Women's Retreat

So this weekend we went on the Women's Retreat with the University Church of Christ in Murrieta, California. On Friday I went to Laura's apartment and Laura, Natalie, Ashley and I left from there. We went to Chipotle first to grab dinner and man can those girls eat. We drove for two hours and when we got near the conference center we got turned around. We were so tired that we were deliriously laughing. When we stopped at the gate to the hotel the two guys at the gate couldn't understand us because we were laughing so hard, it was really funny.
We were staying at a conference center, hot springs, and a bible college all in one. It was really interesting because there were tons of women there on retreats from other churches and students were on the campus also. When we walked to our hotel room we passed the hot springs and they smelled awful. It was like sulphur so rotten egg smell, but the place we were at was really pretty and you get used to smell is what I heard, but every time I passed the springs I held my nose! haha!!!
There were about 50 women there of all ages. The oldest was probably in her 70s, maybe 80s and some women brought there babies, there were 3; they were so cute 6 month olds. The retreat was set up around stories. We had three sessions and 3 women shared their stories at each one and we sang before and in between each one. After the session we split up into small groups. My small group was okay but it was such a cry fest totally out of my comfort zone! ha! there was little too much estrogen there for me. And the singing seemed a little archaic to me, well I mean we sang out of the hold hymnals about 80 percent of the time. Totally not my style. I was kind of bored with it and when the women were saying that one thing that they liked most about the weekend was the singing I wanted to be like "COME ON, SERIOUSLY!" There was a group meeting in the room next to our meeting room and their band were practicing while we were singing sometimes. I was really jealous of their group and Laura and I joked about sneaking into their group and joining them because their worship was like home. I made me miss RH.
Then during free time Laura and I passed out, we were soooo tired! It was AWESOME!!! When we woke up we tried to find Natalie to go to Chick-fil-A but she had already gone with people to Sonic, so we went to Sonic by our selves and it was great because I missed it so much! It was nice to have a strawberry limeade!!! Then we went to dinner even after we went to sonic because we had paid for the dinner meal, but I could barely put anymore food in my mouth. I was so full! It was disgusting. We had a good last session and small group, then we split up into groups and put on funny skits of bible stories, it was kind of awkward and weird, but fun too! Then we went to bonfire and made smores by the lake! After talking with Becca a little bit I joined the girls in the hot springs.
The next day I slept thru breakfast and we packed and tried to leave, but Laura's car wouldn't start and her battery wouldn't jump. So we called Triple A but soon her dad called and asked if she would try something and it worked so we got to leave. We went to Sonic one last time for lunch, so good! Anyway that's the end of the weekend!!! It was pretty nice to be able to hang with my friends even if the retreat was kind of weird!!! :)

Jonathan Storment

Memories and things I love about Jonathan....

12. Jonathan is so ridiculous. When he was interning at RHCC he was staying at Jenni New's house and when Britton and Brock ran out of shampoo in their bathroom they didn't tell their mom and Jonathan being the nice house guest he didn't bug Jenni about not having any shampoo to wash his hair. So one day when Jenni was cleaning the boy's bathroom she realized that they didn't have any shampoo in their shower and Jenni asked Jonathan what he had been using while he showered and he promptly said that he had been using conditioner to wash his hair and Jenni just laughed!

11. I loved it when Jonathan first moved to RHCC he called every adult Mr. or Mrs so and so. For years after his internship he still said Mr. and Mrs. so and so even after people told him to stop.

10. When Jonathan got married his wedding was awesome! I don't think I will ever go to another wedding where the groomsmen and the groom walk into the ceremony to 'We are the Monkees' by the Monkees while holding bananas again!

9. While Jonathan was interning Jessica and I would sneak into his office and write him notes on post-it-notes and stick them all over his office. And one day we found a picture of Leslie the girl he was dating at the time and drew a picture of her and stuck it on his desk saying that we wanted them to get married. Also there was this other picture of Jonathan of him working at Taco Bell with bleached tipped hair and a visor and everything, it was greatness.

8. Every Sunday after church we would go to Bueno to eat and of course there were a ton of people there every week, Jonathan being one of them. Jonathan, Matt and I would sit there for hours quoting lines from Dumb and Dumber. Without fail every Sunday we would end up quoting the movie again and it never got old. I love that movie and it's great when you are friends with people who share your appreciation for stupidity!!!

7. One week when my parents were out of town Jonathan came to stay with us, and one night he took us to McDonald's to get ice cream. It was such a fun time to de-stress from school and life and have fun!

6. Also on this same trip to McDonald's we found a stuffed horse in Jonathan's car that he had made for Leslie at build-a-bear, it had a voice box in it that had a recording in it of Jonathan making a horse noise and telling Leslie how much he loved her! I love seeing the ways in which they love each other even if it is cheesy! We definitely made of fun him for this one!

5. Last spring Jonathan went to Burbank to speak at something and I drove out on Saturday to hear him and hang out! We had a great time going to In-N-Out, getting lost, going to a garage sale and.... getting a FLAT TIRE!!!! My tire popped on a sharp curb on one of the many times we had to turn around! We changed that tire in record time laughing while we did it. Poor Jonathan I felt so bad he was late for his sermon and covered in black stuff from my tire!

4. The summer I interned at RHCC for Michael Peters we would take breaks and go invade Jonathan's office and play the music game, where you try to guess the song before someone starts singing, on J's computer and we would also make fun of Bad Brad. haha! I don't think I could marry him sorry Jonathan and Michael.

3. I appreciated that after I got back from Africa last summer he was the first person I called from LAX. That summer was really difficult for me and he was so willing to talk me through it and fill me in on anything I missed from the huge circumstances that took place. He took me to the prison and reassured me that everything was going to be okay. Jonathan is so helpful and patient. He is a great friend because he just loves you where you are at and understands and listens.

2. Jonathan helped me understand Acts because I took a class only on this book. It was good timing because Jonathan was doing a series on Acts and was very eager to tell me all about what he was learning. I like how excited Jonathan gets about studying the Bible, like every time he finds something new and inspiring. It makes me want to dive deeper into God's word.

1. Jonathan has the best props during sermons and he is an amazing preacher! He is a good messenger of the gospel and I can't wait to see how God uses him at Highland!!!

I love Jonathan and I am so sad that he is moving on. I am seriously going to miss you, Leslie, Eden, and Samuel. You guys have a special place in my heart and it will be empty once you leave Fort Worth. But I am also happy that Jonathan gets to pursue his dreams of being a full time pulpit minister because I know that God has blessed him with an amazing gift of sharing Christ's story! You are going to do awesome work!!! LOVE you Jonathan!!!!

Philippians 1:3 "I thank my God every time I think of you!"

p.s. I am so glad that you guys are getting the house that my dad and I found! It is precious!