Hi! My name is Joe, and I work in a button factory...

Push the button with your head! ...That is one of our morning exercises after flag raising. It takes skill and coordination, which I have none of...

Anyways, I can't believe we only have two weeks left of camp! This summer has gone by crazy fast. Well, sometimes slow, but overall fast. Today is a sad day because one of our beloved staff members, Miss Jodi Jackson, had to leave early for school. She is missed terribly. She was my accountability partner, neighbor, friend, and Anna's co. But God has other plans for her right now and we need to remember that.

This past week was great! We slept out on Monday night on the beach, but I ended up sleeping on the dock! The moon was so pretty every single night! The weather was gorgeous too. Sunday we had a downpour, but Monday through Saturday not a drop of rain, just rays of sunshine! Ruth, my co, and I got called for entertainment this past week. We put on some frilly dresses and did an interpretive dance to "Just a spoonful of sugar" (or whatever that song is from Mary Poppins), and doused the campers with sugar while we danced. We did not get called to go in the lake though! :)

The past few days have been pretty chilly - not August weather at all! It's ridiculous. Anyways, hopefully it will warm up a little bit? We made a trip to King of the Frosties last night and had ice cream! Yum! It was so good. I also made it to CJ's (Charlie John's - the grocery store up here) and bought some snacks for the next couple of weeks.

I am speaking in Vespers (kinda like a chapel) on Monday night and am kind of freaking out about it, but I know that the Lord will speak through me if I let Him. I just have to trust Him and give it to Him. With that said, I need to pack up my things and finish planning what I'm going to talk about.

Adios Chicos.

MILK comes from an utter, ON our toast is butter, WE love one another...WINNEBAGO!

Well, indeed, that is my cabin. Although we had a co change I am still in Winnebago with Ruth! My old co, Elena, has moved across the island (entirely too far if you ask me). But it'll be alright. :) I really don't like our cabin cheer (the beginning of it is the title of this blog). Although Elena and I made up a new one, the girls didn't like it very much so we had to do the original one for their sake. Anyways, maybe we can come up with something catchy? If you have any ideas, let me know!

So last week was pretty challenging. I sprained my wrist on Wednesday morning and could barely do anything with it. But God was teaching me to rely on His strength rather than my own - it's very humbling when you have to ask a camper to tie your shoe for you... Anyways, it's been a week and a half and it's almost completely healed, but still sore/tender.

This past week was pretty good. I'm still adjusting to the co change - learning how to work with a new person. The girls were really good too - and we almost won cabin clean-up and got ice cream, but unfortuantely Apache (Emily's cabin and the oldest girls) had more creativity points than we did...otherwise we tied as far as the "clean-up" part of it goes. So they got the ice cream and I was very disappointed. - They better watch out for next week! But on the bright side of things I got pancakes for breakfast twice this week! We always have pancakes on Wednesday mornings but we "slept out" on Wednesday night and made pancakes on the stove in the craft cabin in the morning with the Oakies (the youngest girls)! It rained that night, so we didn't actually get to sleep on the beach, but that's ok.

We only have three weeks left of summer! It has flown by so fast - I can't believe session 5 is already over. It's ridiculous. I'm excited for session 8 though because Laura and Susanna (my cousins) are coming to camp and my mom and Philip are coming to visit too!!! :) I'm stoked! Anyways, it'll be sad though, because we will all be leaving :(

Well, that's all for now, folks. I need to get some things done other than blogging...............

Pictures!

For all of you non-facebook friends, here are the pictures...finally! Sorry to be putting them on so late!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114843&id=729082455&l=124fa3e799

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121665&id=729082455&l=f66cf6194a

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121718&id=729082455&l=46daa5836c

Maybe I should re-phrase that...

So this has definitely been the best week so far, but very hectic at times. To start out with, on Monday we had a lost camper drill - only we didn't know it was a drill. So we were all freaked out and everything, searching the water - almost none of us had our suits on either (pretty bad, but accurate if it were really going to happen)! Anyways, we found out it was a drill after we found the "lost camper," but we were all pretty shaken up. Tuesday the inspector came, so all the admin. were running around making sure everything looked good and everything - and we passed inspection! Wednesday it was so cold (45 degrees) that we didn't have to swim at 6am! So instead we had a pilates fest - started out with 2 people and ended up with 5! I also taught sailing during 3rd and 4th period. I got stranded at the end of 3rd period and had the lifeguard in the putt-putt get the girls and take them back while I tried sailing in. I ended up capsizing and swimming the sailboat in. Then 4th period I got stranded again, so this time we put the sail down and had the putt-putt tow us back to the island. But on the bright side, I got my basic badge(r) in sailing! (if you wanna know what's up with the "badger" just ask Anna Costello!) Thursday my cabin, Winnebago, went on an overnight hike! So much fun, the girls had a blast! We brought a dutch oven and made cake! It burnt on the top, bottom, and sides, but the middle was perfect!!! Such a great time! So the title to this blog comes from that cake. I looked at the bottom after we had eaten the middle and it didn't look so burnt, so I tried scraping it off the bottom and said, "maybe I should re-phrase that..." (I guess you probably had to be there) Anyways, on the way out one of the girls twisted her ankle (not badly) but I ended up carrying her backpack all the way out. I had my pack on my back and her back-pack on my front. Friday we had banquet and after that - ice cream!!!! We won cabin clean-up for the week (cause our cabin was the cleanest) so we got an ice cream party! Not a good idea to give 12-year-olds ice cream at 9pm - they were hyper the rest of the night! But it was fun and yummy! Today (Saturday) we cleaned up the island and then came over to the mainland for our day off! Elena, Anna, Liz, Esther, Jacqueline, and I made a cake at Liz's house for Jodi who is turning 20 tomorrow! Happy Birthday, Jodi! Anyways, we suprised her with the cake tonight! We also ate dinner at Miss Kim's house! She made delicious spaghetti, salad, and bread! I burnt my hand on the spaghetti sauce though, it spilled on my hand (I guess I was super excited for a home-cooked meal?). Anyways, it's not awful, but it is burned - hopefully it'll heal quickly! By the way, the meal was delicious, thank you, Miss Kim! So tomorrow we head back to the island after church and get ready for more campers! Session 4 here we come!

Goodnight - Mini-Sand.

I just want to be a sheep ba ba ba ba

The sheep song is one of the many songs we sing here at Tap! I would have to say it's a good one! (Just ask and I'll sing it to ya!) Anywho, session 2 is over, and I'm still learning how to do things. This week was way different than last week, not in a bad way though. They were both challenging in different ways. One fun thing was that our girls loved that my co was in the army and so we would have them "march" everywhere (slight exaggeration, but...). They loved it! Three of our girls are staying for the next week as well, but we haven't found out if they'll be in our cabin again or not.

One of my highs this week was that one of my campers accepted Christ!!!!!!!!!!! It was so exciting! We have one-on-ones with the campers every Thursday night and it's optional, so the camper doesn't have to do it if they don't want to, but it's just a time where they can speak to one of their counselors by themselves for around 15 minutes or more to just talk/ask questions/etc... So that was really really cool!

I had the opportunity to teach sailing this week! It was a blast and we capsized (on purpose!). I love sailing! I went sailing again today. It was a bit stormy, but definitely a lot of fun! Emily, Christy, and I went. We capsized at the dock...accidentally. Yep, it's true - and I landed on Christy, ahhhh! Also had probably the most embarrassing moment of my life, but I'm not going to write about it. If you really want to know, you can ask - but I'm not promising I'll tell! mwaahhaahaa :D

Anyways, it's been a great day off! We tried a new ice cream place in town and I'd have to say that it was pretty amazing. Mint Moose Tracks in a decorated waffle cone dipped in chocolate! mmmmm yum. I went all out. So good!

So besides that, I'm planning on going to Common Grounds (super good cafe) in the morning for breakfast. Campers are also coming tomorrow afternoon for the start of session three! I can't believe how fast these weeks have gone by, but it's a good thing. I'm excited for the end of the summer so I can go home, but don't get me wrong, I do like it up here a lot!

Alrighty, well I'd best be going to bed....I haven't stayed up this late in over amonth! haha :) Goodnight!!

Whoa! There are a lot of palms in the Bible!

Yes, it's true. I'm a counselor for a bunch of 11-12 year old girls in Winnebago. One of my girls couldn't pronounce Psalms, so she said "Palms." I've been laughing about it all week - not in front of her though. It was so cute! I had another girl who said she forgot what her house looked like....12-year-olds these days......haha! So I survived the first week of camp! It was a little overwhelming and stressful, but thankfully my co is a pro and she really helped me get through this first week!

Monday evening we slept out with our cabin and Navajo's cabin on the beach. We built a fire and had smores. I think I woke up every hour that night. The sun also started to come up at 4:30am...way too early in my opinion. But I do have to say that it definitely helps me get up easier in the morning.

So it rained on Tuesday afternoon, so we had to do some rainy day activities in the chapel. One of those activities just happened to be, *drum roll please* : Dress your counselor like a superhero! Oh it was craziness. Two cabins were out on hikes, but the rest of us were dressed by our campies to be some superhero. I was Superman and my co was Wonderwoman, but neither of us looked like what we were supposed to be. Anyways, we also had Powerpuff Girls, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, Zorro and Tornado, Batman, and something else having to do with a green lantern that I've never heard of.

We hiked Good Luck Mountain with our campies on Thursday. It wasn't too bad of a hike, except it was muddy, rainy, and foggy at the top. We only stayed at the top long enough to eat our lunch and then left because it started raining at the top. Miss Elena got a great workout because she had to carry one girl's backpack and "drag" her up the entire mountain. All of the girls had a good time though, praise the Lord!

That pretty much sums up this week. Hopefully we'll all get plenty of rest tonight for the next batch of campers tomorrow! Whew.....I can't believe they're coming tomorrow...haha. Each day of this past week went by slowly, but the week went by pretty fast as a whole. Alrighty, that's all I have to say for now.

P.S. 1 week down, 7 to go.

Staff training is finished!

Well it's been a little while since my last post, so I've got some updates! :) For starters, training is over and campers are coming on Sunday!! Don't get me wrong, I'll probably still be training all throughout the summer...

We have been doing a lot of hiking this past week. Last Friday we went on a 3-day hike to Puffer Pond and slept in a lean-to. It was a sweet time of bonding with the other girls and hearing their testimonies! When we got out of the 3-day we immediately climbed Chimney Mountain which is steep the whole way up for about a mile. I got up in 31 minutes! It was hard, but beautiful at the top! On Tuesday and Wednesday we split up in 2 groups and did different hikes. My group did Crane Mountain, Kibby Pond, Kane Mountain, Jockeybush Pond and Fawn Lake. Crane was the hardest, but definitely worth it! It's definitely my favorite hike just because of the view - talk about gorgeous!

Today we found out who our Co-couselors were! I'd have to say mine is the best: Give it up for Miss Elena!!! I'm super excited! Also, tonight we had our staff banquet before the campers come and we are on our day off!

I've also had the pleasure of learning how to sail! Lord-willing if the weather is nice tomorrow I'll be taking my parents out who are visiting right now!!!!!

Well that's all for now, folks! I'm heading to bed!