repping my church while camping

my housemates & I dressed up for our Friday Night Luau

my littlest brother and I on one of my visits home

Living away from my family made me appreciate them more. I called my mom often (sometimes three times in one day), would meet my dad for coffee, and often stopped by my family’s house before work because it was fun to see how surprised my littlest siblings would be. I’m happy to be back home with my family again, but I thought it’d be fun to share some highlights from my seven months in the internship.

a 'family' photo- The Well college ministry interns 2020-2021

Awesome:

I'm awful at Risk, Clue is more my game.

-Game nights! They were super fun, but often left me barely sleeping because of a 6 a.m. Biblical studies class the next day.

-Conversations with other young adults from church about honoring God in seasons of singleness and also about what God-honoring relationships look like. It was neat to have mature and open conversations as well as compare personal opinions and values.

this was taken at another one of our stargazing spots

-Late-night spontaneous road trips! Kate was usually the instigator. Those adventures happened on several occasions and were always fun. During the winter we’d go to the lake to stargaze, and more recently we swam in it at midnight.

-A formal dinner for the interns, a few leaders, and the events team. It was so fun to have a reason to dress up!

-Sister sleepovers! One night we watched The Princess Diaries.

a few interns and a sister

-Making dinner for friends. It always felt weird cooking for just me so I enjoyed the times I got to cook for others too.

a friend caught this sweet moment at my family's house on camera

-Dinner with friends at my family's house. I loved introducing them to all my siblings and showing them how cute my small town is. There was one night several of us crammed into the treehouse to play games and sing camp songs.

-At the end of an emotional day three guys from our church showing up at our door and asking if we wanted to take a walk to get ice cream. That was so kind of them and such a fun memory. Us girls love our big brothers-in-Christ so much!

Cayucos

-Getting baptized at the beach and a handful of my friends coming to it.

-Bringing friends to my gym. We made several videos of all of us going up the warped wall.

somebody creatively crossed the slackline

my siblings came to one of the park days

-PARK DAYS. Oh my goodness, these were so incredibly fun. Back in February Emilie had the idea to take her slackline to the park and invite friends to join us there. This became something we did semi consistently until it got too hot. It’d be a group of about fifteen young adults riding longboards, falling off the slackline and throwing a frisbee at the park.

-Walks to the nearby university campus. They happened fairly often. My favorite one included climbing a tree, playing follow the leader, re-enacting a scene from Sound of Music, and sitting in a garden discussing our life plans and dreams.

-Hanging out on Tuesday nights with my teenage sister. One night we bought an ice cream to share and sat in the back of our brother’s truck.

-A spring break trip to Zion National Park. One of my favorite parts was laying on the ground, looking at the stars, and singing worship songs.

80's hangs

-Friday Night Hangs with costume themes.

-Having the boys over to watch Sound of Music. They loved it!

isn't this wall cute?

-My roommate, Claire, taking a group of us to the Swedish Festival in Kingsburg. That was such a fun experience! I loved the small-town feeling as well as seeing where she grew up.

his sash says, "half-birthday queen"

-Half-birthdays! We made a big deal of a few of them. Us girls even threw a surprise half-birthday/graduation party for one of the boys since he’ll be living in a different state on his actual birthday.

this was taken at our final Friday Night Hangs

-New people at Friday Night Hangs. One night we had 29 of them!

Tabletop Mountain

-Hikes. It was so natural to look at everything around us and discuss how neat it was that God created it all! I loved that.

-A little walk that turned into swimming in a river, climbing a giant tree, and getting a yummy lunch.

-Inviting myself over to a family’s house for an afternoon and them inviting me to stay for dinner. It felt so good to be around children and be 'part of a family’ once again.

Pismo

-One of the boys getting a new car. He took Emilie and me for a drive and was playing a country radio station. That’s when I decided I wanted to ride in his car on our beach trip.

-A bunch of my church friends coming up to where I work for a movie night. That was so fun!

Sedona

-A weekend road trip to Arizona. I always love seeing new parts of the country!

-Getting a tour of Bass Lake and Oakhurst. We met up with some other people from church for lunch.

-Staying up late, chatting, and all sleeping in the living room the final night all of us girls were together. We went through some conversation starter questions together. One was, "What song makes you think of me?" Lorah and I responded with the exact same song for each other!

-Cleaning house together and taking goofy polaroids.

-Surprise visitors at the house. One ended up staying and chatting for almost an hour. I loved the environment of living in a house where people could just do that.

-Baking a cake and Claire decorating it for Emilie's birthday.

I may have forced them to listen to VeggieTales

- A full car.

-Coming home from work to a full house.

-Late nights at In-n-out. It's open until 2 a.m so it was our go-to hangout.

-Afterhours. That's what we call it when we all go get dinner together after church.

-Kate and I smashing grapefruits with a baseball bat while blasting happy music because we were frustrated. It was a very bonding experience.

-“You better get used to this because someday your husband’s gonna watch you make dinner. Wow, you’re a messy eater.” Thanks, friend.

-"Hey Mom, can I invite a few friends over for dinner?" "Oops, there's 32 of us coming..." My mom is literally the best! She made iced tea, dinner and dessert for all of them.

-Bringing my stuffed animal seal to an intern meeting. Everyone took turns holding him then my friend asked if he could take him with him to go get burritos. I responded, “David doesn’t go anywhere without Mommy.”

-Playing hide and go seek in a giant house on our retreat. Even our college pastor was playing and sneaking around in the dark trying to scare us.

this costume was the most popular thing we found in the bag

-A coworker sending me home with hand-me-downs and all six of us girls promptly putting on a fashion show.

-"I tried to go straight to Fresno, but my car wanted to go see my family.” -an entry in my journal

-Emilie and I dancing goofily on the beach and eventually getting an older lady to join us.

it was pretty even with all the fire damage

- ‘squatching’ on a camping trip. You also believe Sasquatch is real, right?

I hope this was somewhat entertaining. I enjoyed organizing all the pictures and memories. What are some awesome and awkward moments from your life lately?

Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash

Every summer I used to spend a week or two out at my Grandmother and Grandfather’s farm. My Grandfather would always tell my parents that since I was the youngest of ten children I deserved at least a week, each year, without older siblings to boss me around. 

One day, Grandmother and I were in the attic looking at things. This was one way we passed many summer days when it was too hot to be outside.

“Grandmother.”

She smiled down at me and I gazed at her a moment before finally speaking. I loved the way she brushed her long white hair every morning and twisted it into a perfect bun on the back of her head. Seven year old me knew that when I was older I wanted to be just like her. 

I pointed to a heart shaped box on a top shelf. “What is that?” I asked.

Grandmother smiled. She had a special look on her face. It was a look I saw only in older peoples faces, the look they get when they are about to tell a story.

Grandmother whispered something softly. I hadn’t understood a word she said. It almost sounded like the noises my little nephew used to make.

Since it looked as if Grandmother wasn’t going to explain, I repeated my question. It was louder this time, “Grandmother! What is that? The thing up on the shelf?”

She turned towards me once again and made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. “Ma petite boite a musique.”

I huffed. There were those words again, the ones I didn’t understand. Before I had a chance to complain, Grandmother lifted it gently off the shelf as if it might shatter at one touch. “Do you know who gave it to me?”

I shook my head.

She smiled again. Not just with her mouth, but with her eyes. That was one of my favorite things about Grandmother. She almost always had a joyful light in her eyes. Once when I asked her about it she mentioned something about how she supposed it was because she knew her maker. I didn’t understand then but she said I would when I was older. 

“Your grandfather gave it to me.” She reached down and tucked a stray strand of my hair behind my ear. “A long time ago.”

I plopped down on a rug and smoothed out the old fashioned dress that Grandmother and I had sewn together. “Tell me the story.”

She eagerly pulled a rocking chair close to me and sat down.

“Well, your grandfather and I had always been wonderful friends. We’d known each other since he was ten and I was seven...”

“Like me!” I interrupted.

“Yes, Samantha. Like you.” She always called me by my full name even though all of my older siblings called me Sam. “Anyways, I knew we were practically best friends, but I would have never guessed that all these years later we’d still be best friends and have six beautiful children and more wonderful grandchildren than I can count.”

I laughed, “Silly Grandmother. There are ten children in my family and a total of twenty in the other five families.”

“Oh, that’s right isn’t it?”

I nodded, “And you didn’t mention Theodore, your first great-grandchild.”

“Of course! Theodore, how could I have forgotten him?”

“You didn’t really. Go on with the story.”

“Ah, yes. The year I graduated from high school your grandfather went on a business trip in Europe. I had no idea how much I would miss him. By the time he came back it was quite obvious to each of us that not only were we best friends, but we were in love. Tom, your grandfather, talked to my father almost the moment he was back from Europe. He told my father that, if it was okay with him, he wanted permission to spend more time with me so he could get to know me better.”

“But why? You already knew each other,” I interrupted.

Grandmother smiled down at me, “Yes, we knew each other as friends but not as sweethearts who hoped to marry each other.”

“What does this have to do with the little box?” I was growing impatient. I could tell this was a story my older sisters would love to hear but not I. I wanted to know about the mysterious little box.

“I’m getting there. On our first date, we went on a picnic. We called it a date, but it wasn’t just the two of us, it was my whole family.” 

“Why did your whole family go?”

“They all wanted to get to know Tom better and my father wasn’t ready to let the two of us out of his sight.”

“Kinda like before Margaret married Chris whenever they went to eat food together Percy had to go with them.” Percy and Margaret were two of my older siblings. “Percy liked doing that because Chris always bought super yummy food and Percy would get to eat some too.”

“Yes, it was like that. Once Tom and I got to know each other better Father would often send just my older brother with us.”

“What type of food did you eat?”

“Well, I remember exactly what we ate on our first ‘date’. Mother wanted me to get more experience cooking, so I was the one who filled the picnic basket. I brought,” she began to count the things off using her fingers, “Fried chicken sandwiches on homemade bread, coleslaw, strawberries, lemonade and apple pie.”

I licked my lips, “Yummy. Can we eat all of that for dinner tonight?”

Grandmother seemed to like that idea. “We can if you want to go to the country store with me to pick up ingredients and if you promise to help me with the homemade bread and pie.”

“Oh goodie. I’m really good at making apple pie.”

“Your grandfather will like this.”

“Let’s surprise him!”

“Good idea.”

“Please continue your story. You were at the picnic part. And I still don’t know what that little box is.”

“It’s getting hot and stuffy up here. Let’s go down to the living room.” I followed Grandmother down the stairs and into the old fashioned living room. Once we were both sitting down she continued her story.

“During our picnic dinner Tom taught me some French. He had spent the majority of his work trip in France. After the apple pie, he handed me a little wrapped gift,” At this point, Grandmother picked the little box up off of her lap, “It was this little music box.”

I was excited. I’d seen music boxes before and I thought they were the most darling things on earth, besides babies of course. As Grandmother opened it up and twisted the key, I held my breath. What tune would it play? Grandmother let go of the key and the song began.

“What song is that, Grandmother?”

“It’s a French love song. The music box came from France. Your grandfather taught me how to say, ‘My little music box’ in French.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed, “Is that what you were saying earlier?”

Grandmother handed me the music box so I could look at it closer. “Yes. Ma petite boite a musique.”

Now that I knew what they meant, the words sounded beautiful instead of like baby blabbers. I felt every little intricate detail in the beautiful French music box, “It’s so pretty.”

“Yes,” Grandmother leaned back in her chair, “Once it was dark we all began to walk back from the picnic. I played the little tune on the music box the whole way home. Some fireflies came out. It almost looked like they were dancing to the tune of my music box. The whole scene was beautiful.”

“I like fireflies.” I said.

photo credit//picture his glory

Saturday, November 21st!

Once again, I had Liza Proch design the cover and I'm so so happy with it :)))

Here

it

is

Dawn Chandler is newly settled in Lone Pine, and she can’t wait for the family wedding. When she and her friend Moriah discover an old letter written during the Vietnam War, they hatch a plan for a grand wedding surprise. Forming the “Smokey’s Sleuths” group with their siblings, they intend to track down the letter’s author.

As plans move forward with festivities, Dawn tries to ignore Rochelle, the one girl determined to make her life miserable and ruin her friendships. But Smokey’s Sleuths soon discover that Rochelle is the one person who holds the clue they desperately need.

Will Smokey’s Sleuths be able to track down the letter’s author in time to pull off a wedding surprise, or will Dawn’s struggle to love her enemy keep them from their goal?

Add on Goodreads.

~~~

I'm trying something new with this book release...a photo challenge! I'll be giving a fun prize (yet to be announced) to one person who joins in the challenge on Instagram. Feel free to join in on Facebook or your blog simply for the fun of it, if you wish.

So what do you think? How do you like the cover and will you be joining the challenge?

Friendly reminder...if you haven't read Dawn Chandler yet you can snag a copy here ;)