Did y'all catch that? Kim AND Jason come home?? Did he get the time off??? Okay, well Kimmy you better let Kristin and I discuss this whole boy coming with us to the rodeo thing..... It does break tradition, and you could potentially get two mopey sisters- well at least one. hehe. We'll discuss and then return with our decision (though, just between the two of us, I think he's got a pretty good chance...just because he's cute.) And what did you say about staying over the night- are we staying in Ellensburg???? Maybe I should restate that- am I staying over in Ellensburg? Woohoo- are we gonna go to the Extreme Bullriding this year?? I guess I better get to putting some money away- like now. huh? I AM SO EXCITED! 8 weeks and a day (well today is near over).

Life in MCs is going so well, there has been a big step up in our class over the past couple weeks. This is the "MCs" I've been expecting and dreading for years- only I am not dreading it so much any more, I am excited about it because we are getting real and things are really changing- inside and out. I really like it, and I am trying to make sure that what I get will really go deep and stay forever. In case you wonder, and I know you all do sometime or another- I know this is what the Lord had for me to do this year, and I am so grateful that despite myself He led me there. And although it still hurts, both old wounds and new wounds, I am grateful that He's making me pure. And I really do want Him to have His way- He wins.

Another note...my current reading. In MCs we are reading Pastor Norm's "Ancient Path" and I am really liking it. We were supposed to be discussing it the past two weeks, but we haven't gotten past the first two chapters, lol. Each day Pastor Kevin has said "Maybe we'll get to it" but we end up having a class discussion through the whole period, and then a half an hour longer...its been so cool to see different people open up each day and the way it has just unfolded and everyone has been so willing to just follow wherever the Spirit leads. I think that has been the biggest suprise to me about this year. I had pictured a very strategic and unbending curriculum, much like high school. But it has been nothing like that- each week the verse is prayed about and determined- Pastor Kevin has even taken suggestions from interns on occasion when they felt the Lord has spoken to them. The books we have done this year have been different then past years, and far fewer than the past years. Even last year's students are suprised by how different this year looked from their's. It makes complete sense, and I think I had made a jugdement against the program and leadership that it wasn't really spirit led. I feel silly about that now. I really do love Aunt DeeAnn and PK, I had a meeting with him today, just sharing with him where I am at and repenting to him about something (don't worry, you all know) and I walked out loving him even so much more and knowing even more deeply that he really cares for us all, and for me. They have an awesome heart, and I know they make mistakes or have, but they have a heart to hear and follow the Lord, and I trust them.

The other half of my reading list right now is the second book in The Mark of The Lion trilogy- Kim, if Marcus doesn't marry Hadassa, and he married that other new girl- Tabatha, I am gonna cry and I am gonna blame it on you, lol. And I don't want Hadassah to marry Alexander either. Hm. And that's that. ;)

I love you all, and I love what God's doing right now, in me, in my class, and in all of us, and in His church as a whole.

Kim and Jason, I am so excited to see you both!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss you crazy!

And in the famous words of an unknown (multitude of) MC..."It hurts, but its good."

Hey so here is a quick glance at my schedule...

July 4th- in a parade
July 5th- leave for Boston and Orlando
July 23rd- return home
July 28-30th Soccer Tournament with Crossfire United (hopefully!?)
July 31st- leave for soccer camp (?)
August 5th- home from soccer camp
August 16- 20th Family Camp
August 21-27th Graduation Week
August 25th- Graduation Dinner (mom & dad attend)
August 26th- Graduation BBQ (whole fam attends- dad be ready to share ;)
August 27th- Graduation Day!!!!!

I am staying with the Bests right now (you met Mr. Best today at the Men's meeting dad). The Wessels are on vacation for the week in Ocean Shores. So something huge the Lord is speaking to me about right now is really making sure that the things ihave 'dealt' with are really and fully dealt with- that I get all the roots out and really let the Lord fully free me, rather than abandoning the process when it all feels better. I just felt like the Lord told me to go right out the things that I have been battling over the years and to get strategic with them. So thats what I am going to do. I think I might have tonight to myself to just pray and spend time with the Lord. Todays has been so wonderful, I slept till almost nine, spent time with the Lord, took my time getting ready, and then talked with mrs. best for a while, read my book, and even took a nap. I just got back from the Saturday evening prayer. Oh, and I got to talk with jason and kim for a few minutes. Guess what else- they found my cell that i lost last year. Yep. I was right- it fell out of my hoodie pocket when I tripped outside the Molds house. The guys came out with water guns when rosie and i were walking home and I tripped when I was running. I didn't realize it was missing till I got home, and I went out to look but couldn't see anything in the dark. I looked several times over the next couple days. It was under one of their bushes and they found it yesterday!!! Arrrr! ;( OKay- well I love you all. I hope life is going wonderful for all of you too and I trust that God is doing a lot in your lives. Dad- I heard the men's meeting was pretty awesome. ??? I am excited for church tomorrow when the men's conference raps up, I hope to see you guys there. Love ya. XOXO

As if I wasn't emotional enough right now. I guess I'm grateful- I have been wanting to cry all day and finally I have a bit of an actual release. (I just read Kim's Father's day blog.) I miss you all so much. I know that God has been and will continue to be so faithful to us. We don't get to spend the time together any more- and you all know the baby still loves the 'family time'- but I know we are all still fighting for each other. So much is happening in my life, its hard feeling like I am growing in a different place, and knowing you all are as well. I of course would like us all to be right beside each other, hearing the same things, going through the same process together- but I know that God has us in this time, and that He has me in this place and time. I love you all- and I know you will fight for me forever, and I hope you all know that I will never stop praying and fighting for our family, even as we are grafted into our own families. Kim and Kris- my desire is for us to fight together, for our families. Mom and Dad- I love you both so much, and I am so grateful for all you have done- for you two, and for us girls, and for the generations to come. I pray our lives truly honor you, and your sacrifices. I agree wholeheartedly with what Kim wrote- and Kim, we all miss you so much! It means so much to me just to be able to call you and still pour out my heart as if we were sitting together on your couch. I know that I can speak what is really in my mind and heart, and we may even both get fueled up, but regardless you'll really hear me and when I see you again- you won't allow there to be a distance or offense between us. I love you, and I will fight for our relationship, no matter how many miles apart we are. I love you all, and miss you lots. I am meeting the Lord in a very real, and fearful way right now- and I'm praying God moves in the way He wants with you guys too. Please keep praying for me, I've never been so desperate for your prayers as now. I am excited, I keep hearing deep in me "He is coming." I don't think I have ever felt the fear of the Lord in teh real way that I do now, and I want to be clean and pure. I keep thinking of the Israelites, and how the Lord came to Moses and told him to have all the Israelites cleanse themselves because He was going to come down to them. I feel like He is about to come touch us in a very real way, and I have to be purified- I want to be. In the words of my favorite song we dance to this year, "Here is our King, Here is our Love, Here is our God whose come to bring us back to Him....Majesty, Finally Here....And what was said to the rose to make it unfold, was said to me here in my chest, so be quiet now, and rest...." These words may seem somewhat random, but they capture a piece of my heart in this time. I love you all!!!
Katrina Hope ('Pure One'- I want it to be so!)

Hey here are some funny pics Kim sent me. ;)

I noticed my last blog caused quite a controversy. hehe. Kim, you mentioned last night that you have written more than me, did you count how many we each have? lol. So here I am writing again on my "glog." Dad- you make me laugh, I read your last comment out loud twice because it was so great. The way you worded parts of it cracked me up. I love you all, but I am gonna go do some chores real quick so I can head home to celebrate with Papa this afternoon. Oh, dad by the way- my minutes may be a bit high this month, I talked with Kim for a while last night on my cell. hehe- to borrow her words "love you- mean it."

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Just got back to the church from the garden party, and we are hanging out waiting for the trucks/ vans to come back and then we'll unload them. The garden party was really good this week- we drove in early this morning through a drizzle and by the begining of the party the sky began to clear, as always. Tonight at 5 we are having another meeting with our guest speaker, Bennie Johnson, so us MC girls will just be hanging out here in between. I really like our speaker, she is pretty awesome. So dad wants me to explain who is in all the pics with me (yes dad- your 'little twirp' comment gave you away. Unfortunately it would be too hard to explain them all. They are all pics of me with my MC friends on tour- except for the ones of me and my sisters in Michigan. Larissa and I are the pic right below this, we took it at a lookout in Cali that we pulled over at- it was such a gorgeous view- and gorgeous day! The pic of Elise and I on the grass is from a sunday picnic we had in Cali with the Northbay church. There is a pic of Aime Morrill and I, on the patio of our house mom's at Northbay (Novato, CA). There is also a black and white one of me drinking Jamba Juice with Kara Z (one of my favorite Externs!)
Kim- I am so kicking your butt at this...you gotta leave comments more often, even if they aren't perfect and they are full of type-O's...lol.
LOVE YOU ALL!!! Miss you tons!
Katrina Hope

So, I am really excited and proud of my sister and brother (in-law). :) Just thought I'd share that! She has a new job, working for a big law firm in Nashville (and the only Starbucks is in her building). Tracy Bird came and introduced himself to her while her and Jason were having dinner at Morton's to celebrate her new job. (Jason has waited on him several times, and hung out with him in his tour bus, and had his cell number- so he recognized Jason). Also- a couple of Deirks Bentley's old time friends and writers were in at Mortons and one of the guys told Jason he would personally deliver his demo CD to Dierks if he could have it to them before they left. With a quick phone call to his ultra-management wife (and some serious scrambling by Kim), she pulled up with a CD of Jason's 5 best, labelled and packaged- right in front of their taxi. They were very impressed, and are going to be hand delivering the demo CD! Thats exciting, because if you haven't had a chance to hear some of Jason's best songs- they are good, like the kind of songs that would be your favorites on the radio- and I know at least 2 for sure would be great for Dierks Bentley! (I am spelling his name wrong- i know.) Anyways- exciting news for my family! (If you are family, you already read this all in Kim & Jason's blog, hehe.)

So two quick notes- one, i added pictures. scroll down and enjoy. two, THE U.S. PLAYS THEIR FIRST MATCH IN THE 2006 WORLD CUP TOMORROW- and I am watching it with my DAD! (Also, I have noticed I have tons and tons of type-o's. sorry)

11 weeks today. I am not counting because I can't wait to graduate- well that may be part of it. (Can you blame me for being excited about completing something?) But mainly, because I have a sense of urgency- I have 11 weeks left to get everything out of this I possibly can and to leave with no regrets. I know there is the possibility of me not graduating, but to be honest it isn't the greatest fear of mine, and eprhaps I feel to safe in that, but I am more afraid of graduating without really completing all the Lord had for me. If I am gonna do something, I am gonna really do it.

So, by the way. Dad and mom specifically- you need to learn how to leave a comment I think, lol. You ckicl on 'comment' on the bottom of a post and it lets you see the other comments and also leave one as anonymous (since you don't have accounts on blogger). :O Yep- lights going on. I know I am a smart.... You love me though ;)

(I call this picture 'wet dog' since that is what I resemble. ;) This is me and my friend Kimberly Golnick at the beach right before heading out from Cali.)

Hey.....I"m hoooo-ooome! We arrived at the church at about 9pm tonight and then unpacked, sweeped through the vans, said hello to all the people there, had a group meeting and eventually went home. I talked to my house fam for a while with Kristin Hunter (my roommate) and now I am off to bed. It felt strange driving home today- it feels much longer than 10 days. In fact, I believe this time may have been harder than the last leg of tour. Perhaps it is because though we were home for a week or so- we weren't really home because we are so busy. But either way, it feels like I have been gone for a long time!

I really want an afternoon sitting on the back pattio at home, drinking ice tea, and reading- and at times, just sitting doing nothing. Tomorrow we have the day off to rest, do laundry, and unpack. Then Friday we are back to meet and talk about tour. Love you all and hope I get to see you soon! Under 12 weeks left- crazy huh? Love bunches, katydid. (thats for Jason) :) GOODNIGHT*

Frusteration!!

So two nights ago I uploaded all these pictures from Riss' computer to my blog- it took forever. Then, out of a deadly combination of stupidity and exhaustion I deleted them in a few quick moments. Then, I uploaded them ago and just before posting my blog.....it kicked me off the internet and I have not been able to get back on the internet from Riss's computer since- which is where the pics are on. ARRRR! (Yes, upon my traveling I have become a pirate.) Do you se what is happening to me? Do you? I have lost my sense of humor- and- I have become wierd. Not in the way I have always been wierd, but in another way. :( lol. OKay-I'll shut up, or at least change topics.

So we ended up doing the chapel at the church's academy here at Novato (North Bay Academy). Yeah, and as we got there and P. K. (Pastor Kevin) and P. Diddy (sean) walked in P.K said "Kati. Ready to give your testimony?" I said "yeah"- kinda lying, kinda just following through with the whole 'ready in season and out.' He said, "Good, you're giving it this morning."I said "Okay" with a face of fear and ran into the bathroom where I gave out a loud "Ahhhhh" literally. I had 20 minutes, and not really that cus we had to do a "Whats What Meeting" and run through of our dances...I had about 10 minutes. Yep. So I ran through it with one of the girls in the bathroom and then went into the chapel and prayed for the Lord to speak through me. In the first dance I was in, the Lord really dropped something in my heart to focus on and I got up there a few minutes later and went for it. It was better than I have ever done where I've had to just get up and talk. I think the Lord really said what He wanted to through me. It was awesome! I was terrified, but it was awesome! And after I got a lot of encouragement from my group, which really helped me not beat myself up over anything. I enjoyed it, but I don't know how I could do it again- I guess if the need arrives again the Lord will have to just do it again.

Tomorrow we are going to the beach with all the kids from the school (its their last day of school) and then heading out later in the afternoon. We'll stay over at a hotel and then be home wednesday- we are expecting it to be around 7..which probably means closer to 9. AND- we get thursday off to rest!! Yeah- SLEEP! Whats funy is I really have been getting sleep, like at least 6 hours if not more each night, but I still feel really tired. I think its just because we are going, going, going and you are giving out in every way possible- physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. I took a nap today and I am going to proabably head to soon here shortly- I need to work on my memory verse and finish up my forms either tonight or early tomorrow morning because tuesday means intern meetings. :)

I am really missing my family right now and I thought I would let you all know that! I called Kim for a second to get some contact information about her invitation bussiness and hearing her voice made me really, really miss her. And then I got home and I was telling Aime I really miss my fam- especially Kim and Jason, and just a minute later saw I had an e-mail from her. I love you all so much and miss you guys, I will be excited to have time with you all again soon. I want to revive the Sunday family lunches we were doing for a while. I know you are all gonna fight that, but I'd like to- just a couple hours, or something- maybe once a month a set time. I hope all is going well in your lives.

Much, much love, Katrina Hope

Hey all. I'm at my last official tour stop. :) I am staying at Lynn's with Riss, Aime, and Crystal. She is a sweet lady and her condo has a hot tub and pool!!!!! YEE-A! We just arrived about an hour ago and we are sitting out on her patio about to have dinner. Upon arriving she set two rules for us...1) make yourselves at home and 2) Do NOTHING! "Otherwise, tell PK that you disobeyed me." There are two other girls staying at a condo nearby and they are over as well with their house mom. Its so warm, I'm in a tank and capris. OH, and not to be forgotten- my shoulders are red. Kati's first taste of sun, and it bit her! We had a work party and sincde i would only be there for a couple hours I figured I didn't need to put any sun block on anything but my face- I was wrong. And OH how it burns me, lol. Its not really that bad. Hopefully with enough aloe i will have a golden tan, from my shoulders down. ;) I miss you all alot. ALOT. HAHA..and by the way, my hair is gone. yep. I debated whether or not ojust suprise you all or let you know- however this seems the most fair way to tell you all, each of you has an equal shot of being the first to know, and technically i shared it with all of you at the exact same time, NOW. Its an inverted bob, Kristin Hale cut it. I felt like the Lord told me to cut it, so I did. And as she was cutting it she felt so too, and whats funny is she said a coupke things that were exactly like what the Lord has been saying to me and it completely confirmed it- and i hadn't told her anything about it.
The Lord had told me a few nights before to 'grow up' and that growing up meant not demand my rights and what I felt was mine. And as I already said, I prayed to see if I should trim my hair and add bangs or just leave it, and I heard him say- chop it. So I said, "Kristin, I think He wants me to chop it to here (showing her about shoulder)." And she said, okay. Then as she was cutting it she said, "This is a very mature cut. It looks like a mature cut on you." I laughed and then told her what the Lord has been telling me. Then like four different people told me upon first seing it, "you look older"- or some version of that. Its cute. Don't worry. Hey, I love you all and I'm looking forward to seeing you soon. If somehow I can get a picture, I'll add it. I LOVE YOU. Infact, "I need you, I want you, oh baby, oh baby."

Dontcha miss me???

Love you all! -Kati Lady. XOXOXOXOXOXOXO