This past weekend our youth group went on a very small mission trip/ fall retreat (also known as the Fall Retreatsie).

There were the normal medical maladies - my sister was afflicted with a mysterious illness and sent home early; Ibsen had his left hand crushed (incidentally he is left handed); Lizzie had a bottle of Mr. Pibb knocked from her hand, which fizzed over uncontrollably, causing her to slip and sprain her elbow; and other more minor incidences.

We got very little sleep over the weekend - and when I did sleep, it was rather impeded by the shortness of my bunk and by Hailey's tendency to sing loudly in her sleep. Haha.

It was a weekend of general laziness and non-structuredness, barring worship every night and the occasional activity sometime during the day; a peaceful time, and a time to get to know people better. I got to know Michael better - he screams deceptively like a girl if attacked by ladybugs or Daddy Longlegs.

Saturday night it was 34 degrees. That was the night we spent outdoors - watching Mike and Ty Todd Two Times catch themselves on fire roasting marshmallows (for your information Houston is a shameless Back Seat Mallow Roaster), then later playing Capture the GloStick. That didn't turn out so well for some people due to the fact that the ranch has these motion-activated flood lights that tend to give your supposedly secret location away to the enemy at very inconvenient times.

Sunday morning we worshipped from the top of the canyon to the aptly timed percussion of machine guns down in the valley.

It was a beautiful weekend. I probably gained like a million pounds. My last Retreatsie as a student. :-(

Now, back to more structured activities....