One of the most challenging aspects of leading an all-girls ministry is The Dealing Of The Non-Stop Talking.  Our little elementary school girls talk, talk, talk.  Our middle school girls talk, talk, talk.  And I think we all know that our high school girls talk, talk, talk.

But our college girls?

They talktalktalktalktalktalk.  All the time.  Like, 24/7, ya’ll.

During our Leadership Team meetings, it is not uncommon for me to have to separate some of our Chatty Cathy’s (sorry to any person named Cathy who may be reading today).  I’ve learned to watch for pairs that shouldn’t be sitting together in meeting… for example, Cate and Kaffa should never be allowed to be within 10 feet of each other when there is a meeting going on.  Same thing for Jennifer S. and Laura.  And for Katie and Jennifer J. 

And you thought all my job entailed was choosing which brand of processed nacho cheese we should serve this week.  Oh ye of little faith.

However, when we added a couple of new girls to the Leadership Team this past January, I don’t think any of us knew what we were getting ourselves into when it comes to the Chatty Cathy’s.

Interlings, meet Jenelle.

 

To be honest, I really don’t know how to describe Jenelle to you.  She’s the sweetest little thing ever — seriously.  But her mouth?  It never stops.

Back in January, when we had our weekend retreat for our Leadership Team, we stayed in two large suites at a hotel.  We were short a bed, so we ordered a cot.  When it arrived, we were surprised to see that it came with straps around it.  We finally figured out that they were used to hold the cot together when it was wheeled from room to room.

However, around 3 a.m. when Jenelle was still. up. talking., Katie and Kaffa decided to test out the cot to see if they could strap Jenelle to it.  You think I’m kidding, but look what I found posted on Facebook when we got home:

The caption they posted under the picture?  “Jenelle, if you only knew…”

Thankfully I was awakened with a phone call before Jenelle really got strapped into the cot.  Because, you know, I don’t think we covered that in our release form.

Since I wasn’t in their suite that weekend, I had never actually experienced “Late Night Jenelle” until this past weekend.  After the sugar I fed them wore off, the girls finally began to settle down for the night.  After several minutes of silence, I realized that most of them were asleep and breathed a big sigh of relief.

That is, until I heard the following:

“Hey, would anyone like to hear a story about my blanket?”

There was approximately 2.7 seconds of silence before everyone in the room began laughing hysterically.  Well, everyone except Jenelle that is.

She was serious.  She had a story about her blanket that she wanted us all to hear, even if it was 4:07 a.m.

So, after listening to the story, we all settled back to sleep.  Several minutes later, we were woken with the following:

“You know, my blanket is 5 x 5, so it almost covers me completely!  I love my blanket.”

I kid you not.  She was giving us the measurements of the blanket.  Oh, but that was just the beginning.

“Go back to sleep, Jenelle.”

“But I wasn’t asleep!”

“You should be.”

“Well… could I turn on a light for a minute to show you the blanket?  You’ll love the colors!”

“No, Jenelle, you cannot turn on the light to show us the colors.”

“Well, I guess it can wait until morning.”

“Goodnight Jenelle.”

Silence.

And then, three minutes later…

“This one time, I was looking at my blanket and…”

“Jenelle, if you don’t go to bed right now, we’re going to get that cot from that hotel and strap you to it!”

“That isn’t very nice, guys.  I just wanted to tell you about my blanket.”

“GO TO BED, JENELLE.”

“Okay.  Love you!”

Oh, Jenelle.  My sweet, sweet Jenelle.  You know that we laugh because we love you, right? 

And, by the way, you’re sleeping by yourself next time.  Sorry, kid.