Eruption.

Life is just so crazy. Some times I don't even understand myself...


Despite all the friends I've been able to see and the fun activities happening, I always end up feeling down. I guess some things just build up. I'm like a volcano waiting to go off... I can feel it bubbling up, waiting to be poured out, just waiting to cry out to anybody. Anybody who I feel will actually listen, that is. And there really aren't that many people who I feel I can really pour it all out to. (at any rate though, thanks Bo for being there and sitting through my rants...lol)

Between having all of my co-volunteers at the library move and be replaced by a boatload of strangers and a certain practical joke that I won't go into detail of, and the fact that there are certain friends whom I really wish I could talk to more but they've lately been rather unresponsive...eh, life.

But why am I letting things get my down so much? I don't know. It's like I can't control it any more... I've ignored my problems for so long that they've finally come back to bite me, to get that one last laugh. *sigh*

Long time, No write!

Ok, so I am straying for a moment here from my posts of camp... They seem to be coming quite few and far-between here. And yes, I do apologize for that.

Anyways............

This weekend I've been staying with the Rutlers- these people who go to my church. My parents are currently away in Cour 'D Alene this weekend, staying at the resort there and doing stuff at this marriage conference. Turns out they were the grand prize winners for a drawing and got free admission and board at this thing! Pretty cool, eh? They typically don't win anything.

So anyway, it's been pretty fun here, surprisingly. I wasn't so sure at first if I would have much fun or not, but Rob & Mimi are really nice and we've been having a good time. Yesterday they went shopping for a birthday gift for my pastor's wife and Nathaniel and I came along for the ride. That was awesome. We went to a couple antique shops and to The Diamond Shop. Sure, doesn't sound overly exciting, especially if you're a guy...but I really enjoyed it!

Let me tell you this: There is nothing like being downtown Lewiston during the holiday season. It is incredible. Especially The Diamond Shop. Yeah, yeah, it's the begining of November and I'm talking Christmas?? Yes. I am suddenly feeling very much in the Christmas spirit. But who wouldn't, after being in where I was? Downtown Lewiston is just simply...amazing. All the stores now have their Christmassy items in the shop windows and The Diamond Shop is all decked out with their 10 foot tall beautifully color-coordinated Christmas trees and all of the other trimmings. Just walking around in there makes me feel happy :-) Now I desperately have the urge to go back...with my camera.

The antique shops weren't all decked out, but those were rather fun as well. Or at least the 2nd one was. The first one was pretty boring because all they had was old furnature and it smelled weird. But the 2nd one had EVERYTHING! There was stuff all over to look at...millions of random objects from decades past. I especially love looking at all the funky antique jewlery. I just love stuff like that. The crazy long bright strands of beaded necklaces from the 60's and the shiney rhinestone necklaces. They are SO cool. In my opinion anyway. Some people are totally into the whole modern look and all of that, but I really like some of the old jewlery. I bought myself a long golden necklace with a giant heart pendant for 5 bucks. I duno why, I'm just highly attracted to necklaces that have ginormous pendants on them. I love 'em :)

Anywho, I hope I didn't loose you there in my whole reliving of antique shopping. haha. After we got back from doing that yesterday, we had dinner and then watched The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I've been told by the Boyds time and time again that I MUST see that movie. Well, you guys can all rest hapily now because I have. And I absolutely loved it. That was a terrific movie!! Just as good as the books, I'd say. And being a girl, well, I've got to throw my opinion in here and say that I thought that Peter was so totally cute.... ;) lol

Today I awoke and got up around 8:30 and an hour later my brother and I headed off to help decorate Locomotive Park- a long time tradition of Lewiston, Idaho. Every year volunteers come and help decorate that place with lights...every tree is all covered and by the time it's all done and they light the park up on the first weekend of December...oh my gosh it is so AMAZING! There is simply no other way to describe it. It is so fun to go there every year on opening night where there are hundreds of people gathered there taking in the sights ... Especially when you know that you were oneo f the people who helped make it happen.

We stayed around up there from 9:45 until around 12:30...though we actually only helped out until noon. After that they served us all lunch and then we just hung out until my ride came. It was a load of fun though- I met up with my friend Dwight and his family. I've been enjoying every moment I've been able to spend with them and taking every opportunity to see them. They are moving this monday...it's so sad :( Dwight and I have worked side by side at the library for the past three years. I can hardly bare to see them leave to Wisconsin, knowing that I may not ever see him again. Sure, we have email, but that is nothing compared to the fun we have in person...we are constantly teasing eachother and he always loves to make crazy sarcastic remarks. Things like that just aren't as funny when they're merely words on a screen. *sigh*

Anyways, we worked for about an hour and then my friend Ian arrived! How fun! So we let him join our group and I introduced him to everyone because he'd never met Dwight and his family. After work and lunch, the Krauses (Dwight's family and him) left. So Ian and my brother and I fooled around for like a half hour or 45 minutes until Mimi showed up with the car to take us home. We had a real fun time... I brought my camera along and we took pictures of eachother on the locomotive of Locomotive Park. You will probably be seeing those on my facebook some time soon here!

Other than that, there hasn't been a lot happening the rest of today. After we got home I took a shower 'cause I realized that sitting under that pine tree apparently was a mistake because I had a large splat of sap in my hair that I couldn't get out :-P Ick. Then Nathaniel and I watched The Shaggy Dog movie. Hehe I love that one. It's funny. And well...that pretty much sums up my weekend so far! The rest of the time has been spent here with me typing away as I listen to Christmas music play in the background that Mimi has on... :) ah yes, I do love it so much. I would say that is probably half the reason why I suddenly feel so ready for Christmas. Crazy the effect music has on us, isn't it?

Well, I think that I shall end my post here and go relax and listen (mayb even sing along!) to the lovely music and leave you to go about the rest of your day and do whatever it was you should have been doing but ignored to read my blog post (why thank you! I do appreciate what readership I have, even if it isn't very big).

And They Threw It Out The Window!

July 30 2008
-Wednesday-

Yet another morning beginning at 5:30 am! Just as I had hoped. I do so love the mornings there! I got dressed and went outside to another bright and sunny day! Of course being that it was shortly after sunrise, it wasn't exactly warm, but oh well. I took a walk out to Clover Field...It seemed so weird to be up at the field when it was completely empty with nobody else around...yet it was so beautiful. I looked up to the mountain that stood so high on the other side of Clover Field... It was covered in pine trees and there was a halo of light illuminating the very highest peak. This would be an incredible photograph! I thought to myself as I looked down to where my camera usually hung off a lanyard on my neck. Oh shoot, just my luck. I left my camera in the cabin. There was no point in running back to retrieve it. By the time I got there and back the lighting would have changed, not to mention I'd be running the risk of waking up my cabin mates, which I suspected that they probably wouldn't have appreciated. I stared back up at the mountain a little longer before heading back down to the basket ball court.

Once more I ran across Bo, sitting in the same place as the day before writing in his journal. We talked a little and then looked around to see if we could find a basket ball...but had no luck. Not long after, several of the other guys emerged from their cabins and came up to the basket ball court as well. Zak, Nick...and I think Eric and a couple others too. I pulled out the collapsible Frisbee that Nick had given me the day before and we all played catch for a while. That was fun, although I learned the hard way nylon Frisbees were never meant to bounce on concrete. It got rather worn out in a hurry :-( It turned out that Nick had quite a few of these though and let me have another one. Yay! But let’s just say I didn’t play Frisbee on the concrete anymore after that.

Eventually we all got tired of playing catch and headed down to start off the first gutter ball game of the day. That didn’t last too long... Eric had won again and I was just about to have my turn to play him when Pastor Harris came down and informed us of a new rule that we weren’t allowed to play that game until after the wakeup call. *sigh* Oh well. I suppose there are some people in the camp who need more sleep than the rest of us.

Once breakfast was over we all headed off for cabin cleanup... Of course I helped out on my group's creativity a bit. I drew up a sign in my notebook that said "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness" which I had my stuffed dog holding up for the judges to see.

Then we had recreation and following that was chapel. Nick and I grabbed a seat together again...It turned out that I was sitting with all guys this morning! After the two of us sat down Zak joined us along with some other dudes from the cabin of the "Undecided's".

At lunch time later that day, we were all given sandwiches and ate outside at the picnic tables. I got a good laugh...Both from Zak's jokes and from the group of teens who decided to jam themselves onto a miniature picnic table! We had Clayton, Eric, Ben, Jessica, Raeshelle, Scott, and Peter all crammed onto the tiny eating space. Oh my! What a sight that was. We had a bit of action going on at my table too, what with the conflict between Nick and Joy, Laurel, & Zak. At times Zak & Laurel sounded like they wanted to slug the dude...Although I can't remember quite why.

Sometimes my life feels like a movie, and this week was one of those times... Happiness, music, conflict, friends, action and romance....Oh yeah. Not to mention valuable life lessons! Gotta love summer camp.

Anyway, after lunch we were all rounded up and headed to the parking lot where we were all assigned vans and travel partners. We're goin' on a hike! I couldn't have been happier about where I got placed- I got the big van with Pastor Harris at the wheel and Laurel, Zak, and Joy accompanying me in the back seat. Needless to say we had an awesome time.

When we got there we all divided up into hiking groups. I was in one of the medium ones, along with Nick. Him and I talked the whole time and Mr. Bates said that we must have the largest lung capacity of our entire group to be able to go on hiking those hills and talking a mile a minute all the way up. All in all it was a terrific trip up. The scenery was beautiful, the pace wasn’t too bad, and the conversation was fun. It wasn’t long before we reached our destination, which was this incredibly pretty waterfall. I got some good pictures of it, along with the surrounding area, and other campers.

About a half hour later or so, we all were to regroup and head back down the side of the mountain. Before we left, Nick decided to get a photo of him and I beside the water fall. I’d thought about having a copy of it on my camera too, but we were being called back over to the group so I didn’t have time. Once we got back over, I made a last minute decision to switch groups and join up with Laurel, Zak, and Joy who were in the slow group.

After we had traveled down the trail a ways, there came a walkie talkie call saying that there was a camper up ahead who had a twisted ankle and was waiting up for the slow group to come down so he could join. When we got there who did we find? None other than Nick DeRu. I wasn’t really surprised, I figured that he would probably find some way to join up in the group that I was in. He had tried to switch earlier, but they wouldn’t let him for some reason. So Zak got down and took a look at Nick's ankle and wrapped it up... Yep, Mr. Prepared is on the case! I swear, if there was any disaster to happen, Zak had something on him that would help. I guess it's true about boy scouts, they really are always prepared. Or at least this one sure seems to be. Anyhow, Nick seemed to be fine, although he swore his ankle hurt, him and everyone else made it down just fine. Once we got back to the end of the trail, we had a snack break and headed back to our vans for the ride back to camp.

After we got back everyone was given ice cream bars and two options to vote on- either do a sporting activity of some kind with Ruben, or have an hour to brainstorm with your cabin group about what to do for the skit contest of the upcoming day. Most everyone was tired out from the hike though, so when they did the show of hands almost everybody voted to work on the skits.

Amazingly, up until this point there hadn't been any mentioning of what we should do for a skit from my group, which was a rather drastic change from last year when we came up with our skit on the second day of camp and practiced it every spare minute that we had throughout the day. Really though, I'm glad that it happened like it did because it gave me more time to hang out with my friends who were in other cabin groups, which was something that I really didn't do much of last year.

We were all tired from the hike and rather brain dead, so for the first half hour most of the ideas we threw out to each other for skits were really lame. Like a veggie tales skit. Who'd want to do a skit where you can't use your hands, anyway? Some of our other ideas were a Survivor spoof or a spin off of Indiana Jones...what we finally decided to settle on was a skit about time travel. I liked the idea- especially because I was able to convince the girls to have a scene where I could use my light saber! Yeah, that was basically my focus...I didn't really care what the skit was, I just wanted to have a scene in whatever we did where I could have a light saber duel with somebody.

After our brainstorming session, we had another chapel. On the way from my cabin, I ran across Nick who asked if we were going to be taking up our "usual spot" as he put it. I agreed and then headed off to find my stuff, and Laurel & Joy. Once we got down to the chapel we sat down by the end and then on the other side several girls from my cabin came and joined us. For some weird reason my row was popular! By the time Nick got there, there was only one spot left in our pew, and Laurel and Joy made sure to scoot so that there wouldn't be room for one more. So he sat a row across from us. He looked pretty disappointed, and I felt kinda bad...although the two of them told me that was dumb and he was the last person I should be saying that about. But even so, I considered him one of my friends and I don't like shoving people off like that, even if everyone else says he's annoying.

Following chapel #2 was a bit of free time and then dinner. Ohhhh yeah. After a busy afternoon of hiking and skit planning and everything else, that was something that sounded really good. Then again, meal times were always really good. But of course no time beats free time here. As we stood in the line to the dinning hall, Joy and I looked across the row at Nick who was looking rather depressed still as he waited in line, leaning on the pair of crutches he'd found. Was the sprain really that bad? He made it down the mountain just fine...But whatever. After dinner was through, Joy, Laurel, and I were heading out and passed by him. Laurel was rather disgusted at his sad attempt at faking an injury and confronted him about it, as Joy and I stood back watching with wide eyes being halfway shocked that anybody would actually be that hard and upfront about the matter. Not long after though, he ditched the crutches. Apparently his ankle wasn't that bad off.

Later that night, we had one of my favorite Fun 'n Stuff activities- Silly Songs! It's so insanely goofy, but oh so much fun. Luckily my throat had enough crud in it to blot out the soreness from my cold, so I was able to sing as loud as anyone else. I couldn't remember the words to quite all the songs, but they were all fairly easy to pick up on so it didn't take me too long to get singing with the crowd. I even hopped up on stage with a few others to lead one of the songs-something I had really wanted to do. So me, Lindy, Lucy, Zak, Anna, and some others lead the group in singing "I Met a Bear". That was so hilarious...I very much wished I had gotten somebody to take up my video camera for me on that one. The song it's self is kind of funny, but what really made it awesome was the acting job done by Lindy and Zak. That was great, with Lindy trying to reach the highest branch of the "Tree". Eh, I guess the part of the tree fits him well- after all, Zak is the "Landmass", as the guys had nicknamed him.

I may not have been able to video the song that I did, but I did get several of the others. "The Second Story Window" was a fun one, although you could never hear on my recording what the other team was singing because my team was always whispering what nursery rhyme we'd sing when it was our turn again. I so love singing the chorus on that one though- the tune is great and the words are pretty funny. "...And the threw 'em out the window! The window, the window, the second story window! With a heave and a ho and a heafty throw and they threw 'em out the window!"

Another favorite of mine was the "Little Ford" song. On that one they called all of the guys up on stage to lead the song, which of course was quite comical. I am so glad to have that one on video! Well, I got most of it on video. Since the song repeats so much, I didn't get the whole thing because it's rather long and I didn't want to use up all of the space on my camera that night. Even so though, I got a good portion of it. Even Pastor Harris was up there for that song!

Oh, and one other one I cannot forget to mention that we did was "Fried Ham". Yeah, another incredibly repetitive song, but totally funny what with all the different accents on each verse! "Second verse same as the first. What accent do ya think is worse?" Of course they did the famous cowboy accent version, as well as some others, such as under water, and the best one I think I've heard yet - helium accent, which makes everyone sing it super-high pitched. That was great- especially with the fainting job performed by our camp comedian.

Anyway, after we sang our last silly song, everyone headed out to the kitchen for snacks. As we headed in I remembered Wednesday of last year's snack time...oh the fond memories! I had had such a blast sitting around the table playing spoons with everyone! Yeah, good times...playing the game, singing "If you're happy & ya know it" and pounding the table, laughing like mad even though I hadn't the faintest idea what we were all laughing at, constantly pausing the game to take photos.... Awesomeness. We didn't end up doing that this year though. But big game of spoons or not, we had fun 'n food together, thus [nearly] ending another great day of camp (but of course, we always had cabin devotions before our day was completely finished).


"Match in the gas tank, NO FORD!!!"

Camp Hope Video of '08

Alright, it's what I know you've all been waiting for (at least from how many questions of "is it done yet?" that I've gotten from everyone. lol)...............THE CAMP HOPE VIDEO OF 2008!!!

Enjoy, people :-)

Beware of The Boogey Man!

Thursday 7/31/08

A note from the boys at Bates Abode.....

To the amazing filth deciders of this camp, through the dust and darkness you are our lamp.
Your strict rules keep us in line
So that we might have a very good time.
We’re sorry that this doesn’t rhyme.
We apologize for any mess
The deeper filth we won’t confess
As you sift though all our junk
We are sorry if any of it stunk
Just don’t look under the bunk
Because you might find the boogieman and behind him a soda can
The mats on the floor may make you frown but it’s simple, don’t look down and keep checking all around
And now we have one more thing to say to warm your heart in every way
We love you dearly, we love you true
It doesn’t matter what you do.

Affectionately,
The Storm Troopers


...And now back to the Cabin Inspectors.

Bates Abode
The deciders of clean found your note on the door
The account that you gave was a prattling rave.
The in the doorknob was turned
And within it we learned
That the Bates Abode are
A tidy bunch by far.
Yet please do take note
That to do it by rote
Loose items on the top bunk
Are viewed as inspector “eye junk”


Pederson’s Pad ((Winner))
(Read to the cadence of hymn “O For a Thousand Tongues”)
Oh for a thousand tongues to sing
Your neat ‘n tidy ways
The glories of Pederson’s Pad
The triumphs of the place.

The sharpness of the cabin was
A spectacle to see
It heralded a model home for the Bates
And the Busbys.




Bates Bungalow
(Song to the tune of “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole)

Unacceptable that’s what you are
From near and far.
That’s why cabin it’s incredible
That a group we see as flexible
Thinks that their stuff strewn
All over is funny

Busby’s Habitat
(Sung to the tune of “Someone’s In The Kitchen With Dina”)

Someone’s done the clean up at Busby’s
Campers done the straightening I kno-o-o-ow
Teen girls did a good job at Busby’s
All cleaned up and ready to go

Don't Get Mad...Get Hi!

July 29 2008

-Tuesday-

I didn't sleep well at all during the night... Between the Shooting Stars keeping me awake, the fact that I didn't actually finally get to sleep until after midnight, and that I woke up at 3 in the morning with a sore throat, it was a rather fitful night. Amazingly though, I woke up shortly after the crack of dawn at 5:30 and was out breathing in the fresh cool morning air that I can only seem to find at Camp Hope.

Nobody was up, and I wasn't quite sure what to do with the 2 hours until wakeup call, so I walked up the little hill that's next to the volleyball court and sat on the rocks there as I had the year before. After about a half hour of nothing what so ever happening, I decided to take a walk up to Clover Field. It's hard to describe the feeling I got as I walked along that oh-so-familiar pathway...it felt like I'd lived here forever... Like I had never really left camp last summer. As I took in the scenery around me I wondered aloud, Just 3 and a half more days of camp? It seems so short, yet I'm only on day two! It's amazing how something can seem so short yet so long at the same time.

5 or 10 minutes later I headed back down the path again and bumped into Mr. Pederson and Matt who must have also decided that it was a lovely morning to take a walk. I said hi to them and then we continued on in our opposite paths. I took a little bit of a detour though the woods near the camp fire pit and noticed Bo sitting quietly by himself writing. I turned and headed back towards the path as I debated on weather or not I should interrupt. I guess I decided that I would because minutes later I slip-slided down the pine needle covered hill nearby the basket ball court. Once at the bottom I caught my balance and said hello to Bo...Him and I hung out and talked for a while. That was cool...Up until then I hadn't ever really talked to him in person, aside from asking him to sign my book last year. Then a bit later, but still before wakeup call, Zak, Dexter, Eric, Nick, and I were all hanging out around the dinning hall and went dink-happy. It's this insane game that I suspect either Zak or Dexter is to blame for, where you go nuts poking each other and with each poke you give you say "Dink!"...Needless to say once we got started we went all out and became rather loud...Which caused Pastor Harris to come over and tell us to be quiet until after wakeup call.

Before we got to eat our breakfast we had morning exercises. Those varied from day to day and were a lot of times somewhat goofy. We had finger exercise and Whinnie The Pooh rhymes one morning... which was one of the things I remembered from last year. Haha, a little weird but rather fun :-)

On other mornings we did anything from jumping jacks to running in place to even running backwards around the basket ball court! There were also push ups one morning, though thankfully they were optional...I couldn’t do a good push-up to save my life! Especially on concrete. Not surprising, I declined the offer of doing them and instead took pictures of the guys who decided they wanted to.

After that we all sat down around the edge of the basket ball court and listened to morning devotions, by Pastor Harris. Those always were good, and some mornings rather emotion stirring.

Then we were off to the dinning hall for breakfast! By 8:15 in the morning, I was good and ready for it too, since by that point I had been up for two hours and 45 minutes without anything but water.

Once we’d all finished eating we had cabin cleanup time, in which I had fun with every day by making signs or posing my stuffed dog with my Camp Hope signature cap on it’s head. I always tried to do something creative. My upper bunk was nearest to the door so I always wanted to do something new to welcome the Cabin Inspectors each day.

Following cabin cleanup, we had recreation time. Games! Yes! Those were fun...of course nothing beats free time to get to hang with your friends, but it was cool to get to do different sports and such. That morning we headed out to Clover Field for dodge ball. It's a camp hope favorite! I've never won a game of it in my life, but none the less, I enjoy playing. I have no idea why I like this game of heaving balls at my friends or having them throw 'em at me, but I do. Some things in life are unexplainable. Anyway, after a round or two of that, Ruben got us going on what he calls the "ultimate game of Camp Hope"... Super Mario Dodge Ball! I still don't quite understand the parallel between that and Super Mario, but hey, whatever. It’s a fun game! I like it better than regular dodge ball too. What is the difference between these two games that sound so similar? Well in this version when you get hit by the ball you sit down and have to try and tag other people who are running around. That being the case, if you’re still standing, you have twice as much to watch out for because not only do you have to dodge the three balls that are flying around the field but you also have to avoid those people sitting on the ground waiting to tag you. If you get hit by either the ball or people, you have to sit down too. It’s wild and crazy and mega fun! Well, more fun though if the grass wasn’t wet from the little drizzles of rain we got every now and then that morning. It’s much more enjoyable when you don’t have to sit on wet grass. Trust me.

Shortly after recreation was chapel, and Nick and I sat together again, much to the apparent dismay of Joy, Laurel, and Zak. I could tell they weren’t overly thrilled about the fact. Ergh. Some situations can be so annoying. Nick wants to sit by me and I don't mind it but my other friends can't stand it...so basically the choice is have Laurel, Zak, and Joy being annoyed or have Nick majorly bummed out because I tell him to go sit somewhere else. Of course with both choices, somebody is unhappy and it's pretty much my fault. *sigh* life and it's choices...

Anyway, the rest of the morning goes on with some free time following chapel, then lunch, personal Bible time, and then after all that a little bit of free time between Bible time and another round of recreation. At this point I found myself in the middle of one of the most fun games of Frisbee catch I think I've ever been involved in. So we've got me, Joy, Abby, Laurel, Nick, and Zak...and 4 of Nick's awesomely cool nylon collapsible Frisbees. What does that all add up to? Major fun!! Ohhh yeah! Part of what's so cool about these things is that you can fold them up and then when you throw them into the air they'll pop out...and when you throw 4 folded Frisbees into the air, you get a lot of popping sounds and round white discs floating around all over the place! Needless to say, I think we all had a great time. I even got to keep one of the Frisbees! Swaheet!

As we were tossing Frisbees all over the place, there came the call for recreation time. As we ran around collecting up the pieces of our game, I wondered aloud, "Hey, think they'll play Ultimate Frisbee? That would be cool!" ...and what do you know? They did! I've gotta say it was the largest game of Ultimate I think I've ever played. We had at least 34 people out on the playing field! It was pretty insane compared to the weekly games of Ultimate Frisbee I attend where if we have 20 people or more we divide into 3 teams. I had a blast though and actually managed to make several good catches. I'd say Lucy would get the most credit on my team though- she made nearly half my team's points with her end-zone catches! Yes, in the end my team won and I was quite happy about the fact.

After that we went back down to the basket ball court for another Ultimate sport....Ultimate Basket ball! Which is basically Ultimate Frisbee and Basketball all mashed together. It was fun! I forget if my team won or not though. Aw well, I guess it's "not weather you win or loose but how you play the game."

From our Ultimate games, we went back down to camp for a little free time and then we were all off to dinner! Ah yes, another delicious meal from our wonderful cooks. That is one of the things I really enjoy here, because the food is terrific. Not to mention a meal is always 10 times better when you're with your friends! I enjoy being a girl here at dinner...they always follow the "ladies first" rule, which is very much to my advantage there. Now if it was tallest to shortest.... let's just say I'd be waiting in line for a while! I'm glad that isn't the rule!

So shortly after all of that we were off to chapel once more! There was more chapel services this year than last, I can tell you that much. 3 Chapel times per day. Wow. They always had something worth wile to say though, of course. The sermons were really very good, although occasionally my mind kept wandering back to events of the day.

Once chapel let out, we all headed to the church's basement for a nice surprise from Pastor Harris- we all got Camp Hope t-shirts! How cool is that!? I love having souvaneers to bring home from a fun time! Last year I had my pinewood derby car that I made, but I liked this more because I can wear it. So we all headed down and they had us line up according to height. Nothing like knowing just how short I am! I mean, I knew I wasn't exactly the tallest person around, but man...3rd shortest person out of nearly 40 teenagers!? Come on! Maybe I need to sleep on the rack at night. haha. Of course, if I really wanna make myself feel like a midget, I can go on with that piece of knowledge and then stand next to Zak who's the tallest person in the entire camp at like 6 foot 3 or something. Oh well, at least I wasn't the all out absolute shortest.

Soon as we got our t-shirts, Beth and a few others were stationed to write our initials on the tags so that we don't get our shirts mixed up. Once that was done, I was sent up stairs, where I waited for Joy & Laurel and my other friends who were stuck farther back in line because they're taller than me. Hey, I guess there are some advantages to being the short one! So I sat down on a pew near the door to wait for everyone and shortly later who comes up stairs? None other than Nick DeRu. So we start talking and he mentions the fact that the whole week he hasn't seen my left eye and proceeds to push aside my hair...Which turned out to have been a mistake because Zak was right behind him and looked as though he wanted to slug the dude. Zak told him to back off and I was later informed that he had a serious little chat with Nick on the issue.

After that, we put our new t-shirts and Bibles and such back in our cabins and headed out to Fun 'n Stuff for a game of Pictionary. Yet another of the fun things I remembered from last summer... And come to think of it, this was the first time since then that I had played the game! Wow. It was a load of fun...I was the first person to draw for my team, and of course I was quite enthusiastic to jump on stage in front of every one and attempt drawing a picture while having a sweatshirt over my face. No, I'm not being sarcastic- it was fun!! I loved it, even if nobody did guess what in the world I was trying to draw (And hey, I'd like to know how many of you can draw a illustration for "elbow room" blindfolded and have anybody guess what it is). Really, just in general I loved every minute I got up on that wooden stage in front of everybody during the week. Introductions, Pictionary, Silly Songs Night, the skits...awesome. I just totally enjoy the opportunity to get on stage in front of a whole roomful of friends and just make people laugh by goofing off and being me. In fact, I had fun getting people to laugh even when I wasn't on stage! When it was Lucy's turn to be on stage and pick a card, Ruben held the cards out to her and told her "pick a card, any card!"...As soon as she grabbed a card, I couldn't resist the temptation, therefore I suddenly shouted out "NOT THAT ONE!!!" Nearly everyone in the room seemed to laugh at that :-) Man, I love doing stuff like that. Kinda reminds me of the time I was at McDonalds with some friends and I got a kick out of watching the confused expression on the worker when I ordered a "diet water"...

But that's another story...

Anyway.

Snack time that evening was great...well, as usual. I mean really, how can you go wrong with awesome friends and ice cream, cookies, grapes, and popcorn? Nothing like getting on a late night sugar high with some of your best friends!

Me, Joy, Dexter, and Bo were the very last campers in the dinning hall and probably the most insane as well. Anybody walking by I'm sure must have wondered what the heck we were laughing so hard about, and who knows what the cooks must have been thinking as they cleaned the kitchen, unnoticed by the 4 of us who were in hysterics over our newest invention.

"Hi-Ware!"

How did this come about? Well...you see, Dexter is mostly the one to blame... I had him sign my signature book and all he wrote was "Hi from me to you", then he proceeded to write "hi" on my hand, the bottom of my cup, and on the handle of my plastic fork. As I looked at the fork, a funny thought struck me... "Hmm... it's Hi-Ware! Kinda like Glad-Ware, I guess." Then one of the guys (I forget if it was Bo or Dex) suddenly piped up with "Don't get mad- get hi!" Yeah, gotta love our updated version of the Glad-Ware slogan, huh? After that was said, we couldn't stop laughing! Even after the four of us had to split up and head to our cabins for devotions, Joy and I were still totally cracking up.

"NOT THAT ONE!!!"

Sauerkraut, Bibles & Dead Birds...Oh My!

Wednesday 7/30/08

Pederson's Pad
Your creativity continued - oh my, what a change... From previous years when things were so strange! Yesterday, impressive... Today not too bad - as a full couse meal was prepared in your pad. Your names were displayed on the end of each rack so we know who you are... Nick, Matt, Ben, Eric, & Zack. Even Mr. Pederson's name was to be found - on the bunk down low - low down by the ground.

Bates Abode
The place was not too bad - two days in a row! BUT...The smell in the air made us hurry & go. Not sure what it was... We didn't find out... Some used socks? Your favorite shoes? Some old sauerkraut? Yes, it was quite neat, though we’ve not much else to tell... Oh unless we remember that overwhelming smell! Should you one day decide to let some fresh air in... It just may qualify your team for a win!

Bates Bungalow
The garbage was empty - you surely caught on- you must’ve got started right after dawn. Your Bibles were open and laid on each bunk -- with some dogs and a pachyderm but nary a sunk. “Cleanliness is next to godliness” you say... Yes it did show - in your cabin so clean the whole place was aglow. Neat as a pin - your sin all confessed - the judges today were really impressed.

Busby’s Habitat
This place was quite nice - many Bibles were out - the bunks for your sleeping had left little doubt - that mom gave instructions before you left home, “Keep the place clean or you’ll be sleeping alone!” The “who bird” was laying in the same place on the bed - we were beginning to wonder if the poor thing were dead.And then it was heard... You couldn’t miss it of course... The Bible itself being read by a horse!

You all did so good - your folks would be proud - but one cabin alone must be proclaimed aloud... As the cabin to which all the rest bowed. Around the world the inspectors did go and no place was found that could beat Bates Bungalow!!