the weekend

This weekend was Task Force/Student Missionary Re-Entry Retreat. It was really quite useful. Crazily enough I am having culture shock of my own. Adjusting back has just been crazy difficult and being able to talk with other sm/tf helped me process a lot of it.

This is where I slept. The temp was perfect. I wish you could see the mountains better in this video...

Sat afternoon we went on a hike and to make a long story short I ran into a nest of yellow jackets. The girl right behind me ended up in the ER.

This picture doesn't do them justice but this is what part of one of my arms looks like. I would love to cut my arms off. I iced one of these things down for twenty minutes yesterday and when I touched it it was still boiling hot while the skin around it was somewhat cool but numbing them like that is the only relief I've gotten.

This blog does not do the weekend justice either but this week has been extremely crazy and I started this at one point so I had to finish it. Please pray for us over here in the village this week. We really need it. I'm beyond exhausted and it's only tuesday morning with three tests left to go.

who am I?

So I have this incredibly weird phenomenon growing ever stronger that has to do with my name. It started some years back, my freshman year of highschool, with a former roommate's father and now everybody's doing it. If people don't know my name, they will ALWAYS call me Jennifer. Don't think I've ever been called anything else (well other then Jaclyn but we'll get to that in a minute). A boss of mine that I've had for 2 1/2 years called me Jennifer twice the other day. Then today one of my more new bosses who's learning my name called me Jennifer all morning this morning. I could name you examples all day. Was there a world wide memo that went out to call me Jennifer? I just find it totally odd.

But then there's the Jaclyn one... Most recently it's been happening at my brother-in-laws softball games. Dr. King who is on ryan's team came up to me and wished me many congratulations on the marriage. I just smiled and pointed to Jaclyn who was standing right next to me. Then follows the inevitable embarrassment and my explanation that I really don't mind. I walked up to a friend from summer camp last night and it took him a good 30 seconds to start talking to me after I said hello. He just kept looking at Jaclyn and then finally was like, "Stephanie? I so thought that was you earlier." and points to my sister.

But then there's the absolute best... (sorry jeff, I just think this is way too funny for me not to tell) I was sitting on the bleachers when Jeff (tanya's boyfriend, also on Ryan's team) walked off the field looking for a place to put his cell phone. I held out my hand but he just stopped and looked at me, finally handed me the phone, started walking away and then turned back around and looked at me again. Finally he says "are you Stephanie? I thought you were..." and then points to ryan. To which I totally burst out laughing. Jeff had seen me like 45 minutes prior and knows both Jaclyn and I which usually helps out the situation.

I concede!!! I look exactly like her. Cracks me up. Maybe this is why I had that dream that I was pretending to be Jaclyn and nobody knew the difference. I swear I could pull it off. For the record if you are ever unsure as to who I am, it's ok, I don't mind, just yell Jennifer, Jaclyn, or Stephanie. I come to all three.

Enchiladas Anyone?

It started as a simple get together with friends and ended up a large get together, as in take over the house. But hey, the more the merrier.

Grace and some friends from AFM (the company that sent her to Laos) making the guacamole.

The spread... Salad, chips and salsa, two kinds of rice, bean and cheese enchiladas, and potato enchiladas, with apple pie and brownies for desert.

Tanya and Jeff!

Jeana, my long lost friend, who moved miles away my Jr. year of highschool, has recently moved back down here!! I think a lot of it had to do with the guy next to her, Andrew, who she met online through a friend. His sister is one of my good friends. It's a small world. I'm just happy to have her back.

The crew minus a few

Looking at Grace's picture from Laos

Using Google earth to look at Majuro where Tanya and Jeff were.

Like my orange lip stick? it was the enchiladas I promise.

After lunch a smaller group of us headed to Coolidge Park.

Tanya's learning to long board.

After throwing a football around for a bit and playing in the water fountain, we all just chilled in the shade, or should I say roasted. It was SOOOO hot!

Grace wanted a picture of the three of us. Handing the camera to Jeff= mistake. He basically just snapped constantly for 5 minutes. But well, that being said, It made for some pretty fun pictures, so thank you Jeff.

Words cannot describe how wonderful these girls are. They are definitely my favorite.

Tanya and Jeff

Desmond and Adrienne

supper time at the village

It's five o'clock and I'm standing over the stove stirring a pot of chili, while Grace sits at the kitchen table working on her research paper. Tanya walks in carrying a big bag of stuff for some sandwich she'd seen some other guy eating, so she thought she'd make one herself, complete with dried mangoes on the side. Supper time begins.

So we're all sitting there comparing food and talking about our day, taking bites out of each others meals. Problem is Tanya is having a tad bit of difficulty keeping her sandwich together. Being the genius that she is, she devised a brilliant plan of putting all the ingredients in separate heaps around her plate and placing them one by one into her mouth. This takes a bit of speed however, as you want to make sure to get all the flavors in your mouth at the same time. I'm totally cracking up beside her chanting "faster! faster!" food flying in and out of her mouth as she tries to comply. (real grown up, I know lol) So much for being able to taste anything.

I'm in mid bite when I look over at Tanya. She's holding up a piece of mango, a large bite missing from one end. She's glaring at me with one eye, nostrils flaring. "Did you bite this? hmmmm?" I most certainly had not! "I can tell it's you by the sliiiiiight over bite" I most certainly do not have an over bite! To prove my innocence I grabbed another piece, bit into it, and held it up to the other one. "told you!" Tanya's glaring eye transfers from me to grace, who is totally oblivious to the ongoing investigation. "BITE THIS GRACE!" she yells. Grace, totally upset by the fact that mango is half being shoved up her nose, keeps her mouth clamped shut so I join in. "do it Grace... bite it! BITE IT!" After a few tries we finally get a large enough sample and following careful scrutinization, the committee decides it was indeed Grace. Glad that I am no longer the cheif suspect, I begin my accusations. "Grace! It was YOU that bit this and put it back in the container! waaaaasn't it!?" Grace looks hurt. "I did not!" "we know it was you Grace, the bites match perfectly." more bite mark scrutinization... finally after much deliberation we decide that it must be from the packager at the store, a terrible realization, but a decision at the very least.

Don't you wish your supper time was this exciting?

it started with a potato

So I got the entire afternoon off today. Totally exciting cause I needed it to get some things done. One of which was sleep because for some reason my body won't let me obtain much of it of late. Other things include a paper and chapters to read...the regular. They don't start you off too incredibly slow.

After going to Rick Faber's birthday/camp get together, I dropped Grace off at work and headed to the house. First thing was eating. I was totally starved. I'd been planning on it all day. I was craving this sweet potato stuff I make for days. So I took out a sweet potato to find the end oozing white stuff (I bought this thing two days ago.) I thought it may just be the end of it but no, you cut into it and it's...well rather nasty. Suddenly I've lost my appetite for sweet potatoes. Potato enchilada's sounds fantastic actually so I'll go down to the VM and get some sauce, take my book back to the campus shop, get my mail. Needed to go there anyway.

Arriving at the campus shop I find, at the register, that I'd left my ID card at the house. This means I can't return the book OR get back in my house to get it. I did the rest of my errands which proved difficult because the cashier was making profound lasting relationships with each customer. Finally I was able to run back up to Grace's work but usually I'd have to walk because there is no student parking but she was nice enough to run out and give it to me. Go home, can't find my card anywhere. After 15 minutes, I found it on the floor under my desk. Gotta take the card back to Grace so I drive back up, this time walking up the hill because I didn't want to make her run out again. 2:00. I'm getting absolutely nothing done on my afternoon off.

Back at the house I whipped up all the stuff, opened the sauce, pulled the shells out of the refrigerator and was quickly stopped by white stuff growing all over the shells. GAH! I just bought these too! At this point I'm standing in my kitchen staring at the wall, boiling. I am NOT going back out. But I have everything open and nothing else to eat. FINE! I'm going. Where's my purse. No where. 10 minutes later I realize I'd left in the car. For crying out loud!

I decide to go the back way to the VM. So much less traffic. Stopped train blocking the road. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

So it is now three o'clock, my stomach is eating itself, and I have achieved absolutely nothing. If you'd been sitting at Wright Hall today you would have seen me drive across campus 12 times. And to top it off I'm sitting here writing this blog about it. HA HA HA HA! Anybody think of anything else I should do before I write my paper? Somebody save me from myself.

PS: while writing this blog I totally forgot my enchiladas in the oven and well... they are burnt.