Spreading the Weirdness EVEN MORE!

So last time I talked about spreading weirdness to my campers as well as to my boyfriend. Now I've been spreading it to his mother! Every time I am around her she is impacted and acts really weird. (Keep in mind that I am using the word weird in the positive, standing out from the crowd, fun-crazy sort of way.) She has been apologizing for this saying, "I don't know what you do to me, but I act crazy whenever you're around! After you leave, I think, 'What came over me? Why did I act like that?' You just make me feel comfortable and act crazy!" My boyfriend pointed out that her craziness is definitely weirdness! :) ...and that I'm spreading the weirdness to her as well. This does not mean she is not weird on her own, rather that I bring out the full extent by being in her presence and of course being myself! Others have seen her act this crazy/weird in the past, but it is a consistent attitude and behavior when I'm there. I love it! I love having that kind of impact on someone! :: Allowing them to feel comfortable enough to be free, crazy, and especially weird! ::

Spreading the Weirdness

This summer I returned to camp as a camp counselor again. It was an amazing experience. God truly worked; Satan was at work as well which was quite evident, but we did prevail through the Lord's strength! My campers were a great group of ladies this year and I love them dearly. They are a very unique bunch! :)

One night I shared with them about how I LOVE being called weird and told them the whole story behind it and explained that Weird is one of the biggest compliments one could give me! The girls thought it was a great story which explained so much about me. Later they called me weird intentionally as a compliment and I was so touched; they even started using it on each other.... So now the weirdness has spread around the world as my camperinos live out their crazy wonderful lives! :D I miss them so much and am so proud of them as they seek after Christ and His call in their lives.

Now I started a new relationship with a wonderful man of God. When he talked to my dad to ask for his blessing on our relationship, Dad recounted the story of telling me I'm a Weird Welch and of people being upset when I thanked them for the compliment. My boyfriend loved the story! It's great to be surrounded by people who love me for being me, even and especially in my weirdness! <3

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