Love... and other drugs (:

God never ceases to amaze me. ever.

i am blessed beyond measure... and i have no idea why!

This last week has been... fabulous! ((quick summary of what's in the VLOG)):

- we had a really short work week (wed - fri) w/ really easy-to-work-with kids! (:

- i got a new "boyfriend" [[great story: We were introducing ourselves to the 6th graders on friday and i ended up hitting a kid in the head while introducing myself! ((oops)) he was totally hilarious about it and throughout class he would keep razzing me, throwing glances at me, etc, etc. and at the end of class, he ended up slipping a note in my pocket that said: "Facebook name: **** ***" hahahaha! totally made my day! ...my co-workers said that i should start hitting boys in the head more often ;) ]]

- i found out that i can skype on my new ipod ~ ~ sooo cool!!

- i've gotten quite a bit of quiet time... which has been nice. God and i have had some long talks, walks, and it's been b-e-a-u-tiful!! :) :)

- i have a certain family member who might just be coming over to visit me next month ((praying that works out!!!))

- i got a package.... FROM MY BEST FRIEND!!! ((who hasn't [snail-mail] written to me all year (emails/skyping doesn't count) and finally sent me a letter!! .... actually... more like 30(+) letters... and a box full of everything camille-ish!!! weird how ppls know exactly what to put into my boxes! i've gotten 4 boxes this past month... and every one that i get puts me in tears... cuz it makes me feel so frickin special... and honestly, there's nothing special about me. and i don't deserve them at all. but still... ppls love me enough to send me stuff, knowing how much it makes my week... Kind of makes me think about Jesus' love towards us.... we don't deserve it... but He just wants us to believe that His love IS ENOUGH!! ... it's Beautiful <3

- i re-connected w/ an old friend (whom i haven't heard from in ages) and got some new music flooding into my ears. <> 

- i got my "tooth problem" fixed on friday... or, at least... i hope i got it fixed. i ended up not getting my wisdom teeth removed and instead i got a root canal done ((much more painful, let me tell you))! :P

... i think that's it. it's officially past 1am and i should be off to bed ~ off to "Camille Mountain" in the morning :) :)

Love y'allz lots <3 <3

SUNday... On Thursday

This week is 1 day camps (for 2 days) with 6th graders from our school. They are so stinkin cute~ absolutely love them! However I'm pretty sad that we only get them for one day.

Ok... Update on life since April started...

Traveled down to kaoshing and kenting with Kim last weekend. It was awesome cuz we got a really long weekend (Monday and Tuesday too) and we were able to see some of the pingdong team too. Always an adventure hangin with Kim though. Petty sure we ran into quite a few stalker dudes... :):)

Mmmmm... Getting some extra sun rays was nice though:)

However, as soon as our amazing weekend was over, I got back home and realized that I had lost my iPod ::pout:: here I'd been so careful with her for over 3 years and NOW I lose her... I was sad. Nonetheless it was a "God thing" cuz I had been meaning to buy a new iPod for some time and now I finally had a legit excuse to do so... :)

Cool how God knows when to open and close doors, eh? :)

Anywho... Been doing a lot of thinking about what's all gunna go down this next year once I get back stateside. I'm really praying that I'll get the job, a car, and be able to rent the appartment that I'm looking at... But I know that things don't always work out ad we hope they would... So now I'm praying that God would give me the grace to be ok with whatever happens this fall. This is stinkin hard for me cuz when I plan I plan big and never expect it to fall through... But I really want to be open for whatever the Lord has planned for me <3

Mmk... Enough rambling for now.. Gotta get inside and get some lunch.

Hope y'all are doing fabulous ^_^

Love you much much much <3 <3

March --> April

[argh]

Sorry it's taken me a few days to get to the computer ~ i left for the [long] weekend on April 1st and just got back last night. That weekend basically consisted of laughter, train rides, amazing food, friends, fellowship, beaches, traveling, movie nights, and AMAZING REST ~ Praise the Lord! i totally needed that weekend!

needless to say, March is passed... followed by a very very busy April! 

but let's hear more about March Madness: 

- Week One -

- got 2 of my wisdom teeth removed for a great price (and thus got half of my regular headaches taken away). Decided that i have a new love and appreciation for Novocain.... it's quite the pain killer! lol.

- helped Sara (Fae) get her feet about her/learn the ropes for teaching, etc, etc

- figured out that if i woke up early, sat on the balcony, watched the sun rise and read some scripture = aaaaaaaaamazingness!! always the best part of my day! :D

- great news(!!!): Our Chinese teacher (Joyce) FINALLY set a wedding date! She'll be getting married on June 5... and on June 11!! :D :D  so excited that i'm actually going to be there for this. Oooo.... and there's been rumors that Jo and i might possibly be playing/singing at her wedding... we shall see how that goes ^_^
-  lots and lots of Chinese practice (我的華語不好。我的中文寫作是好的。我的中文語法是非常糟糕).
- ...and lots of Spanish practice!! ... Yo hablo Inglés... and i speak Chinese... 和我說西班牙語... o_O
- sent out some packages/letters ~ was sooo excited cuz i know how much i love getting letters/packages, and thus sending ppls thing makes me sooo excited!!! :D


- Week Tw0 -


- haaard week. pretty sure it was just long.... we only had 22kids (and they were well-behaved), but it was around this time when it started to kick in how much i used/depended on fb to keep me update w/ various friends around the world. [argh] it was crazy... but it was good! because whenever i would reach for my computer, i'd grap my Spanish/Chinese homework, or my Bible instead! wow... did i get a lot accomplished over those few days!!
- went to visit with  a really good friend that weekend (May). Hung out with her in TaiChung all Saturday, spent the night at her really cool appartment/dorm, went night-marketing, ate a ton of really yummy/delicious food, talked/met some of her friends, and hit the bed early. [new note for self: never go to bed before 8pm... i woke up at 2 wiiiide awake. thank the Lord for ipods... they make good early morning company] On Sunday we went to May's Churches "Sports Day" ~ which was a ton of fun... and Jo ended up being there with her church as well!! hahaha.... so cool how tightly knit Taiwan Churches are!! ^_^  So yeah, we went to the opening ceremony... the songs were great! and the sermon... well, it was presented by a Korean Pastor, who used a translator to translate his sermon to Chinese.... it.was.hilarious! So i only caught a bit of what was all being said... but the facial expressions... the Korean dude would talk very straight and mono-toned... but the Taiwanese dude was hilarious! it was so odd to think that these two men both were sharing the same sermon.... ^_^  heheh.... anywho, that was good, and afterwards we went outside for some warm ups, basketball playoffs, tug-o-war, and relay races! It was a blast! and it was so encouraging being around other believers who would mention God/Jesus/Love/etc in every other sentence! man... i guess i didn't realize how spiritually deprived i was getting...  ((really praying that i find a church soon...or find one as soon as i get back stateside...)) 
- oh yeah... and... I GOT TWO PACKAGES!!! one from Soukupgirl (alyssa ~ contained yummy yummy foods, heart pillow, a letterz, and happiness of all sorts of sorts!), and the other from mi madre (contained an M&M hoodie [fabulous even though i can't eat chocolate], letters, and various other things...) ~ so blessed to get love from the states ^_^




- Week Three - 


- really great week of kids this week... they were almost "too" well-behaved. however... after a few days we broke them of that, and by the last day... well, there were tears as they said goodbye
- Got informed by mi padre (who is awesome, btw) that i'm getting supported by OG (OlympiaGranola) to do the MudRun this fall w/ 4 of my girlfriends! whoop whoop!! ...oh... and i'm running a half marathon... 3 days after i get back to MN!! ... training started soon after i read that :P Yay for running motivation though, right?? Actually... i started using this really cool program called DailyMile - it's really been good at helping me keep track of my miles, time, etc :)
- sadly enough, i broke my "no facebook" promise (sad face) because there were several things on it/mssgs that i had forgotten about and had to get on fb in order to finish them :P


- Week Four - 


- this week of kids was... a... handful. we only had 10 more kids than we'd had the weeks prior, but it could've been  30 more... [[wow]]. basically a very active and energetic group. microphones were a blessing to have in class. ooo.... and it didn't help that 4/6 teachers were SICK on Monday (coughcoughnotmecoughcough). man... it was just a pretty long week. but it was good cuz the Lord continued to show me His amazing love and grace towards me and continued to provide me with strength to press on and go all out for the kids. it was great!
- TWO MORE packages ~ one from mi aaaaaamazing family (included GRANOLA, sports-wear, and letters!!!) and one from mi fantabulistic "Granny" (Ruthie ~ sent me a hat, shirts, and lots of yummy food ... AND COFFEE!!!) ... i am SO BLESSED! why? i'll never know... :-\




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mmm... spiritually it was a really hard month. i constantly felt like i was battling every little thing that happened in my day ~ not waking up early enough for devotions before class, coworkers not being perfect, not feeling enough love for the kids, not having enough time for everything i wanted to do, etc, etc. ....but God's grace is amazing, is it not? cuz as soon as i'd start to get discouraged.... He'd put something random in my life (a cup of coffee on my desk, a note of encouragement in the mail, and kid coming up to me and hugging me....) and my whole mood would just totally change.... He is far too good to me... <3




One scripture verse that has stood out to me this past month is Ephesians 2:4-5, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)"


Thanks for keeping me in your prayers ~ i promise to keep y'all posted more often :)


Lots of Love <3 <3