friday was the last day of camp. and wow was i soooo tired. that night i slept 11 hours, woke up at 10 am, and then took a nap an hour later for another 3.5 hours.
this last week was junior high week.... it was so very different. the kids are so much more independent. they only really need us there to tell them to stop doing stupid things. but you wanna hang out with them, so you gotta figure out which kids wouldn't not want you to sit with them for lunch and make friends with them. sometimes you need to try to make friends with the kids that cause the most trouble, so that you don't feel like all you are ever saying is, "okay, that's probably not a good idea.... okay guys, please go back to the gym.... please stop calling her names...." etc. etc.
it was Week 8. i was tired. and still really sick. i went back to the doctor on tuesday morning. he told me my cough was developing into bronchitis... just as i suspected. that afternoon i felt so crappy that the other counsellors and the director all made me go home. they were just going to the pool anyways, so i went home and slept.
the antibiotics started kicking in soon thereafter, but i still felt miserable. it was a very confusing time... i wanted to be with the kids, but i wasn't any fun, i wasn't very cool at all to hang out with, so that made me more miserable... and i was tired.... i wanted to make a good impression on them, because R and i are doing junior high youth this fall (grade 7&8)....all the girls in my small group were going into grade 9 anyways....
we spent all day wednesday at st. malo beach/campground ("please don't go out that far in the water"). we made our suppers over the fire ("please stop playing with the hatchet"). we even played a night game and had a campfire. it went really well overall. R joined us for the day, as an extra leader, and we were so grateful. it was pretty amusing to see that he had more energy than the rest of the staff combined... we looked pretty pathetic.
thursday, things started going better. up until this point in the week, i really hadn't had any fun. but then we went to lilac campground/resort for the day. SO great!! that place is amazing. there's so many water activities to do, 2 racing waterslides, a big waterslide, a kiddie pool, a kids pool with lilypads you can try to walk across, a few hottubs, lots of little slides, and tons of killer whale fountains and other things that shoot out water. if you have kids (of any age) and live in manitoba, i highly recommend it! it's not even 1/2 hour out of the city and it's way better than fun mountain (don't know how much it costs though).
so anyways, on this day, i noticed some gr.7 girls following us around quite a lot, and i realized that if i want to have any fun this week at all, i need to hang out with them. so i challenged them to a few races down the waterslides and the went across the lilypads together. and we all had fun.
friday was rainy and yucky so we went to steinbach aquatic centre (similar to lilac, but indoors). that was good, but by then, i was just counting down the hours.
so.... do i think i'll do this again next year?? now is not the right time to ask me. i'm still sleeping 11 hours a night trying to recouperate, and i'm still tired. oh well.... i'm on holidays till the 6th now....... woooohooooo!
Monday, August 28, 2006
Sunday, August 20, 2006
there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home
today was a great day. 3 really cool things happened:
1) we got to drive under the brand new underpass on kenaston for the first time (if you drive this way frequently, you will understand my joy). this underpass was promised to the people about 10 years ago, and now they just built this underpass under the traintracks that, if you are remotely late for work, you are guaranteed to get a train. and now there's an underpass! (i still have NO idea how they built the highway under the tracks, without removing the tracks)
2) we went to the winnipeg goldeyes game with my parents and they won 9-6!
3) the "70% chance of thundershowers" only drizzled on us very briefly, and it was only after the game was over. we watched the huge thunderheads pass us in the distance. oh yeah, and the tornado. yes, i said tornado. i saw my first tornado. we were right downtown, walking back to our car, when i heard someone mention, "hey, look, there's a tornado." it was pretty far away, and it probably didn't touch down and i'm sure the experts would just call it a funnel cloud, but to us, it was a tornado. however, i saw no flying houses or cows. it was pretty crazy nonetheless.
1) we got to drive under the brand new underpass on kenaston for the first time (if you drive this way frequently, you will understand my joy). this underpass was promised to the people about 10 years ago, and now they just built this underpass under the traintracks that, if you are remotely late for work, you are guaranteed to get a train. and now there's an underpass! (i still have NO idea how they built the highway under the tracks, without removing the tracks)
2) we went to the winnipeg goldeyes game with my parents and they won 9-6!
3) the "70% chance of thundershowers" only drizzled on us very briefly, and it was only after the game was over. we watched the huge thunderheads pass us in the distance. oh yeah, and the tornado. yes, i said tornado. i saw my first tornado. we were right downtown, walking back to our car, when i heard someone mention, "hey, look, there's a tornado." it was pretty far away, and it probably didn't touch down and i'm sure the experts would just call it a funnel cloud, but to us, it was a tornado. however, i saw no flying houses or cows. it was pretty crazy nonetheless.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
tea with honey
i love the weekends. this is when i catch up on my rest. like last night for instance, when i got 12 hours of sleep. camp can be a little exhausting (if you want the understated version). not to mention the fact that i've been sick for 2 weeks now. not a head cold, nor the flu. it started out as a tickle in my throat, which made me cough non-stop. "post-nasal drip" the doctor said. but no sore throat or anything else. and i've drank more tea in the last week than i have in my whole adult life. (or my whole life, since i hated tea as a child, which i discovered once when i was invited to a girl's place for a tea party, not realizing that she really meant tea party. it was yucky). now tea is very yummy. but only with honey.
but now, this whole cough thing has moved down my chest into some form of lower respiratory tract infection. lots of phlegm and extra rumbling sounds when i cough. not fun. especially in summer. especially when i'm supposed to be yelling and screaming and singing silly songs all day long.
thank God for tea with honey.
besides that, things are going super. in fact, there's only 1 week of camp left. WOOOO-HOOOOO! i love camp and all.... but i'm tired! we all are. this coming week is junior high week, so things will be a little bit different. we are looking forward for the change. and then school doesn't start until september 7, so that's almost 2 weeks off! wow, not sure what i'll do with all my free time. maybe we'll go camping again. we'll see.
but now, this whole cough thing has moved down my chest into some form of lower respiratory tract infection. lots of phlegm and extra rumbling sounds when i cough. not fun. especially in summer. especially when i'm supposed to be yelling and screaming and singing silly songs all day long.
thank God for tea with honey.
besides that, things are going super. in fact, there's only 1 week of camp left. WOOOO-HOOOOO! i love camp and all.... but i'm tired! we all are. this coming week is junior high week, so things will be a little bit different. we are looking forward for the change. and then school doesn't start until september 7, so that's almost 2 weeks off! wow, not sure what i'll do with all my free time. maybe we'll go camping again. we'll see.
Friday, August 11, 2006
what's with snot and swimming?
have you ever wondered why swimming makes people have runny noses? more specifically, why and how people get snot on their faces, when they're swimming?
today we spent a long, hard day's work.... at fun mountain. while another counselor and i were in line for the river ride, we heard our names, "hi erin! hi julia!". now this is a frequent occurrence at the waterslides. and then it is our job to look around amongst the long long line-ups to find which campers are calling and waving to us, and trying to tell us that they just went on the dragon and they got stuck half way down and had to paddle themselves to keep going, and now they're on the cherry bomb and want to know if we've ever been on the cherry bomb and if it's good and then they're probably gonna go in the hot tub afterwards.
however, this time, the girls calling our names were coming up the hill (oh sorry, the 'mountain') and got in line behind us and began asking/telling us the usual story about which slides were the coolest, etc.
but this is the part of the story that inspired the title of this entry.
one of the girls had something on her cheek. and a big glob on the outside of her eyelid and on her eyelashes. and it wasn't just a little something. it was a substantial amount. it was snot. i don't think i even have that much snot in my whole nose. i was trying to look at her, while she was talking about the last 3 slides that they had just gone on, but i couldn't look at her without bursting out in laughter. just then, my colleague told her the she had something on her eye. oh good, i thought to myself, she'll wipe it off and i'll be able to look at her face without laughing. "what? oh well," she said and wiped it away. well, away from her eye. but now it was streaking fully across her face. erin and i made eye contact, but had to quickly look away. it was so hard to not bust a gut right there in front of her, but somehow i didn't think the camper would appreciate it if we did. which brings me back to my question. have you ever noticed how many people (myself, too, most likely) get snot on their faces when they're in the water?
today we spent a long, hard day's work.... at fun mountain. while another counselor and i were in line for the river ride, we heard our names, "hi erin! hi julia!". now this is a frequent occurrence at the waterslides. and then it is our job to look around amongst the long long line-ups to find which campers are calling and waving to us, and trying to tell us that they just went on the dragon and they got stuck half way down and had to paddle themselves to keep going, and now they're on the cherry bomb and want to know if we've ever been on the cherry bomb and if it's good and then they're probably gonna go in the hot tub afterwards.
however, this time, the girls calling our names were coming up the hill (oh sorry, the 'mountain') and got in line behind us and began asking/telling us the usual story about which slides were the coolest, etc.
but this is the part of the story that inspired the title of this entry.
one of the girls had something on her cheek. and a big glob on the outside of her eyelid and on her eyelashes. and it wasn't just a little something. it was a substantial amount. it was snot. i don't think i even have that much snot in my whole nose. i was trying to look at her, while she was talking about the last 3 slides that they had just gone on, but i couldn't look at her without bursting out in laughter. just then, my colleague told her the she had something on her eye. oh good, i thought to myself, she'll wipe it off and i'll be able to look at her face without laughing. "what? oh well," she said and wiped it away. well, away from her eye. but now it was streaking fully across her face. erin and i made eye contact, but had to quickly look away. it was so hard to not bust a gut right there in front of her, but somehow i didn't think the camper would appreciate it if we did. which brings me back to my question. have you ever noticed how many people (myself, too, most likely) get snot on their faces when they're in the water?
Monday, August 07, 2006
i am a marshmellow bubble chick
that's our team name this week. the marshmellow bubble chicks. last week i was a fire eagle. before that i've been a chicklet, a tater tot, and a crazy tiger. the campers come up with the team name, with our help of course, and also a team cheer and poster. sometimes that requires a lot of coaxing.
last week, my fire eagles were amazing. the best group of kids i'm gonna have all summer, i think. they were mostly 7 or 8. however, that meant, grade 1, 2, 3, and 4!! but surprisingly, they worked together just fine. the older girls just sort of took the grade 1 girl under their wing, and she never complained once. they were gung-ho about memorizing Bible verses and ended up being the winning team at the end of the week. (mostly thanks to all the team points from the memory verses). most of them were Christians already. and two of them weren't sure if they were, but after we talked about what it means to be a Christian, they decided that they were. okay.
this week should be really good too. i have 7 nine-year-old girls (and a leader-in-training). they were pretty quiet today, but that's a good thing, since it's only monday and by the end of the week, they will have trouble sitting still, guaranteed.
once again, this week is supposed to hit 30 degrees every single day. oh boy. it'll be nice for swimming tomorrow. once again, thanks everyone for your prayers!
Monday, July 31, 2006
here we go again...
oh monday mornings....
it's not the usual dread of the monday morning of working a summer job. no, it's different with camp. it's more of a curiosity. what kind of campers will i be given this week? whiners again? good kids? christian kids? non-church kids? fun? ADHD? allergies? asthma? ? ? ?
oh well, we shall find out. i just want to thank all of you who have been praying for us. there's been at least 17 kids who have come to know Jesus, probably more that we don't know about. just amazing. please continue to pray for our campers in this area. and for the staff - for wisdom and for patience and for a little more energy.
thanks for much. and also thanks to those who have supported me financially. it's been quite amazing..... thank you.
well, i gotta go make my lunch, then off to the church for another 28-degree day, UV index of 7 or high, at the park.
oh but one more thing. we are getting really sick of some of our songs. any suggestions?? on friday we brainstormed and now have a few more good songs. but we still need some of those silly ones (like baby shark and there was a great big moose etc.).
hey, if you were ever a camper, what was your favourite camp song?? [besides pharaoh pharaoh and romans 16:19. ]
it's not the usual dread of the monday morning of working a summer job. no, it's different with camp. it's more of a curiosity. what kind of campers will i be given this week? whiners again? good kids? christian kids? non-church kids? fun? ADHD? allergies? asthma? ? ? ?
oh well, we shall find out. i just want to thank all of you who have been praying for us. there's been at least 17 kids who have come to know Jesus, probably more that we don't know about. just amazing. please continue to pray for our campers in this area. and for the staff - for wisdom and for patience and for a little more energy.
thanks for much. and also thanks to those who have supported me financially. it's been quite amazing..... thank you.
well, i gotta go make my lunch, then off to the church for another 28-degree day, UV index of 7 or high, at the park.
oh but one more thing. we are getting really sick of some of our songs. any suggestions?? on friday we brainstormed and now have a few more good songs. but we still need some of those silly ones (like baby shark and there was a great big moose etc.).
hey, if you were ever a camper, what was your favourite camp song?? [besides pharaoh pharaoh and romans 16:19. ]
Friday, July 28, 2006
half way!
we are officially half done camp! today we concluded Week 4. i can hardly believe it. there has been significantly less injuries than that first week..... or maybe i really am just getting used to it. actually, the other counsellors have been very nice to me and have stopped sending their campers to me after every mention of a tummy ache (the kid just needed to stop running around and take a break for a minute?) or need for a teeny band-aid.
this week was different. the Holy Spirit was moving, something was happening at the beginning of the week and we were excited. i knew something was different. my campers were asking amazing questions about God, creation, Jesus, how does one get to heaven, what is a sinner, how do you become a Christian, etc. it was awesome. i was pumped. of course, the girls were pretty hyperactive and often asked more questions before i could even answer the first one.
"okay so you just said that you think that you can get to heaven by being good.... does anyone know what the Bible says about that?"
"ummmm, you need to believe."
"okay, believe what?"
"uhhh, in God?"
etc. it was neat, i got to explain the story of salvation with my team of girls everyday, because the questions kept on coming. and one of my campers became a christian one night! and another kept asking a ton of questions and is very curious!
however, their hyperactivity just increased and by thursday, they could not sit through our team time, with one camper begging to call her mom because she had hurt her knee the night before and it really really hurt and she wanted to go home. and another camper asking every 2 minutes or so if she could change out of her pajamas (this was the morning after the sleepover, and i had asked her before breakfast if she was still wearing her pjs and she said no, which she later admitted that was a lie, since it was now much later and she was still in her pjs) and i kept telling her, no, she'd have to wait 5 minutes until after we were done our Bible lesson, but then she'd ask again 2 minutes later. and all the other girls kept walking around, doing what? i don't know. and we were supposed to be making a skit/song/anything to present the memory verse (i was having trouble "loving my neighbour as myself" at that moment). they were driving me crazy. i eventually had to tell them that i was not going to yell at them to be quiet anymore and if they couldn't focus soon, i was ready to get up and leave, and they'd have to figure it out on their own, and they'd end up looking like fools when they presented it. they eventually pulled out a weak half-a-minute modern-day version of the good samaritan, which was the skit that they had just seen half an hour earlier. it was not a good day for julia.
last week i had the 6 year olds. this week i thought it would be easier with the 11 year olds. ha! by the end of the week, i was telling 2 of my campers that they act like 3 year olds and whine more than my grade 1 kids from last week. yes, i am mean. well, not usually, but i'm just telling you about the times that i am mean. i actually had a camper (who apparently is going into grade 7), who was lying on the floor, briefly kick her feet and pound on the floor with her fists when we told her she couldn't do something. wow. at the zoo on thursday afternoon.... i've never heard that much whining in my whole life. at anything and everything. the day before my camper whined all day that she was sick, but all she had for breakfast was 2 chocolate bars. and she wasn't hungry for lunch, but still wanted to eat her dunkaroos and the massive bag of chips. i almost begged her to eat her sandwich. ("i don't like bologna" *pout*) okay at least just some of the bread, or her orange ("i'm not hungry..." ...munch munch). finally some other counsellors intervened. but not before she barfed 3 times.
[at the waterslides today i somehow tricked her into not buying cotton candy before lunch, since she didn't eat breakfast, but later she bought 2 dozen mini donuts. and amazingly she's not obese].
hmmm. yes, it was hard to not have favorites this week. i just avoided some of my campers and i loved the others.... just at those times when i began to hate the way my name sounded "ju....li...aaaaaaa....." whine whine whine. (some of the other staff felt the same way about my girls too, it's not just me!).
wow, okay this was a long rant. and i could go on. but i shan't. it is the weekend, and i feel pretty good right now and i want to end on a positive note. my sister genifer was out here visiting and stayed for night on tuesday. it was good to see her again. and now steve is here until sunday. good times! i love visitors!!
[any suggestions? i mean, besides going to the forks?]
this week was different. the Holy Spirit was moving, something was happening at the beginning of the week and we were excited. i knew something was different. my campers were asking amazing questions about God, creation, Jesus, how does one get to heaven, what is a sinner, how do you become a Christian, etc. it was awesome. i was pumped. of course, the girls were pretty hyperactive and often asked more questions before i could even answer the first one.
"okay so you just said that you think that you can get to heaven by being good.... does anyone know what the Bible says about that?"
"ummmm, you need to believe."
"okay, believe what?"
"uhhh, in God?"
etc. it was neat, i got to explain the story of salvation with my team of girls everyday, because the questions kept on coming. and one of my campers became a christian one night! and another kept asking a ton of questions and is very curious!
however, their hyperactivity just increased and by thursday, they could not sit through our team time, with one camper begging to call her mom because she had hurt her knee the night before and it really really hurt and she wanted to go home. and another camper asking every 2 minutes or so if she could change out of her pajamas (this was the morning after the sleepover, and i had asked her before breakfast if she was still wearing her pjs and she said no, which she later admitted that was a lie, since it was now much later and she was still in her pjs) and i kept telling her, no, she'd have to wait 5 minutes until after we were done our Bible lesson, but then she'd ask again 2 minutes later. and all the other girls kept walking around, doing what? i don't know. and we were supposed to be making a skit/song/anything to present the memory verse (i was having trouble "loving my neighbour as myself" at that moment). they were driving me crazy. i eventually had to tell them that i was not going to yell at them to be quiet anymore and if they couldn't focus soon, i was ready to get up and leave, and they'd have to figure it out on their own, and they'd end up looking like fools when they presented it. they eventually pulled out a weak half-a-minute modern-day version of the good samaritan, which was the skit that they had just seen half an hour earlier. it was not a good day for julia.
last week i had the 6 year olds. this week i thought it would be easier with the 11 year olds. ha! by the end of the week, i was telling 2 of my campers that they act like 3 year olds and whine more than my grade 1 kids from last week. yes, i am mean. well, not usually, but i'm just telling you about the times that i am mean. i actually had a camper (who apparently is going into grade 7), who was lying on the floor, briefly kick her feet and pound on the floor with her fists when we told her she couldn't do something. wow. at the zoo on thursday afternoon.... i've never heard that much whining in my whole life. at anything and everything. the day before my camper whined all day that she was sick, but all she had for breakfast was 2 chocolate bars. and she wasn't hungry for lunch, but still wanted to eat her dunkaroos and the massive bag of chips. i almost begged her to eat her sandwich. ("i don't like bologna" *pout*) okay at least just some of the bread, or her orange ("i'm not hungry..." ...munch munch). finally some other counsellors intervened. but not before she barfed 3 times.
[at the waterslides today i somehow tricked her into not buying cotton candy before lunch, since she didn't eat breakfast, but later she bought 2 dozen mini donuts. and amazingly she's not obese].
hmmm. yes, it was hard to not have favorites this week. i just avoided some of my campers and i loved the others.... just at those times when i began to hate the way my name sounded "ju....li...aaaaaaa....." whine whine whine. (some of the other staff felt the same way about my girls too, it's not just me!).
wow, okay this was a long rant. and i could go on. but i shan't. it is the weekend, and i feel pretty good right now and i want to end on a positive note. my sister genifer was out here visiting and stayed for night on tuesday. it was good to see her again. and now steve is here until sunday. good times! i love visitors!!
[any suggestions? i mean, besides going to the forks?]
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