 day per week during that month and went a little stir crazy because of not having anything to do. The perfect winter day happened during that month because we had a pillow fight, had a snowball fight, played Scrabble, drank hot chocolate, and watched Faerie Tale Theatre.



February: I know that I went contra dancing twice in February and that it was REALLY cold during that time. Other than that, I'm kind of at a loss to remember what happened during that month.



March: I went back to CA for 4 days because of getting to be a bridesmaid in Phil and Tiffany's wedding.



April: We went to the Kentucky Derby and thought we'd never leave because there was only 1 gate for about 50,000? 80,000? 1 million? people to enter and exit from.



May: Went to Chicago with my housemates. Went on a school bus with a bunch of preschoolers to the Cincinnati Zoo.



June: Volunteered at the Ichthus Festival (basically, Christian Woodstock) in Kentucky with other CAP volunteers. I was also expecting to experience my first tornado while there because Kim got really panicky about how dark the clouds were (she'd probably know when to panic since they actually have tornadoes in Colorado).



July: I went to the East Side for 3 weeks. Week 1- I was a counselor at Camp Shawnee during "Teen Girls' Week" and was in a group with 8-11 year olds. Week 2- I did housing with Bridget, Rachel, and Tiffany. I had a lot of fun working on a roof with them, but definitely did not feel that it will ever be my calling to do housing. Week 3- day camp with Camp Shawnee. We played a lot of dodgeball and learned some nifty information about math and science.



August: My family got to come to the Rockcastle House, which was very exciting! I followed them to Virginia Beach in order to help Jeff and Emily move into their new apartment. We painted, found places for their stuff, went to the beach, and hung out. I also experienced the Christian blind date that lasted for 4 days while there.



September: Had my last month of working at the CDC and was very sad about saying goodbye to 30 awesome preschoolers.



October: Got to do Disaster Relief in Louisville for 1 week. We cleaned basements and got rid of items that had been damaged by the floods in August. Moved to Virginia Beach and stayed with Jeff and Emily while looking for a real job. Took on a babysitting job 1 hour away in Yorktown in order to have an extra income while waiting to hear back about job interviews (bad idea).



November: Got a real job at Hope House, which means that I'm still kind of using my degree because they serve adults with disabilities in their homes. Turned 30. Got my 1st ticket. Went back to Kentucky for Thanksgiving and got to reunite with Kim, Jenny, and Kelly.



December: Didn't get to go back to CA for Christmas, but we have wonderful parents who ended up flying here to see us. Finally went to the Outer Banks and it really is beautiful there!

Waiting

I was reading someone else's blog today (http://www.megancarson.com/) and she had written about how God had Adam name the animals before He made Eve for him (Genesis 2:18-22). Her point was that God gave Adam something to do while he was waiting for his future wife. She then went on to list some of the things that have happened in her life while waiting for her future husband. I thought it was really cool to read what those things were (good, bad, and sad) and wanted to make my own list. Here it is, in no particular order:

-Drove across the country to volunteer for 1 year in Kentucky.
-Made amazing, lifelong friendships with many of my housemates in Kentucky.
-Got to know and love a bunch of 3-4 year olds with southern accents and speech impediments.
-Traveled to Hungary, Romania, and Mexico City.
-Held babies at an orphanage in Haiti.
-Moved to Virginia Beach.
-Lived across the street from the beach with awesome girls who loved Jesus.
-Took a hip-hop class.
-Was a counselor at Royal Family Kids' Camp for 4 years in a row. I met 7 little girls who had been through so much trauma in their young lives, but were still strong and resilient.
-Was Cameron's CASA for 4 years.
-Not crying for about 2 years.
-Experiencing unexpected death more than the expected kind (2 friends, 2 cousins, 4 NHS students were unexpected. Mudder and Grandpa Bradshaw were somewhat expected).
-Being heartbroken.
-Getting to be a special ed. teacher for at least 50 students and still having stories about the things that they did.
-Getting to see the friendships that formed between the student tutors in my classroom and my students.
-Going on a cruise to Mexico with Andrea.
-Going to Hawaii with my mom.
-Getting to go to some fun concerts: Bon Jovi, Matt Wertz (at least 4 times), The Bangles, Ingrid Michaelson, Newsboys, Third Day, David Crowder, Jon McLaughlin (I know there are a ton more, but I can't think of them right now).
-Chicago road trip with my Kentucky housemates.
-Calling that 3 couples were going to get married before they began to date and being the matchmaker for another couple.
-Going contra dancing.

Those were the ones that I could think of, even though I'm sure that there are plenty more.

The Proposal

I was proposed to tonight, so here's the story... I have to do 25 hours of medication training for the new job and the classes are Monday-Friday of this week from 5-10pm. During one of our 10 minute breaks tonight, I went next door to 7-11 to get a few snacks. I was ready to check out, but both registers had customers at them. There was an older gentleman at one who was finished checking out, but he still hadn't moved. I wasn't sure what to do, but the cashier told me that it was my turn. I got up there and this is what happened:

Older gentleman to me: What's your name?
Me: Jenna
Older gentleman: Well, Jenna, this is Will (introducing me to the mildly attractive, somewhat mortified 7-11 guy... and by mildly attractive, I mean he appeared to have all of his teeth), he graduated from William and Mary.
Me: Oh, uh, congratulations, good job (I don't really know what I said, I was just confused about this old man being the wingman for the 7-11 cashier against his will).
Older gentleman (taking my left hand and turning it over to reveal no ring) to Will: Yes, she'll marry you.

I laughed and told them it was nice to meet them, then went back to class with my snacks in hand. That old man brightened my night with his randomness, though :).

How to Reverse Trick-or-Treat in 5 Easy Steps

On Halloween, Chad, Mikkele, Emmy, and I went reverse trick-or-treating around Chad and Emmy's apartment complex. Here's how to do this:

1) Get Chad to obtain a door with wheels from the theater department.

2) Have one person knock on the door of someone who has their porch lights on.

3) Run behind the rolling door that has a "Please Knock" sign on it and wait for one of the people in the house to knock on it.

4) Open the door dressed as old people, gush over the other person's costume, and give them candy.

5) Repeat at the next house.

Here's a picture of the 4 of us dressed up.

There are also 2 videos on facebook, but I'm not technologically savvy enough to figure out how to upload them here.

More awkward conversations

Here are a couple more conversations that I heard or (unfortunately) participated in at Disaster Relief last week:

Wilson, the 85 year old, comes up to me on the first day and looks at my hoop earrings.

Wilson: Where are your studs?
Jenna: I decided to wear the hoops today.
Wilson (who has been a nurse for forever, which I didn't know yet): I couldn't believe the things that girls had pierced when they came into the hospital... the nose, the tongue, even the (enter 5 letter word for a private part that begins with "L").
Jenna:... oh (I didn't know what to say, I was so grossed out by this man saying that word by sentence 2 after having met him).

Next, we were on a work site with the people from Americorps who range in age from 18-24. Dee, who volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, is probably in her mid-40's to early-50's. She's built pretty strong, like a softball player, and was wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut off one day. One of the Americorps guys, Danny, age 24, and most likely an Eagle Scout at some point in time was talking to her. This is what I witnessed:

Danny (while looking at her arms): You better get to the vet.
Dee: Why?
Danny: Because those puppies are sick.

Ick.

Old man conversation

This was a conversation that I overheard between Wilson (age 85) and John (age 72) right before a meeting for Disaster Relief last week:

Wilson: Can you tell me when they say something important?
John: I can barely hear them, either.
Wilson and John to Louis (age 28): Will you tell us both when they say something important?
Louis: Sure, but I'm kind of tired and not paying much attention right now.

Disappointed at the Krispy Kreme

Last Saturday night, I was craving hot chocolate and a donut from Krispy Kreme after day 1 of Disaster Relief. I told Turtle that I was thinking of going and asked if she wanted to come with me, which she did. I ended up asking the other 10 or so volunteers who were there if they wanted us to bring some back for them and everyone put in their orders. This ended up being a bad idea and here's how it all went wrong...

We got there and it seemed like a kind of sketchy neighborhood, so I decided to go through the drive-thru instead of going into the store. I started to read the order and this was the conversation that ensued between the Krispy Kreme Lady and me:

JB: I'd like 1 plain, 5 glazed, 1 strawberry filled...
KKL: We don't have strawberry filled ones.
JB: Ok... (taking a look at the menu)... I'll take a raspberry filled one (it was for Louis, he'll eat anything anyway), then 1 custard filled, 1 eclair...
KKL: What's an eclair?
JB: (thinking, "How can you work at a donut shop and not know what an eclair is?!")... uhh... how about a cream-filled one instead?
KKL: Can you pull up to the window?
JB: Ok...

As we're pulling up, Turtle and I are laughing about how placing a Krispy Kreme order was so complicated that I got called to the front window. I got up there and started reading the list to the lady. I apparently messed up again because she asked me to just hand her the list. We waited, they asked a few more questions about the order, finished getting everything together, and we were on our merry way... or so we thought.

We got back to the church, opened up the box that held 1 dozen donuts and found that 1 glazed and 5 plain ones were included in the order. WHAT?! How was it that they had a list written down in front of them and still got the wrong order?! Then, Dee (who hadn't placed an order and was supposed to be included in the 1 of 5 glazed group) took the 1 custard one that was for Turtle and took a huge bite from it right in front of her. After that, we went inside and became very melodramatic while telling everyone else in our group about our disastrous donut experience. The end.

p.s. This blog probably would have been better if I had written it immediately after it happened, but we didn't have much internet last week.

New school year=new kid stories

The new school year began last Monday and with that came a few new stories from the kids... they also made sure to bring their germs with them and caused at least 4 of us to get sick :( (it's cool, I'm fine with sounding like an 80 year old man for probably the 12th time in a year). Anyway, here are a couple of my favorite stories so far:

On the bus ride home, Dakota (who's basically Russell from "Up" with light brown hair) asks, "Did you guys get the plug-in for Lindsey's breathing machine?" Lindsey is his little sister and she has a lot of asthma/allergy problems. She has a nebulizer that goes back and forth from home to school in case she has an asthma attack while she's in our care. If she does happen to have an asthma attack on the bus, we have to plug the nebulizer into a cigarette lighter and that will make it work. The bus didn't originally have a cigarette lighter, so they had to have one installed and that was what Dakota was asking about. He's just being protective of his little sister and making sure that she's taken care of in case something happens to her... he's one of the sweetest kids I've ever met :).

On Wednesday, Kameryn (still the winner of the best Kentucky twang) asks, "Can we go outside on the playground and have a picnic like we used to?" I thought that was cute because it's been at least 3 months since we've had a picnic on the playground, which may as well be 3 years to a 4 year old. I felt honored that she remembered our little tradition.

On the bus ride home on Thursday, Harley tells me that Carson is her boyfriend. I say, "Oooohhh, Harley you have a boyfriend now," just to tease her a little bit and she giggles. Then, Savanna, who's sitting next to her says, "I don't have a boyfriend because boys aren't nothin' but trouble!" It turns out she had heard that from an aunt or something, but it was still pretty hilarious coming out of a 4 year old's mouth.

I'm glad to know that they're still entertaining and can't wait to hear what other things they'll come up with!

Cute Kid Story from the East Side

Last week, I was at a going away party for Shannon at the Johnson House. Most of the volunteers from the east side were there, but Shannon had also put in a special request to Harold (their volunteer manager) and asked him to bring his 2 daughters, Lena and Makenzie.

This particular story is about Makenzie and Nick (another volunteer), so I need to describe them a little bit. Makenzie's 6 years old and she has cerebral palsy. I've only met her a few times, but I've seen that she has a deep love for other people and a strength that most don't possess during their entire lives, much less by the time they're six. I first met her at Camp Caleb a couple of months ago when I was over at her table and catching up with Harold. Makenzie asked, "Do you want to go outside and play tag with me on the porch?" I, of course, told her that I would because she's absolutely adorable, then we went outside and played for about an hour or so.

Nick is 24, probably 6'5" or so, and he's built like a football player. He has pretty blue eyes and a beard that he probably hasn't shaved in 2 months. He looks like a mountain man when you first meet him, but then you talk to him and realize he's more of the gentle giant type.

I think that's enough back story, so here's the conversation that occurred between Gina (another volunteer) and Makenzie when she arrived for Shannon's party.

Makenzie: Do you know where that guy from the other day is?
Gina: Which guy? Do you remember what he looked like?
Makenzie: A prince.

Apparently, Makenzie has a crush now... it starts so young :).

What is my life right now?

During the past 2 weeks, I've been living about 2 hours away from the Rockcastle House on the very eastern side of Kentucky. Week 1 was spent at Camp Shawnee as a counselor for "teen girls' week" (our group had 17 girls ranging in age from 8-11). Week 2 was spent volunteering in housing at the Floyd House because Bridget asked on Sunday, "Do you want to do housing this week instead of day camp?" and I said, "Sure," then moved into their house about 8 hours later. Here are some of the things that made me step back and say to myself, "What is my life right now?" and "Where AM I?"

1) I got lost 2 weeks ago when I drove to Camp Shawnee. I had gotten directions from mapquest, but it turned out that they must be to the place where they receive mail in Prestonsburg because it was definitely not where camp was. I called up to camp and they gave me directions for the rest of the way. I decided to go back a couple of miles to McDonald's to go to the bathroom (in case I got lost on my way to camp) and also ask for directions there because I thought they might be able to draw me a map or something. Brian at camp and the nice McDonald's lady told me to go to 1428 and turn left at 194, then keep going straight, which would be a long way, until I saw the sign for Camp Shawnee. Well, I really paid attention to both of them saying that it would be a long way and ended up passing the camp by about 40 miles :(.

Long story short, I ended up completely lost for about an hour, without cell phone reception, and not a car or house in sight. Finally, once I had been hyperventilating for a few minutes, I saw a car coming from the opposite direction. I waved at her to stop, then asked, "Do you (gasp) know where (gulp) Camp Shawnee (gasp again) is?" She said, "Is that with the Christian Appalachian Project?" I said that it was and she told me, "Don't worry, people are really nice around here." I explained that I knew that people were nice, but that I had gotten completely lost and hadn't seen anyone for awhile. Anyway, she ended up being kind enough to lead me all the way to camp and she pointed out where it was. Camp was about 10 miles from where I had flagged her down on the road, which means that she went about 30 minutes out of her way to show me where it was... I don't think that would happen anywhere else except for here. My favorite part was when I thanked her again for showing me how to get to camp and she said, "I think it was meant to be that I came along."

2) We put new shingles on a woman's house and it turns out that she has a puppet ministry. During one of the times that I wasn't on the roof, I went inside the house and she was doing a puppet show for some of the teenagers in the group that we were working with. It was kind of creepy because she had her mouth closed as if she was a ventriloquist, but it was definitely a male voice coming from the puppet. It turns out that she has a tape that she plays while she does these puppet shows and the puppet is moving its mouth to that while playing a keyboard. It's a detective puppet that sings about the Peace Patrol and I had to listen to the show twice, which was 2 more times than I actually wanted to.

3) Our group was also interviewed by the Paintsville Herald at this woman's house. I found out on Friday that the article made the front page, so I was kind of excited about that. There goes my 15 minutes of fame.

4) At the end of the week, there was a picnic for the groups who had done housing. One of the groups had a couple who does music ministry in it, so they did a little concert in the park for us. It was kind of strange when I realized that I was sitting in a park in Kentucky listening to a couple from Pennsylvania as they sang in Italian (they were singing "The Prayer" by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli).

5) Yesterday, we went to Robyn's (Jenny's boss') farm to take pictures with bales of hay... we needed new facebook pictures and thought that it would be very Kentucky-like to take them with hay. We got the tour from Robyn, her 13 year old son, Isaac, and her 7 year old niece, Libby. After we had taken the pictures, Libby drove us in the Mule (basically a golf cart) back to the house. I just couldn't believe that we were being driven around by a 7 year old and all of us were fine with it! This wasn't that she was steering and someone else was using the brake or accelerating... all of it was her driving. She did an excellent job, too, and no one was hurt.

Those were the only ones that I could think of for the moment, even though I'm sure that there were plenty more.

Happy Birthday/Father's Day to Daddy Boyd!

It's Father's Day for all of the dads in the world, but my dad gets to double the fun by also having his birthday today. In honor of this momentous occasion, I wanted to write the 10 things that I love about my dad because I can't imagine having a father who's better than him. Plus, I wrote one about my mom on Mother's Day and I don't want him to get gypped out of his own top 10 list :).

1) He loves Jesus more than anything and goes to Him in prayer for guidance in his decisions.
2) He takes amazing care of my mom and has proven over and over that he takes the "in sickness and health" vows seriously (i.e. she's had a ton of surgeries and he's known how to help her every time).
3) He's so proud of his girls and doesn't have any problem telling us that.
4) When I was in graduate school, I got to go to his class and observe him with his students. He's so patient and consistent with the kids, so that made them respect and admire him as their teacher.
5) He's very active and adventurous... surfing (in Indonesia and CA), playing tennis, riding his motorcycle or biking up and down the coast with my mom, going to the gym on a regular basis, etc.
6) Doing acts of service out of love... there have been times when I'd go to visit my parents and I would come outside to find that my car had been washed, he has helped me move spontaneously(more than once), and has helped me put things together in half the time that it would take me to do them by myself.
7) Showing Emmy and me how important it is to keep the spark alive in a marriage. My parents had their weekly date nights while we were growing up, they still hold hands, and it's obvious that he's still as smitten with my mom now as when they were in high school.
8) Keeping our annual father/daughter fancy birthday dinner tradition going. We've gotten to eat some amazing food at some great restaurants (Duke's! Ruth's Chris! The one next to "The Pirates of the Caribbean"!) and I think we've been doing that since my 13th birthday.
9) He gave me a love of Led Zeppelin and great worship music.
10) Pulling Emmy and me out of school when we were kids (and occasionally work as adults) to do something fun like going to Disneyland because he realized the importance of quality time.

I know that I'm a very lucky girl because of the dad that I have!

Forgiveness (lessons from a 3 year old).

Harley is a little girl at the CDC who stays after school until about 4:30 every day... i.e. Kim and I spend a LOT of time with her. She tries to go barefoot on a regular basis, but we never let her because it's against the rules. We're on the playground today and she's taken off her flip flops again. I tell her, "You need to put your shoes back on or we're going to have to go back inside." She doesn't do anything. I say, "You have until the count of 3 to get your shoes back on or we're going inside... 1... 2... 3." She gets her shoes in her hand and is putting them on in time while whining about it. Then she says, "I'm mad at you! You counted at me!" I replied, "Well, you weren't putting your shoes back on, so that's what I needed to do." Then I left her alone while she played on the jungle gym.

A few minutes went by and she said, "I want to race you." I responded with, "I thought you were mad at me." To this she said, "I'm not mad at you." Kim and I laughed about how easy forgiveness is for a 3 year old and I went over to race her. Then she told me, "You're my best friend," and my heart melted a little, of course. I think our lives would be so much better if we could forgive and forget as easily as that little girl.

Semi-violent kid story

Yesterday, as the kids were lining up to go outside after playing on the playground, Kameryn (she's the one with the best twang) was holding a caterpillar. She stated angrily, "This caterpillar PUKED on me!" I had to stifle my laughter because I didn't think that it was possible for someone to know about a caterpillar's bodily fluids and then I told her, "You need to leave the caterpillar out here because you're not allowed to take it inside." She looked at it for a few seconds, then threw it down on the ground and stomped on it a couple of times. I told her to stop doing that and said to Susan (one of the other teachers), "Oh my gosh... I wonder what she'll do if one of her kids pukes on her once she's a mom." Then we all went inside for nap time.

Happy Mother's Day! (shout-out to Mama Boyd)

When I started writing this blog back in August, I said that I was going to write some stories about the people that I admire. My mom has been one of the most important people in my life and I figured that today is the right day to write a blog about her... especially since she's one of the 3 people who actually read this :). Here are the top 10 things that I love about my mom:

1) She loves Jesus more than anything and I know that she has spent a lot of time covering Emily and me in prayer.
2) She loves my dad so much and knows that she's a lucky woman because she has him as a husband.
3) Her ability to find out the life story of pretty much anyone within 10 minutes of meeting them.
4) Her willingness to drop everything and listen when I'm struggling.
5) Her ability to drag information out of me when I don't know how much I've bottled up inside (I usually end up crying, which is good because that doesn't happen very often).
6) She's never tried to give me her opinion on the things that I should do with my life and has always supported my decisions.
7) She's taught me that sometimes you can cheer up by eating frozen yogurt or buying something cute.
8) She's great with kids, especially when it comes to being consistent and following through on what she says.
9) She knows how to make awkward situations more comfortable by saying the right things.
10) She's great at spending quality time with those she loves. Some examples: going to Hawaii for my high school graduation, going to New York for Emmy's high school graduation, Tuesday night "date nights" when I was growing up, Thursday night "date nights" with Daddy, etc.

I'm so thankful that God picked her to be my mom and wish that everyone could have one just like her!

And then a hero comes along...

Here's a little story about how every person can be a hero in someone else's eyes, even if they don't necessarily know that they are...

About 1-2 days per week, the garbage man comes to the CDC in order to empty our dumpster. Whenever this happens, quite a few of the kids will run to the window and yell, "THE GARBAGE TRUCK IS HERE!!!" They get SO excited every time they see that truck, even though it comes on a weekly basis. Kim and I think it's hilarious, so we've also taken to shouting sarcastically across the room to each other that, "THE GARBAGE TRUCK IS HERE!!!"

The garbage man probably has no idea that there are 31 preschoolers who are ecstatic about seeing him and his truck every week. He may even think it's a job that doesn't deserve a lot of recognition, but I know a bunch of 3-5 year olds who think that he's the coolest.

Cute kid story #3

Here's the conversation that took place on the bus today:

Savanna (holding up a penny): Is this a penny?
Me: Yes it is... do you know whose face is on the penny?
Savanna (shaking her head): Noooo
Me: That's Abraham Lincoln... do you know what state he was born in?
Savanna (shaking her head again): Noooo
Me: He was born in Kentucky... do you know what state you live in?
Savanna (shakes her head one more time): Noooo
Sydney pipes up: Tucky
Me: Yep, we live in Kentucky.
Savanna: What state does Barack Obama live in?
Me (laughing and wondering how she knows who the president is): Well, he lives in Maryland now.

3/25-4/2

The past week or so has been pretty up and down, so I wanted to write about it. Here's a list of my highs and lows from the past week:

Low #1: Kim dropped me off at the airport to go back to CA last Wednesday. I got in there to find out that my flight had been canceled due to thunderstorms in Dallas, which was where my layover was supposed to be. They said that my flight was going to be the next day at 1pm and that I would get into Orange County at 4:30pm. I was REALLY disappointed about that because I had planned on visiting NHS during lunch on Thursday. I told the nice American Airlines lady that the time was going to be too late and she started looking for flights on other airlines.

High #1: She ended up finding one with Delta that was leaving at 6am on Thursday and landing at 10:15am that day. It ended up working out in my favor because I got to spend the night in a hotel. I went to the gym, took a long bubble bath, and slept in a gloriously comfy bed.

High #2: The flight on Thursday morning went well and it turns out that Delta is a great airline to fly on. They have individual TV sets for each seat, so I spent some of the flight watching reruns of "Saved by the Bell" and "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (including the one after Trevor bungee jumped to his death and Hillary spends the episode grieving for him in her black wedding dress... Ashley with the yo-yo gets me every time).

High #3: Emmy picked me up at John Wayne immediately after I landed, so she was the first person I got to see when I got back to CA.

Low #2: Emmy had a meeting at 11am and my luggage wasn't there yet when she came to pick me up. I decided to go back with her to Vanguard and come back for it after I had her car. This would have been a great idea, but I found that I'm not so great at finding my way around that airport anymore... first, I missed the sign that was supposed to take me into the arrivals/departures section and I ended up going back around to the street where I had come in. Next, I found the arrivals/departures section, but I couldn't find the entrance into the parking structure and had to go around again. Finally, I decided to find an entrance on the upper level and go down into the parking structure... I ended up parking on the 2nd floor, which would have been fine, except for the fact that I couldn't find the stairs. This was the point when I started crying while I was walking because I just wanted to get into the airport to find my luggage and couldn't find my way in there. It was definitely the straw that broke the camel's back because I was wanting to make it to Northwood in time for lunch with my students and I think I was still kind of upset that my flight had been canceled the day before. I know that I normally wouldn't have had that reaction, but I was being whiny because I felt like things weren't going my way.

High #4: The rest of Thursday was great because I got to visit my old students and catch up with the other teachers who are still working there. In-N-Out for lunch, quality time with my mom, Rubio's for dinner with all of my family, quality time with Emmy, and then catching up with Liz at 2 Canal.

High #5: The rest of the weekend was great because of Phil and Tiffany's wedding. It was a perfectly beautiful day and everything went so smoothly. I got all choked up when I saw her in her wedding dress because I was thinking of all of those talks that we had about who our future husbands would be and wondering if the right one was out there. It was so surreal because I knew how badly she had always wanted to fall in love and get married. She's an amazing example of why it's so important to wait for the right man and why no woman should settle for less than God's best for her.

Low #3: I got really sad at a few points during the weekend because I was trying to picture my own wedding day and couldn't. There were times when I was being, "Bitter: Party of 1," because of starting to really doubt that I'll ever fall in love. I know that God has a wonderful plan for my life, but I continue to have a lot of difficulty trusting that I'll ever get to experience love and romance, even though it's a desire of my heart.

High #6: Once I got back from CA, I came home and packed my stuff for YouthFest. I had signed up to go from Tuesday-Friday, so I decided to get up really early on Tuesday morning and drive the 2 1/2 hours to Camp Caleb (where I had gone 2 years ago with Christian Mission) in order to go with the team to the work site that morning. I woke up at 4:45am and was on the road by about 6:15am, dreaming of the hot chocolate that I was going to get in London on my way there.

BIG Low #4: At about 6:30am, my car started making funny noises, which I tried to ignore. They started getting worse, I pulled over and found out that my left rear tire was completely flat :(. I decided to try and keep driving to the next gas station, but it sounded worse and I knew there was no way I was going to make it the 6 miles or so to Livingston. This led to Jenna's Meltdown #2 for the week because I didn't know what to do... I called 411 and asked for phone numbers to places that could fix my tire, but it turns out that not very many are open at that hour.

High #7: After call #3 to 411, I found a place that was open, they came out to change my flat, then followed me to the closest Wal-Mart in order to get a real tire put on there. They changed it, I still got hot chocolate in London (to cheer myself up), and got to Camp Caleb around noon (instead of 8 or 9 as I had planned).

High #8: I found out that my work site was in the next town after Blaine!

High #9: Once I got to the work site that day, I found out that YouthFest isn't just for youth and discovered that the youngest person on our team was 27.

Low #5: I discovered that it's better to start off the week with a team and not join them in the middle of their time there. Otherwise, one feels left out quite often. They were a very nice group of people, but I lost my name while I was there and felt like I was back in Mr. Vinyard's 4th grade class again... I was Jenny, Gina, Jennifer, blank stare because I can't remember your name, and, every once in awhile, Jenna.

High #10: Being at Camp Caleb and going through Blaine every day made me realize that I really do love living in Kentucky. I'm happy that I'm now living in the place that God randomly opened the door for me to go to two years ago and that there was a larger purpose for that trip in my life.

I think that was the majority of my highs and lows for the past week. It turns out that there were a lot more highs than lows, so I have a lot to be thankful for!

Cute kid story #2

A couple of weeks ago, I made the mistake of getting bangs again. When I went back to work the next Monday, I found that my hairstyle is almost exactly the same as Allison's. She's my favorite little left-handed Scorpio, but I still don't want to have the same haircut as a 5 year old.

Allison walked by me this morning and Kim said, "There goes your hair twin." Then she says to her, "Allison, do you and Miss Jenna have the same haircut right now?" Allison's response was, "Yea... except Miss Jenna has more gray hairs than I do." Sounds like I may need to start dyeing my hair again...

Cute kid story

I'm going to try to be better about remembering to write down the funny things that the kids at the CDC say. My personal favorite was from a week ago when I was talking to Emily (the most theatrical little redhead one will ever meet). Here's the conversation:

Jenna: "Ooh Emily, I like your pretty pink nail polish."
Emily (holding up both of her pointer fingers): "Thank you... it gets scraped off of these ones when I pick my boogers."

I stifled my laughter and my stomach churned a little at the same time. Then I immediately went to tell Kim because you can't keep a conversation like that to yourself.