the ROCK project

So my dad came up with an idea.
He is on the rock board. if you're not from around here, The Rock is a place where kids can just go to hang out, play games, be together. I think every kid in town has been there at least once. The owners are incredible christian people. And the whole thing is non-profit.

but anyways last september, my parents were at the rock banquet. Its an anual thing, and they were sitting with a couple from my church, rick and patty. But my dad just said, its sad that they have to kick the kids out at 5pm, i want to start a program were kids and their families can stay until like 9, and i want them to have a hot meal to eat for free. or something like that. and patty went all off and agreed and they talked to the owners, which totally agreed.

its on the last friday of every month. last week they anounced their plan to church, pretty much everybody is involved. I was sitting with all the teenagers and we decided that we would do something. My dad wanted the youth group to be really involved, robin the owner told dad and patty and my mom, that the closer to the kids ages that you are the more they relate to you and the more you can help them.

Later at home, i told dad that the girls wanted to be involved. he said, "see you don't need to go away to do masters commision you can do it right here! haha"

we decided that we would do a human video, and so on wednesday i had a sleepover and all the girls came over and we planned one. It is going to be so cool. We worked really hard to relate it to the rock kids and i'm so excited. i planned to say what song we were going to do it to, but i decided not to because it should be a surprise, the girls even refuse to tell kyle what we're doing cause we want to do something with out his advice.

It will be so cool. i hope everything turns out fantastic and we can maybe change a life. :)

an excellent father

David tenford Sanderson.
I have something i know a lot of other people don't have. I'm not bragging i'm just appreciating it. It is a father, a dad who is there.

a good parent. The definition is different to most kids. To me its them teaching me to be the best i can. Learning, is the most i can do from them, i mean they taught me how to walk, talk, eat, sing, smile, give thanks, set goals, drive, and love. i just listen and as much as i want to ignore their advice, and their discouragement, i take it.

But my dad. I learn so much from him and what he does. i'm not as stubborn as him or a perfectionist, either, i'm not like him, but still i learn from our similarities and differences. I think i'm as laid back as i am because he is a perfectionist.

I wish i could share my dad, with everyone who doesn't have one, i wish that they could expierience, what its like. to have a dad that loves you and teaches you and trusts you with most everything. I wish that everybody had memories like me, like catching fish in the rain, sitting in the boat for hours and laughing still. Or once i designed a loft bed and i saved money to buy lumber and we spent hours building it, painting it, assembling it. I eventually had to take it out of my room and he ended up cutting it up so he could build a stand for his topper. I was sad. But thats ok i don't think i would have been able to use it again anyway.

or i always love to think of my dad, and we're on a camping trip riding in our big white ford, with the 5th wheel and boat behind or in the winter a snowmobile trailer, the whole family smiling and laughing because my dad is singing at the top of his lungs to a country song on the radio, practically dacing while driving.

he is so special to me, well my whole family is special to me. but i've always really appreciated having a fantastic dad.

I hope everyone has a chance to feel what i feel everyday, when they look at their own dads.

a missions trip to mexico

so this week a friend told me that if you sleep with socks on you dream more. now that type of thing i usually wouldn't believe, but this week i wore socks to bed every night except one and that night i didn't dream at all. isn't that wierd?

i have really strange dreams though of the ones i remember from this week there is only one that wasn't scary and didn't involve anything dangerous.

In my dream i get up on a summer morning and i am like bursting with excitement. I look around and the girls from my missions trip team from last summer are sleeping over at my house. I live really close to my church so the boys were staying there, because the rest of the team lives like 4.5 hours north, they stayed over at my house for the last night in minnesota, before going on our missions trip to MEXICO!

So i get up and open my window to my room, and the boys and amos and andrew the youth pastors are walking down the street to my house, because my parents and the AL kids parents are making breakfast for us. It smells so good. I threw on a tank top and shorts throw my hair in a pony( because i had grown my hair out) and leave the room, leaving the other sophmore girls sleeping. All the parents are buzzing around, cooking eggs and toast and cutting fruit. The doors to my deck are open and My dad is talking to the guys outside on the driveway. The sun is shining and its so warm. I smile and say hi to everybody.

Its so nice to be with everybody again. Nikki, taylor doyle, amanda, ashlyn, courtney and ahna and traci who even came back for the trip, and daniel are all sitting on the deck eating, cause they stayed at their own houses last night. i decide i should probably wake up the rest of the girls so i do, tera, aryn, megan, brianna, mary, renee, melody and laura, sonja and jodi, all lay there a while longer. I go outside to eat. when kyle and donna arrive, I am overwhelmed with joy to be with everybody again, it feels so right.

then you fast forrward in the way that dreams do. And i'm in one of the 15 passanger vans. my head resting on jordans, shoulder, ashlyn's legs across lap. my the sun pouring in on my face. we had been driving for 28 hours and were in southern texas. We have U2 cd playing and i listen to andrew and kyle talking. Matt and ashlyn giggling. I see aryn sleeping on the floor. Jordan and Cody, are drawing FOX signs on their arms. Its so peaceful, the warm stickness every thing is just right. I laugh with tera as she tells me about a comedy play she was in last year.


If you ever had a non related family i don't think they were any closer than we are. After being away from each other for a whole year, we had a lot to catch up on and we talked the first 10 hours straight. This is almost better than the milwaukee missions trip, because we're so close. I think i'm more of myself with this group than with any other group. i've never tried to hide anything from them because i've always thought that they would be with me through the hardest things i ever do, anything we do. and they were.
and then of course the whole van bursting into laughter at one of kyle's incredibly lame jokes, and me imagining and anticipating all the cool things we might do and the cool things we'll see, the people we meet, my excitement is growing, i look out the window and see MEXICO BORDER 40 MILES.


and.. my alarm clock goes off.

This is pretty much most of my dream, i dream in huge detail, and i wish that this one came true, because honestly nobody has said anything about going to mexico. and i didn't realize that i wasn't going on this missions trip till after i got ready for school.

its amazing what your unconcious mind can dream up. i wish i could play it over like a movie. or something, but i guess thats one of the cool things about dreams, you usually only have the good ones once.

MY HERO.

We all have those people in our life, the people who shape us and make us better, they inspire us, encourage us, and teach us about living life right. They are our heroes. They may be your dad, grandparents, siblings, a superstar, politician, best friend or the person that talks on the radio.

My hero is basketball coach, youth paster, musician, dad, husband, brother and son, Kyle Peterson. There is so much to Kyle that gives me a reason to look up to him like i do.

Kyle has pointed out so many things in me, that i would never think of. He can see right through my smile. Its crazy its just like he knows. If i'm upset he can tell just by looking at me, nobody else does that. I don't understand that either.

some major things that he has said to me that have impacted me:
1. you're a musician( he got me started in worship leading, and playing the guitar all together)
2. you're a leader( people listen when i talk)
3. people look up to you( which is like being a leader but it means different things to me)
4. she'd really like masters commision.( he told this to someone else, and i would like MC)
5. he said he was proud of me. ( this made the biggest impact on me.)

Then there are the things he preaches. One of my favorite sermons is something like, "What will i be remembered for?" Its main point is that after you die what do you want to be remembered for? I've thought about it and the first things i think of are, a good musician, someone who always smiles, someone who makes me happy. Pretty generic, but the real answer is i want to be remembered for being different in speech, life, faith, love and in purity. (1 tim. 4:12) I'll explain, i want to be remembered for living differently but in a way that sets an example for people to be better, i want to lead people to christ, thats the thing i want to be remembered for, the most important thing.

Kyle is always saying things like this, always setting an example, and he's never content with who he is, he always wants to be more, more humble, more generous, more selfless. He is the most selfless person i know, and he's always trying to push it to the next level. This has drivin me to do some simple but unexpected things, like this lady betty, she's got to be 90, and for some reason on sunday mornings when she gets to church i'm always walking by the doors and i always am drivin to go out side no matter the weather( which hasn't been nice) and take whatever she is carrying its always something, and walk her to the door. Which is the type of thing kyle would do and want all of us to do. It just seems so little but my reward for doing this for betty is the nickname of her angel, which means more to me than you can imagine.

If i didn't know Kyle i bet i wouldn't be anything like what i am now. I now plenty of kids who would agree, and there is not enough i could do to thank him.

Kyle Peterson is my hero, and i will never forget the impact he has made on me.

just use your imagination

Imagination, its something most people use everyday. I know i do. I practically swim in my imagination sometimes. I write whole novels in my head, i picture the future, what i might be like. I think of how the whole world we be like. Imagine Anything.

Imagination is something the next generation might be lacking though. I was spending time with my family, and my 7 yeat old cousin Nicole. I don't think i could even count the times i heard her say, "I'm bored." Being bored in my house when i was younger was not acceptable. If i did my mom that she would have something for me to do in a heartbeat.

I quickly learned to keep busy. My sisters and i would read books, do homework, clean our rooms, i'd re-arrange mine, we'd play games, draw, sing at the top of our lungs, make up dances. And after that, we'd get creative.

This is when imagination would get fun. I remember plenty of times, my younger sister Kelli Jo and i would go outside and pretend to be twin princesses hiding from magical things. We'd create castles in the snow, with chairs and beds. Or in the summer we'd pretend to be nature explorers or stranded people, we'd run through the woods, behind my house, picturing the trees stretched out for miles. Then we'd discover something "important" that would save us, and send us home. Sometimes we'd just sit inside and ad-lib or I.S.(imagination station it was our term for ad-libing), we spent time making up stories off each others characters, and building the stories to rediculous climaxes. Kelli and i would then try to draw our characters for each other, so we'd have a clearer picture of the scene. Though the artwork could be a little off, we always discovered things to do. Mainly with our imagination.

I still use my imagination all the time too, when i'm reading, or doing a school project, even listening to music. I imagine pictures that fit the feel of the music. I picture if the music were people how they would be moving. Imagination is important to me.

I'm a little disappointed with the elementry generation. They do all there thinking outside of their heads, they already have the pictures laid out in front of them. They have "educational" video games, tv shows, dvd's and books on tape. It's sad that they don't have as many chances to see all that their imagination can do.

Nicole seems to have no creativity, she is always looking for someone to give her something to do. Even when she is forced to find something to do by herself, the only thing she comes up with is putting in a dvd or turning on cable. If only Nicole could do a little I.S. she might be a little happier with her time spent.

Not that all elementary age kids have this problem, but if only a rare few did. Then maybe they could be the next leonardo divinci's or vivaldi's.

Imagination can do anything, it can take you to different worlds, universes, even back in time. I just hope that my imagination doesn't stay a part of my childhood, i hope it stays with me, and that all the kids get to do the same with theirs. The times Kelli and i spent useing our imaginations are irreplaceable. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Just use your imagination, it can get you anywhere.