Blueberry Muffin

I just have to tell this story because it's so funny to me. And hey, I'm a fan of dreams!

Luke, a sophomore aka Tux, came up to me today at High Impact. "I had a dream about you!!!" he shouted. He explained that he was at Winter Park again and when he was done snowboarding for the day, he went to the Starbucks in the village area.

Apparently, I was working as a barista there. He ordered a peach tea, and I politely handed him a blueberry muffin instead. And then he got mad and threw it at my face.

hahaha. good times. and goodnight. Off to Chicago in the early mornin!

There will never be another ewe

Since Kendra came with my family for Thanksgiving, she let me hang with her family today for their annual visit to the Colorado stock show! And other than laughing at her cousin Sammy (who I may have almost made cry. Twice. But you can trust me that it was hilarious), or seeing awesome if not way-too-cute-and-cuddly animals (excuse me, "aminals"), or even seeing bull-riding in person for the first time ever, the other sweet moment was meeting another Sharayah.

That's right. I mean, I've met other Sharayahs, or at least one Sharayah and one Shreya before. But this was my first time to hang out with one, and where people had to clarify which Sharayah they were referring to. Funny feeling.

Point is, today was amazing, and I'm so glad I got to go!

Powderburn, powderburn (to the tune of "Spiderman")

I was so happy when Allyson came to visit last week! This is us preparing for a fantastic snow fight. We were borrowing the Banich coats, and they were a bit over-sized. Then I remembered I still had a couple jackets that would work.


At Winter Park for Powderburn. Rachel took the picture for me. We made it to the top of the Eskimo lift, which happened to also be the place where my binding broke later that day.


Despite the binding issue, how could I be mad? Look at this gorgeous place!

And Powderburn itself was fantastic. It was a chance to examine our brokenness and learn to allow God to make a masterpiece of our hearts. I was personally challenged to serve the youth better, and not to be so selfish with my time. That led to a small group moment where I felt I shouldn't talk at all, but let the students do what they needed. It turned out amazing, and was probably my favorite part of the trip. How neat to see students journaling their prayers, or just praying in silence or reading their Bible for an extended period of time. It felt like being at a dinner table, and everyone was more adament about the taste and enjoyment of the meal. The meal being the Voice of God.

Makes me picture spaghetti, and the sauce getting all over our faces, while the extra-long noodles get slurped up. Delicious.

Ok, maybe I liked the part where we watched Extreme Days on the bus too, and Eric Pellish pronounced loudly, as soon as the credits began to roll, "That was the worst movie I've ever seen!" Haha. And then others heckled him saying it wasn't that bad.

A Surprise

All last week and this week, I have been waiting. When it comes to figuring out future plans, I'm often pretty persistent. Such as when I applied for my summer internship a couple of years ago. I was good at emailing the prospective employers and checking up with my references to make sure everything went through okay.

As of December 17th, I had applied to go to Russia for a two-week trip. My references immediately sent in the info.. And then came the waiting. Then again, I didn't really expect much during Christmas break, although I did think about the opportunity to do support raising sooner than later. Nonetheless, nothing happened.

I chose to email the guy I've been in touch with ever since I saw this trip opportunity in.. I think it was early October. It may have been sooner... Oh! Whenever the season premiere of Heroes was shown, that was when I learned about the possibility of going to Russia. Any way, I emailed my contact asking for an approximate time for a response. He said early that week.

And that was three weeks ago.

Every inch of me wanted to email the following week, and the next, but I kept hearing this small voice inside of me say, "Wait." Wait. Grrr. And eventually, I came to the point where I didn't even put Russia into my future possibilities when explaining the next couple months to my friend who was visiting (more on that later). Literally, minutes after that, she took a bathroom break amidst our conversation.. I checked email.. and there it was.

Accepted. AND it turns out I'll be indirectly influencing teenagers. He knows what He's doing!

Here come the support letters. Bring on the prayers. Oh wait. First, there's Powderburn..

Books to include in your collection

Celebration of Disciplines by Richard Foster
The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

Next on the list?
The Transforming Power of Fasting and Prayer by Bill Bright
or...
Your God is too Small by J.B Phillips

Coffee and Waxing--first HP of 2009

"What, pray tell, is Coffee and Waxing?" Little Gwyneth Kingry asks.

Well, the first part is obvious. The church coffee shop, Higher Grounds is open for students to enjoy free coffee (or hot chocolate if you prefer..). Waxing, means waxing the skis and snowboards to help reduce friction with the snow, especially for next weekend. POWDERBURN!!! The senior high ski trip.

Waxing is a cool process. You melt the wax with an iron, and let it melt on the bottom side of the board/skis. Once it's sufficiently melted all over, you press the iron to the board to smooth it out. There's also a whole other process to scraping excess wax off the board, and smoothing out other bumps. It's quite fascinating for this Texan ;)

Overall, though, it was a rather low key kind of night. About 35 students came in and out. We played knockout, dominoes, and I taught killer uno (shout out to Samariah and Melissa for teaching that game way back when). Some of the students later circled up in the gym, grabbed a volleyball and juggled.. so to speak.. the rule was that you couldn't hit the ball with the same body part twice. It was more fun to watch. hehe.

I do miss regular High Point, and I'm kind of anxious for it to start back up after Powderburn!

Happy New Year!

It's true. I haven't written on this in weeks. I've been quite distracted by final days at work before the Christmas break to go back to Texas.

A lot happened. Here is a basic overview:








1. Road trip to McPherson, KS to see long lost bff, Madeline Grennan! We saw everything that was part of that small town: brother's wrestling match, friends' bball game, and a little high school reunion at the local Braum's, and naturally, some girl talk late into the night..

2. John's family was in town for the break, and long story short, LOTS of fun! But seriously, both of our families came together for a lunch at El Chico; John and I were able to have some quality time playing Mario Party, sharing meals, bowling (he won), and just general family hang out time.

3. Spending time with family and getting money (in all forms--such as pictured: Jello). I thoroughly enjoyed playing/watching WiiFit, the new addition to the Longoria household (in case you're wondering, my wii age is twenty). We watched Four Christmases together, and ate plenty of wonderful food!

4. I also spent time with church friends. Here is one of my favorite moments: watching the sad, sad Northwestern bowl game. Lauren is mimmicking the mom of the Mizzou kicker when he missed that 44 yd field goal attempt.

Obviously, there is much more. But we must not neglect what is to come: Coffee and Waxing Party, All-Area Worship, Powderburn, bible study at AWest, conference in Chicago, prayer retreat, and of course, Green Eggs and Ham. To name a few.

To quote Old Blue Eyes, "The Best is Yet to Come."