soo foo

I spent the last six days back in the homeland. it's always a beautiful thing to return home to 20 years of familiarity and friends. Here's just a few things I did..

Slept in my own bed for the first time in awhile since Kelli has moved out, ran outside wherever and whenever I wanted this is such a privelege, drank coffee with numerous dear friends, ate dessert with the summer twins and laughed remembering some great times, ate out with my parents, ate out with my sister, ate out with my grandma...are you catching the pattern here...i ate out a lot, made homemade salsa with my grandma who i hadn't seen in two years, enjoyed a peaceful campsite with old camping friends, worshipped with my home church family, reunited with my BFF as she journeyd home from australia, celebrated the marriage of a beautiful couple, drove from one end of town to the other because it's not too far (right kelli?), read books and magazines at barnes and noble for two hours, went to a heart-wrenching funeral of an incredible (too) young lady, saw Kelli's new house, played a mad round of kickball with a rainbow of beautiful children at my pastor's home, slept in, watched the Ellen show (i LOVE her), played the river card game...and lost :(, and rested relaxed and was rejuvenated for what lies ahead...which is....

CRAZINESS! This season at City Mission is just plain maddness. In about the best way possible of course. We start tutoring and mentoring next week which includes incredible amount of administrative work and then bring on the kids. I've spent tons of time writing curriculum and making prepartions for the volunteer tutors and mentors to get the kids picked up and stuff going. I also had an email reminding me of how the Thanksgiving outreach and Christmas outreaches are right around the corner and need some attention as well. Oh my! Plenty of people have asked if I miss teaching yet ...and my answer is...not for one second. Just as expected this position as program director will involve plenty of teaching moments and I still get plenty of time with the kiddos. Sometimes I'm the fill-in lunch lady or recess duty friend...but full time love giver. I sometimes feel like the Grandma!

Regarldess, life is full and I am blessed and amazed at the work that is going on here. Kids are learning growing and changing and life is unfolding right before our eyes. (And faster than lightening, I can't believe it is almost October- what happened to august???)

Love to all- it was SO GREAT to see everyone at home. I am so blessed!

Three things I love...

about living here (among many...)

1. When you go to a store where brown folks are working they often greet with you, "Hello Miss Lady what can I help you with". I think I will name my dog Miss Lady

2. As I left this morning with my flip flops and skirt on I felt a little Fall chill in the air. For the brown folks that means bust out the coats and stocking hats. Wouldn't want to get sick

3. I can't drive down my street without stopping at minimum once usually three times to get some lovin' from the kiddos- they are so beautiful.

Basketball Camp 2009

We ended the summer with a bang and the last few days before school started we had an afternoon basketball camp ran by a former NBA star, Tim McCormick. It was a perfect day and beautifully fun event!

August 2009 Tim McCormick Basketball camp!

A community service event completely organized and ran by these two incredible young men. Way to go boys!I think Byron found a new friend. Rex was a trooper and even found himself at the swings part of the time!
Serious about the game...
Mr. Mike and Terry
The whole group. We had 80+ kids show up for this afternoon of skills, fruit, water, fun, and of course basketball!
Thanks Xavier for making this event such a success and working so hard. You did an incredible job!!
Stay tuned: Saturday, September 12 Flag football season starts!

This is what we've been up to the last few weeks...

We had the CMA back to school parent meeting held by this incredibly beautiful and talented teaching staff. (Notice, I'm not longer a teacher- still adjusting!) Kelly (2nd-3rd), Dana (principal extraordinaire), Debra (K-1), Bob (4th-5th and ROBOTICS man!!)
All of the academy kids got these personalized cuter than ever bookbags that say City Mission on them. The boys just say City Mission with no cutesy bow. Love them! (Apparently Dana in the background loves them too :)

Tiana and McKayla getting some love (and giving as always!)

Rows and rows of backpacks. We were able to sponsor and deliver uniforms, backpacks and school supplies for about 140 kids. Praise God from whom all blessings flow for truly making this happen (it really was miraculous, down to the dollar amount!)

Hope you are well!!

(Sidenote: I'll be returning to the homeland on September 18th-24th. Can't wait to see everyone!)

This weekend I...

-played candyland at least 4 times
-drank a non-fat iced caramel macchiato outside with a good book
-collected pop cans and raised $101.20 for City Mission with some co-workers and kids
-ate costco pizza and that ridiculously large dipped chocolate bar (ONE of my favs)
-got up at 7 on both my days 'off'
-packed backpacks full of supplies for our kids
-went with someone to buy a motorcycle
-discovered COCONUT M&Ms, DELICIOUS
-trimmed my fortress of hedges (that i normally love, mid-trimming i hated)
-mowed the just as awful lawn of mine
-stepped back and realized how much better my house looks when the lawn is cared for!
-cleaned my house, like deep cleaned on my hands and knees and used the vacuum attachments
-bought a scrubbing bubbles shower cleaner
-ate potatoes from my garden and steak from Jeff's grill (he is the BEST griller)
-set-up a table at a very traditional Baptist church that reminded me of the OLD hillcrest and raised money for our back to school drive
-tried hemp ice cream (a non-drug product)
-went to Randazzo's, the produce market, and got LOTS of stuff for super cheap
-listened to my fridge make a funny noise all night long
-used the dishwasher, this is rare when you live alone...except when you make oatmeal all the time
-told the kids no i will not make oatmeal for the 2nd time today...this is a first for me
-got three balls out of the gutter that, "we promise Miss Jessi we did not throw up there"
-became the hero ball getter for the day
-talked to a good friend, nathan, on the phone...and of course my mom too :)
-watched Martha Stewart's Baking Favorites from Net Flix (Bri and Donna: Gossipgirl comes next, you're missing out!!!)
-combatted a virus on my comp.
-went to bed at 9:45 because I could and boy I was tired, goodnight.

oatmeal w/ brown sugar, 11.3 miles

I've shared with several of you the love of oatmeal in my home. Like I've mentioned before I have a pretty regular crowd that meets me on my porch step as the Red Bonnie makes it's way home from work. Sometimes I send them away for a half hour of sanity, sometimes I don't. But, almost everytime after a few rounds of badminton or chalk tic-tac-toes the word oatmeal pops into the minds of many and is quickly requested. Last year I made pancakes, all the time. This year, our snack of choice: OATMEAL. Now, when I mean they like oatmeal, they only like it just the right consistency (which I've thankfully mastered) and with a more than a few sprinkles of brown sugar. The picture above is just ROUND 1 of the oatmeal extravaganza for the night. I met some new boys tonight. They're from the football crowd and are often too tough to knock on the porch door. But, the smell of brown sugar in the air and they were immediately enticed in. The funny thing, though, is we had to wait til the first group was done because I ran out of spoons and bowls. Luckily, they were patient and kind and I got to get to know of these not-so-tough afterall boys. I am blessed to call my home this little spot on Auburn. I am so blessed to play my little heart out any night of the week and love on these kids. I love them dearly!

Secondly, in all of my spare time, two of my co-workers and I ran a relay triathlon. Cynthia swam .5 mile, Khalid ran 3.1 miles, and I biked 11.3 miles. Of the two relay teams, we finished first :). We raised money for our school at CM and had a blast doing it. Watch out, Team City Mission is coming back for more next year. (Notice I said TEAM, I have no intentions of doing this on my own, ever. It just doesn't look enjoyable!)

a little recap (don't you love it when people who haven't posted in awhile use this as their blog title)

Summer is almost over, and i think today was our second hot day of the whole thing. Fine by me! We're already geared up and moving on back to school and fall curriculum and excited at what lies ahead. We have seen miracles in this place and will have the kids back for City Mission Academy and tutoring and mentoring programs in just a few weeks. God is really so good and has provided in miraculous ways.

We had an incredible summer. 8 weeks of programs, day camps and away camps. Over a hundred kids involved in one way or another having fun and hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is really so good to us. We had these two incredibly talanted amazing, i'll call them, friends of mine that worked with us throughout the summer as well. I don't have words describe how much they meant to me this summer in so many ways. Thank-you Northwestern College, or should I say the Lilly Grant.
This is "the team". We had a blast this summer! (Remember when Donna stood really awkward in the team picture.... :)

To end our summer we had a family BBQ out in the suburbs at one of our supporters houses. It was a blast and fun to end on such a happy note. We swam, basketballed (I beat the entire line of boys in Lightening, Dad!), hit the tennis ball, played bingo, broke a pinata (always tears, here too), ate really good food, and just enjoyed each others company for evening as family. We even made it on the 11 o'clock news. It was awesome- here's a few pictures.

After programs ended I took a week off as my mom and sister flew in! We stayed in Detroit for a few days. They helped me take my former classroom down and pack it up, that was a strange feeling! Then we went to Grand Rapids for a day and stayed with some dear friends there. Then we got on the ferry in Muskegon and went to Milwaukee to have girls weekend with my aunt and cousin. It was very fun! Lots (and lots!!) of shopping, eating, walking, talking, sleeping, and fun. We decided it's a yearly tradition. Next summer: Detroit. (Though, beccs, Mexico sounds way better!)

But, now I'm back in the office writing curriculum, sending emails, organizing the back to school drive, and getting things organized for kids to come back to programs. I'm slightly overwhelmed, ok, really overwhelmed but grateful for the opportunity to start this new position and truly rely on His strength alone to get the job done.

Hope you enjoyed a few summer days before the leaves start to change! LOVE!