Bonfire Night

Note to Reader: I've been gone a long time. A really long time. In the past year I've become a youth group leader (boy is that material for a future post!) student taught, graduated college, substitute taught, and started a master's degree. Life has finally started to settle into a comfy routine for me so I hope that this time around I can manage to keep up with this crazy thing I call my blog! Bear with me! If I don't post, yell at me. Please. Help me!

Sitting around a bonfire is a pretty common place for my memories to occur. I can't tell you how many great memories I have that involve fire. Logan and Debbie's hair, Peter and the blanket monster, singing around the fire, melting pop cans...the list goes on and on. I made another memory around a bonfire last night.

A bonfire. Not the bonfire from the night we're

talking about but one very similar to it from the past.

Debbie had the Sr. BYF (technically since I'm the Jr. BYF leader now I'm not Sr. BYF, but we pretend whenever I don't have a Jr. BYF event at the same time) over to her house for a bonfire last night. Her rule is no roasting anything (that developed shortly after Logan caught someone's hair on fire) so we had pizza instead. Before it got dark, the boys and younger girls played basketball leaving Debbie, Sarah, JulieBeth, and I mostly to ourselves around the fire. We talked and caught up a bit on life since the 4 of us rarely get to talk these days. After it got dark, the younger kids came over and we all moved in closer to the fire (it was really cold for mid-September!). We talked for awhile longer and eventually started singing some of our favorite church songs. Anyone who knows the majority of us knows that singing is basically a staple in any church event we have. It's what we do.

Then suddenly out of the blue, Debbie says, "Alright, I have to teach you girls (the girls is typically Sarah, JulieBeth, and I) something." So naturally we say "Okay." The next words from her mouth would have shocked us 10 years ago. They seem like a normal thing to say now. This should sufficiently prove to you our insanity. She says, and I quote, "I have to teach you to play your noses in harmony!". So like any "normal" 20 something year old girls, we immediately do what she is doing and "tune up" our noses, laughing all the while. I unfortunately had a cold that didn't permit me to properly "play". Later after I went the the bathroom and returned with a "clear" nose, I announced it to the girls and Deb and we proceeded to tune up again and play "Amazing Grace" on our noses. In harmony. It was a proud moment.

The younger kids were staring. Ari asked, "Did you guys just play Amazing Grace on your noses?". "Why yes, yes we did!" we replied proudly. I couldn't see in the dark, but I'm pretty sure they were rolling their eyes and shaking their heads at us. But that's okay. One day they'll look back and remember the night the older girls entertained them with nose harmony (not to mention the "scary story" Debbie told about the night her and Letha first began to play their noses in harmony in the creepy James Woods) and they'll smile and realize that they too were making memories!