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!

Sick and tired...

So this 24 I'm feeling a little under the weather....just one of those days. Allergies are killing me. Thankfully, I got some great rest last night. Two of our kampers and their families from last term invited us to stay the night with them at Big Cedar Lodge. They were so so sweet! And what a blessing! Beg Cedar is so beautiful and so refreshing. Lately, I've been feeling overwhelmed by the idea of staying here all summer. I don't know why that is...I mean, I've done it before. Not that I'm not enjoying it, but I'm finding myself having to rely on the Lord more and more for energy. I also feel like I've been taking this time here for granted sometimes. Sometimes I can't believe that I'm here and sometimes it feels like I've been here forever! I don't want to wish this time away! I love it. I'm going to blame the feelings of overwhelmedness on the new job. I have loved being a KPD, but it definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone sometimes. It is definitely a very flexible jobs, but also one of those jobs that, even thought you don't have something you are supposed to be doing at every moment of everyday, I feel like your still supposed to keep busy. Lately, even in life outside of kamp, I've noticed that it's been hard for me to be OK with free time and to use that time wisely. I'm slowly starting to figure it out...I know it may sound dumb, but that's just where I'm at. We got a new group of kampers a couple days ago. Austin's here!!! I'm so excited. It's so fun to have my little brother around. The new girls in my section are super cool. It has been so much fun to hang out with them already. They are so easy to interact with them....I needed that! I needed that motivation to be in cabins and spend time with girls, even though they are not necessarily in my cabin.

Unfortunately, I better go. It's time to head back to Lampe, MO. Sorry again for the limited post. And, facebook is still being lame about pictures. Every time I try to post some it doesn't work. I'll try again on my next time off. I have a 48 (two days off) at the end of this term, and I get to hang out with my mom!! I'm so excited!! Love you all and thanks for your continued prayers.

Loving life!!

What a glorious time for the break! We are at the Rapps house right now...it's so nice to be in a house, relaxing, and hanging out with one of my favorite kamp families. Things have been going really well so far. I am really learning to love my job. It's so fun to be able to hang out with kids, teach classes, and help out with parties and other things as well. First term was so great. The kids were wonderful. I'm over cabins 4, 5, and 6, so I got to hang out with a lot of the 12 and young 13 year olds. It's cool to be with the younger kids for a change. It was so much fun to help them braid their hair and put on their sweet make-up for Western night. The parties and activities overall have been great. I've been leading All-Around specialty. We had a great group of girls in our class last term. There were 22 of them! They were so fun and engaged in anything that we did. We played solleyball (a K-West creation between sand volleyball and softball), swam in the lake, played water polo, octoball (another kamp creation), 4 square...This next term, I'm hoping to take the girls over to K-2 ( the high school kamp) because they just built a water slide down a hill. It looks like so much fun!!

Highlights since the last blog:

-hanging out with great friends

-teaching mountain biking

-no injuries on the blob!

-fun with All-Around

-getting to help with set up for parties

-getting the chance to lead a small group Bible study for counselors since our usual leader, Erin, is out of town for her sisters wedding

-dancing my heart out while teaching the kampers our Komo dances

-getting to know some really cool kids

-building the All-Around trophy out of junk from the maintenance shed

-getting to drive the golf cart around....my fav!!

-learning more about the book of Matthew! So cool! I'm feel like I'm learning and growing more everyday!

That's all I can think of for now. Love you all. Thanks for all your letters and love you've been sending.

Keep praying for kamp this summer. We need it!!

A break feels so good....

I'm on my first real 24 of the summer and it feels so, so good. I mean, we had a few breaks during staff training week, but this has been the first time since I got here that I've been able to stop, sleep, shop, and take care of things as needed. We got our first slew of kids on June 1st. At first, I didn't really know what to do. I am so used to being in the counselor role...having a co-counselor and my own group of kids to run around with and look out for. But, when those kampers started arriving, I think it really hit me that I won't have that again. Yes, I still get to hang out with the kampers when possible and teach classes, but it's not my job anymore to run around with a group of 12 middle schoolers. Part of that is sad, but the more I get into it, it's exciting as well. It's take me awhile to figure out my job as a KPD (or middle management position as John Coffer likes to call it). Basically, I'm a counselor without a cabin. Instead, I'm in charge of cabins 4, 5 and 6. The majority of these grisl are 12. They are absolutely wonderful! For the past two years, I have alwasy worked with the older girls, so it is nice to be with the young ones for a change. They are so great! It's fun to get to encourage their counselors and spend time in the cabins when I can. I feel like I have gotten to know about a third of the girls in my cabins decently well. It's kind of cool getting to be the "fun aunt" who comes in randomly and just gets to hang out. Sometimes this means making friendship bracelets, braiding hair, helping with make-up for the western party, playing Horse, talking my the pool, and just hanging out in classes. On the flip side, it's been cool to get to help out on the leadership side of things. It's been such an honor to get to sit in on some meetings, talk things out, help with activities, etc.

Some highlights of kamp so far:

- seeing 3 SNAKES in the lake while teaching sailing. Are you kidding me?? 15 years at kamp and NOW I'm seeing snakes. Awesome.
- Komo Leaderships girls v. Cabin 8 in a dodgeball game. They won. Don't want to talk about it : )
- teaching the FIRST EVER girl's aquaskipping class at K-West. Such a blast.
- dancing our heart out in the gym, dining hall, and anywhere else it randomly busts out
- swimming in the lake with my All-Around Specialty girls
- getting to sit in the teepee with the chiefs and princesses during tribals
- the Western dance...always a blast!
- playing my djembe for K-Life worship
- leading PINK with Nicole...the girl's daily specialty awards
- midnight Bananagrams with my fellow KPDs
- hanging out with the Rapp kids

Ok, I have to go for now. Time to head back to kamp. Love you all and I wish I had time to write more and talk to you all. Check out facebook for some pictures.

Please be praying for kamp, the staff, and the kids that are coming through. We need your support!

Uncle Week 2010

Well, it's finally here!! It is officially summer 2010. It blows my mind...I still can't believe that I'm back. As I drove into kamp yesterday, it felt like I had never left. I can't believe that a whole year has gone by since I walked through these gates. I got here yesterday and have been so honored to participate in Uncle Week. This is typically a time for a few of the guys to come to kamp about a week early and begin to get things ready....opening kamp after the long winter, cleaning, mowing, sweeping, LOTS of dust. This year, for some reason, some of the girls from K-West were asked to come early as well. It's been so fun to hang out with the girls, clean, and just hang out. Tomorrow, another group of people will show to be trained in clinics and then the rest arrive on Friday! I think it will really start to sink in once al the staff gets here. I'm excited but I miss everyone! If you want to drop me a line, I would love it. Getting mail at kamp is absolutely the best!

K-West
793 K-West Dr.
Lampe, MO 65681

Love you all! I have to go for now, but I'll write again as soon as I can.

TWEETY

Tuesday, March 23- As you may know, BOTH Baylor basketball teams are in the Sweet 16!! There are so many people going to the game this weekend! Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it because: a. I don't feel like dropping that kind of money. and b. I have other things that I already committed to this weekend. Anyway, in the spirit of the Baylor Bears, I wanted to tell you about my roommate, Audrey. SHE LOVES TWEETY CARTER. Tweety is the heart of our men's team. And, according the Audrey, the reason that our Bears have improved so much over the past few years. She absolutely ADORES him...so much so that, when they were both freshmen, she asked him to marry him on his facebook wall. Well, it's been four years now....no response.....sorry Aud! Sic 'em bears and sic 'em TWEETY!

Aud and her MAN:

Photo of the Day

Dear Blogging World,

It's been awhile since I've been out here! Today has been an especially chill Monday so, in the strange habit of always wanting to be busy, I've decided to start posting Photos of the Day! Just a fun and simple way to share my favorite moments of the day with the people I care about. I have some good ones from the past few days, so I'll post several. Enjoy!


Thursday, March 18- Yay for graphs! Here's one of my 4th graders holding up his bar graph. He was so proud! My grou pdeveloped some questions that I used to poll my TA class. My students then analyzed the results and made a graph on their own. I was so impressed!

Saturday, March 20- Bearathon....failure. Due to weather, the "Toughout Half-Marathon in Texas" quickly became the toughest half that never happened. Kind of a bummer...but I felt really bad for those who had trained so hard! We just wanted to run the 5K. But we still got a shirt! That's all that matters, right? But we went to Cafe Cap for breakfast instead...much better option! This is us "so tired" from the exhausting workout!

Sunday, March 21- White Violet! This is such a fun ZTA event that the new members get to enjoy with their family. I got a certificate for being on the Dean's List. So exciting! This is me and my beautiful Zeta fam. It's so weird to be a grandbig!

Monday, March 22- I learned an importnat lesson in cooking today. DO NOT microwave spinach in a bowl covered with a napkin. IT WILL CATCH ON FIRE.