Becoming a palace

"Imagine yourself as a living house... 

 God comes in to rebuild that house.

 At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing.

 He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.

 But presently, He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. 

What on earth is He up to? 

The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. 

You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage:

 but He is building a palace.'  

C.S. Lewis

Advice from Elder Busche

This was just what I needed today...and everyday

Monumental

Can we talk about how I beat Mr. Know-it-All (who, might I add, always has an opinion and NEVER stands down from it) in a debate in class yesterday? 

Anyone who knows me well can see why this is a monumental event. 

I'm not the one who speaks up in class and I'm certainly not the one who gives a strong, "unbeatable" person a run for his money on sociological debates.

However, I did it. 

That's right. And you know what...

it was thrilling beyond belief.  The adrenaline rush was spectacular. 

 I believe I earned a gold star for the day.  

It was pretty rad.   

Kill the Coach with Kindness

I walked into the UCCS gym two nights ago  for the women's volleyball game (which had already started) and I saw someone on the back row waving and smiling at me! It was my former high school volleyball coach at Coronado High School from my freshman and sophmore year.  She was SO, so, so excited to see me! Like REALLY excited to see me!  She gave me the biggest hug.  She LOVES me! haha! The neat thing about it is that  EVERYONE that is ANYONE in the volleyball world knows her!

            Her name is Joan Powell.  She coached volleyball at Coronado High School for 32 years.  I was there for the last 2 years before she retired.  She was one of the most successful coaches in the history of Colorado interscholastic sports.  She is a USA  Division I Volleyball national official and has been for over 20 years.   She  always officates the NCAA semi-final and final matches and I love to watch her on television.  AAAANND she was team manager for the USA Women's Olympic Volleyball team in the Beijing Olympics.   She is the President of the USA Volleyball Board of Directors.

            And SHE was excited to see ME??!!  The tall, awkward freshman who showed up for tryouts one day who had never played volleyball before?!!  


  Yeah, I did work hard once I made the freshman team....hard enough (summer camps, trips to the church gym with my Dad) that when I showed up for tryouts before my sophomore year, she saw me playing and pointed at me and said " YOU!!! OVER THERE!!!" and pointed to where the varsity players were hitting. I was a starter on the varsity team that year. So I did improve, no doubt, but I know it wasn't my skill she loved.   Our high school took in kids from across the city from all kinds of different backgrounds.  I remember the night of the awards banquet feeling so awkward when she made a big deal giving me the award for the" highest GPA"...which was nice but, yeah, i would rather have been MVP.  But I think the real reason she loved me so much was because that I wasn't a MEAN girl haha!  And there were plenty of those!  She liked my naive, mormon-girl innocence.  I didn't stay naive long with all the locker room talk! THAT was an education!  Who needed sex ed classes when you have the locker room?

      I learned so much from Coach Powell.  She worked me hard and she had incredible faith in my ability as a middle blocker and as a team player.

             Whatever the reason i am a "stand-out" in Coach Powell's book, I feel honored!  Tuesday night I was a VIP for a VIP...can't get much better than that!

My Quotes for the Week

(sent to me by text from my wonderful dad)

"No one has ever drowned in sweat"
-Lou Holtz (former coach for Notre Dame) 

"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness"
-Seneca