Pepperball

My HTML instructor is a pepperball. Seriously.

She accentuates just about every one of her written sentences with at least two exclamation points. If you could see her speech (literally see it flow out of her mouth), I'm sure you'd see exactly the same thing. You can certainly hear it in the way she talks, and see it in her movements.

She is not bubbly; that would truly, for her, be an understatement. No, she's a pepperball.

I'm going to thoroughly enjoy her teaching this semester. And as of right now, I sincerely hope I have her in the future.

Life-Changing

I believe there was a brief blip of time last semester when I told one of my good friends that I was not ready to get married, or to have kids. In that small instant I honestly thought about the concept and decided I did not feel ready, though I would very much like to - eventually.

That still holds true. For those two things at least.

However, I do believe I've entered the realm of feeling quite ready to live on my own. Now I just need to find the job that will allow for that. And I do believe I may have something in the works.

Nothing is ever set in stone, and I realize that. But I've come to the feeling (and, I honestly think, preparedness level) that (with God's help) a job might just be at the end of this road.

I did ask Him at the beginning of the summer that if I were to give Him my summer, I would very much like a job at the end of it.

Well, this is the end of it. School begins tomorrow (in the evening). And I've the incredibly strong feeling on my mind to go out and buy a suit for interviewing. Tomorrow.

Please oh please. I would love this.

New Philadelphia

Our last week was excellent. I got the pleasure of staying at a wonderful host home, with one of my favorite fellow staff.

We held the camp at Tuscora Park, just five minutes or so from our host family's home. We had around 100 kids. There were a few kinks in the week, to be sure, but what else is new? My kids were also rambunctious. But again - what else is new?

A few weeks ago I would have been very depressed to tell you I was coming home in a few weeks. But honestly, I'm glad I'm home. My room is a mess, my first load of laundry is in the washer, and I've been on Facebook instead of cleaning. (That'll be fixed soon.)

All in all it was a good summer. I met amazing people, ate delicious food, stayed at some incredible homes. But most of all - I got to worship God every day.

My first Mowana summer is now officially over - BUT - it is engrained in my heart and soul. I loved it. Every minute. And... there are always weekend retreats. BOOYAH!

Peace.

Loudonville

Loudonville was a good time.

I had ten campers: 5 boys, 5 girls. Going into a combination of 4th and 5th grade. I'm pretty sure the boys were younger. One of them had a copious amount of energy, which resulted in getting the group riled up. But when doesn't that happen?

We walked to the pool, about a mile away from the church, on Friday for their water day. We sang silly songs on the way there and back; it was definitely my high of the week. They absolutely loved singing songs. I heard numerous reports of them singing the songs at home, and still a couple more reports of the kids telling their friends about the day camp.

Our host family was incredible. Kathryn, Andrew, and I all had the house to ourselves because they were on vacation for the week. There were a couple end-of-the-week snafus which included an escaped family dog, and a cell phone charger and a camera battery charger I inadvertently left in the house (locked) because I was so worried about the dog.

But, they were taken care of. Which is good.

The summer is almost over. A few weeks ago I was incredibly sad for it to be over. But now, I think I'm looking forward to the future. Not because I'll be happy to leave. I'm surely not. Mowana has been amazing, and I've made some amazing friends. I am happy, however, because there is a future, though I may not know what exactly is in store for me. I did figure out this week that I will be going back to school full time for a degree in web design. Though, they are night classes. So a day job is feasible. We shall see.

Last but not least - UP NEXT (and for the final time this summer): New Philadelphia.

Peace.

Pickerington

Long story short: LOMO designs day camp so that each counselor generally has 10 kids or less in their group. We brought 13 counselors with us to Pickerington. We had 177 kids registered throughout the course of the week. You do the math.

It was organized chaos - to be sure. But it was fun. My kids were crazy but I loved them. I taught them how to make friendship bracelets. And once again several of the kids kept saying, "This is too hard! I can't do it!" And once again, ten minutes later, they were saying, "This is so easy!"

We read the story of how God calls Samuel on Wednesdays. My kids wondered about the Ark of God. I explained that the ten commandments were held in the ark. They were fascinated, and many of them wanted to hear more about the ark. That was definitely exciting.

My host family was a busy family - also to be sure. Melanie and I, who stayed together, enjoyed evening walks around their allotment. Not gonna lie; we were both glad to get out of the house. That house was the single hottest house I've stayed at this summer.

I am glad the week is over.