No Camel Tea for You Katie!

Saturday morning I woke up watched the weather, said a prayer for Kelly who was running the Riverbank Run in the rain by herself and got ready to go watch her!  When I got to the bathroom I realized I had a red itchy rash on my arm....the first thing I thought was Poison Ivy (I have had it more times than I care to admit and sometimes I feel like if the wind is blowing right I will get it)....I hadn't really been outside all that much and definitely not in any brush so that was ruled out....I didn't feel sick so I figured it was probably an allergic reaction to something.....so I started to think what is different?  Then it hit me, I had some chamomile tea and I had never had that before....so I go to the internet and realize it's in the Ragweed Family....I am allergic to ragweed!  A few doses of Benadryl and some anti itch lotion and the rash was gone....Who Knew!  I was telling Kelly and Tara the story later on Saturday and Jackie over heard and she said, "No more Camel Tea for you Katie!" and boy is she right!

Believe 2015

Believe is a weekend event that is just for middle school students put on by Christ in Youth.  Every year in April this event is held at the DeVos Field house at Hope College.  This year Belay took 11 students and 5 leaders to Believe. 

The whole event centered around being "after" God's heart, using the story of David.  The speaker was great, his name was Jeff Whalling, he is from Pepperdine University.  He has been in Youth Ministry for 20 years and you can tell.  The minute he got on stage the kids were locked in.  He was funny and a good story teller.  The coolest part of his talk was at the beginning of each session he would say, "what do you care about?" and all of the students would respond in unison "what God cares about." 

The band was great also and kept the worship high energy and loud so the teens really enjoyed it! My two favorite songs that they did was a Jeremy Riddle song called furious and one of their own songs called Found! 

Friday night we stayed at Camp Geneva.  We had high hopes of doing a bon fire but unfortunately it was raining when we arrived!  I know that several of the students were so excited to get to Camp Geneva to find out where they will be staying for a week this summer and have a glimpse of what awaits them later this year! 

Overall it was a great weekend!  Thanks to all who helped to make this event possible!  

Happy Birthday Jackie! (a little early)

Jackie's birthday is April 5th which happens to be Easter this year!  Kelly and I decided that we were going to get her a bike this year.  The next couple weekends I am the Easter Bunny at Tip Toes (come on down to Holland and see the Bunny (me!) for free, bring your camera 10a-2p) so we decide to take her last weekend to get the bike.  When we picked her up she was so excited and SURE that she wanted a Rainbow Dash bike.  We went to Target and she talked the whole way, as we turned the corner to the bike aisle she saw the Disney Princess bike and it was over....that was the one she wanted and there really was no need to look at anything else!  We got the bike home and Adam helped put it together and off she went.  I was surprised at how fast she picked it up!  Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit so that Tara and Adam don't freeze standing outside watching her!  Happy Birthday Jackie!  Aunt Kate and Aunt Kelly love you tons!  So fun to watch you ride your bike!