Back on Track!

Hey everyone!!! I'm done writing about my New Orleans trip now... I could tell I was losing some of you! :)

Anyway, since I'm looking forward to having more posts about other random things... I wanted to get your opinion.

What would you like to see on my blog? I have a few fun posts coming up, but I want to get your thoughts.

Here are some of my suggestions:

Fashion Contest (send me pics of your ideal outfit)
Photo Challenge
Giveaway/Contest
Awards

Tell me what your most interested in by leaving me a comment below. If you suggest something else that isn't listsed, then you can also comment that below. :)

Thanks friends & followers!
~Michlyn

Pinterest Post

Hey everyone!

You might have seen Pinterest labels in a couple places on my blog recently. If you recall, I did a post about maybe getting a Pinterest account right here.

Well, I did get one and I LOVE it! Pinterest is so fun, and I have tried a few things that I've found on there. I don't get thousands of emails and I do enjoy looking at random stuff. :)

For those of you who haven't heard of Pinterest, it's like an online pinboard where you "pin" ideas and thoughts. You can make "boards" (as many as you want) and each has their own theme. You can follow people and "repin" their pins onto your boards. Then when you start to get the hang of it, people will start to follow you too.

I have 22 followers and am following 52 people. You can also look up people you know and see if they have a Pinterest account. :)

It may sound complicated and at first I wasn't sure if I liked it. But now, when I have nothing to do... I can look on Pinterest for something to try or make. It's got some pretty creative things on there!

Anyway, enough explaining. You might have seen a new button on the sidebar of my blog called "Pinterest Weekly". Once every week, I'll be posting a few of my favorite pins from Pinterest. I have been trying to think of something fun, and thought that doing this would be a great idea to share what I love!

If you have a Pinterest account, you can click that button "Follow me on Pinterest" and it should bring you right to my account. Also, if you would like... you can share my blog with your Pinterest followers by clicking the "Pin it" button. 

Thanks everyone & I'll be looking for any one of you on Pinterest!

~Michlyn

*Updated* Comment Moderation

**Update!! I haven't had any spam or junky comments come to my attention at all, since I started comment moderation. Sooo, thankfully I can take it back off and you can all go commenting about! :) **

Hello to all my amazing followers! :)

I just wanted to let you all know, that I have turned on my comments moderation. Which means, that before any comments are published on my blog (anywhere) an email will be sent to me, so I know it's ok to publish.

I've had some spam and junk comments posted on my blog recently, and it's getting kind of annoying. Please if you see any comment that is spam, has lots of links, or even bad words - Please do not click or open it. If you can, just email me and tell me where the comment is and which post it is on.

I would hate for viruses to be sent to your computers or mine - or worse have to take my blog down for a short period of time. I think that I've erased most of the junky comments, but if you see one I would really appreciate it if it was brought to my attention.

I know that none of you have commented bad things on my blog. For the comments that I am concerned about, were all written by someone anonymous.

Thanks for reading, and for your patience! I still allow comments by anyone, but I want to make sure they are kind and clean. :) Hopefully after a little while, I can take the moderation off again!

If you have any kind words or questions, comment below or email me! mkfisher007@aol.com

~Michlyn

New Orleans Day 7

We traveled through the night, driving through Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee. We arrived in Missouri at about 7 am. Many of us still sleeping on the seats, laying on the floor, talking to our friends, or staring out the window. Our eyes still looking sleepy and our bodies not ready for a busy day yet.

 

Matt wearing 8 pairs of sunglasses - Fun times! :)

Once we ate some breakfast, we met back in the bus for another 4 hours drive to our next destination... Six Flags!! For those of you who have not heard of Six Flags, it is an amusement park. There are several throughout the United States, but the one we got to go to was in St. Louis. The thing was... Friday was 106F outside, with strong humidity. We all had to drink one water bottle before we headed in our small groups. We also had to each have a water bottle, be checking on each other for headaches or nausea, put lots of sunscreen on, and drink even more water.

 

 

*Thanks to Kayla for the Six Flags pics*

It was a great day enjoyed by all, and tomorrow we would all arrive home to our families. God had worked on every single one of our hearts, and we couldn't thank Him enough for the amazing opportunity we gave us. This trip was incredible! A video coming soon of our fun trip... it's just not quite ready. :)

~Michlyn

New Orleans Day 6

It was the last day of the conference. :( It had been one of the best and amazing weeks ever! We learned so much, and grew closer to God in our faith. It was Thursday, and the night before we had been busy packing.

Our room was sooo messy... *ahem* hint: 3 teenage girls.

Erin hiding from the mess :)

Everything had to be packed, and ready to go before we left for the Convention Center Thursday morning. Our rooms had to be checked over, and clean. It was a pretty hectic morning. Even though it was our last day - The gatherings, huddles, food, music, and speakers were all still amazing!!!!! We spent most of our day outside, and we weren't quite ready to say goodbye to New Orleans.

We heard Shane Stacey that night, and he was such a good speaker. He talked about really good topics, and it was a great way to end the week. Plus we got to sing our praises with Kristian Stanfill one more time too.

*Photos by Challenge Staff*

Thursday night, we all gathered in a conference room to go over the plan, and then head on the bus for home.

Good bye New Orleans, we'll miss you!!

Bus adventures and Six Flags tomorrow!
~Michlyn

New Orleans Day 5

Wednesday meant that there was only 2 whole days left of the conference. :( It was also the 4th of July!!

Like every morning, we went to the gathering and then did our huddles outside.

Since it was the fourth of July, after lunch we got to spend some of the day site-seeing! We took a trolley ride down about 6 blocks, then walked through a small town. We saw a cathedral, and the Andrew Jackson statue. 

The bummer thing was, that since it was sooo humid all the time... It would randomly rain for a while, then it would cool down. So after this it started down-pouring and we had to walk six blocks in the rain, getting soaking wet. Oh well, it was definitely a memory. After the rain stopped, we made it to River Walk again. This time we had about 2 1/2 hours of free time to shop! It was a blast!

Fountains outside of River Walk

That night, at the gathering they set up small stations. This is when everyone, all 5500 students could make their way to each station, and do an activity. Here's an example of one.

This was called "The Curtain". The white sheets, were long pieces of cloth. There were 3 of them, and on all of them... messages & prayers FILLED them. It was amazing to see all the praises and prayers being lifted up to our King. Truly incredible.

After the gathering that night, the worship was incredible! Kristian Stanfill (look him up) really knew how to get over 5000 teenagers pumped for Jesus. The room just overflowed with love for our God. :)

Since it was the 4th of July, we got to go see a really small show of fireworks. They had already started them when we were in the gathering, but it was still fun to see. 

Such a fun way to end the night! Plus we were all a little hyper too... haha we are teenagers!

~Michlyn

New Orleans Day 4

This day it was Tuesday! The night before, some girls from the 7th or 8th floor were throwing ice off their balcony. We told them to stop, but long story short they damaged a car. So the Challenge staff made a rule that the balconies were off limits for the rest of the week. We were really mad because we did nothing wrong, and yet something that we enjoyed was taken away from us.

The view of our hotel from the ground.

One Tuesday after our morning gathering and huddle, we met up with the Milaca youth group. We were all going to do a prayer walk together. Unfortunately, our bus got another flat tire and we were unable to and so we waited around in the conference hall for 4 hours just hanging out.

So after we hung around for a while, we all met upstairs and got in groups so we could do prayer stations. Tuesday was kind of a boring day because only half the group was able to do the prayer station, and the other half (which included me, Beka, and my sister Erin) had their own quiet prayer walk.

We know we glorified our God the best we could, because no matter how many glitches there were - It was all to honor Him. :)

Then we had another amazing dinner. Which I just want to mention... that ALLLL of the food was incredible. The people who worked there really knew what they were doing. Such a blessing not to have to worry about what to cook for a large group.


  
Propaganda (spoken word artist)          Kristian Stanfill (singer)                   Emory Colvin (drama)

All the speakers, artists, and Emory (the only actress) were all so amazing!! You could feel the power in their words, and how strongly they felt with every topic they talked about.

But sadly the week was passing way too fast! More adventures coming soon!
~Michlyn

Photo Challenge

I'm entering Brooke's Photo Challenge! I absolutely love this picture, and thought that it couldn't hurt to at least try and enter. :) This is my littlest sister, she is from Ethiopia, Africa. A family who traveled with my parents adopted this little boy from a different orphanage. We live about 4 hours away from them, so it's fun to have little reunions ever once and a while. This was when they came to visit us, at our house. :)

Her rules:
1. The picture MUST be of a child.
2. To enter, put your photo in a post on your blog, link back to me, then post your link to your post in a comment on my blog.
3. If you do not have a blog and wish to enter, email me the picture at brooke.stutzman2@gmail.com.
4. Enter only one photo per entry.
5. Editing is allowed.:] 
6. You must be a follower of my blog via GFC.
7. The deadline to enter is the 17th.
8. It must be taken by you.

~Michlyn

New Orleans Day 3

Sunday night was so much fun! Since we all had balconies off our hotel rooms, we would all go hang out and talk to each other on them. We would meet people, and holler to them a couple floors down and ask where they were from. A bunch of fun! :) That night we were up until about 1 in the morning, and had to get some sleep.

Monday morning came way too quick, and Beka woke me up at about 6:00 am. So I quietly got out of the bed that 3 of us shared, and snuck out onto our balcony. It was just the right temperature, no one else was up yet, and the early morning view was gorgeous!

The balconies, and the morning view

On Monday, we went to the morning gathering and then started our "huddles". Every youth group at the conference did a huddle after each gathering. In our huddles we would answer questions from the sermon, and just talk about what stuck out to us the most.

Frances Chan spoke that morning, and that was his little boy. Such a good example and sermon!!

The Girls

The Guys

Then later that day after lunch, a group of us went to play dodge ball at the Hilton hotel. Just about a 12 minute walk from our hotel. Since we only had 9 people from our youth group, we teamed up with 6 girls from a youth group in Chicago to help us. It was so much fun!

Our group that went

The group, with the girls we met. I thought it was a pretty cool shot with the ball in the center. :)

Some random pictures... Dodge ball was definitely a high light from the trip.

We ended winning 3rd place out of the whole tournament! Thanks to the girls that helped us, and they were super nice too!

We ended the day by going to the evening gathering and worshiping our amazing God! This trip was really getting exciting!


~Michlyn

New Orleans Day 2

After an entire night on the bus... we stopped at 7 in the morning to get a McDonalds breakfast. :) Then it was on the road until about 10:00 am. At about 10:30 am we finally reached New Orleans!!!!!

They were pretty excited, we were finally there! :)

River Walk - A very popular place, we went there about 3 or 4 times on the trip.

After we got all of our luggage to the hotel safely, we did some site-seeing at River Walk and also had lunch there. We couldn't get into our hotel rooms until about 1:30 pm. As soon as everyone met together after lunch, we made our way to the convention center to register for the week.

Once we registered, we all walked back to the hotel. Some of our friends got their hotel rooms at about 2:00. Unfortunately there were many of us waiting for 4 or 5 hours for our hotel room. It was not good! We've been on a bus for 26 hours, we haven't showered since we left, and we're exhausted and tired - Please just get us a room!!

We were so tired of waiting, and really needed to get a room. :(

So finally at about 4:30 we got our room, and made our way to the 14th floor! It was such a great room and it had a balcony too!

A drawer in the hotel that was full of our snacks! :) We brought a lot.

We all showered, got ready, and then walked around the hotel a bit. At about 6:00 we all met in the lobby to leave for the first conference that night!

Lots of people (including us) making their way to the convention center!

Everything is NEW! :)

The conference started out amazing, and we couldn't wait for this trip to really begin! 

~Michlyn