To my friends who took accidentally drove into Tijuana

Mexico. It's an interesting place. I can't say much about it because I've only been there a few times and only for a few hours each time. My first visit I was bombarded by everyone trying to sell me their products. I don't like to make decisions fast, so this situation didn't work out well for me and I ended up buying a set of jewelry which I never wear. My second visit...I walked into a shop and the owner stuck out his hand, and me being the friendly person that I am, thought that he wanted a high-five so I slapped his hand. He gave me a very weird look and I left the shop quickly. Today at church I was reminded of this story when Scott stuck out his hand and I slapped it, and he said are we in mexico again?? Scott on the other hand, took the wrong exit, and accidentally drove his family, in the rental convertable, into downtown Tijuana. So props to everyone out there who has had to deal with cultural mistakes! Am I alone on these cultural mistakes??

Mars Hill

I was able to visit Mars Hill yesterday for church. It was cool seeing Rob Bell in person! He looks a lot different in person than on those Newma videos. He was ending a four part series called "The Flames of Heaven" His sermon notes were very simple. It was a piece of computer paper titled "The Flames of Heaven Part 4- Calf [Revelation 4]" Underneath the title was a black and white calf with 3 bible references on each side of it. It was that simple. If you wanted to take notes, you just flip it over and start writing. Instead of summarizing it, just go to www.mhbcmi.org and you can listen for yourself. "The Weekly" is what we would call their bulletin. Its a simple 12 page booklet including Community News, Service Opportunities, House Churches, Pastoral care, Community Care, Global Outreach, Children's Ministy, and Mars Hill Students.

The music was different that what I'm used to. The platform is in the center of the room and the band is facing inward and is circled around the platform. The music this week was bluegrass themed. I think this was to add to the affect of the message being about the Calf and Rob kept saying welcome to the barn instead of welcome to the shed. So the band played all older hymns with a bluegrass feel to them. It was just interesting to me.

I loved this story that Rob told us during announcements. Their church is supporting a region in Africa. The students at Mars Hill saw a soccer ball that the African kids used to play soccer with. It was a ball made of rappers and string tightly smashed together. This was unacceptable to them, so they raised enough money to buy 1500 soccer balls for these kids. The high school alone raised money for 1200 of these soccer balls. The kids were so excited to get these balls. They love them so much, that everytime they play soccer whoever is involved in the game must get their toes inspected and if the toenails are too long they must cut them before playing in order not to scratch the balls. I love the idea of living in common community behind all of this. The students thought, why is it right for these African kids to be playing with these balls when we have plenty of resources around us? So instead of leaving it at that, they did something about it, and thanks to them these kids are enjoying many games of soccer with real soccer balls. They forgot about themselves for a while and focused on making these kids' lives more enjoyable. Maybe this is one way this kingdom that we live in is being properly lived out.

Who wants to be a Millionaire?

I love reading the church at the corner's cheesy saying on their sign. It is always changing and many times makes me laugh as I drive by.
Today it said: Who wants to be a Christianaire? Jesus- final answer??

I'll be in Michigan all weekend...ttyl!

A Glimpse of my surprise party for graduating early

This is my cake! My parents even put my picture on it.



Many people showed up and therefore, there were many shoes. Andrew "misplaced" his shoes again. After careful searching they were found...don't worry it wasn't like he was set up or anything.



People were hungry, so we fed them.



Aaron couldn't quite figure out the ice maker on the fridge.



And Patrick, well no one really knows what he was doing:)


For those of you who couldn't make it, or weren't invited....no worries I'm having a more expected and formal graduation party in the spring.

This is what I came home to...

Brandon loves using his gun. He sets up his target all over the house and gets the little green pellets all over the house. Sometimes it kinda freaks me out when I accidentally walk into the shooting range...luckily I haven't been hit yet.
Dinner was interesting. I want you all to know that my mom is a great cook!!! But tonight when I got home to eat, I wasn't sure what I was eating. As you can see it is some kind of pork, but to me it looked like it came right out of the pig. I even tried to use A1 steak sauce but it didn't help much. So, after three bites, I decided to stick with the baked potatoe/rolls/and peas for dinner.

While I was attempting to eat dinner. Riley, as usual, wanted to go outside. He always seems to want to go out right when I'm in the middle of something. But tonight it was easier to leave my dinner and let him out.

So much to do, with so MUCH time, I don't know what to do

Time. I have time on my hands and I don't know what to do with it. Actually I can think of many things that I could be doing but nothing seems like just the right thing to be doing. And so what am I doing?? Sitting here contemplating what I should do. It is 9pm so technically I could go to bed, but well we all know what happened last time I decided to go to bed early...a party showed up at my house. I guess I will just continue this contemplating until some genious thought comes to me...or maybe I'll just have to re-evaluate my options...we will see what comes first.

Straw Fettish

I am admitting it, I LOVE STRAWS!! Straws make drinking any substance so much more enjoyable. I drink my water, pop, cappachino, and much more thru a straw. I have been told many times not to drink hot substances like cappachino thru a straw. The other day I even picked up a straw that said "Do not use with hot substances". Yet, I do it anyways. And once again, I am sitting here drinking a Pepsi(which Andrew so nicely bought me) from a straw. But the true joy of using straws is that I can easily control how much I get to drink by biting down on the straw and allowing what I want to come thru. Am I way off base with my love for straws??? Is there anyone else out there who enjoys them as much as me???

These past few days have been great. I've enjoyed hanging out with friends and finishing my music room. Last night I got to hang out with a new combination of friends. There were three of us, and we just had fun hot-tubbing, putting my drum set back together, and talking. The three of us had never really hung out together, and after the night, we decided we needed to hang out more together. I am glad to have friends in my life...so thanks to all those out there who have allowed me to be their friend!!

Peace,
Krista

Praise Habit Mentality

I have begun reading the book Praise Habit by David Crowder. I'm loving the book so far!

In the first few chapters he talks about how as young children we used to just get excited about everything and then as we grew older we became too cool to be excited...and he applied it to the musical aspect of worship and how people are timid in their worship, and although they may be thinking that they love God with everything...there is no way on earth they would show it because they know that people are watching them. He also talks about habits and how most often habits are percieved as bad. Yet, some habits can be good. And to tie it all together he asks what if our whole life was one big praise habit? What if we praised God through everything we did throughout the day? So, as I read that last night I decided to apply it today. And you know what?? My day has been amazing so far!

I woke up early to get ready and go to Andrew's rock group which Kate was speaking at. Before I left the house, I said goodbye to my dad and gave him a hug telling him that I love him(I haven't hugged him in a LONG time). I got in my car and put in UNITED and listened to My God...this continued to set the mood for my day. My mind began thinking and working as I listened to Kate speak. I came home and practiced piano for 1 hour(this hasn't happened in a while as well)...and although I can't say it was the most fun thing to do I thanked God for giving me the ability and talent to even play the piano..and to just have 10 perfectly good fingers that hit the keys at the right moments after practicing...And here I am. Ready to continue my day of praising God through everything. Who knows what will be next?? All I know is that my day has already seemed so much more enjoyable and fulfilling by constantly applying this praise habit mentality.

My Music Room

This morning I got up and took linds. home at 6:45am....then I slept on her couch until 10am and came home so that Laurel and I could paint my music room. We have this new thing that when we hang out we like to paint...so we've been painting various rooms in my house...today's room was our 3rd. So, we set to work around 11am and finished around 4pm. The room isn't huge but painting is a time consumer. It was fun, we figured out some new techniques and in the end...my music room looks great. It's not completely finished..Jenn has some additional painting to do...but in the mean-time I will be jammin away down here now that all my instruments are contained in one room. For those of you who haven't seen the room yet...you'll just have to come over soon and see the finished project!! Thanks for all your hard work today Laurel!!!!

Any suggestions to what this music room should be called??

Band Practice, Puking, and No Sleep

Last night was....interesting. I slept very little even though I was worn out from the day. I had a friend spend the night last night. We had "band practice". Meaning I played drums and she played piano and we practiced some songs that we just generally enjoy playing together. Many people stopped by last night including Jenn and her designing self(unfortunately there were no roadies) and Kate, Natalie, and Jamie. Around 10pm my friend and I decided to begin watching "The Island". It was a great movie, for all of you who haven't seen it!! Then we attempted to sleep. Well, my friend did a great job of falling asleep fast, me on the other hand...well I drifted in and out of sleep. But around 4am..my friend sat up and started coughing...next thing I know she's running to the bathroom and "tossing her cookies" Around 4:30 she came back in and after I made sure she was ok, I attempted to drift back into sleep...but was unsuccessful. 6:25am hits and she's sitting up again coughing...I told her to go to the bathroom in case she got sick again...but she insisted she was fine. Next thing I know...she's puked in my bed. TIME OUT: I don't know how you would handle the situation, but I sure didn't know what to do!! I haven't puked in my bed since I was a small child and I've for sure NEVER had a friend puke in my bed before. So....I got her some towels, peeled the sheets off of my bed, and we headed downstairs to the basement to catch some more zzzz's. Only one problem....I can't sleep. So, with my few hours of sleep I am going to go do something productive with all this time I have this morning.

No School= YMCA card usage

It's amazing how much crap people eat these days. You're sitting at home and bored, so what do you do?? Mozy on over to the kitchen and pop some snackage in your mouth. Since I am done with high school and basically have this semester off...I've decided it's time to put my YMCA card to good use. That leads me to the schedule of mon, wed, fri....swimming laps....tues, thurs, sat....treadmill and other machine stuff. And to go along with this, I'm watching what I'm eating. It's great to work out, but what does it matter if I'm still just eating junk food all the time...I'm sure this will be interesting to see how long this plan will work for, but hey at least I'm trying to get back into shape:)