May 2012

It's hard to believe that May is already over!  This month has flown by so fast and I feel like I've hardly had time to sit still between school, camp, and going home.  It has been a wonderful month!

Lows:

• I've seen too many snakes this month!  I hate snakes.  I almost stepped on a HUG+E one.
• I bruise like a peach.  I barely got hit with the ball during Gau-Gau, and I still have a bruise almost 2 weeks late.  
• I had to leave staff training early.  It was hard to go, but the time that I did spend there was WONDERFUL!
• I have absolutely no desire to unpack/put away my boxes of stuff from moving.

Highs:

• I was able to spend a fair amount of time at home.  I love being home!
• We had a family of foxes.  Todd & Trixie and their 3 little ones were so much fun to watch from the back deck!  How amazing is that?!  :)

• I taught my nephew a very valuable lesson this month.  I taught the little guy to talk/yell/laugh into a fan.  He will definitely use that lesson again in life!  :)
• Amy and I helped lead a little boy to Christ during the Men and Boy's Retreat.  It was so wonderful!  
• Rach and I headed to Country Night for 2 weeks in a row!  I love line dancing!!  It's so much fun, and that much better now that I have some boots to shuffle around in!

• I am going to attempt to video blog this summer!  This is in hopes that I will better be able to keep my church family updated with camp life and prayer requests.
• I have had many reunions with camp friends in the past couple of weeks!  It is wonderful to pick up with those friendships right where they left off.  I'm looking forward to continuing those friendships as well as starting new ones with new staff.
• I found out that I will be counseling a cabin of Young Teen girls for the first week of camp!  I'm kind of really excited about it!  I'm anxious to see if I will get my campers from last year, or if I will have new girls.
• I got to spend the last day in May with my niece, Alex.  What a Wal-Mart run!  We're both looking forward to tomorrow where we will spend the day with Grammy making snotbars and altering my costume for the summer!

I hope you all had a wonderful May.  Here's looking ahead to June!  :)

1034

Today I moved back home after living in an apartment for a month.  This was a new experience to me, and a complete answer to prayer.  When I had my graduation check done and found out what I needed to do before I could graduate, I kind of freaked out a little.  Refer back to this.  I prayed and asked around.  My good friends, Rach and Eryn, both had room mates who were staying.  I don't know that many people really close, so I was kind of at the end of my rope.  I brought it up with my co-teaching partner for Phase 2.  She replied that they had a room mate that moved out recently and they were looking for someone.  Is this real life?  Here's a room, close to campus, room mate needed, and with a couple of people that I know.  I quit asking around after that.  I moved in during finals week and stayed until today.  The only downfall from living there was the 3 flights of stairs to climb for move in and out, and the noisy neighbors downstairs who like to talk really loud on their deck late at night.

I had a great time in 1034.  My room mates were all wonderful and dealt with my super long showers.  We all kind of had some crazy schedules, and so we only really did one thing together as room mates.  4Queens hit the spot that night!  Apartment living isn't that bad, but I prefer my house in the country.  :)

The Free Willy Pose

I'm just going to throw out the fact that I LOVE CAMP!  I really do!  I don't feel like I'm ever there enough, and I HATE leaving!  This week is staff training, and I was able to go to the first part of it from Thursday to Monday.  

I arrived on Thursday a little before lunch.  There was a VBS going on, so everyone was occupied.  I unloaded and moved in before seeing anyone.  When I got to the office, Sue said hi, asked if I had shoes on, and sent Dom and I to pony rides.  Naturally, I was the happiest!  I love working with the horses.  I've really been missing working with cattle lately too.  I led Moses around and chatted with so many little children!  I love doing pony rides!  :)  We headed into lunch and Toby sat next to me.  He's starting to become my friend, I think.  He was being goofy and opened my taste buds to ranch dip mixed with ketchup on my french fries.  It won't choke a dog.  After lunch, I headed to the trampolines with a bunch of people, and I harnessed for a while.  I had a little scare with a big snake that was being held by Katie Riley.  It was funny, and the snake was held, so it wasn't a big scare.  Soon, I was off to the Craft Room to help Kindergartners.  I soon got told to go back to pony rides.  I led Petey this time.  I got to led my 2 favorite camp horses.  How much better could my afternoon have gotten??!!  I sat with Brittany for supper and was able to catch up with her quite a bit.  While we were eating, it started down pouring!  It wasn't done by the time we had to move over to the AC, so we ran through the rain.  It was fun!  Camie asked Anna and I to go grab the crafts that the kids had made and bring them back to the AC.  We drove my car over, loaded them up and I backed up to the door for Anna to get out.  It rained for quite a while!  The VBS program went really well.  Anna and I then had to go grab towels from the Upper AC to dry off and cover up the seat of the hay rack.  Patrick helped and we got it about as good as it would get.  As soon as all the riders were on, it started to rain.  I had grabbed my boots and umbrella though!  I jokingly asked Daniel to make me a S'more because it was still raining and he seriously made me one!  I'm never disappointed by S'mores!  :)  Anna and I were sent for towels again, so her, Patrick, and I got the seats ready for the second time.  That ride was finally able to go out, and we were able to sit by the fire until a short staff meeting.  We got good news that we wouldn't have to be ready to work until 9!

Friday was mostly spent in anticipation for the arrival of all my friends sometime in the afternoon.  The morning involved cleaning the Dining Hall.  I've never mopped for so long in my life!  But it felt good, ya know?  Amy and I got sent to the Upper AC to sort and stack all the towels and put them back.  I found a pretty sweet one!

We then got sent on the adventure of folding and stacking the tarps in the maintenance shed.  It was my first time in there!  It was a lot of fun clamoring around on the shelf.  What was not fun was when I found a wasp nest.  Luckily, it was empty and it was time for me to leave to go host lunch!  Dom helped me host and it was easy.  I'm glad I know what I'm doing this summer!  After that, it was time for us to wait "patiently" while the staff slowly began to arrive.  We weeded in the waiting.  When Alison pulled in, I didn't even let her get out of her seatbelt before give her a HUG+E hug!  When Lindsay came, she stayed locked in her van just to torture us.  We sat at the picnic table for quite a while and talked and laughed so much!  We also ate plenty of gummy bears.  Lindsay tends to lose things.  We had fun making a list of things that she is bound to lose this summer!  :)

Soon, we took a very crowded hay rack ride around camp.  Just before supper, some of us girls played Apples to Apples Disney.  So much fun!  After supper, it was time for a get-to-know-you game and team building.  I had a good group and we had fun in the rain.  After chapel and another game, it was bedtime.  I found out that I was going to be in the kitchen for a while the next afternoon.

When my team didn't have a job to do after breakfast, I snagged a swing and had a little TAG time.  Camie soon left the stroller that had Tucker in it with me.  What a happy baby!

 Ric then asked if I would step into the kitchen.  Again, I'm glad I know what I'm doing, if I didn't, I wouldn't feel confident with stepping in like that.  I got to cut the awkward block of cheese again, and then I was sent to my bakery corner to make pound cake.  I'm glad I knew how to separate eggs because I did it 24 times! :)  8 loaves of pound cake later, I was free.  Since I went in in the morning, I was replaced for the afternoon and was able to participate in staff jam with my team.  We had a lot of fun!

That evening after worship, we went around and introduced ourselves.  There are a lot of people!  It's so exciting to be a part of something so wonderful!  :)  We spent some time doing My Stories which is where we write out our testimony, but kind of the short condensed version.  I didn't write near as much as I remember writing last year, so I got done early.  Lindsay did too, so naturally, we were giggly and loud and almost got in trouble.  Every night during staff training before lights out, there is often multiple guitars strumming and many voices joined together in worship.  It is such a cool thing to listen to as I write out an evening prayer, and a cool thing to be a part of too.  

Sunday is one of my favorite days.  I wore my yellow dress and went to First Baptist.  I love that place!  Us staff are so welcomed, and it reminds me of my church back home.  It's such a sweet place and they are always praying for us and asking how the weeks are going.  It was wonderful to worship there again, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer as well.  While hosting lunch, Jay, Laura, and myself fixed up the pound cake I made with strawberries and whipped cream.  It was delicious!  Jani arrived after lunch and it was great to see her again!  We walked through the registration process and headed up to the lake.  We walked through a shallow end search and cleaned out weeds before being able to swim.  The water felt so refreshing!  We ran through the opening day skit.  I think it will be a lot of fun when it comes together.  I got a little downtime before supper which was a relief.  I'm so excited for a summer of working hard!  During supper, we found out that Chee, one of the horses, was not feeling well and was walking and walking and walking.  We did the Free Willy Pose in hopes to get him better.  He did get back up after he fell.  I'm not sure how he is now, but I hope he's better.  He's been at camp for many moons.  We played a new game.  That was my workout for a while.  We had a long session and it was good.  I was so tired by the end of the day that I basically just took out my contacts and fell into bed.  I MUST drink lots and lots of water EVERY day this summer!  We were told to be ready by 7:30 to take part in an activity before breakfast.

Memorial Day was beautiful!  We gathered under the awning and waited.  Luke had us do a sense of urgency drill where we walked the loop of the Lodge as fast as we could without jogging/running.  This was to make sure that we weren't lollygagging between jobs.   After breakfast, my team had bathrooms.  I then had a few minutes until session, so I went to figure out where to leave my stuff.  I caught both Sue and Camie in the same moment and Camie said I'd be counseling!!!  :)  I'm excited and I should be okay with it being my first week of online class as well.  I have the opportunity to counsel for Young Teen 1, and I'm in Bunkhouse for the week.  Session was very informative with the staff manual.  We worked on importance of various instruction hours and activities before heading to the dishroom and lunch.  I couldn't finish the time in the dishroom because it was time for me to head back to CF.  I got everything moved to Bunkhouse and packed in my car before saying goodbye to the girls cleaning in the craft room.  It was hard to leave, but at least I'll be back on Saturday.

Prayers would be appreciated for the staff who are continuing staff training.  Please pray for unity among the staff, and for knowledge and skills to grow.  We have a big week next week as we are having campers for both Junior 1 and Young Teen 1 at the same time.

I thought I would leave you with a remarkable photobomb!  :)

Thank you for S'mores

This weekend I was not completely accepted at camp.  It was a Men and Boy's Retreat so I heard a lot of, "What are you doing here?!"  And, "You're a girl!"  It was a good weekend anyway!  :)

When I showed up on Friday, Andrew gave me some time to sit before I got to work.  I moved in and got started on a paper, and then headed to the Lodge to help clean.  I then went to the AC and tackled clean-up there with Patrick.  I noticed that there is a lot of painting going on.  It is looking good!  I then headed to the kitchen for a few hours.  I worked on Monster Cookies and used a cheese slicer for the first time!  I had a chapel group, and so when it was time for the younger boys to leave chapel, we took them to the Dining Hall and Luke lead them in a round of My Little Red Wagon.  It was HYSTERICAL!  Don't believe me?  This video is from the next day and just as funny!  Enjoy!

My sidekick for the weekend was Amy.  We had a fun time with our 5 boys!  Our first night we talked a lot about sports injuries.  We played Johnny and Indian Numbers.  They didn't like those games too much.  I think they might have been just a tad tricky.

The next day, I was in the kitchen at 7am.  I wielded the spatula that flipped all the pancakes.  I didn't even want to eat any when it was time for me to eat breakfast!  The morning lesson proved interesting.  There were so many distraction with the plague of Mayflies that descended on camp the night before.  One of our boys did want to look up verses and read them out loud!  After watching countless games of Gau-Gau, I was headed to the Craft Room to oversee crafts and rockets.  It was not hard, and so I was able to journal and spend some time in my devos.  I was so hungry by the time I could eat lunch that I got seconds.  I have never gotten seconds at camp...EVER!  I learned at supper why I never should again.  After lunch, I had my break and got a little bit more of my dreaded paper done before heading back to the craft room.  It was pretty mellow, so I decorated a few pages in my journal with punches and stamps.  I also worked on a couple of Paracord bracelets and chatted with Megan and Jana for a while.  I headed back to the kitchen and did odds and ends sorts of things.  I LOVE Mexican Pile-Up.  It is one of my favorites, and it doesn't matter if I think I will pace myself with a little of this and a little of that, it still manages to load up a plate.  I wasn't as hungry because of my second sandwich at lunch and struggled through my plate.  No more seconds for me!  I helped clean up before it was time for chapel.  Every time I do a chapel group, we pray at the end and I invite everyone to pray.  There is no pressure and I always ask for prayer requests first.  I was able to get 4 out of the 5 to pray almost every time!  One of the boys thanked God for S'mores!  How stinkin' cute is that?!  :)  We headed off to Gau-Gau, and Amy and I both had fun beating all of the boys a couple of games in a row!  My shins are like 2 peaches waiting to be bruised and I barely got hit with the ball and I still have a red mark a day later!  One of our boys brought Amy and I both a chunk of Lilac!

We got S'mores!  One of the boys offered to make me one, but the fire was so hot that he was back a few feet, and there was no way those marshmallows were going to get golden!  :)  I headed to be early and was in bed by the time anyone else came up.  Jana, Sarah, and I started talking about the upcoming week, people who would be showing up, and past camp memories.  I got so excited that it was hard to go to sleep despite my exhaustion!  I'm just so excited to start another summer at camp!  :)

Today, I was in the kitchen at 7am again.  It was a lot easier because it was baked oatmeal.  Who can pass that up?  ;)  I made brownie crinkle cookies before heading off to chapel.  One of the boys was ready and waiting to lead Little Red Wagon in Luke's absence.  For the lesson, I talked about telling others about Jesus and passing along the power.  When we took prayer requests, the boy in the photo above said he wanted to be saved!  We prayed as a group and headed to Gau-Gau.  Amy and I sat down with this boy and he knew the answers to all the questions I asked him, and he was ready to take that next step.  He prayed and asked Jesus to come live in his heart!  He is so hungry for God, and I pray that that hunger he has would never go away!  When the dads got out of chapel, I headed back to the kitchen.  I had already cracked and scrambled a bunch of eggs, cooked the green beans, cracked more eggs, and finished the cookies before grabbing a plateful.  I was not ready to leave, but I have my bunk already staked out for Staff Training.  I'm sad I can't be there the whole week, but I am excited to see who I will be staying with for the few days that I am there!  I will end this post with another happy picture from the weekend!  :)

Good & Green

What a WONDERFUL Mother's Day weekend!  I was so glad to go home yet again!  I got up and headed for home as soon as I was up and around on Friday morning.  I stopped at Scratch (go figure!), and I got backed into when I was ready to get out.  I'm so grateful that it didn't cause any damage and that no one got hurt.  My baby has gone through a lot since I got her 4 years ago!  The drive home was filled with Jesus tunes.  Always a good way to travel!  Ruby is always happy to see me, and within seconds, I am covered in blonde hair and doggie slobbers!  :)  Later in the afternoon, I headed to the field.  I love riding in the tractor with my Gramps.  I swear that the tractor cab has gotten smaller!  It was hard to squeeze both of our butts on the seat and armrest!  Once we got the harrow all figured out and jimmy-rigged to the disc, we were on our way!  I told him all about school, the summer ahead, and about some of the past retreats.  He caught me up on some of the elderly couples of the church, Mac & Mary, and other small town talk.  He also talked a lot about his time in Korea, and how he was a plumber's assistant after he came back.  I did not know that before!  Friday nights are one of the best nights to eat popcorn for supper.  My belly is so happy after a big bowl full!  :)  I went out to play with Ruby, and when I put her away, I played with the kittens too.  They are so cute and still just a little timid.  Mom says I sound like a 5 year old when I come running into the house exclaiming that I caught a kitten!  :)

Aren't they just darling?

Saturday proved rather productive!  I was up in good time, contrary to everyone's thoughts on my sleeping habits, and got started on things right away.  My Mother's Day tradition is to buy Momma flowers to put in her planters.  I headed to the FFA plant sale.  It was entertaining to see Driscoll again!  I hopefully got flowers that Ruby will not dig up!  I got some homework done and then it was lunchtime.  I got my Disney movies in the mail that I ordered about a week ago!  I was really obnoxiously excited about them!  :)  Momma and I headed to Ottumwa to go see Dark Shadows.  I was kind of on the fence about it.  I'm not a big vampire freak, and I don't particularly care for Johnny Depp.  This movie was good.  It was entertaining, and Momma got into a conversation with some people at Wal-Mart about the show that was on in the late 60's by the same name.  On our way home, we stopped at Ghram's.  There are just some times when a plain vanilla cone just hits the spot!  :)  When we got home, I played around outside, and then went to town for pizza.  On the way into town, I stopped by and talked to Margaret for a quick minute.  We don't see too much activity around Donna & Errol's since they passed away, so when we do see someone, we make sure to stop and say hi.  Margaret was invited to come to our house for Mother's Day lunch.  We watched UP, and cracked up so much! 

I love Sundays.  I really do.  There's just something different about the way the sun shines!  Last week, everyone was asking me about how school was and what I was doing for the summer.  I decided to clear things up and got up and told everyone.  This was my last Sunday at my church until August.  I am also going to try to video blog every week to keep them updated with praises, prayer requests and great moments from the week.  I'm excited for this new adventure!  :)  Lunch was wonderful.  Our menu of hamburgers, potato salad, and lemonade made it seem more like the 4th of July instead of Mother's Day, but either way, we ate in the company of family, had great conversations, and made our bellies happy.

I always hate to leave home, but at least I will be going to camp on Friday!  The promise of going home or to camp always makes going back to school a little bit easier!

Happy Sunday, everyone!  :)

Sweet Cinnamon

Ahhhh, Monday.

Today was Monday.  It was also the first day of May Term classes.  This extraordinarily, smart girl got herself registered for a CAPstone class at 7:30 in the morning 4 days a week.  Smooth, right?  Good thing that I'm in it with my good friend, Racheal.

I had every intention of getting up at 6am, get ready, journal/TAG time, and walk to class.  Reality was that I hit snooze until 6:20, was moving slow, decided to drive, and threw my journal in my bag.  I could not find a close parking spot.  I had my sights set on Seerley, but Seerley was seeing some roadwork.  I finally parked in the bookstore lot.  When I got to the building where my class was, I caught up with Rach.  The science building is WEIRD!  I walked past 2 skeletons studying anatomy, a window full of fish tanks, and a polar bear.  Seriously?  The class will prove interesting.  Nuclear energy.  I don't know that much.  I'm not looking forward to the 30 minute presentation.

In between that class and Schools in American Society, I had about an hour and a half of downtime.  It was wonderful!  I hid out in Schindler.  I snuggled up in a chair, wrote in my journal, and read about some of the women of the Bible.  It's a One Year book, and I just got it Friday, so I'm doing some catching up and it is wonderful!  It's bringing new perspectives to women that I had never thought much about before.  It was really great to dig into their stories, and read of modern day scenarios applied.  It was a wonderful TAG time!  My schedule is a blessing in disguise, I am discovering.  Schools proved that it will be interesting.  A lot of work will be involved.

After class, Rach and I went to the bookstore.  I'm so glad that I have someone to split the cost of books with, especially when we can rent some!  I went out to my car and discovered that I received a warning.  I think they thought that I had parked overnight.  I'm glad it was just a warning, and from the bookstore at that!  More motivation to walk?  I think yes!  On the way back to the apartment, I detoured and went to Scratch.  Go figure!  I decided on Cinnamon, and don't regret it!  I haven't found a bad flavor yet, and I don't plan on being able to find one!  :)

The rest of the afternoon was wonderful!  Reading a good hunk of The Grapes of Wrath, going on a walk with 2 of my roomies, and just enjoying the day!  :)

Monday, I think we might be friends again!