even if i die tomorrow/i'll be glad my life was filled with songs/and maybe if i die tomorrow/these four chords will keep my living on

I am back.....back to life, back home, back to my church and my worship team and my jobs and my piano and all the things I love so much. it's so good to be back!

so my vacation was pretty wonderful. boating is a lot of fun and I seriously needed to relax and be disconnected from the world for awhile. although, two weeks was a little bit long. the first week was fantastic but by day 10 I was ready to be back home and had the energy to continue with life as I know it.

however, I got a lot of reading done, and some pretty good writing/journaling as well. I read the Art of Loving (Anna's reccommendation), Blue Like Jazz (thanks Elizabeth!), Oliver Twist, and a good chunk of the Old Curiosity Shop, and got a lot of planning for my trip to Europe done (so lots of guidebook reading). we saw nature in all its summer glory and lived cozily on a 28-foot floating home, conserving water and propane and electricity all the time, and never enjoying life more. my grandparents didn't even drive me as crazy as I thought they would.

so all in all it was a fantastic trip. but like I said, my batteries were recharged by day 10 and I wanted to come back home. so I'm VERY glad to be back.

a little update on what I'm up to nowadays........

I have an interview (praise the Lord!) at Menchie's on Thursday. keep your fingers crossed....I really want this job. I am also starting to work a little at Bath and Body Works - I'm doing some inventory this week and then we have a store meeting on Saturday which I think we get paid for. probably. I'm hoping that as some people go off to school I'll get more shifts, and especially as the holidays come on in the late fall, but I really need something more reliable from week to week so...............*crosses fingers about Menchie's*

I'm also getting back into the full swing of teaching piano starting the first week of September, and I'll have about 7 students this year, which is a great thing. and I'm doing some manual labor for my dad at his office - every little bit helps. it's so nice to be at home all the time, just worrying about work from day to day but having so many weeks left to enjoy my summer.

tomorrow morning I'm going to pick up some of the songs we'll be singing in choir this fall, because I'm playing the piano accompaniment again this quarter! I'm so happy that I'll have all this extra time to practice the music; that makes it all so much more manageable. it should be really fun too.

staying with the music theme, I pulled out my mom's old flute again and have been working on it just a little bit (I still suck but hey, it's fun). I'm also - and this is the really exciting news - learning drums!! lol, Mitchell is teaching me a little bit, and when I get time I go down to my dad's office and play on the drum set upstairs. it's absolutely a blast. I don't know if I'll ever be very good, because when school starts again I may not have time to practice anymore, but who knows? I'm enjoying it a ton for right now.

FINALLY, I am on worship again this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha, happy, happy, happy, happy day!!!!! I've missed my last three rotations, which means I haven't played since May, which means I'm feeling very deprived and depressed and missing my team like crazy. so it's absolutely fabulous to have my music to practice and know that on Saturday so many things will be back to wonderful. I can't wait for this weekend!

on Friday I'll be hanging out at the KC Fair for the day. two bands from my church will be playing a show in the evening, and during the day a few friends from my worship team are performing on one of the smaller stages together. I'm kind of marvelling at the idea that I get to go to the fair for the sole purpose of enjoying it, and not to do 4-H or to work or anything like that. it's exciting.

other than that, life just goes on one day at a time. if you guys could keep my family in prayer I'd appreciate it........there have been some issues and some fireworks here lately. I can't really go into detail, but please just pray that we'll all handle each other kindly and gently, and be understanding and patient (gosh I hate praying for patience). things are getting a lot better each day, but we could use all the prayers we can get. God is good, and He'll pull us all through. :)

I think that's about it. I'll probably give an update after my interview....................meanwhile you should all talk about how your summer is going. :P