Adventure

I feel very uninspired to blog these days, but I want to do it anyway. I'm enjoying living so much that I haven't felt the urge to write about that living...and haven't felt like I've paused long enough to do that. I've spent really great time with friends and family, including getting to see my new baby cousin, who still remains nameless, as far as I know. But he is precious and perfect! I got to hold him for 45 minutes or so and my arms were tired and a little tingly but it was worth it. After staying with 3 older bickering kids for the last couple days while their parents were out of town, he was just what I needed to rekindle my desire to have kids.

Tomorrow, I'm headed to Camp T to fill in for a girl that has to leave for a few days. I'll only be there through Wednesday but I'm so excited! I can't wait to be reunited with the girls in my cov and to be in that place that I love. I also feel extremely unprepared and inadequate, so prayers will be needed and much appreciated.

Life is busy but it's good busy and I'm loving it.

Call Me Maybe summer 2012

It's 2 AM but I'm posting this video because it's kind of a big deal. This is why I love my friends and why we love our lives. If tomorrow were the end of summer, it would already be a success. Enjoy.

Life is freakin fun

I love my life. Great things that have happened recently:
1. Dinner and Just Dance 2 with Dan
2. Crafting for Father's Day with Katie & Christy...gotta love observing twin love
3. "Boot Scootin' Boogie" just came on Pandora as I started writing this list
4. Aunt/Uncle/Gparent/Cousin time for Father's Day
5. Being reunited with Abby after 3 weeks
6. Barefoot walk to Sonic last night for a corndog and cherry orgasms with Katie, Christy, and Abby
7. Totes awes music video making today...it included "Call Me Maybe," roller blades, a Chinese fire drill, Slurpies, backwards neon hats, overalls, feather boas, a playground, an elementary classroom, a porta-potty, Katie and Abby, Olivia filming, and trampolines...translation: pure awesomeness
8. I feel like I should go work out but screw it, I'm going to the pool. I'll roller blade later for some exercise.
9. Yesterday I heard the ice cream truck and went sprinting down the stairs yelling to my family to give me some cash. Luckily, it stopped right across the street from us. Our across-the-street neighbor came out of her house and the ice cream truck man said, "Oh good, I wasn't sure which house it was." She proceeded to order 12 snow cones and a few other sweet treats. He gave them to her in a grocery bag and she paid him and said, "See you next Sunday." WHAT?!? Mind-blowing and bizarre. But apparently the ice cream truck will be ACROSS THE STREET EVERY SUNDAY?? Score. So weird but so great.

Easy to breathe

At Young Life and Wyldlife camps, leaders have one-on-one's with each of the campers. I was super nervous to start those, feeling incredibly inadequate, but they went fine. When I was talking to one of the girls about a tough decision she had recently made, she told me she knew it was a good choice because "it was easy to breathe afterwards." I just smiled at her because that is literally the best description I've ever heard. It's how I felt when I decided to transfer schools. It's also a perfect description about how I feel about summer, especially this summer. Life is so good and it is just easy to breathe.

Wyldlife camp at Quaker Ridge was super fun...very challenging and patience-trying at times, but really good. I was in a cabin with ten 6th and 7th graders and they are crazy fun girls. I got to be my weird self all week and got to be part of another incredible community of people that love Jesus.

Our Kinard girls costume was Oompa Loompa's...so good.

 

The ropes course was boy-band themed...each platform was named for an awesome pop sensation/boy band...JB's Never Say Never, One Direction, Hanson's MmmBop, Backstreet Boys, NSync's Bye Bye Bye...I was in heaven. Also, I don't think the girls knew who the Backstreet Boys were, not to mention Hanson...tragic, really.

 Dinosaurs?

 

 Pain...

 Totally worth it.

Between camps I've gotten to spend a little quality time with the fam and some of my best friends from high school, including some pool time with OFlo. It has been glorious.

It's summertime and it's easy to breathe. Praise Jesus!

My heart is full

All I want to do right now is write an incredible blog post about my last week and a half at Camp T, but I can't possibly do it justice. It was full of laughter, dancing, Jesus, great food, and seriously out-of-control fun people...some of my very favorite things in the world. It was 11 days of bonding, working (cleaning, painting, building, etc), training, and fun-having with just counselors. I am continually amazed at how the Darroughs, the camp directors, and the leadership team pour into us and push us to grow immensely during Work Week and the rest of the summer. And I did grow. In these last two weeks, I felt like I was finally myself again, after far too long of not being that. The incredible community, gorgeous setting, and obvious presence of God has made my heart full. I feel more like myself and closer to the person that I want to be than I have felt in so long, and it is a wonderful feeling. I am so very blessed that this is my summer job! In 5 weeks, I will be back up there to be a second term counselor and I can't wait. I'm already dreaming of working at camp full-summer next year and praying that the Lord will lead me that direction.

I didn't take a single picture but stole a couple from some of the beautiful people I was blessed to live with during the last 11 days: