Northern Indiana Adventures

Yea, for having a long weekend. I don't return to staffing till this evening so I had Monday and a nice chunk of today free to explore and hang out with some friends that live up in this area.

Yesterday the exploration took us to Munster, IN where there is this really pretty park and golf course that is actually built on top of a landfill. People say you can still smell it sometimes. Then in the evening I got to go with Mike and meet up with Marie and then meet two of their high school friends which was a lot of fun at the Three Floyd's Brew and Pub. It is a pretty neat place.

Today was fun because we got to meet up with one of my close friends Lisa Wallyn who I haven't gotten to see in forever. We spent a good portion of today at West Beach and daring each other to go all the way in to the cold water! The beach here in Indiana was a bit different than the one that I was at this past weekend in Michigan. There were a lot more rocks in the sand and once you got into the water. You really didn't reach a place with your feet that was plain sand until you waded your way out to the sandbar. 

So far I am having a great time and staffing at Lake Central has been enjoyable as always, but I will be ready for a bit of a break when I get to drive home Saturday evening for 4 days.

Here are some pictures from our adventures:

The golf course on the landfill.

Outside of Three Floyds. 

At Lake Michigan.

Lisa nick named this path "The path of no return" and that was very true today, the sand was so hot!

A bit of the path of no return was shaded so we decided it would be perfect for the picture.
Me and Lisa

And last but not least Mike Baum who took the previous picture.

Promised Birthday Pictures

Cory didn't want his picture taken with his hat hair after work.

Hey all! Here are a couple birthday pictures promised in the last blog! Enjoy :)

Birthday Dinner! I made 4 homemade pizza's that I split into different toppings for everyone to try!

Treble Clef earrings from my family.

A nice travel bag for my up and coming adventures.

Boots enjoying the spoils of tissue paper. You would think it was his birthday or something!


And enjoying time with family!

The Summer Craziness Begins and Some Thoughts

Hello All!

So, I had a bit of a break from a busy life and traveling for a while. I had some random birthday celebrations occur between the11th, 12th and 13th (my birthday is actually on the 13th I'll put some pictures up from that later), but now as of yesterday I am back up in Dyer/St. John, Indiana staffing for Lake Central Tribe of Pride. We started out yesterday with a surprisingly strong rehearsal with less hiccups than last year, at least marching basic wise. It should be fun to watch this progress.This year I have 18 flute players and I'm praying that only one of them ends up with a piccolo or less!

We have tonights rehearsal, the weekend off and then Tuesday through Saturday next week including a parade and going to watch a drum corps show in Merrillville. But for my long weekend I'm going to be going up to Michigan for a couple days with the Vergara Family and then coming back here for another beach day with friends on Monday. So, I'm hoping for a fun yet relaxing three day weekend.

On another topic, during my ABC bible study with Mrs. Prichard last week I came up with the idea to look for specific biblical truths as I do my quiet times. Wow! As soon as you are specifically looking for them you seem them pretty much in every few verses. Right now I'm reading through 1 Timothy. Today's quiet time was 1 Tim. 4. I wasn't sure if my journal page for todays quiet time was going to have enough room!

Over the past while I've been talking with people in my age group about actually getting married to who they are dating (non professing friends). It's quiet interesting to hear what they have to say. Most say that they want to date and or live with the person for at least 2-5 years before marrying and some are not quite as specific. Then in 1 Tim. 4 today in the first 5 verses it talks about not giving heed to the lies of "deceiving spirits and doctrines" and one of which is forbidding to marry. Now I know that's a little extreme compared to my example, but I think it is close to being the same. I say this because when people decide not to marry but just live together is falling into that deceiving doctrine and depriving themselves of what the Lord has made good.

My last thought comes from the second have of the 1 Tim. 4 where it discusses how even in our youth we should be good examples. It just made me think back to college and how people really saw me at my worst physically, emotionally, and yes spiritually. It is hard to be that bright and shining example when you are in such an awful state, then when you see those people again how badly you want to show them how much you have grown and been healed without their judgement. Life is hard and learning to go through it with ease will never happen without the love of Christ and your brothers and sisters in the Church and constant reading of the Bible and prayer. When you don't have those people, your Bible readings, and prayer. you can feel how strong a need you have for them when you are away. So, all in all, definitely thinking about how I look to others in my Christian walk, especially to nonbelievers is an even bigger deal to me now than ever before.