All systems are go.

The woods were good; things are back to normal, with the exception of my incessant insomnia.  I really think it's the new apartment (although, it's not exactly new anymore...).  Creeks, noises, neighbors upstairs shuffling about, and that stinking train with it's blaring horn that comes by about 2 hours into my sleep... I'll get over it all eventually.  Maybe I should start praying for the conductor of that train... to find a new job.  We'll see.

Election season is finally over.  I'm thankful God doesn't have a race, gender, party-affiliation, or even nationality.  I also like that He's sovereign.  Regardless of who you voted for, I think we can all agree that we're a little bummed Heidi Klum & Seal aren't leaving the country now.  If only McCain would've pulled through for us there...

Sarah Basye Eidson gets the award for Best Election Season Facebook Status: "Sarah couldn't have handled another 4 years of whining and complaining anyways."  Funny.  

Tomorrow is my first country club gala event ever.  Our company did some fundraising for the ADA, and as fate would have it, we beat out all other competing Joplin businesses.  Another cool thing: I happened to tie with Teresa for top seller.  So the two of us, our GM, and the VP are taking a much needed Saturday night off and traveling out to the event.  Should be good for networking, if for nothing else.

And Sunday, my most favorite day, is D-group.  My co-leader and I know how much our girls love Starbucks, but since it's going to be in the 40's, and since two hours is a lot of time to try and keep eight 13 year olds contained in one building, we decided to set up a coffee bar in my apartment, play some board games, and start planning for our winterfest.

I really can't even articulate how much I love these girls.  Since I'm wordless, here's a peek into 3 recent conversations:  Wednesday night at youth group, our high schooler's took the night off (WC playoff game), so our junior high had the youth rooms all to themselves.  

Scenario 1:  Old mauve rocking chair that does a complete 360 happens to be vacant in the middle of the room.  What else would you do but spin each other around until someone gets hurt or until the chair tips and breaks?  We were so fortunate as to have both things happen at the same time.  Alexis flew out of the chair as it fell backwards, and Jordan, being a good friend, tried to catch her, but instead missed and jammed her finger.  Of course, when someone is hurt and needs ice, you don't just go alone... you traipse a flock of junior highers across a building to get it with you!  So we're laughing and shooshing down the hall when I noticed that some adult class off to our left is meeting in the lobby, with just a small partition to block distractions.  So, as not to be noticed, I suggested army crawling the 15' gap... which, obviously, is MUCH less noticable :).  

Scenario 2:  Toilet paper game.  Two of our girls, in particular, always think of creative ways to cheat in games, or to be completely absent from them.  Luke (our JH youth minister) pulls out a 12 pack of toilet paper and asks for volunteers.  I suggest to Phoenix that she go play, to which she reply's, "Ewe, no, it's not even Charmin!!"  

Scenario 3:  We are building a new building, so we think it best to grab a flashlight and travel out there to snoop around.  Setting is important here... it's completely dark, we're surrounded by farmland, and we are 3 junior highers and one leader sneaking around a fresh construction sight (which is probably... most likely... okay, definitely against a whole host of rules).  As we approach, fear sets in.  The following convo happens:

Sarah: "Guy's, what if there are like, bums and squatters living in here right now?!"

Maddie: "Oh, it's okay Sarah, I know French!"

See?  You love them too now, don't you.  They make it easy.

One last update:  Sometime in July, I lost one of my journals, a book, and my bible, all within a week.  For those who don't know, I'm a chronic journaler.  I write life down.  Losing that journal was particularly painful for me because this last year has been a very, very eventful one.  I was looking forward to opening it in 20 years and reliving some rough things and some good things, and tracing my growth.  Needless to say, I've been procrastinating on purchasing another one, because I still have ridiculous hopes of that one turning up.  I finally broke down Wednesday... but I didn't go conventional.  Over the summer, I read a particularly awful book (no seriously, awful) called "The Back of the Napkin," which deals with communicative sketches and doodles.  Even though the book was terrible (I mean really bad), I do agree it is a better way to communicate.  So instead of a journal, I bought a 100 pg sketch-pad, in which I have limited myself on wordage, and must draw out my day and thoughts.  This proves difficult because I have zero artistic abilities.  But who knows, maybe something will come out of it.  That being said, I'm off to art journal.