So, tomorrow, October begins... craziness! :) It has been an eventful time since my last post.

I must first mention the first senior surprise of the year! We were sitting in English class and Mrs. Frisk said we should practice a fire drill. I just assumed it was because of the exchange students, so we all cheerfully walked outside. "We're gonna die! Where's Nick?! Oh no, the fire got him! Quick, turn away from the windows, they're gonna blow!" You know, all those mature, senior-ish comments. We all saw the mini-buses parked against the sidewalk, but just assumed that volleyball had a game or something. Then, Mrs. Frisk suddently turned toward the open mini bus door and said, "Seniors, get in. We're going to Starbucks!" We were all handed $5 and excitedly hopped on the bus. Some had their suspicions due to the mysterious comments of parents and such, but most of us were completely surprised. It was hilarious to see the faces of the baristas at Starbucks and the other customers. 23 noisy 17 and 18-year olds with money and giggles can be quite overwhelming. I had a yummy tall vanilla bean frappuchino with toffee nut flavor and a pumpkin scone. Thanks to Mrs. Frisk and Mrs. Wennersten for driving and thanks to our parents who are making our senior year so special!

A lot of this past week was spent at W-Bar-B Ranch at Warm Beach with the awesome junior highers! I had a yearbook camera 24/7 and took plenty of pictures. It was so much fun to get to be with Mr. Pearce and Miss Esp again. And the games the JH played were hilarious to watch. Go Cabin 9! I attempted to decorate with fun streamers, but the next morning, they had sagged and fallen. How sad! And our cabin was attacked on the last day by a huge spider. The girls were screaming bloody murder and I ran to find who died. Luckily another girl was willing to step in and take care of the problem. After all, I detest spiders, too!

But, the fact was, I came to the retreat, unfortunately unprepared. I couldn't believe how soon it had come up and wasn't really in "retreat mode". I still had a wonderful time getting to know my cabin girls and the other students. It was a very convicting time for us all. I even had a great time talking with Esther as well about something I was struggling with. The retreat theme was "One Another" and we were given many challenges in the sermons to put others first, love, stop gossiping and being selfish, etc... it was a blessing to see the positive responses of some, but was heartbreaking to see the hard hearts of others. Junior high seems like a difficult time to stay focused on doing what's right and not being sucked in by the world. I will be faithful to pray for my girls and the other 7th and 8th graders. I will proudly wear my spirit bracelet (awesome colored smiley face bracelet) and think fondly on my last JH retreat.

I'm excited to get back into playing soccer again. I think my injury is pretty much healed. I play on Tuesday against Arlington Christian. I hope I can do well. It was great to relax on Friday at Quake field and watch us win 2-0 over Master's Touch. Our guys finally got back into their scoring talent!

This next few weeks I have a wonderful opportunity to interview some pretty famous aviation people. The Future of Flight (where I volunteer) asked me if I could help them out. I guess there is a pretty fancy fundraising event happening on the 14th, and they wanted to utilize the opportunity to have a record of these amazing people's lives. Some are famous pilots, test pilots, authors, or have worked for NASA or Boeing. I am very excited, but will have to make many trips to Everett in the next 14 days. It will be unforgettable, though, I am sure. It was the perfect encouragement for me after getting 1 point lower then I was hoping for on the ACT. Even with that, though, I still have hope it will be enough for the top scholarship at Embry. We'll see what God has in store.

Please pray for my piloting skills. I had a really difficult time today. I guess I was tired or something, because I just wasn't doing as well as usual. So many numbers and maneuvers to memorize. I just have to learn to work hard and not give up even if I'm not automatically the best. Being a perfectionist is difficult sometimes. :)