Some BUSY Weekends!!

As many of you know, the last few weeks (particularly weekends) have been busy for us, which is why it took me a while to post an update. Here goes, in what is hopefully a more Cliffnotes version than usual:

Two weekends ago, I had my junior high youth group retreat at Miracle Ranch. It was a blast! There were two sweet middle school girls in my cabin that I co-led with Cameron. The small cabin size made it a good atmosphere for conversation and bonding. Five boys from our youth group also came and stayed in another cabin. The retreat featured many fun activities including high ropes (one where you had to jump off a platform 100 feet in the air and grab a trapeze...scary!), horseback riding, paintball, flashlight tag at night and some funny skits. Perhaps the funniest activity was a rodeo in which kids herded chickens, were rolled in barrels, tied ribbons on goat tails, and danced to "Cotton-Eye Joe". The whole camp has a Western theme and has full-time leaders which run all the games and events so the youth group leaders can use the time to hang out with the kids instead of plan everything. Dustin, our youth group director preached about the gospel in 5 short messages to all the campers (about 50-60), who arrived from 4 different churches total. The food was also the most amazing camp food I've ever had, so, overall, I'd say it was an excellent experience.

While I was gone from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, Kayle read a book and hung out with some guys at Joe's house for a game night. He learned a new game called "Wits and Wagers" in which you answer random questions with a number (like, "How much does the average African elephant weigh?") and then bet on which answer comes the closest. It was a fun game for a larger group of people.

Last weekend, Dani was here from Michigan!! We had a GREAT TIME hanging out with her and showing off our new city. On Saturday, we went to Pike's Place Market and shopped around the booths, saw the fish being thrown, visited the first Starbucks, and sampled some seafood at a local cafe. We also shopped in a few stores in downtown Seattle. At night, we went out for a nice dinner at one of our new favorite restaurants, went shopping "just the girls" at Kohl's, and came home to watch "Enchanted" with pillows and blankets in the living room.

On Sunday, we went to the early service at church, came home for a nap, and packed up to go night skiing at Snoqualmie Pass. Unfortunately, after an hour or so drive, we arrived to find out that there is no night skiing on Sundays. So we saw some nice looking slopes and stopped by Snoqualmie waterfall on the way home to vindicate the trip. We decided to go out to dinner at another of our favorite restaurants (both with the "Microsoft discount," of course...). After a wonderful dinner of ribs, chicken, and calamari, we shared a huge mountain of "mud pie" for dessert (and ate it ALL!!). Then, we came home and played a full game of dominoes.

On Monday, Dani came with me to my school for 3 hours after talking over coffee and stopping by the grocery store while Kayle was at work. Kayle left work early so we could try going skiing again. This time, we prevailed! None of us had been skiing for about 5 years and, let's just say, the blue squares were steeper than any black diamond in Michigan. It was kind of embarrassing to see little kids smoking us all on the slopes, but we had fun and gradually grew more comfortable on skis. After several hours, a few epic falls, and a couple good bruises, we climbed back in the car utterly exhausted and sore but satisfied. We slept well that night!

On Tuesday, Dani and I took the Metro buses south to the airport. Then, I rode the buses back north to get to school for another half day. It was sad to see her go, but we got to see and do almost everything we hoped for (including seeing mountains, which usually hide this time of year). We'd love to have more people visit, and we have a nice guest room for whoever is passing through Seattle or wants to hang out for a few days...

This past week was also a busy one at school with many kids out sick with colds and many still out of "school mode" from having mid-winter break. I forgot to say that I caught the cold of one of my campers and was chewing Cold-Eeze and recovering for almost a full two weeks. Luckily I didn't catch something else too from one of my students! I'm planning a party for the kids who turn in their scholarship form by the end of the month, so that's my major side project at the moment.

Kayle had his mid-year evaluation meeting with his boss this week. It went well and his boss seemed happy with his work overall. I'm so proud of him!

On Tuesday, Kayle and I took our turn to watch the kids at our CG. We had a new family joining us with four older kids (6-10 years old) in addition to the 3-4 little ones toddling around. It was fun to babysit again! Literally everyone in one of our last meetings was pregnant, planning to be pregnant soon, or has small kids at home. So, we're the only hold-outs as far as starting a family. Not time yet for us!

On Friday, we helped out at Josh and Lexi's house, the couple leading our CG. They are having a baby SOON and needed extra hands to paint three bedrooms upstairs. We had fun painting and hanging out for 4 hours, ending the night with some fresh-baked apple crisp (yum!).

Finally, yesterday, Kayle and I attended a game night at Joe's house. It was so fun! About 15 people were there, and we played Wits and Wagers, Cranium, Blockus, and Mario Galaxy (on Wii). It was nice to see Brenda and her roommates again as well as meet some new people from Henry's group at Microsoft. Kayle and I decided we REALLY like board game parties!

Today, I helped out in the toddler room at church while Kayle ran the video for the morning service. In the afternoon, I had my first choir practice, a soprano sectional, for the Good Friday/Easter choir. I am so excited to be in a choir again, and the music we're singing is beautiful. Afterward, we both went to the 5pm service at church (since I missed the sermon in the morning). Pastor Mark preached a great message about just/unjust suffering and what we can learn from Jesus' suffering. It was a somber yet powerful reminder of just how amazingly loving Jesus is to have endured so much pain and anguish on our behalf. When we follow Jesus, we can expect to face some unjust suffering of our own. But nothing we go through is nearly as agonizing or completely scandalous as the cross of Christ. I am thankful to serve a God who can understand all depths of human suffering...

Well, I guess that's all for this week's update! I will sincerely try to continue posting weekly. We love and miss you all!

Angie (and Kayle)