Christmas Loot

I'm back at work today, and it's so quiet here - there's only three lawyers, me, the receptionist and the office manager here, out of 24. I want to go home and play with my new camera!



The camera is courtesy of my bonus and all my Christmas and birthday money combined, and I'm really excited to get out and start playing with it. It's got a lot of neat features and the picture quality is amazing, after Trevor's little 4mp Canon.

And I also got a lot of books, Super Scrabble and the Scrabble Dictionary, among other things, as well as a nice lamb dinner, church three times in two days, and some quality time with Trevor, so it was a good holiday!

And tomorrow I turn 26, and there will be some festivities on Saturday that I'm sure will be blog-worthy. :)

Break Forth

I got an email from the Break Forth volunteer coordinator today, saying that they still need about 90 volunteers, and a lot of those are needed to work shifts in the bookstore. If you're interested, you can get more info at www.new-creation.net.

Hope to see you there!:)

Baking Queen

It's United Way week here at the law firm, and today we had a silent auction of baked goods.

I made my famous peanut butter squares, and donated two plates of a dozen each, and some free samples. They decided to auction off the samples as well - there were a dozen bite-sized ones. The two plates of a dozen big ones sold for - get this - FIFTEEN DOLLARS each, and the little ones for about $8.00. I'm so proud! :)

Someone even told me that the squares are better then Crave Cupcakes, which is about the highest compliment I can think of...except for the time my chocolate chip cookies elicited a marriage proposal, but I was only 14, so I had to turn it down... ;)

Anyhow, I just had to tell you all how excited I am to have raised so much money for the United Way - it's very exciting! And if being a legal assistant doesn't work out, I could always sell peanut butter squares for a living!

Intramural Quidditch Hits U.S. College Campuses

This is AWESOME!!!


Intramural Quidditch Hits U.S. College Campuses

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/#article:9333

Today's edition of the Wall Street Journal reports that a new fad is sweeping college campuses across the U.S. -- Intramural (earthbound) Quidditch! The article is available online to paid subscribers, and TLC is happy to provide some highlights:

In Quidditch games played at Middlebury College in Vermont, one student IS the Snitch, and attempts to outrun the other players.

"Rainey Johnson, sporting a yellow shirt, yellow socks and yellow paint smeared on his face, darted across the freshman quad. Other students, in capes, ran after him clutching brooms between their legs and grasping in vain for a tennis ball stuffed in a sock hanging out of his yellow shorts."

At Marlboro College, a toy helicopter launched from a slingshot serves as the Snitch, and must be caught before it reaches the ground. Water-soaked foam balls become Bludgers, and a volleyball is used as the Quaffle.

Middlebury's model, though (with a student Snitch, Dodgeball Bludgers and a volleyball Quaffle "aimed at gold-painted Hula Hoops mounted on chairs"), is catching on at other east coast colleges: Bucknell and Vassar students are putting Quiddtich teams together for the spring using "Middlebury rules."

Middlebury student Alexander Benepe and friends started the Quidditch craze at their school last year, and have seen it grow tremendously this fall.

"About 30 Middlebury students played pickup games almost every weekend this fall, usually two or three matches, before heading to a 'Quidditch World Cup' that drew five teams and about 60 players this month.

"'We are the first college students who grew up reading Harry Potter,' says Mr. Benepe, a sophomore from New York City. 'It's very much a book of our generation.'"

Youth Party

Yesterday we took the youth skating and then back to our place for a Christmas gift exchange - it was fun, but pretty low-key. I don't think I ever remember them being that quiet before. I guess the skating must have tired them out...you can link to my web album below. I forgot to take the camera skating, so I didn't get any pictures of Matt and Anne Marie's attempt at choreograpy, or of the Cadbury's magical elves who were there giving away chocolate.

Christmas party

Christmas Party!

 

Awwww...

"I will not die but live, and proclaim what the Lord has done."

I don't even know where to start! Such an amazing weekend - God used our little retreat to do some pretty cool stuff, and I'm so honoured to have been a part of that. I took the title of this post from a Psalm - I can't remember which right now, but it was another verse that meant a lot to me back in the days when I was going through the darkest times in my life. I knew that God would use my struggles for good, eventually, and to see that all come together this weekend just blew me away. It's amazing to see the Spirit working in my life, and bringing all the crap to work out for good. I had some good feedback, and that was really encouraging to hear.

Survivor has been my baby for the last six years, and I put all I can give into getting the weekend off the ground. This year it was even more personal, because of sharing my story, and by the time the last session and prayer time was over on Saturday night, I felt like that verse in Isaiah that says "I am poured out like a drink offering" - not only did I feel like I had nothing left to give, I couldn't stop crying for more then a few minutes at a time! Then Scott, Sam, Trevor and I ended up doing a worship set for the coffee house, and it was amazing. You know those moments where everything just comes together in perfect alignment, and you can feel the hand of God putting it that way? That was one of those moments - if I could just freeze that time and live in it forever, I totally would!

That's what I hope heaven will be like and is my favourite thing about retreats - the two gatherings I've been to, Crew training, the Crew alumni retreat, Survivor every year, TEC - just worshiping with people I love, who also love to worship Jesus. That, blog-readers, is what it's all about! The new Chris Tomlin CD has this song that goes "you and I were made to worship, you and I are called to love" - for me, that's the purpose of life on this earth right there. I love all those kids who were there this weekend, and a bunch of my dearest friends were there, as well as some of my youth, and it was phenomenal. It's been such a privilege to work with the group of people we have planning Survivor - not only are we coworkers in youth ministry, we're all friends, and we all have different gifts that complement each other - God sure knew what he was doing when he put us together! :)

You can check out some pics of us using our gifts here, and stay tuned for updates as more pics come in over the next couple of weeks. http://picasaweb.google.com/michelleheumann/SurvivorVII