You're Gonna Miss This

   Its hard to believe that I've been away from camp for a week already and tomorrow I jump back into my school year job as a preschool teacher. I was able to spend the last week at the beach with my family. I love the beach and I enjoyed my time there. Relaxed a bit and deepend my summer tan. Although I really do miss the zig-zag tan I had on my foot thanks to my Chacos.
   I think the beach is very therapeutic in several aspects. I love laying on the beach listening to the waves crash into shore. I love the smell of the sea air and even the taste of the ocean water. Its very calming and for me triggers long periods of time for thinking. I did a lot of thinking this past week, and after just ending camp it was just what I needed. Time to put all my thoughts from the summer or about the summer away and prepare for getting back into the groove of school. There was a realization that I came to, one that I've known all along, but finally accepted it I guess. Camp is not a settling ground. As much as I would love for it to be, it can't be. It is merely a temporary stop in life. For me it was a 4 year stop. For others its longer, and for some, shorter. I wanted this summer to last forever. I wanted camp to be a year round thing and just continue rotating through my campers. Camp has taught me much over the years. God has brought me unexpected friends into my life and turned people whom I couldn't stand or get along with into my best friends.
I guess its a protective thing for me. As long as I am there, I know my campers are getting the best love and care that they can. Some are from group homes that don't show them much love so its very important that when they arrive at camp they are loved beyond what they know to do with. If I'm not there, how will I know they are being loved and cared for? I realized this week, I know they will continue to be loved and properly taken care of because I've watched the best of the best counselors come through and train me to love and care for this population in the best ways. Through their training, I learned how to train those behind me. Its a chain reaction at camp. You are trained through experience and through the friendship of coworkers. Once it is time for some to move on, those who are left behind train those coming in. I've been trained by the best. I've learned so much by the people I've worked with for the last 3 years. Our campers will never lack love at camp. It will always be there. I just wish I could be apart of it forever.
   There's a country song that's played in my heart since the last morning of camp and the chorus seems to match just perfectly.

You're gonna miss this.

You're gonna want this back.

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.

These are some good times.

So take a good look around.

You may not know it now, but you're gonna miss this.

-Trace Adkins-

And I do. I already miss it and I cherish every moment I had or will have at camp. My campers are my good times. Most of my stories come from them. My favorite memories are from them. They are my life and my joy. They have shaped and molded parts of me into who I am today. I am so thankful for that. 

   Tomorrow I get back to the daily grind of my day job. I am excited about it. As much as I love camp, I love my job teaching 2 & 3 year olds. They keep my laughing and I see things through different lights because I have their perspective. Its a good age to work with. They tell you how it is and how they see it. I love my job and am excited to get a new group a week from tomorrow. In the mean time I have so much to get done! I feel very overwhelmed at the moment, but I know in God's strength and the amazing help of my co-teacher Alisha, everything will get done. Though my summer in paradise is ending, my life in paradise is beginning. And in someways, continuing. Maybe I should change the name of the blog to "My Life in Paradise".... hmm... we'll see. For now, I am signing off and jumping back into life. Unless you hear otherwise, this is me closing my Summer In Paradise. What an amazing summer it was! 

Don't Blink. It Goes By Too Fast

   LOVE. This word seemed to be the theme of my week. Everywhere I turned from day to day it almost hit me anew as if I had never looked at things in the perspective of love. One of my greatest joys is watching our staff just let go and hang out with our campers. Monday afternoon when our pool party was canceled and our counselors had to suddenly improvise on activities, a group went off to the field to play football, another to the basketball goal, others to find things to do while hanging out in the cabin. I watched these groups of guys for a moment as I walked back to the office. Everyone of them about to crumble from sweat and pushing themselves very hard in their game. Suddenly I realized, in those moments, everyone was put on the same level and suddenly there were no disabilities just boys having fun. Counselors were letting go and listening to campers call the next play and making sure they did their best to play it to perfection. I realized then that our counselors had found a form of love. Everyone just let go and focused on having fun. My heart swelled with pride over these counselors and with more love than I knew what to do with. That night as a storm passed through and forced our evening activities into our dinning hall, I watched again with pride over our counselors embracing their campers. A good quarter of our campers were brand new this week and I was impressed at how quickly they clicked with their counselors and already had relationships going. I watched as a counselor had his first opportunity to deal with seizures as a camper crumbled 3 times that evening. Each time, leaving a mess to be cleaned and a wound to be mended. Not once did I see a grossed out look from his counselor just pure concern that turned into love as he learned how to better help this camper. As we left our dance party and gathered outside to sing our goodnight song, We noticed a rainbow that almost appeared to hug camp from one side to another-even more exciting was to see a faint double rainbow. Just another reminder of God's love toward us. I love seeing His little reminders at random times in my life. Rainbows are some of the best.
   Tuesday was pretty much the normal day for us. It was strange for Eddie and I to be in the office and not having to start cabin assignments for the next week. We took this time in the office to write thank you notes to each of our counselors. After nap time, we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with our cabins. The evening was filled with skits and laughter from our Clown Show. Eddie and I prepared several new skits and seemed to be one of our better shows. As we said goodbye to the two clowns that come out every week to do their routines, Eddie and I noticed one of our Program Staff members walk by, something obviously wrong. I ran after him to see what was wrong to find out his grandfather had passed away and he needed to leave ASAP. Blake is our Talent Show organizer so he had a lot of things he had to get done by our Thursday night Talent Show. Without another thought, I immediately volunteered Eddie and I to get it done in his stead. I pulled Eddie aside later to tell him what I had done only to be met with total and full agreement on his part. It was just a way we could show our love toward him. Later that night as Eddie and I pulled a list  together of things we needed to get done, I realized our work load had just doubled. I had no clue how we were going to pull off building a set for talent show, organizing the show, as well as finishing things we had to get done besides talent show, but I was ready for a challenge. We worked till midnight on Tuesday just getting as much of a jump start as possible.
   Wednesday dawned earlier than I wanted, but I was ready for the day. We rolled up our sleeves and jumped in. We spent most of the morning hanging out with our cabins, but once lunch was over Eddie and I jumped into constructing a ship that would cover the full length of our stage. With the help of Sammie, our camper worker supervisor and another member of our program staff, we built a plank, cannon, mast, huge sail, a large helm and other little things in between. Wednesday afternoon we spent the afternoon painting the ship. My fingers are still slightly black from the paint. We stayed up late that night working on organizing each act and making sure we had music for everyone.
   Thursday we jumped in with helping out a few cabins at the challenge course and spending some much needed time with our campers. At times I think being a counselor at Camp Spearhead is therapeutic. Being with my campers can put me at such ease and most of the time, truly relaxed. It was some much needed time with my campers. That afternoon we put the finishing touches on the ship, and finalized the music and organization of the night. Right after dinner we started straight into our camper recognition program. A chance for counselors to present their campers with little awards to celebrate accomplishments made that week or just to appreciate a certain thing about that camper. Once the cabin has received all their awards the campers then have the opportunity to take the mic and say whatever they want. You never know what you'll get which is part of the fun, but last night was something special. Almost every person who spoke into the mic spoke something of love. Whether it was counselor to camper, a camper to a counselor, camper to camper, or camper to camp in general, it had something to do with love. I heard the phrases "Camp Spearhead, you are my second family." "I love camp and can't wait to come back next year. I'm gonna miss this." "This is my home." My heart continued to swell as each camper shared what they loved about camp. I am so proud of our counselors for showing such unconditional love as they have which impacted every camper in the room. It is because of this that camp runs every year. Campers come back because of the love that we show them. Love filled our dinning hall that night. The feeling was beyond words.
   I can't believe camp is over. Where did my summer go? I've had the best summer of my life this summer and have truly enjoyed my Paradise at camp. I would be lost without these people in my life. It hit me the other day just how boring life would be if there were no disabilities. I look at some of our campers and momentarily wonder what life would be like without their disabilities. Every time, I shudder at the thought. They wouldn't be the same camper I know. Life would be boring if they didn't have their disabilities. I have thanked God for disabilities more often ever since. He knows what He's doing as each person is created- disabilities or not. This population is my life and my joy. I would truly be lost without them. I wouldn't change them for the world. I LOVE them. They are my paradise.

Better Call AAA Now....

   I can't believe I am about to enter the last week of camp! This summer has truly flown. This past week was filled with last minute rushings trying to finish things out for the summer. Eddie and I were in the office more than usual doing our last cabin assignments of the summer, working on the week's slideshow plus trying to get ready for our staff dinner/party tonight.

   The campers were great this week. Though some were a little more high maintenance, I feel the week went really smoothly. We had no major bumps or mishaps! We were full to the brim with literally every bed filled in every cabin! 

   I loved having my Justin there this week! It was a joy to look around camp and see his smiling face. I knew the staff would love him and was even threatened by several coworkers that Justin would not be able to come home with me because they were going to kidnap him and keep him. If you know Justin at all, you know how true this statement is and you yourself has possibly thought the same thing. He had a great time and had awesome counselors. They took good care of my boy. Justin slept all day the day after he came home. He was worn out! On Tuesday his counselors took him to our Challenge Course where Justin climbed the Taco Net, zip-lined across to another platform, walked across a beam with his counselor, then across a cable back to the original platform. I wish I could have been there to see it. Justin was frightened a few times on the challenge course - which most of you would be too if you saw what you had to do. But my big brother was such a trooper! He listened to his counselor who talked him through everything and kept him calm. What an accomplishment for Justin! Nowhere else does he get the opportunity to do such amazing triumphs! The best part is, he did it! Just another reason my big brother is my number one hero. He may have many challenges in life, but he always comes out smiling and happy. He challenges me on a daily basis. Oh how I love that boy!! 

   On Wednesday, Eddie, me, and our office assistant Amanda decided we needed to get off camp and out of the office for a break. So during the campers' nap time we took off toward Flat Rock NC for lunch at a local bakery. As we walked toward the parking lot, it was decided that we were going to take Eddie's truck. So all three of us stuffed into the two-seater front seat and took off. Eddie warned us that we were going to have to stop for gas, but it shouldn't take long. So as we were traveling up Hwy 25, we pull off on an exit that said Gas Station. We pull up to the gas station and notice there is no convenience store and something just wasn't quite right. We pulled up to a pump only to find the gas station truly no longer existed. I looked over at Eddie's gas gauge to find that we were in the red zone. We needed gas right then. So we asked a few women who were standing at a chuck wagon that was on the property about where a gas station was. "Eight miles up the highway." was there response. The three of us looked at each other wide eyed- there was no way we had enough gas to get eight miles up the highway. Eight miles was also a lot further up than we needed to go. We took off praying we'd find a gas station somewhere between where we were and the bakery. By this time Amanda and I are dying laughing. This is the grandest adventure we've been on all summer. We started talking about the possibilities- running out of gas on the side of the road and needing someone to come find us and bring us gas. Eddie mentioned he had AAA but that wouldn't help much since it would probably take even longer for them to come to us. I laughed and told him we could call them right then and tell them to head toward us and we'd just keep them updated on our location. We continue laughing about it until we notice that we no longer had phone reception. At that point we all started laughing even harder. Well, Amanda and I were- Eddie didn't quite see the humor we did. I continued to watch the gas gauge and truly, we were about to run out of gas and we almost didn't make it. As we continued down the windy road toward the bakery, we finally see a gas station appear. We just prayed it wasn't shut down too. We pull in and it was up and running!! So Eddie filled the truck and we weren't but 100 yards away from the bakery itself. We had a great time on our adventure and I haven't laughed that hard in a while. We had a good time together getting off and relaxing a bit. 

   Tonight is our staff dinner. We have a Masquerade theme. We all have a mask and are getting dressed up for an evening of dancing under the stars. I'm looking forward to a great night of spending time with my camp family and being dressed up for once instead of the sweaty, hair in a messy bun, no make-up look. I will post pictures hopefully this weekend. 

    This week will be interesting. two of my "boyfriends" are returning- Mikey and Brian. I'm sure I'll have stories to tell this weekend. Its going to be an amazing week. I hate that summer is coming to an end, but I am so excited for what this week has in store! Until I post again, I will be enjoying my Summer In Paradise!!! 

Hospitals, Boyfriends, & Blessings

   What a whirlwind of a week!! I rarely allow myself the luxury of taking a nap on Friday afternoons because I like being able to sleep really well Friday night. This week though, I couldn't help it. First thing I did when I came in was pick up my cat and lay down on the couch. From what I can tell I was out within minutes. Next thing I know I hear my mom encouraging me to wake up and my cat no longer in my arms two hours later. "OOOPS" I thought, but it felt so good!!
   Monday night one of the girls on our OP Staff and I had to take one of our campers to the ER. We had been concerned with a couple things she had been complaining about that afternoon and decided to take her to the ER just to be on the safe side. Once we were there and everything was settled, I traveled back to camp to check on the rest of my campers. I missed our weekly dance party and arrived just in time for a snack and put out a few "drama" fires going on among some of the campers. Once I was sure everyone was in bed for the night and all was well I went back to the ER to be with my camper. Thankfully it wasn't too long and we were able to go back to camp. We arrived back at camp around 12:30 am and around 1 we were crawling into bed. We slept in our Med-Tech office since it was easier than trying to make her bed in the cabin and waking everyone up. We were up and down throughout the night, but was nice to catch a couple hours sleep before the next day. Around 7:30 the next morning one of her counselors came to relieve me and I ran to my cabin long enough to brush my teeth and head to breakfast. From there the day took off. Around 11 her home came to pick her up and take her home. I still had on my clothes from the day before- never getting a chance to change. After lunch my co-lead Eddie and I normally sit and work on the next week's cabin assignments, but Eddie kicked me out of the office to go take a nap and shower. (I don't think I was smelling very good at that point....hahaha) the nap and shower were wonderful and I felt somewhat refreshed.
   The day continued on in normal fashion with the exception of having a second pool party! The heat advisory was too high to do much else so to cool off we all jumped in the pool. It was a nice change. That night after acting goofy in some skits in our clown show, I followed one of our camper workers up to our activity building. She wanted some time to think about some stuff and I ended up being able to talk to her for a while about some things on her mind. We talked for a long time and missed our campfire and smores, but this was one camper I never felt I had "clicked" with, and by the end of the conversation, we covered ground and bonded like I never expected us too. Totally worth missing time around the camp fire.
    Wednesday ended up being a pretty normal day for me. I was able to spend it with my girls. That night I was hanging out with one of my cabins waiting on an Ice Cream Social that they had won as a Bingo prize earlier in the week. During this time, one of the campers became slightly aggressive. We were aware that this is who she is and it only comes out sometimes. We haven't seen her act this way in several years. She hit a couple counselors and tried to bite me. We thought we had her calmed down and put to bed, but it wasn't long before they came searching for me because she was acting up again. By the time I got back she hit all her counselors and bit one on the hand. Unfortunately this caused us to have to send her home. We could not risk her hurting a camper. I hated having to do it, because I have a love for this camper. But I know it was the right thing to do.
   Thursday rang bright and early. I wasn't quite ready to get up when my alarm went off. A male camper ended up getting sick in the night and it was Eddie's turn to sleep in the Med Tech Office with him. Poor Eddie only got a few hours sleep and looked as dead as I had been on Tuesday. So it was my turn to kick him out of the office that afternoon to sleep some. In the afternoon we were running on steam and asked each other if everything had really happened that week. Looking back at this point we both feel Monday was a long time ago. Talent Show was the perfect way to end the week. We had a Broadway Theme and added an intermission where Eddie and I dressed up with goofy glasses and sparkling top hats to hand out pop corn. My favorite act of all had to be one of our female cabins having a Beauty Pageant. It was the most precious act I've seen all summer. Each girl getting a chance to come center stage and do whatever they wanted. Some only walked up and waved, others danced or sang. It was beautiful and so precious. Love having counselors who come up with such creative ways to showcase our campers!!
   It was an interesting week in a completely different way than the rest of the weeks. Some times we get campers and they have an infatuation with a counselor. They have huge crushes or even think they are dating the person. We as a staff try not to encourage it, because in the long run it hurts the camper but even in some cases, no matter how hard you pull away, you cannot convince them of what they do not want to believe. This was the case for me this week. Only I had about 5 campers come that have "crushes" on me. How this happened I don't know. Dickson has been one of my favorite campers since I met him four years ago. Back then he told me we were going to get married but when I told him I couldn't marry him cause I couldn't leave camp, he got mad and didn't want to speak to me again. He has since forgotten this scenario. He was back this week and he still waffles back and forth on who his girlfriend really is. Some times its me, sometimes its my friend and co-worker, Logan. Just kinda depends on his mood at the time. Another one of my "boyfriends" was Mikey. Now Mikey is one of those campers that for the longest time, he had a girlfriend one minute  and literally the next minute he was dumping her for another girl. This is how we knew Mikey. When Mikey came week 2, he started on his normal switching back and forth thing and then Monday night I realized he wasn't dumping me. He kept sticking with me. The next day I tested the waters by telling him that one of my coworkers was my boyfriend. I thought he had gone back to his normal self by finding a new girl friend, only to be told later by his counselor that he was heartbroken and cried during his cabin's activity. I soon found Mikey and made amends, and figured when he came back later in the summer, he'd go back to normal. Well I was wrong. When he arrived this week I was still his girlfriend. And his mother even told me that he came home talking about me. Something he had never done in the past with any girl. He never could remember the name of his girlfriend until earlier this summer. Then there was Brian. Brian is an interesting guy. loves swings and singing. He has a thing for the female lead counselor. Last summer when I was a cabin counselor, he wouldn't give me the time of day and was completely in love with our lead counselor Katie. This year I hoped that it wasn't the lead counselor he had a thing for, but I was wrong. He missed Katie at first, but it wasn't too long before I became his new girlfriend. Though I kept my distance and never encouraged him, it never worked. He also came earlier in the summer, but nothing kept him from liking me. Rick, one of our camper workers pulled me aside last week and asked if we could go out. I managed to skirt around the subject and encouraged him that we just stay friends. He approached me again this week about going out and again I gently turned him down. By Wednesday though, he found a new girl. Brad, one of the sweetest boys I know, came up to me throughout the week and gave me a hug and called me his girlfriend but that never went  much further than that. It was crazy. If I was talking to one of these boys, there was always another one watching and resulted in him getting jealous. Normally I can handle these kinds of "relationships" when they come different weeks from each other. But put them all in the same week.... that's crazy.
   My week ended on a very happy note when I found out my brother has the opportunity to come to camp as a camper next week. I'm so excited that he gets to come and a true answer to prayer. I can't wait to spend a week with him at camp!!!!!
    Though it was a crazy week, draining physically, mentally, and even emotionally, it was still a great week and I am so thankful the Lord gave me all the strength I needed to get through it. Without Him I can do nothing. I saw that this week and so thankful for His strength to get me through it. There are ways to look at this week and see a lot of negatives. But I'm so thankful He gives me the perspective to see the awesome Paradise I'm living in this summer!

Week 5

   I.LOVE.MY.JOB. 'nuff said. This week was crazy and slightly unusual, but with every passing day, God reinforces in my hear that I am in the right place and I love that I get to spend my time with the most amazing people on this planet!!
   I love it when God gives me the opportunity to really see who these campers are. This week we had a camper that I've never had the opportunity to work with, but from watching her a little on Monday I automatically drew conclusions about her in my mind. She's a one on one, non-verbal, and at first i thought she'd be one of the tougher campers. I was sleeping in her cabin this week and heard her get up during the night and had heard her a couple times before, but her counselor had gotten up with her, so I left them to whatever they were doing but the third time I heard her up, I got up just to check and make sure all was well. Come to find out, this camper had wet the bed and lost her way back to bed after going to the bathroom. So I helped the counselor fix the camper's bed and get this camper back in bed. All the while trying to tell this camper to stay in the bathroom while we moved around getting the sheets and all that we needed and somehow she just didn't seem to understand the words "Stay here". (lol) this only seemed to reinforce the conclusions I had made during the day. Well, throughout the next few days God pointed out to me, that I do not know as much as I think I do. Ruth Ann continued to surprise me every time I was around her. She'd suddenly say a single word that had to do with whatever was going on around her. Showing me that she knew more of what was going on that I thought she did. She ended up being one of the sweetest campers I've ever worked around and gives the best hugs. Thursday night, I heard her up again walking around the cabin. She had gotten up to use the bathroom again and lost which room was hers. I got up to help her and didn't think she heard me behind her. I didn't want to scare her for fear of waking up other campers. All of a sudden she whirled around and looked at me and said "BED!?!?!" I about fell over she scared me so badly. Now I think its funny but at the moment it scared me to death. I helped her get back in bed and as I made my way back to my bed, I realized how much even I tend to slap conclusions about campers in my mind and leave it at that. Which makes campers like Ruth Ann all the more special. When they prove to me just how little I know. And I love it.
   Cabin Clean Up was at its best this week!! Two of our cabins that had done ok throughout the summer really got into it this week. They went above and beyond and the competition was neck and neck. One girls cabin against one guys cabin.  The girls did a Christmas in July theme and the boys did an Extreme theme. The girls taped the shape of a Christmas tree on one wall, candy canes, stockings, snowflakes, everything--- the guys TPed their cabin all week. When Eddie went to check the cabin, the furniture was overturned, TP hanging from EVERY where. But not only did both cabins go above and beyond being creative, their cabins were spotless. Literally. The best score you can get in a day is 100. Eddie and I check cabins for three days. For the first time in history, we had two cabins have a score of 300 at the end of the week. Not just one cabin, but two. Eddie and I were impressed. From the girls Eddie and I received gifts from "Santa" and the boys kept us in wonder in how they kept their cabin extreme. On top of all this, both cabins were amazing with their campers this week. Doing their best to include everyone and loving all of their campers. It was a great week.
    By the time Thursday rolled around we had mayhem going on! I'm not normally in the office that much during activity times, but Thursday I was constantly in there. We had a camper going home due to her father dying, at the same time having to send another camper to the ER with Eddie due to really bad blood sugar levels. At the same time we found lice in a camper's hair and had to send her home as well. Which then caused us to do a camp wide head check to verify no one else had it. It was a crazy day but ended it with a great Talent Show. I love having my campers up on stage doing whatever they want and seeing a mass of over 100 people cheering for nothing but them. Its a cool feeling and an awesome sight. If you've never attended a Camp Spearhead talent show, let me encourage you to come!!! You won't regret it. We have 3 more this summer. Thursday nights starting at 7:30. Then you will get a taste of my Paradise!!

Halfway Point- Week 4

   Can I just say "Wow"? What a week!!! This week has been full of so many different commotions and emotions. I've never had a week that was so intense emotionally. 

   Monday started out as a normal Monday, but it wasn't too long into camper arrival that everything seemed to start falling apart. All of a sudden it seemed everyone of my female campers decided to show up all at the same time! On top of that, I had people unhappy with the cabin they received, unhappy that they weren't with their best friend- it was crazy! Normally I'm not the type to just up and change the cabin assignments at the last minute, but suddenly i was faced with probably needing to in a couple cases. Then two of us, me and one of my administrators, started making decisions and filling each other in later... which didn't seem to work at first- only added to the confusion. Then on top of that, I had two campers show up that weren't even supposed to come that week!! So while trying to put out fires with cabin assignment drama, I had to work with another one of my administrators to turn down the people who had shown up because we didn't have any room at all for the campers to stay. I've never been so turned around, inside out, and confused during a camper arrival!!! Thankfully though, it all eventually got worked out and we moved on and had an excellent day! 

   That afternoon though, I received some information that I knew would one day come but still took my breath away. Last summer I had a camper in my cabin that at first I wasn't too sure about. She intimidated me-as strange as that sounds, but after the first day of having her, something between us clicked and I ended up ADORING her. She was an older camper, had lung cancer from years of smoking and you had to yell three times before she ever heard you. She had three seizures that week. Which ended up confining her to a room in the cabin. When we went in to see her it was almost like visiting the hospital where your dying grandmother was lying. That Friday putting her in her van to go home was one of the hardest things we ever had to do. I still remember to this day walking away with tears running down my cheeks knowing that I probably just saw her for the last time as a camper. Well, Monday several women from her group home came and one of them pulled aside a coworker of mine and informed her that Sweet Miss Bertha passed away. I can't begin to describe to you the pain and the emotion that washed over me. She died just two weeks ago which is interesting because I just looked for her obituary just four weeks ago.I've never lost a camper before. My heart still aches to know I won't see Bertha again until the Lord returns. I miss her greatly and her memory will live with me for the rest of my life. I adored that woman. 

   On Tuesday, I noticed that a camper, whom I love, was giving her counselor some trouble. This is not unusual- she tends to be stubborn and insist on her own way and will not hesitate to tell you she is not happy and she wants to call her parents and tell on you or that she is going to write you up. She loves to do crafts and telling her that she can't do crafts is just out of the question to her. Well, I noticed this was going on so I walked over to help the counselor out since the camper, Sallye, and I have worked through differences before and she seems to love me and sometimes I can even get her to listen to me. Tuesday was not one of those days. I walked over and started talking to her and her anger only started to elevate. I began to get tired of the "game" we were playing so I finally got firm and told her to come with me. She noticed at that moment that her cup from canteen (snack time at camp) was on the table in front of her- still full of ice and just a little bit of Coke in the bottom. When she stood I thought I had won and told her to go throw her trash away and to follow me. No sooner did I turn my body sideways toward her, I felt a sudden cold and wet feeling on the side of my face. I had coke and ice running down my face and shirt. Thanks Sallye! It was almost like a scene out of a movie. Later that day I walked into her cabin just to hang out and see how things were. I looked at her and said; "Hey Sallye, my face is really sticky." She replied with; "Whew! I wonder who did that!" I about died laughing. "I wonder Sallye." I said. "Probably a ghost!" I no longer could hold my composure. Only Sallye would say something like that. It was so funny. 

   Wednesday afternoon I had the opportunity to go back to the old camp and see it. I haven't been there since my last day the summer of '08. I was so sad to walk through the old camp. Everything was left just as they had left it in '09, except for everything is now overgrown, someone came in and stole all the copper from every building and all the insulation has fallen through the ceilings. My heart ached to see a place full of so many wonderful memories so neglected. Walking through and remembering things I haven't thought of since that summer. So so sad.

   Thursday rolled around and we were all tired and ready for the weekend, but something happened that afternoon that boosted my spirits. I was able to witness a counselor and a camper connect-truly connect. Its something pretty special when you connect with a camper. There is an unconditional love and understanding between the two that surpasses what words can express. The camper eventually included me in the conversation that was playing out between the two of them. He was very repetitive- continually telling Andy and me that he loved us and that he wanted us to always love him and write him notes. Reminding us that we didn't like it when he had tears running down his face. (he had cried earlier in the week) One of the sweetest campers ever. And just precious being able to see that connection between Andy and Houston. 

   I can't believe tomorrow starts the last half of the summer. Just four more weeks! Where has this summer gone?? I'm looking so forward to this week!! Can't wait to see the new adventures that await just beyond today. How much better can it get? I'm in Paradise!!!

Jumping Back In

   It feels so strange not to have a post filled with stories this weekend!! But I must say, I have truly enjoyed my week off. I spent the week truly relaxing and not worrying about anything. I was able to sleep in most of the week- which felt amazing. Kicking back, going shopping with my mom, doing lunch and pedis with a couple of girlfriends, spending the last half of my week with my two nieces- cooking, going to a water park, nails, sleep over, a birthday party for a camper,  yep its been a full week but one of the most relaxed I've been in months. I can't believe its already over. As much as I've enjoyed being off, I'm ready to get back into the routine and being with my second family- my coworkers at camp- we've truly become like family this summer. I love them all so very much. But most importantly I am ready to get back to my campers. I miss the crazy buzz of activities and the ongoing excitement from the campers. We only have five weeks left in our summer and I am recharged and ready  to go. I know there are still challenges to overcome but I'm ready to face them head on. That's all for now, but at the end of the week I can't wait to share with you more stories from my Paradise.

Week 3

Sorry this is later than normal, I've been catching up on some much needed relaxation. Spearhead counselors have the week off due to Camp Courage (a camp for cancer patients) using our facilities for a week. So I've enjoyed having the last few days to truly relax and not having to rush through my weekend. Although, if I were completely honest, I am already missing camp. It was strange not to be there today for our pool party and dance party. I missed dancing so much I downloaded some of our line dances tonight!!! Is that dedication or what?? LOL 

This past week has probably been our hardest week so far. With 91 campers (which is capacity) all our counselors were challenged to the max. But I can honestly say, I was very impressed with them. Most of our campers were higher maintenance campers than the last few weeks. (-meaning they just need closer watch over) Our counselors were pushed harder mentally, physically, and even emotionally. I was so impressed with them. They certainly showed their 212 attitudes and pushed through the week. It was an awesome week filled with laughter and fun. 

I made a new friend this week. A camper that has been a camper in the past but for the last few years has chosen not to come to camp, but this year she changed her mind. She's an older lady but completely there mentally. She cracked jokes right and left and was truly funny. She had to have a lift to get her in and out of her wheelchair, and a lot of help with everything. Her week started off a little rough because as she told me, her counselors didn't know how to take care of her. She felt she may have made the wrong decision about coming. I explained to her that her counselors were still learning and she just needed patience and walk them through it all. By the end of the week she was begging me to get her signed up for the rest of the summer!!! Sweetest lady I've met in a long time. On Thursday night I was walking around the dinning hall when she and her counselor called me over. She then handed me a card she had made- hand painted even. Inside were some of my favorite verses from the Bible. The funny thing is, she had no idea they were my favorite. But here she is, encouraging me. I was like, wait this is backwards!? Shouldn't I be the one doing the encouraging?? But I gave her a big hug and thanked her a million times. A treasure I will keep forever.

I was able to get 3 full nights of sleep this week!!! First time since staff training week! It felt so good! The first night i was up till 4:30 am trying help a camper get tired enough to go back to bed. She had fallen asleep but woken up about 1:30 am and decided she didn't want to be quiet or go back to sleep. So she, one of her counselors, and I sat outside and talked until she was tired enough to go back to bed. All in a night's work I guess. :)

My girls got really creative with their cabin themes this week!! Going to check cabin clean up was a lot of fun this week! One cabin had the theme of African Queens. One day they sent me on a Safari to find pictures of jungle animals the campers had colored. The next day they had a stream for me to rest beside and relax- even had my bathing suit waiting for me. Here, they had a refreshing drink for me to sip on while I checked their cabin... waiting beneath a homemade palm tree...

Another one of the cabins had the theme Candy Land. So cute! Everyday they sent me on a trip on an actual life size game board. Leaving me cards to follow and candy at the end of the trail...here's a few things they did:

It was such a great week. But I think I will enjoy my time at home with my family just relaxing and gearing up for the rest of the summer! Thanks for stopping by and catching a glimpse of my Summer in Paradise!!!

Week 2

This week most everything was pretty much the same in the structure of camp but with different and even new campers. Two of our new campers this week were two young girls with autism. Their counselors were amazing and took both girls in and loved them both with all of their hearts. I'm so proud of how those counselors handled their week. One girl, Lindsey was very very sweet and happy all the time and very energetic. The other, Lauren, was more the "typical" autistic girl you kinda expect to see. Repetitive in her speech, if she didn't like something you said be prepared for a slap or hit, or even bite. Her counselors walked away from the week with a few scratches and maybe a couple of hits that left their heads spinning a little. But still, nothing could shake their love for her and their drive to want to help her.  On Tuesday we took them up to the Challenge course we have at camp. It consists of two zip lines, rock climbing tower and another tower to climb up to get to the zip lines. We had no idea if one or either of these girls would even attempt to climb, but it was worth a try. I went up with Lindsey to take pictures and see how she did; she began to climb what we call the "Taco Net"... (Because it’s a net that looks like a taco shell). With the patient kind soft voice of her counselor directly behind her and my reassurance from the outside of the taco net Lindsey began to climb. Five steps forward two steps back. Five steps forward, two steps back. I continually encouraged and coached from the ground as she climbed and as she listened to her counselor. I cried as I took pictures, knowing this was not exactly what I had expected. Though Lindsey is generally very obedient, I wasn't sure she'd do what we were asking her to do. Unfortunately I was not there to witness Lauren climb, but when it came time for her to climb; she took to the net like a spider to a web. She climbed the net in no time hooked up to zip line and was back down in no time, all the while continuing to talk about going to see "Mousie"... the mouse at Chuck E Cheese her favorite place on the planet. I was amazed to hear how far she had gone and done.

The next day I was hanging out with another one of the girl cabins. Their activity for the afternoon was riding bobcats- outdoor terrain vehicles. (Favorites at camp) I hopped on with one of their campers and off we went into the woods. We went up and down hills hit a few bumps but we were enjoying every minute of the ride. On the way back the camper I was with began saying things like; “Let’s just get through this rough patch and everything will be alright.” She wasn’t scared, just stating facts. I listened to her and began really thinking through what she had said. How often do we hit “rough patches” in our lives and yet do not look at them as if they will soon be over- we just have to get through them. At times we walk around with a “woe is me” attitude because life isn’t how we wanted it to be. Yet here is one of my campers putting me to shame because she has a better outlook than I do. Let’s just say I’m improving my attitude from day to day now.

Thursday night a camper was praying over our meal, and said “Thank you for Camp Spearhead and for a place for people to come if they don’t have a family or feel like they don’t have one. Amen.” This was said by my sweet friend Dhiren. Dhiren is one of my all-time buddies at camp. He calls me his “Narly Cool BFF.” He gives the best hugs I’ve ever received in my life. They are literally suffocating, but I tell you what, they are so nice when you just need a pick me up. I love having him at camp and I love his outlook about camp. He just lost his mom last November and his dad has also passed away. His life over the last few months has been rough I’m sure. But it doesn’t stop his positive attitude and great bear hugs. I can tell when I talked to him that he still hurts about his mother’s death but what an encouragement he was to me when he thanked God for a camp like Camp Spearhead.

Every day, my co-lead, Eddie and I do what’s called Cabin Clean Up. We go around and score each cabin on cleanliness but also on creativity. I had the biggest laugh on Thursday morning when I walked in a cabin to find myself on a scavenger hunt. The theme for the scavenger hunt went along with the theme our Administrators gave us during staff training week- Always being 212 degrees. Water boils at 212 and we are encouraged to keep enough energy going to be 212 at all times-giving it all we have. If you’re at 211, you’re not quite there yet, but at 212 so many things can happen at the boiling point. So I was sent on a scavenger hunt through this “212 cabin” at the end of the scavenger hunt, this is what I found:

On the back the door this is what they said. 

Needless to say, they received full points that day.

Other cabins left me sweet notes throughout the week on mirrors or on the countertop to let me know they loved me. Checking cabins have become a very fun activity for me.

I realized over and over again this week why we are at camp. Why we do what we do. We push and encourage our campers beyond what we expect possible- such as helping them climb towers, be there for them if they need a place that feels like family. This is why we do what we do. We love them so unconditionally and want to hand them the world. And I think in some small way we do. We let them win battles that sometimes they are never given the chance to even try to fight. I love my job. I love what I do. This is my summer in paradise.

Week 1

How did I become so blessed to be apart of such an amazing place? I seriously thought I'd have more time to write during the week, but it was a crazy first week so it didn't happen like I wanted, so here is the highlights of the week. Monday morning you could just feel the excitement at camp as staff awaited the arrival of our first week of campers. As campers arrived, the excitement only grew. If you've never experienced Camper Arrival at Camp Spearhead just let me give you a glimpse; a camper pulls onto camp and is directed to pull up under an awning where counselors gather and wait for campers to arrive. As campers get out of their car, you'd think you were at a red carpet event with counselors being the paparazzi, yelling greetings and reaching for hugs. The cool part about this event is that we are not trained to respond to campers in this manner. It just happens naturally. One of the many things I love about camp. Later in the afternoon we had our weekly pool party- a big highlight at camp. we stuff about 100 people into a pool that almost can't hold that many people and have a BLAST! It wasn't long into the party that i was thrown into my first "incident". I looked over at a lifeguard stand only to see a female camper sitting on the concrete trying to undress herself and two of her counselors trying to keep her clothes on. I run over to the situation and begin getting the information about the problem. Come to find out the poor woman's home failed to send a bathing suit for her and though her counselors were fine with her swimming in her clothes, she just didn't fully understand. To her in order to go swimming you take off your clothes... just common sense. I sat behind the camper and began talking to her calmly and sweetly. I wasn't sure she was hearing me since she was still yelling at her counselors. After what felt like 20 min (in reality it was probably only 5) I asked her counselors to let go of her. They looked at me like i was crazy but I asked them to trust me. They did and almost immediately the camper merely adjusted her waist band and put her shirt back on. She wanted nothing to do with her counselors so I asked them to walk away. I began talking with the woman and encouraged her to jump in so she did. It was so funny to watch her laugh over the fact that she was in the pool with her clothes on! She had a blast after that. I thank the Lord the event didn't get any worse than it did. Later in the week this camper found an empty wheelchair and deemed it hers. It was hysterical to watch her the rest of the week insisting on wheeling herself around everywhere but yet insisting on being independent. She didn't want any help from anyone. Randomly tough her counselors or I would find her getting out of the chair and dancing to some music or walking across a room to retrieve something she wanted. One morning her counselor asked me to check on her since she had been in the bathroom a while. I walked in and called her name but received no response. Called her several times and at no response I knew I would have to peak into the stall. I don't like doing that kind of thing because I like giving campers as much personal privacy as I can. But i had to know what was taking so long and why i wasn't getting a response.I looked in, and found the woman chugging milk!!! I about rolled on the floor from laughing so hard. She then stuffed the carton in the little trashcan in the stall and proceeded to exit the stall. It was so hilarious. I fell in love with her this week!

Tuesday went pretty well full day of programs from Tie-Dying to Dance Class to Clown Shows. 

Wednesday pretty much the same until that night when another camper became distressed and began threatening her counselors and cursing. I happened to be in the cabin making a nightly round to ensure all was well when she began. We eventually had to remove her from the cabin and to another building. In the end the camper, her counselor, and I spent the night in the Med Tech office on the hospital beds to make sure she had fully calmed down and that everyone would get some sleep. She didn't fall asleep until close to midnight, her counselor and I not too far behind that. Out of pure nature her counselor and I woke up every hour just to make sure all was still well. Let's just say I had 2 cups of coffee the next morning. But we never had an incident with that the rest of the week. 

Thursday dawned bright and beautiful. Everyone excited about the highlight of the evening: Talent Show. What a Talent Show it was. If you've never been to a Spearhead Talent Show, please let me encourage you to join us one Thursday night at 7:30. You won't regret it let me assure you. I love giving campers time on stage to do their own thing and hearing ear piercing cheers from their peers and loved ones. I love being apart of this place. Even through its ups and downs, this week was truly Paradise.

First Week!!!!

A cultural dictionary describes "paradise" as: "A place or state of pure happiness." I don't think I could have described camp any better. Thus the title of this blog. 

First week of campers arrive tomorrow morning!!! I can't even begin to describe how excited I am about this! I have been counting down to this day for months and now its finally here. I can't wait to share my stories throughout the week!!! I hope ya'll enjoy!!

Introduction

I thought I might give this a try. I don't know how well I will be able to keep up with it, but I thought this might be a fun way to keep a "journal" of my summer. I have a lot of people who enjoys my stories and keeping up with the news from camp, so I thought this might be a win, win for everyone. I hope ya'll enjoy!!