Climb, climb up sunshine mountain.

Well hello there, everyone! It feels so nice to be back on the blog... we have just undergone the trauma of a two-day, involuntary internet fast :)

It was our own, hand-picked consequence for a messy room... Splitting Paola's and my bed in two sure cluttered up our room.

Yesterday was Australian Michaela's 21st birthday! As the "hospitality student" (my work duty), I was in charge of the celebrations. So, two days ago, my work duties time was spent driving into town with Kenzie and hitting up the dollar store for cake mix and a birthday crown. Then yesterday, I baked a chocolate cake for the party. The ESL joined in the party with us, and Elaine from Brazil made a Brazilian dessert (don't ask me to pronounce or spell it) that was like a really thick, rich chocolate pudding, while Marcelo, also Brazilian, and Rachel, from Korea, helped decorate. The party was great. Music and dancing and cake-in-the-face and popcorn and desserts. Michaela, as usual, headed to bed a little after 8, but we kept it going with Apples to Apples and playing guitar with one another.

Now today: today was a favourite of mine. (Also feels nice to see that good ol' Canadian spelling.) It was our last day with Joe Ferrante, and goodness me - that man has won a place in my heart. It was uncanny the way he consistently spoke on things that had been on my heart and in my prayers just before his class, and on Wednesday, his words even echoed my "one-on-one" conversation I had with Nix the day before. He brought up things like shame, condemnation, pride, selfishness, performance-driven faith, and bringing the love of God home into our hearts. For those of you who know me well (and probably many of you who don't), you'll know that I need some work of the Lord in all of these departments :) He just spoke right to my heart in a way that doesn't happen often, and I was so encouraged by it.

After our last session with him, we ate lunch, and then it was time for "small groups." Our small groups = Jake meeting with David, our only male representative on the team, and Nix meeting with all of us girls. Although it's not much different than any other team meeting in that way, it's always my favourite part of the week.

Today, Nix had us come in "activewear." Now, Nix used to be a personal trainer, so I was shaking in my sweats. When we all gathered together at the top of the outdoor stairs, she had a grin that was making me nervous. These stairs are long, and these stairs are steep. We were to do 5 sets. Lucky for me I traipse up these stairs at least that many times each day during work duties, down to the DTS office, up to the cabin, back down to the office, up to the hotel, and so on.

So I loved it. (And yes, I know that 5 sets of stairs isn't that big of a deal, but keep it in your DTS frame of reference... food > exercise, in a big way.)

Once the last of us had finished that, Nix announced that we were now doing the longest of the hikes at the base - up to Lone Tree Rock. Again, I was pumped, but there were others that didn't share my sentiment. I was darting up the rocks (really excited because I hadn't done this hike yet), and again, we were all coming from different places, and eventually, we were all sitting on top of the mountain, looking out over the whole canyon, a little smoggy, but sunlit and beautiful regardless.

Now, I don't point out my speediness with pride, because this next part is crucial. When we did make it to the top, Nix had some [expected] questions:

What did you notice about yourself when we were doing this stuff? (Me: That I need to be more of a team player.)

What did you notice about others as we went along? (Everyone else: That Makaela's really competitive.)

Ha! Of course, there were other things said, but yeah, that's what I got out of it. I don't really know what I want to say about it... I just knew that if I talked about the hike, I'd have to be fair and point out that I got a bit rebuked during it! Others were watching out for each other, waiting for each other... all that feminine, soft-heart-of-the-Lord goodness. Gotta work on that :)

Also (yeah, this is a long one - skim-reading's OK by me!), while I sat on that mountain top looking over the California goodstuff, I was thinking about how I can be competitive, sometimes even driven, but how when it comes to important things, I really need to be pushed. So, I'm so thankful for the community I have, here, and especially at home, of people who really want to see me grow into more than I am now. And yes, a lot of the pushing has to come from me.

OK! Finished! Thanks for sticking with it! Happy February to you all :)