Slacker

Yep, that's me. I've been a blog slacker recently. I haven't wrote in... wow, three months. That is way to stinking long. So here is the story of my summer for the most part.

I was asked to be a counselor for a week long preteen camp. At the time they didn't have enough kids, so I didn't expect to actually be attending. I wasn't too happy when I found out that I would actually be attending, last minute. Any of you who know me, know I am not a last minute person. I had no information about the camp and no one else really knew anything. Needless to say, that's how the entire week went, the directors were not very organized or structured. However, I had an amazing time with the 8 girls in my cabin and the other women counselor, Jill.

The camp was up at Round Lake. So we had many swimming and canoeing activities. Jill and I more than once had to rescue stranded canoes by towing them behind our canoe, or even swimming out and pushing them in. I was so exhausted and sick (with a cold) by the end of the week.


The area around Round Lake was severely burned in the B&B fire six years ago. The wildlife is starting to return to the area. There is a little green growth occurring, but it was amazing to see the beauty in a burnt forest. I wish I would have taken some close up pictures of the burned trees. Who ever came up with the phrase "Beauty in ashes" was right. The burnt trees are blackish-silver-metallic. Its hard to describe without seeing it. The burn patterns are a work of art. I don't suggest trying burning a forest as an art form, but observing what has already been done is beautiful.


This summer I re-met a wonderful man. I actually knew of him from my math class junior year of highschool (his senior year). He started serving at the church doing technical stuff. I end up doing the media at church. So that is how I re-met Sam. We started dating a little while after and have been happily together for 2 months. It's amazing how God's timing always works. I was so discouraged to be having to move home and not be moving to Seattle, but I wouldn't have got to know Sam if that would have happened. So Seattle will come one day.


I've been trying to take a lot of pictures this summer. My photography itch just won't go away though. Here are some of the pictures I've taken this summer that I like sharing. And I will try not to go so long without blogging. :-)

Wave Jumpers

Me and Sissy at the beach

My beautiful sister

Rob and I on top of Strawberry Mountain. Yes, it does really exist.


I love sunflowers

Photography

I've taken some photos recently with my aunt's Canon Digital SLR. I've been slow in getting them posted. I hope you enjoy my perspective and colors that I've been enjoying! These are the true colors of these flowers. I didn't edit them.

Final days....

Today was my last day working at the library. It was definitely a bittersweet day. Sweet because Mr. McGrath brought us ICE CREAM! Bitter because it was goodbye to many of my supervisors and co-workers. The library has been a wonderful place to work for the past three and a half years of my college career. My mom had been wanting pictures of me at the library so here they are!

Looking cool at the Circulation Desk.

Rob and I at the Circ desk.

Shelving with a smile!

Shanae and I. And Katie in the back.

Almost finished

I survived my undergraduate schooling. Well, almost. I still have two final exams to take. And I have to survive the whole walking up on the stage to get my diploma (holder), without tripping. That might be more difficult than the exams. :-)

I am so excited for the next part of my life. I am also terrified out of my mind because I have no idea what is coming next. I was really hoping to have a job by graduation and start the beginning of June, but so far no luck. I'm still holding out home. Going home for three weeks will be long enough.

Graduation is in 7 days. It's crazy. I'm not ready to start saying goodbyes. The last four years have gone by so quickly. Luckily I have a lot of pictures and memories to remember them by. Here are my college senior photos I did with Natalie Waltman, a local photographer. She is amazing!

It was very cold and windy this day in April. I tried to look like it wasn't though.

So if the whole business career doesn't work out, I'll go into modeling. Just kidding.

My favorite!

Long time no blog....

So maybe long time is an understatement. Three months is more like it. Graduation is only a month away and I'm scared of out my mind. I really need to get back into the habit of blogging. I think it's good for me...

December 29th & 30th, 2008

December 29th...

After a very long time traveling we finally landed in Johannesburg! We arrived very late (11pm) into Johannesburg and had to spend a long time waiting to get our passports stamp. Many of us were tired and cranky and frustrated with each other. Courtney and I were just happy to finally be in Africa!

Once we finally got through customs and immigration we found our luggage and went to meet our hotel shuttle. The shuttle had a trailer on the back of it, but it wasn't big enough to hold all of our luggage. We finally ended up piling us in the van and the putting luggage on top of us. We really just wanted to get to our beds awaiting us.

Courtney was my roommate. We had two to a room. Many people didn't sleep the first night very well because they had slept so much on the plane. I hadn't slept very much and pretty much passed out once my head hit that pillow. Our room was very tiny, but for one night it was a bed and a shower and we were very happy with that.

December 30th....
The next morning we were to leave for Maseru (the capital city of Lesotho). We went downstairs and had a nice continental style breakfast. Cereal (with warm milk), toast, eggs, ham, pastries, coffee and tea. After breakfast and while we were waiting for our taxi van to show up, Courtney and I went out and about and wandered around the hotel grounds. It was early in the morning and was so hot already. We knew we were in Africa!

Johannesburg


Our Hotel

I think we were all expecting a nice taxi van like what the hotel had. Large, spacious, plenty of room for all of us without being squished. And then Super Nova showed up....

That's right. We had Super Nova for the two weeks we were there. The sound system in that thing was incredible. Africans don't listen to music, they feel their music. We fit fifteen of us in that little thing. It was very crowded for the five hour drive to Maseru.

FINALLY... We made it to what would be our home for the next two weeks. Once we all made it through immigration and across the border (after we made the officials mad for taking a picture of the above sign, because they thought we were taking their picture) we headed for our camp, where we would be staying for the two weeks. Durham Link is a Christian organization camp. The below picture is a picture of where we stayed.


The very bottom level (that is cut off in the photo) is the main dining hall and kitchen. The next level, is the boys rooms. The small next level is another small kitchen and bathrooms, and finally the girls were on the top.
We arrived late afternoon and were able to get our first view of Maseru, the city we would be working in for the next two days. We had a team meeting that night and then went to bed because the next day all four teams would all be out working in their project areas.