Fall is Here

I don't know where October went but suddenly I am five days into November and not feeling too well. I woke up on Monday with a headache and was sore and achy all over. Today was even worse but I ended up going home before going to fill in at an after school site and got in a half hour nap. I can't tell you how amazing that nap was. I felt like death warmed over - my head swimming, cold all over, my nose running, the headache still there from the previous morning - but after that nap I was more alert and my headache was gone. I am still not at 100% and I am still feeling sore, but I no longer just want to curl up into bed and sleep forever. And while I am still sore, it is not as achy as before. Also I may just be sore from hiking on Sunday.

My last week has been filled with a variety of activities. I haven't had a day to sit around and do nothing in far too long (probably why I ended up sick). The last week of October was spent doing something every evening. Last Sunday our house went kayaking on the Potomac. It was a bit cool and some of us ended up a bit wet but we had a lot of fun. On Tuesdays I go to small group. It is a group of about 12 of us from church who meet together to discuss Sunday's message.The next evening I spent catching up with some friends over a few drinks until way too late. It really wouldn't have been so late if we hadn't gotten to know our server so well. He basically told us his life story, which was very interesting, but lead to a late night. I went to two halloween parties (not to mention the one I went to the previous weekend) one on Halloween and the other on Friday. Saturday I helped out at two different events as a volunteer.

My Saturday began at 6:30 when I arrived at RFK stadium's parking lot (where DC United plays - soccer team) and was then put in charge of signing in all the other volunteers who showed up. It was fun and I was kept very busy right up until I needed to leave at 10 to go to the Convention Center for my next volunteering gig. You would have thought I had gotten in all my volunteering last year. The event at RFK was Run or Dye (a family friendly color run) and Kid Power was named as the benefactor on the condition that we got at least 35 volunteers to help out. Since we found out about this opportunity roughly two weeks before the actual event I was told to be there to help our numbers since we weren't sure we would be able to get that many people to commit to helping. Turns out we had around 70 volunteers so I wasn't as critically needed as originally thought. But Kid Power got $50 for each volunteer we recruited and since we had more than 35 we got a $1,500 bonus.

The event at the convention center was Foster the City. DC127 and other area organization partnered together to put on the event. My church is responsible for starting DC127 and pays the staff of the organization so I have heard a lot about this event and wanted to help out. First off, the name DC127 is based off James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father considers pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the wold. Foster the City was all about how people and churches across the city can work together to reverse the wait list for foster children. Right now there are 1,300 kids waiting to get into a foster home and 300 kids waiting to be adopted. The goal is to have there be families waiting for foster children instead of children waiting for families. It was a lot of fun helping out and really encouraging to see people from churches all across the city focused on this one issue.

After I finished helping at Foster the City I went to Corey's and my house came over and we made pizzas and watched Star Wars. It was a nice way of ending the day but I was nearly asleep by the end of the second movie. The next morning I woke up early once again. This time I was headed out to the Shenandoah Valley for a hike with Corey and his friend Phil. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun, but we were also completely exhausted from the experience. It was a total of 9 miles and part of it was on the Appalachian Trail. Since I recently read a book about the AT I was excited to be on it even if it was only for a little less than a mile.

And this basically explains why I woke up feeling sore all over and sick. Now for some pictures:

The Dread Pirate Robert, a construction worker, and a detective (aka: Phil, Me, and Corey) 

at the Halloween party the weekend before Halloween

Anne and Mariah (Days 5 and 6) getting ready for the Halloween Party at the SoJo house

The 7 Days of creation: 1 (me) Separation of Light and Darkness, 2 (Grace) Separation of the Sky and the waters, 3 (Cara) Dry land and plants, 4 (Miriam) Sun Moon and Stars and seasons, 5 (Mariah) Birds of the air and Fish of the sea, 6 (Anne) Animals and humans, 7 (Keith) Rest

 Anne and I were the slowest of the kayaks

Yet, somehow we ended up waiting with Cara and Mariah for the others. Apparently they were trying out a "short cut" that turned out to be a dead end so after attempting to portage they finally went back and headed to the dock.

Last Friday I spent the day at Jefferson Academy where Kid Power students were working with a band to film a music video "No More" The song is in response to the New Town shootings last year and it is focused on ending school violence. 

 Hiking!

We made it to the top!