Prank Fail #2

Once again, my friends, I have discovered that I just can't pull off pranks. This weekend I had a cross country meet in Michigan. We were on our way home and I was restless. When you have to be on a bus for 6 hours, you get bored. I was listening to music when I heard a commotion in the back of the bus. Most of my teammates were gathered back there, watching Chris play Slender Man on his laptop. For those of you that don't know, Slender Man is a scary video game based off an urban legend. I'll admit that I'm too scared to play it, but if you want to check it out, here's the link to the game site. You've been warned.

http://slendergame.com/game.php

Everybody was tense. Brittany and Ashley were clutching their pillows and covering their eyes every 5 seconds. Ben was standing up and had a death grip on the support bars above the shelves. Jake was sitting next to Chris, giving him instructions on where to go.

Chris: I don't know what to do!
Jake: Go left! Go left!
Chris: He's coming for me I know it!
Jake: Go to the woods! Run!

Then Slender Man must have popped out because everybody screamed and grabbed the nearest person for support. I realized I could use this situation to my benefit (and like I said before, I was quite bored). Being the small person that I am, I can squeeze under the seats in the bus and crawl to the back. I ducked down and started army crawling to where Jake and Chris were sitting. Chris was so into the game, he had no idea I was right under him. I slowly reached out my hand, waiting for the perfect moment. Then, I grabbed Chris' ankle.

He didn't even flinch! I got no reaction out of him at all! He just reached down and scratched his ankle. Then his computer died and everyone dispersed. Knowing I had failed, I slid backwards to start making my way back. Then Ashley almost stepped on me.

Ashley (looks down and sees me under her chair)
Me: Hi...
Ashley: Who's down there?
Me: Um, me...
Ashley (reaches down and touches my face): Kathleen?
Me: Yeah...
Ashley: What are you doing down there?
Me: Failing at scaring people...

After laughing at my attempt, we both decided it was time for me to get out from under the seats. This is the part of the story where I got stuck. Now, I'm skinny, but there's not as much space under those seats as I thought. I couldn't turn over on my side and ended up wedged between the wall and someone's bag. After a lot of struggling, I finally was able to free myself and get out. I walked back to my seat, sweating and defeated.

And that's why you don't pull pranks on the bus.

Knees and Noses

I've been kind of MIA for the past two weeks. School is definitely in full swing now, which is part of my absence here. Reading The Taming of the Shrew takes time, my friends. At the moment, I'm recovering from a rather nasty sinus infection. I haven't had any energy the past few days. Went through an entire box of tissues Saturday night. I consider that a bit of an achievement. Anyway, after going to urgent care and getting antibiotics, I'm starting to mend.

That takes care of the "Noses" section. Now on to "Knees." There is nothing more frustrating for a runner than when something hinders you from running. I've been having pain in my left knee for about 3 weeks now. It made running extremely uncomfortable, especially when I ran on pavement. It hurt to go up and down stairs, walk up hills, and sitting for long periods of time made it hurt when I stood up. After biking for a few days and not being able to run in our last race, I went to the doctor to have it looked at. I was thinking that it wasn't going to be anything too bad, but the fear that I would be out for the rest of the season was in the back of my mind. I was also nervous because I'd never been to the orthopedic place I went to. Being at school, I wasn't able to go back home to see my normal doctor.

The doctor I saw couldn't have been better. Specializing in sports medicine, he knew almost immediately what was going on with my knee. I have what is known as Runner's Knee. Basically, the muscles and tendons in my knee are moving around a lot and in directions that they don't want to move in. It feels like arthritis. But the good news is, I can still run! I can't do as much mileage as the rest of the team right now, but I have a bunch of stretches and exercises to help strengthen my knee and good things of that nature. I got to run today and I didn't have any pain! It felt strange, but I'll take that over pain any day. I realize this isn't the most exciting post in the world but I just wanted to give you an update on things. See ya later dude! (Note:if you can guess what movie that quote is from, you are wise indeed)

Practical Jokes

Yesterday I learned something about myself. I'm not good at pulling off pranks. It started when I went to the cafeteria to get dinner. I met up with some of my teammates. Now, there are 3 Sarahs on our team, so we gave them nicknames. SarBear, Sarah B (I know, not very original), and Black Belt. The last Sarah has a black belt in karate. She's not in this story, however. I just wanted to put that awesome fact in.

I was sitting with SarBear and Sarah B. We were getting ready to leave when SarBear went to talk to someone at another table. She left her phone, which I proceeded to take and put in my pocket. My original plan was to just keep it until she figured out who took it. Then I got an idea. I remembered a story that my R.D. from last year told me. When she worked at another school, she snuck into one of her resident's rooms and hid under her bed. She waited until she came in and got settled and then scared her. Seeing that one of SarBear's apartment mates was in their living room, I knocked on the door. After explaining what I was doing and asking her to not give anything away, I went up to SarBear's room and got under the bed. I was giddy with excitement.

After figuring out I was the one who took her phone, SarBear and Sarah B had gone over to my apartment to ask for it back. Little did they know that I wasn't there. I was curled up next to a plastic bin, waiting with anticipation for them to come back.

Then, somehow, my plan failed. I don't know how, but SarBear and Sarah B figured out that I was hiding somewhere in the apartment before they even got there. Their apartment mate had left before they came, so she couldn't have told them. I heard the door open and Sarah B's voice.

"We know you're in here! You're going to die!"

Coming up the stairs, she opened the door to SarBear's room. She found me almost immediately. Grabbing my feet, she dragged me out from under the bed, SarBear's phone falling out of my pocket in the process. Sarah B snatched it up. As a last ditch effort, I tried to hold on to her legs to keep her from going downstairs, but she just kicked her shoes off and ran out the door.

In the end, SarBear got her phone back and we had a good laugh.I'm a little bummed it didn't work out, but it still makes for a good story.

Stopping and Starting

Have you ever had a day where what you're doing seems so difficult that you just want to quit? That was today for me.

A lot of people don't quite understand why I run. They can't comprehend why I would willingly make my body endure mile after mile at a pace that most people would never want to do. Well today, I was questioning it myself. We do speed workouts twice a week. They can be anything from mile repeats, running on a track, to ladder or interval workouts. Mount Vernon High School is right across the street from my campus, so we do some of our workouts there. The perimeter around all of the sports fields equals a mile. Coach had marked the 400 meter marks with flags. This was our workout:

400 easy, 400 race pace, 400 easy, 400 race pace
3 minute rest
800 easy, 800 race pace
3 minute rest
800 easy, 800 race pace
3 minute rest
800 easy, 800 race pace
3 minute rest
400 easy, 400 race pace, 400 easy, 400 race pace
1 mile cool down

For those of you who lost track, that's 6 miles of speed work, plus the mile cool down, which makes a grand total of 7 miles for the day. 800 meters equals half a mile. 400 meters is 1/4th of a mile. Make sense?


It was also extremely hot and humid today. I don't run well in humidity. By the third loop, I was losing steam. And the 3 minute rests? Yeah, it doesn't feel like much of a rest. My mind was basically battling against itself. Half of me just wanted to stop more than anything, but the other was screaming at me to keep going. I was overheated, my legs felt like jelly, and I was sweating so much it looked like I had gone swimming. I knew that if I stopped the workout, I would regret it later. There were some times during my summer training that I didn't do the full mileage I was supposed to and I felt guilty afterwards. I knew I was capable of going the distance, but my doubts got the best of me. But today, I kept going. I had to jog some of it, and I did the last loop in my socks because my shoes were rubbing, but I did it. It was really hard, but crossing the line for the final time, knowing I didn't give in, was one of the best feelings. The support of my teammates helped a ton too.

Sometimes we have to do things that are difficult. We may get to a point where we think we can't handle it anymore. But I'll bet that you're a lot stronger than you think. You'll make it through.

Cross Country Round 2

Well kids, I'm moved back into school and the cross country season has begun! My teammates and I moved in last Thursday and cross country camp started. We were at this beautiful little house that a friend of coach's owns. He ran cross country in college and he has a ton of property. He cut out all these trails and courses on his land just for us to use! How cool is that? It's so quiet and peaceful there. We spent our time outside of running fishing, jumping on the trampoline, swimming, and pretty much bonding as a team. One night the guys challenged the girls to a game of charades. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. I'm proud to say that the girls won. We didn't go somewhere for camp last year, and there's a real difference in our team dynamic. Spending that much time together really made us close. We were all in the same house, cooking dinner together, sleeping pretty much on top of each other (the guys slept downstairs and the girls were upstairs). It was so awesome to see everyone come together.

Personally, I think we're going to have a great team this year. We're a lot stronger than we were this time last year. Our workouts are most intense, we're doing core work more often, and we're lifting once a week. I'm so excited to see how we do this season. I love these people.

I'm Back For Real This Time!

I promise! Guys, I really do apologize for my absence this entire summer. I had so many things going on my blog just went on the back burner. But no more! I'm going to keep this as updated as possible this year, with everything from food to music to photography and anything else I come up with. And there will be adventures from my life as a college student and athlete. Who knows, maybe I'll even put some of my writing up here, if I'm feeling brave! Now, I'm in the process of baking bread, so I must leave you now. But here's a picture I took of the inside of The Bean in Chicago! Otherwise known as an acid trip.

Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines

Today was the last day of my World Literature class. We ended by looking at the poetry of Pablo Neruda. I haven't exactly enjoyed this class, but today I found a poet whose work I'm very likely going to read this summer. It is beautiful. He writes everything from love poems to odes to everyday objects like tomatoes. One poem we read was Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines. It's quite sad, but hauntingly beautiful at the same time. It brought a lump to my throat. I'm posting it here so you can see what I mean. Just sit back and take in the words




Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

Is This Real Life?

This past week, I scheduled my classes for next year. My advisor was happy with my progress because I'm right on track to graduate on time. It was when he said that that I had one of those "I can't believe I'm growing up" moments. I'm right on track to graduate. From college! Am I really going to be a junior next year? It seems like just two days ago I was a scared freshman at Kent State. Now here I am, 20 years old and signing up for a class called Traditional and Modern Grammars. I'm researching literary journals where I could submit my writing to hopefully be published. It's quite odd to think about sometimes.

There are other things that make me realize I'm getting older. Four of my friends are getting married this summer. I couldn't be happier for them, but it's so strange to think I'm at that age now where people I know personally are taking that step. One of my good friends just released her first book. Her first book! I'm so proud of her. And yes, I'm going to shamelessly plug it. It's called Confessions of a Prodigal Daughter by Sarahbeth Caplin. You can buy it on Amazon!

While these things make me feel like I'm getting older, there's still a part of me that feels perpetually 12 years old. The first night I was home for Easter break, my sisters and I built a fort in our living room. I still like to watch cartoons (Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry are my favorite). It's not unlikely for me to read a Garfield comic book before bed. Or Calvin and Hobbes. And some days, all I want to do is sit on my couch with a blanket and watch Hey Arnold.

I honestly think I'll still have that side of me even when I'm seventy. And I would encourage you, or whoever is reading this, to not forget that part of yourself. Hold onto that childlike excitement. That carefree spirit. You never know how important it could be in your life.

The Great Bike Adventure

I have my bike on campus. Now, if there's one thing that's an issue at Mount Vernon, it's that people's bikes get stolen a lot. If you don't have a lock on it, chances are it's going to get taken sooner or later. I keep mine locked most of the time, but on Wednesday, I was running late to class and forgot the keys to my lock in my room. I biked to class and parked outside of the building. When I came back out after class, it was gone. Before this happened, someone had been taking my bike and putting it different places on campus. Why, I have no idea. So when I saw that it was gone, my first instinct was that I would find it somewhere again. But I didn't. I searched everywhere and couldn't find it. I stalked back to my apartment, ticked off.

About an hour later, some of my apartment mates came back from the store and told me they saw a guy on campus riding my bike. They followed him and asked him where he got it (of course he said he didn't know). This was when I went into stealth mode. I was determined to get my bike back. After finding out his location from my associate (aka my roommate looked up where he lived in the campus directory), I began my mission.

I walked up to his apartment complex and started scanning the perimeter. There were only two people outside, and they were walking away from the complex. There would be no witnesses to my act. Then, I spotted it. He had hid it behind the bushes next to his apartment. I casually walked up, grabbed my bike, and rode like the wind back to my apartment. No one was the wiser. The first thing I did when I got back was lock it up.

So, to my fellow Mount Vernon mates, if you have a bike, LOCK IT UP!

Ways of Worship

Yesterday during my English Lit class, my professor (who is brilliant!) brought up a very interesting question. We go to church and we sing and worship during the songs, but do we worship during the sermon? As I thought about this, I began thinking about how I react during a sermon. I listen, open my Bible to what is being talked about, underline things that strike me, write down notes. I think a lot of us do that. Is that worship?

There have been times where the message has really moved or impacted me to a point where I feel it. I know that God put that message in front of me at a time when I needed to hear it most. I give thanks and praise to God for moving me and giving me words of wisdom. So, I guess that's a form of worship as well.

I'm not saying you have to go to church and worship the entire time. We all react to things differently. Something that strikes a chord with me might not move you in the same way. Everyone has a different view, but we're all capable of praising God. That's how He created us to be. Give Him all the glory.

I Want Your Thoughts!

Hello there! As some of you know, I'm taking a poetry class this semester and I've really been working on my writing. Recently I submitted two of my poems to Poetry Magazine in the hopes of getting them published, so we'll see how that goes! I've been thinking about putting up one of my poems on my blog to see what you guys think. I would love to have some feedback and see what you guys think. So be on the lookout for that in the near future! I realize this post is really short, so here's a pretty picture I took for you to stare at!

Poetry Day!

Yeah, I know. I forgot to post a poem last week. But I remembered this time and that's what counts. So, today's poem is Let Evening Come by Jane Kenyon. It's quite lovely in my opinion. It has such a tranquil and relaxed tone to it. I like how she describes evening without using words that we normally associate with it, like night, stars, and moon. My favorite line of the poem is the last one. It's just the perfect way to end it. Ok, enough of me. Read it for yourself!

Let Evening Come
BY JANE KENYON
Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

When Concrete Attacks and Bad Poetry

I have never fallen while running before. Until today. Everything was going smoothly. My teammates Becca and Ashley and I went for a run after we got out of class. We decided to do the 2 mile loop so we could be done before it started getting dark. So off we went. Becca and Ashley zoomed ahead and I fell behind. I decided to cut through the high school parking lot so I could get back to campus faster and possibly beat them back. Yes, I know it wasn't a race, but my competitive side came out. I got to the front of campus and was feeling really good, so I picked up the pace. I passed one of my classmates and was just about to hit the hill that goes to my apartment complex, when I completely biffed it. Here's what happened:

Me: Yeah I'm almost there! This is a good run!

(trips over a crack in the concrete)

Me: Whoa!

(Kathleen stumbles forward, getting closer to the ground each time. She hits the ground and slides on her stomach while making incoherent noises of pain and falling. Sprawled out on the sidewalk, feet up in the air and dazed, she slowly looks around and assesses what just took place. Meanwhile, her classmate has witnessed the entire ordeal and runs over to see if she's ok)

After picking myself up and hobbling to the PSU, I went to the trainer who patched me up. Nothing serious, just banged up and scratched. Scraped up my hands and my knee, got a big and rather gross looking scrape on my elbow, and my hip is all scraped up. I'm going to have an awesome bruise and will be sore for a bit. Here's a little photo for ya.





Don't worry, I'll be good as new in no time!

Now, today in my poetry class my professor wrote a bunch of random words on the board and told us to take one or two of these words and write the worst poem we could come up with. Two of these words happened to be walrus and acorns, which I used for mine. After a few of you asked me to post it, I have decided to let you read it. I think it's pretty funny. And awfully written. So here it is.

Don't Throw Acorns at the Walrus

Harbor
Water
Death.

Walrus
Acorn
Death!

Railing
Breaking
DEATH.

Water
Walrus
Death.

There ya go, kids.

Miles to Go Before I Sleep

I'm taking a poetry class this semester, which gave me a great idea. Once a week, I'm going to put one of my favorite poems on my blog and talk about why I like it. So, this week, the poem is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. This is a poem I think a lot of people are familiar with. I love it because of its simplicity. Frost uses wonderful imagery in his poems and it makes me feel like I'm in the place he's describing. The poem has a peaceful tone, but also has an underlying serious feel to it. I love the opening line because the word order is so interesting. Frost could have just said, "I think I know whose woods these are," but instead, he changes up the sentence structure and turns it into something that's eloquent and beautiful. This poem also makes me laugh a little. Not the poem itself, but because of a story my AP Literature teacher told my class my senior year of high school. When she was in undergrad one of her classes discussed this poem, and a girl in her class was convinced that it was about Santa Claus. Now, I don't think this poem is about Santa at all, but that's one way to interpret it I guess. So here's the poem. I hope you get pleasure out of reading it.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

One Year

Yesterday was my one year anniversary of being at Mount Vernon. It feels strange to think I've been here for a year, because it feels like I've been here for a lot longer. When I made the decision to transfer, I had no idea what was going to happen. It wasn't easy; in fact it was really hard at some points, but I'm so thankful that God brought me here.

Coming to Mount Vernon for spring semester was very intimidating. I was starting during the middle of the school year. Everyone already had their set group of friends and knew their way around campus. I went from a giant state school to a small private one, which are worlds different from each other. I didn't know anyone, had to find my way around, figure out my classes and how everything worked. I was basically starting college all over again. I've said this before; if transferring is what God wants you to do, by all means do it. But if you don't have to, don't! It's a very tedious and stressful process. Honestly, I was terrified my first week here. I didn't really know what to do with myself. (If you knew me at all last year, there were quite a few times where I was a nervous wreck) Then, God started to put people in my life. They saw past all my anxiety and stress and accepted me for who I was. Wonderful people like my small group leader Rachel who gave me her shoulder to cry on when I only knew her for 2 days. My dear friend and teammate Alex who invited me to go running every week and would talk with me about my struggles. She also was one of the people who influenced me in my decision to run cross country again. There are many more people who have been great blessings in my life but if I put them all down I would run out of space! If you guys read this, I can't thank you enough for how much you've helped me. I care about you so much and I'm so thankful God put you in my life.

Looking back on this year, I can't believe how far I've come. I'm doing things that I never thought I would do. I'm on the cross country team, something that I absolutely hated in high school has now become a love of mine. I help lead worship for Athletes in Action, something I never expected to do. And I sing too! If you had asked me to sing a year ago, I would have adamantly refused. I'm a small group leader to 8 wonderful girls. I love seeing how God is working in their lives. I can't wait to see what this semester holds.

This past year has had its share of bumps in the road, but I wouldn't change it. God used this to help shape and grow me as a person and learn to seek Him in everything I do. It's so comforting to know He's been with me and will continue to be there for me. I'm so glad I came to Mount Vernon. This is where I'm supposed to be.

Impacting and Inspiring

Those are the two words I would use to describe the Athletes in Action retreat. I'm so glad that I decided to participate in it. It was so encouraging to see over 200 athletes from a bunch of different schools come together in the name of Jesus. There were people from Marshall, Ball State, Kentucky, Ohio State, Toledo, Xavier, Capital, Kentucky State, Butler, and some random guy from California (still wondering how he ended up there). There were only five of us from Mount Vernon that went, but it was really a blessing. I got to know each person better individually. The whole weekend was full of moments where I saw God working in myself and the other athletes there.

We were one of the first schools to get there and Taylor, Stacy and I were the first ones to get into our dorm. So, like any normal person who has an entire building to themselves for an hour, we went exploring...and ended up climbing onto the roof. I regret nothing. Not my fault that the window in the hallway didn't have a screen!

The speaker for the retreat, Eric Russ, was incredible. God has given him the gift of speaking and insight. The first session was called The American Dream vs. God's Reality. He broke down what our society says about how to be successful, and what God says. He talked about how we don't need to win God's favor because we already have worth in His eyes. We don't have to follow what the world says.

The second session was all about discipleship. It focused on how to share with our fellow believers and how to serve each other and those around us. Afterwards we got to pick a seminar to go to. I went to the one called Gone Fishin, which also talked about discipleship, but focused on how to share our faith with others and become "fishers of men," like in the verse. I got a lot out of it. I've always felt like sharing my faith with nonbelievers isn't something I'm particularly skilled at, and talking about it really helped.

The third session was about relationships. This couple who are full time staff at Athletes in Action shared with everyone their testimonies and how God has worked in their relationship. Kim was a gymnast at UCLA and was on the U.S National Gymnastics Team. Corwin played football at UCLA and played in the NFL for a while. He was also the chaplain for the Miami Dolphins. You could just see by the way they talked and interacted with each other that God was at the forefront of their relationship. It was so encouraging to me to see how God can make a marriage work, and I'm sure it gave everyone hope that marriages do last. Kim and Corwin will be married 20 years this year.

The last session was probably my favorite. Eric talked about the importance of community which is something I feel strongly about. It's so important to have a community of believers around you who will keep you accountable and support you in your faith. It encouraged me to take everything I learned back with me to Mount Vernon and share with my fellow athletes how I was impacted. I can't wait to share with everyone next week.

I also learned about an opportunity that I hope to pursue this summer. Athletes in Action has a cross country camp for high school distance runners for a week in July every summer. It takes place in Michigan at Hope College. I'm applying to be part of the collegiate staff. I would be co-leading a group of runners for the week, as well as helping out with the clinics they have. I would do all the workouts with the girls and supervise the dorm floors, and most importantly, helping the girls grow spiritually, mentally, and athletically. I'm really excited about this and would love to be part of it. Please keep this in your prayers as I start this process. I'll keep you updated on how it's going!

Retreat!

This week is the last week of j-term and honestly, I'm a little bummed out. It's been quite nice having only one class every day, getting out of said class at 10 am and having the rest of the day to do things I enjoy (reading, playing guitar, going on runs). It's also been great to have lots of quiet time to spend with God. We've had some good times together this month. I hope to continue that time into next semester, maybe during a nice break between classes.

This month has been filled with new things for me and it's been very rewarding. As I said in my last post, I started to help lead worship at Athletes in Action. I'm so glad I decided to do it. I'd really been wanting to play guitar in a setting like that, but up until now an opportunity hadn't come up. I hope to start playing on Sunday nights on a pretty regular basis. I'm learning new songs, playing guitar more often, and my fingers toughened back up (win!) It's also helped me get over my fear of singing in front of people. I do have the ability to sing, contrary to my previous thoughts of not being able to carry a tune very well.

I've also been getting to know people that I wasn't able to spend much time with last semester and it's been such a blessing. I love talking and connecting with people and learning about their lives. I just love people.

Now, some of you reading this might be thinking, "why did she title this post retreat? There's nothing about retreating or anything." Be patient, I'm getting to it.

This weekend is the Athletes in Action winter retreat in Xenia Ohio. We'll be with lots of sports teams from other colleges that have an Athletes in Action. I'm very excited because 1) I haven't been on a retreat or anything of that nature in a long time, 2) I'm excited to see how God will work during that time, and 3) This weekend is also the beginning of j-term break! Be looking for a post next week about how it all went.

Now, on to something warm and fuzzy. As in animals. I've decided that when I have my own place, I'm going to get a bengal cat.




I've never been a huge fan of cats, especially since I'm allergic to them. But these cats are special. Besides from looking like small leopards, which is awesome, they are extremely intelligent and playful and like being around people. They also have a very specific fur type, which means that people with cat allergies, like me, can own one without having any reactions! How cool is that? If it's a boy cat, he shall be named Benny. Still trying to come up with a name for a girl cat. Suggestions are welcome!

Washed Away

I'm part of a group called Athletes in Action at my school. Every Sunday night, a bunch of us from all the sports teams get together and have a little church service. We have a time of worship, and then someone from one of the teams shares a message, and then we break off into small groups and have a Bible study that pertains to the message. I'm so blessed to be a part of it and have been meeting some amazing people.

Last night I helped lead worship for the first time and I was a little nervous. I was going to sing a song by myself to close the evening out, and until that point I had never sang in front of people before. When Seth and I were preparing the songs, I said that I wanted to play the song Washed Away by Aaron Gillespie to close our time together. I didn't really know why I wanted to do that song, but when the speaker started giving his message and testimony, I knew exactly why I wanted to. It was nothing short of God's doing. He talked about the story of David and Bathsheba and how sin only needs a foothold in our life to start consuming us. Sin got a foothold on David when he saw Bathsheba. All it took was a look. From there, it started to consume his whole life. And he tried to hide it, going as far as having one of his military officers killed on the front lines of battle.

Hidden sin is a huge burden for someone to bear. He went on to talk about how he had hidden sin in his life in high school that consumed everything he did. It wasn't until one of his friends called him out on it that he realized what he was doing. He gave it all to God, and now it is no longer a part of his life. He then went to the story of Jesus and the adulteress woman. Most of you probably know this one. Jewish law said that since she was caught in adultery, she had to be stoned. Jesus said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." One by one, the people left until it was just Jesus and the woman. Jesus looked at her and said, Woman, where are your accusers? Is there no one to condemn you?" "No one, my lord." the woman answered. "Then neither do I condemn you. said Jesus. Go and leave your life of sin."

He paralleled his life to that of the woman. Jesus took away his accusers and brought him out of his sin. It was an incredible and moving story. He ended with talking about how if we let God enter our lives, He will lift us out of our brokenness and shine His light. He will then consume everything we do.

The song I sang fit exactly. It's a simple song about our need and desire for God's presence in our lives. How we want to overtake us until we are "washed away" in Him. This is the chorus:

Just to see Your face and to feel Your embrace
Wrap us with your love and mercy
Come fill us, we're so thirsty
For your touch, God we need you so much
Let your glory fall like rain,
Till we're washed, washed away in You

It was a beautiful night to be part of. God showed up and impacted people. I give Him all the glory.

You Hold Me Now

The Sunday before I went back to school, my pastor gave a sermon about heaven. I feel like a lot of pastors don't do messages on heaven. It was so refreshing to hear someone talk about it, and it answered a lot of questions I've always had about heaven. He emphasized how we can't imagine what heaven is like because there's nothing like it here on earth. There will be no pain, sadness, suffering, conflict, it will be perfect. After his sermon, the band played a song that perfectly summed everything. The chorus went like this:

No weeping,
No hurt or pain,
No suffering,
You hold me now, You hold me now

There was a family sitting in front of me with a small daughter. By the end of the sermon she had fallen asleep, so when we stood up to sing, her father picked her up and held her. We sang the chorus again and I looked up at this little girl. It hit me. This was a small image of heaven. This little girl, asleep in her father's arms, she was content. She had no pain or sadness. Her father was holding her. It brought a tear to my eye. Such a warm reminder of how wonderful heaven is going to be.

Oh, and if anybody knows the name of that song and who sings it, I'd be eternally grateful.

I Promise I Won't Forget About My Blog This Time

That's my New Year's Resolution. I normally don't make any resolutions, but I intend to keep this one. I'm not making any excuses for my lack of posting. I just simply stopped for some reason. I'm not sure why, because I really do like writing this blog. So, I promise you, reader, that I will not leave you hanging for months on end, waiting anxiously for another post (okay, only like six of you read this anyway, but still, I promise).

It's J-term here at Mount Vernon, which means I only have one class for the whole month of January and I have it every day. I'm taking public speaking. So far it doesn't seem too bad, although this was only the first day of class. We'll see how it goes. But the benefit of only having one class is that I have a lot of extra time, which means that I'll be able to more things! Like blog more often, read my new C.S. Lewis book, learn songs on my guitar I've been wanting to play for months. Awesome stuff like that!

So, I, Kathleen Finley, pinky promise that I will not forget about my blog, and will try to write a new post at least once a week.

Remember to eat your veggies.