Rain

Rain, rain, rain, rain...thunderstorms mean no (insert camp activity here and repeat until you have gone through most activities).
I really don't have much to say. I just thought I'd share our rain song we made up. We had quite the downpour earlier this afternoon. We've had a pretty good amount of rain this summer which is crazy b/c last summer it rained like twice.
I'm on selah right now which is nice. It's always nice to have a little off time to rest.
Finished my antibiotics for my sinus infection tonight. woohoo.
Still can't believe how fast the summer is flying.
Alex made it to Virginia. Pray for him as he goes through training for journeyman and then heads to France.
Sorry this post is full of choppy thoughts that you probably don't really care to know.
Also pray for the staff here. A lot of us have been getting sick lately which is just no fun. I had some not so fun stomach issues today.
I cut my finger last night on a table. Thankfully it wasn't too bad though. Just hurt a little, but nothing a bandaid couldn't fix.
For those of you who know what I'm talking about, I'm in the process of posting pictures to the sisterhood of the traveling hand group. :)
Anyway, I'll stop rambling now.
-Allison-

Goodbyes, Women's Dinner, Campout, etc.

     I hate goodbyes. I don't think I'm alone in that. They just suck. I said bye to one of my closest friends the other day. Alex has played a big role in my life. A lot of people don't understand our friendship, but that's ok. He's as close of a brother to me as he can be without actually being related to me. Anyway, I don't really feel I need to defend our friendship anymore. It is what it is, and I love him like he's my brother. He's the person who got me to camp. He also played a pretty big role in helping me figure out what I want to do with my life, and has encouraged me in my weaknesses. He annoys the crap out me sometimes, but that's ok, after all, what are brothers for. ha Anyway, we've worked together for 2 summers now at camp, and I had to drive him to the airport the other day so that he could go home and then to training for journeyman in France. It was a harder goodbye than I expected but I know that we'll always be friends even if we go through spells where we aren't in communication as much as usual. If you think about it, pray for him as he prepares to go to France for the next 2 years.
     Watching Alex have to say bye to camp and all the people here made it all the more real that I'll be saying bye as well in just a couple of weeks. I feel like I talk about that a lot, but I can't help it. This place has meant so much to me. I'm going to miss these people so much. Over the past few years I've built relationships with these kids and fellow staff members, and it's going to be so hard to say goodbye. Some of the senior camper girls (just finished 9th grade), wrote Alex letters before he left, and he read them to me on the way to the airport. One of them made me cry because it is just so cool to realize how much of an impact we can have on these campers. I was a part of sending a package to one girl, and in her letter to Alex she said that she wouldn't have near as strong of a relationship with Christ if it weren't for that package we sent her. I've said it many time before, but I love that this is a relationship based camp. I feel very strongly that building relationships with people is the best way to reach them. I'm not limiting God by saying that he can't use other ways, because he can, but I definitely feel like relationships are the most effective because Christianity is all about having a relationship with Christ. Therefore, I feel that building a relationship with someone, and showing them how much you care is one of the best ways to demonstrate Christ's love for us.
    Anyway, after dropping Alex off, I came back to camp to Women's Dinner, which is one of my favorite nights at camp. It wasn't quite the same for me this term because it's hard to jump from saying bye to one of your best friends to jumping around dancing and singing to songs with a bunch of girls, but it was a great way to lift my spirits. I was talking to some of the senior camper girls (Lexie and Ashley), and they were saying that women's dinner was just what the needed to lift their spirits. It really is a lot of fun. All the girls dress in pajamas and get tiaras while we leadership wear jeans and a black shirt and serve the girls. The food is delicious and it's just a fun night. 
    Last night was campout. I like campout, it's just the sleeping part that can be rough out here for campout. Last night wasn't too bad though because I took some benadryl and was out. I think campout is a good experience for these campers because most of them don't get outside enough. By the way, if you've never tried roasting a starburst over a fire you should try it. Trust me, it's delicious. Overall campout went smoothly. The chili judging is always interesting. Every cabin makes chili and you just never quite know what it's going to taste like. Not all the chili is hot, some are quite sweet, some are quite spicy...some cabins make up great presentations before serving the chili. It's fun, but my stomach doesn't always like it so much. ha Well, I believe it is naptime for me. Hope you enjoyed the update. Pray that these last 2 weeks go smoothly for me. It's going to be hard to let go, and say bye at the end of these 2 weeks but I know it's time. Pray for me as I travel, and readjust to being back at school. 


Pictures Descriptions:
1. Alex waving the American flags we gave him before he left.
2. Me with some of my old girls at women's dinner.
3. With two of the senior camper girls, Lexie and Ashley.
4. Some of the leadership girls at campout in our matching tanks...well I didn't have a black one, so blue had to do.

8 1/2 weeks gone, 3 to go... :(

     I really can't believe how fast this summer is flying by. I've been here for about 8 1/2 weeks now, and I have just 3 left that are going to fly by. I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to be back here one last summer. This place has meant a lot to me, and has had a big impact on my life. It's an amazing job, but definitely not always easy. You really can go through just about every emotion in a day sometimes...maybe even an hour. I've had days that started off bad turn into one of the best days. I've had some days that have just been a roller coaster of emotions. The cool thing is that I feel like I can be real, and be myself, especially with my fellow leadership members. I will miss these people so much. Not going to think about that yet though, because I still have 3 weeks to live it up here.
     Speaking of good days, last night was an incredible night of worship. It was Alex's last night to lead praise and worship, and he did a great job. I ran slides for him as usual, and it was so cool to look out and see how many kids were there singing their hearts out to God. Sunday night praise and worship nights are optional, but last night it was packed. They asked Alex not to open up the mic this summer for people to share like last summer just because it makes the night too long and emotional, but three girls came up anyway. One of them shared about how a close friend of hers died this year, and she had given up on God, but she realized she couldn't make it without God. She shared a Psalm that talked about crying out to God. Another girl this term shared last summer about how she had an eating disorder, but now she has started a blog to help other people who have eating disorders. I love the kids this term. They're so full of life, and passion. Yeah, they struggle, and aren't always the easiest kids because they're just crazy, but they're also wanting to go deeper in their relationship with God, and just like with everything else in life, they have a passion that is just awesome.
     After praise and worship was over the senior camper girls (10th graders) asked Alex to come back to their compound, and have an extended praise and worship. I went back with him, and got to share some with them. It was just a neat time. We got in a little trouble for keeping them up too late, but it was worth it. I love those girls. I'm really going to miss these kids.
     Today was picture day which is where I have to take pictures of all the kids holding up a slip of paper with their name and year it is for them at camp on it. It usually goes all the way through lunch and recharge (nap time), but today was the smoothest and quickest picture day ever. I actually got to have a little bit of my recharge time afterward.
    Tonight I have my Selah (24 hr period off) which will be nice. I think one of my friends and I are going to go eat at this awesome Thai place in town then go see Despicable Me. I'm pretty excited. Overall today has been a surprisingly good day. I'll be shooting pictures of the senior camper girls during 4th period (4 p.m.), which will be fun. I say surprisingly good because usually picture day is a pretty rough day, and I had trouble sleeping last night. Anyway, I need to get back to walking around and taking pictures.

R.I.P. Laptop

Ok, so my laptop isn't totally dead, and I'm actually quite lucky that it's not. It slipped off my desk chair the other night in the leadership office onto a nice hard floor. The noise was not pretty. It's a good thing I had my time off the day before so I wasn't as exhausted and therefore was able to handle the problem fairly calmly. And by fairly calmly I mean I looked calm, but inside my head a few choice words might have been thought, but I didn't start crying. :/ It was working ok after the drop, but then yesterday I got what is known as the "black screen of death." Last night I made the hour trek to Austin for an appointment at the Apple store. The man who helped me was really nice and apparently helped start the Apple store in MS that is just a couple minutes away from my house. Random. He was able to save my hard drive which was very good news for me, so I do at least have all my data. There was no external damage to the computer which meant that he didn't have to put that it was dropped, and therefore, saved me a lot of money. So basically in about 4-5 days and $280 later I'll have my laptop back and be able to put my hard drive back in. In the meantime I was able to buy a case thing for my hard drive which allows me to pull files off of it. Very good news since all of my photos for this term at camp are on there. Overall it wound up being much better than it could have been. I was bracing myself for the worst this isn't too bad, and it maybe it will fix some other little problems I was having.

Selah

It's amazing what a little sleep can do. I had my selah (24 hr. period off) from 6:30 last night to 6:30 tonight and it was a great selah. It was definitely much needed. Last night pretty much all of us who were on selah (14 of us) went to Chuy's (a restaurant in Austin) to eat and then went to Amy's Ice Cream afterward. I had never been to either place (both were great), and the group was a lot of fun. Then today I just had some time to myself. I slept in then went into town. Got some laundry done, made a walmart run, cleaned my part of the cabin, vacuumed the cabin and cleaned the sink. I also explored the historic district of Marble Falls which is a really neat area. I bought my mom a birthday gift at this cool antique and gift store. I'm pretty proud of my purchase. I had a venti iced caramel macchiato right before coming back to camp and I still feel jittery from it. It really was a great selah. I needed the time to relax and just some time to myself. I feel like a completely different person than I was Sunday night. Now it's time to finish this term strong. :)

Exhaustion

It has been an exhausting week and it's not over. This has been one of those weeks that has it's emotional ups and downs. I know my way to Dell Children's Hospital now. Not something I particularly wanted to know. Good news is that everyone is ok now. I don't think anything that has happened could have really been prevented. It's just been a bit of a rough term. I haven't had much of a break this week. Normally I have  a chance to nap during the day when we have what is called "recharge" after lunch. This week though there just hasn't been time for one reason or another. I had to cover phones one day, then there was the picture day from hell (and started my period that day), went into town today...hopefully tomorrow I can rest a little. I will finally get a real break monday night to tuesday and it will be a much appreciated break. Sometimes those are the best. I hate when I become so exhausted but it does make me appreciate my break even more. It really hasn't been that bad of a week, I'm just a little tired and moody. I always tell people though that I would rather experience a bad day at camp than be just about anywhere else. I really do love this place a whole lot. And while parts of this week have been pretty rough, I gave my talk in front of camp last saturday and it went far better than I ever imagined it would. Kids applauded halfway through it and so many people came up to me afterward telling me how much they loved it. That meant more to me than many of them imagined because I really did share my heart up there on that stage, and doing that is just not something I do often. I really am thankful I had the opportunity to do that even if I get a little stage fright. It was definitely worth it. Knowing that I have the opportunity to impact kids really is what keeps me coming back here. Hearing that I made a difference means more to me than these kids know. Anyway, I'm exhausted. I love my leadership friends. They just brought me back a strawberry limeade. Random thing to share, I know, but it's nice knowing that we have each other's backs. Anyway, on that note I need to finish my job and go to bed. Sorry for being kind of rambly.