Whew!!!!

Well the semester is officially over for USC and while it was a crazy finish, what with end of year events, it was all fun but stinkin' tiring!! We had our last Life group meeting where we ate at Jacks n Joe, a new pancake shop literally across the street from USC. While I am not the biggest pancake fan, I had heard many good things about this place so I decided to give it a whirl.



I was not disappointed! I had the Jack's Banana Pancakes ("3 banana pancakes topped with walnuts - pretend like it's the weekend now") and they were incredibly delicious!! I couldn't finish mine, mostly because their 3 pancakes are stinkin' HUGE, but that suited me just fine because that just meant that I could take them home and have them again! Such yumminess :)

Then we also had our celebrations for the Discipleship Team (DT - mostly for underclassmen who want to focus on the basics of the Christian walk) and the Ministry Team (MT - upperclassmen who wanted more training in how to help others come to know Christ). For the former we had a pool party which was quite fun, as most of the students got in the pool and went crazy! For the latter, we went to a family-fun place where we all played 2 rounds of laser tag (my team won both times...naturally) and go-karting with some mini-golf thrown in for good measure!


Austin gettin' ready to rev up!!


Melinda had quite the good time racing everyone :)

Finally, last but not least, was our end of year celebration honoring our senior students and all of Christian Challenge is invited! This year we went to Pizza Place California which always holds a special place in my heart because that's also where we went my first two years of school, so I have fond memories of that restaurant! Everyone got dressed up too and there were cries of "ooooo!!" and "that's such a pretty dress!" coming from the girls all night :) The guys didn't look too bad either, with their suits and ties, and it was just fun all around!!


picture with some of the classy ladies :)


and now some of the gentlemen...


followed by a photo of my Life group (Charlene, Rebekah, Lauren, myself and Alex). Taylor and Kaila couldn't make it, but it was still a fun time :)

And then, once everything was over, I took a week by myself and went to Lake Arrowhead where my parents graciously allowed me to use their cabin the whole time. It. Was. Amazing, and just what the doctor ordered!! I almost killed myself getting there because it was so stinkin' foggy on the way up, but Jesus got me through it! I was praying to Him literally every other second. Other than that lovely start, the week was glorious and I made 2 dishes that lasted me the whole week (spaghetti bolognese and tuna pasta salad) and I simply read, studied the Word, took long walks with God (when the weather permitted) and worked on some things. It was so great!! And I was apprehensive about spending a whole week alone because while I am an introvert, that doesn't mean that I don't like people! But it was a good week and sometimes I'd go into the village and walk around just so I could be near people :)

And with that, we're all caught up!! Summer Christian Challenge started last week and will continue throughout the summer, so there is that plus other projects to be working on!

I hope this finds you well and I'll be posting shortly! (really!)