Well, like Jessica and Kaitlin, after I finished posting my mission trip journal, there were still some things that I didn't really cover, so I'm going to make a couple "supplemental" posts. This one is going to be about paper plates. I'm going to do another one on Leadership Camp, and then there might be one or two more... who knows.

Paper plates are a mission trip tradition. At the end of each trip, each team member makes a paper plate - using markers, stickers, Kleenex, Skittles, whatever - for each of the other team members. Each plate includes what the recipient is a "Model of Excellence" in (this is serious and is usually a character trait or special talent that the person has), and what they are "Most Likely to Become" (which is silly and can be anything from "Winner of a Nose-Blowing Contest" to "Male Hair Model" [those were two from the East Coast mission trip, which Jessica went on]). I got some pretty fun ones, and they reminded me of some aspects of the mission trip that I haven't posted about yet, so I'm going to talk through them. Let me warn you on the front end that to most of you, this will probably be pretty boring! But to AIM people - especially those who have been on mission trips - hopefully you'll be able to identify with some of this stuff!

From Rachel Brown (age 8): Model of Excellence - encouraging. Most likely to become - a radio news person. I'm not really sure where that came from. I remember at one point we were talking about a radio interview I had to do for Pennies for Heaven, so that might be where that originated. That's definitely a career I had never considered.

From Emily Brown: Model of Excellence - brave. I thought that was neat because I tend to be really timid and shy, but I did step out of my comfort zone on the mission trip... I did some things that were pretty hard for me. I'm not even sure what a comfort zone is anymore. :) Most likely to become - a public news reporter. A media career again! I really don't know why she thinks that is me. I think Andrew said once, when somebody asked what sort of stuff to put for that, to just put what you could never in your life imagine that person being. So that might be where that one came from!

From Emily Voth (Emie): Model of Excellence - humility. Most likely to become - the vice president's wife. Again, I have absolutely no clue where that came from. She also included a helpful guide: "How to put on mime makeup." Needless to say, I've never done it myself, so there were a couple situations where we had to put makeup on other people and I had no idea what I was doing! It was an... interesting experience.

From Olivia: Model of Excellence - willing spirit. Most likely to become - song writer/yodeler. I think the song writer part came from the song I wrote about pink lemonade for one of our mail times. The yodeling was another mail thing. They wanted me to yodel a certain song, but I couldn't yodel and still keep the right tune. So they finally agreed to let me sing the song, and just yodel after every other word.

From Courtney: Model of Excellence - diligence. Another area that I don't always excel in, but I did well on the mission trip. Most likely to become: A famous Olympic time trainer. "We have 10 minutes... 5 minutes... 2 minutes... -4 minutes..." Whenever the team had to put makeup on quickly, I would try to keep them going by telling them how much time they had left. It was usually a very small number. I do that all the time with the Branson team, but I guess other teams never have to put on makeup in a hurry. :) It became this big joke, but I never really realized how big it was until I got my paper plates, and three of them mentioned it! Keep in mind that there were only four girls who put on makeup...
Courtney also put a little note around the edge: "I honestly don't know how I could have done my road report without you! You have been so much fun. I am so thankful you came! I love you!" I was THE road report go-to girl. The girls asked me to edit and proof their road reports before they handed them in to Andrew, and later in the trip, Andrew asked me to help him proof them. My grandma was an English major, so I guess it's genetic.
One other thing on my paper plate from Courtney was the letters "N-D." "Huh?!?" you're saying. Let me explain. Here's the note Courtney attached: "all of the other girls got the other letters to the word "friends" so when we put our plates together it will spell 'friends!'" I thought that was really neat. We all got a picture together with our plates - see below. (Courtney hadn't finished her own plate yet, so she made the letter "S" in sign language.)

From Ryan (side note: Ryan makes really good paper plates!) - Model of Excellence: Critiqueing (crossed out with "Spell it right!" written beside it) and Initiating. To become - a police interrogator. "What's your character's name?" "What's their emotion?" "Why are they doing this?" Around the outside: "TOC! EXPRESSION! TOC! EXPRESSION! TOC! EXPRESSION!" I guess I did tend to be pretty demanding during workshops! The interrogation thing - making sure people know their character as well as they know themselves - I learned from Jenny or Andrew, I don't remember which. Jessica, I'm sure you can tell me. And if I saw big, fundamental problems - like lack of tocs or expression - I was always pretty quick to jump in and make sure they got fixed. :)

From Mr. Brown - Model of Excellence: Servant's heart. Most likely to become: almost anything (because she's willing to do almost anything). I thought that was sweet. :)

From Mrs. Brown - Model of Excellence: Happily jumping in to help. She decorated the plate with frog stickers, labeled with different things I helped with: hair (the French twist that the girls wear at each presentation), MP3 (running sound), certificates (long story), road reports, teaching workshops, speaking between songs. Looking back at that list, it looks like I've posted about most of them - all except the first one (hair). Probably only people who have been involved with AIM will be able to understand this, but I'm going to post it anyway. During presentations, all the girls have to wear their hair in the French twist, so it stays out of their faces. I can do my own hair, and so could Olivia and Courtney, as I recall, but the real kicker was Emily Voth. She couldn't do her own hair, and I don't blame her. I used to think I had thick hair - but that was before I tried to do Emie's! Her hair is SO THICK that even if you can get it twisted all the way down to a ponytail at the back, it is virtually impossible to put it up in a bun or even to braid it at all. It's also pretty short. If it was a little bit longer it would be easier to braid, and then you might be able to tuck it under. But no. It is absolutely a nightmare. I remember one time we did it - I say "we" because three different girls worked on it, and it took about 30 minutes in all. I did the sides (or did Olivia? that might have been a different time) and then we got to the bottom and couldn't figure out how to do it. After trying to braid it several times, and also trying to put it up without braiding at all, we finally decided to put it in three braids at the bottom, and then loop those under. It worked, but it looked really sloppy when we were done, so we used a hair net to cover up the messy bun. We also had to use TONS of bobby pins and clips, because we couldn't get it very tight to her head during the actual twist part. It was really hysterical to watch her take them out, because they just kept coming! I think that in all, she had 20+ clips in her hair. And that was just one of the times that we had to put it up! Usually Olivia did it. She was really good at making it good and tight.
Most likely to become - time keeper for the 100 yard dash in the Olympics. She also drew a clock face on the plate, with "TWO MINUTES TO GO!" emblazoned at the top. Ha!

Andrew: I saved this one for last because it has the most memories. Each plate of his was identical on the front, and then the "Model of Excellence" and "Most Likely to Become" were written on the back.
Model of Excellence - Dependability. He has told me that before. I really love being a person that other people depend on... I love feeling needed. So I take pains to make myself needed. :)
Most likely to become - An AIM intern (!) or a newspaper editor. Let it be known that I am seriously considering both - so Andrew, if you read this, you're pretty perceptive!
Front - at the top it says "California Mission Trip 2007," with a mime face beside it. Below that are a lot of memories from the mission trip, which I will try to summarize without boring you to death.
Skittles - Andrew actually glued a couple Skittles to the plate. Skittles played an important part in this mission trip, from the bag that Rachel bought and then gave to Ryan (or was it the other way around?), to the large quantities that were used in one of our skits. Skit, you ask? Yes, we had five Bible Studies - speech, life, love, faith, and purity - and we used skits in two of them. In our purity study, we did a skit to illustrate the importance of having pure motives. It was a parody of the story of the woman who gave the two mites, while all the rich people were giving a lot more. First Olivia and I came up with a big bowl of Skittles, and poured it in to the "offering basket," all the time talking about how wonderful people would think we were, and about how many more Skittles we had at home - we weren't really giving our all. Then Courtney came up, even more prideful that we were - after all, she was giving just as many Skittles as we were, but there was only one of her, so she was twice as good! She even got a newspaper reporter (Ryan/Andrew) to take pictures of her while she was doing it (right). Then Emie would come up, and put in her two Skittles - except that she was doing it out of the right motives, not just for pride.
Our Life skit was also really fun, but I'll post that in another entry. Don't let me forget!
Next - a megaphone with "2 Timothy 1:7" written on it. During training camp, Andrew decided that he wanted us all to be able to talk loudly (read: yell) because it would come in handy in keeping kids under control. So we had yelling practice. We all stood in the corners of a big room, and the goal was to yell so loud that the person across the room from us stepped backwards. We were yelling a Bible verse - 2 Timothy 1:7. I think I did shock some people. Those of you who know me as "The Quiet One" would be surprised. Andrew said he thought that I was the loudest - with the possible exception of Olivia, who almost made Andrew step back.
Clouds with ACTION van underneath - you know in cartoons how you see people walking around with clouds over their heads? Well, substitute the AIM van for the person, and you've got a good meteorological description of the mission trip. It rained in almost every place we visited. In San Diego, we were told that it only rains three days out of the year (an exaggeration, but not mught of one). Well, we were there for two of the three. And on and on. One funny memory was trying to keep the Sin Chair sign (a big piece of posterboard, about 2' by 3', that we use in one of our songs) dry. I was carrying it, and I had to borrow somebody's jacket to get it safely into the van. Another fun time was when Courtney and I ran together in the rain in San Diego. We were totally soaked, but we didn't care. It was a great bonding time, albeit an unusual one!
A camera - I think Andrew got kind of fed up with girls always wanting to get pictures of everything!
A church - well, yeah, that was an important part of the trip...
And last but not least, a mallet. We use a mallet as a prop in several different songs, when Jesus is being crucified. We managed to leave said mallet in Bakersfield, so we had to do a couple presentations without it. We got a new one at our next Wal-Mart stop.

Well, that's all. And I'm sure you're quite tired of me boring you, but even if no one ever reads this, I had a lot of fun typing it out. :)