Family Road Trip Day 6

We sadly had to leave Colorado early in the morning. My family was leaving before the T family so I very stealth-like got ready and packed up then headed downstairs to meet up with my family. We didn't stop anywhere except to eat and a few bathroom breaks on our way to Omaha, Nebraska. Sadly it was not the most exciting part of our trip, once again filled with sleeping, reading, writing, movies and music.

It was a great trip and if anyone else in our "family" wants to do a destination wedding I have no problem with it!

Family Road Trip Day 5

The day of the wedding has finally arrived! We went up to the lake in the mountains and it was probably one of the most terrifying drives I've ever taken. Dirt road winding around the mountain, but the view when we got up there was totally worth it.

It was really pretty then about 2 minutes before the ceremony was going to start it started to rain so we all took cover in the giant gazebo that was set up for dinner. When the rain finally stopped we went back out and started to try and dry off the benches or find something to sit on. A few minutes later it started to hail.

It was then that it was announced that they were going to hold the ceremony in the gazebo so we all turned our chairs and had the wedding there.

Sarah looked totally beautiful and looked so so excited to see her groom when she came around the corner.

After a crap ton of tears from me Pastor Phil pronounced them Hubby and Wife and the groom kissed the bride and it was adorable. 

Later that night, after some dancing at the wedding Ryan, Jenna, Amber, Jordan, Sean, Bridget and I all headed out to the bars. After hitting one really lame one we went to another bar where there were lots of people and an awesome guitarist. It was a great way to end a fun and wonderful day.

Family Road Trip Day 4

So today we just kind of hung out in Vail. In the morning there was a "hike" to where Sylvan proposed to Sarah and a good chunk of our "family" went. I opted out because of my hurt knee and I went swimming for a good couple hours instead.

The group that went later referred to this hike as the "Death Hike'' it was quite the challenging 8 miles and sadly a good part of the above group added a mile onto their hike by going the wrong way. Sean later got sick from not having enough water even though he had this massive bottle of water when he went.. I'd know since we were in the same room. But my family and I went shopping later that day and Em was feeling a bit pooped, and Aly being the wonderful little sister she is helped Em out. 

 That night was the Grooms Dinner and we were all invited to go. It was a blast getting to hang out with everyone and get all fancied up for it.  

 We got photo bombed by Deanna, neither of my parents had a clue for the first three photos!











Em promised to work on her fierce look but we won't hold it against her.

Family Road Trip Day 3

TODAY WAS AMAZING! We went white water rafting down the Arkansas River this morning. We were split up into 3 different boats. My whole family (minus myself) was in one raft, then Bruce, Candy and Bridget were in another raft and I was with Sean and Lindsey in a third raft. I was so so so excited for the trip, Emily and Aly were another story..

Emily ‏@H----Emily13 If I die white water rafting, I love almost all of you :)

aly  ‏@A-----x5  I survived #whitewaterrafting

They both loved it when we got done. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the trip and how much fun we had but it was great. Other than the fact that I was wearing the SMELLIEST life vest EVER. Holy man it was bad, even Sean who was not sitting by me could smell it from where he was, it was bad. None of us fell out of our boats although 2 of us came close, my dad nearly went out and so did I. Our guide reached over and yanked me back into the raft and probably saw a good part of my butt since I was wearing a racing suit and to any of you who've worn one of those you know that those sucker RIDE.  But anyways we finally got to Vail today. Our families, minus Bridget, Sean and I, are all staying in a condo. The other families are all staying in that condo building. Thankfully we're not far from them in our lovely little hotel room. 

 Later that night we taught our Pastor how to play beer pong. Ryan and I played him and Amber and it was one of the longest games of pong I've played. We had designated drinkers for the game and it was a total blast. Never in my life did I think I'd play beer pong with my childhood Pastor.

Family Road Trip Day 2

Second day started in Rapid City, South Dakota. Emily and I got to go for a little walk last night which was totally fun and a nice break for us to bond in. We got up far too early (like 7:30 but STILL) and headed out to Mount Rushmore! It was so cool to get to see the monument finally. I'd been working in South Dakota for 2 summers and had never seen Mount Rushmore.

The monument was actually much smaller than I thought it was going to be. I mean it's huge and AMAZING but when you see pictures like mine it looks SO BIG! Whereas it's pretty small looking. It's far away so that you can see the whole thing but I think that's what made it seem so small to me. Both my sisters agreed that it seemed smaller than what we were expecting. Once in the history part of we saw photos that really put the size into scale for us. The men working on the monument were so little compared to even bits of the faces. 

In case you can't read that it says:

The four American Presidents carved into the granite of Mount Rushmore were chosen by the sculptor to commemorate the founding, growth, preservation and development of the United States. They symbolize the principles of liberty and freedom on which the nation was founded. George Washington signifies the struggle for independence and the birth of the Republic; Thomas Jefferson the territorial expansion of the country; Abraham Lincoln the permanent union of the States, and equality for all citizens, and Theodore Roosevelt, the 20th century role of the United States in world affairs and the rights of the common man.

It was really cool getting to go and see the history of the place! I'm kind of a history nerd so I really loved it. 

That night we stayed in a cabin for 8 people but we managed to squish 10 people in there as we had met up with the T family. Which consists of Bruce, Candy, Bridget, Sean and Lindsey. Lindsey is in between my two sisters and her brother and sister, Bridget and Sean are both older than I am. It was really fun getting to see some friendly faces and the place we stayed at was awesome. Buena Vista Spa that had natural hot springs that you could chill in and the most interesting stream I've ever seen. It was flowing both hot a cold water, so hot a points that you could see the steam rising off of the water.

Family Road Trip Day 1

So I have been pretty busy lately getting home from camp (which I plan on blogging about) then hitting the open road to Colorado with my family for a wedding. Now I'm back up at school and living with 2 of the same girls from last year and another couple of girls. But anyways... Family Road Trip.

One of our family friends Sarah was getting married so we all, my family and 7 other families over all we totaled 30 people. Came out from Minnesota to Colorado for the wedding. My family, like many of the others had decided that we were going to drive from our homes (on the Wisconsin side of Minnesota) to Vail, Colorado. My family left on Sunday morning and drove into South Dakota. Our drive we super fun, full of sleeping, listening to music and watching movies. Sorry to say, as much as I like South Dakota it's not super fun to drive through..

After driving for what felt like a year, but in reality it was only 5 hours, our first "fun" tourist attraction was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.

Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as exciting as we were hoping it would be. The decorations outside are completely made of corn and I'd suggest going to see it, I wouldn't say it's a MUST but it was fun to just get out of the car and enjoy being silly with my sisters.

We also hit up this super cool old drug store called Wall Drug. It had been there for a super long time and we got some free ice water (which is funny cuz Aly bought some tap water at the subway earlier that day).

Dad was feeling ready to be done driving by this point and probably a little sick of us at this point too. 

That night we stayed in Rapid City, South Dakota. The next morning we were going to be heading over to Mount Rushmore which is one place that my dad hasn't seen before my sisters and me. Our mom had been there before but it was back when she was a kid.

Alterations

SO! You know how I said that I wanted to start altering dresses from thrift stores? WELLLL, I DID IT! My friend E and I went to the thrift store and we picked up three dresses and I got to work. Here's the before and after of one of the dresses.

Before

  After


Here's another that I did for Natalie.

Before

 After

Summer

Growing up and getting a big girl job is so of terrifying. I have a part time job at a company called REM. I get to work with mentally handicapped adults. I love the job, I love it so much. The girls are wonderful, they are so much fun to be with, to talk to and I really like how they help me see the world in a different light. I'd love to stay there for the next few years, while I'm in Bemidji and going to school.
Then there's camp. I love camp. I've worked at two different camps the past two summers and I love it. I can see myself staying at camp for a year round position, having that as an amazing job. I'm going back to the same camp this summer, back to NeSoDak in South Dakota. I can't wait.

That joy is what's keeping me from regretting the decision I've made. I'm going to go to camp. I was worried that I was going to make the wrong choice in going back to camp. But I've realized that the fact that I'm so incredibly excited to go back to camp means that I'm making the right choice. Growing up means making the right choice, not the one that always sounds more fun. But the fact that I can't imagine a summer without camp and that I'm so excited to go back to camp says that I made the right choice.

Chelsea! Hey Chelsea!

So as you know it was retreat weekend this weekend and you were very missed. But since I'm writing a whole blog for you I thought I'd get into a bit of detail.

Friday- We (Jake, Kristi, Sara and I) left at 2:30 a half hour later than we'd planned but since when do we ever leave on time? We stopped for food and continued to NeSoDak, we got here around 8:30-9. The rest of the Bemidji folk were coming after us so we had a little while to hang out and chat before we had worship.

Saturday- Morning we had breakfast, then worship and a talk by Larry Olson from Dakota Road (which I forgot to record on my computer for the podcast). We then broke into our small groups and had a little chat, I got to lead a group of three people!
Our service projects were after lunch and a second worship (which I did record). I took 8 people to Lake Enemy Swim Day School and we sorted through books to keep or recycle. We were going to send them to better world books but it was more work than we had time for. But Ellen (our contact there) really liked that idea and is going to try to do that next time. We also had people helping out around camp and some wrote letters to the armed forces.
After dinner and another worship (which I recorded) we had our lovely variety show. Which we did differently, we let people sign up to do some talent stuff as well as having some improv. It was then that Shawna and I decided that it was time to share a bit of information about the sword...and how MSUM could get it back. We had them preform a musical skit this morning at breakfast. Which was hilarious but more later on that.
When the Variety show was over Jeremy and James acted out some movies for Emeline, Maggie, David and me. Which of course was HILARIOUS. Let's be real though, it's those two.

Sunday: Had a super quick board meeting, where we decided that we're going to nominate Pastor Randy for some award for campus ministry Pastor (it's two kids that passed away in a car crash on their way to a retreat, their names). The musical skit was at brunch and they did like a Improv Everywhere where they would randomly stand up and start singing about being tired then they changed it to being how they were so wonderfully excited about being here to praise God. We decided that it was good enough and time to get them their sword back. We had another group here with us that was eating with us so we got to explain what in the world was going on.
After brunch we had one last worship with Larry (which I didn't record cuz I was writing this (shhhh)) and the SCSU group. Sadly Waldorf couldn't make it and we only had the PJ's with us.

But everyone says, "Hello" and "We miss you" God be with you Chels.

Invisible Children and Kony

So I've been reading and watching somethings about Josph Kony. He is a leader of the LRA, an army in Africa that is made up of some pretty awful people. This army takes kids from their homes, forces them to kill their parents and then to kill and maim others. One of the biggest problems is that not many people know about Kony and what he is doing. That's where Invisible Children come in. They want to make Kony famous. Not in a good way, but in the we're going to hunt you down and arrest you kind of famous.

I'm hoping to join this fight and help bring Kony to justice. On April 20th I'm going to plaster my school and town with Kony posters and I'm going to put stuff in the back of my car window so that the world can learn about Kony and we can put his reign of terror to an end.

Stars

"I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night." -Galileo

I have reciently fallen in love with the above quote. I don't know exactly what it is that makes me love it so much but I do. Maybe it's because I don't fear the night. I don't fear the darkness in which monsters hide. Because even in the darkest part of night you can find the stars.

"Chelsea was obsessed with the stars. She thought they were signals from heaven showing people the way home." -Bones s2 e21

Isn't that a beautiful thought? That the stars are there to guide us home to Christ. I don't know if the intent of the quote was to imply home was heaven but that's what it is for me. Home. Heaven. Our final destination. A place where family can watch over us after they're gone. Something that we can see, heaven is hard to imagine. None of us know what it looks like unless we've died and come back (like the "Heaven is for Real" kid). For me the stars are a reminder that heaven is up there. It might not be a star, might be beyond them but won't they be beautiful surrounding the Earth?

Side thought. Isn't it amazing that God can make the stars, these beautiful amazing things and he takes time to make us? Like he made every inch of me, every grain of sand and every star. So. Cool. I love that He is so damn cool. I hope God is okay with me saying he's "damn cool" cuz he is. SO COOL. 

Faith

Sometimes I worry that people judge me because of my faith. I know that I shouldn't care but I kind of do. Like, just because I'm a Christian doesn't mean that I'm perfect. Just because I'm a Christian doesn't mean that everything in my life is perfect. My mom gave me this little plaque thing that says "When life gets tough, toughen your Faith." I love this quote because of what's been going on in my life. I've recently lost a grandparent and my dog. It's been hard and I don't like the feeling. It's hard to let go of the pain and it's hard to understand why I'm being put through all of this. It sucks. But I know that I won't loose the Faith I have just so that people won't judge me. I rather be judged for that than anything else.

Frustrated

I'm just frustrated in general right now. Things seem to be piling up in all the wrong ways.
First there's work: I just started a new job and as much as I love it right now all my training classes are messing with my classes.

Second there's school: I have two tests tomorrow and work from 9-4. My tests? At 10 and 2. Can I get out of this? No. Can I reschedule either test? Possibly. But it's looking like a no.

Third there's my parents: They "want me to come with on spring break" then FREAK OUT at me because I want to come. What? It doesn't make sense I know. What the hell right? I'm seriously at the point where I just don't know what to do. I got into a fight with both my parents at different times where I ended up crying. A) I don't cry often and B) I'm a daddy's girl so if I get in a fight with him it's a BIG deal.

I'm just to the point where I'm like screw it and I'm going to crawl into bed and not come out for a week or so. I'm going to have to pay rent this month (my new roommates didn't want me to have to pay for 2 places in one month (wonderful people I know)) and I need to pay for my Compassion Child Steffany and I have to send some packages that I sold on Ebay.

Oh God.

I WILL NOT ask for any more money. I won't. I will starve first, I'm sure that'll help my ever increasing waistline. Oh and there's another thing I need to pay for, Weight Watchers. And no, I'm not ashamed of that, I'm proud of myself. This time, I'm doing it for ME. I'm strong enough to ask for help and damn it I'm gonna kick this thing in the ass.

Wish me luck world...

Thrift Store Shopping

Okay, that's it. I need to get into the thrift store business. And when I say business I mean me going there and buying stuff.
Lately I've been absolutely obsessed with the website pinterest. If you don't know what that is I HIGHLY recommend it. It's so dang cool that I can't even describe it. But anyways, I've been all over this website pinning to my heart's content and I found a pin where a girl has been taking dresses from thrift stores and making them into "new dresses" out of them. I've decided that this is what I want to start doing.

Step one: Get Grandma's sewing machine

Step two: Learn how to alter dresses

Step three: Find said dresses

Step four: ta da!!

So here goes, my latest adventure :)

Hello :)

So since everyone I know is going places and doing things and starting blogs I thought I'd start one too. Sadly mine won't be as exciting until at least spring break, but still I thought it'd be fun! 

I'm a 21 year old college student, I'm in Minnesota and am studying to be a Youth Ministry Worker. I'm working on my Psychology degree with a Mass Communications minor.

Again, sorry that this is so boring but I need to change somethings in my life, and I thought this would be fun.