Being in college, the one thing that bothers me the most is the price of textbooks. With classes starting up this Monday, I went to the bookstore to check prices on my books this term so I can budget my money for it. Lets just say that I walked out almost in tears,  and on the verge of having a heart attack. The grand total of my books this term is: drum roll please….. $467. And this is for only 12 credits/4 classes. Over $200 in books is for one class alone. Another class has a $93 book, and that’s only one of the two books that are needed.

It’s ridiculous how much of a monopoly textbooks are. As a college student, I feel as if I could speak for most (if not all) of my fellow poor college students when I say this. We cannot afford to drop almost $500 a term for books. Really… how much does it cost to produce said books? I’m fed up with watching my money fly out the window every time a new term rolls around. Tuition is pricey enough, I would rather not deal with over priced textbooks.

What would happen if all of the students came together and said “we won’t pay this much”?
Can we boycott university bookstores?
Can we take a stand against the publishing companies?

All I know is that I’m sick of it. Are you?

So I’ve been slacking in the blogging department. Lo ciento. The only excuse that I have is that life back in Oregon hasn’t been too terribly exciting.

I’ve been back for a little over a month now and haven’t done too much. I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with Lee, which has been the highlight of being back from LTSP. We’ve been working hard on catching up on The Office and are so close. Just a few more episodes in season 5, then we can catch up on the new season! Other adventures that we’ve gone on include:

Oregon coast!

OSU football game

Oregon State Fair!

Winter Hawks game

We also just got back from a weekend in Washington visiting my family. It was great being home and I wish we could have stayed longer, but we needed to get back to Oregon for Lee’s hockey game.

So that’s basically what I’ve been up to since returning to Oregon from LTSP. Hopefully life will pick back up when school starts next week. Surprisingly enough I’m excited, and ready, to start classes. I miss my routine.

Well, here’s to an amazing summer and an ever better school year!

I think things are finally starting to sink in. This place that I’ve learned to call home for the past 9 weeks is about to become just a memory. I have made so many close friends, we’re a family now. We’ve gone through a lot as a project. We’ve desperately prayed for jobs, cried out to God when we’ve been sick, and trusted in Him to bring in the last of our support. In every case we have seen God come through. He provided jobs, he’s brought health to our project, and he’s provided $9,000 in the last 5 days. God is good. Along with the struggles that we have all experienced while being here, so much good has happened too. I have made memories that I’m sure I’ll be sharing with my grandkids someday.

Today marked day 1 of camp cleaning. Never did I expect the entire camp to be packed up and locked away in one day. The picnic benches that we at dinner at every single night are no longer there. The lawn furniture, which created a great place to hang out….. gone. Even the light that illuminated the “dance floor” for country swing dancing is packed up and away. As I saw everything slowly disappear I couldn’t help but feel like my summer was being packed up with it all. This is only my home for one more day before I leave. I’ll no longer be living in my little slice of heaven.

Dang. Here comes the first tear. It’s official. Leaving is really sinking in.

There are only 9 days left of my 9 week long Summer Project. I cannot believe that in less than a week and a half I will be leaving the 78 new brothers and sisters that I have grown so close to over the course of the summer. This has been an experience of a lifetime that I would not trade for the life of me. God has really done some amazing things through out my time here in South Lake Tahoe.

Some of the most memorable things that I’ve been able to see has been a 15 year old girl come to Christ, a single employer hire 11 Crusaders on the spot (including myself!), an amazing Christian community built, and memories that will last for a life time. I have talked to complete strangers on the beach about Christ and I have also gone door to door asking people about their spiritual background and sharing my own beliefs. I was brought flowers when I had to work during date night and have laughed so hard my stomach hurt the next day. I have been prayed for and encouraged when dealing with a lot of stress and have been able to do the same for my fellow LTSPers. I have had co-workers come to dinner and hang out with everyone and have taken my boss out to breakfast with the rest of her “church girls”. I have fallen on my knees in tired desperation for the Lord and have lifted my hands in praise. I have seen God use “ravens and widows” to provide $3000 worth of support and He’s also provided 74 summer jobs in a tourist town that is struggling due to the economy.

This has been such a stellar summer, I don’t think that I’m quite ready to leave it and go back to the real world. Here’s to the last 9 days of the best summer of my life.

Saw this on the boyfriend’s blog. Thought I’d give it a shot.

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions.

Your Artist:

Paramore

Are you a male or female:

My Heart (?)

Describe yourself:

Stuck On You

How do you feel:

Brighter

Describe where you currently live:

Temporary

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:

Stay Away

Your best friend is:

My Hero

You and your best friends are:

Born For This

What’s the weather like:

Oh Star

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:

Here We Go Again

What is life to you:

Miracle!

Your last relationship was:

Misery Business

Your fear:

Conspiracy

What is the best advice you have to give:

Hallelujah

How you would like to die:

That’s What You Get

My soul’s present condition:

We Are Broken/Whoa

I saw that Becca started doing this and it looked like a lot of fun!

This week’s theme is Shapes. Here are some fun “shapes” found on a hike to Eagle Lake.

Love the shape of the mountain against the clear blue sky!

Even empty spaces make some neat shapes.

Rocks create some fun shapes too!

So do waterfalls!

Well they aren’t very conventional shapes, but I think that they are beautiful!

Check out some more perspectives of shapes here!

Pranks are a part of camp life. You get a group of college kids together for a long period of time, pranks will be played. It’s inevitable. Already here in Tallac Village we’ve had a few harmless pranks played on the general public.

First there was saran wrap around one of the boy’s cabins.

Saran Wrap!

Then there was my favorite. All of the lawn furniture was stacked on top of the balcony outside of the family room. To make this prank even better, all of the peanut butter that’s stacked on top of the fridges inside the family room, was moved outside and put in a pyramid formation on all of the furniture on the balcony. A harmless prank that everyone got a good laugh at.

That's my buddy Lauren. So proud of her for this!

Now the other night was the beginning of the end. Pranks got personal and I’m “guilty by gender association”. Here is what I have decided what happened after piecing together stories. The guys decided to go skinny dipping and told the girls exactly what they were going to do. In response the girls (and by the girls I do not mean every single one… because there were some of us, including myself, that were not involved) decided to prank the boys. Part of the prank was covering one of the guy’s car with yellow sticky notes. Hilarious!!

Chris's car and just a few of the girls

They continued the evening of pranks by pulling all of their mattresses outside and placing them around camp. There were mattresses on the ground, on roofs, and stuck between trees. Slightly funny. It stopped being funny when the guys came back and not only were find their mattresses, but other belongings, including toothbrushes and clothes, scattered around camp. Some guys took it really well and laughed it off, others didn’t take it well at all. This morning all of us girls woke up with various items placed on our porches as well as a few cabins without hot water as a warning to all of us girls.

A war has started and I am pretty sure that I am stuck in the middle.

This last Sunday we had what was called Staff Turnover. For those of you who don’t know, all of the staff here on project leave halfway through. All of the responsibilities that all the directors and other staff people had, were given over to select students. We have new student directors, leaders for ministry teams, and life group leaders. It was a super emotional night for me. It hit me that in a short week, all of the staff would be leaving and project would be halfway over.

Tonight marks the staff’s last night here. We have the staff banquet to honor them and thank them for all they’ve done while they have been here. Tonight I have to say good-bye to my life group leader, MeeHee. This woman has played such a huge role in how far God has brought me this far. She’s the one who has encouraged me to be open and vulnerable through her own story. She knows me inside and out, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the redeemed. I could not have asked for a better “life coach”. I can’t wait until winter conference to be reunited again!

Life Group! (Amy, Haley, Lauren, myself, and MeeHee)

Wow. I am absolutely amazed at how God has been providing for me. He heard my desperate cry for support and He came through, and provided the money for me to go. And now 4 weeks into project, He heard me desperate cry for a job and has answered it!

This morning I went into the Coldstone in Heavenly for an “audition” with 11 other LTSPers. Totally content with just having fun in this interview and letting God have the reigns, I introduced myself to the group, sang a camp song, and then with 4 other interviewees rapped and grooved to a Coldstone tip jingle. Eventually came the time to find out who did or didn’t get the job. Well… long story short, everyone who “auditioned” has hired right on the spot! That means all 11 of us LTSPers instantly had a job!! I am now a Coldstone employee and will be working with 11 of the greatest people I have ever met. Praise the Lord!!

As I’m typing this, there is a black bear 6 stories up one of our trees here in Tallac Village. We have been instructed to stay in our cabins until further notice. My roommate Jessica is a “eco-ranger” for Heavenly and is teaching Mia and I all about our new pet. I guess they climb trees when disturbed….. go figure.

Anyway… on a slightly different note, I would love to share with you all something amazing that happened this last Sunday. Sundays here at LTSP are our outreach days. My life group, as well as 2 others, we assigned to go to Zepher Cove. We were informed that this is the party beach of South Lake Tahoe. What an understatement. The beach was packed with people BBQing and drinking. Well, we paired up and went out to spread the Good News the beach-comers. I was paired with a guy named Zack from Idaho. Lets just say that his style of outreach is really different from how I would do things. The very first people that we see upon setting foot on the sandy beach, he approaches and very straight forwards states that we’re from Campus Crusade for Christ and we’re looking to have spiritual conversations with people. Wow. No surprise to me they said that they weren’t interested, so we moved on. The same process repeated with the next people that we approached, only this time they were willing to talk. So Zack started right in. Come to find out the guy we was talking to is a Jehovah Witness. This was a great match for Zack because he was raised going to the Kingdom Hall with his parents. As he sat and talked theological things that were beyond me, I began talking to the sister-in-law. Come to find out she’s a believer. A little discouraged that I wasn’t able to share my faith with anyone, I continued to talk with her. Eventually her niece, the daughter of the man who Zack was talking with, came up and we started casually talking.

Julie is a 15 year old sophomore from Reno NV. She attends church with her dad and considers herself a Jehovah Witness as well. There’s a whole lot that I do not know about that faith so I began to ask her what it was that she believed. She told me as much as she knew and answered any question that I had for her to the best of her abilities. I then asked if I could share a bit about what I believed. To my surprise she said yes! I pulled out my little “Knowing God Personally” book, or as we call it, the KGP and began to go through it with her. This little book just explains how we all are sinners and are in need of a savior. It explains the punishment for depending on ourselves, and the reward for trusting in Jesus Christ. At the end there is a basic prayer of salvation and then various things that become true if you said the prayer, asking Jesus into your heart. I asked Julie if that was the desire of her heart and she said yes!! However she wanted to wait and think a bit more before making a decision. I said fine and continued through the rest of the book. After giving her the book to hold onto and look over for a while she looked up and asked if she had to read the prayer aloud and close her eyes. I told her no, however she wants to do it was fine with God. Moments later she read the prayer of salvation and right before my eyes I had a new sister in Christ!!

It was quite amazing seeing God work in a person’s heart right before my eyes. I also feel so blessed that God would use me as a tool to reach this girl. God is great and He knows what He’s doing that’s for sure! He was able to work through my attitude problems and reach out to a lost soul. How amazing is that? This experience has fueled a fire to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ! Watch out world….