I Was Wrong, I Was Very, Very Wrong

Remember when I said I fly out of Phoenix on Thursday morning?

Yeah, turns out I don't.

I fly out tomorrow morning.

So, that's fun. I lost a whole day. And, that means that I get to drive to PHX after Campaigners tonight so that I can get there really late and get up super early in the morning to catch my 7:30 AM flight to Oregon.

Just making it to Thanksgiving, people.

But the mega-plus in this situation is that my work trip is to the Washington Family Ranch, aka Wildhorse, aka the Canyon, my alma mater and one of my altogether favorite places on earth.

So, that doesn't suck. Nope, it doesn't suck at all.

You know what else doesn't suck? The awesome amount of fun I had with 30 of my closest high school friends and the leaders on my team at Weekend Camp this weekend.

We did stuff like this:

And this:

And hung out with this guy in a bear suit:

While the boys mainly did this (What's up, Ladies?):

And the other female leaders and I mainly did this (yes, I'm wearing a heart-shaped sign that says "Hand Check."):

And my bestie Kristen was here. There's no picture of that, but she was and it was fun.

I seriously love me some Williams kids. They are crazy and fun and crazy fun.

Also, I'm really tired. And cough-y because it's freezing cold here and I yelled really loudly all weekend.

Oh, and the Williams Thanksgiving Dinner was awesome. There were like 400 people here which is almost 1/6 the population of Williams. And most of them were church ladies. And they did a mash-up of Jesus Loves You and What I Like About You.

These are my people.

OK, I'm going to go do the 900 millionty things I need to do before I leave in 5 hours.

Yikes.

Song of the Day: Best for the Best by Josh Ritter (There's something about this song that feels good in the Fall. I think it's the guitar.)

Embed Codes Make Life Easier

In case you missed it on facebook...

The tribute to "the Old Interns" aka Dusty, Sara, and Kate's Trip to the Canyon:

A Tribute to "the Old Interns" from Kate Tichelkamp on Vimeo.

Life is Good

Oh, man.

What can I possibly say about the past couple of weeks?  

I went to camp here with KC North:

It was awesome.  I'm sure I'll write more about it later.  I had an incredible time.  I didn't realize I missed leading Young Life so much, but a perfect combination of really fun girls, an awesome leadership team, and camp made that very obvious.

Two days after getting home, I came to see these people:

Yep.  Dusty and Sara.  They're 2 of my favorite people in the world and they live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, so I like to come see them often.

Together, we went here:

Ah, the Canyon.  A place that holds a very large chunk of my heart.  It was wonderful to see friends and to spend a solid 8 hours in 2 days simply sitting on the porch, talking about life and drinking coffee.  Not to mention the game playing.  I miss that.

And now I'm back in Washington.  Sara and I are drinking very good coffee and talking (and talking and talking) and playing on our computers.  

All this to say:  Life is good.  Very good.

Oh, and I no longer work at Grand Street Coffee.  I'm OK with that.  But I need a new job.  Yeah, I'm back to that.  Look forward to a return to job search blogging.  Hope you enjoy it!

Still Talking About the Canyon

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but in case I haven't, I'll tell you again.

I miss the Canyon.

Young Life camps period are sacred ground.  You go for a week and the place embeds into your heart.  A lot of you know what that feels like.

Now imagine that times 52.  And then multiply it a couple more times to account for the vast amount of blood, sweat, and tears that come with those 52 weeks.  

I miss it.

I was talking to my friend Dan the other day and I realized how much I miss it.  And not just for the place or the people or what it all meant in my life.  I miss it because it's the only place and the only people who can really understand what it all meant in my life.

About a month ago, I posted about a moment I had where I remembered how I felt sometimes in the Canyon.  There would be these moments in the midst of all the craziness where the vastness and the beauty of the place and what we were doing would stop me in my tracks.  And I would just breathe.  And love.

I tried to describe that on this blog and obviously just tried to describe it again, and I can't really do it.  But I was talking to Dan and in the midst of our conversation he said, "Do you remember how sometimes you would be in the middle of camp and all of a sudden it would all just stop?  You know, like you would just stop... I miss that."

I know what he was talking about.  And I miss that too.

Moral of the story: places can steal your heart.  And the Canyon is just one of the places that has mine.

Sensory Memories

I woke up at 4:30 this morning. If you know me, you know that this is not a normal time for me to be awake. Unless I'm still up from the night before, listening to sappy music and writing in my journal.

But I have a job now, people. Sometimes it requires me to get up early. I open on Saturdays and Sundays which normally means 8:00 AM. Even that's kind of pushing it, but since I don't have to come in until 11:00 the rest of the days I work, I accept it.

Today, however, there was some kind of marathon/fun run/5K (I have no idea) going on that started at 7:00, so we decided it would be a good idea to open at 6:00. This means I need to be here at 5:40. Oh, and I had to stop and get pastries this morning. And I live 20 minutes from where I work. Hence, 4:30.

I staggered into the bakery to get pastries and I was strolling back out bleary-eyed still when I realized that it was actually kind of beautiful out. And I had the most nostalgic remembrance of the canyon. It was something about an early morning in the summer, starting to warm up but with a cool lingering from the night before, quiet, barely light out. It made me remember every espresso morning and late night opening when I was the only one out on property.

Those were my favorite times, the rare moments when it all slowed down and it was just me in that vast place. It was also the only time in my life where I was completely happy being awake at 5:30 AM. I would be on 4 hours sleep, exhausted physically and emotionally, and I would still be looking forward to the day, thinking of the kids I would meet and serve, the time with my Sassy girls, waving at Sara across the lobby, watching kids be kids in the pool and the lake and the fields.

I long to feel that fulfilled in what I'm doing always. But what does that mean? Can I bring that sense of purpose to this place? Or do I need to be on the lookout for the perfect job, that one thing that can spark something in me? I don't know.

Still, I hold onto that sweet memory and am pretty certain that an early morning at the beginning of a hot day will always take me back to that place that I love so dearly.

Song of the Day: I Am Yours by Tracy Chapman

Facebook Friends = Real Friends

I have come up with a completely arbitrary measure of friendship that I now use pretty often. I will share it.

In order to determine how good a friend someone is, I simply go to their facebook profile and look for 2 things: 1) Are we actually friends? and 2) Do we have more than 50 mutual facebook friends?

This is fairly foolproof. The first question is important because I have a lot of fb friends that are not my actual friends in real life. I have recently been contemplating going through and unfriending everyone I don't really care about, but then I get too lazy. And I only want to do that if it doesn't notify the people that I've unfriended them.

I think my criteria for unfriending will be as follows: 1) I have not spoken to you either in person or on the phone in over a year, 2) I had to look at your profile to make sure that I actually knew you, 3) I get mad when you take up space on my newsfeed with your worthlessness, and 4) you have more than 1,000 friends.

More than 1,000 friends is completely unnecessary and proves that you are only trying to get a big number, not actually using fb to keep up with people. It's arrogant and weird.

That was what is called a tangent.

Back to my measure of friendship.

So, we are actual friends in real life. And now I see that we have over 50 friends in common. This is pretty arbitrary in some ways, but for the most part I think it shows that someone is really in your life. When I started out in the Canyon, my fellow interns and I only had like maybe 20 common friends. I was just on my friend Sara's profile and I noticed that we now have 74 friends in common.

74 is a big number. That's a lot of people that I love that she loves as well. That's a whole lot of people that are privy to both of our lives.

I like what that says about our friendship. I like that even though we live 2,000 miles apart, there are 74 people that connect us. It makes me feel like that distance is a little smaller.

Even throughout the volatile relationship I have with facebook, in this moment it brings me some comfort. I like that it makes the world a little smaller when people I love are far away.

Thank you, internet.

Song of the Day: Love You Till the End by the Pogues

Why am I Hot in February?

Aaah, Tucson.  

I'm sitting next to an open door in short sleeves, drinking an iced latte and enjoying free internet.  This is the life.

I left the Canyon on Monday morning and stopped in Bend on the way out to see my favorite 6'4" man in the world, Dan Creasey.  We had breakfast at West Side Bakery, one of my favorite local Bend joints.  It was fun to be back in Bend, our beautiful "hometown" while out in the Canyon.  And it was even more fun to see Dan.  

I hopped on the road and spent the rest of the day driving through Southern Oregon and down through Central California.  I took I-5 the entire way down which is not the beach route, but is beautiful none the less.  I just love watching the scenery change from mountains and forests to farmland to the Hollywood hills.  It's so beautiful. 

I ended up stopping in Sacramento for the night just because I could and I was really enjoying the alone time.  I'm realizing that I was desperate for some time to just wander on my own.  The Canyon has my heart, New York was fabulous, and I'm excited for Kansas City.  But it had been a long time since I had an open road and time on my hands and it was exactly what I needed.  

By the time I got to Sacramento I was feeling more at peace than I have been in a long time.  I love people, but at heart I'm an introvert.  I find energy and renewal in being alone.  I love to wander and I do my best thinking when jamming in the car.  So really, a road trip should be mandatory for me every year or so.  

I woke up Tuesday morning and got the rest of the way into LA.  I spent the afternoon and evening with Hannah, who is another person that I dearly love.  Hannah was on Summer Staff my first session this past summer and quickly became one of my favorite people ever.  She has the rare ability to root herself deeply into the lives of people around her.  She's genuine and honest and sincerely seeks to know you.  I've found a kindred spirit in her even though we seem like very different people on the surface.

We took a walk on the beach in Santa Monica and saw the famous pier.  I loved being on the beach.  The beach is something that I never really long for, seeing as I grew up in the middle of the country.  But some kind of combo of the smell and the sound of the waves and the feel of the breeze of the water creates the most calming effect.  It's a great place to contemplate the world.

I woke up the next morning and headed due East for Tucson and Kristen.  I've never been to the Southwest, so I was excited to make my way here and see the desert in all its glory.  It was a breathtakingly beautiful drive out of LA (and the crazy traffic!) all the way here.  The weather is literally 80 degrees which I'm loving after months of freezing in New York.  It feels like summer which triggers some kind of chemical mood enhancement.

Time with Kristen has been wonderful and it has been so great over the past week catching up on intern gossip and seeing/hearing about how everyone is doing.  I was not great at keeping in touch while I was in New York (surprise, surprise) but I've truly missed everyone.

All in all, this road trip has been exactly what I needed.  I'm still a little freaked out at the prospect of a job hunt and being back in MO, but I feel genuine peace about where I'm at and what I'm doing.  I got to properly say goodbye to the Canyon and the world I created there, I was reminded of all the people that I love and that love me.  I feel complete freedom and independence.  I love this phase of life.  What comes next?  Who knows.

I'm headed out tomorrow and will be back in MO in a couple of days!  

Much Love.

Road Trip Diary 2

I Love the Canyon

I forgot how much I need people to sit across from me and ask me about my life.  And I forgot how encouraging it is to hear about their lives.  Amidst so much change, this place and this work is constant.  How I love it here.

One more place that my heart longs for...

Song of the Day: Stay by Lisa Loeb

Back in the Canyon

The official "road" portion of my road trip has begun.  I spent the day yesterday driving down from Seattle to the Canyon, with a couple of stops along the way.  I took the Blaze to Jiffy Lube before I left and even let them do a couple of the extra things.  (Mainly because the guy seemed to be about to pass out due to the condition of my radiator... I don't know why.)

All this to say, the Blaze is running smooothly.  I don't think she's run this well in a long time actually.  So I feel good about the trip.  And I made it on basically one tank of gas!  This bodes well.

Driving into the Canyon was a weird experience because it wasn't weird.  Once I was through Portland, auto pilot kicked in and I was headed to the Canyon.  I went to Morning Mudd this morning and saw a bunch of people and then spent the rest of the morning hanging out in the store with Angela and Amanda, the new Sara.  It was fun to be back in our little retail building, tagging and counting things.  You really can't beat the Canyon!

I'm looking forward to spending the next couple of days catching up with people.  More later.

Also, I have a road trip video diary started, but it won't upload for some reason.  I'll try again later.  Try not to be too sad.

Song of the Day: Sea Breeze by Tyrone Wells (This is my ultimate canyon song and was really weirdly in the CD player in the Blaze when I turned it on today.  Apparently, the last time I was in my Blazer I was jamming to it.  That seems completely possible since I listened to it over and over the last 4 months I was here.)

Oh, Pam...

This always makes me happy...  I miss these girls and this place.

If ever I'm sad, I'll watch this video and remember that I worked in a place that I loved and that loved me and that I did my job well.  The Canyon holds a piece of my heart.

Can't wait to see it again in a few short weeks!

In the Cookies of Life, Friends are the Chocolate Chips

I have realized that the only thing that really makes life entertaining is friends.  I live in the most exciting city in the world and I really don't do that much because I don't know anybody.

I actually really love being on my own.  I could sit in my house by myself for days and be happy.  I love going to museums and shopping by myself.  But all of that is so... peaceful.  Everything truly fun or exciting or entertaining that ever happens to me happens in the presence of other people.  

All this to say, I'm excited to come home and to spend some serious time just hanging out.  There's really nothing better.

Oh, and the title of this post comes from a mug that was in our cupboard at Wildhorse.  I used it often because it cracked me up... We had the most random dishes/utensils in our kitchen (including an ice tea maker and a giant griddle but no whisk... only the essentials).

Miss you all.  See you soon!

Pictures!

Some pictures from the week of friends in NYC...

Being blown away on top of the Empire State Building

Brooklyn Bridge

Delicious desserts at Serendipity 3

The Wonder Wheel at Coney Island

Sara and Mandi on an empty subway car

All the girls in Central Park

The guy from 30 Rock filming a commercial outside NBC Studios

(Celebrities everywhere!)

On Broadway

OK, so it has been a little while since I've blogged.  It has been an eventful couple of weeks.  To start off, my friends were (and are) here!  My forced solo exploration of the city has ended which I appreciate.  It's nice to have people here that know me.

So over the 10 days that Kelley and Richard were back in Missouri, the following people all spent a little time with me in NYC: Lacey, Nick, Dusty, Sara, Drew, Mike, Mandi, Roy, David, Kelly, and Gentges.  Sara and Dusty were here that whole time which was awesome because they're basically my favorite married couple in the world.  Everyone else was here for anywhere from 2 days to 7 days, so I had a lot of people around me.  And Lacey and Nick live here now!  So exciting!  (This means that I force Lacey to hang out with me literally all the time.)

We did essentially every touristy thing you can do, including but not limited to the Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Central Park, the UN, the Empire State building, the Financial District, Little Italy, Chinatown, Coney Island, and the Museum of Natural History.  We also ate at a different restaurant every day, ordered in a lot and walked more than I ever have in my life.  

The highlight of the week was definitely the 4 (yes, 4) broadway shows we saw.  They included Legally Blonde (surprisingly awesome), 13 the musical (the entire cast is under 15), the Lion King (too incredible for words), and Hairspray.  I am loving the Great White Way and since everyone left, Lacey and I went to see Spring Awakening as well.  It was my favorite so far although definitely darker.  All of this broadway has merely confirmed my theory that life would be at least 20 times more awesome if we lived in a musical.

Since everyone left, I've been easing back into the routine with baby Isabelle and still trying to pack in everything.  I had a slight panic attack when I realized I had been here for a month already and still feel like I haven't even made a dent in my list of things I must do before I leave.  But I still have time.

My favorite things so far:

1) Public transportation... I never want to drive again.

2) Sushi, sushi, sushi everywhere

3) The museums (so many more to see)

4) The Halloween craziness capped off by the parade down the street from the apartment... I don't even have words.

Love you all!

New York, New York

I'm in NYC.  Talk about culture shock.  The departure from the Canyon was definitely odd.  I can't really imagine not seeing these people every day.  They are so much a part of my life now.   But it was easy to see the purpose of the year.  And turns out it is really kind of fun to be able to run to Starbucks whenever I want.  

We left the Canyon on Monday, after a very long night and early morning of cleaning.  I moved all my stuff up to storage, so they're not completely rid of me.  We had to be out of good ole' Condo 55 by 10:00 AM.  A bunch of the prop staff came to say good-bye which was really hard.  They're such solid people who cared for me so well.  But we said good-bye and hopped in the cars.  From there we made a stop all together at the A-Cafe in our beautiful town of Antelope, OR.  The messy good-byes happened there.  Luckily, I knew that I was going to see several of the interns within a couple weeks in NYC, so that made things a lot easier.  Also, the reunion is in December.  Still, it's weird.

From Antelope, I jumped in with Drew and headed towards Portland.  The drive to Portland is beautiful, along the Columbia River Gorge.  I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Portland with Drew and her mom which was super fun.  We did things like get new phones, go to Ross and drink marguaritas.  It was great.  I had a midnight flight on Wednesday, so we decided to go out beforehand.  We met Nick and funny Chris whom I had never met at a bar called Henry's in downtown Portland.  We ended up all over the place Wednesday night and it was really fun.  It got me stoked for New York and, you know, actually going places.  As much as I love board games, it'll be fun to go out and be a real twenty-something for a little while.  Just a little while though.

Anyway, I had the red-eye and it was killer.  The loud lady who was really enjoying the in-flight movie was in my row.  I loved her.  She also yelled at me for putting the window up while we were landing because it was putting a glare on her TV.  And, although it's childish, I wanted to see the city as we flew in.  But whatever, I'm here, so I guess I'll see it plenty.  And you don't want to take on the lady.

I got to the city and found a taxi and said the street before the avenues just like you're supposed to and headed into the city.  I've been here a few hours now and am figuring out the routine with the beautiful baby Isabelle.  I'm dying to sleep but I want to fight through it in order to adjust to the east coast time.  3 time zones crossed.  Get used to east coast Kate.  

I have my cell phone back.  Call me!  Pictures will come soon.

I Hate Packing

Everyone should read my friend Liz's blog.  She's in Africa and that alone makes her life much more interesting than mine.  Also, she's the best storyteller I know.  As in, if this were Medieval times, she would be traveling around telling stories about dragons and princesses and stuff.  But instead, she writes a blog about Africa and aerobics classes.  It makes me want to move there. 

My time here in the Canyon continues to wind down.  We have a little less than 2 weeks left.  I just started packing.  My other roommates are all packed already, of course.  I have one box of books packed.  I'm sure anyone who knows me is not remotely shocked by my procrastination.  

The next couple of weeks are going to be packed with Canyon events which I am pretty stoked about.  It's a weird thing out here.  Summer is what this place is created for, the whole purpose of it.  You feel like you're doing the best work during the summer, the most important work.  But off-season is what makes this a great place to live.  We had a big pot-luck the other day to say good-bye to our old property manager and his family.  I was just looking around and kind of overwhelmed by they community and the way I fit in it.  It's such an odd group of people.  It spans the ages.  We have newborns to eighty-year-olds.  And the people are so different.  But it all fits together.  And people love each other and this place and this work.  I was struck by how unique it is to live in a place like this.  And how much I'm going to miss it, even though it was so hard.  

On the other hand, I am excited to leave.  I love a new adventure, and this one seems even crazier than the first.  Packing up my Blazer and moving out to the middle of Oregon was one thing, but leaving everything I own in Oregon and flying to NYC is another.  Also, I have no idea where I'm going after NYC.  But I'm pretty excited about that as well.  I'm going to be praying a lot and exploring a lot.  I want to know that I can be adventurous and rooted at the same time.  I'm not sure yet what that looks like, but I'll let you know if I ever get it figured out.  

Everyone get pumped because the one and only Denny Ryberg is headed to the Canyon this weekend to speak for the Oregon Leadership Weekend.  We'll probably hang out, shoot some pool.  It's whatever.

Peace and love. 

So Long Sweet Summer

Wow.  I can't believe summer is over and my time at Wildhorse is coming to an end.  I'm sitting in Sisters Coffee Co. right now, watching the pictures scroll on the background of my computer and feeling extremely nostalgic.  I can't begin to think of all I've learned and the ways I've changed this year.  I'll do a recap at some point, when the time comes that I'm willing to admit I'm leaving.  But for now I'll say that I'm leaving this place with more wisdom, less pride and a better knowledge of who I am and what I love.

This summer was seriously wonderful, although the absolute hardest thing I've ever done.  To give you a picture, I was working 80 hours a week and all of that was spent inside the Sassy.  I had 17 college-aged women that worked under me as volunteers over 3 summer sessions.  Every session was unique.  My first session girls were these beautiful messes, girls that were all on the brink of something big.   We spent about an hour every day doing devotionals, a time to hang out and talk about life and study the Word.  These girls were vulnerable from the first minute.  I loved getting in the middle of their lives, watching them realize that they loved serving.  It made me realize how much I miss leading.  It's such a cool thing to just be in someone's life as they work through these big turning points.  They were great.

My second session girls were the girls who had it together.  They were almost all leaders, all had been involved in Young Life.  They were fun too because I feel like the Lord gave me an opportunity to plant some vision into their lives of the power they have to make an impact on people's lives.  I have such a passion for this ministry and this kind of love and it was great to sit for a month and talk about that.  My second session girls were also hilarious and I had so much fun with their sarcasm.  Sarcasm speaks straight to my heart.  They also started a petition to get me to move to Bellingham, WA because that's where three of them live.  The amount of random people they got to sign it was pretty hilarious, although I don't think Bellingham is necessarily in my future.  

Third session was by far the hardest.  Our first 2 sessions are comprised of three 7-day high school camps.  Third session is comprised of six 5-day middle school camps.  Needless to say, it is an exhaustingly long session.  To give a picture, we have more kids come to Wildhorse during our one middle school session than any other Young Life camp has in their entire summer.  Also, I started out short one girl and another girl left in the middle of the session.  To top it off, we are ridiculously more busy in the Sassy during middle school than high school.  Turns out middle school kids love sugar.  But my girls were awesome workers and people poured in to help.  But this was definitely the session my relationships suffered the most.  I just didn't have any energy to invest in the lives of the people around me.  It was basically all I could do to keep going.  So it was really hard.  But the Lord teaches good lessons in hard times and that was definitely the case during third session.  

All in all, the summer was an experience I'll probably never be able to describe or relive.  Watching kid after kid pour into our camp and showing them extravagant love in a world that just writes them off as worthless was eye-opening and overwhelming.  To serve them with no chance of receiving glory for it was life-changing.  Talk about learning humility.  There are kids and moments from this summer that will stay with me forever.  Matt, the geeky weird kid, getting up to sing a song at the talent show and getting a standing ovation even though it was the worst thing I've ever heard.  Andrew, one of the disabled campers, laughing and dancing with his partner at the square dance even though he couldn't come close to keeping the rhythm.  Edgar, a Hispanic kid who had never been in the water, learning to swim from one of the lifeguards and spending the rest of the week going off the diving board over and over.  Schools finding unity where there used to be division.  Kids being kids when their lives normally require them to be adults.  I know it's just a week at camp, but I so believe that it can change lives and communities.  What a great job.

As for me, I'm headed out of the Canyon at the end of the month.  And from here I'm flying straight to New York City to nanny for the beautiful Isabelle, the brand new daughter of my step-sister and her husband.  I'll be there until the end of the year and then who knows.  But I at least have a few months figured out.  Expect a long stint in MO over the holidays and into the first of the year.  Also, please call/email me.  My life is considerably less hectic now and I would love to hear from all of you.

Much love.

1 Week Down, 11 to Go

Wow. I don’t even remotely know where to begin in order to catch people up on my life right now. We are now in the middle of our second week of Session 1. As anyone who’s spent time at a camp knows, the days feel like months. I feel like we’ve been at for so long already, but we’ve just started. And also, this session’s almost over. It’s slow, but flies by. That’s a weird thing.

It has been an utter surprise. I was prepared for the work, I was excited to have summer staff, I knew that I would be emotionally drained. And as prepared as I was, I was surprised the first week. The first week was great. We had such a diverse group in. We had inner-city Portland and rich suburbs, we had large groups of Hispanic kids, kids from rural Oregon, a group of Capernaum campers (YL’s ministry with disabled kids), Native American kids from the Warm Springs Reservation, and a group of deaf campers. What a crazy group, and something you would only find at camp!

It was so cool to watch these kids throughout the week. It’s such a privilege to work in the Sassy because all the kids come in and you get to learn their names and just see little pieces of their weeks. On the last night they were there, I was out in the Sassy cutting off the line. So basically, I was standing at the back of the line telling kids that we were closed and they couldn’t get in line. I was standing behind the craziest group of girls. It was 5 super preppy white girls and 3 tough looking black girls. I’d met all 8 of them throughout the week and wouldn’t have ever really put them together. But they had ended up in a cabin together here; they all go to the same school. And they had come to the Sassy that night to cash in a prize they had won at the volleyball tourney for a billy sundae. Standing in line behind them, they were talking about how they had all thought it was going to suck to have to share a cabin with each other and how they thought they would never get along. But then they all started talking about how wrong they had been and about how much they had loved getting to know each other. They were all crying and talking about how awesome it was going to be to go back home and just say hi to each other in the halls and at basketball games. I just kept thinking, that seems so simple but it’s something that could literally change their school, create love where there is division.

And there were so many more stories like that. Seeing punk street kids from Central Oregon learning sign language to communicate with the deaf campers. Watching the whole dining hall bust out in silent, hand-waving applause for one of the deaf campers when they won an award. Watching kids that came off the bus looking like they hated the world doing the cha-cha slide and going crazy at the dance. It is incredible what can be done in one week, when kids are surrounded by people that care for them and respect them and show them love. I love my job.

Aside from that awesomeness, my week was also awesome. My summer staff girls (Hannah, Lauren, Lindsey, Jenni, Natalie and Megan) are ridiculously great. They’re all super hard workers and the Sassy is running like clock work. It is hard to get that many people trained and to keep the whole thing flowing smoothly. We’ve had our bumps, but on the whole, I feel like all the prep work paid off and things are running smoothly. One of my summer staff girls is also deaf and that has been a really cool thing. I’ve really enjoyed learning to communicate with her. She’s really wonderful. There’s a couple of the girls that I really click with and feel like I’ve been friends with forever and all the girls are really sweet and a lot of fun. We’re working crazy hours, but they’ve had good attitudes and, most importantly, have been great with campers.

Needless to say, I’ve been an emotional wreck. It feels so good to be a part of this work, I think the Lord has designed me for it. So I’m loving it even when it’s super hard. I’ve also been doing my best to get to everything this week, so I’m trying to stay up right now in order to go to sports center night which is our new Gladiator-style carnival replacement. Same idea as the Carnival, but kicked up a notch. It’s supposedly a lot of fun.

Still don’t know what’s next after this year. Please be praying for a lot of guidance.

That’s life.

Even CRAZIER!

So, I thought my life had gotten crazy the last time I posted... I had no idea.

Turns out, the end of May is the most difficult time of the year. It is basically summer without any of the help. And we're trying to get everything done for summer, which starts in 2 weeks!!! That's crazy! To give you a picture, there are 11 different groups here in 7 days this week. So we're working non-stop. I've been putting in a lot of 12 hour days. And it is awesome! I'm loving every second of it, being completely exhausted and still finding it in me to do more. I really love working here.

Speaking of, something to be praying about. I have decided to send in an application for a job. I don't want to talk too much about it, because I'm not at all sure it's going to happen but I figure I'll send in an application and see what happens. I've had a lot of support from people here, making me feel like it could possibly be a good fit. But I don't want to get my hopes up and I'm just in the original application process, so we'll see.

Several of our new interns have arrived. It's a little weird, but they're all really fun. There is definitely a difference in attitude when you're a summer intern. This is their summer break, just something fun and exciting. This is our job with health benefits and a 401(k). So it's a little different experiences. But they're great people and it's been fun to get to know them.

We had our intern surprise the other day which was.... a trip to the shooting range! We have this awesome shooting range here on property that they use for groups and staff can use it. So, we had some competitions shooting clays. It took me forever, but I finally shot 2! And I got to throw the clays for a while which was pretty awesome. I'm a little addicted and really want to go again.

That's pretty much life right now. All I'm doing is working, so it's not really that interesting. But summer starts soon, that's when all the good stories will come!

Oh, and Prince Caspian review:

I did not love it. I had reread the book right before seeing the movie which may not have been the best move. It was a well-made movie, but it strayed a lot from the heart of the book. A lot of the characters were different and it was super Hollywood cheesy. But still worth seeing. I give it half a thumbs up.

Much love!

Warm Weather Always Makes Me Like Country Music

Seriously, what is it about summer that makes me like country? It's a weird thing.

I went home. It was awesome. That's all I need to say. I got to hang out with my family and friends, watch TV, shop, eat at restaurants, watch the Cardinals in HD and enjoy green grass, trees and rain. That is clearly awesome.

Heading back from Missouri, I ended up by myself in a 3-seat on the plane. It was incredible. And I was flying Southwest, who recently switched to general admission seating on their planes. So I was trying to judge how many people were in the waiting area and whether or not the plane would be full so that I could decide whether I wanted aisle or window. It creates a lot of stress for me. But I made the right decision and got to spread out and sleep the whole flight back to Oregon. It was glorious.

That was followed by an incredibly beautiful drive back to the Canyon. The drive from Portland to the Canyon is nothing short of breathtaking. If you get the chance to drive along the Columbia River Gorge at any point of your life, do it. And the sun was setting and casting the most incredible light. It got back to the Canyon just as I started to need headlights. It was perfect. Although, when I got back after 13 hours of traveling, my house was completely empty. I didn't see anyone until the next day, so that was a little bit of a bummer.

I've been in HK every day since because we didn't have a group over last weekend and the mid-week group that's in right now didn't have the Sassy open. The problem is that even though we have a million things that need to be done before our giant family camp this weekend, we can't do any of them because there's a group in. Which means that we're going into HK at 7:00 AM tomorrow and cleaning literally everything in camp. It's going to be crazy.

The good news is we got new slushie machines in the Sassy! Get pumped! Four flavors! Cherry, lemonade, java chip and vanilla latte! The bad news is we are WAY under staffed. We have more and more stuff opened which means everyone is spaced out. This is our biggest group and I have the fewest people working with me. I really don't know what it's going to look like. But I'm sure it will work out. If there's a line, there's a line. It's going to be CRAZY!

Life in the Canyon is good. The weather is incredible. I love it. We have these things called swamp coolers in lieu of air conditioning. I'm a little wary of them, but apparently they result in a quarter of the cost in energy bills and keep you just as cool. Which is exciting. But the phrase "swamp coolers" weirds me out a little.

Bryce is in Europe and I'm jealous.

I love you all!