I think I'm in love....

With my new youth group of course!!! Today brought another week of campers. We got up and said goodbye to the West VA group and got ready for church. After we got ready we went upstairs and the church here has breakfast on Sundays! We had these colossal doughnuts! They were as big as my face, it was awesome!! Then I got to chat with Jamey a bit. It was time for church. The preacher was out of town this sunday and VBS had just concluded for the week, so worship was lead by the children from VBS and Matt (a 21 yr. old who is in college and who is also on the worship band at the church) preached. His sermon was really great! We went to lunch at this smoothie place (Jamey, I ate a sandwich AND drank a smoothie, you could do half of each!) We got back to the church and started to set up. We have The Capitol, which is the location where we sell t-shirts and snacks and drinks. We set that up and the room where all the campers would sleep. We then just hung out until the campers showed up. They finally showed up about 4:30 and we hung out with them and got to know them for a bit. We went to dinner and then headed back here to get ready for worship. Matt and his brother led worship tonight for us and it went well. Starting tomorrow we will have a full band, but the group had some stuff going on tonight. After worship I hung out with my group, and I fell in love!! They are great! They are all high school and above. By above I mean some are in college. There is a girl my age majoring in medicine! They are super cool and I am so excited to have them with me this week!! It is going to be wonderful I can already tell!! I will keep you all updated. Now it is after lights out for the campers so we are meeting and guess what!!! Watching yet again another movie!! haha I threw that in there for you Mallory and Mom!!

4th On The Steps :)

Today was a day of significance, but not for what you think. I went to Lowe’s to get all the materials for my first ever construction worksite!! YAY! It was so exciting. Eric went with us because as surprising as this is Stacey has never really gone to Lowe’s before to get a bunch of materials. She has always had a contractor who did it for her haha! No contractor this time, just us! Eric went with us so he could tell us about how much of everything to get so we could get an idea for every other time we have to go. We were buying specifically for my worksite which meant that I had to discuss what I would need for the particular work we were doing and how much and all that. Next time I will have to do it on my own! SCARY! I think I have the hang of it now though! We got all my materials and loaded them into my car. I will also add that at my worksite I needed a 16’ extension ladder! That also had to fit in my car. It did but now no one can ride with me! After that we went to lunch then Walmart for a few materials that we could find cheaper there. We rushed back to the church because we had to pick up Beth at 1:30 at the Metro station. We left right after we picked her up for DC. When we got there we walked around a bit and went to the Library of Congress. It was cool. The Bibles were the best thing there. It was so neat to see something that has survived through years and years and still has remained just as important! Something that changed the course of history! Anyway after we left there we went to check out the Capitol to see how crowded it was. The gates opened at 3:00 and it was 4:00 and it was already swarming with people! So we decided to go ahead and get seats on the steps. Stacey, Beth and I left to go get food for everyone and we snuck a little gelato for ourselves ;) We got everyone’s food and made our way back, but by this time it was almost six and the lines for security had gotten ridiculously LONG. SO we stood for awhile and then finally got inside to everyone else. We all ate and chatted and then about 7:30 the show started. It was cool. We had Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Natasha Beddingfield, and the cast of Sesame Street. At about nine the fireworks started. They were really fantastic! They went on for awhile and close to the end we went ahead and left so that we could get a head start on the traffic at the metro. Turned out to be a good move! We got on and got seats and at each stop people would pack on! The stops were crazy full! We made it to our stop and got back to the church. Everyone that stayed behind was still up so we all hung out then it was bedtime! Campers tomorrow!

With FDR at his memorial. We had some fun with it!

An Alababama fan in DC :( (PS you can see my hair...)

Our last Max Brenner dessert :)

Touring and Laundry..

We woke up and I Skyped with Jamey a little bit :) Then I ran to get ready because I was running a bit late! We made sandwiches and hit the road! We had to run out to the post office and then get to the metro. We figured out while on the metro that we couldn't take our food into the Capitol. So we ate all of our food at 11:00 when we were not hungry at all haha! Then we got there just in time to get through security and get in line for our tickets. We went through the tour. It was a good tour, but very short. When we got done we decided to head back because we all desperately needed to do laundry! We stopped by the church and grabbed our dirty clothes and ran to the laundromat. We washed all of our clothes then decided to go to Target to get Sarah an outfit for 4th of July. Stacey is making us all wear red white and blue. Then we went and grabbed dinner at Chipotle. We decided to do a walmart run. I got new shoes and Sarah and I are going to paint them! After walmart we went back to the church and have been hanging out ever since. We lost power about 10:00, so we reported it to the power company. It has come back on now, but I'm heading to bed. We get to sleep in late tomorrow!! YAY! 

Museums and more movies!

Today we woke up at nine to head out. We were a bit late and didn't leave until ten. We rode the metro into the city. We didn't want to risk driving because of all the 4th of July traffic. We got in about 11:15 and went to the Holocaust Museum. We had to get tickets to enter the exhibit and our tour time wasn't until 1:30! We decided to walk to Union Station to get lunch. It was about a forty minute walk, so by the time we walked over there and ate and came back we were right on time for our exhibit. We took about 3 hours to tour through everything there. Me and some others were done after about an hour and a half, but some of the others were a bit slower... It was good there was lots to look out! I thought for sure I would cry, but it wasn't that bad. I did get chills a couple of times though. Everyone was tired after all that time on our feet, so everyone wanted to head back to the church. We got back and Stacey and I went to the grocery store to get dinner for everyone. When we got back we cooked it. (yes, I cooked dinner for everyone!) We all ate and then sat around and chatted a bit. A few people went to Walgreens and ran a few errands and I got to Skype a bit with my sister.  Stacey and I had gotten a movie while we were out, so we all got ready to watch Madagascar 2!! So now that is what we are doing watching a movie (yes again!) When this is ever we are all hitting the sack! We stayed up a bit too late last night!

PS Today I said the devil was beating his wife and the floridians had never heard of that! I didn't know that was a southern thing?? Anyone else reading my blog that doesn't know what that is it is when it rains and the sun is still shining!! 

More Worksites!

Today we woke up about nine. We got up and started working on more worksites. At the end of today we have all the worksites we will need for the entire summer! We actually have more we could do, but we don't think we have enough people or time!! It is sad not being able to help all the people we know of that need it :( Everything just fell into place today. It was an awesome turn of events for us after all that happened in NY! We then came back to the church just in time to take about a twenty minute nap then get ready real quick to eat dinner with our praise band Upon This Rock! They were super cool and super nice. They took us to a local pizza restaurant. We then came back to the church so they could teach Sarah some things about the sound system and projector stuff. We had this crazy idea. Sarah, Sofia and I decided to dye our hair different colors. (Mom and Jamey don't kill me!!) So by the end of the night Sarah now has blue hair I have purple hair and Sofia has red hair. Don't worry it is just on the bottom so it is very inconspicuous! I'll post pictures so everyone can see us! Now it is almost two am!! The dying process took a while... We are tired and we have to be ready to go by 9:30! Love you all!!! 

Work and Fun!

Today we had a lot of worksites to figure out and visit. We found a couple tat are really great. There is this cute little lady named Rosa :) We are going to do a couple of food pantries and them a good bit of yard work and small repairs for elderly and mentally handicapped. That took us several hours throughout the day. Eric and Stephanie (two camp directors for a camp in West Virginia) have been helping us set up our camp so they left today to head to Ohio for a few days to help there also. They left their West Virginia staff here with us so we all went to check our the monuments at night. I went in to town a little bit earlier then everyone else so I could eat dinner with Mom. Then I met up with them at the Lincoln Memorial. We did all the monuments and WWII and FDR were my favorite! That is pretty much all we did. We came back to the church and passed out!