Hmmm

So, I'm not sure how I feel this week.  I miss home, but its not like extreme homesickness like it used to be at school, but there are things I miss from home right now.  Like the family, and the pool, and diving boards.  The ability to breathe when I run! haha 
I think part of it is that my summer job for the past 7 years is over by now, and I'm on vacation enjoying just relaxation. And living at my job makes it harder to feel relaxed and like I am on vacation.   I'm trying to find the joys in the little things, and not harden my heart to out here and count down the days till I'm done.

Morning Rearranging

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind. and strength and love your neighbor as yourself."
Mark 12:30
I don't love Jesus with ALL my heart all my soul all my mind and all my strength. And no one, person, friend or family member can make me.
I have to want to do it for me and Jesus. Not because they want me too.  Its not me and Jesus and Mama, or me and Jesus and my siblings, or me and Jesus and my friends.  Its ME and JESUS. That's it.
  Its like people who are married, they have each other.  Their parents give them advice and their friends give them advice but ultimately it is between husband and wife, they have to do it for them because they want it for them.

Time is of the Essence!

I have 11 minutes till work! But thought I'd say hi!  "HI!"  Brekly was out here for her birthday and we had a ton of fun! We paddle boarded! And I encourage almost everyone to try it at some point in their life.  You will fall in. 
Its been really hot here the last week or so, and there was a fire in the park over the mountain from us and the smoke is in our valley right now. 
As of this moment we are still safe from the forest fires, and if they come this way, we will be evacuated, but I will let you know about that.
Umm, I think I'm gonna swim the lake on Friday! Its about 62 or 63 degrees right now, so its warm enough.  I'll let you know how it goes.
  Love you all!!
P.S.
 Here is a list of animals I have seen while here:
Horse
Dog
Cat
Snake
Fox
Mule Deer
Elk
Moose and Baby moose
Alpaca
Antelope
Bear(two times!)(I'll tell about the sightings in my next post)
Chipmunk
Squirrel
Cow
Magpie
Pelican
Fish

"Show em what you're made of Buddy boy!"..."Fluff?"

So, I haven't written in a while because I felt like I had to write a book for each post.  But then today I realized that I don't have to do that.  And I don't really have time to do that to often.  So, this morning I'm just gonna make it short and sweet.
  I talked to Mama for a bit and it made me really miss home.  It was only a 3 min conversation but it made me miss y'all nonetheless.  Hence the title of this post.  I feel like I'm made of fluff right now.
  Brekly is coming soon, which I am really excited about!  She'll be here from Wednesday night to Sunday night.  And yeah.  I'm not working as many hours this week cause I've worked so much overtime lately.
  Spiritually its been hard, Jesus has been showing me little areas at a time in my life that I need to trust Him more, or trust Him with in general.
  Since being out here, I'm kinda realizing that I have trust issues, and that's hard.  I have trouble trusting people and their intentions, and not giving them grace, even though that's probably one of the things I want most from people is grace, yet I have a hard time giving it.
  Lastly before I go, the fires that you might be hearing about are not around me.  They are about 100 miles away in Fort Collins, and I am in Grand Lake.  So, please pray for us that it doesn't change course and head this way.  Right now its going North for the most part, even though its still spreading.  The chances of it coming here are slim.  But yeah, we can be praying for the people its around right now though.
  I love you all!  And P.S. The lake I jumped into the other day, it was 45 degrees!!!!!  Talk about instant brain freeze!
  P.S. I miss hugs, people don't really hug out here.  But Jesus knows I miss them, and one of the older gentlemen here who cooks breakfast is a Christian and when we said good morning today he gave me a hug.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalms 37:4
 

Mr. Fishy, did you die!?

Well, its been a week and a half since I've been in Grand Lake Colorado.  And it hasn't been the worse week and a half of my life to say the least.  After 11 hours of travel via Home to the Atlanta Airport, to the Denver airport and then 4 hours of driving(we got lost once or twice) I arrived at Grand Lake Lodge.

Paper airplanes in the Denver airport

The view driving from the Airport

I've seen a bear, it was about 100 yards away.  I was standing in my cabin talking to my friend Anna on the phone and I looked out the window and there it was.  Crazy!

Mule deer! I think...

I've seen some mule deer(at least I think they were mule deer)
I've seen lots of elk too.  And Elk are huge!  None of them have antlers right now though, so its kinda hard to tell the guys from the girls, and they look a little disproportionate without their antlers too.

   My first day(Saturday) it snowed for most of the morning.  It didn't stick here at the lodge, but on the surrounding mountains it did.  I also woke up to about an inch of snow on May 24th.  And the day before I had been wearing shorts a t-shirt. It also snowed two days for about 20 minutes.
   And then I sat outside yesterday for a half an hour and my arms got a little sunburned. Some days it really makes me shake my head.

   The work is not too bad.  I made more beds in one day than I did my entire time at Berea though. haha.
And I don't think I ever want bunkbeds, they are way to hard to make up. I'm not sure why Mama and Papa let the boys have them.

  The time difference is still a little rough.  I know its only 2 hours behind, but when I don't get into bed until 11:30 or 12pm here, and my body wakes up at 5:30am cause its 7:30am back home, its a little bit draining.
  I work at the front desk and my shifts have been pretty long.  If I open the lodge in the morning, I'm here at 6:45am and am done anywhere between 3 and 5pm depending on on how busy things are.  If I close the lodge in the evenings, I come in around 1:45 and leaving around 10:45 or 11:30pm. 

  The ministry side of things has been pretty neat.  There are two guys here and me(Ryan is from Florida and Mike is from Oklahoma) They both love Jesus and have been a big encouragement.  I feel like Ryan is my big(he's 6'6") little brother and Mike(my height) is the twin I never had but always wanted. 
  I didn't realize how much I picked up off of other peoples voices when I sang, until this past Sunday.  Neither Ryan or Mike can sing so that was left up to me, and I sang okay when we practiced, but the two people(a couple from Duluth actually) who were with us, weren't very good singers and I started singing harmony to their voices, it was bad. haha We need to practice a lot more. 

  The food, has been pretty good actually.  My stomach doesn't agree with that statement though. The cooks really like to flavor everything with butter.  So, it tastes great!

  The altitude isn't too bad either.  I am 8,769 feet above sea level. Roswell is, 1,180 feet above sea level.
So, walking up hills makes me feel like a pansy because I get short of breath sometimes, but its getting better.  I've been running twice, and the first time I was fine, but this morning, it was pretty cold, and that made it really hard to breath.  I haven't had an asthma attack, thank you Jesus, since I've been here.  Which is a huge blessing.

I need to go eat lunch as I start work in about an hour.  I love you all and I will post soon.
 P.S. My first day off is tomorrow! Thank you Jesus, I'm going to do laundry and spend the day with Jesus. 

More about my cabin and living accommodations later.  Picture to come soon.  They are on facebook right now. I love you