Life Goes On

Quite a bit has happened in the last three weeks, and the upcoming weeks are packed with activity as well.  The hard part about all of this is that there have been good moments, packed with smiles and laughing and a few funny stories, but I feel like just posting those would not be an accurate picture of what a day looks like for me now.  But on the other side of that, I don't want to be some mopey, sad person - especially on a blog, which is not meant for airing grievances.  Life does go on, and the world continues to turn, and I am back in a routine.  Albeit a routine that is frequently interrupted with bouts of sadness, memories, and tears, but I get through each day.  

I have planned my vacation for after the summer, and will go to DC for a day or two and then drive down with Amy and her family to Myrtle Beach.  I am very excited for this.  Not only is it good to just be at the beach and relax after a long, hard summer, but it will also be good to be with those people in a time that I know will be hard for me as I transition from the constant business of being at camp to going back home.  I've been at camp for two full weeks now - Junior High and 5th and 6th graders, and just taking a few minutes each day to go sit on the bench in front of my office and watch and listen to the joy that occurs around me has brought me great comfort - and purpose.  

Next weekend is the first family camp.  I love family camp, but I'm especially excited for this one because two families who I've gotten to know very well and love very much will be coming up - the Jonas' and the Cornells.  It should be a good time.  (Dave, if you're reading this, I promise not to knock Catch Phrase out of your hand again :-))  The weekend after that is a long one - we're done with camp Thursday afternoon, so I'm going to Bismarck!  I will drive there on Thursday afternoon and stay until (early) Sunday morning.  I'm really looking forward to seeing Jeromie and Missy, Drew, and Abbie.  We always have so much fun when we're together and I don't doubt that this will be any different.  

I learned how to play horseshoes this week.  I'm not that good yet, but I'm going to work at it until I'm at least decent.  At one point, when I was throwing the shoe (is that what it's called?) I pulled my arm back, and as I brought it forward to release it, the edge of it got caught on my leg - right above my knee - and now I have a very large and very ugly bruise there.  It was entertaining for my friends watching.  Not so much entertaining for me.  

I was really excited to make a smoothie this morning.  It's hard to make food on the weekends, because I'm only home for four meals (Friday supper, and the three meals on Saturday) so I don't want to go to the store to buy food because it will inevitably go bad, but at the same time, I love cooking and don't want to eat out four times on a weekend, so it's hard.  But, I had all the ingredients for a smoothie - none of which were expired - so I was pumped.  I put the OJ, yogurt and frozen fruits in the blender, and pressed the "liquefy" button, only to hear the blender make a "unnnnhhhhh" sound and not do any kind of blending.  In my usual "I will figure this out and fix it" way, I proceeded to press different buttons, take the pitcher off and re-snap it in multiple times.  Then I took the pitcher off to see if it spun without it on there, and it did.  My mind then clicked in to 5th grade scientific process mode as I began to test one variable at a time to find the weak link.  I took the whole thing apart and began testing it one piece at a time.  Everything worked, and the next step was putting the blade on the spinning apparatus to see if that worked.  I pressed the on button only to have the (very sharp) blade go spinning off the blender into the air.  Boy that was stupid.  I just stood there for a second, shocked, and thought to myself, "how did I think that was going to turn out?"   Then I thanked the Lord that I was not covered in cuts or without an eye.  

I don't think that's a very good story to end this post with, but I feel as this has been long enough and cannot think of another story (I'm sure there are some, but because that just happened a few hours ago, it's fresh in my mind.)