Welcome to Cincinnati!

Good afternoon Ladies!!! I would like to thank you for planning your next adventure in the Cincinnati Area. I have on record that you will be staying approximately 20 miles north of Cincinnati in our Fairfield location! They are excited and awaiting your arrival. This is your official travel guide!
Please read the following...

Travel.
You both will be traveling by car.
If you are coming from Louisville take 71 north toward 75 N. Merge on to 75 North and travel into Ohio. I would recommend being in the left lane. This will keep you out of the way for merging traffic. When you reach exit 16 you will begin to see signs for the merge of I 75 and I 275. You will want to begin making your way over to the right lane. You will be exiting at exit 19 West Chester/ Fairfield. There is no need to be nervous or worried about this merge, it will be an easy drive.
If you are coming from Richmond KY, Just head north on I 75. do not get off of I 75 until you have reached exit 19. You may follow the same guide lines at the Louisville traveler.

Arrivial.
As I am sure you both are aware you are going to be driving in some traffic. Now Lucky for you the traffic should not be that heavy traveling through the city. If you plan to hit Cincinnati anytime after 7:30 and before 3:00 in the afternoon. Please Inform me of your arrival time, so that I can have my staff ready! I would recommend a 8:30-10:30 arrival time, that would MAXIMIZE the fun!

Itinerary of events
This is a tentative plan of events for your visit to the Cincinnati area.

Friday

8:30-10:30-Approximate arrival time-please park in front of the house. If you are facing the house you want to park on the right side of the driveway. Check in at the front door. If you call ahead we can have someone meet you in the driveway. During this time you will check into your room, and exchange hugs and excited screams with your friends and our staff.

10:30-11:30- This will be free time, you and your party and discuss what will be happening at this time (perhaps deciding on lunch plans!)

11:30-12:30ish- Lunch, This is on your own. For your convince I would like to recommend some Cincinnati favorites. Skyline Chill, La Rosa's pizza, Richards Pizza, or City BBQ, IKEA Food mart. There are also 100s of other dinning establishments that you could dine at.

12:30ish- IKEA!!!!!!! This will be your tour and shopping time at the IKEA Furniture store. The end time is undetermined due to the large store and personal preferences. Most of our visitors recommend a 2 hour period in the store.

Following IKEA- A driving tour of the area, stopping to view some of the local attractions, and hometown favorites of Miss Katie Williams.

Following driving tour-JUNGLE JIM'S- the worlds largest super market- This two is a unique shopping adventure that could take a couple of hours depending on the shoppers.

Following Jungle Jim's- Dinner, After all that shopping we would have worked up an appetite. Dinner is also a on your own decisions. Our staff has volunteered to have Chicken Enchiladas, which would allow for a fiesta type dinning or your may venture to one of the wonderful venues in the area.

Some after dinner ideas;
Monster Golf- an indoor glow in the dark putt putt place
Movies-A place to watch the latest releases
Bowling-A bowling alley

There are also several other options that can be discussed with our staff.

After your evening activities you will be released to sit and chat with friends, or go to sleep in your luxurious bed room. You will be staying in our "guest suit." You will be sharing a room and a bathroom. There is a computer in your room and the lodge is full equipped with a wireless connection.

Saturday:

Wake up around 9:00ish- Breakfast served and cooked by our staff.

You will then have some time to shower, and get yourself ready for the day. Make sure you are comfortable because you will be walking

10:45ish-Departure from the lodge and travel to the GREAT CINCINNATI ZOO!!!!!

You will have all day at the zoo. Be Prepared to see lots of animals and take lots of pictures.

After the zoo-Dinner. Your dinner options are.....Some place downtown, My staff is working to find an affordable yet fun locations or you may dine at the lodge (this would be if you did not eat the fiesta meal the night before. I do believe that the owners of the lodge will be gone this evening so you and your party would have the house to themselves.

This evening you can do any of the previous mention evening activities. We also offer "red box" rentals, Wii playing, N-64 playing and super Nintendo.

Sunday:

We do not plan your Sunday activities due to the difference in departure times. This can be decided with you and your party.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

We would like to thank you for choosing us! We look forward to seeing you next weekend.

My dream guy

So today I was out with some of the girls from high school. We got on this topic of our dream guys. Then Katy Schinder told us that she believes if you make a dream board you will slowly see things change lol. I am not sure I really believe that but I figured I would blog about my dream. This entry is going to be a list of qualities I want.....


1) Beautiful eyes- that way I can get lost in them!

2) A bachelor's degree

3) a romantic-someone who will romance me!

4) Someone financially stable

5) someone who loves spending time with my family- I don't want to have to entertain him.

6) Someone who my friends love- and of course he would love them as well.

7) Old fashion. I want someone who will open my door, wait for me to sit before he does, bring me flowers, ALWAYS pay (or at least offer), and he better ask my daddy if he can marry me!

8) motivating- I want someone who is going to motivate me to be better, i don't just want someone who is going to tell me I am perfect, no one is perfect and i need someone to make me better!

9) soft hands, I want to enjoy holding someones hand.

10) Cook- I want to be able to cook with my husband.

Our summer vacation

Create your own FACEinHOLE


I can't wait for our trip!!!!

The 30 hour famine

At 12:02 on Friday afternoon I finished eating a cheese burger and fries from Applebees. I decided on this meal carefully. I knew that after I finished I would not be eating again for 30 hours. In the back of my mind I was planning on sneaking to get food. After I left Applebees I had to come back home and get my stuff together. Now I was not allowed to drink pop for the 30 hours, however I had planned on drinking one right before I got the church. When I arrived home I packed up my things and loaded my car. Then drove to church (no POP was had). When I arrived to the church the work began. I started setting up and getting things ready. This was probably the hardest thing for me because I was all alone in our church and I knew there was food (although I was not hungry from my big lunch, I was fighting with my self to not eat) . I didn't eat!!!! Zach Arrived and we began set up!!!

5:30 p.m.- Students arrived!!! I was nervous and ready to go I wanted this event to go wonderfully!!!!
After arriving and putting their stuff away They began building there Shanties!!! This was awesome!!! I watched 14 youth group members work together to build a house. Now mind you it was 35 degrees out and they were building it outside. They manged to get two really interestingly built shanty (they planned to sleep in them Friday evening.)

After we built the shanty the students were broken up into 3 teams, then we broke to Meijer!!!! each team was assigned a family and a certain amount of money. One group had a family of 4 and had $13 to feed this family (included all food groups minus dairy) for a day. Another group was a family of 3 and had $30 dollars for day!! My group had a family of 3 and we had $20 dollars a day! We began our shopping with Breakfast when we were in this aisle one of the youth members turned to me and asked if they were allowed to add their own money to feed this family. Although some may see this as cheating she asked because she felt bad for this family and wanted to be able to give them more. I nicely told her that we couldn't but we would get as much as we could. So that was our groups mission not to just feed a family for a day but it turned into feeding a family for a week! WE DID IT!!! we were able to plan out 3 meals a day for 7 days and we spent $19.90!!! Now this food did not go to a real family but my group really got into trying to get more for their money. I was so proud of them!!!
The rest of Friday consisted of hanging 1208 post its on the windows of the church to represent the number of children who die in one hour. We also made a large poster covered with 1250 hand prints representing the amount of money we had raised so far!!!

The last thing we did before bed on Friday night was turn off all the lights in the Sanctuary and light 300 candles. After they were all lite we had the kids walk in and sit on the floor. Zach announced that for the next 15 min they were to watch the flames and pray. After 3 second I blew out the first candle. some of the kids were surprised. 3 seconds later another candle went out. this continued for around 15 mins( I know if you do the math it does really work but I went longer on a few! lol) When only one candle was lite Zach explained that every 3 seconds a child dies because of starvation. Then I blew out the final candle. Several of the kids got very emotional. Now I was also feeling the emotion pull at my heart, I did my best to hold it in. We took a few min to talk with the kids and it was INSPIRING to hear what they were saying, 12 hour after we began fasting they were so worried about these other kids none of them had even mentioned being hungry! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

Now it was bed time....4 brave students we out into the 10 degree weather and slept in the cardboard shanties. 2 of them made it all night!!!! GOOD JOB GIRLS!!!

Saturday morning!

We went to a 12 step rescue mission and did yard work and cleaned up around the building it was a lot of fun and the kids really did a great job. Now this mission was not in Fairfield, it was about 35 min from the Church. While we were their something moving happened. I really felt Gods presents!!!!!!!!!!
We were about to head upstairs (after a potty break) When on of the residents at the mission Stopped Chris (my cuz) He said HEY ARE YOU CHRIS, (we were all speechless) Chris replied yes. The guys said "I went to Fairfield with you" (Almost all the kids in the youth group go to F.F.) Chris said "what was your name" The guy told and then Chris remembered they took a min to talk about some of the people from high school. Chris asked the guy "how he was doing (knowing somethings wasn't good if he was at the mission)" This guys response was " I am great. I was saved right here at the hope house, they even baptised me. Thanks to groups like you I have gotten my stuff together, I don't drink or do drugs. My life is great." Now to all of us living in a rescue mission is far from great! However it was the best thing in life for this guy!!! What was neat is that 6 members of our group were able to hear this guy talk. He was only 4 years older than them and had lived in the same places. It really reached a lot of people. I know that guy was there that day for a reason and I thank god that we got to meet him.

After we left the mission we went back to the church and played games!!! Now this was a fun afternoon, I must tell you about one game that we played. Each person was given a song title and they had to sing the song with water in their mouth. Now I am not sure if you have ever done this it was not easy!!!!!!!! I had to sing "if your happy and you know it" well I spit water out and all over two members of the youth ( I do believe it is on a video somewhere!)

After the games the students learned to knit and made blankets for a nursing home. (They loved this!!!)

Then created activity kits for Children's hospital

Then the famine was coming to an end.....We had our final worship. This was great everyone was ready to eat. Since our pastor (well sucks) couldn't be there to break communion I made the food that they give to kids in 3rd world countries. Now it SMELLED AWFUL!!!!! They kids thought we were going to break our fast with all the WONDERFUL food we could smell the church members making!!! but now they ate the UNIMEX bread, One of the students came up and hugged Zach and I and said I am so glad we broke our fast with what we worked so hard to buy! I LOVED IT This made the whole event worth it!!!!!!

OUR GRAND TOTAL FOR THE EVENT WAS.......$1417.50 (and still growing, Our church members keep calling me wanting to donate money!) Each dollar feeds one child for one day!!!!

I am so proud of the youth group, Zach and Myself!!! WE did it and it was awesome and I actually didn't feel hungry until the very end!!!!