RYE 2009

For those of you who are reading this and are not Kelsey or Kelly, you're probably wondering what RYE is. (No, it's not that grain you put in bread) It stands for Region Youth Event, and the 7-12th graders from our church go to it every November. It's impossible to go and not have a good time!

We left our church at 4:00 on Friday afternoon. We had a huge group this year-17 kids! The car I rode in had me and 6 other girls (Kelly, Kelsey, Kristine, Kim, London, & Rachel), needless to say it was absolutely quiet the whole 2 1/2 hours down to Cedar Rapids, IA. HA! Not even! We were laughing and talking and taking pictures and singing along with the radio. Oh and snacking :D We stopped and ate at Arby's with the rest of our posse. When we got to our hotel, I was rooming with Kelly, Kelsey, and 2 junior high girls (we weren't too excited about those last two, but we were civil) We had our 1st session that night, it was really interesting. The speaker was the best speaker RYE has ever had, he was so funny and he really knew how to make the lesson pertain to teens. He showed lots of funny videos and got us really into his lectures! After that, everyone (about 250 kids and their leaders) went bowling! My goal was to break 100 points....and I got 111! I was very proud. After the 3rd frame my friend, London, was already at 56. "Geez, London! You're already at 56?!" I shouted about the loud music.

"What?!!" My other friend, Kristine, yelled with wide eyes.

"I said 'London's already got 56 points.' "

"Oh! I thought you said, 'There's cheese curds for $0.50!' "

We got back to the hotel at 11:45 p.m. Everyone went to bed right away. Ha ha, just kidding. (You're so gullable :) We stayed up talking and eating in the hotel breakfast room. The hotel worker was so nice! He bought us cards from the vending machine and gave us left over from his daughter's birthday! We stayed up much later than we should have. Kelly, Kelsey, and I ended up sleeping in the older girls' room because of a problem with the younger munchkins that were staying in our room. :P One girl was snoring like a bear and the other one insisted that the TV be kept on.....ALL night. She claimed she was afraid of the dark & couldn't sleep unless it was on. We suggested leaving the bathroom light on our using the laptop light but that just wouldn't do for her! So we got kicked out of our own room and ended up sleeping on the floor. Wonderful.

We woke up at 8:30 the next morning, had a lovely breakfast at the hotel and then it was off to our next session. Lunch came before we knew it. After our tummies were full, we went and played our traditional game of "American Rat Noise" in a dark, desolate hallway. What the heck is "American Rat Noise" you're probably thinking. Allow me to explain. It's where you sit against a wall (preferably a hollow wall in front of bathroom--so that everyone who has to go to the bathroom has to step over you and then the can hear our sound effects while they're in there) and everyone gets their own noise. An elbow against the wall, growl, hiss, screech, opera. It's hard to explain, so if you want to know more just ask me. Or, even better, I could show you! After that, some of our group (I won't mention names.....) were bums and stayed in the church being lazy, while the rest of us went outside and enjoyed the b-e-a-utiful, sunny 7o degree weather! London, Andrew, Max and I went and played 900 with a football outside. After that we spent 45 minutes at our hotel. Some people napped while others (including myself) went swimming. Next on the agenda......shopping at the Lindale mall!!! :) "Hey Kristine," I said when we got there, "this mall has your dad's name in it."

"Wonderful," she muttered.

"And it has my mom's middle name in it, except it's spelled wrong." London said as we walked by the terrace.

"Your mom's middle name is Terrace?" Kelly asked. Ha ha we got a kick out of that.

We went to some very unique stores and bought some very unique things. Ha ha I won't say anymore. We ate in the food court, some very excellent Chinese food I did have :) After the evening session, I could barely contain my excitement. Remedy Drive was playing tonight!!!! (If you've never heard of them, that's really unfortunate for you. Look 'em up on iTunes! After you've read this blog, that is.) This was their 5th concert I'd been too, so I knew all their songs by heart. (Oh and also if you want to see pictures of them, they're in one of my albums on my Facebook. Me and them are tight. Lol.) You would think that we'd hit the sack as soon as we were back at the hotel. Don't get me wrong, we were exhausted. But hey, we're kids! Kelly, Kelsey, and I kept our tradition of watching the Sci Fi channel going and watched "From Within"....wonderful movie to watch before bed. A good, wholesome family movie. (ha ha said in sarcastic tone) We made it clear that the TV would not be running tonight, but jdust to make sure we hid the remote and unplugged the TV. Apparently some (emphasis on some) 7th graders are smarter than we give them credit for, because I woke up to the sound of the TV hours later and that little rugrat fast asleep.

Our last morning started at 8:20 a.m. We went and had breakfast and made sure we had everything packed. Our youth group got together and talked about what we'd learned about God and what our favorite things were. We hit the road at 9:50. This car ride was very quiet and everyone slept. Honest! Sleep deprivation had caught up to us. We got back to our church at 12:15. And that was my RYE 2009!