Make War

Well I wanted to write this last weekend when I got home from our super awesome youth group retreat.  It was a really great time away and really fun getting to know some of the high schoolers more. We talked about making war on specific sin in our lives. And it was really nice to have everyone share at the campfire what they were going to make war on. The sin that I am making war is my swearing. I do that far more often than I would like to admit, especially when stressed or in the heat of something. So God showed me some verses in Proverbs 4 verses 23-26 to be exact. And it reads "Above all else guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." And these next verses are why I am memorizing these. "Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths of your feet and be steadfast in all your ways." I currently have those verses written down on a note card in my car so at a light I can look at them and hopefully try to memorize them that way. But that is definitely my goal. If I just were to even memorize one verse a week, I could have 52 verses memorized by next year! That to me is a great motivator.

While we were on the retreat, besides lots of hanging out time, the teens did the low ropes courses. It is always really cool to see everyone come together as a team and figure out who should lead and talk. We even did trust falls, and all of the leaders did them too. I may have freaked out a little bit!
We went ziplining that day too, which was fun. Although nothing in comparison to the crazy zipline from Honduras.( I dont think I've written about my recent trip on here, soon my fellow readers) But all in all it was a fabulous high school fall/winter retreat! We have some amazing teens and pretty much the best youth pastor around!

Alright, I'm off to memorize some verses and read my Bible, which I have been trying diligently to do every day even if just a few verses.

 God is good.

Fun picture with Britt and the lovely Makayla and Bailey

Me and Ashley about to go zip lining

Trust Fall! Scary!!

 A great group pic!

And of course a goofy one! :-)

Christmas Time!

The Christmas tree is up and decorated! And I just love it! Now I just wish I wasn't working the next 2 days so that I could be home decorating the house. Christmas is one of my favorites!

Woohoo!

Thanksgiving was great this year, even despite the fact that I worked from 3p-11p. It was really slow at work, in fact we didnt do any surgeries the eight hours I was there. So that was definitely something to be thankful for! :-D

Ok thats all for right now! Its the holiday season...  

Putting the lights on the tree:-)

The twins helping pick out the tree

Miss Kitty sleeping on the Christmas pillow

All decorated and ready for Christmas fun! :-D

just a post....

I always say I'm going to write on here more often, but then I don't. You would think I might more often as I have the internet readily available now (which by the way is so nice!).

Well here I am....
I never finished telling about my trip to Panama. It was just so good! God showed up each and every day and gave everyone strength in ways that we might not have expected, like when it was so stinking hot (which was every single day) and the students didn't think they could keep going, they did and God totally blessed them because of it. I just have so many great memories and made so many lasting friendships. God is just so good. I really need to get my journal out and then write more. I just loved it and am currently signed up to hopefully go with Big World Ventures and Never the Same Missions to Peru next summer. I'll be writing more about that on here and keeping everyone up to date with my financial situation.
Here is a God story for all you readers about going to Peru. In Panama they showed us a really cool video about the trip to Peru and I watched it and pretty much decided right then that I was not going to Peru. It didn't look very exciting, and I definitely did NOT want to fundraise, I wanted a nice normal summer where maybe I could go on vacation and just do what I wanted. Shortly after thinking that, I knew that God wanted me to go. I can still say that I'm not all that excited about fund raising but I do know that God wants me there next summer. I am not entirely sure why or even how I am going to get there but still I am willing to go and I know that God will definitely provide. And some pretty amazing people are going back as well, so I am sort of excited:-D

I think I'm getting sick, ugh!!! Seriously? It might have something to do with the fact that I worked 19 hours straight on Monday. What was I thinking?!?

Well speaking of mission trips, I am going to Honduras in almost a month!!! AHHH!!! :-D I can't wait! The trips to Honduras are always really refreshing because incredible people go, God shows up and we get to do surgeries for people who are actually grateful, even if you just fix up their ACL. I love seeing the joy on the Honduran faces as we help them and I love being able to do my job and serve my Creator as well. And I'm looking forward to going because my friend Lauren is going. We actually met on one of the previous trips to Honduras and I'm super excited to serve with her again! :-D

Well I think thats about all for now. I'll write more soon (notice I did not say tomorrow, hehe)!!!

Feels like fall!

Today is extraordinarily fall like and I love it!!

Thats really all I have to say :-) I'll write more on here later!

But I am so excited about the fall weather!! hooray!

hmm

I feel like writing but dont know what to write about...

I could easily write about my Panama trip which I did say I would do but just dont feel like it. I also dont feel like using apostrophes so I'm not going too. At least not in the word dont. Also apostrophes is a weird word.

I really dont want to work at 9am tomorrow morning, yuck! I hate needing to be to work by 9am, anyone that works at 7am sorry for complaining. But still, EWW...

Zeena keeps sitting and staring at me and whining as I write this and its really annoying. I keep telling her to stop and she just keeps whining...Thank you weirdo dog

I got to hang out with some of my friends from Panama last night and this afternoon. It was so nice!! And lots of fun!!

I ate a really good cantina chicken burrito today from Taco Bell and oh my word it was soo soo tasty. So surprising, so if you like Taco Bell which I would hope that you might you should definitely try one. I would even say that it rivals Qdoba. SOO GOOD!!

I'm still reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to check it out again at the library, for the third time.... Who does that? ugh!!

Jared just turned off the light in the bedroom, left and is now watching tv...really? And I'm still sitting in the dark...

My grammar and punctuation in this post are awful. Sorry to all of you...

Today was a beautiful day so was yesterday, it was the perfect temperature!! AHHH :-D

Well since I have to get up early tomorrow (yuck) I should probably go to bed. Although I say that and I probably wont even go to bed until after midnight because that always seems to happen.....

Internet at our house!!

So I'm writing this from my living room! So excited! Its the little things yes, but I am pretty excited that we have internet! Its nice to be able to go on a real computer:-)

Today Jared and I went to the beach and I got fried! Seriously? I mean it was overcast so it didnt really feel like I was getting to much sun so that's probably why it happened. oh well, I'm sure I'll survive and in a few days have a real nice tan.

I went to Panama and LOVED IT!!!!!! IT was just incredible and God taught me so much and gave us on team 4 the best team ever. The girls and guys on my team were so amazing! I just feel so blessed that I was able to go and then to meet such amazing teenagers. God is such a great God! We learned about God's will for our life and it was really neat to see some of the teens finding out what that meant or means and how they were going to change when they got home. Gosh, it was just so good!

 

 Me and the twins on their first ever plane ride!

 Mariah looking all cute in her cat costume and I love the coloring.

 Me and Shiane leaving the Embera tribe. (I'll write more about that later)

 Crazy hair night! I have dinosaurs in my hair! RAWR!

 Those are the hand dug out canoes that we rode in! Coast guard unapproved :-D

 A part of our team in a canoe!

 Me and Mariah with a beautiful view behind us!

 Mariah and her new friend from the tribe;-)

 I bought some super sweet orange earrings!

Such adorable kids!!!

Mariah and Makayla with some cute Panamanian twins!


Well thats all for now, I'll write more about the trip maybe tomorrow! Just because I can! YES!~

A post about why I'm a dork

So I was reading my sister in laws blog and she has a post about being a dork and not being ashamed of those dorky things....

Since I enjoyed reading her post so much here is my list of things may make me a HUGE dork, but I don't really care what anyone thinks because I am who I am and even love the dorky side of myself. ;-)

I'm Ashleigh and;

I love love love to read.

I love to have a night all by myself.

I like my animals more than most people.

I love vampires, whether that is the twilight books, watching vampire diaries(soo good!), true blood. I'm not sure why that is, yes SUPER dorky! If they were real I would date one :)

I have never been to a casino, and don't really have any desire to go.

I like to wear dresses and sometimes think I was born in the wrong era. I think I would have done well back in pioneer days.

I am fascinated by Amish people. Sometimes I wish I was Amish, it just seems so much more simple and just plain(no pun intended) cool!

Sometimes I'm probably to much of a "good dutch girl" as I use almost everything til there is one drop left or less of something, examples would be shampoo, toothpaste, cleaning products.

I know that I don't like beer, but yet I always try it hoping that it might change.

I love getting a good deal, even if I don't necessarily need something I will buy it because it's such a good deal!

I am not ashamed to admit that I buy clothes at Meijer, Walmart, Target, Salvation Army and Goodwill(good deals at those last two!!).

I love eating ice cream! And could easily eat it every night.

I love cheese.

I really like to cook and bake but rarely do because I hate leftovers.

I would much rather stay at home and read then go out to a bar or even to a movie.

I've never been to Mackinaw Island and I've lived in Michigan my whole life.

I've never smoked anything.

I love my Chacos (sandals) and wish I could wear them the whole year.

I love warm weather, sun, and sand! I wish I lived near a beach.

I love my iphone and will probably always have one. My iphone is the one piece of technology that I don't absolutely despise.

I really love getting my hair hi-lighted, it makes me feel so much better about myself when its done nicely and looks good. Really dorky that makes me feel better...

I hate going to walmart because they have 50 lanes and there are only ever 2 open. Seriously?? How does that make any sense???? UGH!!! Can you tell that I was there recently? For one thing mind you and I didnt get it because I couldnt stand that I was waiting for 5 minutes and it would have been more like 15-20.

I like to take self portraits of myself :-) alot of those occur while driving.

Well I know that there are alot more and maybe as I think of them I'll add them. So stay tuned.

And I love jeep wranglers! Probably way more than I should, I said earlier that I wouldn't want to go to a casino but this weekend at a casino nearby one could win a jeep and I would go for that reason alone! I think that they are the best car in the world! Yep I'm a weirdo:)