Mini Conference

The mini conference everyone is talking about!

Where: Johnson County Community College in Overland Park Kansas, there will be signs up friday night indicating where to go for check in around the college. please remember check in begins at 5:00 and the program starts at 8:00.



When: Feb 24th-26th

Why: To re-fuel and revolutionize

Who: Youth and young adults (must be 15 or older to attend)

What: An INTENSE spiritual weekend


Begins Friday evening, check in begins at 5:00 pm, dinner will not be provided, program starts at 8:00 pm sharp.

Ends Sunday at 1:00 pm. A Johnson County Community Ayyam'i'ha party will follow, any youth who would like to attend are more than welcome to!

Prepare yourself for an intense weekend of study, service, and inspiriation.

We are doing everything in our power to make this a free conference, however, one lunch on sunday may need to be purchased by indivduals.

Registration has ended.

Things to bring:

1. Bedding

2. Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc)

3. a towel

4. a prayer book

5. $20

6. Good attitude!

Number of people registered: 52

Minis

OK. People are fans of mini versions of things. Don't believe me?





mini m&ms <<<



mini cooper>>>




<<< mini muffins







and mini animals>>>

Why not be a fan of a mini conference?

coming to kansas city feb. 24-27th

So. In the past month some things have changed. I graduated high school on December 21st and started working full time at Target. Yeah, that's right.

When I tell people that I've graduated from school and am working they smile and say,"Welcome to the real world" and I give a small laugh and nod. What I am actually thinking is,"I'm not in the real world. I'm pretending to be in the real world. I don't have to worry about paying rent, electricity, car payments, etc. I, Madeline Eileen Johnson, am a poser."

I have had some amusing times at work thus far. Here are my top 4 favorites.

1. A guy friend came over to my lane to let me know he'd be right back to give me a break, I had been helping out an older lady at the time. I turned to give her her change and one of the coins fell from my hand. "Whoops!" I said. "He made you all flustered didn't he?" She asked. I looked at her, confused. "OOh! I'm not going there! I haven't been there in 51 years!" Huzzah

2. I asked a mom if she wanted her milk in a sack. She looked confused momentarily and then said no. Her young son then asked her,"What does milk and sex mean?" She then explained that they were from Minnesota and did not use the word sack.

3. A young girl named Fatimah said hi to me, then blew me a kiss and then told me she loved me, all under the first 10 seconds of our meeting. It was really quite precious.

4. Got a job offer as a nanny while cashiering

Fammer

In the fall, I went to visit friends in Arizona…actually, once I arrived in Arizona it was summer again. However, that’s hardly the point of this. The point is in fact that my friend and I were going into Target when we saw an elderly couple walking to their car.
My friend suddenly exclaimed, “I can’t wait to get old!” I laughed at her because it was such a Sarah-like outburst. She looked at my sideways and defended her statement, “I mean…I can wait, the stuff in the middle will be tons of fun! But it will be good to be old, you know?” I nodded because I did know. I knew exactly what she meant.
“Yeah, it won’t be like regular people getting old,” I said, assuring her I did in fact appreciate what it was she was saying. She nodded eagerly.
“You see couples sometimes,” she started with enthusiasm, “and it’s like they have just run out of things to say.”
“Totally,” was my only reply.
“But we, oh man. We have the Universal House of Justice! And they will keep giving us plans! And we will NEVER even be able to run out of things to talk about!”
“Yeah, and you know how old people seem to get lonely or feel useless? Well, we will always have people over, no matter what, for study circles, for devotions, for travel teachers to stay at our house!” I said, getting caught up in the conversation.
Meanwhile we were passing aisles and aisles of customers who I am sure had no idea what to make of these two teenage girls in their shirts that stated, “Join the Revolution” and “Stand Back! I’m changing the World!” who were also speaking so emphatically.
“Yeah, but we may not even have travel teachers anymore by then.” My friend pointed out.
I nodded and said, “Good call, good call…but people will still travel teach in a different way, don’t you think? To share their stories or artistic talents with other communities, jazz ‘em up and all that.”
“True story,” Sarah agreed.
We both grew silent as I picked out my toothpaste.
“You know what?” I asked her.
“What?” she asked, her head tilted in that oh-so-Sarah way.
“I want to be a travel teacher when I get old, with my husband.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, I want to get an RV, (they will be solar powered by then so I wouldn’t feel bad about wasting gas cuz I wouldn’t be wasting any) and we’d just travel teach. ‘Honey, I made you a tuna sandwich, it’s in the cooler when you get hungry but don’t have it until we are at least through Iowa because you know otherwise…’” And we both laughed at the fake conversation with my future husband which somehow involved a Minnesotan accent.
We were silent again.
“Why’d you pick tuna?” she asked me.
“I dunno…because I don’t like it…so I assume my husband will…you know, opposites attract and all that.”
“Oh, yeah, duh.”
And that was it, that was our conversation in that strange season of fall/summer. Hmm…maybe we should call it fammer…

Blast...it's over

It was starting to feel like the old days.





maybe not quite covered wagon times. but almost.


it was nice to have the family together. and you know what? i am stoked about my future!

next month alone is going to rock faces off. the 21st is when i graduate.

then we take a little jump into a break where my brother will come home, ben and nick brightwell will come and visit and where i will finally go and visit chicago with the girls.

woot woot!

then we can enter the fun world of working full time and worrying about where to serve and where to go to college a little more.

the world feels like a happy place!

A victorious return to Starbucks!...almost...

That's right. I was brave enough to go back to Starbucks after stealing the police man's coffee...possibly because it was a different location, or because i told my friend i would meet him there.

The setup! I enter starbucks a few minutes after 3:00. It's crowded, there is a not a seat anywhere. I approach the counter get my mocha all is well. my friend should come any moment. but he doesn't. about 25 minutes pass, i would call him but 1) feel like i should be more paitient 2) since people were coming over for dinner they kept calling to ask questions.

Finally, he calls me.

"Where are you"
"At starbucks..."
"Me too."
"which one are you at?"
"you told me the one on the plaza..."
"oh. yeah. there are two."

okay, how cliche is that?! we met at the wrong starbucks. I feel like i belong in a Christopher Guest film.

the ride to chipolte

My sister and I are driving to Chipolte and I start ranting about how stupid and weird it is how they have people in their late 20's playing highschoolers. It's bad enough to do that for a movie...but a tv show is even worse I think. So we decided that to solve that problem they should make these shows about COLLEGE! because you can ALWAYS go back to college...no matter what your age, so we (the audience) will believe that these people in their later 20's are in college...because it happens.
Then I started coming up with actors that they could have in these shows. Kirk Douglas. Yes, that was one of my ideas but only because I couldn't remember Robert Redfords name. My sister and I thought this was very funny and decided if these two fellows were in these shows...they would just be talking art classes or yoga. Can you imagine a more exciting tv show????