Tuesday, August 18, 2009

leaves.

So I'm home. Although I am happy, being sick hasn't made for an enjoyable return.

I am grateful I was able to go to high school camp. My girls are seniors now! This is year 6 with them and I am honored to have spent so many years in their lives.

The camp group (minus hannah)
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before she left. it was bright inside.
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the rope course crew
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super seniors
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on the lake
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hammock time
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At this last summer camp I was reminded of our first summer camp together in 2004. We played the same camp game this year we played the first year. There were just as many over the top hilarious moments. This camp was different in seeing how much the girls desired to listen to God, encourage each other, confess, grow and be who He wants them to be. Priorities are different now and it is so exciting to see the growth in the their lives. We looked back at the last 5 years, prayed over hurts and healing and enjoyed eating, talking, relaxing and being crazy together. I am encouraged and blessed to be a part of their journey.

So Vegas didn't end the way it was planned to but I am humbled to see how God has moved me away from my plan and towards his. I had a plan in my head about how life would look for me upon returning but as I made the journey back that plan began to reroute. So thanks to Jesus and some great people in my life I will start a new job tomorrow at my church. I really am honored to be chosen and working with so many people I love and respect at a place I love so much. I am excited. More to come on this!

Goals for today:
rest and feel better, finally see (500) days of summer, be reunited with yogurtland, get organized and enjoy some new music.

Summer is over. That is weird but lately I have been day dreaming about Fall - festivities, leaves, pumpkin flavored treats and sweaters. Mhmm!

Friday, August 7, 2009

Leaving Las Vegas.

Today is the day. Moving day.
I'm almost all packed. I'm fueled up. I'm ready to load the car (okay I might not be ready but I am trying to be).

Today involved one last Einstein's Bagels trip with Rach, packing/errands and now some downtime followed by one more make up photo shoot.

Then it is just me and the 15 south.

So we had to take pictures with the other side of 'The Sign'. "Drive carefully, Come back soon." Why thank you, Las Vegas. I have mixed thoughts and feelings but it's time to part ways for now.

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peace out
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PS -
If you want to take a trip to Vegas, let's do it!
It is only 89 degrees right now which is Vegas loving me back.
If you know how to take pictures do not let a random tourist take one for you - they never turn out well.

Good bye.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

knots.

Two signs I am stressed:
-knots in my stomach
-knots in my shoulders

Right now I sit at my Coffee Bean in Las Vegas with both signs. I am making a list of things I need to do/gather before I leave, people to say bye to, last hoorah events to be had and deciding when to actually leave.

I am leaving las Vegas earlier than originally planned, earlier than I thought two weeks ago and now earlier than I thought yesterday. Ya know.. why plan? Plans are ever changing. I am trying my best to go with the flow. Making decisions and putting my foot down where needed are not my strong points. I'd rather do what you want than what I want. I am working on a happy medium.

All that to say - time to load up the car one last time, run final errands and enjoy the next 24 hours or so. Woah, weird.

Last night Rachel and I found some adventures while taking a few final pictures of LV. Lot's of traffic, purse snacks and high winds all amount to laughing and good times.

View from the airport:

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Seems like not long ago we arrived and took pictures with the sign:
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To be continued with parting thoughts and images.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

"A Desperate Call."

You might remember me writing about a friend who has left the ex industry and having a rough time. I was going to write an update but here is Rachel's entry from last weekends ordeal.

"So the other night my friend that lives here in Vegas with me, gets a call from a lady that she met a little while ago. Lets call her Annie. As most of you know, there are a few of us here in Vegas that have visited strip clubs and brothels seeking out relationships with the girls that work in these environments. Whether it be through hair, makeup, cooking etc. we want to get to know them as beautiful women that have been created for amazing things.

So my friend gets a call from a girl that she met along this journey and texts me as she is talking with her, to let me know what is going on. Annie sounds disoriented, confused and is repeating herself over and over. She tells my friend that she was lost in the streets with her dog. My friend (Phylicia) tries to get some information from her but Annie cant seem to remember anything and repeats herself forgetting that she has just told Phylicia that same thing. Phylicia continues to stay on the phone with her knowing that things aren’t normal, as she has called before and knows a little about Annie. Phylicia is told by a friend to find someone and go to Annie’s house. Phylicia texts me to ask if i will drive with her to go see if Annie is ok. So i pick her up and we head to Annie’s apartment. Phylicia stays on the phone with her this whole time. We find her apartment, we walk in and if you know Vegas in the summer it gets to 110 degrees normally during the day. As we walk in to her apartment, a temperature that no one should have to live in engulfs us. No AC which is pretty abnormal for vegas, stuff everywhere, a dog named inspiration and a confused Annie are inside. We try and ask her how she is feeling. (side note: she takes medications for a few different things) We try and get her to drink some water and continue to dig stuff out of her. By this time we are all drenched in sweat due to the extreme heat in the apartment.

We finally have no choice but to take her to the emergency room. Of course we were there to help but at this point we are not doctors and it seemed as though there was nothing we could do but pray. So we proceed to walk her to the car. That alone was a process. Her words were slurring, she could barely stand up and walking down the stairs was the last thing she wanted to do. Phylicia is holding her up and I am in front of them pretending that if either of them fall I am going to catch them. (not realizing at the time that if either of them fell…..we were all going down.)

We get her in the car and she keeps asking us where we are going. We tell her we are headed to the hospital and not a block from her apartment she is flipping out. Yelling and telling us she doesn’t want to go, swinging her arms and trying to get out of the car. i lock the doors so that she doesn’t jump out of the car and Phylicia jumps from the passengers seat to the back to help calm her down. I start praying out loud desperately and Phylicia tries to talk to her and calm her down. Within seconds (which seemed like hours) she calms down and we begin to talk about fun things like her dog, my dog, family…pretty much anything that would keep her focused and talking.

We arrive at the hospital. It was me and phylicia who are both around 24 and then Annie who has had a rough day and does not look well taken care of who is about 35. You can only imagine what people are thinking as we walk in carrying her on our shoulders. We get her set up to see a doctor. She seems to be calmed down and headed back to normal behavior. She cant remember what she has taken but seems to be hiding a few things from us and the doctor. They get her to a bed and hook her up to the machine. We sat in the room for about 2 hours, first waiting for a doctor and secondly trying to convince Annie that she needed to let the doctor take blood and urine samples. We sat convincing her for a good half hour with no progress. She refused to do any testing. We ended up walking out of the hospital at midnight with not much accomplished. We (phylicia, the doctors, nurses and i) all could pretty much tell that it wasn’t just prescription drugs she had taken that night. We drove her home a little defeated but trying to remind her that we were there for her and we care. We get her back into her extremely hot apartment. By the time we get there she is pretty much fully recovered for the moment so we feel ok to leave her.

All this to say she has called Phylicia a few more times and sometimes wants help and sometimes doesn’t. Every time there is a call from a women in desperate times I quickly learn over and over that I alone cannot heal or free her from whatever it is that she is going through. but I do know that being their friend around the clock is so important to them. We both felt a little discouraged about not getting much accomplished but we were both glad that she called Phylicia (who she barely knows). Knowing that most of these women dont have family or friends to call in time of need is worth every moment that we think seems pointless."