Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day in America was designed as a day to honor those who have served, are serving, or have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. There are tributes, rallies, parades, cookouts, family get together's, baseball games, eating, and on the list could go. Unfortunately, many people do not take the time to remember the sacrifices that were paid so that we have the chance to live in the freest country in the world.

This weekend for me was spent in a flurry of activity. I was in Ft. Wayne (a city 45 minutes west) three times, Goshen (a city about 45 minutes north) twice, and South Bend (a city about 1 1/2 hours northwest) once! The weather included one incredibly bad storm, one tornado warning and horrible storm, and sun and heat. My car died in Ft. Wayne and is still there at the moment, I have a bad case of sun burn, and all in all, I have a weekend packed with memories and laughter that I would do all over again given the chance. Below are pictures that were snapped during this wonderful time in my life.

~In the WOWO studio with Pat Miller~

I was given the chance to be in studio with Pat on Friday afternoon during his talk show, it was great fun!

~With my friend Brandi~

We met at the mall and went out to eat at Red Lobster after the show on Friday.

~ARMAD Rally for the Troops in Ft. Wayne~

On Saturday was the rally for the troops by ARMAD, "Amature Radio Military Appreciation Day"

~Fort Wayne TinCaps Game Saturday Night~

Unfortunately we were rained out

~Sunday~

Sunday was a bit hairy because I was stuck in Wal-Mart during a tornado warning. This picture was taken in the Wal-Mart parking lot during that time.

~Monday~

I had spent the night in Goshen and went to South Bend very early on Monday morning to walk in a parade.

~TinCaps Game~

We were able to exchange our tickets for Monday's game. Unfortunately they lost after a four game winning streak. We had a lot of fun though!

Well....

This weekend my entire life took a turn for the better. It was quite an unexpected turn, but I'm not complaining! ;)

As I said in my previous blog post, Kyle was coming to my house over the weekend. Well, he came, and things went a lot better than either one of us expected. We had a really good time Friday evening, going to the jail Bible study and then my entire family stayed up until after midnight just talking and having a good time. Saturday morning we went to the jail ministry planning meeting which was at a coffee shop, and Kyle had his first latte! He liked it!! :) That afternoon we went target practicing. Yet another first for Kyle. He did really well, I think it's just beginners luck! :P That afternoon we did some shopping, and another stop at the coffee shop! ;) Saturday night we had some friends over for a birthday party for dad. We had a nice meal, and good cake, and then played Apples to Apples.

Sunday we went to church and then had people over for lunch. One of the guys that came over, Kevin Bronson, is a world champion in karate. He has told my parents in the past, and told me that if anyone ever tries to hurt me, he'll take care of them. So he decided to show Kyle how he could die in a second. It was pretty exciting!! We kinda relaxed for the afternoon and then went to church that evening.

Awhile back I had had the crazy idea of going to Steak 'n Shake at 2 am for their "happy hour". So Samuel, Kyle, and I stayed up until then. Samuel was busy playing on his computer, and Kyle and I got to just sit and talk without any interruptions for almost 4 solid hours. It was amazing. Steak 'n Shake was awesome! We were the only people in the restaurant! It was crazy! :)

Monday dad and I both had a doctors appointment at an orthopedic doctor. So we were all up and around fairly early. The night before Kyle and I had both come to the realization that there was more than just friendship between the 2 of us. (I KNOW it took me longer to realize it than it took him). So Monday morning he talked to dad, and asked for his permission to date me. :) Dad said, "Yes!" And then Kyle asked me, and I also said, "Yes!" So it's official! We're both really happy, as are both of our families. It's pretty amazing!

*****Monday we baked...and licked the beaters!*****

*****Kyle and Hannah*****

College Life Again

Once again, I'm SOOOO sorry for the length of time that it has taken me to write this post. Things have been really crazy and on top of that, due to internet blockers I can no longer access my blog from my computer! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! So, I emailed this post to Jason, and he is posting it for me. I will probably do this quite often, as I have plenty to write, but no way of posting! :(

So life has been pretty busy, I got to Shawnee on Saturday, August 22 and immediately started job hunting, actually, I had already applied at several places online. I still have not been able to find a job, so please pray that God will provide one for me soon.

Monday was new student testing and registration. I only had to take one test, and really I didn't have to take that one, I just felt like it. It was a music test, to test out of theory, and I passed really easily. No problems there at all. I am only taking 19 credit hours, which compared to the 21 that I wanted to take is really nothing at all! I'm taking Intro to Education, US History I, Computer Applications, Science Overview (which meets twice a week for 2 hours at a time!), Counseling Youth, and Christian Womanhood. I am also doing an internship in the 3rd and 4th grade at the Christian school for a total of 100 minutes a week, that counts as 1 credit. Pretty much I'll be busy but loving it! :)

We also did several activities, including going to the KY State Fair, Bowling, Roller Skating (which I had NEVER done in my life) and a park to play soft ball and then we went for ice cream...YUM! :)

Thursday and Friday we did outreach. Both days there were 3 separate outreaches into a total of 6 projects in and around Louisville! I LOVED IT! What we did was a Bible club for the children, and even some adults came. On Thursday we had about 64 or so kids. 20 some got saved and 12 were allowed by their parents to come back to the church and get baptized! That was AMAZING! The outreach on Friday was in a mainly Muslim project. We had around 200 kids, and 34 or 35 got saved! We weren't able to take any of them back to the church for baptism because of a lack of transportation. I personally talked to 5 girls about Salvation, but they were really hard to reach because of the fact that they are Muslim and "don't believe in Jesus." Both days I was very saddened by the environment that these children are being raised in. Honestly, I wanted so badly to help all of them have a better life...I didn't want to leave!

This weekend was what was called "Super Summer Sunday" but actually, it was split up into Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday many of the bus routes were run and they had church services and then an outdoor carnival. It was a lot of fun! I worked the carnival on Saturday. On Sunday Dr. Sheldon Smith who is the director of the Sword of the Lord was the main speaker. I know that a combined count of the services Sunday morning in both New Albany and Louisville, and the nursing home services was over 2,000! Praise the Lord! Also Sunday night I played my cello in the church orchestra! THAT WAS AWESOME!!!

Michigan Trip

My friend LeAnne, who I haven't seen since 8th grade, is visiting friends in Michigan this week and I was given the opportunity to go see her. I left Sunday afternoon and stopped in Angola, IN and went to Faith Baptist Church for the Sunday night service. I went to school last year with 2 kids from that church. Unfortunately Matt was sick, but Brandi was there and we sat next to each other and then went out for ice cream afterwards!! :) YUM! I continued on to Michigan and got to the Campbell's home around 10:00. Mr. Campbell had gone to pick LeAnne up from the airport, and they weren't home yet, so Mrs. C and I were able chat a little bit! :) Around 10:30 LeAnne and Mr. C got home and we began catching up on our lives. Finally about 12:30 we went to bed!! On Monday I woke up kinda early, about 8, I know, it really wasn't that early, but for vacation, it's early! I got up and read my devotions and did my regular morning stuff and then went downstairs and ate breakfast. After breakfast Mr. C went somewhere, I don't know where, and the 3 girls watch "A Hazard of Hearts," lets just say that it was an incredibly dumb movie, along the lines of Jane Austen! UGH! I'm not a Jane Austen lover, quite the opposite actually. While we were watching the movie a chipmunk came up to the sliding door and started to beg for Mrs. C to give him food! It was sooooo cute! Mrs. C was supposed to have a therapy session at 2:00 but for some reason her therapist called and rescheduled it for Tuesday. So, instead of therapy she decided to take LeAnne and I shopping...UGH! I HATE shopping! Anyways, she took us to Kohl's and made us shop for clothes for school. We spent 2 hours finding clothes, trying on clothes, and by the time we were done I was wiped out! We got back around 7 or 7:30 and threw our supper in the oven. Then I grabbed a book and read for about an hour until it was time to eat. Over supper we talked and goofed off. Mr. C was once again gone, he was playing golf with some buddies of his....I personally think he was just escaping from all the females that had invaded his home! :) Around 9:30 Mr. C came home, he did win the game of golf!! I guess that's good...I've never really been into golf! We watched a movie about Jacob and Joseph, which I found rather humorous because of the way that the story was protraide. It was kinda corny. I guess I fell asleep during the movie and slept for like 45 minutes....that's what shopping does to me! :) We went to bed about 12:30 and I didn't wake up until 10! It was WONDERFUL! Mrs. C had her therapy at 1:00, so Mr. C took her to that. While they were gone LeAnne and I went to Wal-Mart cuz I needed to get allergy medicine cuz my allergies started acting up, BIG time! Then we came home and went outside and took a gazillion pictures of the BEAUTIFUL flower gardens that the Campbell's have. I took almost 250 pictures before my camera card was full...I could have taken a million more! I was hoping to leave at 5. We were supposed to eat at 4, but umm, that didn't happen! We didn't eat until 5 and I didn't get outta there until almost 6! lol! We had a good meal, and then it was times for good-byes...that's always a sad thing! I finally got on the road...YAY! I stopped about 30 miles down the highway at a Dunkin Donuts and got a latte! :) That was GOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!! I went through a little bit of bad weather, but for the most part the weather wasn't too bad! :) I got home about 9:30! YAY! Overall it was a good trip and I enjoyed having a few days off to do absolutely NOTHING!! :)

*************

****Flowers*****

*****LeAnne*****

*****Mr. and Mrs. C, LeAnne, and Me*****

*****Me and LeAnne*****

Nothin too exciting

Not a whole lot of excitement has been going on in my life. I guess that is probably why I haven't really been posting much about my life lately.
The other day I did sell a vacuum, that was exciting! I can't wait to get my check from that! :)
Friday my aunt Beth came from Mishawaka with her son, Jayde. We all went to the jail Bible study and then went to the fireworks! They really weren't all that good this year! It was kinda sad cuz normally we have AMAZING fireworks, especially for a small town. I did get some good pictures though! :)
Saturday I slept in! It was WONDERFUL! I really felt like doing absolutely NOTHING so that's what I did! I didn't wake up until after 9 and didn't really start moving until 10! It was amazing! :D We went to a friends for a cookout, and had some SERIOUS ribs!! Then we went on a boat ride! It was a LOT of fun, but too short! ...sigh...
That evening we went to a patriotic concert! It happens every year, and is usually outdoors with about 5,000 people in attendance! Well, it was raining this year, so we packed into an auditorium that seats about 1,500 people! There weren't 5,000 people, but there were at least 2,000 and probably more! Standing room only! People were standing in the back, up against the walls, and even sitting on the floor in the isles! It was crazy! The concert was AWESOME though! As a tradition 2 verses of "The Star Spangled Banner" are sung. If you've ever heard several thousand people sing the national anthem, you will understand why I got a major case of goosebumps! It was INCREDIBLE! The orchestra played "Stars and Stripes" which is COOL with an entire orchestra, and not just brass. The WWII veterans were recognized, there were about5 or 6 in attendance! Then they did an armed forces medley, recognizing each branch of the military separately, then all together! That was COOL as well! There were also some Broadway songs, and "God Bless America," then as a tradition, they closed with "The 1812 Overture" that is always SOOOO cool, cuz they use canons, (or at least canon sounds) and make it loud and bangy! :)
I didn't go to jail on Sunday, instead I went to my church.
Monday I was convinced to work at the county fair for Rainbow! That stank! I was there for 5 hours! I will be there for the same amount on Thursday, and Friday I'm working for the National Right to Life booth at the fair! I'm a glutton for punishment

Life in the Fast Lane

Ok, I know that if I put every little detail about my week down in writing it will take a LOOOOONG time! So, I will just briefly sum up each day.
Thursday I worked for Wes in the morning and in the evening I attempted to sell a vacuum! It came SOOOOO close! Seriously, I'm still trying to figure out why in the world I didn't sell one! At the end of our shows we almost always do a "phone closing" where we call some of our bosses and they will talk to us and sometimes the customer, and they can a lot of times convince the customer to buy. Ben and Krista were already really close, then I called Matt, who is the manager of the store in Valpo. He talked to Ben, and got him even more interested. After the phone call Ben all of a sudden decided he didn't want to do it! UGH!! Soooo, no sale. It's too bad cuz that would have been my first sale on my own. It was so close that Matt called me while I was on my way home asking if had done all of the paper work! Neither one of us are sure what happened! :(
Friday got really exciting! All day it had been stormy and yucky! We were, at the least, under a severe thunderstorm watch all day, and a couple of times it elevated to warnings, and tornado watches. Nothing new for Northern Indiana, it happens all the time. I was supposed to go to South Bend in the evening to do a show. Where I was going in S. Bend was about an hour away. I really didn't want to drive up there all by myself in the wacky weather. So, I talked to the people at Rainbow and they said that Damon could go with me. I was very relieved. We were supposed to meet at the office at 5 and then proceed to S. Bend. As I was leaving home dad called and said that there was a tornado in Mentone, which is about 6 or 7 miles from us! Oh well, I had a show to go on. So, I got to the office and the tornado sirens were going off when I got out of my vehicle. Creepy. Soon after we left the office I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the storm that had gone over us, it was BLACK! We didn't sell a vacuum, nor did we even show it, which is a really long story.
I went to the jail Bible study Saturday morning, but had to leave early cuz I had a show in Logansport, which is about 1 1/5 hours south of us. Damon went on this one with me as well. We did sell a vacuum which was WONDERFUL!! PTL!! Then Damon, bless his heart, drove a few miles further south and went to Kokomo and stopped at Dunkin Donuts for me!! YAY!! I got a large iced latte, with whipped cream, of course, and totally enjoyed it! ...sigh... We got back about 5:30 and I went to the Hampton Inn in Warsaw where Wes was showing the PowerPoint to a group of his friends so that they could critique it! UGH! It would have been one thing if these were all people who understood what you can and can't do in graphic design, but most of them weren't! There were only 2 people there, mom, and a recording engineer, who understood. I only got in on the last half of the presentation, which was actually a good thing, cuz if I had been there the whole time I would have been crying! By Saturday I had only gotten about 14 hours of sleep the entire week, cuz I was trying to get this project completed for Wes, and then to have people who had NO idea what they were talking about critique it, well, lets just say I was slightly frazzled!
I went into the jail on Sunday morning. It was really good. Unfortunately one guy, Michael, who is actually one of my former bus kids and neighbors was in the solitary confinement cuz he had been wrestling! I told him I was gonna smack him for doing that, but I couldn't cuz he was locked into his cell. Pray for him, he has a lot of potential. We had several people over for Sunday dinner since it was Father's Day. That was fun.
I took yesterday off. I did NOTHING when it comes to work. YAY! At 6:3o there was an open house for Rainbow, so I did go to that, but there was really no work involved there!
Today it is nice and hot and sunny!! I was outside for a loooong time, just enjoying the sun! :) I also did a little bit of mowing, which was fun cuz I haven't mowed at all this year!!

What a craaaazy week!!!

This has been one of the most INSANE weeks of my life!! I'm not even sure where to start, so I guess I'll start at the beginning:
Monday: I had to work in the morning with Wes on the PowerPoint. At times it seems like he wants miracles worked, but I love him to death, and have a hard time telling him that it won't work. I guess I will just have to try to work miracles...lol! In the afternoon I had more advanced training with Rainbow. I had a chiropractor appointment and then a dumb half hour session that is held every Monday night at the chiro's for new patients called "How to stay young for the first 100 years" it was interesting and BORING!

Tuesday: I had a demo at a chiropractors home at 11:00 on Tuesday. I was a little unsure of myself, so I had asked for somebody to go with me on the show. Rob, who is actually the guy who hired me, was assigned to go with me. What was going to happen was he was going to do the show and I was supposed to take notes and pay close attention...pretty much first hand training. We met at the office at 10:30 and got everything together before heading out about quarter til 11. We get to their house and he comes out looking very disheveled. Apparently the doc had no idea about the appointment and his wife was still in bed cuz she wasn't feeling well! Company policy is that both the husband and wife have to be present in order for us to show the machine. UGH! Soooo....we went back to the office. I had some errands to run and then there was more advanced training at 1:00. That went well then I had to work for Wes later in the day.

Wednesday: My demo from Tuesday got rescheduled for Wednesday at 11:00. So once again Rob and I hit the road on our way to the show. This time however the results were quite different. :) Both doc and Mrs. were awake and ready to let us show them the Rainbow. Rob did a great demonstration and had both of them convinced that they needed/wanted a system. However, doc had to open his office at 12:30 so he had to leave, thus we did not get a sale!! :( T'was sad....if there had been 1/2 hour more for us to demo we could have sold them one soooo easily! :( Oh well I guess... There is always training for the Rainbow at 1 that is optional to attend, so I went to that and then had a chiro appointment, and then worked for Wes. Then the day began to get REALLY exciting, let me explain:
My best friend's mom had died the beginning of December. They are missionaries to Italy and she had been buried over there. Faith had just begun her second year of college at Northland Baptist Bible College in WI when Mrs. Pieri was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She got so sick that Faith went home to be with her. Within about three months Mrs. Pieri went home to be with Jesus. Faith did not go back to school, but instead stayed home and helped her family through the hard time. Joseph, who is the Pieri's son (they have 2 children) graduated from high school this year. So the Pieri's came back this summer so Faith and Joseph could both go to Northland, and they had a memorial service on Friday.
So.... we were planning on leaving Thursday morning to drive to Antigo, WI which is where the memorial service was to be held. Well, mom came up with the idea of leaving late Wednesday night so that we could get through Chicago at a decent hour. All well and good, but I still had a LOT of work that I needed to do for Wes, and I had not even begun to pack, on top of that I was exhausted. I finally completely lost it, and just cried for a LOOOOOOONG time!! I was totally overwhelmed! Mom came into my room and held me and let me cry for a while, then she ended up doing most of my packing, cuz I couldn't even think about packing at the time! LOL! We left around 9:00 for Zion, IL which is where the hotel that mom booked for us for the night was. I convinced dad to let me drive through Chicago which was FUN!! We hit some construction, and traffic, but it really wasn't that bad! :) The hotel was really nice and since we didn't have to drive the whole way on Thursday we got to sleep in a little bit! :)
Thursday: We drove through Milwaukee and right outside of it is Menonomee Falls, which is where Falls Baptist Church is, and part of the church is Baptist College of Ministry where several kids from our church have gone to school. Right now two guys from my church are on their singing tour group this summer. They happened to actually be around the entire week, so we got to swing by and see them. :) It was nice. None of us had ever been there before, so we got a tour of the church and classrooms. We also stopped at the Wings as Eagles airplane hangar in Oshkosh, WI. Dad and Mom are going to be putting in an alarm system in August while Samuel is up there for flight camp, so dad needed to check a few things out. I think around 4:00 on Thursday we pulled into Antigo, WI which is where we spent the rest of our time. Probably around 6 or 7 the Pieri's came over and spent the entire evening with us! It was really nice to see them again (the last time we saw them was when they brought Faith to the U.S. for college 2 years ago), but it was hard without Mrs. Pieri.

Friday: The memorial service wasn't until 2:00 so we were able to sleep in, which was WONDERFUL!! Around 10:30 we left so the cleaning people could clean our room. My family ran some errands, but I stayed at the hotel working on the work for Wes. It was nice to get some things accomplished. :) Originally the plans were that we wouldn't see the Pieri's until the service, but plans changed and we ended up meeting them and some of the other family at a restaurant for lunch. It was really nice. The memorial service went really well. There were so many people who were able to give testimony to her VERY close walk with God. There was a lot of praise and glory given to God, and all in all it went really well. Friday evening Bro. Pieri's brother from Michigan stayed in the same hotel that we were in, so the Pieri's came over again and stayed until around 10:00. That was our good-byes to them...it was sad. :( However, they are supposed to be coming to IN sometime in July, so we will get to see them again!! :) :) :) YAY!Saturday: We got up earlier than the 2 days before, but it still wasn't too bad. We were packed and on the road about 8:30. No excitement on the trip home. We got back safe and sound about 6ish.

**********

*****Falls Baptist Church*****

*****Mom at Wings as Eagles*****

*****This was on the floor*****

*****Sorry this is up side down, but its cool*****

*****I'll admit it was tempting*****

*****Me and my bro******

*****Faith and Joseph Pieri*****

*****Bro. Pieri*****

*****Joseph at the funeral dinner*****

*****I was sitting on Angela's lap cuz she decided to sit in my chair!! :-*****

*****Me and Faith...best friends*****

*****Angela and Sasha, they are sisters who were adopted from the Ukraine*****

*****Chicago=traffic*****

*****This cop kinda startled me cuz I thought he was a taxi and then all of a sudden I saw THE cop!!*****

*****This truck had a really funny license plate considering one of my nicknames!!LOL!!*****

*****U.S. Cellular Field, formerly Wrigley Field, where the White Sox play...GOOOO SOX!!!*****