Not going to China this time...but to HAITI! Come on over to my other blog to read about it. :D

just another quick reminder that i'm now over here.

Because I don't post very often to my blog(s) anymore, I just wanted to put a little note on here that I am in the process of a 3 part post about my trip to Portland last weekend. Go on over to this blog for the updates. It's the one that I will use most often. :D I hope this finds all of you doing well. I would love to hear how you are doing!!

Just posted again over here!

Howdy!

Surprised to see me posting....me too! I just stopped in to say that I started a different blog. So, if you are interested, head on over to Wherever He Leads and follow me there. I started the new blog in hopes of posting more frequently. Since I'm not in China/posting about China, it felt weird posting here at China or Bust.

HSM3

Here's my favorite pic from the weekend...more to come about High School Musical 3 soon!

Things I've Learned

So...it's been about a month since I have posted. Does that surprise anyone? Well, it shouldn't because I am REALLY bad at keeping up with my blog these days. Here's a little bit of what's been going on.

THINGS I'VE LEARNED:

1. Studying isn't ALWAYS the most important thing (shhh....don't tell my instructors). I still study....just not as excessively as I once did. I'm learning a lot and having a lot of fun too. We had a little too much fun one night at the beginning of this semester with all of our fun, new nursing equipment. I enjoy moments like these much more than studying!

2. You are never too old for "1st day of school" breakfast. It's a tradition in the Tankersley family to go out to breakfast on the first day of school. We've done this my entire life, and I wasn't planning on stopping just because I am in nursing school. Cassidy and Joan went with me this year. So fun!

3. 6:30 am clinicals are WAY WAY WAY too early! Having a 6:30 am clinical means that I have to get up super early on Tuesday mornings....like 5:00 am. That shouldn't be allowed. I'm never a happy camper when that alarm goes off at 5! I do have a great clinical group though. I don't have a pic of all of us together...I'll work on that. Here's Joan and me on the way to clinical one morning.

4. Friday Skills Lab has allowed me to get to know this wonderful chica really well. Friday is our "Physical Assessment" lab. Julie is my partner, and we take turns being patient and nurse each week. Kinda fun. It reminds me of playing doctor/nurse as a little kid; except now I get a grade for it. Kinda cool!

5. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and best friends are REALLY FUN! Several weeks ago, I made a trip to Houston to visit my best friend and my brother. It was such a great weekend. I drove spent the night with Christi Friday night...we ended up staying up till 3 am catching up. Then Saturday morning, we went to the zoo! I love going to the zoo, but I love hanging out with this great girl anymore. As I left that weekend, I realized I never knew how good I had it at A&M. It's much nicer to have your best friend 5 minutes away rather than 3 hours. Love you Christi! (My mom drove up to Houston and surprised me that weekend too. It was so great to see her. I don't have a picture though. Bummer! )

My Roomie!

Here you have it, guys! The World's Greatest San Antonio roomie!

Joan and I met during our interview for nursing school in the Spring semester. Through our conversation, we realized that not only were we both AGGIES, but we also went to the same church. Crazy that we had never met before...oh ya, I think we may have even been in the same Sunday school class too. God knew what He was doing when He put this incredible girl in my life...she is a portion of my inheritance (like we learned about at the Beth Moore conference).

We found out during our orientation that we were in the same clinical group (which is just 10 students out of our class of 120). We thought it was pretty crazy that we ended up together for that. Then we went on to find out that BOTH of our Skills Labs were together as well. That means that we have EVERYTHING (school wise) together. From the beginning we decided that this could either be REALLY good or REALLY bad...and I am pleased to say that it has turned out to be REALLY good.

Love you, Joanie!

My First Weekend in SA! [a little late]

The weekend before I left for San Antonio and Jenn left for College Station, we decided to make it a "see-ster weekend". We drove to College Station, loaded up some of my stuff, and then spent the rest of the weekend in San Antonio.

Most of the time Jenn and I spent just hanging out...Riverwalk, shopping, etc.

Being goofy in the car!

Saturday night, my best friend, Christi, came in town for our friend Brittany's wedding. It was a blast getting to hang out with her one last time before we were separated :(. We have been besties since freshman year at A&M. She is now in Houston for medical school, and I am in San Antonio for nursing school. I'm not a fan of the separation!

Christi, Brittany (the beautiful bride), and me. We were all such good friends at A&M through FCA. These two girls were two of the biggest blessings to come out of my time at A&M. I love them so so so much!

It was a great weekend of seeing old friends and getting to have quality time with Jenn. So much fun!

Catching up....The Apartment

Here are a couple of pictures of the apartment....well, my room! It's been a month (almost) since I moved in, and I absolutely love it! Not much else to say...just some pictures. :)

Catching Up...T bar M!

I'm back! I'm so sorry about the ridiculously long blogging break. So many times I would sit down to post, and then simply not even know where to start. I'm not even sure if anyone still reads this anymore, but I decided that I would post anyways.

At the end of June, I headed to New Braunfels to spend the last part of my summer working at T bar M! I had an incredible time. I was excited to find out that I would be back in my old cabin of Cut-n-Shoot. The last summer I worked at T bar M (summer 2005) I was also in Cut-n-Shoot. It brought back so many fun memories!

"SESSION 6...Get your kicks!"
The session 6 Cut-n-Shoot Cuties were L.O.C.'s. L.O.C.'s are "leaders of camp". They are the oldest kiddos at camp and are challenged to lead by example. Our girls lived up to the challenge very well. It was so neat to see the Lord begin to develop in them a heart of service and leadership. These girls were so funny...and LOUD! There was rarely a moment where we weren't laughing. We won "Cabin of the Week", but the thing that I will remember the most from Session 6 is that 4 of our girls became believers. What a blessing!!!

"Session 7...Slice of Heaven!"
I agree with our little catch phrase for the week. Session 7 really was a little slice of heaven. We had 8 and 9 year olds, which was a HUGE change from the week before. I spent so much of my time this week saying, "Hey, where's your cabin?" and "Hey, don't you think you need to wear some shoes to specialty?" I was constantly counting heads to make sure we had all of our girls, and I was pooped at the end of every day. But seriously, I am NOT complaining. These girls were so sweet and just loved being with us. I never had to look too hard to find a hug or a sweet smile. I loved it!!

I had a really sweet moment with one of the girls in my cabin during this session. "B" came on the first day and didn't want to wear her glasses. She really needed to wear them, but she was so concerned about looking different from everyone else. I told her how much I loved her glasses, and that I would wear my glasses all week with her if she would wear hers. She agreed and looked totally adorable in them. That gave us an instant bond, and I was sad to see her leave at the end of the session.

"We love the OCHO...muy muy much-o!"
I had such a special connection with ALL of my girls this week. I got so close to my sesion 8 girls. These girls were 10 and 11 year olds, and man, we had an INCREDIBLE time together. Everything from singing "Popular" from Wicked....to Hannah Montana....to getting soaked in the rain and making tons of necklaces....to our "mandatory 'snuggle' sessions" everytime we walked to the Chuckwagon. As a whole, these girls were servants. They were always looking for ways to serve us (their coaches), other cabins, and even each other. It doesn't get any better than that!

What an UNDENIABLE summer! God taught me an even deeper dependence on Him. I learned how to love even when its hard and how to surrender even when it hurts. God is so faithful, and I am so thankful for the good and the hard times that I experienced during my time at camp. My prayer each week was that my campers would leave camp changed. I wanted them to walk out of the camp gates on Saturday morning as a different person than when they arrived. I can honestly say that I did that...I left T bar M as a different person than I was at the beginning of July. God does big things through camp...not only in the campers, but in the coaches as well. I am proof of that!

T bar M

I'm off to T bar M for the rest of the summer! There's a pretty good chance I won't be posting regularly, but I will at least try to get a couple in here and there. I love TbarM, and I am so excited to be there!!

GA Camp

Last week was GA Camp. WHOOP! I think this was either my 5th or 6th summer to take these girls to camp. I love it! Here's a few pics of the week. Aren't they just precious?!?! You want to know the best part of the week? One of our 6th graders accepted Christ as her Savior! Praise the Lord!!

These three girls came to visit on Thursday. What a treat that was!! We hung out at the Snack Shack and ate snowcones for most of the afternoon!

The little girl in the brown is Ellie. She isn't from my church, but I have been looking forward to camp all year so that I could see her again. I met Ellie last summer at GA Camp. I was just drawn to her and she was drawn to me as well. We were big buddies all during camp. I wondered why we had such an instant bond most of the week. On the last night of camp last year, one of her sponsors came up and told me her story. Ellie was adopted from Russia not too long before she came to camp. It was interesting to hear that Ellie usually doesn't get attached to people like she did to me. That was a special moment for me....and she is such a special girl in my life.

Locks of Love

Last Thursday I cut my 10 inch ponytails (2 of them!) to donate to Locks of Love. Hannah, a sweet girl from church, and I have been planning on this for over a year. This is the short version of the "why" for donating.

My sophomore year in college, I donated my hair for the first time. It was such a neat experience for me, I knew I wanted to eventually donate again. When I came home after donating to LOL, Hannah was full of questions about why I chose to donate my long hair. We talked about what they do with the ponytails and who will end up getting them. It wasn't long after that that her mom told me that Hannah decided to donate her hair too. So a couple of months later, I went with Hannah to donate her hair to LOL.

A little over a year passed and I didn't think much of donating my hair again. When I returned home after my first summer in China, I cut my hair short again (but not for LOL). Hannah asked me if we could grow our hair out and donate it together. Of course I told her "Yes!" So began the process for the second time except this time I wasn't doing it alone which made it much more fun.

Several months into growing out my hair, I came across the Bramblett family blog. One of their sweet daughters, Ayla, was dealing with childhood cancer. Each time I would brush or fix my hair, I found myself thinking about and praying for this sweet girl who was battling cancer. Ayla's smile always brings joy to my heart each time I see her picture. I continued to pray for her as the months passed and my hair was growing. Hannah soon began reading their blog and praying for Ayla too.

So this time, Hannah and I donated our hair in honor of Ayla. At times when I would get frustrated with the inconvenience of long hair, I would think back to Ayla knowing that someone like her would benefit from my ponytails. It's a crazy thought!

Before

Cutting my ponytailsTada! They're gone!!

Hannah's long hairBeautiful Hannah

We took Ayla's picture with us when we donated...since it was in honor of her! She is such a beauty and I love this picture of Ayla!

Halle (Hannah's sister) helping us hold Ayla's picture!
The fun didn't stop there. Jenny and my friend Megan came to watch me donate my hair, and they BOTH ended up donating theirs as well!!

VBS Competition

I wanted to post the outcome of the VBS competition before I left for camp on Monday, but I just ran out of time. So here it is.

We had a great week at VBS. Twenty boys and girls accepted Christ as their Savior. What could be any better than that?!?! I mentioned before that we had a competition going on between the girls and the boys and that I was going to represent the girls team. Well, the outcome wasn't what I wanted. We tied...so both Brian and I had to swallow a fish. From the very beginning of the week, the kids were introduced to Outrigger, the Beta fish. The competition was whether the boys or girls brought the most offering (determined by weight). Monday the boys won...Tuesday the girls DOMINATED...Wednesday it was a little closer, but the girls one again...Thursday was very close but the boys won. It all came down to Friday's offering since we were tied 2-2.

All week the kids thought that one of us would have to swallow Outrigger, but we really only had to swallow a goldfish (thank goodness!!). I knew I was in trouble when I saw not 1 but 2 goldfish on the stage before closing ceremonies....

The following videos are how the event unfolded...

Katie Swallows a Goldfish Part 1

The white buckets are full of the offering for the day. Obviously, the girls beat the guys (by a lot) which meant that the girls won the competition!!

Katie Swallows a Goldfish Part 2

Just as Brian was getting ready to swallow the goldfish, Bro. Kevin reminded us of the "friend" factor that I completely forgot about. Once again, my fate of eating the fish was up in the air....

Katie Swallows a Goldfish Part 3

It's a little difficult to tell, but the fiesty little goldfish decided to swim to the bottom of the cup. Once all of the water was in my mouth, I realized that the goldfish was still in the cup...SICK!! So I had so swallow it without water.

So there you have it...I swallowed a goldfish! As far as offering is concerned, the girls WON the competition. Supposedly, the "friend" factor evened it out....but I'm not so sure about that!! I don't have a final total for VBS offering, but it is all going to a team from our church that will be traveling to Ecuador this summer. I am glad I was able to be a part of it...even if it was in this way.

Swallowing the fish was gross, but knowing that people will hear the name of Jesus (maybe for the first time) made it competely worth it.

Out for the week.

I'm leaving in a few minutes to take the little girls from church to camp. I have a couple of posts I want to do, but they will have to wait until I get back. You guys have a great week, and I will be back soon!!!

Locks of Love Tomorrow!!

See my long hair??? Tomorrow at 1:30 it will all be gone. It's finally time to donate it to Locks of Love. Right now, I'm not sure if I am ready to part with it. :(