Awesome summer!

So far my summer has been super! I've hit the halfway point (well, now just past it) of my summer living on top of the mountain, and it's been going really well up there. I miss all of my friends and especially my family, but it's amazing how much I miss the mountain now that I'm not there for the weekend. This past week (starting on the 11th) we had really little kids, 3rd through 5th graders, up as campers, so they left on Thursday morning, and I get off until tomorrow at 10 am. Fortunately though, I will be a unit leader this coming week, so I am not absolutely obligated to offer activities in the afternoon, AAAANNNNNDDDD I get an extra 1/2 hour of sleep every day! I don't have to be at my first meeting until 7:30 instead of 7 on Monday morning.
Anywho, it's been a blast working up there. It's amazing how fast the summer is going by, especially since I function on "mountain time" and have no idea what's happening in the surrounding world. We don't have TV there, so my only link is the internet, which I never think to check for news, so I've been getting all caught up this weekend. The junior high kids we had the week before this one that just ended were really awesome, but these little kids absolutely take the cake! They were soooooo adorable! Monday I lead an activity with them making spirit sticks. That was in the afternoon block. Monday morning, Joel, Ashley and I worked with them on unit challenges, name games and stuff like that. That was fun. Tuesday we did a 1/2 day hike on a trail called Lost Pond trail, which was only a little over a mile, something like 1.1 miles or close to that. That afternoon, Nick and I lead a game called Golden Child, which is a kickball variation, but you can score like 80 runs in a single "inning." It's craziness I tell you. I also did some tie dying with Ashley, and made a couple of shirts while in the process of helping out. Wednesday we did some more unit challenges with the cabin we worked with, and they went really, really well. That afternoon I lead decorating for the Agape meal (our last dinner together), which was great, because half way through, Nick and all the kids that were playing with the parachutes for an activity came running into the Spirit Lodge and started "making jello" with the parachutes, trapping myself and all 10 of my kids under the parachutes with them... it was hysterically fun!!!
So, now I'm at Johns house, I got a long weekend, which was much needed, and I think, well deserved for the whole staff. I got off the mountain at 1 on Thursday afternoon and was in Laconia to meet John at 3:30. We went from there to my parents house, so it was great to spend time with all of them. I was feeling really homesick, so I'm glad I got to be home for a couple of days. Now I am getting some quality "me and John time," which was also much needed, and also well deserved. I'll be kind of sad to go back to the mountain tomorrow, but at the same time, I do kind of miss it when I'm not there. Plus, we'll have campers coming up tomorrow, so I won't have time to breath, let alone think about other places I could be or would want to be.
Okay, I'm done now... Hopefully I'll see a bunch of you next weekend at the big wedding (finally!!! We've only been watching this evolve for HOW long?!?!?) and if not then, then hopefully when I come off the mountain at the end of the summer. If you want to see some photos of what I've been up to this summer, drop me an e-mail and I'll send you the link to my online photo album!
Peace!!!

Yep, still a crazy summer

So this is the first time I've had to update in forever, and I've been crazy busy!!! It's been a lot of fun working up here, and I've learned a lot. We have a group of campers up here this week (they leave on Saturday, actually), all 7th through 9th graders. It's made for an interesting mix of campers, but it's been pretty cool seeing them interact. I'd forgotten how mean this age group of kids can be, especially since last week we had high school kids. Monday, Nick and I lead an 8 mile hike which covered part of the trail up Mt. Washington, and part of the A.T. which is kinda fun to say. We took the campers down to Gorham, which made for a long for John and his cabin, since they had just gone hiking that day... Oh well! We had fun, it was a good night.
This past weekend, between groups of campers, John and I drove down to see my parents and surprise them. We got to see the fireworks and stuff in Hancock, so that was really nice. We left early Sunday morning, so that was kind of a sucky morning, but it was still nice to see them. It was great to get away from the mountain for a night too, because it's been very stressful. I don't feel like I've been getting the opportunity to live up to my full potential, but I haven't really found my stride yet either.
I'm going to post some photos of camp online, so if you would like to see them, please send me an e-mail, and I'll e-mail you the link! Hope all is well with everyone, drop me a line!

Busy, busy summer

Wow, I've totally not had the time to even think about updating this journal, let alone actually do it! I've been crazy busy up here at the mountain. Our first bunch of campers arrived on Sunday, and so I've been spending the past week playing with them... Okay, not really playing, seeing as how they're high school kids, but you get the general idea. John came up to the mountain on Saturday, which was great, because it gave us an opportunity to hang out before the campers actually arrived. The campers started arriving around 2 or and I handed out teeshirts. John hung out with me doing that for a while until his campers in his unit arrived, then he went back to meet them... he's in a unit it with 8 female campers and 1 other female unit leader!!! Poor guy... But at least they're all good kids. That night I helped lead the campfire, which was a lot of fun. I think I needed that to help get comfortable around the campfire. Monday I lead a beadmaking activity on Monday, Tuesday I lead a hike through Great Gulf with Rob and Kate B. Yesterday I did dreamcatcher making and today I lead a prayer flag activity where we made new flags for the spirit lodge. Tomorrow I'm decorating the sploge for the Agape meal (I know, all this terminology that most people don't know, confusing as all heck, huh?!) and then Saturday the week is over and, lucky for me, John is staying here another week!
I feel kinda bad for him though, because I've been acting like a complete jerk this week... Well, I am overtired, which doesn't help, and so I have to be all happy all the time in front of the campers that as soon as I get two seconds with him I take his head off... I really don't mean too, I just finally feel like I can let out the feelings I've had to bottle up all day and it comes out in one big, rather mean pile of words that I have often regretted as soon as I said it... I'm sorry honey!
Anyway, I'm going to go work on some stuff for the SOSW now, since I've got another 30 minutes to myself... yay!
Peace all!