Last Week!

Well, here it is, Wednesday night, 10:04pm of my last week on the mountain, and the week ends on Friday, and I might be out of here as early as Saturday afternoon! It's been a very trying week and I am ready for the summer to be over. I'm just overtired and everything is getting to me. I got into a huge fight with John today about stupid stuff that I shouldn't have even panicked over, and I feel like I've done nothing but yell at kids all week.
Tomorrow I am hiking with my cabin (Cabin Bethany, again) up the Rattle River trail. Supposedly it's very easy, but neither Lynda or I have done it before. Fortunately, it is only a half day hike and we should be back during siesta. Then during the second activity block I'm doing the "HC Hair Salon" for an activity - basically doing kids hair for the Agape meal. It should be fun, and if we have time, I'm going to see if I can get one of the other staffers to do something to my hair. I got yelled at today by someone who told me they wouldn't put braids in my hair because I washed it to much so they wouldn't stay in. Whatever. I am too tired to deal with stupid stuff like that.
Today I lead a pet rock activity with Alissa, we let kids paint rocks they found today, so it was pretty cool. Yesterday I did prayer flags and Monday I did Kickball. That was the best activity I've done all week. I found out a girl here knows John, and will actually be one of his band kids in the fall. It's pretty funny. Of course, now she's become my cling-on, so that's been interesting to deal with.
Anyway, now I'm just trying to kill time between now and the time I can call John, probably in another 1/2 an hour. He sent me an e-mail this afternoon talking about how he figured something out that I didn't really want to work on today because I just couldn't deal with it today, but of course, now I need to know what he came up with, so I have to find out. Anyway... I'm just glad I'll get to talk to him tonight. I feel bad for jumping down his throat about everything today, but I was just in one of those moods where I needed to be mad... Oh well...
Okay, I'm going to go update my ACTUAL journal and work on my present for Johns birthday for a little bit...
Shalom all.

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!

Camp and Stuff

I'm now living on top of a mountain for about the next 63 days. We're on day 2 of staff orientation, and it's going pretty well. I'm kind of home sick and I miss John and my family a lot.
I guess I'll back track a little bit: Thursday night John came down to stay until Saturday, which is when I left to come up to Horton Center. Friday morning we had to get up early and chaperone a trip to Canobie Lake Park with some of his sixth graders. Two of them walked around with us for most of the day, and they were hysterical. They were convinced my name is Sally, and that John and I were married. Well... he and I TOTALLY missed something if we are! Anyway, that night we got home, Janelle came over for a little bit, then my parents left to go to my aunts cottage in Alstead and John and I took my grandparents back to their apartment, and we visited with them there for a little bit. Saturday we spent the day getting me ready for camp. I was going to try and leave between 3 and 4 and I got out the door at about 5:30 or so. I got here Saturday night, unpacked and crashed, pretty much. Sunday I called my dad to wish him a happy fathers day, then we had a bunch of orientation stuff and what not. Today it's been pretty much the same. I'm on duty for Vespers tonight, I get to help plan the 1/2 hour worship service for the evening. That should be good. I'm working on that with Sadie and Kate. I'm hoping that will help me with my homesickness and the feeling of needing to cry every 10 minutes.
Anyway, that's about it for the day. I've got to get off the computer so the next person can use it. Everyone drop me LOTS of e-mails!!!
Peace!

Okay, I'm FINALLY getting around to updating this thing now! :-) Sorry to those who have been waiting DAYS for this ;-)
So this past weekend was great - John came down on Friday and stayed until Monday morning. We played my dad in tennis on Friday evening, and I STILL got my butt kicked! We played Canadian Doubles, and my dad still managed to beat us both, even though he is older than John and my ages combined! Oh well... one of these days I'll get a winning set under my belt. Saturday I took John over to Keene and we just bopped around the city for a little while, then had a late lunch at Margaritas. Then Sunday we went to church that morning - Katie got confirmed, YAY! That afternoon we played tennis again (yes, I STILL lost!) and then got together with Theresa and Chris to go to Kimballs for ice cream! YUM! :-) It was so fun! We sat on the hill across the street from Kimballs while we ate our ice creams. Then Chris kept stealing Theresas shoes and she kept chasing him all over the hill to get them back - it was so funny! They are so cute together. Monday morning John had to leave to go to work, and then he went home from there. It was sad to have him leave, but I get to see him again tomorrow! Yay! I can't believe he and I have been dating for 2 months already... It's gone by so fast! Not that I'm complaining ;-) It's been a great 2 months!
So I've spent most of today getting ready for heading up to Horton Center on Saturday. If I didn't give you my summer info and you want it, drop me an e-mail or an IM or something. If you don't have either of those... oh well, you don't get to talk to me until the fall! :-) I had to get some stuff in Keene today, but I think I'm just about set. I just need to dig out my duffle bags so I can start packing... I should be able to get everything that's going into two large duffle bags, and a small one, or maybe a backpack. I just can't seem to get myself motivated to pack though... I started packing today, but I just can't seem to get myself going. I'm kinda nervous about being up there for the summer, I'm just afraid I'm going to be a sucky staff member. And I will be if I don't go and re-read the curriculum, so I should be heading out. Happy trails all!

Weekends are so great!

I just got in from a weekend with my favorite person, and I had so much fun! Friday late afternoon I got to Johns house and we pretty much just hung out for the night. He bought LOTR:ROTK so we watched that (even though we both saw it in the theater). Then Saturday he had to teach a lesson (or so we THOUGHT) and I had to go pick up a song book from Brian. It was nice to see him and Hannah and their baby Ethan over the weekend. I can't believe Ethan is going to be 6 months old this week! Anyway, when I got to the PCAC, John was just out wandering in the hallway, because, apparently, the person he was supposed to give the lesson to went on a camping trip for the weekend. Oops! Oh well. After that, we played tennis, and I totally got my butt kicked (as usual!), 6-1, 6-1. I wasn't playing my best that day anyway. We went back to his house and had lunch, then that night we went to see the 3rd Harry Potter movie. It was awesome! I loved it, and they did a great job with the story... I still think I like the book better in that one though. The 3rd is very complex towards the end, so it got a little confusing in the end of the movie. Anywho, Sunday we slept in, and then went to mass in Durham (Yes, I went to a Catholic mass AGAIN, and I STILL am alive to tell about it!!!), so that was good. That afternoon we were going to play tennis with his friend Aaron, but the weather was kind of iffy so we all opted out. Then he and I were going to go to the playground and let loose our inner children, but by the time we got out to go to the car, it was raining... so much for that idea! So then we just layed around on the couch and talked about all sorts of stuff, then we played video games on his computer. I'm still not much good at video games... I need to get a new controller for my computer so I can practice up! Anyone have a gamepad that connects to a USB port they would like to donate to the less fortunate? :-)
I stayed again Sunday night because I had a doctors appointment in Bedford this morning, and I could go right by it on my way home, so it made life a little easier. Plus it was nice to get to have the extra time together. Things are going wonderfully and my parents think very highly of John. Theresa says that my mom won't stop talking about him at work, so I think that's a good sign :-)
Okay, it's time for lunch. I semi-bailed on breakfast this morning so I am starving!!
Peace!!