It's coming to an end....but I don't want to think about that.

My first thought today is that I wish I could put up some pictures for y'all to see, but I think it would just take way too long to try to upload them all. I did, however, put some on facebook if you want to check them out. As always, kamp is going well! We are over halfway through 5th term. Because of this, people are beginning to talk more about after kamp stuff...and that makes me sad. Yes, I'm excited to be back in Waco, but I don't want to leave kamp. I love it too much! I love how relaxed and fun it is! I mean, there are times that I get stressed about things, but it's not overwhelming like school. At school, it's harder for me to have fun and enjoy things when I have deadlines and assignments swinging over my head. I've realized that I'm more of a person who is very much where I am, mentally, emotionally, and physically. So let's just say that I'm very much enjoying being at kamp right now. I'm trying to soak it all in. Even thought I'm getting tired and things are becoming somewhat monotonous (since this is now our 5th repetition of everything), I still don't want it to go by too quickly.

This term of kids is a ton of fun. Some highlights from the past few days:

There are several classes at kamp that I tend to teach a lot. One of these is aquaskipping....the weird bike/pogo stick on water that I mentioned earlier in the blog. Anyway, I love teaching this class becuase it gives me a chance to know the girls well and watch them progress throughout the term. Usually, the girls just skip out as far as they can and then the drop and swim the aquaskipper back to the dock. It supposed to float on its own in the water. Then the girls just pull it as they swim. Well, on this particular day, the girls were doing really well and skipping out pretty far. As one girl dropped into the water, all of sudden the entire aquaskipper just sank!! All of the girls jumped in the water and started swimming around, trying to find the huge metal contraption. We literally searched for 10 minutes. They were even "superdunking" each other. Since they were wearing lifejackets, they couldn't go down very far on thier own, so one girl would push another down and then push her further with her feet. Probably not the safest thing haha, but it proved effective! One girl, Katie came back up and had found the aquaskipper!! Hooray! I was so relieved that I didn't have to tell the dock daddy that I had lost one at teh bottom of the lake.

About a week ago during FOB, my favorite family at kamp, the Rapps, was having some swim time at the pool. I was walking by with two of my friends and they jokingly yelled at us to hop in! So we decided to take them up on the offer. We went and got our suits on a hopped in for a swim! I was so much fun to just hang out in the pool and go on the water slides without having kampers around. We all decided to go on the water slide and Carter decided to come along, too. As we were getting in line, we told Carter to go first. He said "No, Lindsay, you go first, then Allison, go second. I'm third." He smiled. If you know kamp, you know that although he got the context wrong, he's at least been paying attention. God first, Others second, I'm Third.

Just rolling along...

Another day off...so soon! The new staff at kamp has been absolutely great! It's funny, because I forget that many of them have never done this before. There are little things that happen that just make me shake my head and smile sometimes. But I don't blame them...I mean, they've been away from kamp for 6 weeks and then we throw them back in and expect them to do everything right! Let me just say, though, that they are great counselors! They are so good about spending time with their kids and getting to know them. Their energy has been absolutely incredible!

I really feel like I'm growing up this year at kamp. More is expected of me and I am trusted with so much more as well. This is the first year that I've felt old compared to the new counselors. It's kind of a weird feeling, and sometimes I don't know how to quite approach it. I also feel like this year, more than any, I'm beginning to have "kamp eyes". I'm learning how to see the big picture of what's going on. Granted, there is a lot that I don't see or even know about that goes on, but I'm learning how to take full responsibility for my job and make sure that the things that I'm overseeing are running smoothly.

Lately, I have been praying that the Lord would challenge me and grow me more. This can be a scary prayer to pray sometimes, but I just felt that I was becoming stagnant in my walk, and I didn't want that to become the case. I can already tell that He is beginning to move. I mean, what should I expect? He's a pretty faithful guy. But even in just daily frustrations or things that get under my skin, I can tell that the Lord is trying to refine me. I need it for sure. I've definitely realized this summer what a sinful person I am...I'm so thankful for that realization and the grace that covers that. Ok, well I need to go figure out what kind of charger I need to get for my laptop, because I just happened to lose mine. Awesome....

Love you all!

New beginnings!

Hey friends,

Well, we are officially halfway through the summer. On one hand I can't believe it and, on the other, it feels like I've been here for so long! A few days ago, I got to take a 48 (2 days off) with my mom when she came to pick Austin up from kamp. It was so good to see her! It made me really miss being with my family and the fact that I'm going to be at kamp for so long. But at the same time, being away from kamp for that time, even just 48 hours, reminded me of how much I really do love it and how blessed I am to be there. It was great to relax with mom at Big Cedar Lodge, get a pedicure, see Toy Story 3, go to Austin's closing ceremonies at kamp, and play shuffleboard and putt-putt with the family. I wish that dad had been able to be there. He started his new job at Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, LA a few days ago. From what I've gathered, I think he is really enjoying it. Hope fully, we'll have out house and be officially moved in sometime in August.

As for kamp stuff, being halfway through the summer means staff changeover. A lot of my friends on staff stayed at kamp, but so many of them went home as well. A new, fresh group of counselors, kitchies, office girls, etc just got here. It was hard to see dear friends go. It's crazy to think about the work that they've done and how used I've gotten to working with them. The counselors in my section of cabins did a wonderful job. I could not be more proud of them!

It's kind of fun to have the chance to start over with a group of counselors. I switched sections. I'm now in charge of cabins 7, 8, and 9. These girls are all mainly 13 and going into 8th grade, which is basically a year older than the girls I had before. I feel good about this session....I've done my job once. I know what I've done well and what I need to work on and how I want things to look.

Some highlights of the past few days:

I am specialty head for All-Around specialty. Our goal for All-Around is basically to make a fun experience for all types of girls. Some may be super athletic and just burned out on sports and some just want to have fun. We have to be super creative in order to make sure most of them enjoy the class! We survey the kids at the end of each term and ask them what they thought of different things about kamp. I checked the scores for All-Around specialty, and 96% of our girls gave us an "awesome". I was so excited! My goal had been 90%. I couldn't believe it. Look like we'll just have to shoot for 100 this next time.

Yesterday in All-Around, we played a game when the girls had to "capture the cabin porch" of the other team. The girls were running around, trying not to get hit by tennis balls as they raced to the other team's porch. My good buddy, 5-year-old Carter Rapp, played with us yesterday. He had a great time!

Fourth of July was absolutely AMAZING!! I love that day at kamp! Jenica, our head cook, planned an amazing meal of hamburgers, brauts, fruit salad, and star-shaped rice krispie treats. So fun! Then, we walked up to the K-2 fields and met our neighboring kamps, K-7 and K-2 for fireworks and patriotic fun!