I didn't choose the good life, the good life chose me.

(Please note the Tupac reference. I changed the quote but obviously I am still living the thug life. It goes without saying. Also, who uses parentheses at the beginning of something? What?)

Oh hi there! The rest of this Thanksgiving break has been entirely wonderful. Thought maybe I would update you on my life, and maybe start with an Instagram recap since it really does show exactly what's going on in my life.

1. Being artsy with fake candles. Sometimes I try too hard. It's whatever.

2. Baking adventures with my momma for Thanksgiving day brunch.

3. An incredible brunch full of friends and food!

4. My tacky finds during Black Friday shopping with Gnomes (sadly not pictured).

5. Crafting night. Holla at yo Pinterest gurl. 

6. Sunday morning Chicago adventures.

Friends at Michelle's Thanksgiving brunch. Ben was the sole male representation in the crowd. He was a great sport about it. Michelle was an incredible hostess and we always love when she bakes. I think I gained 5 pounds Thursday morning. We had a lovely time getting fat together and being weirded out by the Thanksgiving Day Parade (did anyone else see those 80s dancers wearing nothing but spandex thongs?). After brunch I had Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. Quiet, until we decided to watch all 10 Friends Thanksgiving episodes. Literally hours of laughter.

Friday Carolyn, Katharine and I went to Chipotle for lunch and decided to take some family pictures afterward. You know, for our Christmas card. Because we're a family. Mrs. Hinkamp is always hilarious and I love that there are about 20 blurry photos of us and 3 good ones.

We also made puppy chow at Katharine's and got kisses from Maddie.

 

And cried over letters telling us we are State Scholars. AKA really smart. AKA go Katharine! And wore footie pajamas and painted pretty canvases like we see on Pinterest. Notice how Carolyn and I stuck to our motivational quotes and Katharine decided to paint Pocahontas. Carolyn's says "Today is the greatest!" and mine say "Kindness is just love with its work boots on."

 From left: Annie, Grace, Kate, Olivia, Dani, Anna, Emily, Kendall, Christine

Saturday night my old small group from church went out to dinner. There were nine of us, half freshmen in college and half seniors in high school. We live everywhere from Nashville to Michigan now that some of us are in college and it was incredible to all be together again. I love that God has made these friendships strong enough to cover miles. I loved that we put all our phones in the middle for the entire dinner so everyone would be present during dinner, and I loved that we did "3-minute catch-ups" to hear about what's going on in everyone's lives. I love that we genuinely care about and support each other through everything.

The Thankful Wall

"What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?"
Scary, right? Right.

Thanksgiving is a little bit of a wake-up call for me after three straight months of English papers and Kinesis rehearsals and weekend trips and Young Life dinners and clubs and life. I love being busy and involved and always having something to do. I don't think I could live life at a slow pace. 

But giving thanks is important. And that's why I decided to let it take over my room and make the "Thankful Wall" (that feels cheesy and I love it). It's to remind myself that being thankful for what you have can be lost in the shuffle of taking for granted what you have. I don't like that and I want to change it!

If you must know, a small part of the reason I made the Thankful Wall is because I hate empty white space and I have an abundance of colored Sharpies. I went to town and may or may not have cleaned out our supply of notecards. But in the process I got to think about the incredible blessings in my life and I think that is totally worth it.

So, in case you were wondering, here is a (by no means exhaustive) visual representation of what I am thankful for this year.

I know what you're thinking. "But Kendall, that's only 39 things you are thankful for! I bet there is so much more!" Of course there's more. I really loved thinking about everything I am thankful for, and that's why for the next 39 days, I will be putting up one more thing I am thankful for - that's until December 30th! I am excited to cover all the space on my doors in the next month.

 Thankful for wonderful books like Love Does written by wonderful people like Bob Goff that remind me how wonderful life is. Seriously. Wonderful.

Thankful for a month spent with some of the most incredible people I know, serving campers and more importantly, God. These kids leak Jesus. I can't wait to see them in January!

Thankful that my parents moved here almost completely so I could have a phenomenal education. Thankful that I've learned education is more than memorizing words on a page. 

Thankful for this wonderful group of 23 that I get to spend so much time with every day, dancing or just goofing off. (And yes, I did make a card being thankful for bows that is directly above this one. You bet I did.)

A big heck of an "I'm thankful for..." for Young Life. Thankful for the people I've met and the opportunities I've had and the ways my faith has grown.

Always.

Thankful for my silly, goofy parents who have taught me so much about being my own person, among a million other things.

Thankful for this show that basically defined my childhood. Also thankful that we have all ten seasons on DVD that I may or may not stow away in my suitcase for college.

Thankful that I can be thankful for silly things like Pinterest. Thankful for my biggest time-waster and creativity-sparker.

Thankful for this band that has played the soundtrack of my life for so long now. Thankful for being able to see them in concert so many times.

What are you thankful for?

"He seriously thinks you are the cat's meow!"

Oh hey there. Yes you are still reading about Fall Weekend. Great, hope you are excited! :)

Best friend pics. The first one is us trying to be normal and the second one is us being ourselves. 

Senior swag. Notice how two of the "S"s are backwards. Sorry we're not sorry...

Shenanigans.

AJ and Tyler angry about the Glitter Patrol.

Saturday afternoon we had the Muck Fest. Imagine 300 people throwing flour and shaving cream at each other. Crazy. I have been to Fall Weekend four times and it still freaks me out when people run at me with hands full of shaving cream.

After Muck Fest it was time for the annual YL North Shore football game. This year it was New Trier vs. GBS. I honestly can't tell you who won though, because I took about 80 pictures of us standing on the sidelines and about 1 of the actual game. To us the most entertaining part of the game was the costumes. Can you spot the raunchy police officer? Hilarious.

Then it was picture time!

Fall Weekend 2011

Fall Weekend 2012: How well we replicated the original is up for debate. My excuse for why I look extremely troubled is that I was thinking, "This is my last Fall Weekend ever..."

I am seriously so thankful for Mal! We decided to recreate the picture we took together last year at Fall Weekend in the exact same spot. It may or may not have turned out decently but we decided that taking funny face pictures was much more fun. Mal is endless laughter and wisdom and that is a seriously wonderful combination. I keep telling her that she has to visit me in college or I won't know what to do! Even if I'm a YL leader next year, I'm still going to need my own leader!

Sarah, Mal

Kara, Heather

Mal, Alana

We loved Ben's football gear but he decided to be sad because he didn't get to play in the final game. It's okay though because Kevin was a good friend and decided to cheer him up. But I told ya we were serial sideline snappin'! Get it? Get it? (Yeah my jokes are terrible. Just nod and smile.)

The sunset over camp on Saturday was incredible. It reminded me of sunsets at Timber Wolf this summer. I love that God created a beautiful place like Lake Geneva and that we got to spend an absolutely incredible 48 hours there without worrying or stressing or anything. 

A mattress in a tree. Only at Young Life camp. Seriously.

Before dinner we hung out at the coffee shop and LK got a picture with her "husband", Spiderman, who had been dressed up all afternoon. I love how easily friendships are formed at Fall Weekend and Young Life camp in general. People are so nice and instead of it being weird when you say hi to people you don't know, it's weird if you don't say hi to them.

Saturday night we were treated to a concert by musical-prodigy-in-residence, Blake Aaron Guthrie. We all "aww"ed at his love songs and listened intently when he talked about his journey with Jesus. I heard Blake two years ago at Work Weekend, and it just seemed like a God thing for me that he was back again for the last time I will be at Fall Weekend with the North Shore. 

It is crazy to me that the next time I might be on Fall Weekend or Polar Bear Weekend or Winter Weekend or any combination of the three is with a different YL area when I'm in college. I am so thankful for my four Fall Weekends with YL North Shore. I can't believe the first time I had ever heard of Young Life was November 2009 when I stepped on the bus to my very first Fall Weekend -- that's what started it all!

"How much does a polar bear weigh? Enough to break the ice!"

The first thing I did today when I got home from Fall Weekend was go on Pinterest. Surprising? Probably not. So I also shouldn't have been surprised when this was one of the first pins on my feed:

Sista, preach. I am not kidding when I say that Fall Weekend is the silliest and most ridiculous weekend of the year. It must be the combination of living with 50 other girls in cabins down the hall, the incredible amount of sugar and junk food we all bring with us, and being able to "unplug" from our phones and actually live in the moment instead of getting caught up in liking photos on Instagram sending selfies on Snapchat.

Young Life North Shore drove up to Lake Geneva, WI for Fall Weekend this year. It is our second year going for Fall Weekend and my fourth trip there--I went both sophomore and junior years for Work Weekend as well. Lake Geneva isn't the same as Timber Wolf but I love it just as much. We left on Friday night and you could practically feel how excited everyone was.

Lauren-Kate, Annie, Alaynah, Kendall, Caroline

Meet my cabin! There were 4 senior girls and our leader, Alaynah. It is YL North Shore tradition to wear onesies to our first breakfast of Fall Weekend. I seriously love traditions like these. It's hilarious to see the reactions of the kids from other areas when 20 or 30 girls all show up to breakfast looking like adult-size babies. But what I also love is that everyone thinks it's funny and everyone is all in. There is no "I'm too cool for this" or "I don't want to" at Fall Weekend. I love laughing at myself and I'm glad my friends are people who do too.

Another YL tradition: ketchup writing. It seriously sucks for the people washing dishes, but this is just too hilarious to pass up. During breakfast a leader came up to our table and delivered a plate with three ketchup hearts on it. Hilarious. We had to find out who had sent it and we had to write back, pronto. Oh and of course I had to capture it. Below are the messages we received from our not-so-secret admirer table:

A collective invitation to Homecoming. Why not?

Oh thanks. We were glad that some teenage boys actually appreciated the modesty and cold-weather protection of the onesie. We promptly sent back some winky faces and more hearts.

More onesie photoshoots. If you were ever wondering, it is hilariously awkward to wear a onesie and it is even more hilariously awkward to have to pose for a picture in a onesie alone. Tyler and Gabbie took different approaches in order to handle the awkward.

First club of Saturday! Whatever Young Life camp I go to, I am always so happy when I step into the club room. There is so much anticipation for club and being able to break through those doors and sprint to the front of the room, so close to the stage, is seriously one of the best feelings ever. I love the excitement when the next song we can belt at the top of our lungs comes on and how everyone knows program by the end of the weekend and recites the lines along with the program characters. I love that this weekend we brought people who had never been to club - how awesome that your first YL Club is with a couple hundred other people?

It was Hannah's birthday and obviously we have to have a better celebration than singing Happy Birthday. You bet we do - spooning her plate! No not the cuddling version. The Young Life version. Obviously we got a little off track with the other silverware and sandwiches and such, but you get it. Happy birthday Hannah! And Tatum and Cailin too!

The North Shore girls decided to get crazy for mealtime once again and give ourselves eye black, football player style... except with glitter. It was hilarious to see people shedding glitter and establishing the Glitter Patrol with Alaynah and the girls in my cabin - basically meaning we went up to the North Shore boys and forced them to wear the glitter too.

 Parker loves the Glitter Patrol. Glitter in the beard. Sounds like a Ke$ha song. 

Are they trying to be pretty? Are they trying to be ugly? You'll never know.

Team 2 loves field games! There was a little bit of struggling during Baby, Backpack, Bronco...

 ...but obviously we still had a wonderful time!

(p.s. this is only Part 1 of Fall Weekend, so whoopsie daisy if you read till the end and are angry that I am not yet done talking about our 48 hours of fun!)