the joy of being in Kansas

This past weekend, I attended the wedding of the infamous Micah Thomas. And let me just say, it was bomb.

Ok that's not actually Micah. That's his face taped on to a Zac Efron cut-out. Love it. But I really was at his wedding, and it really was pretty sweet. And since I was with Jen, I helped light candles and get the drinks ready at the reception. Never thought I would be so active in my ex-bf's wedding (I mean, who knew I'd even be invited??). But yeah, it was a super fun wedding. I got to hit the dance floor with Kyle and Maggie and Emily, which is always a treat slash hilarious, not to mention Steve and Emma were there too. So many people I love. So congrats to Micah and Jess!

I also got to spend some quality time with the Garlichs (here's my boy Mason)...

my aunt and cousins, the newly added-to Velazquez family (Melis couldn't keep her eyes open, but then again, neither can little Robby)...,

Amber and Holly, Britters, and of course, the Foglemans. Plus, I got a staff hoodie out of the visit...finally!!

So I gotta say, it was super refreshing and so good to see everyone. Maybe (hopefully) I'll end up back there again someday. Especially since Alan repeatedly told me I'm on his list of the top six women he loves most. And I have told Jen that when I finish school, I'll move to wherever they live. You know, so we can be a family again.

And now I gotta go start packing or doing some work or something since, well, I'M GOING TO HAWAII IN TWO DAYS!!!!!!

carless

I kicked off the busiest two weeks of my semester by wrecking my car. It's just funny how things work out sometimes, huh?

It was October 18 and I was taking Beth Gager home after lunch with some people after church. I rear-ended a truck in a right turn merge lane thing that I thought was merging but then stopped again. So I just have to say here that while I was the one rear-ending, and the one who walked away with a ticket for careless driving, it was not totally my fault.

The whole front of my car was basically indented. We were picking up pieces of my car from the road. The Gagers responded to the scene to help, and Mr. Gager informed me that I could not drive it. So then came the cops and the tow truck and there went my car.

But not forever. Just a long time. I won't get it back until November 19. That's a full month after the accident. So life has just been crazy to figure out without a car. People like the Gagers and Wysockis and my roommate Raychel have been great and let me use their cars, and that has been super helpful. I will make it.

And what's that statistic about most accidents occurring near your home? Yeah, I was 1 mile from mine.

I wish cars healed like bodies. And like if it's majorly broken, you rush it in to get fixed. Isn't it crazy how human bodies heal themselves? I love that. Good work God.

Speaking of cars, remember when I drove a red '91 Honda Prelude? Oh man. I loved that car. It looked like this, I think:

Boys in high school thought I was so cool for having that car. Thanks Gar-man, for one of many passed-on vehicles. The '86 Toyota Corolla (lovingly known as Cherry), the Prelude, and now my poor broken Passat, which I still like to refer to as the Gar-man mobile. I believe it received that name when he let me, Justin, Emjo and Katie Dennis drive it to DCC.

Well since this doesn't have any legit pics, here's one of Sophie all dressed up for homecoming, Angie dressed all stylish like she usually is, and me in my gym shorts. Typical.

I love my sisters.

So you know what's wierd? Trick or treating. This year was the first year that I gave out candy all by myself from my house, so it got me thinking about this whole idea. I mean when else is it acceptable to walk up to strangers' houses and ask them to give you candy? And then even weirder, everyone goes and buys candy to give out to strangers that come to your door.

I got a lot of trick-or-treaters while I was stuck at home writing my paper, and it was so fun. I loved giving candy to the cute little kids in Halloween costumes. NOT cute when they were like high schoolers though, I got a couple of those. I actually ran out of candy at 7:30 and had to turn off my porch light and stuff. But anyway, it was just weird to open the door to group after group, having no idea who they were, but handing them candy. And then all the parents thank you, which is cute and all, but I wanted to be like, by the way, who are you? I mean not to mention the even weirder part of all of this being that the kids are all in costume. Speaking of weird costumes...

Thanks for that throwback pic on the facebook Mel. Man we were cute. And here's the thing. We would walk up and down Rochdale, and we knew almost everyone we got candy from. Granted, my dad is one of the friendliest people in the United States, but still, I just think times have changed a little. I don't really know any of my neighbors, mostly because I'm scared to tell them all that we're a house of four girls, but also because I feel like people don't care as much anymore.

There's just no place like Rochdale.

I'm gonna leave it at that so that I can get back to the most productive Saturday night of '09. I've cleaned (and vacuumed!) my room, hung a picture on the wall, bought a wedding present, figured out my schedule for next year, and updated the tate-blog. Holler.

Five days until I get to be back in the great state of Kansas! Not to mention two weeks and I will be in HAWAII!!!! Ahhh!!!!

winter wonderland...in october

Here's me YESTERDAY, October 29.

And my house...


Unreal, right?? I mean I've seen snow in October before, but not school-closing snow. I think it's a couple feet or something? I'm not really sure, but I wanted to post this before it all melts away this weekend and goes back to being fall again. This state is so weird.

Check out that drift thing coming off the garage roof. I'm baffled as to how it sits like that.

Anyway, I really didn't mind this snow storm. It was like forced rest. I mean sure, I have mostly been working on my paper, but there's no pressure to go anywhere or do anything. The church office closed Wednesday and yesterday, so I just chilled at home. I mean literally. I haven't been past my front yard since Tuesday afternoon. So I thank God for this snow storm. I needed it.

But alas, I must still continue working on my paper now, which is finally due Monday, and I will have a much less stressful life. Hopefully.

Oh, but check out the icicles on the back porch:

I enjoyed pulling a few of those off yesterday and breaking and throwing them. Some sort of stress relief.

Being in the snow in my snowboard gear (including my snowboard boots, since they're the only boots I have) made me really really want to go snowboarding really really soon. Oh man, I can't wait!!!

I also can't wait for Kansas and Hawaii and Christmas Spectacular!!

avoiding the plague

If you search "Swine Flu" on Google images, this is the first photo that comes up:

That's disgusting. But man, the swine flu is seriously going around. Well, I'm just assuming that every sick person has swine flu. Because they probably do. I don't think I've ever been so nervous about getting sick. For awhile I was like, I CANNOT get sick. But then I was like, actually, I wouldn't mind sitting around watching NCIS on the couch all day. That sounds great.

I think I need a vacation. Not an illness.

But my roommate is pretty sick, Sophie was sick, several girls in my small group have been/are sick, a handful of church staff people have been sick...it's ridiculous.

Now I don't get sick much. The last time I threw up was in 7th grade, and if we do the math, that's about 14 years ago. Impressive, I know. It's my greatest accomplishment. But anyway, sometimes I get colds, or sometimes my stomach hurts because I ate too much, but rarely am I out of commission, lying on the couch for the whole day (even though that sounds awesome, as I said).

Anyway, I am a little scared about getting sick. In the end, it's just not worth it. So I've been pumping the Airborne and, in true Dustin Angell style, spraying my house with Lysol Disinfectant. Oh, and sleeping a lot. Which I usually do on accident, but now I have an excuse. I love sleep.

In other news, I'm currently watching the Cardinals blow it in the first game of the playoffs. The score isn't that bad, but it's been painful to watch. I think we're on like the 4th or 5th pitcher. And this needs to end soon because I need to go to bed. Maybe we'll get 'em tomorrow. Also, Brendan Ryan's mustache is ridiculous.

Just had a great Fall Retreat this past weekend, praise the Lord. It was my first time leading a retreat I think, and I don't feel nearly qualified enough (or maybe just don't have enough hours), but God works in my weakness, and let me just say, He did a great job. For reals. I am so thankful that we as humans don't just do it all on our own. God is in control, trust me.

But yeah, it was great. We played games, hung out, did some team-building with the girls, and heard some great messages from my friend Jason Phipps.

That's the girls doing a team thing where we all had to swing across a pit of poisonous peanut butter or something. Good times. I was blinded for most of it. It's a long story.

We also had our traditional fall retreat date night, where the boys pick girls names out of a hat and escort them to dinner. Then they pretend like they're on dates. It's probably one of my favorite things we do because it's hilarious. I can't really explain it. This year, Steph and Sophie tried to sneak my name in, and basically wrestled me to the ground to get the name cup away from me. I lost all strength and gave up. I blame the altitude. So I think my name was later removed by a leader, but somehow this boy came to the door with one of the girls' names as well as mine. I think he begged for it. But I humored him anyway and got in the picture.

Those high school boys always be trying to date me. If only I could say that about boys over the age of...say...21.

Well the game is over so that's all for me. And for the Cards, they lost. Oh well. Off to have sweet dreams about marrying Jim from The Office...seriously I dreamed that the other day. Too bad he's actually marrying Pam tomorrow night. And too bad I talk about them like they're real people.

I statements

I'm a big giant slacker. In lots of things, including tateblog. But not today.

I get milk from a milkman now. It's delicious.

I watch too much TV.

I forget during about 75% of the week that I am in school. I remember for about 25%, and do something about it about 2.3% of the time. Just a guess.

I like to play on my keyboard.

I watched NBC tonight. Funny stuff. To quote Parks and Rec: "Hey Andy do you want to stay with us?" "Well I'm supposed to meet up with this crazy guy for a rock fight...but yeah I guess I can stay." (Or something close to that.)

I want 30 Rock to start again.

I watched the season premiere of NCIS Tuesday. It was awesome. I think I cried.

I'm disappointed that those last three paragraphs were all about the TV I watch. But also happy.

I'm always tired. Bye.

Oh wait, one more.

I like chasing cars.

too old to be scared of bikes

Ok. In all honesty, I haven't written a blog in a month because my life has become consumed by watching NCIS. It's ridiculous. I've watched over 50 episodes, and I don't want to even calculate how much time that is. But it's like that whole "try to eat just one potato chip" thing. I've started watching the show in order from the beginning, and now I can't stop. Fortunately, I will eventually reach the end and hope to have a normal existence after that. And decent grades in seminary.

I'm gonna hit on a few random things now. Hopefully it's fun.

Today I got back on the horse. And by horse, I mean bike. See, I've been scared to ride a bike for about...8 years now. What had happened was, right around graduation from high school time (2001 baby), one of my good friends (Robbie Fischer) fell off his bike and (don't worry this is funny) broke like everything. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but he broke his collarbone and had stitches, and showed up to my graduation party the next day looking like this:

So the fear started. Then that summer at Young Life camp--Crooked Creek to be exact, which is weird because I go there with church now--we went mountain biking one day. First of all, I had many injuries/issues at camp that summer, from riding a crazy horse to getting a bruise that extended across my entire upper arm, you get the picture.

Anyway, near the end of the bike ride, the guide dude explained to us that there was a little bridge coming up and we could either get off the bike or jump it. I thought, well how hard can popping a wheelie up on that thing be? Well, harder than I thought, because my front wheel hit the bridge and flipped me completely over the handlebars and landed me on the ground. Grassy ground, but still.

Side note: I still have that shirt and those shorts.

Since then, I think I have ridden a bike once. And it was terrifying. But recently, I have been wanting to try riding a bike, because most places I go are in biking distance, and I'm getting tired of running as a work out. Even though I've gone running only about three times in the past month. Whatever.

Sorry, this story got really long so I will now conclude it. The Wysockis gave me Ben's old bike as a loaner, and an old helmet, and today I went on my first bike ride. It was awesome. I rode to Starbucks. On a trail, but also some on the street, and I felt really cool. I want to ride my bike all the time.

Let's see, what other fun things. Well, I hang out with Kayanne and Sophie constantly, so that's fun.

Kan, I stole this picture from your facebook, so thanks for not quitting. :)

Sophie is at my house all the time, which is cute. We can't be separated.

Kayanne and I go on fun adventures. For those of you unfamiliar with Kayanne, or Kan as I like to call her, she graduated from high school this year and helped lead my small group at church last year. She's pretty much da bomb, and since her school doesn't start until the end of September and all her other friends left, we hang out a lot. And it's awesome. A couple times we've ventured to Windsor to visit Ev and Joe, and one time we went hiking, which may have ended in us taking a wrong path and hitchhiking. Maybe. Maybe not. We survived, that's all I know.

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm old. But I got cookies (Beth) and cake (Kendra and Raychel) and breakfast (Wysockis) and dessert (Kingrys) and mostly food. And a high school boy bought me flowers. And Kayanne gave me a painting that she found on the side of the road but claimed to have painted herself. And Dani got me a KU Mr. Potatohead. And my parents gave me money toward buying a keyboard. And Wysockis got me Wolverine. And Cait is going to get me season 3 of 30 Rock. And Jen says there is something awesome on the way in the mail, but we'll see. And Sophie says she'll give me a present tomorrow. Here is a picture of my birthday presents:

Also, I got a really cute video message from Mason Garlich, AND I got to video chat with him/Andy/Jen/Alli tonight. Highlight of my day. Besides the bike thing.

But seriously, I can't believe I'm 27.

Well at this point it's probably about time that I highlight the wedding of the summer.

Introducing Mark and Kara Poshak. It was a pretty awesome event. Outdoor weddings are something of movies for me, I'd never been to one, and the weather was beautiful and everyone looked awesome and it was so much fun. And now they're married! And there's another member of the Tate/Poshak family.

It was a great reunion too. This will probably be one of the only weddings besides my own (someday) that had the sweet combination of good friends AND family. I was so excited to be able to spend the weekend with the Van Rossums...



And the Poshaks...

And the Tates...

And the McGintys...

And Angie...

And lots of Colorado friends...

It was sweet. Unfortunately we didn't get to take any official Tate/Poshak family photos, but that's ok. Maybe some other time in life we'll all put on our wedding clothes again and take one. Or probably not, but we can pretend.

And now Mark and Kara have moved on to California to fight fires. Well, not really. I wish they were still here so that we could hang out, but the great thing about being practically family with the Poshaks is that we have many more Christmases and Thanksgivings ahead of us.

So congratulations Mark and Kara! I love you guys.

Do you know what's hard about life? Well, a lot of things. But one main thing that sticks out to me is that in life, I am always missing somebody. No matter where I am, I miss someone. And I think it will be that way forever. Right now I miss Jen and my other Kansas friends, especially camp people. Next week I'm really gonna miss Kayanne. I wish everyone I love could just move to the same island and live there forever. Oh, and I would live there too. It would be sweet.

See you there!

my summer change of pace

I'm sitting in my new house (well, it's really Mark's house, but us girls live here now) on a nice evening with the windows open listening to a rare event for Colorado--a rainstorm. I've got the Cardinals game on and Matt Holliday is up to bat, which is weird because for the first three years I lived here, I watched him play for the Rockies. This morning I slept until 10, watched some NCIS and did some work on my computer. All that to say, life is just chill right now. Possibly the calm before the storm.

But I needed a calm. This summer was CRAZY. From May 24 until August 8, I worked as a Cabin Leader Supervisor at Youthfront Camp West. Well, I did get a week off, but that week I went to CHIC, which was possibly more busy and stressful than camp. No vacay for Tatie this summer, but it was totally worth it.

I would say the best part about the summer was spending it with my best friend, Jennifer Lee Wilson Fogleman. Or more affectionately known as Jen, Jerbie or Jennie.

Yes. She is a delight. That's us preparing for our sweet Night Strike game. One of the main reasons I went to camp this summer was to have community with people (somewhat) my own age, and especially to hang out with her. Not only did I enjoy it, I wouldn't have survived without her. And now Jen is "one" with Als (that is, Alan Fogleman), so I got to be BFFs with both of them all summer.

That was us at one of the several Royals games we got to go to this summer, thanks to my cousin Steve Stewart who is one of the radio announcers as well as our hook up for tickets. Thanks Steve.

I have to take a moment here to thank the Foglemans. First for their hospitality--for a couch to sleep on for the weekends, for feeeding me, for letting me do my laundry, for Arrested Development--you guys gave me a weekend home and that was awesome. Also, they're just great people. When I remember this summer, I will probably most value the time I got to spend with the Foglemans. Sometime during the last week of camp, Alli Garlich walked by the three of us and said, "here comes the Three Amigos." It made my day. So...I love you guys, that's all.

I guess I'll just start trying to sum up camp in a few highlights. I, along with another guy, was in charge of training and supervising the Cabin Leaders at camp, which is what I used to be when I worked at camp in '05 and '06. I loved having this opportunity, and I loved them.

These were the awesome girls, and even though I don't have a picture of them all, the boys were awesome as well. When the summer was over, I felt like it was too short of time with all of them. Because of having to deal with a lot of businessy task stuff, I didn't get to spend time and build relationships with them nearly as much as I had wanted. But we had some great times playing games, sharing stories about campers, discussing the Bible, praying, and other random stuff.

I loved watching them in their element. Every Friday night we had a 50s themed pool party, and during one of those nights when I'm normally working some activity or running around getting things done, I just stopped for a moment and watched them in the pool as their kids just hung all over them and laughed with them and loved them, and I honestly got a little choked up. They were great. So thank you cabin leaders, you were da bomb.

Another love of my summer was the Garlich family.

That's Alli with Brody (please notice his Nuggets gear)...

...and that's Andy with Brody and Mason. Andy works full time for Youthfront, so this was one of many summers he's spent at camp, and then the rest of the fam just gets to come and hang out. Except if we have a Code Red and Alli gets put to work putting out a fake fire at a cabin that doesn't exist yet. They're great. And I don't think it's any secret that I love babies and toddlers, so it was way fun for me to hang out with them all summer. Me and Mason are BFFs now.

He's fun because he'll repeat anything you say pretty much, and it's hilarious. I especially liked playing with him while we all chilled behind the dining hall: jumping on the mini tramp, going down the slide, throwing frisbees, and of course, the occasional ride in the trike.

I loved that trike. Another one of my favorite times at camp is when I got to take that thing out for a spin around the camp. I'm scared of real bikes, but that thing was awesome.

Before we get too far away from the Garlichs, let's look at one more cute picture from the Homecoming Game Day event (explaining why Jen is a cheerleader):

And then you need to check out this cute video:

The story behind the chasing cars thing is that at the beginning of the summer, Jen and I constantly watched this SNL skit and I kept imitating the song and then Mason picked up on it and it was hilarious.

How about a few more pics? Here in picture form is all the weird/awesome things that camp entailed for me (besides the ones already seen)...

Blobbing. Enough said.

Every Friday was Frames Friday, during which you would wear frames without lenses. These are mine. Also I got to play with that radio all summer.

One mini-week (smaller kids, shorter week), I got to be "Sports Girl" because one the normal Sports Guys was gone. That basically means being the camp emcee, crazy person and celebrity. I loved it, minus the fact that that was the week I almost totally lost my voice.

And because I had become famous, I of course had to participate in the shaving cream war that we do for the little kids. Funsies.

Every night to kick-off the evening event, we have this thing called Hype where the kids just are really loud and have fun. During that time, the "Mail Gorilla" appears to deliver packages to the kids. First off, it's nearly impossible to see out of the mask so I tripped everywhere. Also, Mason is terrified of what he calls "the badrilla." One time he saw the mask and cried harder than I'd ever seen.

One of our themes was Pacman Fever, appreciating old school video games. This was the Duck Hunt station, where we filled up water balloons that the kids then launched at a staff person in a duck suit out on the water. It was awesome.

Probably the most popular event was the Renaissance Festival, which included all kinds of Renaissance themed activities (jousting, slaying dragons, etc.). I had the priviledge each week of being Lady Tate, the Funnel Cake Fries peddler. I walked around with my cart, or sometimes rode the trike, selling funnel cake fries to the kids.

The last night of camp was one of the best. We had a photo scavenger hunt, and it was hilarious. This was us accomplishing the task of advertising Youthfront. Pretty good, huh? Plus we got a stacked team of some of my favorite people at camp: Mark, Momo, Jen and Jordan.

Well that seems to be a pretty decent summary. It was a great summer, and I wouldn't have minded if it lasted several more weeks. I loved being back in Kansas and seeing my friends like Emily and Melissa on the weekends, and I loved that Danielle and Cait got to come to camp one week. I even got to see Steve one Sunday. So it was a great experience, and I am so thankful to God for that blessing.

And now I'm back in Arvada with a new challenge on my hands--running the youth group until we hire a new youth pastor. Should be fun!

living simply

On July 14 of last year, I went to an event that World Vision was putting on at a church in Denver. It was essentially a guided audio/visual tour of the life of a child living in AIDS affected portions of Africa. We all put on headphones and walked through a sort of labyrinth in a large tent that showed different aspects of where that child lived, what they did, what their parents did, what school is like, etc. At the end of the tour, we saw photos and profiles of World Vision kids in Africa who need sponsors.

I stood staring at that wall of children's faces wanting to help, but thinking that as a sponsor of two Compassion children already, I couldn't justify sponsoring a third child. Yet as I stood there a little longer, I felt like God was putting something on my heart and mind. I basically felt God saying to me, "Amanda, just don't buy new clothes for a year, and you can sponsor a child."

Hold up, what? I thought to myself, I can't do that, can I? No new t-shirts or gym shorts, no strolling around the clothes section at Target when I'm really there for shampoo, no replacing the clothes I decide I don't like anymore? But that call from God was undeniable. I had to do it.

My eyes browsed the hundreds of photos and quickly landed on a little girl from Uganda named Aleluya. Perfect. That night I added one more to my sponsored child family.

The reason I write about this all now is that the one year mark passed this week, right in the middle of CHIC, the incredible Covenant youth conference I just got back from with my youth group kids. Through the mass chaos that was CHIC, I was able to take a few moments here and there to reflect on the last year, and thought that I should share.

I definitely didn't go the entire year without obtaining new clothes in some way. I decided from the beginning I wouldn't be super legalistic about it, but would just trust God to do what He wanted. Shortly after making the commitment, I had to buy a few crucial items for my first backpacking trip I took last August. And a couple weeks ago I bought a sports bra. Besides that, I don't think I purchased anything. I got a couple of free shirts here and there, used a couple gift certificates, and went on the traditional Christmas shopping trip where my mom buys me a few clothing items as presents, seeing as I am super picky and she gave up on buying things for me on her own. :) Thanks Mel.

For the most part, this was not difficult at all. Sure, there were a few times when I walked through a clothing section in a store and really liked something I saw, so I tended to just avoid looking at clothes at all. And I definitely had some moments where I was really tired of wearing the same clothes, or I felt out of style, or I felt like people would notice that I kept wearing the same things and I didn't like that.

In those moments, I always remembered how grateful some people are just to have one outfit of clothes. I remembered the homeless man in Denver from two years ago who wanted this old dirty t-shirt we had found in the trash. And the story from when a group from our church went to Uganda and gave out shorts to kids, who nearly knocked each other out trying to get a pair.

But most of the past year, I realized that I still have SO MUCH STUFF. And that a lot of the rest of this country has even more stuff. So when July 14 rolled around this past week, I was far from ready to go on a celebratory shopping spree. In reality, I honestly don't think much will change for me now. I may buy a new item of clothing here or there, but I moreso want to try to get rid of stuff and give it to people who need it more than me.

I don't write all of this now because I want you to think I'm awesome or that I'm better than you or something, because I'm definitely not, and I really don't like when people have that attitude. In fact, I only told a few people this past year that I wasn't buying clothes. But I feel like the lessons I learned and the things God was showing me this past week and throughout this summer were things worth mentioning.

This has been a little scattered, but to sum up what I've learned I'll share about two things that I heard this summer that God used to show me why I gave up buying new clothes. One week at camp, our speaker, Jamie Roach, talked about how his daughter had a great experience on a mission trip and realized how much she has and how little the people she went to serve have. She started selling shirts to raise money with a slogan on it that may be familiar to you (I think it's Ghandi), but one that is now sticking with me.

Live simply so others may simply live.

I need to continually watch my spending on things that I really don't need or don't matter so that I can be more conscious and able to give money to organizations like Compassion or World Vision or the International Justice Mission or the Denver Rescue Mission. Because let's be honest, the reason we buy new clothes is to impress others, and that's really lame. So I'm going to continue to try to live more simply, even if it means not being stylish or looking cool or having to wear some of the same clothes I have now for the rest of my life.

The other thing that once again hit me this week in a seminar at CHIC was that we have to be careful about our spending anyway, because so many retail stores and coffee and chocolate companies use slave labor to produce their products at some point in the process.

They may not ship their clothes directly from a sweat shop in Asia to the mall, but maybe their cotton comes from kids forced to pick it for 18 hours a day and little to no pay. From now on if I do decide to buy something, I want to make sure first that I'm not buying from a company that uses slave labor. At this point, some companies may not actually know if they are purchasing slave-produced items, and so the next step is continually pushing companies to stop living in ignorant bliss and start truly assessing their production line. For more info on this, check out Not for Sale. They gave us a great seminar and have a great web site, including a database of companies so you can see if your favorite companies are guilty of using slave labor. And remember, our speaker told us that a really good deal on a shirt probably means someone else paid the much higher price.

God has challenged me this week to stop giving in to the typical American lifestyle in some ways, and to truly try to follow the example of Jesus in all areas of life. I am nowhere near where I wish I was in this, but I really want to stop trying to be a comfortable Christian. It's uncomfortable to have to stop and think about that shirt you're about to buy--do I really need another shirt, was someone forced against their will to help in making this shirt?--but I believe that's what God is calling us to. I know I don't have it all figured out, but we need to start taking steps to readjust our lives to the life Christ truly calls us to, and trust that He will guide us in making good decisions about our spending and living.

As easy as it is, don't just be stuck in frustration over this issue or think you have to single handedly end oppression. At the same time, don't keep living ignorantly. But do your part to deliver people from poverty and injustice. I mean I'm no Bible expert, but I'm pretty sure that's what Jesus did. So that's what I'm gonna try to do. Who's with me??

back to my roots

This tate-blog is coming to you live from Signs of Life bookstore/coffee shop on Mass Street in Lawrence, Kansas. That's right, I'm back in Kansas. I love this place.

Yesterday I had a nice long (about 8 and a half hours) drive. It actually went by pretty fast. I listened to music and the Bible, prayed, talked to Gar-man on the phone about TV shows and the good ole days of the 50s and 60s in St. Louis, and finally listened to some Scrubs and Saturday Night Live DVDs. Then I of course stopped in Topeka to get some Steak 'n Shake, which of course made me feel nasty because I ate it too fast while sitting and driving the last 30 minutes of the drive to Lawrence. Worth it. I love that stuff.

I saw this sign along the way, and it reminded me of Jake (because for example, I'll say something like, Yes, I found my shoe! And he'll say, Jesus is real!), so without looking I tried to take a picture, and I think it turned out pretty sweet. Oh the beautiful plains of Kansas.

The most difficult part of the drive was that I was, and still am, in this awkward in between time. I said some difficult goodbyes for the summer, and I won't really see why that was worth it until camp gets going, if that makes sense. So for a bunch of the drive I had to keep praying for peace because I felt pretty unsettled about coming here.

HOWEVER, once I got to see Emily and Jen and Alan, I felt much better, as well as just merely driving through the KU campus last night. Not that I'll be spending a ton of time in Lawrence, but it just feels like I'm home, and I like that. Not to mention, today I had lunch with Jen and the other supervisor-type people at camp and we talked about my job as cabin leader supervisor. So that got me pumped for camp, which starts Sunday....ahhh!!! Ok, maybe I'm still a little nervous. Whatever, it will be fine.

Today was Ralston Valley's graduation, where some of my favorite students from church walked across the stage and received diplomas. Unfortunately, I missed it. That was one of the hard parts about leaving. I love this senior class, and I will miss them a lot this summer and next year and always. I love the boys, even though they're a little bit creepily in love with me. We've had some fun times leading Fusion and snowboarding and hanging out at Mark's house. And the girls are rad. I've gotten to know all of them a lot just because they come hang out at our house a lot, but especially because we do things like make music videos to Beyonce or do cardioke (see previous post) or just talk life. Anyway, I love the class of '09, especially this one...

Kayanne was one of the student leaders for our small group this year, and she is awesome. We had lots of fun this year debriefing about our small group girls and the crazy things they would do and say. Good times.

Speaking of crazy small group girls, I will miss them mucho this summer.

That's Kelsey, Cori, Beth, Sarah and me on Monday when we took Kesley some fun stuff for her birthday. I feel like people in college or older are not too phased by a 3 month separation, but to high school kids, that seems like forever. Cori keeps telling me she's scared because I'm gone, and Sarah practically wrote me a love poem over text. But we'll be ok. I'm getting excited to hang out with all of them at CHIC again, which is our denominational youth conference. Woot.

Well I think that's all I say for now. I can't stop staring outside at Mass Street, so I think I need to go enjoy it for a bit. You never know what's gonna happen.