Where I've Been...

Here, in the Golden Trout Wilderness, backpacking with two awesome girls.

Here, in the Alabama Hills, preparing to summit Mt. Whitney - that middle, jagged peak, right above me & my pop's head. 22 miles, 6100ft elevation gain, on about an hour's sleep. And I want to do it again.

Here, at CAMP! With my BIG KIDS! And apparently an army of

CLOWN-MAKEUP ARTISTS!

Here, at gorgeous Hume Lake.

Here, in front of the mirror, preparing to rock eighties/disco for bowling with

my girls.

Here, on Oahu for Thanksgiving with Brad and Cortney - they just make me smile whenever I think of them.

Here, in Kaua'i, standing on the edge of the Napali coast about a mile in. Everywhere else on my "most beautiful place on earth" shifted down one. Jagged mountains into turquoise ocean. Mmm Mmm.

Here, hiking in the hills with my new favorite kids, Mark and Megan, and Pam!, whose name is always noted with an exclamation point in my head because she is that full of energy.

And most recently, here. In Kenya. I was there with my bigkids for ten days. More on that, and the rest of this, later.

The Lord has been good to me.

THERE IS NO... ARIZONA...

Oh wait actually there is. That's a country song if you missed the reference. On that note if anyone in my life feels like they're missing the reference it is pretty much always a country song that you don't know. Just assume, go ahead. Oh and this will be long so, um, thanks for reading?

Ok, so I went to Arizona for a week with my BigKids the week before Easter. It was fantastic, for me, and it was pretty darn good as a youth group missions trip as well. It was awesome to be able to focus on ONE thing, instead of three or four as I usually do, for a week. I mean, we did a lot, and I was going going going and making sure the girls were doing okay, but they were all I had to focus on and it was a nice break. And it combined the two things I love most - missions and the Church.

I'm not sure how to describe this trip. We were a large group of people for the amount of Apaches around the ministry we worked with, and even larger once word got out that all the white people were there and all the Apaches disappeared. Sad day. We did get to build relationships with quite a few of them, though. What poverty they live in on the reservation - 65% unemployment, 70% living below the poverty level, alcohol, drugs, crap family lives, no transportation off the reservation, you name it- it's bad. I truly enjoyed getting to know the few Apaches that I did in that short amount of time. We were able to work with a family of new believers in restoring their walls (filling holes, painting over nasty graffitti inside) and in prayer marathons, all so they could get their kids back and be growing in the faith. This couple literally showed up at the door of the missionaries' place and said, "we want to come to Jesus. we've tried and tried to change on our own (from cocaine, alcohol, etc.) and we can't do it. We need Jesus. Will you pray with us?" Wow. It was pretty rad to participate in the work the Lord is working in their lives. And updates continue to let us know how well they're doing. Praise Jesus for changing lives!

Because there were a lot of us, and 25 high school students on about three acres + free time = trouble, we did a lot of construction/cleanup/painting/literal trailblazing. We worked HARD. Exhaused at the end of the day. I was super-proud of the students. For me, it felt so good to work that hard, and see results. I love love loved being able to serve the missionaries there so that we could enable them to be doing the work they were there to do.

I braided many, many heads of hair into french braids. I had good one-to-one conversations with several of the young women who were struggling with something, and good times of prayer with them as well. I was excited to see how the students were able to get over themselves enough to let God work through them in all the different things we were doing. Church was an experience. An elderly Apache woman who was short with a flat, wrinkled face and long, thick black-grey hair led worship, song-to-song without a break for about half an hour. It sounded like a cross between the early "worship music" and something you'd hear an Apache singing at a powow. It was awesome. Sometime in the middle of some service, I almost laughed out loud. I love following Christ. How else would I end up in the middle the desert at a pennecostal service led by Apaches?

We climbed the hill behind the church and watched the sunrise over the mesa-moutains every morning, because the first morning, it was red. The whole sky. And then orange, and then pink. And we went back to bed (had gotten up to use the bathroom which was outside). Idiots. So every day after that we got up to wait for it to be the same color again. And it never was, but it was beautiful every morning. And it was refreshing to get up that early, praise God, think of the possiblity of the day to come, and sit on a log in the middle of an Apache reservation in Arizona and watch the sun rise.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

One of the greatest things I love about traveling, or being on vacation, is being able to relax and do the things I never get time to do anymore, like read and watch movies and shows.

I read, this weekend, The Life of Pi, and The Beautiful and Damned, and The Second Assistant. The first was entertaining with a reflective end, the third was frivolous and fun, and the second was DEPRESSING for pretty much the last half. I know, I know, what else do I expect from reading a long Fitzgerald novel? It was a really good book, but the last half just made me cringe because they kept going, and going, and didn't know how to stop. It was awful.

On the plane back (from first-class, cheers to love causing a man with a first-class ticket wanting to sit in steerage with his girlfriend and thus switch me seats) I watched Last Chance Harvey. It made me smile. A lot. It made me want to cry, but I didn't of course. And you know how you have those conversations, usually while waiting in line for something or on a long car ride, about who would play you in the movie of your life? Mine would definitely be Emma Thompson. Hands down. Not just from this movie - I've been a fan since she did Sense and Sensibility. In movies she plays the understated character, supporting in the beginning but often in the end the strongest character. In real life she is quite normal and funny, if you believe imbd at all, and is the only person ever to have won an oscar both for acting and for writing. Emma Thompson is my new fav, yo.

Oh and Ash and I watched the newlyweds on tv which is incredibly funny, the asian couple is my favorite. Definitely my main show this summer.

REST

Montgomery Gentry...Yeah, what I really need -Is an open road -And a whole lot of speed

It was good for my soul.

ODE

seventy degrees
slight breeze
hike beyond the trees
puts me at ease.

I crack myself up. Seriously though, a morning hike up a giant cliff followed by stretching and photographing fence posts? Totally my peaceful cup o' tea, especially conisdering the silence and solitute that is found with such activities. Saturday was lovely.

Desert Rats

I love the desert. It's strange, I know. But there's just all that... emptiness. It's a lonely place, beautiful in all it's strangeness, and largely unchanged in the last thousand years. It has cool rock formations. And long straight highways where you can go really, really fast.

The desert attracts odd creatures. Odd human creatures. Societal outcasts, ranchers, serial killers, you name it. And the desert lets them be themselves, and live however they want. There's such an autonomy out there. It's like an unspoken code that if they can stand to live in that remote corner of the world, they can pretty much do whatever they want. No one cares in that dry, empty landscape.

In one of the several odd jobs I had before landing in my current position, I spent all day monitering a waste-bin site (read: dumpster lot) in the middle of the Mojave. Very hot. Very few people. But the ones that did stop by, man, were they worth the wait.

A man and his woman, he in rolled-up overalls sans shirt and she in a bikini, rolled up the lot. About four trash cans, ready to be unloaded, were stuffed in the windowless backseat of their little hatchback. Small talk ensued:

"So you like living out here?"

"Yeah, usually we like to take off all our clothes and chase each other naked through the desert."

L.A.

Tourists always talk about going to LA. How cool it sounds. But anyone even remotely local knows that you don't go to LA. You go to Pasadena, or Laguna Beach, or Malibu, or Santa Monica, or any number of other places. Usually I'm of the opinion that the only thing touristy places are good for are people watching, but this last weekend...

We went to LA.

We went to Hollywood.

We went to Venice Beach.

And let me tell you, it was pretty amazing.

A giant fancy hotel with a cityscape view? Ice cream from room service at one am? Ethiopian food in the middle of little Ethiopia? Amoeba Records? Crazy (crazy expensive more like it) thrift store? Church the way it should be? Check check check check check check. Don't get me wrong, the people watching at Venice was amazing, as was the people watching in Hollywood. There was just more to it than that. Atmosphere. Vibe. Henna tatoos? Oh yes. Check it out. My leg, Holly's hand. The best part was the guy at the henna place with skeezy tatooed across his neck.

The weather was gorgeous too. I think I've found a few new favorite places, made all the better by some of my favorite people. And a word about Church? This church is active, the people are real, they care about social issues, and have great worship. Check it out. Thanks Naph, for the invite.

The weekend in Redding was, well, amazing.

In spite of all the blindness I experienced the last two days. It made Heidi laugh, so I guess there was some worth to it. My eye swelled up in some sort of allergic reaction and there was much pain. And I couldn't see. Sarah had to lead me around townh I wore my sunglasses inside. I had to stay an extra day. And what's really weird is I'm not usually a drama queen, but somehow I have the urge to tell everyone I see in dramatic detail about this significant event. Maybe I would be a drama queen if more things like that actually happened to me. The saddest part was that it was gorgeous weather the last two days. Perfect park or lay out by the lake days. And I couldn't even see them. sigh.


Other than that, it was a great weekend. Sarah and I talked A LOT about real things, which was amazing. And made fun of the 3 incredibly strange conversations I had with service people at the grocery store, dinner, and the pizza guy. I realized when I shop I talk to the clothes and shoes. "you're so pretty." "too bad you're too tall for me." "shirt, you remind me of a vampire and I love you." ACK! Though I wear much black, I do not have vampy style.


It was good to be in real community. And to worship at the Stirring, an amazing community of believers.


PS - it has to be noted that despite our goal to take lots of cute pictures, these are the only ones I ended up with on the camera (well, this is about half of them). Maybe I'm a little narcissistic? But really, I was alone and trying to kill ten minutes before church. Duh, what would you do? Oh, right. Get the heart ready to worship.

Next time, Sarah, next time.

Summer Fun

This video gives a small glimpse of what my extended family's annual beach trips are like. My two cousins, sister and I were out for a walk in cute Cambria where they do things like name their houses. These houses line the shore. This house is named the Wave House. So, naturally, we waved. And I think this video also aptly demonstrates why Kati should be president of the Kreeper Klan and not my Aunt Terri. Turn up the volume. It's the fact that we're laughing so hard at this that makes me love my family so much.

The long weekend.

You know you live in Bakersfield when...

1. You see one of those motorized disabled-person carts (like at Target) driving down a main street with a giant rainbow umbrella attached.

2. You see, on the same day, on the same street, a personalized golf cart painted in brightest bright colors with several people onboard.

3. You pull, when walking into the restroom at the local pizza place (the nice local pizza place) a shower curtain to close the stall instead of a stall door. Ingenious. They should have tried those at my high school, where at least half of the doors were missing in the girls' bathroom.

4. They close an entire highway on big weekends because all the latin-folk love to party at the park All.Day.Long. and listen to mariachi music All.Day.Long. and drink beerbeerbeer All.Day.Long. Which is really annoying if a non-park-going person such as myself has relatives with super-cool house right by the park and can't get to it because there is a police barricade between said person and said cool house.

All this to say that I, in all the wisdom God has granted me, am headed to Redding for the long weekend. To "get away." Which, if you know Redding, is ironic to the extreme.

Newness

I've obviously redone my template. Some great things need pointing out. Title and Header are references to Voyage of the Dawn Treader, my favorite book in Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. Hint: Christ is the water. You pretty much just have to read the whole book (or the whole series) for it to have it's full effect. This photo was taken on the Lost Coast last November while I was on a gorgeous backpacking trip. The shot was taken from our campsite. You can see all the other ones on facebook. While I do love my new template, sadly the other options from Pyzam were passed up. Here are the names of the runners-up:

1. Eat poo
2. I love weed
3. Get on my level

Venice

Venice Beach, California is one of my new favoritest places. Though there are many on the list, this one just jumped towards the top like Jessica Simpson up the country charts (but with better taste). Venice Beach, in my mind, contained rollerblading men with tank-tops and as commercialized a version of California beach as you could get. Think Bakersfield by the beach but with tourists. Yowza. On my recent out-of-curiosity-visit (a regular occurance), however, I determined that while still touristy, Venice Beach is definitely a list-topper. It is hippie, and trashy, and crowded with all types of people - Kanye wannabees, hip urbanites, flower people and homeless all intermingle. And most of the tourists that I encountered, anyway, were from outside the US, which makes things much more interesting. If you like hippie, cultured, semi-trashy places, Holly, this place is for you.