Footsteps in the Hall and Stocking Puppets

This is the first time EVER I am completely finished with my Christmas shopping before Christmas Eve. I'm very impressed with myself. Everything is brought, wrapped, and part of it even sent to California. I'm soooo excited!

I love new things. But not around Christmas. Christmas is about tradition, at least in my book. Not because it would be any less exciting if we did things a different way, but simply because I LOVE the way we do it. And I've had 20 years of practice at it, and I'm getting pretty good!

We start off the Christmas season with tree decorating while listening to Mariah Carey's Christmas album. Cheesy I know, but I used to love it... ok, still do love it. Our tradition extends even to the specific ornaments each of us puts on the tree.

Then Christmas Eve is always services at our church and then we come home and each open one present... which is usually pj's, but don't tell Mom we've caught on yet. Then we go to bed and wait for Santa. Back in the good 'ole days I would have a slumber party with my sister in order to make the night go faster. She was always really good at Christmas, she even told me one year she heard reindeer on the roof.

Then Christmas morning! Mom comes down the hall and wakes me up. When I was little she would come down the hall and I would have been wide awake for quite a while waiting to hear her footsteps down the hall. Now... I'm still waiting for footsteps, just finishing the rest of my beauty sleep in the mean time. Then we go out to the living room. Dad's sitting in his seat and greets me with, "And here's another country heard from." Mom curls up next to him and says, "Go for it." Then you would think it would be a free for all... especially when I was younger... oh, but no, this is the Pfeifer house. We savor Christmas.

We each get our stockings and one and a time, take turns blindly pulling out one thing. When Dad runs out of things in his stocking he always makes a puppet with it. Well when I say always, he did it once and I haven't let him forget it yet. :)

Then we wait. We wait for Grandma. We wait for good food. We wait for presents. We wait.

I love Christmas. I already told Mom she was going to have to put up with me every year for Christmas from here on out... I don't think I could do Christmas without the footsteps in the hall.

Merry Christmas!

This Is Me

My sister told me the other day that my blog was lonely.

Its true... I haven't written for a while.

Wanna know why?

I couldn't remember for the life of me what my username and password for Blogger was. So I spent the past few minutes going through all of the possibilities, and obviously I figured it out!

Lessons from my Roommate

"This is just another lesson to trust God's timing over your own. You can't be in control of this. BE OK WITH THAT!"

2:00 AM brings lots of randomness to suite 121, but sometimes inbetween the chocolate and the movies, there is a split second of soul searching. Without even knowing it, Erica told me exactly what I needed to hear, EXACTLY when I needed to hear it.

God's timing is perfect. I keep telling myself that. It's one of those things that I know to be true but have a hard time living by. I want control. I want specifics. I don't want to wait. But I'm learning. The past week I have focused my efforts (well all those efforts that weren't focused on Humanities) on trusting God's timing and control. I don't want to be in control when I think about it. I tend to screw things up. Although time and time again I have given up the reigns of my life to God and time and time again I feel myself spinning out of control and try to grasp hold of whatever I can. Typically that is a tiny shred of the reigns and I make myself comfortable again in my little created, controlled world. But my grasp is weak and eventually I fall, faster than before, before God's hand catches me and He says (in Kenzie paraphrase) "I told ya so." I hope and pray next time I fall I reach first for God's hand.

Test, Community Groups, and Tennis... Oh My!

This week starts our first round of testing. I have three this week including a humanities exam on Thursday.

I've managed to mangle my shoulder into a million little pieces, so I'm out of tennis the rest of the week and doing physical therapy with the trainer.

On a better note, I joined a small group at my church with Mr and Mrs. Dorr. Erica and I went last night and it was amazing. God couldn't have worked out the situation any better. Their house is beautiful, the food was amazing, and the people are some of the most interesting I have met in a while. I'm very excited about it. Most of the group is from ESTU and there are a few grad students.

Mrs. Dorr is the children's minister at the church and I have turned in my application with her to begin helping.

So if all goes according to plan:
* i won't fail out of school
* i'll be playing tennis by next monday
* i FINALLY be able to work with kids at church and begin to make this church feel like my church home.

Living With People

Living with people is inevitable. God created us a dependant people. We live in close proximity to people, especially in a college dorm. We share a couch, a sink, a remote, and sometimes even a toothbrush. In order to survive a healthy family life, a successful college career, a marriage, we must learn to live with people.
"Living" with people is inevitable. God created us a relational people. We thrive on others' thoughts, conversation. As a creature we need people near us, people close to us, to love on us and for us to love on them. But people can be hurtful, weird, and disrespectful. In order to have healthy relationships we must learn to "live" with people.
Learning to live with people is a lot easier for me than learning to "live" with people. I need people around. I need people close simply to carry on a conversation with. Life is better with people. But those same people who bring so much joy to your life are the same people who tear you down. It happens in every relationship from the time we begin having cognitive relationships, "Suzi's my best friend and she said that she didn't want to play with me!", to middle school, "But I thought you were going to share a locker with me?", to high school, "He said he loved me.", to college "And I have to share a bathroom with you?", and I'm assume straight on through the rest of life.
A wild tongue is the hardest part of the body to train and it's sharpness can pierce right through to the very core of an individual. But with every harsh word that is said to me, I can think of 10 that I in return have tossed around in playful jest or even anger. I am at extreme fault in this area of my life as well, and so when the tables turn it gives me an opening to evaluate myself and see if I need to reign in my tongue.
Although words can hurt, they can also heal. The right word spoken by the right person can heal any ailment that may come my way. I thank God for all the words that have been spoken to me this weekend. Some in anger, some in jealousy, but most in love. I love the people that God has blessed me with in my life. And although they are the same people who can knock the wind out of me and make me fall to my knees, they are the very same people who hold out their hand and pull me back up. I hate ending anything with a cliche although a few come to mind (the people who you love the most can also hurt you the most, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.) So instead I will simply say that I am grateful for the pain, the struggles, the fun, and the love that lead to deep, lasting relationships. I am grateful that God has given me the opportunity to learn to "live" with people.

The Couchiad

WE GOT OUR COUCH! and of course, there's a story to go along with it.

Erica, my 25 lbs dancing roommate :) decide that we could move the couch on our own in our suitemate's car. We drove to our "shady storage shack," as it has affectionately been christened. There we found that although it was open, our loading dock was closed. We decided we had waited long enough for a viable seating arrangement in our room so we pulled into a loading dock down the way a little. We manuevered with our love seat through the mounds of forgotten junk people pay an extraordinary amount to store every month. When we finally reached our destination no matter how we pushed, shoved, twisted, squeezed, pressed, cried, pleaded, begged... the couch wasn't fitting in the car. Eight attempts later we finally resigned our fate and headed back to campus. After calling a friend with a slightly larger car, we started our journey again back to Central Mini Storage. with Thomas' help we achieved victory over the couch and drove back to campus only then to lug the love seat up three flights of steps and making ourselves and the couch think extrememly skinny as we pushed it through the door to Suite 121.

It was the time to celebrate, which I did by "studying" for the next few hours with the love seat. ZzzzZzzzZzzz....

(You know that you have already been in humanities too long when you begin writing Mock Epics about trivial things that no one cares to read. Call me the next Alexander Pope.)

Where the Buffaloes Roam

Summer has now officially come to a close and I am back in the state of TN. Move in went relatively smooth, other than not being able to get in our storage unit. Who needs bed sheets and refrigerators anyway? Our room looks pretty empty as of now, without our couch and tv and such but hopefully we should be able to get in today. FINALLY!

It's good to be back on campus although I am quickly reminded of the frustrations of school. I went and spent a small fortune on books this morning. Also Milligan has decided to block webcam usage on the entire campus. Byebye Skype.

Classes start Wednesday. Work starts Thursday. Tennis starts when Coach comes back.

Looking forward to good times, hard work, and a whole lot of humanities.

A Good Reminder

This week was FCC's Summer Impact Program. I was asked to be the "figurehead" of VBS. Being a water theme, I have become Lily the Lifeguard. From my pigtailed head to Sammy the Seal around my waist I have become a new character in the eyes of the kids. It's been a really good time. I also told the kids a secret about Lily, she can't swim. So all week I've gotten tips from the kids on how to swim in hopes to learn by Friday when they have a pool party. I've gotten some pretty good lines this week from our little VBSers!

"You're not really Lily. You're Kenzie. You're playing a character just like you played Belle. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"I know you can swim. You taught me how to swim!"

"The pool would never hire you if you couldn't swim. The church only hired you because there isn't a pool here. Didn't you think about that when you agreed to take the job?"

"You don't have to worry at the pool party. I don't think any of us could throw you in the pool!"

It's been lots of fun. And it's a good reminder of how much I love kids and how excited I am to be able to work with them everyday!

Ebenezer and Inigo

MAN IN BLACK: If you're in such a hurry, you could lower a
                    rope, or a tree branch, or find something
                      useful to do.

INIGO:     I could do that. In fact, I've got some rope
              up here. But I do not think that you will
              accept my help, since I am only waiting
              around to kill you.

MAN IN BLACK: That does put a damper on our relationship.

INIGO:       But I promise I will not kill you until you reach the top.

MAN IN BLACK: That's very comforting. But I'm afraid you'll just have to wait.

INIGO:        I hate wait.

No one has said it better.  I hate wait.  

I know where I want to go and what I want to be doing, but it seems like everything is so far off. Now I know as well as the next person that it's all part of the process and things will only be better because of the time spent in anticipation. But I'm so excited to get things going. To be moving forward, making things happen. But instead I sit here, on my couch, twiddling my thumbs, waiting...

I've have always been an indecisive being. And because of that, to make my life easier, God answered all the difficult questions for me years before I needed to know answers, as if to prepare me for what was ahead. I knew I wanted to be a teacher in preschool. I knew I wanted to go to Milligan my 4th grade year. He pointed me toward inner-city teaching my Sophomore year in high school. God has brought a masters program to my attention already. And I praise Him for that, for He only knows that I wouldn't have been able to make those decisions on my own. Knowing years in advance has given me time s to think about it, prepare for it, get excited for it, dream about it. And as that time grows closer, it gets harder to wait. As Inigo said, I hate wait.

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ' Thus far has the Lord helped us'"

God heard my prayers. 1 Samuel 7:12 was brought to my attention at Bible Study this week. I love the idea of an Ebenezer stone. It is a reminder that although we haven't seen into our future, and we don't know what is ahead, we can look in our past and say "Thus far the Lord has helped me." And He has! Thus far, I can see God's fingerprints in every area of my life. Thus far, God has never let me down. Thus far, God has been with me through the craziest times and the times of waiting.

"After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun,and his clothes became as white as the light."

Another great message of relief I heard this week was that of the movable mountain. We've all heard "with faith the size of a mustard seed you can move a mountain." But there are somethings that just won't get out of the way. No matter how many times you scream for it to move, it won't budge an inch. If you ask a mountain to move, and it doesn't, could it possibly mean that God wants you to climb that mountain in order to see Him transfigured?

So I stand at the foot of the looming Mountain of Waiting with my Ebenezer stone in hand. Having lost my voice from months of screaming "MOVE!" And yet there it sits, casting a shadow of years of boredom and anxiety. I look down at the stone in my hands and see the fingerprints God has left upon it, making it obvious how evident He has been in my life. And so I start my climb. One foot in front of the other, every once in a while taking a break to look at the Ebenezer stone. And I wait in anticipation for the moment when I reach the top of that mountain and see my God transfigured. At that moment I will bow down and say "thus far, you, Lord, have helped me."

Learning to be Betty

Betty Crocker ain't got nothing on me! With a TON of help from Cooking with Carla, I am quickly moving up the Domestic Scale.

To date I can confidently know when a meatloaf is finished cooking and peel my own apples. I have also been informed that there is an appropriate time to use that funny, crystallized, white stuff that sits in the back of our cabinet by the pepper. Who knew?

And the best part of the whole thing...

Derek and Carla have furnished the beginnings of my kitchen collection. I am now the proud owner of a shiny, new muffin pan.

My next project:

Learning to build bookshelves. Momma Marilyn isn't too happy that her books have been taken out of the oven and left in piles around the floor.

You'll love David's Bridal

Deciding to be sneaky and try wedding dresses at David's Bridal?

ok... kinda fun... a good story at least.

Getting a phone call 10 months later letting you know you won a 5 day all inclusive Honeymoon for you and your finance?

you have got to be kidding me... give me a break.

Hey Bryce? Wanna go on a trip?

Cliff Notes: The Past Two Weeks

The People: 2 Youth Groups, 4 Leaders
The Trip: CIY and Urban Missions in Chicago
The Prayer: "Dear God, it's been a while since you told me how it was. My life has been an easy ride for a while. I've always heard if your life is rolling easy then you must not be a big enough threat to Satan. Here I am completely devoted to you. Beat me up. Show my my errors. Give me something to work on. Use me. Show me ways in which I can be of service to you."
The Overlooked Obvious: GOD ANSWERS PRAYER
The Result: windows shattered, vans died, plans lost, exits missed, computers stolen, dogs lost, cockroaches crawled, sodas unclaimed, families missed, community broken, people failed, tears fell, hearts broken, speed limits unmet, peaches molded, loud freshman partied, pain grew, sleep forgotten, past remembered, ER frequented, GOD FORGIVING, GOD LOVING, GOD GUIDING, GOD PROTECTING, hugs given, smiles shared, relationships mended, love experienced, friendships built, dog found, futures exposed, caffeine consumed, dreams fulfilled, excitement grew, vans packed, church cleaned, home regained
The Conclusion: GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME. ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD.

An oldie but a goodie

Mom: So are you enjoying writing on your blog?
Kenzie: Yeah, but it's not something I want to do everyday. Just when the inspiration hits.

So, this is three posts in two days.

This is something I wrote a while ago after a college memory was made.

The background information: My roommates and I went into David's Bridal and acted as though we were planning my wedding. We then posted pictures on the Internet of our wedding party, with no explanation. Obviously, there were a few confused people inquiring as to who my Phantom Fiance might be. I then wrote this public apology and explanation. And it's such a good story, I feel it deserves a comfortable spot here as well.

For all you inquiring minds:
I'm not engaged. I'm not getting married. No worries. BUT... David's Bridal thinks I am. You see, every girl wants to try on a beautiful wedding dress. But good ole' David won't allow this to happen unless your actually engaged. Who would have thought?!?! So...being the marvelous actress that I am (thanks to my wonderful drama teacher) I convinced David and his crew that I soon was going to acquire my MRS degree. We walked into the boutique and were quickly greeted by Courtney, who was obviously being paid through commission. It was sort of reminiscent of a lion surrounding it's prey. She offered me a catalogue and congratulated me on my new engagement. My girls and I, were quickly becoming the next ones to walk down the aisle. As the woman asked questions about my upcoming wedding, I shot off answers, the whole time keeping the "glowing bride" look.

Lion: "When is your wedding?"
Prey: October 2007
Lion: "What's his name?"
Prey: Bryce Williams
Lion: "His middle initial?"
Prey: Oh...uh...
Lion: "O?"
Prey: Uh...Yeah...O
Lion: "How many flower girls?"
Prey: 2
Lion: "How many groomsman?"
Prey: 3
Etc. etc. etc.

As soon as my dearly beloved, Bryce, and I were registered newlyweds, the modeling began. Of course only the most expensive dresses were brought out. Only the best for my Bryce. You could almost see the desire in the Lion's eyes and the drool in her mouth. As one of the girls pulled out a camera to take a few shots of me walking down the catwalk of deceit, she was quickly reprimanded by an onlooking predators. "There's no pictures. I'm sorry ma'am." I saw our plan crumble before my eyes. Who would believe we had pulled this off with any proof? With a tear in my eye, I informed her that my mother lived out of the state and she couldn't make it to help with the wedding preparations. The lions backed off, afraid of the "stressed out bride hormones" they were all too familiar with in their line of work. After all of our names, sizes, and dress style were put into the registry, we decided it was time to call it a day. We left with promises to return closer to the wedding day to retrieve the dresses.

So I suppose this means I have a few apologies to make:

David- Terribly sorry for your wasted time. But if you could do me a favor and take my name out of your registry, my mailbox at school can only hold so much junk mail. Although, I must admit the free (with the purchase of a $10,000 dress) 7 days honeymoon cruise was tempting...

Courtney - Our time together was almost as exciting as watching the Discovery Channel. Although for the first time in history, the prey escaped. Sorry!

Anyone with the name of Bryce O. Williams - Pure coincidence. I swear!

All my love,
Mrs. Bryce O. Williams

In with the Boss

"Good Afternoon! Thank you for calling CFS. This is McKenzie. How can I help you?"

God has put me in yet another situation to learn how to be grateful. My Dad, who is a business owner, has allowed me the privilege of working at his office as a secretary for the summer. Why is this an amazing opportunity? I get to make my own hours. I am paid better than I would be at any other summer job I could have. I get to spend most of the day with my Dad. Why can't I seem to remember the awesomeness of all this? I sit at a desk for 4 hours a day observing the comings and goings of the gas station across the street. Every once in a while the phone will ring, and when it does I am filled with mixed emotions. "Sweet! I have something to do!" "Please God, don't let them ask me a question." I have decent people skills, which would be what landed me the job to begin with, but I have the knowledge of a 2 year old when it comes to the workings of the business. But, being the boss' daughter, I play up the cuteness factor and plead ignorance, and it usually works out for the best. Although there was that one time when I put the decimal point in the wrong place. I guess $7,000.00 is different than $70,000.00. Who knew?
So today I decided I needed to begin to look on the bright side of this. So here are some of the accomplishments that have flourished from 1-5:00 M-F...

1.) I am not an avid reader, but with four hours in front of me I have managed to put on my reading glasses and dive into a few books that have been in my "someday" pile for sometime. To date I've spent some quality time with Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz, and Shaine Claiborne's Irresistable Revolution.

2.) I found a website that has the capabilities of curing even the most chronic cases of boredom. http://www.bored.com/

3.) During a usual afternoon of gas station blues, I began Googling everything from BP's mission statement to the Columbus Zoo's Panda Bears. Somewhere inbetween I typed in "Inner-City Teaching." (To catch some of you up to speed, this is the plan for my Someday. I want to teach in the inner-city of Chicago. I'm sure there will be more on this later.) The first link was to an organization called the Inner-City Teaching Corps. It seems like a reputable source (although I haven't been able to find ANYONE who has heard of it, probably not a good sign.) and I am excited to check into it further.

So aside from the occasional phone mishap and the excitement of the thriving fuel industry, God has used this experience to mold me further into who I am to become. I guess it does pay to have an in with the Boss.

Eat Your Veggies

The book Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne should come with a warning label. THIS BOOK WILL RUIN ALL YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS. I would recommend everyone read it.

It has made my comfortable life uncomfortable. It has shown me how my feet are firmly planted in my comfort zone. My feeble attempts at stretching my comfort zone were really just to make me more comfortable. I would go to a convention, hear a good sermon, or listen to a "good person" talk and begin to hear a buzz in my ear. Something would pull my earplugs of everyday noise out and let me hear the whisper in my soul, "Kenzie, there's more. You're missing the main point. You're feet are firmly grounded in perception, come see my reality." But after being filtered through my immature-Christian ears I would hear the Sunday school answers being screamed in my ear. "PRAY! SING! INVITE PEOPLE TO CHRUCH! READ YOUR BIBLE!" So I would read my Bible for a week. But I would read the comfort food verses. You know those feel good verses we read over and over again, highlight and leave the ribbon bookmark in, to make ourselves comfortable again. Like "God works for the good of those who love him." but we conveniently overlook "if you love me, you will obey what I command." and "do you love me? feed my sheep." Those aren't highlighted or marked with bookmarks because verses like that require action. They require movement. And once I had run out of Biblical mashed potatoes, I would be done and would sprint deeper into my comfort zone. I had silenced the already faint whisper and was ready to continue my life of comfort.

I've reached a place in my life where that's not enough. I have begin to dig deeper into the Word and reading the words in between the highlighted verses and saw my calling. So I challenge you, read between the highlights. Read the uncomfortable verses. Read the verses that call you to action. Eat the fruits and veggies that God is serving, and leave the comfort food for another day.

You may be asking yourself "Why would I want to read something that is going to make me feel uncomfortable?" and to that I would have only this to say: When you start eating your veggies, start with this one, Luke 9:23-27.