Hardly Normal - I live in the mountains.

I live in the town of Normal, where things are hardly ever normal. I have come to appreciate and love this crazy town I live in.

So this morning I woke up at about 7:30. It was a bit earlier than I would have liked, considering I don't have class until noon... But needless to say, I was up, so I got out of bed. But before I climbed down from my towering bed (yay for college dorm beds that are lofted to the ceiling...), I noticed a glowing coming from my window. I peered over to the window to just see a glowing white, and that was it. I literally couldn't see anything else. Normally from my 15th floor window I can see the 28-story building that is 2 blocks away from my building. But today all I could see was a white glow. It was kind of peaceful, but still a little strange, almost like my dorm building (or even my whole campus) got relocated to be in the mountains.

So now I go on my way, getting my work done for the day. It still makes me smile that for a moment in time, I felt like I was on top of the world, just staring into vast white skies.

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#45. Go to a concert.

#45. Go to a concert.

I am a sucker for good music, so when I heard that an African children’s choir was coming to a church near by I was SO excited! A few years ago we had the Mwangaza Children’s Choir from Uganda come and sing at my church. Not a moment has passed that I haven’t thought of how those children have touched and changed my life.

The Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda.

 So this summer, the Watoto Choir from Uganda was coming to sing a local church near by. We got to the church early to ensure that we would get a good seat up close to the front. The church was filled to the brim with eager people awaiting the concert to start. Once the concert did start, the room was filled with energy, like to the max! The children in the choir came out on stage with huge smiles on their faces. They did a number of pieces that combined traditional African song and dance. The passion for music and God that the children had while they sang was overwhelming. One thing that I really liked about this choir is the family aspect that they had. All of the children and adults really were like a big family. During the concert, they also had some children give testimonies and tell a little about their life in Uganda. It was very powerful to hear their stories about how they came to Christ or the struggles that they have gone through.

It was all smiles after a fantastic concert! 

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#42. Go backyard camping!

#42. Go backyard camping.

You may be thinking to yourself, ‘what the heck it backyard camping?’ This it a type of camping where you set up camp in a backyard. It just so happened that we were camping in Mother Nature’s backyard. She welcomed us with open, loving arms, and didn’t give us any rain or anything! There were about 12 of us, so we had a couple of tents in our campsite. One of the cool things was that our campsite was right on the river that we had been kayaking on during the day. At night while we were falling asleep there were huge barges that passed by. When I say huge, it’s kind of an understatement. I stood there and watched one, and it literally took 5 or 10 minutes for the whole ship to pass. Overall my backyard camping experience this summer was great! 

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#34. Have a sleepover.

#34. Have a sleepover.

I personally love sleepovers, they are just so much fun! This sleepover just so happened to be an outdoors sleepover. My friends and I went camping and when we went to bed, it was basically like a sleepover. Before it was bedtime, we had some s’mores and apple sandwiches. Our hyper-ness level was through the roof, and all we wanted to do was talk and stay awake. There were some people with us that were very tired, and they didn’t really appreciate how hyper we were.

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#32. Roast marshmallows.

#32. Roast marshmallows.

The group roasting our mellows over the fire! 

Marshmallows and s’mores are a staple in the summer lifestyle. For this item on my bucket list, I shared the experience with some international friends. After coming back from the Girls’ World Forum, we had some guests from Taiwan stay with us at our local Girl Scout camp. They stayed with us for about 4 days and it was great to get to know them and become friends with them. It is a tradition at camp that every Thursday night, there is a campfire and all the girls overnighting for the week come and sing songs. Before the campfire, my friend Annie and I cooked with our new friends. It was a rough night to try and cook outside because Mother Nature insisted on having dark gloomy skies that threatened rain. Annie & I’s fire building and starting skills were awesome, so we had no problem starting the fire. The menu for the night consisted of pie iron pizzas (if you have never tried them before, you must!). For dessert we roaster marshmallows over the fire and made some yummy s’mores. Our guests had never had s’mores before, so this was going to be a real treat! We taught them how to make the perfect s’more and let them explore the difference between burnt and golden brown ones. There were smiles all around, so I think the s’mores were a hit.

Tasting our yummy s'mores! 

{Peace&Love} Jenny 

#29. Do something illegal?

#29. Do something illegal?

Now before you judge me or give me a lecture on how doing illegal things, let me explain. When I say illegal, you have to put it in perspective of me and my personality. I am not the type of person to cause serious trouble, just good fun. J

Matea, Ruthie & I with the mighty mustang! 

The first weekend I got back from school, I hung out with some friends. We were bored and wanted to just roam around town. The 3 of us were on our senior’s class board in high school and we wanted to go check out the new mascot statue that our class sponsored to be put up in front of the school. My high school’s mascot was the mustangs. At the end of the school year, we had some money set aside for a gift to give back to the school. So my senior class decided to have a bronze statue of a mustang be sculpted and put in front of the school. There was a sign by the statue that clearly stated that you weren’t allowed to climb onto the platform and stand in the little planted area. Obviously being the rebels that my friends and I are, we stood up there for a quick picture, before hopping into our getaway car. It was quite an adventure. 

{Peace&Love} Jenny