Having Fun in the Sun!!

Hello, I'm having fun in the sun, but boy am I aching. The stadium steps are catching up to me today. Earlier when I was in the library I was looking for a book on the 7th floor. I found it and decided to add extra fitness to my day by running down the 7 flights of stairs. I was doing great all proud of myself. Then I left the library to go to my next class which is hiking. I made a wrong turn and figured it out when I was at the bottom of a huge hill. I then had to hike up the big hill to get to my hiking class and then had to hike on rocky terraine for an hour. The hike was the most challenging of the week so far. I actually find humor in this story, but hurt a little.

Last night a couple of girls and I had to run to the grocery store. I needed to get some Diet Dr. Pepper (and yes I had permission) and some first aid stuff (and yes I am ok). It was a full moon and we are by the beach, so we decided it would be neat to go to the beach and see the full moon. First of all, it was dark. Secondly, we had no clue where the beach was. Thirdly, the girl driving has night blindness. Needless to say we drove around in circles lauging hysterically, never saw the moon and never got to the beach. It was funny. If you don't think so, then it must be one of those
I GUESS YOU HAD TO BE THERE MOMENTS!! :-)

I got mail yesterday from Keith. He sent me some pictures that I had taken at Jordan's wedding and Mother's Day and our Father's Day celebration (we celebrated the day before I left, a week early). You get your mail in the office and I knew they would be pictures so everyone wanted to see and one girl looked at Keith's picture and said, "OH MY GOD, HE'S SO STUDALICIOUS!!" They saw a picture of Jordan and me from his graduation and missed that he was married and all wanted his email address. Don't worry Kelly I put them in their place. I told them the picture makes him look better then he really is. (Just kidding Jordan). I also got to cards from Darlene. It made my day. Remember I posted my camp address on my blog a few entries ago.

I love the walks on the beach in the mornings. It is one of my highlights and I don't plan on missing it ever unless I can't walk. We go around 6:45am. There are quite a few surfers. They are fun to watch. I talked to a man in about his 50's maybe early 60's that was getting ready to surf. We just talked breifly, but it was cool. There are kids surfing with the Dad's. Ladies and Men. If I was thinner and lived by a beach I would love to learn. Today I really challenged myself on the beach walk by jogging for a minute and then walking down a ways, but on the way back I was looking for shells. I found some cool ones, but my highlight was finding 3 sand dollars. I look forward to looking for more treasure.

Despite all the hard working out I am really having a great time. I realizing how much a lot of these women are hurting. I know that one of my gifts from God is Encouragement and it has been neat for me to see how easily it is for me to put this into action. People are figuring out quickly that I am a "Fundalmentalist Christian" as one lady put it. But some of them are asking me questions. I've had the comment made to me that I'm a nice conservative. I've also had someone tell me that I'm helping them curb their swearing, which they don't like doing because I don't talk like that. I'm really excited to see these things this early on. I'm excited to see where all of this is going to go.
Keep on Praying.

Blog more later,
Melissa