Katie and I bored in the plane and ready to be on the beach.

An old couple walking down the Pantai Seminyak with their arms around each other. How cute.

Me and Delainy who loves swimming and eating fruit and cookies. She is so animated and hilarious. Last time I saw her she was 2 weeks old. Her brother (Aiden) and sister (Brienzi) also have special places in my heart. They are such sweet kids.

13 years ago the four of us were running around barefoot, laughing at each other's randomness, and swimming at the pool during our retreat times...I guess not much has changed because we did all that and more this past week. It was an awesome reunion!

Jon (yes he has Bali braids), John, Zack, and Greg sitting around socializing on our last night all together in Bali. Sadness.

My favorite flowers in a glass! I was so ecstatic that I created the domino effect on two bottles of water and grabbed the glasses out of my friend's hands. Wow! I love these glasses...no they're not real flowers in the bottom but they look real and I like them. Chels, you understand right?

Not all of us, but many of the "teen" group that was at this year's retreat.

jeremiah 29:13

Last night there was this leaping cockroach in my living room. Matt, Faith, Abby, Jon, and I were trying to watch a movie then suddenly I felt something on my foot and I thought it was Faith's hand but I soon discovered it wasn't. Faith squealed and raced for the lights as I jumped off the couch ready to smash the little bug with a shoe. We didn't find it and decided to continue the movie. Jon soon felt something on his head and assumed it was Abby jokingly tapping his head...it wasn't. Yet again we sit to finish our movie and Matt saw it out of the corner of his eye creeping around on the couch. He grabbed a flip flop crushed the creature on the tile floor, then we all sat back down to enjoy our movie in peace.

Currently I am back in Bandung and enjoying the time I have to sleep in and hang out with my family. Bali was tons of fun but I am socially drained. This entire summer all I have been doing is visiting people and talking with people and babysitting little people and walking with people and eating with people and many other people filled activities. Foolishly I forgot about my alone time that I need in order to not get to this point. I have loved every minute of my people time but now it's time to sleep in and lock myself in my room for about 4 days.

In Bali I...
..shopped a little (surprisingly)
..watched a few movies (fell asleep during most)
..walked on the beach (a lot)
..almost got swept away by a rip tide (once again thank you Spencer for saving my life)
..did not get a tan (how sad)
..went on boomerang and maccaroni at waterbom (warning:backwards rides induce dizziness)
..looked after lots of kids and babies (i can't wait to have kids)
..spent time with many old friends laughing and acting silly (we missed you Toni and Nate)
..got a really bad "rash" on my legs (note to anyone: never put aloe vera on broken skin)


As of today my rash is gone, the last of my friends has left Bandung, and I still don't have a tan. Something so awesome that happened today was this website that I found - www.organize.com it is so amazing that (pathetically) it brought tears to my eyes. My true friends will understand why I was overcome with such emotion when I found this new love of my life. If I had $1 million I would probably buy an empty house and use the rest on this website to organize and alphabetize and arrange my life. Of course I wouldn't really waste my money on it but hey I can dream can't I? Anyway, check out the site and you'll never want to leave it. Ok you probably will because no one loves it like I do.

Also tonight I babysat Zoe. She slept the whole time but I just had to mention her name since I haven't so far. Anyway, I getting to that point where I will just babble on and on about nothing because it's getting late and I'm still socially drained and I guess typing on my computer to people who might read this counts as a social activity.

Pray that I have a great last 2 1/2 weeks with my family before I leave for the States. I'm not sure if I'm coming back at Christmas or if I won't see them until June for Jon's graduation. Either way it will be a sad goodbye. Leaving them is definitely the hardest thing about going. I want to enjoy the next couple of weeks and leave here at peace and excited about what is to come in the big and scary U.S. I know God's with me so that brings joy amidst the pain.

Jon, Val, Greg, Yuhei, and John about to enjoy the homemade meal that Greg, Val, and I worked on most of the day. On the menu - Chicken cordon bleu, rosemary potatoes, salad, and lemon rolls.

And for dessert - delicious Strawberry Orange Creme Puffs - a joint effort by me, Val, and Greg.

At the family reunion...Abby, Claire, Lauren, Sheri, and Jana - 5 of the 7 girl cousins on my mom's side.

Abby trying to help my cousin Jana get some silly string out of her hair. After eating and hanging out a bit someone decided to give all the kids a can of silly string...you can imagine what happened next. For future reference, if left on clothing for a long period of time, silly string stains.

While I was down in Alabama visiting my grandparents, we went to the home of Helen Keller.

Trying to take the game seriously, Matt posed with his special chip. We had lots of fun at the Filberts playing Poker, Canasta, going swimming, and lots of laughter.

Nate trying to refrain from giving up on those of us not so blessed in the area of Blackjack and Poker. It was a fun game.

Me and Zoe - she's 6 months old now. She grew so much when I was in the States. Of course she is still beautiful...she's starting to get more of a personality now.

Zoe getting ready for me to feed her a lovely meal of rice pudding and bananas...yum yum.

Kelly, Sarah, me, Katie, and Joy - a small reunion of childhood friends. We'll all be together in Bali next week with a few other friends for a vacation/conference.

Val and I properly using our eating utensils.

Val, me, Jess, and Katie at Hyper Food Court in Bandung. It's a wide open space with tons of little warungs (small stores) to buy many kinds of Indonesian food. We went there with Daniel, Evan, and Eric just for fun the other night.

changes

Normally the summer goes by slowly with few things to do. However, this summer has been filled with many many things. Staying with family and friends in Pennsylvania and Alabama, shopping, massages, playing canasta and poker and speed scrabble, eating at Gambrinus and Chick Fil A, a family reunion, babysitting, potlucks, cooking, organizing, packing, moving, and talking a lot on the phone.

My first big news is that I have decided what to do as of this Fall. August 16 I am leaving Indonesia to start at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The school has a good major that I'm interested in and I have friends and family close by. It has been a true blessing from God to have made this decision. Finally I have peace and joy about what's coming up in my life. The next couple of weeks in Indonesia will be packing, planning other trips, and figuring out many last minute details.

On Thursday I am going to Bali with my family and all the other people with our organization in Indonesia. It's a big conference/reunion/vacation time for us all to get together. A lot of old friends will be there, including Katie who is staying at my house now.

It has been such a blessing to be able to hang out with and talk to so many friends on the phone in the past month. Today I'm making a special kind of apple pie dessert for a few friends that are coming over. There's still over a month of summer left and I'm excited to see what else happens.