sometimes when i back out of my driveway, i go over the curb.

so i can't help but notice that i am MUY bad (that means "very" bad) at updating things. and now sofia is practically *yelling* at me, so i figured i better at least put something. although she should be a little more grateful, if you ask me; i have stayed up oh so late emailing her FOTOS, even though she refuses to include the best one in her IMOVIE!
hmmmmmmm........... if i were ruder i might even post such FOTO on this here blog... but i am looking forward to being in her wedding, so i suppose i should probably postpone that ;)

so it seems like everything is always so busy. and maybe it is. last weekend i saw christmas lights in oshkosh and i heart christmas lights in oshkosh. it was so fun...... with the vince guaraldi soundtracking action..................................................... last night me and mike (other mike) drove around fort checking out the christmas lights. we were sorely disappointed. there is one pretty sweet part of town, but the rest was quite the let-down. i don't know what people are thinking, ugh! i'm kidding--i don't even have my christmas tree up yet. part of me is thinking i won't put it up at all, but that is lame. then part of me is thinking maybe i'll just put it up and leave it up all year, even though *some* people would be very disgusted by that.

hmm.
barold leaves for ecuador in like 4 days! how crazy is that! that must mean that i leave in.. 11? is that right? wow!
yikes....................................................... hmmmmm i need to go to sleep.

ps look it's me and my pretty sister on her wedding day!
i hope anyone and everyone is well.

ps. guess who got an all-time high bowling score of 169 last friday!?!
.
.
.
.
.
.
ok, i'll tell you... i'm sure you're just in such pain due to the extreme suspense....
it was ME!!!

pps...
my desk no longer looks like those nice pictures found down below...

i just don't know how it happens... :(

p.s. please note the 3 1/2 lb. MONSTER-of-a-box of swedish fish on the back corner of my desk.

yep

there are some things i just don't understand... like WHY do i seem so incapable of keeping my desk clean!? i spent HOURS last week cleaning this thing off, and it's like the piles just come back with a vengeance! i know, i know, the trick is to keep it clean in the process... i'm working on it.
eileen (the church office manager, who is INCREDIBLY administratively and organizationally gifted, by the way), tells me there's this one golden rule of organization (or whatever you want to call it): only handle things once. you get a piece of mail, you throw it away or put it exactly where it's going to go. you pull out a book for something for a lesson, you do what you need to do with it and put it back or put it in the appropriate place for that particular lesson... a very logical rule, if you ask me. however, i would like to make the bold claim that i am physically and mentally incapable of following this rule. i just can't get there! how can i throw stuff away? why would i file that now when i may want to look at it in a few days? what if i really do what to request more information on that program later? what if i want to go to that website at some point in the future that's coming but is just not here, but i totally forget about it if i file it right now?
and such is my life... and my desk...

BUT! last week it was pretty impressive...
i'll show you...
even pastor john said it was "amazing."

ps: yeah, i think it's probably time to go home now...

does the world ever seem like a nightmare?
some suffer and the other ones don't care.
what does it matter if it's going on elsewhere?--like it doesn't happen if it's not happening here...
there's a girl with only a mother
and her dad just won't seem to bother
no love so she finds a lover
now she has a child who doesn't have a father...

i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon

yeah i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon

we'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun

'cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes

when the communists turn into the terrorists...
but the axis came before the soviets
and before that came the confederates--
we'll always have a war to fight, you can count on this.

with every cure there comes another sickness.
the earth dies with every bit of progress.
we've gone deaf to the cries of the oppressed.
what we need is Jesus to redeem us.

i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.

yeah, i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.

we'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun

'cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes.

now the world doesn't work cause we've broken it
and we need dope & prozac just to cope with it
now the beast speaks his piece to the congress--
plans to propagate proposition 666...
hitler's still alive in the knives of abortionists
and the news twists the truth like contortionists
and they wonder what happened to humanity--
we say peace but we're headed for calamity.

i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.

yeah, i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.

we'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun

'cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes.

we long for the day when we will see the heavens and the earth as they should be.

(--matt morginsky & the o.c. supertones

"prince of peace")

what's up?

and here we're back to the original problem with blogging... i feel like i never have anything to say. tell any of the kids in youth group that i just said that and they will tell you i must be lying. i certainly have the power of ramble in youth group.

so at sunday school this morning we were reading through acts 1:1-14 and the question (i know that i don't ask good questions, but it got a sweet response anyway) was simply to say, "okay, so what do we learn about God in this passage? (God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Father, God & His Kingdom, whichever--what do we learn about the LORD in this passage?) and this kid lucas goes,
"God can really like stuff up good. I mean, Jesus is talking to His disciples, He ascends into heaven, and just then a couple angels show up to ask the disciples why they're looking at the sky? He can really line stuff up!" and it's so true. and it was so cool! because it's not the first thing that jumped out at me, but it's so true!!! i learn so much from those guys.
and then tonight at youth group we're talkng about whatever we're talking about and kate goes, "did you guys do that on purpose?" and we're like what are you talking about? and she's all, "that's exactly what we were talking about this morning in reaffirmation! (confirmation, whatever you want to call it)" and it was one of those things where it's like "nope, it wasn't us... it's just one of those things that God knows how to line up..." i love it when that happens. i especially love it when God does that to me with Scripture. i couldn't even tell you how many times i've been reading something, just reading or whatnot, and God really speaks to me through some passage, and then the next day pastor john preaches on the same text or i listen to some sermon and they're preaching on it. those are the moments when it's just like, "god, you ARE listening to me! you ARE speaking to me!" and it's in moments like those that you just know that God is delighted in any movement that you make in His direction. we serve a beautiful Creator.

anyway. i still don't know where God is leading us, but that's all part of the great adventure i suppose!

p.s. i love my mom. =)

chomp chomp.

my newsletter could eat your newsletter.

it's true

zephaniah 3:17

the LORD your God is with you,

He is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over you with singing.

whole world in His hands (tim hughes)

when all around is fading,

and nothing seems to last

when each day is filled with sorrow

still I know with all my heart:

He’s got the whole world in His hands

He’s got the whole world in His hands

I’ll fear no evil,

for You are with me,

strong to deliver,

mighty to save.

He’s got the whole world in His hands

when I walk through fire,

i will not be burned

when the waves come crashing round me

still I know with all my heart:

He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
I’ll fear no evil,
for You are with me,
strong to deliver,
mighty to save.
He’s got the whole world in His hands

Tim Hughes Copyright © 2004 Thankyou Music

and........................!

a couple pictures with isaac, the ladies man... ;)

saddle up your horses!!

well.............. this is going to be a strange hodge-podge of things, i suppose. i thought i could move the pictures a little easier than i apparently can. but that's okay. but i guess we'll start out with everyone having to crank their head to the side to see the cute picture of sandra and isaac and josh!





i thought i'd put a few pictures from my birthday up here. it was really fun! the original plan was to go bowling alley hopping and use some of the denny's free bowling coupons that i got that one time at denny's, but we ended up just going to 2 bowling alleys, which was fine by me. i had one game that was alright, but for the most part i sucked it up. but MAN, do i love bowling!
and then after about four games with dereck & doug & (a bit later) jenny & matt, we headed over to this one place--texas tubb's taco palace--for some tacos. and it was so nice! because heidi came, and sandra and josh and isaac and kelli and ben and nate all the way from platteville! and i had some bean flautas or something, and they were stinking GOOD. oh. my. goodness.
this post makes no sense; i apologize. i wish i could make these pictures line up nicer. and then we went back to the second bowling alley we'd been at (some of us did) and bowled a couple more games. yeah. bowling. i have nothing to say.

so... anyway... last week we had kind of a random lockin with a few of the youth........ and as the result of a random dance assignment (each pair had 20 minutes to choreograph a dance to a song of their choosing), the world was introduced to the WONDER of dance which is holden. he and donna came out first with a true marvel of a dance to a song written by steven curtis chapman called "the great adventure" (thumbs up to internet research.) i'm going to put the lyrics to the song at the end of the post, because, as cheesy as it may have been at first (NOT that the dance was cheesy, it was in all ways beautiful ha ha), there is so much truth in the lyrics. anyway, this DANCE. man, it may have been years since i've laughed so hard. my description could never do it justice. if i knew how to put video up on this blog, i would do it. and amidst the THREE encore presentations that holden gave us of this dance, all the ladies became backup dancers (see dana and anne there), and prepared to perform it for the entire vacation bible school! let me tell you, it made my day. maybe even made my week.

The Great Adventure by steven curtis chapman:

Started out this morning in the usual way

Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today

Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible and I read about me

Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free

And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt

I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

CHORUS

Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze

Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace

Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown

This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life

Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind

And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored

This is what we were created for

i did it!!!

well, i finally did it!!! i bought my plane ticket to ecuador!!! mi pais!! :) ahhh, the bliss! the beauty!! i forget how much fun it is to buy plane tickets until i actually do it. i got sick of playing chicken (i know i already used that phrase once today, but it is kind of the most accurate description of this online-plane-ticket-purchasing thing that happens between someone and the online travel pages) and i just sucked it up and paid the $739. which is better than i was prepared to pay, so it's okay.... man, it will have been FIVE YEARS since the last time i was there!! and now sofia can stop worrying that i will blow off her wedding! ;)
and!!
the best part of it is......... (drumroll please)....



I GET TO FLY BACK WITH SOFIA!!!
yay! i get to be sofia's travel buddy that day because (for some odd reason), the barold is flying with a different airline... and i even got the seats right next to her seats, as any good stalker would do... unless, of course, she gave me incorrect seating information, as any good i'm-being-stalked-er would do.... hmmmmmm, i guess we'll see. but either way, i get to accompany the bride back to this country! what an honor! :)

oh boy, i'm excited!! :)

who am i kidding?

i just like posting pictures on this thing... it's fun.

so i thought i would put up a picture of my NEW brother-in-law. my sister has been married now three weeks... and i got this thing kind of after her wedding and so i didn't really write anything about it. i will just say that she was a beautiful, beautiful bride, and matt was classy enough to wear an orange shirt on his wedding day! (see? that's why he's let into the family. that and that one time when carrie and i were driving all over spokane picking up stuff before the wedding and matt called to ask about some detail, but then wanted to stay on the phone just to throw around funny banter.)

anyway
i'm sure i've told most of you this already, but the reception food was a PIG ROAST. and let me tell you, i think it was quite possibly the best bbq pork i've ever had in my life... and they didn't even use the sauce that is the boss!! (the other best bbq i've had was that bbq brisket from that one place in that one town in iowa where we stopped on the way back from the onething this year). wow, i just realized how appropriate it is in multiple facets that it's called "the onething."

so yeah. i went to mad city church on sunday after the service here in fort atkinson, and it was the day that they were commissioning the group that is going to plant the new church in milwaukee--"brew city church." and it was awesome because one of the guys is a msoe graduate, and he majored in some sort of physics or something, you could tell, because he was describing the church (in the broader sense) and the fellowship of believers in kind of mechanical terms--terms that made sense in his head. and it was so stinking awesome because he did it with such passion!! totally geeking out. it was AWESOME. you know when you really just get a glimpse of how God reveals Himself to someone using the specific way that their mind works? like how you get a glimpse into someone's relationship with God and the way that He just reveals Himself into the unique heart and mind that He has given them? and then you see them put it into words? (plus i totally just love it when people geek out. and somehow he reminded me of aaron weiss of mewithoutyou.
and then this OTHER guy was explaining the values that God had impressed upon them in this endeavor to plant this church, and holy moly, was this guy a PREACHER. it was awesome. the fire of God was just coming out of his mouth, and the Spirit just filled the room. the FIRE. that's what i long for!
anyway. dereck was at church, too, and i don't know if God put any of the same impressions upon his heart as He did on mine, but either way, it was a wonderful morning.

okay. that was quite the ramble. i pray that the peace of GOD which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. man, God is good.

and here....

are some of my favorite people in the world. where are we? the merrimac ferry!! which apparently must be one of my new favorite places in the world... ;)
this is brittany, her mom (and my old babysitter) tricia, anne, me, karina, evan, bea, and holden. i love those youths!!!
and...!
i thank god for the person who invented the timer on the camera! :)

p.s. NICE GAUCHOS, KELLI!! (see previous post ;) )

a classic case of "go figure"

so of COURSE plane ticket prices jumped up within the last four hours. why wouldn't they? ugh!

and of COURSE this won't let me publish my pictures to my blog without hassle... why would it? ugh!

ha ha.

on a much more pleasant note, happy birthday nate!! we are the same age for a week and a half!

hmmmmm... i've never really liked "titles" so much...

so i thought i would write another little hello... i am somewhere on the verge of buying my plane ticket to ecuador for barry and sofia's wedding. everyone was telling me i was crazy in thinking that ticket prices would drop, but a big BOOYAH to you! now i just need to pick my return date which, as anyone who knows me even in the slightest can imagine, is a rather overwhelming factor (ie "decision") to make.

so instead of making the large online purchase, i thought i would write and say that i had the pleasure this weekend of being visited by some of my favorite people in the world: the BAROLD, formerly of wisconsin and now (hopefully temporarily) and illinois cat, sandra, josh, isaac (who i am convinced is not all that fond of me even though "babies cry. don't feel bad. it's what they do."), and michael the stud gorter. the non-russows and i had quite the entertaining little self-portrait photo shoot as well (don't you just love digital cameras?).

and i also wanted to make mention of my week at the disciple farm (where i was buddied with the 18-year old named derek who is autistic). what a great week. i wish that i had some big reflection to make on it, but all i can do is thank god for having given me the opportunity. two observations i made were: 1) people don't give kids with special needs nearly enough credit. in SO many ways they just totally know what's up. and no matter how different we might think we all are, we all just completely need god's mercy to cover us in this life. -and- 2) in some ways, people don't expect enough out of young people (jr/sr high). i can't even explain to you how encouraged i was by seeing so many middle and highschoolers acting so lovingly and selflessly. it's totally in there. i suppose that's what happens when god comes to dwell inside you, though, right? it was a good week.

it was cool, too, because on the last day there was this barbecue, right? and there was like a parade that families were invited to and all that, so there were a lot of people there. so there were three different little tents set up as food lines to ease the whole line problem. and derek and i were in line (his family wasn't there), and he kept walking back and forth from where i was standing over to where the food was... some might have assumed he didn't understand the concept of lines, but i understood that he was totally just trying to figure out what kind of food they were serving. the kid was hungry. ha ha. and so then eventually he came back to me, kind of put his hand on my shoulder, looked past me a bit, and started saying something. and, see, he has a speech impairment and so it can be very difficult to understand him (in fact, throughout the week it had been quite the source of tension in some moments because i simply couldn't understand what he was trying to say to me and it made me feel awful and he would get frustrated), but i immediately knew what he was going to say. so i told him, "derek, there is the same food at all three tents; mr. rheinghans said that before we all got in line." and he looked at me and smiled and said, "how did you know what i was going to say?" and i asked him, "well, was i right?" and he said, "but how did you know?" and it was cool. because you might meet someone for five minutes and you learn a little something about them, but you get the privilege of hanging out with them for a week, and you can really get to know someone a bit. and so it was cool, because it was like hey; we're friends.

anyway, that was a long story i suppose. i will let you go. gotta go check out these plane ticket prices. god bless!!

so apparently everyone is wondering where i am... where is missy? has missy been kidnapped? is missy dead? has missy been attacked by the flying monkeys? how loved am i! to have such friends that care so much about me!! :)
well, truth be told, i am volunteering at a camp for children/youth with special needs all this week, and it is taking up all of my days. a challenging camp to help out at, but it is awesome! i am buddied for the week with an 18-year old autistic guy named derek. god is stretching me and teaching me, that is a certainty. i have two youth that are volunteering, too, and we are having quite the adventure!
so i will probably write more later, but i just wanted to let everybody know that i am alive and kicking (don't know if anybody even reads this thing or knows about it...), but i thank you for caring and i love you!! :)

typie typie

so i totally just typed a whole post and then LOST it! unbelievable! i thought that didn't happen in the 21st century! i'm kidding. technology--UGH!
it wasn't anything exciting anyway--just me giving out the WINNING LOTTERY COMBINATION for tomorrow's POWERBALL!! and since i didn't even have it written down on a piece of paper, i guess we'll all remain poor. oh well, i quite think i prefer it that way anyway.

i ALSO said that i am currently uploading a bunch pictures to my new walgreens (go figure) account so that i can send some pictures down the street to some one hour development. which is pretty sweet. because despite how much i love my digital camera (and i DO love my digital camera), i like flipping through pictures. there's just something about it, you know what i'm saying?

so we took some middle schoolers to devil's lake on thursday. and it was the most beautiful day outside of the whole YEAR! i promise!! god's really got himself some handiwork over there; i don't care what the name of the stinking park is. we hiked at this "natural area" (for some reason i find that funny) called parfey's glen and it was BEAUTIFUL!! even the complainers loved it by the time we got in by all the rocks and boulders and the stream and stuff.
and!! this just in!! there is a FERRY that crosses lake wisconsin--and it's FREE! WHO KNEW ABOUT THAT AND DIDN'T TELL ME!? ha ha!!

and here's something i learned yesterday: little isaac, only four weeks old, is intent on becoming an avid reader and a percussionist! God bless him!! :)

just keep swimming

swimming, swimming!

my name is missy's sister, and i got married last saturday.
congratulations, carold!