running in the dark

so honestly... i don't know where i'm going in life. and it's kinda scary.
i got home last night... the first time i've been home since may. and the only person home was my dad... asleep on the floor. mom and anna were at the store, jonathan was working late, and caleb's on a mission trip in nashville. so i chilled by myself for a while and then decided i'd go for a run. so i take off down our street and i get about halfway to the bridge and all of a sudden i realize that it is pitch black out, and the cow pen is next to me, and i can't see anything and i started hearing noises, and yeah, i freaked out. i run to the bridge, turn around and like sprint back. not the long nice run i was looking for. so i decide to go run around our basketball court. as i do... i'm running in circles, it starts raining and i start thinking more about my life... where i'm headed, what in the world i'm gonna do with social work, what's gonna work out with study abroad... and what i'll do if i can't go to the middle east. and i'm scared. kinda like when i was running down the road a few minutes ago. only, i not only feel scared and it's dark... but i'm running around in circles... yeah, like i was doing. all of a sudden, i see these two big scary objects over by the cows. i thought they were the cows at first, but they weren't, cuz the cows were off to the right. and i thought they were people. ok, i am not afraid of the dark, but i totally freaked out last night... don't know what my problem was. and then, weird, i felt God speaking to my heart. "kara... go over there." ha!! YEAH RIGHT!!! like i'm gonna go over there. about 30 times more around the court i'm like, ok, fine. and i walk over to the two creepy objects moving by the fence. as i get near, the light from the house shines out on them and i discover two brand new seedling trees that someone had planted. and i felt God saying, "dude kara... will you just trust me? it looks scary, and dark, but if you hold my hand i'll shine the light on your life and you'll find it to just be a beautiful little tree that i'm growing... not a big scary monster that will jump out and devour you." super kewl. and then... you wanna hear a funny story? yeah... so we have this swing, it's like a teeter toter swing... and it's my favorite place to just sit, and look at the cows and the stars and talk to Jesus... well, i go over to it, sit down, put my feet up... just like i always do, and BOOM!!! it cracks and i am on the ground. i don't think my butt has ever hurt that bad. yow!!! ha!! :)
so i guess my thoughts for today are... i'm scared. i don't know where i'm going or what i'm doing... but i don't want to run down the dark road by myself. i wanna trust Jesus to shine the light and illuminate the way he wants me to go so that i can see as he lights the way for me.

New Website!!!!

GUESS WHAT!?!
it's done!!! the new before tomorrow blog is up and running... this is once more going to be just kara's blog, so some pictures you may not be able to find on here anymore... but no worries!!! go to

www.beforetomorrowband.blogspot.com

i love you guys!! let me know what you think!!!!!!
:)

Q 2006

Before I take you through the week of Q2006, let me introduce to you the three North West Ohio District teams that we took, along with our regional team representing Mt. Vernon.

NWO A
NWO B
NWO C
MVNU Regional

on tuesday we picked jonathan up at the oklahoma city airport. he flew in from new york city where he had been on a missions trip.





this is at one of the morning devotionals... jennifer read scripture

yeah district quizzing... this is david tantlinger, brent schipke, jennifer mcclure and jonathan burkey


jonathan's hilarious... this is him being super stoked about a question brent answered

northwest illinois district!! yeah!!! this is amy jo kindle, kyan, kirsten and kent davenport


allison officialed as content judge for her old quiz coach, pete. he was hilarious!! their half time shows were AMAZING!! :)

me jobo and al-e-cin!!

the mommas of our quizzers... theresa, pam and my momma twyla

I LOVE MISSY!!!
AND I LOVE LOUY!!

AND I LOVE MICHELLE LOUISE!!!

this is at the baseball game... i sat with missy, alli, adam, mallory, natasha, steven and anya and casey. and we played uno and rook. fun stuffage!! and jonathan was dancing and they videoed him on the screen.

caleb's quiz team was awesome...

this is joel and caleb and rebecca and brenda... and their sub was robert

yeah caleb!! THAT'S MY BROTHER!!!! :)

this is heidi's team...



quizzing against northwest illinois!! all my kids at once!! :)

this is kent and jonathan and kyan... all of them are gonna be freshmen at olivet this year!

breakin out the batman and robin!!

this is casey's team from kansas... they got first place!!! YEAH KANSAS CITY!!!! :)

the final score the final quiz for kansas city... it rocked!!!


tommy came to visit and took anna, me, brooke, natasha and his friend brack to target. this is me and the girls playing on the big balls at target


abe!! it was sooo good to see him again!! :) we went to starbucks one night, and then the last day we were there he took me out to breakfast. it was a lot of fun. oh, and i schooled him in checkers and tic tac toe... just thought i'd throw that in there for kicks and giggles. ;-)

tommy came to breakfast then too on saturday... i had 2 breakfasts!! :) it was good to see him.

mallory henck!!! i LOVE her!! and miss her bunches!! this is us at the finals.

the girls... minus natasha... mallory, anya, missy, alli and me. i'm gonna miss them soo much. wish we were closer!!!

finals... we were in the losers bracket and had to beat nnu twice in the finals to get first... they did sooo good. we took second, but it was amazing!! i'm so glad i got to go and watch!! i can't remember the last time i had so much fun just being at quizzing!!
"LAND OF THE COUGERS" "M! V! N! U!"




casey and i watching quizzing...

go team!!!

The Awards Ceremony

this is the awards ceremony...
caleb's team for the novice quizzing got 6th place... here they are
caleb, joel, rebecca, brenda, and robert
BIG FRO BIG FRO BIG FRO OH YEAH BIG FRO!!!
this is nortwest oklahoma. i loved watching them... and the tall one on the left is my buddy joel. :)
our district team got 6th i think too
here they are
coach paul johnson, ryan saba, david tantlinger, carissa smith, jonathan burkey, jennifer mcclure and brent schnipke
LET'S GO NWO!!!
casey's district team got first!!
YEAH KANSAS CITY!!!
this is the olivet regional team
yeah kent!!
and our regional team... of which we are sooo proud!! they were AMAZING!!!
here they are
jennifer mcclure, coach todd thomas, jonathan burkey, bethany kindle, laura johnson, and brent schnipke
"LAND OF THE COUGERS!!!" "M! V! N! U!"
and here are some of the top quizzers... sorry not really sure what's what, i'll tell what i think... comment and correct me if i'm wrong!! thanks much!
this is the top 20 novice quizzers.
caleb got 11th i think
YEAH, CALEB!!! THAT'S MY BROTHER!!!
and here's a farther out picture
uh...i think this is district top 10...
GO KENT!!!
the top 10 experienced quizzers i think... brent schnipke got 6th and jennifer mcclure got 4th!!
YEAH BRENT AND JENNY!!!!!
the top 10 regional quizzers... jonathan burkey got 10th, joel from north west oklahoma got 7th, jennifer mcclure got 4th and casey got 1st!!
YEAH JONATHAN!!! THAT'S MY BROTHER!!!
YEAH JOEL AND JENNY AND CASEY!!! YEAH!!!