Idiot!

Do you ever have trouble making a decision . . .
and then once you've finally decided and taken action . . .
realized it was the WRONG choice . . .
and in that moment it's *crystal* clear????????

 

This seems to be the most sure-fire way for me to determine the right decision!

Whether you have experienced this or not, we're gonna talk about it.

 

 

 

For those of you who do not have to endure this suffering, let me explain:

Something happens that really bothers me. For the sake of explanation, let's say someone said that they actually hated my spinach puffs which I take such pride in.

 

The rest of the day I debate how to respond to this person. Do I lash out and say "How dare you pretend all this time"? Do I ignore them and never speak to them again? Do I ask if they have any suggestions for my recipe? I think back to all the times they said they loved my spinach puffs, and try to understand what this person was trying to do to me, all the possible interpretations of their actions... Anyway, this takes up all my thoughts because it bothered me so deeply.

 

Finally, I decide to place a huge pile of spinach puffs before them just to spite them and irritate them the way they irritated me, BUT once I pass the point of no return, I realize that this person is allergic to spinach. That's why they were being so polite in pretending. When they did lash out at me, they had finally become fed up with the fact that I kept trying to make them eat it!

 

Unfortunately, I already put the allergic trigger before the person and made them start swelling up, coughing, and breaking out.

 

Q&A

I just re-read all of my posts on this blog (didn't take long; there are only 4!), and decided that I should post about the answers God has already provided since I last blogged. Here goes:

JOB
Yes, I got job offers and the Lord guided me in my decision which I now thank Him for continuously! I had two Skype interviews, followed by two job offers. Both jobs had things that I liked about it, and both had some disadvantages. It was a really tough call. I asked TONS of people for advice. Being at a camp with lots of people from my field and with more experience than me was an amazing resource for information and advice. Unfortunatley, it got to the point that I had too many opinions, too many stories, and too much going on that I could not discern what God was telling me. Finally, I took a break from all the noise, prayed like crazy, researched, pondered, and prayed some more. I called in my responses to the two school systems. I ended up accepting a job at a private school in my hometown (meaning I get to live at home still!).

I have met tons of students and pray that I have been a good influence on them. I know they are learning a lot. Our first Christmas concert is coming up, which is making me nervous as well as my beginner students. It's their first instrumental concert EVER after all!

FRIENDS
Along with meeting all the students, I have been meeting plenty of new people at church. This has been great! I love getting to know new people! This new network of friends has been such a blessing... and it's been great to have friends in the area after so many college friends travelled away from here.

As for my "old" friends, some of us are keeping in touch. It's a very small number (besides the "facebook friends") but that's ok, because we are creating tighter-knit friendships that way. It's also easy to sacrifice time for a few friends than a whole heapload. That just eats up all your time. I used to prefer having tons of friends, but I've realized that it's just not practical, and I didn't know any of them very well.

Well, I still have plenty of unanswered questions for God to make clear, but I look forward to the journey He has before me!

Upside down aerobics

I love when life just erupts with craziness, like the way it did with my girls tonight after the bonfire! Following a serious bonding time, which was very emotional for some, my wonderful, energetic campers were laughing over great memories from our time together. One girl (who is 6'1") was sitting with her feet against one wall of the hallway and her back almost flat against the opposite wall. This led to other girls seeing how short they are in comparison... Somehow this made me think of this weird position that I love to chill in against the wall. Basically, I lay down with my feet up the wall and my bottom against the wall on the floor (sometimes I also lift my bottom off the floor and walk my feet further up the wall in a nice streth). I proceeded to show the girls this, and they joined in. The hardest part for all of us was simply scooting our behinds to the wall!!! :) We invented all sorts of ways to do aerobics in this position:

• swinging our legs to the opposite wall of the hallway, so our legs are horizontal over our heads
• putting one leg on each wall
• switching how we straddle the walls
• lowering our legs down the the floor to make more of a ball shape
• switching legs from touching the opposing wall to being bent at the knee over our bodies

It was such a blast; there was so much laughter! While still on our backs, we named the event Upside-Down Aerobics with Aimee! :)

Then the girls wanted me to teach them how to do proper push-ups. If you know me, you know that this is practically a dream come true for me! It was so much fun: demonstrating, explaining, correcting, and finally teaching all the variations and how to build up the "push-up muscles"!

So... I hope you all are having weird days too, as I obviously am! :D

news.

New group of girls. (except for three who are staying from last week)
LOTS of new campers.
Fatigue for counselors and campers who are staying.
Financial dilemmas for the camp.
Job interviews.

As you can see, there is a lot going on up here at camp!
I am slightly overwhelmed by it all, but doing my best to trust Him with it all. There's no way I can do much of anything about most of the things on this list. Waiting to hear back from one interview, having another this week... Learning lots of new names, faces, and personalities. Trying to balance sleep and work, and help the campers do the same so that they do not get sick or miss out on anything.

Devotions were good last night with the new girls. They opened up much more readily, which was great! Now I'm really bonding with the girls who I have had for a couple weeks, and that is super exciting! I love my seraphim so much and will miss them like crazy. Of course I miss those who have already left.

Please pray for the camp as we are trying to figure out how to balance the finances. It's pretty tough right now... but trusting the One, Who it is all for, will provide and work it all out!

Seeing Reality

So... in this part of my life, I am a camp counselor. With that comes a lot of responsibility, including devotions before bed each night. Last week devos centered around our tribe name and verse(s): Seraphim (meaning fiery ones) from Isaiah 6:3 (and Numbers 21:9). It was a great study. The girls did not open up much even to answer simple questions like "What did the seraphim do in this passage?" At the end of the week, some of the girls referenced things from devos in a different context- and referenced it excitedly. This was proof enough for me that it really touched and impacted them! I was so excited!

This week I have no new campers, which means the girls already know each other. I hoped this would help them open up more... The topic which I decided on for this week was another reason to be excited. I told a couple of the campers how excited I was. Then devos came. I gave the girls some time to reflect and write down how they view themselves- not how they think others see them, or what they want to be, or what they know they should think. After that, we briefly talked about how the negative views of ourselves stem from lies, and that we need to dwell on truths about God to counteract these deep-seated lies.

After I closed us in prayer and the girls started to prepare for bed, I recognized that at least one girl (called GirlA for now) was very pensive and seemed upset. I feared that I had done something horribly wrong in picking the topic. I do not want the girls to "beat themselves up" because of devos. Instead I hope they trust the Lord to help them break free of their wrong perceptions. I did consider that it could have been conviction from the Lord- and I pray that it was! Earlier today I spoke with another camper (called GirlB) about how I was concerned that the girls may be upset with me about the devo topic. She admitted to me that she was mad at me last night after devos. She was first mad at herself for having those thoughts, and mad at me for making her think about, and especially writing it down. GirlB asked me if she could burn or throw away the paper. I explained the entire week's devotion plan to try to encourage her about the direction of the study. It helped. Finally, we decided to seal her paper in an envelope for her to revisit later in her life for her to reflect on how she has grown and what the Lord has done in her life.

In devos tonight, we basically talked about Truth... jumped around the Bible looking at various passages and verses about truth, lies, and temptation. The girls were interacting, reading from the Word, answering questions, and discussing with each other! (All but GirlA... which still concerns me, because she wouldn't talk to me after devos tonight) GirlB assured me that she was not mad at me tonight, that it was much better than last night! I do believe that my girls (except maybe GirlA) gained and grew from devos tonight! If you could pray for GirlA, that she is not being attacked by Satan right now, but being convicted by God, that would be greatly appreciated! Please pray for GirlB and the others, that they will apply the truths to their lives and take them to heart so they can use them when the time comes!

Beginnings.

First: an explanation for this blog

I consider myself weird... I have since I was about eight years old. My family always prided itself  on being unusual, and this definitely passed down to me. Even at a young age, I loved attracting attention to myself for doing crazy things, whether it was a crazy outfit or a goofy thing I did or something surprising that I said. When I was eight, Dad told me that we are the Weird Welchs and that if someone calls me weird, my response should be "Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment!" Since it happened so long ago, I don't remember how this conversation started, but it has stuck with me. In fact for most of my life, I have been known for this phrase. This phrase, along with being weird, is almost like a trademark!

 

Anyway, this blog is dedicated to any weird thing I did or noticed or just want to blog about! Another note: the word weird is spelled a lot of weird ways at the top of this blog to represent how so many people have trouble spelling it and think that it's a weirdly spelled word. This blog is also dedicated to teaching, so I figured it's a great way to tie it in... by showing many spellings of the same word like what you would see in a second grade classroom or something. 

Second: a new chapter

Not only is this blog new to my life... I'm in an entirely new chapter of my life. In May I graduated from a nearby university, and now I'm waiting to hear about and hoping for a JOB! It's so crazy to think about that in August I will not be moving into a dorm and buying books and reliving the college life. That is all behind me now. Not to say that I will never take classes again... I will, but not in that setting. It will be part-time, as a commuter (which I always warned against... hahaha), while working full-time. Yes, indeed, my life is changing a lot!

At the end of that paragraph, I was smiling... alas, now I am not.

A thought emerged and dimmed the mood: the thought of all the friends who I usually reunite with in August. I'm not leaving a bunch of people behind (some but not most)... we are moving on, but not together. I am turning a new page and penning a new chapter and I fear the loss of some dear friends. Already tension has crept in as times changes. It is no longer so convenient to meet up. It used to be a matter of "Hey, I'm hungry and you have to eat at some point too, so let's eat together". If any of us are to hang out now, we must plan and sacrifice. It must be intentional. This will be good, because that is how you show someone you really value their friendship, but it is a change that will take quite a bit of effort and time to adjust.

I peer ahead at the blank pages of my life, so to speak, wondering what is to come. What does God have for me, even in the next few months? Who will remain a part of my life and who will fall away as we drift apart? Who will I meet? How will He use me to impact them? What opportunities will God bless me with? What challenges will I face? Will I know which job is right for me? Will I  get any job offers?  Only the Lord truly knows the answers to all these questions and those which I still dare not to utter. Now I just have to wait until He fills those pages with places, people, events, and experiences... and trust His almighty and gracious hand to provide so that I shall not lack any good thing.

Third: Go be weird!