Life Update

WHEW! What a CRAZY three weeks it has been. I honestly do not even know where to begin with updating. :]

Of course, as many of you know, camp began three weeks ago. It has been a whirlwind as we have gotten into the swing of things. The first week was crazy hectic as me, my staff, and the campers had to get used to the different daily schedules. That week gave me a good glimpse into what I would be dealing with this summer, which was both good and bad. (Always is, right?) I am blessed with some amazing counselors, but I have found that a couple are going to need a little more guidance and push. The kids are great [DUH!] and really seem to be enjoying camp. The first week was really hard for me because I had to be the "harsh" person and lay down the law to the kids. This new position is hard in general being that I am doing more "behind the scenes" stuff and not getting as much "play" time with the kids. As the weeks have gone on, I am finding time to spend with each of them throughout the day.

Last week we had Party Pets come and show us his animals. He had all kinds of different critters from turtles to lizards to rabbits to SNAKES! The kids had a great time getting to hold or pet/touch each one. The guy had two snakes that he would allow the kids to wear as a necklace and a belt. That day I had over 80 kids, and pretty much all of them wanted to line up to try on the "snake belt". I stood there next to Mr. Greg taking picture after picture of each kid with the snake belt. Much to my surprise, by the time the last kid got to try on the belt, Mr. Greg decided to ask the kids if they think I should wear the "snake belt". OF COURSE the kids screamed YES! [Would they be kids if they didn't?] So, I had this huge snake around my waist. Mr. Greg also took his albino snake and put her around my neck for a "snakelace". Cool, I know. I cringed the whole time, not gonna lie. One of my counselors grabbed my camera out of my hand and took an awesome picture [sarcastic]. I debated on whether or not I should share it on here because I look horrible in it. However, I felt like no one would really believe me...so here it is. :] (Please excuse how horrible I look, thank you. HA)


Hottie, I know. :] As the third week of camp is in full swing and comes to a close, I am finding things to be a bit easier. My staff as really come together and overcome the awkwardness of not knowing each other. It has been frustrating with a few, [as I mentioned above] but I am learning how to approach them with love and patience. Not easy when I feel like they are just another one of my 6 & 7 year olds. :/ My assistant director is amazing to work with, and I am even learning how to encourage her to take a deep breath and not allow the things that pop up randomly throughout the day to stress her out. Being site director is tough and parents are not always the nicest beings on the Earth. [I am now REALLY grasping what teachers mean when they say it's always harder to deal with the parents than with the kids.] It's unbelievable some of the stories I have from conflicts with parents, really. So sad, too. Regardless of the incredible amount of stress this job brings, I am having fun. Funny, huh? It's cool to be on this side of things organizing activities and all for the kids. I have always been used to "playing" with the kids. Hence the reason of why I was always the "player". :) Now, I get to be the "teacher". Sort of. :) Sharing my days with my CTF (China Teaching Fellows) counselor/advisor, Deb, has been fun too as she ALWAYS tells me that I am definitely being prepared for what China will hold. Over there...CHANGE is INEVITABLE. I mean, change happens everywhere, everyday. BUT...well let's just say China will be interesting for someone who apparently doesn't get along with change AT ALL. [I am getting better though, as this summer has shown.] These two little boys are my BOYS! :) I had them last year when I was a counselor. It was exciting when I saw them back again this year! This is Sammie (blue) and Jake aka VanGundy (white). Some of you might remember them from seeing pictures last year! :)

Enough about camp. :) Outside of camp I am continuing to raise money for China. As of now, I have 22% raised! Our Father is SO good! I recently spoke at my parents church, and I was really nervous but God took over and spoke through me. I felt so loved and supported that day, it was very encouraging. It is overwhelming sometimes to be at camp all day and come home knowing I still have so much to do with fundraising. I am praying and begging the Father to open up more doors for speaking opportunities, and to speak to the hearts of people who have received my letters. I KNOW He will provide, but it is hard to wait. I have less than two months...TWO MONTHS and I am leaving the country. WOW! It has really been hitting me lately as I am spending time with my family and I think about how I won't see them for 10 months. I know it will be harder than I think, but that's where relying on JC will come in. :) [He is already teaching me how HE is ENOUGH! -from last post-] I know I will make new friends in my teammates and colleagues, but that doesn't make leaving my friends here in the states any easier. :(

This past weekend [Father's Day weekend] I took a much needed short vaca to Central to visit with Paige. It was nice to get away and forget about camp and China for a bit. We crossed more stuff off the "list" like running to Ingles (3 miles), which proved to be relaxing for me and hard on P. :) Ran it in a bit over our time from the 5K back in April, so it wasn't bad. I feel like my next visit to Central we'll be able to run to Ingles and BACK (6 miles). :] We played more games of Phase 10, one of which included little Eden [Paige's 6-year-old niece] who made the game more challenging since we were so used to only playing with two people. Of course we went to Chick-fil-a and went to see The Proposal. GREAT movie! I recommend it to anyone who wants to have a good laugh. I would definitely see it again. One of our friends from SWU got married [the whole reason I went up there] so I painfully endured that wedding and enjoyed dressing up, strawberry granola bars and cake, and pineapple punch. [sarcastic] Another fun weekend spent with my "old college roomie". Before I knew it I had to foller my sissty back home for another week of work. :D Coming back to camp this Monday proved to be harder than I thought. I felt so "out of place" being gone for the weekend, even though I had only missed one day of camp. I enjoyed the break way too much. :)

Father's Day was spent at home with my Dad. :) Just me and him. Mom had meetings in Greenville, Shad was at camp, Linds is still in KY, and Joce and Wats were visiting with W's Dad & G-pa. I enjoyed the time with just me and Pappy. I got a great adjustment, watched a good movie, and took in a pretty good nap. :)

That about sums it all up, I think. During the time I have typed out this blog one parent and my boss have called. The parent was freaking out about her daughter's DS she let another kid borrow. They know it's their responsibility when they bring it each day, but you always get parents freaking out. So, already I have something I have to deal with in the morning. :/ Awesome. My boss was calling about moving one of my trouble maker boys to the older camp. She wanted my opinion, but I was clueless. I didn't want to lose the boy but he is causing too much problems with other kids, and is suspended for the rest of the week. We will see what happens.

Getting close to bed time, I must retire. What an old foggie going to bed at 9:00. I need the sleep though. 80+ screaming kids tomorrow for a field trip to Monkey Joe's? Yeah, I need all the sleep I can get. :) Three more days and it's BEACH TIME. Edisto here I come!

Until the next update...

HE is ENOUGH

well i WAS on a roll with this blogging thing. oh well. a lot has happened in the past two weeks. i'll do my best to do a recap...

i went to field day at east end which was a blast. pretty sure it was the best way to spend my last day with those kiddies. the boys were way more competitive in all the events, it was adorable. we had a tug of war competition for all of first grade and i am proud to say we hold the runner up trophy. they pulled with all their might and came up short of the winners trophy, BUT i was proud of them. :] the first couple of pictures were my attempts to capture the fun moments. that afternoon was their "blast off into reading" party. each student was presented with a certificate for the amount of books they read during the "blast off", and the student with the most got a trophy. of course, my girl Sasha won reading 100 books. :]

after that came training for camp. there will be no pictures attached because it was obviously not something i wanted to remember forever. HA. i have taken on a new position this year, camp site director. it is a lot more than i bargained for. this is the same summer camp i worked at last summer, only then i was a mere counselor. there were a handful of days i had to be "director" to fill in for my boss, but i did not have to do all the behind the scenes stuff. needless to say, i felt like i had taken on too big of a role. but once i began to get a few things organized i realized that this job will be a great experience for me. i was informed i have 100+ kids that will be attending this day camp, and less than 10 counselors for the first week. i have a plan and have organized the first day, so BRING ON SUMMER 2009! i am going into the first day without knowing a few things, but i am praying parents won't begin to freak out leaving their kid with an inexperienced site director. we all have to start somewhere, right? i'll do my best to post about the first week. i know that will be one crazy fun blog for you readers out there. :]

a weekend of hanging with my sis and bro in law was nice and relaxing before it was time to head back to the 'burg for one last week.

on monday, my "old college roomie" and best friend, paige drove up to visit so we could cross "trip to spartanburg" off our list. i got to show her the beautiful sights and sounds of spartanburg, which took all of 15 min. we had dinner at wade's the first night with kim day [she paid because she loves us poor college grads] and then paige insisted kd give her a tour of downtown spartanburg because it was apparent that i was not "up to date" with things around 'burg. :] for the rest of her visit we swam, ate chick-fil-a, watched home videos, played games [sucaAHHHN & phase 10], learned how to cut watermelon, ate at the beacon [because "everyone has to experience it"] and best of all laughed until our sides and cheeks hurt. one night after an intense game of phase 10 somehow we got into the discussion of lost (the tv show) and from there it's history-i am officially hooked. i convinced paige to stay one more night and was really trying to extend it, but i failed. least i got her to go to lunch TWICE in a tee and jeans :) it's a shame i didn't capture those moments, but that's typical of us. our picture taking is always awkward, therefore we never take any. during spring break this past spring we went to the beach and got MAYBE three pictures out of it? the picture attached is the best one we have, and it was from forever ago. regardless of our lack of pictures, it was fun to spend time with "P". hard to say goodbye, but we have plenty of other things to cross off our "list" before China beckons.

after paige left, i had a desert date with a handful of swu friends in downtown greenville. we met at coffee underground to share various deserts and catch up. it was great getting to relax and visit with these five kids: mel, chen, adam, rome, and mark. chen taught us a few words in Chinese, as i struggled to pronounce them trying to learn the native tongue. after cu we decided to go to the park to throw the frisbee around. it was obvious the boys were better at the frisbee throwing than the girls, but it was still a fun time to share together. while there i bumped into another fellow alumni from swu and enjoyed being able to catch up with her and her boyfriend. once it got dark we walked the bridge at falls park and eventually found ourselves sitting on the patio of a little cottage style restaurant. we had a bit of a "round-table discussion" which lasted all of 5 minutes before a waiter began to move the tables. we noticed he was just moving them to another part of the patio, so instead of leaving we got up to help him move the iron tables and chairs. he seemed so incredibly grateful to us. [he not only kept saying thank you he was drenched in sweat, so we knew he was appreciative] once we helped him it took not even 10 minutes to get everything moved, and he told us we could sit and stay as long as we wanted. so, another round table discussion began. but not before the gentleman came out with free sweet tea for us! of course everyone else got tea, but i had to be the "yankee" and ask for water. :] i will say i tried the tea, but like all the other tea i have tried...it was gross. as we ended our eventful evening, i couldn't help but thank my Father for these friends. i am not sure when i will see them again since they will be heading off to travel for ministry teams and i will head to rock hill before departing for China. saying goodbye was hard, but i pushed through it and grabbed each of them in a big hug.

as the week rounded out, i found out my thumb drive died. (if that can even really happen) meaning i lost my entire list of people i sent a support letter to. i had to start all over again from scratch because the intelligent student teacher of the year i am never saves anything in two places. i lost my first support letter, all my student teaching stuff, the organizing i had done for camp, all of it. despite the momentary panic, i gave it all to my Father. it was exhausting to start all over again, but He gave me the strength to get through it.

the past couple of days have been hard. maybe because more change is right around the corner. but whatever it is, i am learning to REALLY know what it means to give EVERYTHING to my Father. to let it sink DEEP in my heart that HE is ENOUGH. period. the things of this world are only temporary, but He is FOREVER. i have not been putting my Father first lately and because of that i have felt empty and useless. since my highest love language is physical touch, i seem to "do best" when there is a physical person here to hang out with. i struggle sometimes with spending time with my Father because there is no PHYSICAL touch involved. i am learning that He knows exactly what i need and sometimes when i feel i need that physical touch, it's only because my Faith is weak. and it's in those times when i just cry out to Him, begging Him to just be enough for me. because all that matters is who we are when we stand before Him.

ps-first of all, i am not sure "ps's" really exist in the blogging world. if not, oh well--maybe i've started a new trend. :) anyway, i apologize for the two different fonts. for some reason it just changed in the middle of my post and i am not able to get it all to be one font. it's pretty frustrating. anyway, if you noticed i'm sorry. if you didn't then...well now you probably do. :]