The Real World: Santa Clarita

O.E. has been over for almost three weeks. That's super crazy considering we had four weeks of camp. Wow, time flies super fast. Well, O.E. ended very well. I was very excited for it to end because I knew that things back here at home would be crazy, and exciting, and fun, and that there would be so much to do.
I learned so much this season at O.E. I learned how to live with people who are tough to live with. I learned alot about myself and how God is changing my heart to desire specific things. I use to think that I was this girl who was never going to desire a relationship or anything like that. Over the past couple months God has changed my heart and I can't wait to start a family and be married and all those things. I learned that 5th and 6th graders are my favorite age group. I have learned that I like teaching and I am now on the pursing my Liberal Studies Degree. But, I learned a lot about my God. He wants to here specific prayers from me. He already knows my heart so why hold anything back from Him. He is faithful to provide and he is forever sustaining.
O.E. was great. I miss a few of the people, and I miss working with people and having a program job, and I miss teaching by the lake. God blessed me with that time and now I'm back here in the "real world" off the mountain.


This is by my favorite cabin of girls that I had had all season long. I spent a lot of time with them getting to know them and having fun with them. I actually just talk to a few of them the other day!

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Now, I'm back in Santa Clarita getting my life started up again. It's been quit the adventure. I got a job in less than 24hrs of applying for it. I am an official Starbucks partner now. This has been kind of overwhelming because there is so much to learn and with the Holidays just around the corner things are about to really busy. Plus, I work at the one at our mall and well we all know how those holiday shoppers can be! But, I have no doubt in my mind that this is where God has me and that he is going to use me there. My consistent prayer is that I am a light to all the employees and every person that walks through that door of our store. So , I know that this alone is going to be a great challegen and a great adventure. I have been there for about a week and already feel alittle bit overwhelmed but I know that as the weeks go on and I start to get the hang of everything it will all just become second nature to me.
I started back up at our College Group. I came back at the perfect time to. Ron Merrell is our new College Pastor and he is amazing. He was the Junior High Pastor when I was interning at Grace and now he is the new College Pastor. It has been amazing to sit under his teaching. God has just blessed up college students with an amazing pastor. I also have just joined a small group. I haven't been apart of a small group since my sophmore year of high school. So I'm really excited to have a place where I can has sister to talk to and be encourage by and to encourage and be accountable to. Myself and a few of these girl are going on a road trip in about a week to Poratland, Seattle and Coeur d'Alene. So needless to say I have been very busy. I'm definitely enjoying life off the hill. I know that this is join to be a big year and I am looking forward to the things that God has in store.


><> Jackie

Teddy Grahams and Dried Fruit

So this from awhile ago I just never posted it opps! lol


I have roommate from Mississippi and her name is Missi. She really liked to hunt animal deer, birds, ducks, raccoons and the list goes on. She has been really bummed out because she has missed a lot of the hunting season back in Mississippi so PK let her and Cheif, another instructor, take a few pellet guns and shoot them out in the range.

Last night we were all in our room minding our own business. I was shopping on-line and chatting to old friends on facebook, Kove was sleeping and Missi and Poppy where also on their computers when out of now where Poppy goes, " You guys, there are raccoons outside our window!!" These words sent our night into a raccoon stakeout.

Missi and I ran outside to see them and the things that they have gotten into. But, we scared them so they ran away. As we were outside the boy in the room next to us came out to see what all the commotion was. We told them there were raccoons hang out in the hallway. Bearcarver came running out the door with the pellet gun like a little kid jumping around yelling "Where are they? Where are they?" As he takes off running in the direction that Missi and I were pointing and the other boy shuffling in and out of the room.

I ran inside because it was incredibly cold. Poppy was safely watching all the action from the comfort of her bed through the window. Missi ran straight for her chocolate Teddy Grahams and ran quickly back out the door. When I peaked around the corner Missi was setting up the Teddy Grahams in the shape of an arrow pointing towards our doors. Boy were all inside their room staking out by their window.


Everytime the racoons would come and start eating the trail Missi would up in excitment and startlightly knocking, so she wouldn't scare the racoons away, on the boys wall in hopes that they would grab the gun and shoot it. Well, let me tell you this went on ALL night along. We all went to bed at around 1am only to be woken up two hours alter to the raccoons going through the trash and Missi having a fit because she wish she had the pellet gun. It was very much so an adventurous night!


Oh yeah, the next day Missi and I took the gun from the boys room and she was successful later that night in finally shooting a raccoon!

Half Way There!

Wow, we have finished our first two weeks of OE and I'm sitting here in my room waiting for week 3 to start! This is crazy. The last two weeks have been very draining but SO MUCH FUN! The kids have been so endearing. I am learning a few different things. First is that I love Elementary ages more than any other age. They are so into the interesting things that we have to tell them. They still listen to use because they think that we are soo cool , and we are soo cool, and they have very curious minds and ask a ton of questions! I love that so much.

Second thing that I am learning is that I love teaching. Before this, OE, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my life and where I was going. But now, hopefully this wont change when I get home, I really want to pursue teaching elementary ages.

I just went home this last weekend to visit and just rest on my long weekend off and I didn't want to leave at the end of the weekend. I just wanted to stay and get stated with school. I wanted to stay home and reconnect with friends and find a job. I wanted to stay and dive into the college group and get to know new people. When the weekend came to an end I didn't want to leave. But, this is where God has me for now. Ministering to an age group that I love. If God is going to teach as much as he did in these last three week in these next two weeks then I'm stoked for it!


So just I have been talking about how I have been teaching this class on insect but I haven't posted any pictures. So here ya go!( NOTE: I only teach girl bu ton small weeks my partner, Chief, will each teach just one class instead of two and so most of the pictures are from his class when I didn't have to teach) When I start out my class we go on a hike and i hike them to a giant red wood ant hill. The ants have been building this hill for about three years!


I also use these insect glasses to explain the eye of an insect and I always have volunteers help me with this!
Then here are a couple pictures of the girls in my classes on their insect hunt!




Alright, hopefully I can update date you soon!

Ready To Go!

So here I am at the end of my week of orientation and training. Wow, I never thought that I would like putting together a class and teaching it so much. I have learned so much this week about being a teacher anda communicator of information to students. I worked all week on a simple outline for my one 45 minutes lecture, and to think that teachers do this kind of stuff everyday. I have a completly new respect for teachers.

I have had a blast this week getting comfortable with my class and all the materials that I am going to us with the students. But most of all I had a crazy week with God. He is teaching me patience, when is He not teaching me about patience, in different situations. For example just the simple aspect of having to catch and pins insect for display. Catching insects is no easy job and takes a lot of patience. Even with roommates and trying to get use to living with people that aren't like me at all. My whole life God has blessed with amazing roommates. Not that these roommates aren't amazing but I have never lived with three other people and we are so different and do things different and having patience with them is something that God is pressing on my right now. I am so greatful for these lessons. It might sound like I am complaining, but these are some great lessons to learn. Is it frustrating sometimes, yeah, but it is needed. I won't be made stronger in my love and my walk and my pactince if there is no friction and no conflict. So I am honestly grateful for it.

Campers come Monday and I am so excited. I'm ready to be in there with them having fun, talking with students, teaching students, and sharing Jesus with them. I am finding more and more that heart are student in the Elementary age. They such open minds and hearts that are modalbe. I get super excited about it when I think about the ways that God can use me in the lives of these students if I allow Him. So if you think about me as the week goes on comes to an end and we start a new week I would love it if you would say a quick prayer for me, the staff and the students that are coming here. That God would prepare all our hearts and that as a staff we will be open to God's guiding when interacting with these students and looking for the teachable moments. I would really appreciate that! I promise to keep you updated on the week! Hopefully I will put up pictures to!


><>
Jackie

Philippians 2:1-3
¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

OE Thus Far

It has been 4 short days since I arrived back at the beautiful Hume Lake to start my job for the fall as on Outdoor Education Instructor. I was given the class of Entomology. For those of you who do not know what that is it the the Study of Insects, basically. I meet my partner and his name is Chief. He majored in outdoor Education and so he knows alot about our topic. So I have been hitting the books and studying any and everything about insects and catching them for the past three days. Let me tell you that these past few days have been anything less than boring. We have been getting up early and working on putting our material together, putting our classrooms together, and becoming experts on our topics. I have 3 roommates! One of them is from Mississippi and has the neatest accent ever. Her name is Boots and she is the youngest on our staff at 17. Then there is Poppy who is a teacher and she has a heart to convey the information as correctly and uniquley to the students. Then my bunkmate would be Kove. She just ha sthis fun and crazy spirit which I just love and feed off of. So needless to say our room has been less then boring, dance parties, late night chats, and pictures galore! The staff in general has been pretty amazing. A lot of us came off of summer staff together and so we have previous relationships so it is nice to know people in this new and crazy environment. It has been extra neat fo rme to have Boone and Koda here with me, I work with both of them at Wagon Train over the summer. It's just nice to have people here who know me and that i can openly and honestly talk with and confide in with out having to rebuild that relationship with others. But I'm looking forward to building those types of relationship with the girls on this staff. Speaking of building relationships. We had a team building activity the other day. I will always and forever refer to it as the day of the hike! We woke up at 5 am, ok first off I went to bed with the stars and woke up with the stars, and left for our destination at around 5:45 am. Getting up early is something that I don't do to often nor do I do well with getting up early, just ask any one who knows me. After an hour drive we headed off on our hike at 7 am. Pk, my boss, was kind enought to explain each third of the hike to us so we wouldn't have any surprises. we started at 8,000 ft and ended at 10, 375 ft. This was by far one of the hardest hike that I had ever done. I was tired, out of breath, my legs burned, my hip and knee hurt ,but in the end when I reached the top and steped onto the peak and looked out I was stunned by God's beauty. This was the highest I had every been hiking. By this time it was 8:45am and the sun was in just the right place and the sun hit the surrounding mountains in such a way that they sparkled. As Pk read from Matthew 6 about worry, I was thinking about how God has created all this and knew all thsi was here. I had NO idea that any of this existed but my God did. These mountains were so tall and so large but God yet still cares enough to love me and know me. So why in the world would I worry that I am not going to learn all my information before the students come or little things like that. God's got it. Needless to say it was totally worth waking up at 5am to see my God in a completely different way and enjoy the things that he has given me.

We ended the hike with pancakes at the top of this peak and a group photo. We headed back down and we we reached the vans we all crawled inside and fell asleep! It was one of the best days ever. Even today I am still really sore and I feel like I am 95 years old but I would do it again!

New Things

This is something new for me. I don't really blog, well I never blog. Since I am at a stage at my life where ever people are coming and going and so am I, I wanted a way for people who are interest or who I don't get to talk to day to be able to stay updated with what I am doing. Then enjoy a little random blog here and there. So hopefully this will serve that purpose and hopefully I will be diligent and stay up on it.

For starters I recently purchased my very first car! YAY!! =) It is a 2001 Volkswagen Jetta GLS. I have been search for two years for a car. God, in those two years, was testing my patience and my ability to rely on him to provide me for my transportation. It was great! I find those times to be where I learn the most. When I am forced to rely on him and be patient. Am i perfect at it ABSOLUTELY NOT! It will always be a life struggle for me that's for sure. But, I feel that God has now proved me with a fabulous car! It has everything that I want in it and more! For example a SUNROOF! I knew that I wasn't gonna get a convertable and so the next best thing was a sunroof! It also has heating seats and defrosting side windows which will be really helpful when I am traveling to and from Hume Lake in the winter! It's really comfortable, drives well, great gas mileage, and all around a car fit for me! I go down to the dealership today to pick it up and drive it home. I'm gonna open that sunroof, roll down those windows, and listen to NickelCreek on the way back!

LOVE IT!