Days at Wico

The building to the right is the Art Barn. I work in the addition that can barely be seen to the right lol. In the background are the beautiful mountains I see every day here!

The mountains at the lake.

Meesha, Georgie, and I after a staff meeting. 

Hanging out at the pool.

The Monster Mash! I did Georgie's clown makeup first lol and then she wanted to get me back so this is how we went. 

Ain't No Mountain High Enough!

This is why my Co-counselor is awesome. It was raining pretty hard before this so we were all sitting on the porch waiting for it to let up so we could make our way to the indoor campfire. First I came in with my lies I tell children lol. They were all huddled together in the doorway worrying about lightening hitting them if they stood too close to the railing(like me and katie were doing). So first I told them the facts. Lightening hits in the highest places and since the trees are taller than the cabin it is highly unlikely we will get hit by it. Those 10 year old girls persisted though. They would not believe me that they were safe so I told them the 'lie' my dad told me as a kid. "As long as you are wearing shoes with a rubber bottom if lightening hits you it will bounce right back out, so no need to worry as long as your shoes have rubber soles." I don't know why kids find this more comforting than the fact that lightening hits the highest point, but they do. My girls looked around at each other's feet, realizing they all had rubber rainboots, then stepped forward next to the banister to watch the rain with us lol. Then the rain became slow enough that we decided it was safe to walk to the playhouse(indoor fireplace). But the girls again were scared to travel from under the safety of the cabin roof. This is where I reminded them of their rainboots and Katie began to sing one of their favorite songs. As they joined in, they worried less about the rain, so off we went. Of course singing all the way, others joining in as we traveled.

Wico Camp Intro

First I feel I must mention that I am not allowed to post pics of the girls who come to camp. I am allowed to take their pictures, of course, but I cannot put them online for their privacy. So you will see photos of other counselors and I, just not the kids, though you can ask me in person and I will gladly show you! I have now been at Camp Wicosuta for two weeks since June 18th. I had to travel from Nashville, TN to Plymouth, NH (where I was picked up by camp). The bus ride was definitely an experience. I had 3 transfers. Atlanta, GA, New York City, NY, and Boston, MA. Atlanta was a short stop, NY's bus station sucked. It was all underground so the only view I got of NY was while on the bus entering and departing it. I will have to go back later to see the sites, later in life. Boston had the best bus terminal. It was two stories, had a food court/ shopping center, and they were pretty nice people. Even though it was an adventure I would rather not take a 38 hour bus trip again unless maybe I was traveling with someone or a group.
From the 18th till the 25th we had a week long orientation for staff only. That went great. Started out a bit awkward but eventually after tons of name learning games we started to feel more comfortable with each other. We were assigned bunks and co-counselors. I moved up onto the hill but happily not all the way up the hill like the hilton cabin. The kids came around the 27th. Mine and Katie's girls don't come for another week and a half. We were assigned twoos. Which are two-week coos(10yr-olds). I've been told that it takes a special kind of person to deal with the tweekers(two-weekers). They get homesick alot and this is usually their first time at camp. Mostly they just need lots of hugs, attention, and love. Hopefully they don't keep me up at all hours of the night.
So these first couple weeks all of us tweeker counselors just help out in other cabins and with all the evening activities setup and takedown. Not too bad, I say. The only sad part is that we have to sleep in empty cabins with empty beds and empty cubbies except for our own.
My activity area doesn't seem too bad. The girls who are teaching ceremics/pottery with me, Sarah and Aly, are pretty nice people. Aly doesn't know how to use the wheel and her knowledge is limited in ceremics so we will see how that goes lol. The rest of the arts and crafts gang are cool too. Not so sure about the activity head. She seems kind of young to really know what she is doing and she doesn't really have teaching experience. I guess we are all in the same boat experience wise. See how this works out.

Day Off from Wico

On our day off we first stopped at the Ben and Jerry's Factory!

This is Rachel, Georgie, and Rena in the gift shop.

Us with our tickets for the tour(that we are not allowed to take pictures of)

All the flavors of ice cream!

Free samples at the end! They were delicious!

Rena, Rachel, Sarah, Georgie, Aly, Me

After Ben and Jerry's we went to this small town about 2hours away from the camp. I'm taking a break while they shop at Life is Good. 

At the end of the night we grabbed some italian food at this cute little undergroung restaurant. The end of a great day without any kids!

Christmas Holiday

Zach and Wes playing with their new race track. This was so easy to put together and fun for all ages. I probably sat there myself for a good hour playing with them without getting distracted, lol. 

Zach wanted me take his picture with some of his other gifts, lol.

Brent and his 'spicy' hairdo :)

Aubrey chilling in her room playing with her new toys

Me and Vada had a good time with these things. 

I told ya that race track was fun for everyone.

I took the 3 younger ones to the toystore so they could pick out their b-day gifts while I was in town. We also got some treats, of course. They loved playing around with the cars at ToysRus. 

I made this giant inflatable hippo for school and when I brought it home Brentley was so excited and wanted me to blow it up. So here it is. He had a blast with it and even got inside of it. 

     I feel that it is time to talk about God. I may never post this but I still want to write about my beliefs anyhow just to get it out. I grew up attending the LDS (mormon) church with my immediate family, baptist on occasion with my dad's mom, catholic,nondenominational, and methodist a few times with a few of my close friends. My parents always told me that they didn't mind me attending other religions, as long as I attended church on sundays. Basically, they just wanted me to always believe in a God. Their reason being that I would always know I was loved. I never really understood that. They wanted me to believe in a higher being who supposedly loves everyone no matter what, just so that I always knew I was loved. Why couldn't I just know that they always loved me no matter what, why couldn't I just believe in that instead of a god? Is it because deep down they were afraid that my family may not always be there for me? Or maybe someone wasn't always there for them? I really don't know. Nowadays I don't attend church unless I am visiting my family and it happens to be a Sunday. I like it that way. I'm honestly unsure if there is a higher being(s) out there watching over us. If there is a God, per se, then I surely hope (s)he is as loving as everyone says and if (s)he is then (s)he wouldn't care if we went to church to worship, read the bibles, or prayed. If this God truley loved us then those things wouldn't matter, the fact that we are happy, healthy, and doing our best is all that would matter. After all those are the things that our own human parents ask of us. A God who wants us to worship, learn, and talk to them daily sounds like a selfish god, and isn't God supposed to be humble? If (s)he was then none of that would be necessary.

Harder than I thought

     I am working on a project for my surface design class and barely 5 minutes into it I am having trouble containing my tears. The requirement of my piece is that it must portray a memory or memories, rather true or untrue, made up or real memories, didn't matter. I instantly wanted to do something involving my grandparents and then we had a reading about memories that really made me want to involve my grandparents. My mom has a closet filled with their clothing so I knew I wouldn't have trouble finding fabric to represent them. While cutting up their clothing it hit me, tears streamed out uncontrollably. I found that many mini breaks did help. And the results were so worth all the tears. It turned out awesome!!!

I'll take better photos later when I do Review Committee. I just don't have a camera yet so I have to use my photobooth...

The pictures I used...