My recital is done!

Praise the Lord, my recital is done!!!!  I thought it went really well.  My teachers are very happy with how hard I worked and how well I did.  Obviously there were problems, and things I wish I would have done differently or better, but over all it went great.  Three years ago I didn't think I was even going to be able to have a recital, and I just passed my senior recital so life is great and God is good.  I only have a couple more weeks of school left and than it is home for the summer.  I can't wait for softball, the corn, working out at the gym, and riding my bike around town.  I am going crazy here in this small apartment.  I have no motivation to do homework until the night before which is not good.  I worked with my co-op teacher today helping him fit up coming band students.  It was a lot of fun, and scary at the same time.  He asked me to fit a flute player, my worst instrument!  But she was able to get a sound with me, which was great!  I was just kept saying to myself, "Please God let her make a sound, please let her make a sound."  It was good when she did.  The teacher is a lot like me, and that makes the classroom a lot of fun. 

I gave a random up date today.  I have to get some homework done, and tomorrow my band plays Lord of the Rings by De Meij.  so I am very excited.

AWANA IDEAS NEEDED

Our last AWANA night is this Wednesday and I need ideas for game night.  I want the kids to get messy, but I am running out of ideas.  If anybody has any ideas please drop me a line. 

pictures on Picsa

COSTA RICA!!!

Ok, so I know I haven't said anything in a long long long time.  Well it is starting on the third week since I have been to Costa Rica.  I have so much to tell people I will probably have to split it up.  Everyday I remember something from Costa Rica, and I learn something new from God everyday.  To give you a run down on how my trip went here are the top things God did in my life.

1.  Showed me that I can be a blessing to everyone and to Him by just being me.  I may not be able to speak the language but the love of God surpasses all boundaries.  A hug and a smile can go a long way, and a laugh goes farther. 

2.  I need to surrender my life to Him.  When I am spending more time practicing for a recital, working on homework, working, or anything else I can think of instead of spending time with God and doing things He wants me to do, than something is wrong.  That something is Anita not happy, before Costa Rica I was openly stressed out (usually I can hide it from everyone, if not everyone at least convince myself I am not stressed) and I knew I was stressed, I was cranky, and completely exhausted.  I don't like being that way.

3.  God showed me how to talk to Him and listen to what He has to say.  When you are put with two guys, one who speaks very little English and the other is a complete introvert.  You learn to either talk to yourself, talk to God, or listen to God.  God showed me how to be content being in His company.  I don't always have to be in conversation, that I can just rest in His presence.  It was a stretching experience to say the least, but it was cool.  For a guy who doesn't talk a lot I pushed him out of his comfort zone and made him talk to me, and probably annoyed him to no end. 

The funniest thing that happened to me (which I didn't think was all that funny at the time) was when the staff girls (Carol and Denia) put a Tarantula on my bed.  Thankfully it was a fake one.  But I tell you what, imagine me freaking out, and times that by 1000.  I went nuts, I screamed bloody murder, and tackled Denia and Carol.  I couldn't sleep that night I kept waking up thinking there was a tarantula on me, and all I could do was pray to God that a tarantula wasn't on my bed or wasn't biting me.  At one point in the night, I actually had a pain in my shoulder but didn't want to move to see if something had bitten me so I just sat there for a long time praying something wasn't on me, and finally realized my shoulder hurt because I was sleeping on it.  Yeah, that's right, no tarantula, just a sleeping shoulder.  I am a dork.

Lastly, I  went zip lining through the jungle, Amazing.  I jumped off a 30 ft. bridge into a river, SCARY and AMAZING.  We gave out food to kids and showed the love of Christ in simple ways,  LIFE CHANGING AND AMAZING!!  Do I want to go back, OF COURSE AND AM TRYING MY BEST TO GET THERE.  Lastly if you would like to see some pictures I have them all posted on Picasa, because ultimately that is the best way to show you what I did, if you have any questions please feel free to ask.  I will try and up load some photos here but I have to figure it out first.  Thanks for all your prayers, love, and support.

Random email

I order some CD's today for my recital.  I am supposed to get different takes on the pieces I am playing for inspiration or something.  Anyway when I bought the CD's the online company sent me a confirmation letter.  I must admit I have never received a letter like this before. . .

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure
it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Monday, February 26th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby.  We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year."  We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...

Little interesting don't you think.  This company either has way too many employees that they don't know what to do with their time, or the company does not sell that many CD's so the employees have time to make up an email like this.  Funny none the less.