The Fitelsons are alive and well!

Wow time flies! Yes, we are alive and well, and still very busy. The school year has just ended for both the high schoolers and Fuller, which means we get about a week to breathe before summer kicks off.

This week I completed two things that have had me swamped and stressed: Fuller graduation, which I was largely responsible for, and my Spring quarter class. Graduation took up all my time at work, and writing my final paper for my Spirituality class took all my time outside of work! Since Wednesday I've had some time to relax and it's been great.

On the youth ministry side of life, we had a great time at the FCC family camp on Memorial Day weekend (including Danny's annual "ballers only" grass volleyball game), Danny planned and executed a great grad banquet for the seniors, we had our last Tuesday night for the year, and now we're ramping up for the summer.

The past few weeks my youth ministry self and Fuller student self have been able to collide since my final paper for a class on spirituality was about teens and spirituality. As part of my research, I read Mark Yaconelli's book "Contemplative Youth Ministry" and was blown away by it. I highly recommend it to anyone in youth ministry or who has teenagers in their life. It's made me see the kids in our youth group in new ways and made me feel more convicted to be a good role model.

The most exciting news in our little family is that we have booked tickets to Italy in October! We are both in need of a vacation and I can't wait to explore a new culture and country I've never seen. It will be Danny's first time overseas, and he's starting to get excited - mostly because we saved a ton of money by going in October instead of August. We'll spend 3 days in Rome and 3 in Florence. We welcome any travel tips from those of you who have been to those cities! I've got about 20 travel books and am loving reading them with expectancy.

I'm off to bed. I hope to post more news and some pictures soon. At the moment I'm too sleepy to remember anything we've done the past three months, so I'll call it a night. Leave us some love!