mmmm.... mulchy.

Week ONE.

this week was STELLAR. dude. I seriously am in love with my job this summer. Living in a cabin with other counselors was a nerve-wracking thought at first but gosh, its the biggest blessing ever. This week I had some of most hilarious women I've ever met living with me, I felt so lucky to get to know them first. Helping to run day camp is a new adventure and fire to put out everyday, but I'm loving the challenge of it all. Its really funny to see how different the kids act at camp since they go home to their parents every night... we have to really retrain them on how to behave every single morning. its a lot like school, really. day one I had two little girls throw up... awesome. I can tell that I'm going to be really good at dealing with barf by the end of the summer. yummy.
Also this week we had a little girl with downs syndrome named Abbey and she was the bright, shining sparkle of the week. This precious little girl made me smile bigger and feel more loved than any other child I've ever met. Abbey loves to make animal sounds and one day she went through an entire list of fun animal sounds for me, from a gorilla all the way to giraffe (which actually sounds like stretching your neck really high and putting your hand on top of your head). Then she looking at me and said, "okay. hippo sound.. ~pause pause pause~ HIPPPPPOOOO!!" I died laughing and she just laughed along with me. The cool thing about day camp is we get to interact with the parents everyday and really form a relationship with them too, so it was really cool to talk to Abbey's mom everyday about the new things she was experiencing. I'm SO glad Pine Cove adopted the new Jigs Kid's program... its going to bring a whole new aspect to my summer that I really didn't expect.
no lie... I have these little pangs of missing being with the rest of overnight camp every now and then... especially when i'm walking up to the day camp pavilion for the millionth time in a day and get another fistful of lovely mulch in my Keens. Our pavilion (or the Paravail for those in the know) has had a facelift and really looks great, but dude.... the mulch... its..... lovely. Yesterday I was up in the upper room of our dining hall working on checking character quality certificates while breakfast was going on and it really hit me that I wasn't just at Castle Rock for a little bit and that eventually I would be back with everyone else... nope, this is for the whole summer. but that doesn't make me sad, I just needed to really realize what that meant for me. I think I've kind of been in denial or at least not fully grasping what my summer would look like. but now I know and I really really am blessed, I love the time I get with staff... its such an encouragement and an opportunity to get to know people on a deeper level. seriously though, riding the bus or the van back an forth between Tyler and camp are some of the sweetest times ever.

i'm home right now for Jorey's graduation so feel free to call and chat!!!! whoop.