Thanksgiving Week

Obviously, last week was Thanksgiving week. It was odd to only work one day, but it's nice to have a change of pace.

Since I worked the weekend, I enjoyed Monday off. I worked on Tuesday, but even then I didn't really work a full day. I took a lunch break of almost two hours! This was because a church in Cedar Bluffs was doing a blood drive, so I decided to give blood. (Shh! This is a secret: I gave blood at Chelsea's school when I was in Tennessee, but since her school uses another organization instead of the Red Cross, they didn't know and I gave blood ONE WHOLE DAY before I was supposed to!)

I normally don't work for camp on Wednesdays, and instead use that day to do some freelance writing. But this past week, I had an even better opportunity. I was invited to the Solmens to make Challah bread. (It's something I've been making a lot of lately, and it's most likely the tastiest "healthy" bread out there.) While the dough was rising, we went to the YMCA's Sidner Arena. Apparently, whenever Fremont has no school days or reduced school hours, ice skating is free. After a couple hours of that, we went back, finished the bread, and caught up on all the Phineas and Ferb episodes I've missed. (Yes, I'll admit that a highlight of their home is the fact that they have Netflix!) Eventually, Emily picked me up and took me to her parents' house in West Point.

That's where we spent Thanksgiving, plus the weekend after. There was a lot of food and football, and we even watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! (One of the CITs from this summer was a dancer in it, but unfortunately, I don't think the camera ever zoomed in on her. Still, it was pretty cool to actually know someone in the parade!) That evening, we went Black Friday shopping in Norfolk. I'm wondering when they'll change the name "Black Friday", since it seems like most deals start on Thursday. Then again, since you wait a few hours in line, it's technically Friday by the time you actually check out. Other than Emily buying some curtains to replace taped-together maps I put up over our kitchen window, she and I were just helping find things. But then, since the line wrapped around the entire store, we each found several things to buy by the time we got to the front. After shopping at two different stores and heading back, we went to bed around 3am.

The rest of the weekend was spent sleeping, watching football, eating leftovers, and trying out the Xbox Kinect. That was both fun and tiring! You can really get a workout by playing those games. A couple of the games we played showed your "highlights", a short video of you looking ridiculous! We eventually left Sunday afternoon.

On the way back, I remembered that my car was still parked by the Solmens' house, so I asked Emily to drop me off there. Since it looked like everyone was home, we decided to stop in just to say hi. Several hours later, we finally left. (They sucked us in by having us watch episode after episode of Psych on Netflix!)

In other news, I've been writing a bit more lately. I'll be sure to keep you posted of any of my work that is accessible online. I'm also trying to figure out if it's possible to take some online classes and get a Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Development. I contacted someone at SOU a few weeks ago, and they finally got back to me the other day. There will be a few pre-reqs I need to take, and they're looking over my transcripts to see exactly what it is I need. If I'm able to take the pre-reqs online or at Metro, I'll probably take advantage of it. Otherwise, I'll be content working this job for a few more years!

The Longest Weekend

It was a really long weekend. Part of the reason was because the weekend actually started on Thursday. Another reason was because it was the earliest I've woken up in months, maybe years. No matter how you put it, it was looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong!

The weekend did indeed start on Thursday evening when the area's district Mennonite youth groups arrived at Rivercrest. Before they even came, several of us were working to make enough pizzas, and, despite a pizza cheese crisis, the evening was flawless, even though I had to leave shortly after we began serving so I could visit the Toastmaster's club meeting. Since I was leaving anyway, I had offered to mail out the winter camp media kits. After all, I was the only one that knew HyVee had a fully functioning post office and that it was open that late. (Ah, the joys of being an ex-post office contract unit worker!) And since I was going to HyVee, I was asked to buy one hundred and forty-four bottles of water for the camp. When I returned to camp and unloaded all the water in the kitchen, I discovered the group was playing games in the dining hall, and we'd have to wait until they were done so that we could set up all the tables and chairs for the next morning. We didn't get done until after 10, and since breakfast started at 7 the next day, we needed to be working by 5:30 am!

So I got up at 5:15, didn't change, and put on a hat to make it to the kitchen by 5:30, and I have the battle wounds to prove it! Sometime between making sausage and serving the meal, I got a nice, bubbly burn on my forearm. That's what happens when you haven't gotten enough sleep and you're working with hot stuff!

After we had the chance to eat, most of us couldn't even work on dishes because we had to pack nearly 140 bagged lunches! The group was going to Omaha to do service projects, so they needed food to-go. (That's what the water was for that I picked up the night before!) This brought me back to the days at Lake Bradley, when we made a kitchen assembly line and packed lunches for all of the kids' camps on their last day. I modified that assembly line to fit our kitchen and our ingredients, and it took an hour and a half to finish all that!

After we distributed the lunches, there was a time of peace, since everyone but us staff was away from camp. I decided to bring my computer over to the dining hall, and the next few hours were spent talking about family camp, signing off on Lyvvie's Awana sections, and other small tasks done to avoid my typical day-to-day office work. (Even though it was Friday, it already felt too much like the weekend, and of course I can't do office work on the weekend!) Somehow it ended with me "tutoring" the kids, which involved quizzing Lyvvie on matching the states to their capitols, and spending nearly two hours trying to get Owen to learn his spelling. (He really hated me during that time.) Eventually dinnertime came with dirty dishes to follow. It felt like bedtime after that, but since I live in the chapel building (where sound travels REALLY well), I got the joy of listening to the band practice until 11 pm.

We didn't need to use in-house staff to work in the kitchen on Saturday, but even when I don't have to work with the kitchen staff I still eat with them, and I help out with dishes afterwards whenever I can. That meant I didn't have to get up super early, so I rolled in just as they got done serving and were about to eat. We were running activities after lunch, but, strangely enough, most of the youth groups were excited to visit Omaha. Some were even excited to visit Fremont! (We always make jokes about calling our mall "the hall", but I guess when you come from rural South Dakota like many of these youth groups did, even a place like Fremont can be overwhelming!) So we ended up only running the zip line for about 1.5 hours, and even then the participants were few and far between. After I did something ridiculous (I attached the device to the zip line to make the zipping noise to get the attention of the guys on the other end, but once that thing got going, there was no stopping it... I ended up going with it for awhile until I got to the last point where I could safely let go, and of course the device got stuck in the middle of the line), we shut down early and helped to the kitchen. Several guys came in to work on activities that were last summer's staff, so things got almost to the degree of summer camp craziness. This resulted in us renaming Camp Rivercrest "The North Pole", and we gave each staff member and camp brat (AKA kids of staff members) a role like Santa, a reindeer, an elf (I am the Magical Elf!), or a wise man (if the wise men are so wise, then what are they doing at the North Pole?).

I had a dream that a pianist and a drummer were practicing in my room while I was trying to sleep. When I woke up on Sunday morning, I realized that it wasn't far from the truth- the band was practicing upstairs. Although this was the latest I'd slept in all weekend (8:45!), I was still exhausted. After breakfast, several of us worked to get the kitchen winter-ready, since we won't be having meal-eating groups for awhile. As we were doing this, I looked out the window and thought it would be a nice day for a Sunday drive. I've actually thought this for the past several Sundays, but the cost of gas combined with exhaustion from the weekend never allowed this to become a reality. Then I thought of Mikayla, who is always looking for some driving practice. I mentioned that I might like to take a Sunday drive, and she wanted to do it. We were talking about what to do. I wanted to go west or north, since those are middle-of-nowhere type of locations with a nice looking countryside, although I did cringe at how much a few hours driving would cost me in gas money.  Then Mikayla said she'd buy us both tickets if I let her go to a movie she wanted. I won't mention what movie that was, but I will say it is the final chapter to a series that many teen girls are crazy about. I had never seen any of the previous movies or read any of the books, but I knew she really wanted to see it, so I agreed. Our afternoon was spent first by stopping at Cedar Bluffs (which I've realized that, even though it is closer to camp than the city of Fremont is, I have never actually seen it in the daylight), and then we went over to Fremont to catch the movie. (It didn't make much sense, and I will definitely not become a fan!) After the movie, she took me through some suburban sections that I had never seen before. She then had to go to practice, so I drove myself back to camp. As I got out of the car, Alyssa came up to me with Fredenella in her arms.

(I don't know if I've mentioned the story of Fredenella on this blog yet, so here's the quick story. About a month ago, the Classens opened up the garage door and found a chicken inside. They have no idea how it got in there, and no one surrounding us claimed to be missing a chicken. They thought it was a rooster at first because of its shape. It was surprisingly tame, so it was brought to the chapel where all of us could see it, and it ate a bunch of cereal while there. It was actually just skinny because it was underfed, and it turned out to be an egg-laying hen! Unfortunately, the kids had already named it Fred, so they modified her name to be Fredenella. She's often found pecking around camp during the day.)

Anyway, Alyssa and I followed Fredenella around and talked with each other until sunset. Fredenella, being a very well trained chicken, walked home to her pen right as the sun was setting, and Alyssa soon followed. I was tired and didn't feel like doing much for the rest of the evening.

I often say that weekends are long and/or tiresome, but this one has them all beat! December will be an interesting change of pace, with no weekend groups at all!

From Keyboard to Keynote

The writing world is a highly underpopulated one. The solitude can be nice, yes, but sometimes it's just lonely. A lot of writers become speakers (and sometimes vice versa), and, even though public speaking involves the opposite of solitude, these two jobs often go hand-in-hand. I have thought about the thrill of professional speaking, but I just assumed I would have to have a book published before anyone took me seriously. But maybe they'll take me seriously sooner.

I run Girlz 4 Christ Magazine. It's not a professional publication, but it is a magazine-style PDF that is distributed every other month to 200 girls and counting. It is a wonderful opportunity to network, as I have been in contact with musicians, philanthropists, authors, and other people of influence. Last week, a woman e-mailed me asking about an opportunity to feature her daughter in G4C's "Jammin' With..." section, which highlights aspiring young Christian musicians. As we continued to message, I found out that she ran an inner-city ministry for kids in South Carolina. The ministry included a spring girls' retreat, and I had to ask her about how it ran since Camp Rivercrest is trying to revamp their girls' retreat. After she realized how involved I was in children's ministry, she asked if I ever did speaking engagements, because she's planning a convention in one year. I was honest and told her that I never did that sort of speaking before, but would love to help if she was still interested. I don't know what will come of that, but this made me realize that I perhaps DO already have a unique angle that could be beneficial in speaking engagements. However, it's been years since I've done public speaking, and I've never done anything professional before. Regardless of skills, I won't ever become a decent speaker if I don't have opportunities to work on it.

Last night, I went to my first Toastmasters Club meeting. Toastmasters is a leadership and public speaking club, which is perfect for skills I want to develop and that would be beneficial in all my work. I haven't officially joined yet, but I decided to try it out. After this meeting, I want to be a visitor one more time to make sure, and then I'll likely join.

I figured the group would consist mostly of gray hair, which was proven true. I think I'm used to working with older people by now; I work with people significantly older and significantly younger than me so I hardly ever see people my age anyway! It was a one-hour meeting in the evening and everyone was very friendly, supportive, and helpful when it came to how our speeches went. Even though I was a visitor, they put me to work! I had to count how many times each speaker used the word of the day (prodigal) and filler words (ah, um, you know). When it came to the "Table Topics" time of the meeting, they even gave me the opportunity to give a two-minute speech. The theme was Thanksgiving, and my topic was about a Thanksgiving experience with family. I told about the time my family went to my grandparents' house for an extended family thanksgiving- without telling them!  They also gave me a job as a speech evaluator for the next meeting. Overall, it was a great new experience- and a weekly chance to get away from camp!

Highlights of the Week

This past week flew by. Here are just a few things that happened:
-I voted! First presidential election, and first time to vote in a polling place.
-Some girls at Awana wanted me to participate in Awana games. It turned out that two of the games that night involved leader participation. I don't think those girls will want me to play Awana games anymore!
-I wrote a lot more than I have been lately. It's time to start getting published again!
-I went to a social media marketing seminar. Learned lots of new things!
-I worked this weekend for the annual scrapbook retreat- just photography and kitchen work.

That's about all for now. Nothing too exciting has happened. And today is just a day off, which I've spent resting. Maybe later I'll clean or make some food or work on a craft project or something. Maybe not. That's what days off are for, right?

The Zoo!

Sometimes I believe that I might be a freebie magnet. I can go online and find a worthwhile freebie in no time. Sometimes I even get some flack for being the freebie queen, like when I get way too much mail at work. (In my defense, I am the only person whose legal address is at camp, so I get all the stuff here that others get at their official residences.) On Tuesday, Taco Bell was giving way Doritos Locos Tacos, and I happened to find out by chance. I took Emily to get a taco with me (and the local Taco Bell was deserted; I guess not too many people found out about the giveaway), and when we got back, everyone else was surprised to hear about the giveaway, even though it was a little too late since the giveaway was almost over.

On Friday morning, I took my car to the shop to retorque and inspect. (Oh yeah, that was a freebie! Unfortunately, the parts that needed to be replaced were not.) Emily picked me up from there in the camp van so that we could go to the t-shirt shop and plan out the winter camp shirts. (They had the EXACT color we wanted, PTL!) We then went over to the Solmens so I could get the summer logo ready, and we happened to mention the the Classens went to the zoo that day. They mentioned that they had heard the zoo was free on Sunday, but were not sure if it was true. After waiting a little longer for my car (the battery and air filter needed to be replaced, which didn't surprise me) and buying some leftover Halloween chocolates, I headed back to camp, did about thirty seconds of research and confirmed that the zoo was indeed free on Sunday.

That's what we ended up doing on Sunday, after the final weekend group left. We went to the zoo! Of course, it was incredibly busy, but since I've never been to the Henry Doorly Zoo before, it was a brand new experience, and a decent one at that. It's rated as one of the top zoos in the nation according to several sources. The zoo itself is pretty big, thus we didn't get to see all the exhibits, but we did see all of the most important and unique ones. 

Inside the desert dome. If you look closely, you can see a roadrunner.

They were so little and cute and... stationary!

Meerkats: I named them Timon and Timon. After all, that's the only true meerkat name. 

I took two pictures of her...

...both had this face.

It's hard to find the head on most snakes. This one was especially photogenic.

Kookaburra, but I don't think that's a gum tree he's sitting on.

An odd combination of cute and ugly!

Pinguinos!

You can't tell in this pic, but these were actually big crabs. Not counting the legs, its body was probably at least the size of my entire hand!

See turtle?

Jellyfish. Jelly fish. Jelly fish. Jellyfish. (This is the kind of jellyfish you do NOT want to make  jelly+fish sandwiches with!)

Tiburon!

This was in the South American part of the Lied Jungle exhibit. I remember seeing parrots in the real South America- they were annoying! But here, everyone oohs and ahhs over them. 

This sloth didn't make any sudden movements- perfect photo opp!

It's been awhile since I've gone to Omaha, and I've been spending so much time at camp for the past several weeks, that this was a perfect afternoon getaway. It was especially great that it was free, since I spent about a week's worth of earnings on car maintenance! Nevertheless, between a busy camp weekend, a day at the zoo, and the Daylight Saving's Time change, I am tired, and today shall be spent resting at home!

Leadership: What I Want to Be

Like most kids, the answer to "what I want to be when I grow up" changed from year to year, and sometimes from week to week. The advisers in my life recommended everything from elementary school teacher to President of the United States. Even now at a time in my life where I should consider myself "grown up", I'm still not truly sure what I want to be. But today, I realized there's one thing I wanted to be that stayed with me all these years: a role model. I think I might have achieved that goal.

In honor of the Girl Scout's 95th birthday, the Tennessee State Museum  had an entire exhibit on Girl Scouting, which I got to see when I was in Nashville. (I always somehow end up an observer of Girl Scouts' important events. Five years ago on their 90th birthday, they had a sing-a-long at the Washington Monument. Guess who's high school class took a DC trip at the same exact time?) This museum exhibit made me feel especially weird, because some of the artifacts displayed were things that I STILL HAVE at my parents' house!

My passion for camp ministry didn't actually start out with Christian camping. In fact, as an eight year old at my church's family camp, I distinctly remember telling my parents that I did not want to work at that camp. (I ended up starting work there eight years later.) My passion for working at camp started as a Brownie Girl Scout, at a day camp of all places. Although this camp was all volunteer-run, they had the COOLEST staff ever, at least according to my little girl mindset. I think the only reason I kept on going back to that camp year after year was because of the wonderful staff members, and how I desired to be one of them one day. It seems like the only highlight of being a middle schooler was the fact that I was finally old enough to work at that camp. I started helping out there as well as at the Girl Scout resident camp. Under the camp alias of Frog, I was finally one of those cool people that the younger girls looked up to.

When I was fourteen, I decided to give Christian camp ministry a week-long trial. I was the counselor for eleven upper elementary church girls at Mountain Lakes Bible Camp. I enjoyed some aspects of the experience, but I continued the next couple summers strictly at Girl Scout camps.

When I was sixteen, I was involved in a Peru mission trip that got me really involved in pre-trip church ministry. The week of the Girl Scout's day camp was the same week as an important church event, and thus I have not been back to that camp since. But God definitely had a plan, as He had already lined up my very first "real" job for me that summer: working at the Christian camp where eight years ago I said I'd never work. I worked there for three years on summer staff: kitchen, belay, lifeguard, snack shop, cleaning, and groundswork, I did it all. After I started college and got a year-round job, I still managed to make it to camp for a few days of volunteer work, although my sister started working at the camp in my place. God spoke to me so much on the grounds of this camp, but He left out some important life details, like that I was going to be involved in full-time camp ministry, and that this ministry would be 2000 miles away.

So that brings me to about a year and a half ago, when I got the revelation to intern at a Christian camp that ultimately brought me to Camp Rivercrest.

Looking back at elementary school when adults gave me suggestions on what to be when I grow up, I don't remember anyone telling me I should be in camp ministry. (Well, except for that time when my parents told me I should work at the camp we were at and I immediately told them no!) But all the suggestions I was given, like teacher and President, were jobs that heavily involved in leadership. Camp ministry definitely has requires leadership qualities in every aspect. I think those people would be comforted to know that I am taking on leadership roles in my life today.

Over the past two days, I have had the honor of hosting a large Girl Scout troop here at camp. This morning, I took them on a hike around camp. I realized it was the first time I've hiked through these woods with others. (Despite my eleven years in Girl Scouts, I was never a fan of the buddy system rule.) I love walking these trails, but I cut down on walking once hunting season starts, so this was the first time in awhile that I went through the woods. This was a great opportunity to expose the girls to the wildlife (birds and deer), give them some adventure (seeing the zip line, hiking up the lookout tower, and walking along the river), and challenge them (to find the hidden objectives and to carefully navigate the steep parts of the trail system). It reminded me of the days back at Girl Scout camp, and for the first time I realized I actually kind of missed that. Today made me feel the same way I felt as a leader back at day camp. Although I was no longer called "Frog", I was called what I'm now considering my Nebraskan camp name, "Jes". (Kids in Oregon called me "Lippe", and in Nebraska I am very rarely referred to as "Jessica".) The girls left camp this evening, many of them thinking of me as a "cool camp staff", just like the kind that inspired me to get involved in camp work.

I know I'm not popular with people my own age. In fact, come to think of it, I was never well liked among my peers. But I'm happy to give up a social life in my age group if it means I can be a role model for those younger than me. That means comforting a child during the summer when they're away from home and not feeling well. That means encouraging my Truth in Training girls to not only memorize their verses, but to live them. That means taking advantage of those moments at work, at church, and in the community to lift a child's spirits. That means spending weekend afternoons with the camp "brats", whether it's playing games or helping them study. That means living my life out loud for the Lord. I may not know what I want to "be" when I grow up, but I am blessed by being able to "do" what I've always wanted to do.

So Many Things

Has it really been a month and a half since my last posting? So much has happened in these few weeks! I guess I was just so busy DOING that I didn't have much time for WRITING.

So, what did I do?

Well, first off, I finally got out of "summer camp mode". It's wonderful to be a little less stressed over everything!

Other than that...

-I got a Kitchen!
The stove was installed a few months ago, and we finally got the kitchen sink installed last week! I've been able to bake things that I haven't been able to make before, like pretzels, challah, crackers, and cookies. And now, it's a lot easier to wash all those dirty dishes I create!

-I went to Tennessee!
I did a lot of incredible things there, like visit Chelsea (a summer counselor), and meet the editors of Devozine! I won't bore you with TOO many pictures (I have hundreds!), but I'll show you a few now, and maybe more later!

Music City Hostel, where I stayed when I wasn't with Chelsea.

The Upper Room had a museum filled with Christian artifacts around the world, including tons of nativity scenes. 

The Upper Room Museum also had lots of old Bibles. I thought it was funny how this one said "NEW TESTA-ment"

Nashville had incredible art, including this scene on top of the Parthenon. 

The Parthenon and Centennial Park. 

I found these fruits while walking through Vanderbilt U. What are they?

This is the chapel at the Scarritt-Bennett Center. Over my two weeks in Tennessee, I went to  six different churches, including a jazz-themed service here.

The labyrinth at Scarritt-Bennett. 

I met the Devozine staff while helping them at their themes retreat. This was one of the rooms of their retreat house. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience in itself, being able to plan for upcoming issues, and actually having the experienced staff look to me for advice! I hope I helped them out!

The 40-ft Athena statue inside the Parthenon.

I did make it to a concert while in Nashville! Although I have no idea who this band is! 

The other side of The Parthenon.

RCA Studio B, where Elvis, Dolly, and others have recorded. 

Belmont Mansion at Belmont U.

Capitol Hill. These pieces in the foreground are pieces of the building before its renovation.

Capitol Hill was closed, but I at least got to walk around it!

One of the many War Memorials. The guy that took this picture said there is a time capsule underneath this statue.

The city skyline.

-I participated in the CCCA Iowa-Nebraska Fall Fellowship!
This year's conference was held at Camp Rivercrest and our neighbor, Camp Calvin Crest. It was great to meet other camp professionals, and being the only person with my specific job description, a lot of people were asking me for media advice. I don't know when exactly I became a professional, but between this retreat and the Devozine retreat, I think I might be! Although our camp's staff had to work (although everyone appreciated the information booklet I created), it was still an enjoyable time and I even got to see Calvin Crest, which I never actually went to before.

-I helped with Fall Festival!
Yesterday, I worked at finishing a bag lady dress that I had started a year ago but never finished. It would actually be kind of a cute dress, if it weren't for the fact that it was made out of plastic bags! I wore that while working at Fremont Alliance's Fall Festival. It seemed like it was a really neat community event with lots of participants (374 in just the first half hour!), but I didn't see too much of it because I spent nearly four hours making and serving popcorn. I don't really want to see popcorn for a long time!

-I'm excited for the things to come!
The things I've done in the past month and a half (plus the typical work at camp) still don't seem like much compared to all that there is to do. I found a job nannying for a family a few miles away from here; I'm just waiting for the time they want me to start. I'm going to spend Christmas in Oregon. Jenn Yee keeps on trying to get me to visit Abide and Bridge Church, but I always seem to be involved in something else whenever there is an event or volunteer opportunity! One of the summer staff members is planning a relief trip to the East Coast. I don't know if I'll be able to join them on that, but I will definitely be involved in some way! And since I now have a fully functioning car, I'm hoping to have the chance to use it more; possibly visit Gibbon, Nebraska where I allegedly have buried relatives.

That's my life for now. I should be able to start giving you more regular updates. Until then, feel free to contact me for up-to-the-minute news!