Junior Camp 2012

Church camp has been apart of my life since junior high.  As a kid, I was too scared to go when I was little so I waited awhile before being away from home for a week.  As a camper, my days were spent at Camp Maranatha in Warm Lake, Idaho.  My final summer as a camper also happened to be our last summer at Maranatha.  Our association of churches purchased a camp in McCall.  We now own Camp Pinewood and while it took some adjusting to having a camp right in town, it is a beautiful place to retreat to.

Our first full summer at Pinewood also happened to be my first summer as a counselor.  I spent 3 summers counseling for 6 weeks each summer.  I loved the team I worked with and developed some lifelong friendships with those people.  Since then, I have either counseled at various camps for my church, assisted the program director and even co-directed a week of Junior Camp.  All in all, I have managed to stay involved in camp ministry for the past 12 years.

Why do I deal with the dirt, bugs and lack of sleep?  Because I LOVE IT!  God has used our camp and the people who serve there to reach kids and families with the gospel.  God has stretched my faith and challenged me while serving at camp.  This summer was no different.  I had the opportunity to go as a "Support/Overseeing Counselor" for Junior Camp, grades 3-5.  We had 4 high school students stay with the kids from our church and I was there to help in any way they needed.  I also kept them fueled with snacks and soda!

Why was my week amazing?  Not only did I have an amazing time with our junior campers and talked about life with them, I also watched God break through some bad first impressions on my end and create a friendship that I never thought would happen.  I discovered that this person has an amazing heart for God, has matured immensely and is also really funny.  I prayed for a good week and God answered in a much bigger way!

I put together a short video for our Sunday service about our time at camp.  Check it out!

My Morning with Sawyer

I have this great guy in my life.  He is funny, sweet, kisses me, knows the computer and can dress himself.  Did I mention he is 2?  I happen to be fully in love with my nephew and I think he loves me too!  In fact, I think he has me wrapped tightly around his little finger.  Sawyer likes to spend time with his auntie so I thought of the perfect playdate for us!

There is a place in Meridian called JumpTime.  I had heard good things about it and found out it would only cost $3 for Sawyer to go!  I told Sawyer all about it and he was very excited!

There is a Junior spot for kids who are 7 years old and younger.  There were trampolines and big blow up bounce houses.  Sawyer loved it all.  He was sweaty from all the running and jumping!

 Sawyer met a "friend" who helped him out and played with him.

Did I mention the foam pit?  I had to convince him not to eat the foam blocks (gross!).

After playing hard for a couple of hours we headed to Sawyer's favorite place:  Coke and Fries aka McDonalds.

He even sweet talked me into an ice cream cone!

We had a fun morning together and I could spend every day with Sawyer!  He loves to roar and has to follow 2 rules when it comes to roaring:

1.  No roaring at the dinner table, and

2.  No roaring in Harper's face

No one said we couldn't roar at the camera:

The Unfaithful Blogger

If you haven't figured it out by now, I am not exactly a consistent blogger.  My history is to do a few posts in a row and then go months without another one.  There have been some reasons for this happening lately.  Let me share those with you:
1.  Internet.  Many of you know that I used to "borrow" my neighbors' Internet if it didn't have a password on it.  I think it was awfully thoughtful for them to share it with me.  However, it was unavailable at times, or super slow at best.  I am now a proud owner of my very own Internet connection and pay my bill every month!
2.  Time.  This spring was filled with 50 hour work weeks, coaching track until 6:30 and many evening events.  I love my job, coaching and doing other things like serving at my church and being with friends.  It all made for a very busy spring and end of the school year.
3.  Lack of Desire.  When I did do something that I thought was blog worthy, I just didn't feel like posting about it.  It is so much easier to do a status update on Facebook than blog.  I also didn't have any pictures.  Who wants to read a blog post without pictures?  This one doesn't have pictures and if you are still reading, then you are a trooper!

I don't know if sharing those reasons will make me a faithful blogger, but I do plan to come back and share some of my summer adventures so far and how God has taught me this past spring.

The Patch Confessional

There comes a time in one's life when they must come to grip with life altering news.  Mine came from my dear sister-in-law.  It is a confession best said aloud and to face head on.  Okay, here goes...

I.  have.  gray.  hairs.  Lots of them.

I find that I have been in denial for awhile.  I have seen them, but they were like little streaks "highlighting" my fading red hair.  Then, Kayla pointed out the patch of gray hairs.  I am no longer dealing with a few hairs, but clumps.
Check it out:
(look straight above the camera and there it is.  It's worse in person.)

What is a girl to do?  I always thought I would go all natural, but now I'm starting to think about how I might dye my hair.  I heard red heads went gray faster, but this might be too fast. 

Updates will continue to come as more hair is discovered or I choose to go blonde.

Track Star!

Ella is in the fifth grade and decided to join track this spring.  I coach my school's track team and love it!  So I was very excited that she was going to run for her school.  Elementary track is fun and the kids get to experiment with the different running and field events.  By the regional meet, they can only specialize in one event.  Ella originally wanted to be on a relay team, but when that fell through, her coach assigned her to the triple jump.

I asked Ella if she knew how to do the triple jump and when she showed me, she did 3 leaping jumps.  Umm, that's not the triple jump.  After some one-on-one coaching, Ella was jumping close to 16 feet!  If you place in the top four at the regional meet, you move on to district.  Ella jumped 15' 2" and made it to district!  Her team was competing the same day as mine was, so I was able to cheer her on at district.

Ella's best jump was 15' 11".  She didn't make the top four places and move on, but she was all grins afterward.  When I asked her if she had fun, her reply was, "Oh yeah!"

Spring Break Review

One of the best parts of teaching are the breaks I get throughout the year.  If I ever change professions, it will be difficult to adjust to working year round and without "entitled" breaks.  I spent my week laying around (unfortunately I got sick at the start of the week), meeting up with friends, Sawyer and Harper time, Hunger Games x2 and painting.

Check it out!

 Such a great movie!!

 Sawyer and his rocks

  Such big eyes!

 Clean house and bedding!

 Movies, tea and a book.  The perfect medicine for a sickie.

 Before

and After.  I just love the green!

 A new haircut!

I wanted bangs, but that required way more work than I am ever willing to do on my hair!

I discovered the store Real Deals

Hello cute spring decor!

While I pouted about so many of my friends leaving town, I really did enjoy the time I got to spend doing projects around my house and spending time with friends that I rarely see.

Cruisin' the Caribbean Sea

Over a month ago (really? I know! I should have posted forever ago) I went on a cruise to Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Haiti.  I went with my good friend Jana.  We have traveled to many parts of the world and United States together.  So it seemed fitting that we should also do a cruise together.  We deemed it our "Because We are Turning 30 Cruise" but it also ended up being a good trip since Jana is getting married in August and I am losing my travel buddy.

We chose to use Royal Caribbean and I would highly recommend this cruise line to anyone wanting to cruise.  The food was fantastic, the environment fun and perfect for people without young kids.  Our cruise was 7 days and 6 nights.  I had fun but can't really imagine being on a cruise any longer than that.  It was beautiful weather around 75 degrees but also with about 80% humidity.  I also can't imagine going there in the summer, the heat would be brutal.  I'll save my summer cruise for Alaska.  With that said, I would cruise again but I have many more places I would like to visit first.

Well, now it's time for pictures.  I have tried to trim it down but since I don't know how to make my pictures go next to each other or link a Picasa photo album; you just need to get your coffee, sit back and enjoy!

 After the Italy incident, Jana and I made sure we knew how to put on our life jackets!

 First day sunning on the deck.  The land in the distance is Cuba.

 Grand Cayman excursion - Turtle Farm and swim with the dolphins.

No cameras while swimming with the dolphins.  

Let's just say that I touched one, swam with one and was pushed by one.

He made a freaky noise coming up for air.

Fact:  Male sea turtles have longer tails than females.

I held a baby sea turtle and kissed it!

Grand Cayman was our first port stop.  We were in Jamaica the next day.  We didn't have any excursions planned, but found a driver named Eddie to take us around.  We hired him with our new friends: Sam, Nick, Stephanie and Jose.  They had done the dolphin excursion with us the day before and we ran into them while leaving the boat for Jamaica.  So we teamed up and spent the day together.

 The beautiful Caribbean Sea

 Our ship

Eddie, our driver, and our new friends!

After Jamaica we headed to Haiti.  Now we went to Labadee which is land owned by Royal Caribbean.  So my interactions with "real" Haitians was pretty limited.  I spent the day on the beach and shopping in the little shop.

The view of the sea, zipline and our ship

The best part of the cruise, to me, was not stopping in the different ports but meeting new people and doing things on the ship.  We met the two couples (Sam and Nick, Stephanie and Jose) and not only spent time with them in Jamaica but also played in a dodgeball tournament with them.  Jana and I felt super lucky when it came to our dining seating.  On the first night before dinner, the dining room called us and asked if they could move us to a new table.  We said sure and never knew we would be so lucky!

Our dinner group

Heidi and Trey, Rick and Eileen, Jana and me, and Craig and Rebecca.

I looked forward to dinner every night and it was for the company not the food!  We were the loud, rowdy table in our area.  We spent time together outside of dinner, playing dodgeball and volleyball together and have all become Facebook friends!  Jana and I know that the bar has been set very high for a dinner group if we ever cruise again.

 Our towel animal.  We came "home" to a different one each night!

 I played $.50 in the ship's casino so I could make my father proud!

Well, that is all I have.  You should earn a reward for sitting through and reading all of that.  Speaking of awards, I have 2 silver medals from my volleyball and dodgeball tournaments.