QUESTION.

Who wants to have a Michael Jackson memorial dance party with me next week. I'm dead serious.

(PS that wasn't supposed to be punny. I mean I am serious. Kbye.)

D.A.'s and Projectile Vomit

Oh goodness, this was a silly week. I am exhausted!

I like little things like this. It was a cute little bug that looked like a leaf! "Quick! Take a picture before he LEAVEs!"

Peanut Butter faceee! Shims and I had our faces painted with peanut butter and the kids threw M&Ms at us. Yeah, I totally won.

Word.

Card tower building. Yeah, we weren't very good at it.

This is our director, yoyo-ing while driving the Magic Carpet. He's so good at that whole safety thing.

Mikayla my BABYYYYY. I did Primaries this week (Which instead of my usual 9-12 year olds, I took care of 7 and 8 year olds for half the week). Mikayla was such a freakin cutie. Ah.

Field gamesss happiness.

We like to make small children eat with no hands sometimes.

Ahh the counselor hunt this week was so ridiculous. I got second place!

This is what we like to call a Camp Tan. Dirt, ohhhh yeah.

PS I love camp so much. Ah.

PS: I really want my septum back. ;[

Sleep Outs and Sidekicks

My first week as a counselor at Wolf Mountain is already over! Man that week went by fast. I had 8 girls in my cabin, all very different yet all equally sassy. This caused quite a bit of problems in terms of teamwork, but all in all I had a really great week getting to know these girls and trying to show them the beautiful beautiful God that watches over all of us.

Oh my darling little Saren. She was so hilarious all week.

My friends Marceline, Bekah, Desiree, and JC. Awesome.

Puffin AKA Marcelina, who I love a lot a lot. I'm really glad I am working with her all summer.

These are my girls trying to to the Swing-To. They had a really hard time with leadership as well as unity as a cabin and totally failed at this and every exercise we tried to do. In the end I had to make it very easy for them to succeed, but I think they learned a lot from the activity.

My cabin won the Counselor Hunt, where each counselor hides and when they are found by a cabin, they get to dress the counselor up however they want. They dressed me up as what they called "Confused Britney Spears In the Morning." It was ridiculous.

This is one of my girls riding. During activities, each counselor is assigned a different activity to help out with. I worked with the wranglers and helped with the horses and vaulting and stuff. It was awesome to see these little girls and boys ride great big horses and still feel comfortable. When I first tried vaulting I was really nervous!

This week went well, and it was great practice for future cabins. This next week I will be a Primary Counselor, meaning I will be a counselor for Sunday to Wednesday, because Primaries are the kids that only stay a few days (usually because of homesickness and stuff, and can't handle a whole week away.) So I'm hoping there will be no bed wetters, and I'll get at least a few hours of sleep this week =] Haha!

I hope you are all doing well, I miss everyone a lot and I'm sorry I haven't had time to talk to basically anyone. It's incredible how time consuming 8 girls that are from the ages of 9-12 can be. Keep me in your prayers, you are always in mine.

Bubble Gum and Worn In Shoes

Yesterday, I got back from my first week at Wolf Mountain. For all who don't know, I'll be spending most of my summer working at Wolf Mountain Camp as a counselor for Junior Adventure (9-12 year olds). I. Am. So. Excited. For. This. Summer.

High Ropes.

Wyatt and Giggles

This last week was spent learning just about everything about camp. I had incredible opportunities to try things I have never done before. I learned vaulting on horses, and did this cool kneeling-with-no-hands trick on the back of a moving horse. I learned how to belay people on high ropes courses, as well as jumped my highest "leap of faith" yet at 85 feet. This next week I will not only be a counselor for 7 girls, but I'm also going to play "the sidekick" in the week long skit for the Junior Adventure campers. I'll be honest, this is the most excitement and motivation I've had in a very long time. I am anticipating these next few weeks greatly!

Belaying and Climbing.

The wall. Everyone on staff conquered this wall together. It was beautiful.

This camp has already been a blessing in my life. Not only has it stretched me in lots of ways, but has really put my trust in a new community. I am so excited about the unity in the staff, and especially the Buck Horn (Jr. Adventure) group that I will be spending all my time with. God has blessed me with wonderful new friends. Gah, I am just so joyful right now.

The Wild Woozie, which Lark and I did sooo good at. Just sayin.

I am going to keep working on my decorations for my cabin. If any would like to mail me while I am at camp, please feel free to ask for my address. I will be updating this as often as I can!

Inspiration

I was lurking around on flickr (please don't think I'm too creepy) when I stumbled upon this photo by my friend Nathaniel. I think it is so beautiful, and I loved the caption.

"its so funny how you can see her trail and where she sits every single morning for her routine ball throwing."
See more of Nathaniel's incredible photography HERE.



Anyways, seeing this photo on his Flickr reminded me of a true story my dad told me about a Buddhist monk. So here it is. I hope you enjoy it, and that it inspires you as much as it inspires me. What an incredible lesson on perseverance in your faith and values.

In a story straight out of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, human footprints worn into a wooden floor mark the spot where a 70-year-old Buddhist monk named Hua Chi, has said his prayers in a temple in Tongren, China, for over twenty years. More than 1 1/2 inches deep in some places, the prints tell the story of unbelievable prayer frequency, which according to Hua Chi at one point occurred over 3,000 times per day!

Hua Chi admits that due to his age, he was forced to cut back on his prayers, and these days can only manage about 1,000 times a day.

Even by Buddhist standards, which stress living life in a state of meditation and contemplation in order to reach Nirvana, his original rate of 3,000 prayers per day is considered excessive.

Today, hundreds of students visit the monastery which houses the temple bearing the prints in which the soles of the monk’s feet have become embedded in the floor. There is little to say, as the message of uninterrupted belief couldn’t be very much clearer.

Hua’s daily routine is simple and never varies. Before sunrise, he arrives at the temple steps, places his feet in his footprints and bends down to pray. He then walks all around the temple grounds until it is time to return for more prayers.

“During the first years I would pray 2,000 to 3,000 times a day. But I have grown older, so in recent years I have only done around 1,000 each day. I reconstructed this temple and have prayed and walked around the temple all these times so that after my death my spirit will not suffer,” said Chi in a recent interview.

Stuff From All Over

A year ago today, I graduated from high school.
So. Weird.
Tomorrow is my first day at Wolf Mountain Camp.
I am reallllly nervous, but more excited than anything. I am in dire need to get out of this place for a bit. What's nice is that I will be gone during the week, but will be home from Friday nights to Sunday mornings, which will give me a little time to myself, one night to make some money working at Sushi Q, and a morning to spend some time with God at my church before heading back to camp.
This first week is just staff training, no campers yet. Since I've never even been to the camp, I don't really know how it's going to go.. But what I'm guessing is that I won't be using my phone at all this week or have any contact with the outside world. By next weekend, I'll have my address and stuff that I will put on here, so if you feel the urge to send me letters and or care packages with yummy candy and my favorite foods *hint hint* you can just send them away to me. =]
I wanted to give a shout out to all of my regular readers.. The past few days a couple of my friends have let me know how much they love my blog and I really appreciate it.. Really!! I'm so glad people find me even moderately interesting, and I'm sorry my past few blogs have been sort of .. blah. This has been a rough past couple of weeks. I promise I'll post lots of fun things over the weekends about pushing small children off of large wooden structures and stuff.. Just kidding... Maybe...
But anyways, thank you for reading and supporting me. You guys are awesome.
I've got a few silly topics that I hopefully will be posting tonight while I finally start packing or tomorrow morning before I leave for camp. Oh, procrastination.

Question of the blog:
Random, I know, but should I grow out my bangs or cut them shorter again? It seems like there is an equal amount of people that prefer them short to long. Darn!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that today... I am a new person. I feel God so closely today, and that brings a lot of comfort to me.

Naked As We Came.

(found on flickr. by krissyb)

The whole world is naked tonight.
I watch as strips of light flash down to earth.
He keeps quiet as we all watch.

There is a crowd where I am.
A roll of growling comes from the mouth of the storm,
and I can hear the lion purring.
We all pull over to see the expansive sky,
to marvel at the wonder He is painting tonight.

Another purr and another car.
The light is hidden in the clouds, but that only makes the sky brighter.
A flash of naked light and we are all in awe.
The bare beauty of it all overwhelms our souls, fills us up,
and makes us overflow with
complete
peace.

He reaches down
and touches the earth.

I am thinking about the things that we talked about tonight,
I like my hands.
I like that I can relate to people.
I like being overwhelmed by God's beauty.

One at a time, the rain drops greet the roof of my car-
the shoulders on my gray sweatshirt, illuminated by the night-
my bare knees.
The grass tickles my legs and I don't feel alone.
I am not alone.

He who Is stands in front of me in this flash of light, naked.
And here I stand, naked in the grass, letting Them see all of me.
Welcome home.

Body Clocks, Among Other Things

Probably one of my least favorite things in the entire world is when you body clock is off. I stayed up last night until 5 in the morning, and then took a nap from 12:30 to 6 this afternoon. Now it is 1:30 and I am wide awake. Oh, Alexandra.

There was a thunderstorm for a minute or two today, and it was so wonderful.

I am leaving for camp this Sunday.. finishing up the things I still need to take care of.. I'll be honest, I'm getting really nervous about leaving. I still feel unprepared and so jumbled.

On a lighter note, I spent the last few days with some lovely friends and I listened to this approximately 3,000 times. If you haven't seen this, it's these people who take news reports and put them to a beat and auto-tune their voices. This song is better than any real auto-tuned song I've heard from any legitimate rapper.


My whole leg just fell asleep... Not happy ;[

Okay, well that's enough of my late night ranting.

Until The End Of Time.

"Yesterday's the past and tomorrow's the future. Today is a gift- which is why they call it the present."

I feel as though the people around me have this obsession with "living in the present." There are two very important things missing in that statement.
So, to all of the people pushing me to live in the present more than I am right now, here is what I am choosing to do.
Right now, I am going to live in the present,
but remember the past,
and stay conscious of the future.
I know if I can do that, I will be okay. I will be more than okay.