Pirates and Ninjas

Hey ya'll! I just want to say that if you are reading this it is probably because you're a wonderfully dear person in my life. I love and appreciate you each more and more, as time and distance seems to make people more dear and precious. So thank you to each of you, and how you have been such a blessing in my life!
God has been doing such an amazing work in my life, and I can see the transformation in what has been a month already. Wow. This last week has been full of fun fellowship. Such a blast. Seriously, I had to get away today because I couldn't take being around people anymore! Today has been an amazing day of much needed rest. I recharged my batteries and I'm ready to go for another crazy round of life!
The last few days have been a blast. Wednesday we cleaned up the lodge before we left for Palm Desert (well, the mountains near there anyways) in preparation for a group of 60 who is staying in the lodge this weekend. I asked one of the guys how their side looked and he was like, "seriously, I was just over there and it is looking good. Go look for yourself!" Ha ha, I did and it was NOT clean! I filled an entire sheet of paper with a list of things to clean, and man you should have heard the groans! I totally felt like a mom, and I thought for sure they would hate me. But I was put in charge of making sure it was clean and by golly I didn't let anything slide! I put down an iron fist of cleanliness; they hated it, and I loved every minute. Seriously, it was hilarious.
The ride down was fun. I rode with Brent and Hannah (Tommy Ho's students). Hannah got me started on a kind of game - basically you have to find out if you are a pirate or ninja. There aren't really any rules. We kind of came up with our own definition of what we thought each one was based on character traits, and developed hysterical conversation over about three hours. Hannah is a pirate. Pirates wear distinctive things sometimes, or their always bumping into things, or saying senseless things. Or their tuff and super go-getters. I'm a ninja - we're stealth. We sneak up on you and take you by surprise. We're sly and witty. It was the funniest thing we just couldn't stop all night. Every few minutes one of us would be like, "oh my gosh, that was so pirate." Or I would say something super savvy, and be like, "duh, that's cause I'm ninja." What was really funny is that we got everyone into it that night. It was one of the funniest nights ever! We stayed up almost till 1am playing this mafia card game called Family Business, which is my new favorite game. We were all so tired and had a million verbal slips that made no sense, and my stomach hurt from laughing so much. I was so wired and over tired that I couldn't fall asleep till after 2:30am, and I had to get up at 6:30 to pull weeds! Oh yeah, that's why we were there, by the way, to pull weeds on this ranch which was GORGEOUS, as a fundraiser for MC.
We worked hard all day, and played and laughed while we worked. By the end of the day my back and my hands hurt, and my legs were sore from our hike. But I loved the fact that I hurt because I climbed a mountain, and I worked hard all day. I was very sad to have to say goodbye to Hannah (she and Brent had to leave that afternoon). It was just like Mazatlan - I met an instantly great friend, and had to say goodbye only days later. But what a blessing she was to have for a time, even if it was only a few days. Seriously, without her I would I been left to those crazy boys all by myself!
I got home yesterday afternoon, after spending 6 hours smashed in a car with four guys. Yep, I was stuck in a manwich for 6 hours! To make it worse Christian was in the back seat, and he is a big guy (like CB). I seriously thought I was going to kill them that last hour! But it was still fun. Matt and Raf knew a bunch of riddles, and Christian too, so that distracted us for hours. We even played a game of Family Business, driver and all! At one point Joel thought he was going to pull a ninja move and be sly and show Matt his cards in the rear view mirror, totally forgetting that I was sitting in the middle and saw them all. Yeah, we had plenty of moments where we died laughing. All in all I was happy to be back, and so happy to get my cramped legs out of that stinky car (enough said)! We returned to a very cold Crowley. I guess the mountain got like three inches of snow. Even today has been rainy and snowy, and unusually cold. Fluke or not, this cold front has sent the leaves changing, and already there are bits of yellow here and there. Just watch my first winter will be a fierce one!
Wow this was a long one, but I had a lot to catch up on! I am so blessed. Our morning times of prayer and the word have been amazingly refreshing. I just stared out the window this morning and watched the stormy clouds hang over the beautiful mountains, and it ministered peace to my soul. God is amazing, and life's journey is amazing if we can have the courage to trust Him and just go for it...
P.S. I've got a bunch of pictures I'll be posting soon!