She's Got Moxie.

Today is Museum Comes To Life Day! The first thing I thought of when I saw this holiday coming up on my list was think "What an excellent opportunity to watch both of the Night at the Museum movies". That is also exactly what I just got done doing. Yes, I woke up at 8, ate some breakfast, and then watched two movies in a row. In an hour, I'll go to my job. Such is the life of a college student in the summer.

The Night at the Museum movies are pretty awesome, and you'd have to admit that such an occurrence would be something that you would most definitely want to involve yourself in. Not to mention that Amy Adams (Amelia Earhart in NatM 2) is probably one of my favourite actresses of the age and I will more than willingly watch anything that she stars in. However, I'm not here to talk about how great she is.

If you haven't seen the movies, it pretty much revolves around a father's (Ben Stiller) relationship with his son (Jake Cherry) and the struggle the father goes through to fix the problems that lie within it. Oh, the father also works at a museum where everything comes to life at night because the museum holds the ancient egyptian pharaoh Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek) and his magical golden tablet. It's full of jokes, great actors, and monkeys, so you can't really go wrong. It's also family friendly, which is a big plus these days.

All the movie reviewing aside, today could be celebrated my way if you are like me and have no money, or you could go to an actual museum. I, having already been to two museums this year AND being broke, chose my way. I don't even know if there are many more museums near me that are within my budget when I DO have money. Ah well, celebrate today however you choose. As long as it's museum related. Although I do strongly recommend my way, because that Amy Adams... she is talented...

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Flowers in the sidewalk

Today is Festival of Life in the Cracks Day! This holiday was quite difficult to find any solid information on, but I think I now have a good idea of what it means. I'm fairly sure that anyone who has ever walked on a sidewalk has seen a crack from which a plant is growing or thousands of ants are traveling in and out of. Those would be examples of life in a crack. Now, I know that most of the things that live in those places are not usually on the top of our celebrating list. After all,  cracks, crevasses, and holes are where the creepy crawlers live. No person in their right mind would put their hand under a shady rock in the desert, and they definitely wouldn't celebrate the scorpion that they find. But, today is their day of celebration. That doesn't mean you have to go out of your way to have a one-on-one talk with that spider under your fridge that seems to just be sitting and waiting for its perfect chance to bite your toes, though.

I like to think of it as more of a celebration of the fact that life even can exist in such a place. They're small, dark, and cramped enough that I hardly even notice them most of the time. When I do think about it, though, it's pretty cool that a flower can find it's way through the tiniest little hole in the concrete. If anything, it stands out more than a flower in a field of flowers like it. I know that the flower in the cement is hardy simply because of where it has grown out of. Not to mention the bright color of it's petals in front of grey cement just makes it more noticeable.

So, if you really wanted to, you could make this a day to remember that a life in the cracks, although it can feel small, dark, and cramped, can be very rewarding after you get through that space. Much like the flower in the cement, it's easy to tell which people in life have been through some difficult situations or cracks in their life and come out better for it. Take today to also celebrate that they, like the flowers, are examples that it can be done.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

What is this?

I was hoping to put a post up yesterday, but my laptop was rejecting the charger for some reason. It's all fixed now, though and you needn't worry. The only reason I wanted it to be yesterday was for the slightly odd reason that both previous posts had been on a wednesday. Well, onto what I want to talk about.

To give you the slightest amount of insight as to what this blog will entail, I figure that introducing myself to you will give you an idea of what to expect. My name is Kyle, and I live in Texas, USA. I have spent the better portion of my life in the same state, city, road, and house. I have a mom, dad, and two brothers in my immediate family. I am the middle of the three children, and am also a boy. I am 20 years old, graduated high school in 2008, and am currently going to college. I have made my way through various sections of my life in vastly different ways, but I'll save those detailed stories for later posts. I have gone to church for as long as I can remember. I have gotten involved in ministry more recently as a counselor in my church's youth group, as well as a summer camp for people that are seniors in high school all the way down to some middle schoolers.

This brings me to why I made this blog. You see, for the past two years I have gone overseas to England and Wales to help with the youth camp there, but have been having a hard time explaining to others what happens while I am over there. I would come home, tell stories, and show pictures, but I still couldn't get what I felt across to the people I told. So, I came up with the idea to simply make a blog with words, videos, and pictures of the events that I saw as I saw them, and fairly close to when they were actually happening. However, it came to my attention that a blog that was only updated for about a week every year would soon probably lose momentum, due to my short attention span. So I instead decided to include you all in as much of my life as possible! I plan to, at the start of the new year, be updating at least one of the sites that I mentioned in the first posts often enough to both keep myself accountable, and keep you up-to-date with my progress in general. Especially including my efforts to raise sufficient funds to be able to go on tour with the youth camp (which by the way is called LIFT), as it can sometimes be a little daunting to do, especially as I am still hunting for a job.

So, now you know a little more. I look forward to updating again, and I hope you look forward to hearing more from me!
~Kyle