Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka

Contact List

2007-06-23T18:33:00.001-07:00

If you need the contact list and didn't get it, please let me know! :)

Welcome New Counselors :)

2007-06-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, now that I finally got the contact list typed up you all have blog invites - yay!

GQ ... K?

2007-06-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

Scottie: Get starts with ...?
Campers: G!
Scottie: and Quiet starts with?
Campers: Q!
Scottie: and how about Quickly?
Camper on my lap: K!

I love it. :)

Seriously though, what is with the Monday campers this year? It better just be a first day thing. I've never had a Monday tribe this stressful!!!

Women's Locker Room

2007-06-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry these aren't the best quality ever. Apparently something had gotten all over my lense since the last time I used my camera. Hopefully they'll help out a little for Monday, though! :)

This one is pretty self explanatory.

The first thing you see after entering.

Looking left. The changing areas (lockers) are to your left, bathroom stalls to your right, and sinks and showers straight ahead.

Changing area (lockers) #1.

A closeup of the showers. Nice change, eh? Kelly and I were thinking this would be the best place for the counselors to change since we're so short on space in the actual locker area and will need it all for the campers.

Changing area (lockers) #2. Since I haven't mentioned it yet, they're are only 2 of these. You've now seen the entire locker area.

This is what you would see coming from the pool deck into the locker room.

The beautiful row of showers.

The door from the locker room to the pool deck.

Making History

2007-06-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

So last night Kelly and I decided randomly to try to get into the pool this morning. We woke up at 7:15 (ewwww) and got to the pool by 8:00. Tom let us in, I'm pretty sure he thought we were guards, so we checked out the locker rooms (!!!)

Delirious faces, take one.

Delirious faces, take two.

After taking pictures of it to show you guys for Monday, we ended up talking to a construction worker who gave us a grand tour of the incomplete kitchen. He also told us the whole project is really a 2 year job. When you see what is done, you will be super impressed it only took 8 months, trust me.

We let Bill Rhodes in and talked to him for awhile.

Finally, 10 came and we were the very first people in the lazy river! It's true. Bill has pictures of us in it. He also has pictures of us hanging out in the sun waiting to go down into the pool area. It was a pretty fun morning.

Anyway, that's my story. Now I need to do another post with all the locker room pics.

(Sorry guys, I only have pics of the girls' locker room. I'm guessing they're pretty similar, though.)

YEAH CAMP!

2007-06-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

WHO'S EXCITED FOR MONDAY??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BWW!!

2007-06-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo all!!

This Thursday night (after parent preview), it's time for some 50-cent boneless wings at Buffalo Wild Wings!! Let me know if you are in need of a ride, or if you're not sure where BWW is.

Hope to see you all there!!

Kelly :o)

Summer 2007

2007-06-02T01:06:00.001-07:00

First of all, a great big

WELCOME!!

to all of the new counselors! :o)

This blog is a great place to post pictures, share stories, vent, or keep everyone up to date with counselor happenings.

You don't have to be a member to read the blog (as I'm sure you've figured out by now), but to post, you not only need to be a member of Blogspot, you also need to receive an emailed invitation to join our blog. Next week during training I'll be sending around a notepad; if you'd like to post (or think you might sometime down the road), go ahead and list your email for me. I'll send you the invite; it's up to you whether or not you accept, and/or go on to post. Joining the site is free, and painless, so join on up!

I'll see you all very soon, and until then, we'll all be looking forward to camp!!

Kel :o)

Pool Closeups

2007-05-31T17:58:00.000-07:00

Hooray, it's almost time for day camp to start again! Here are the closeup photos of the pool for anyone who hasn't been able to see them. :)

guys...I'm sad

2007-05-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not working at the camp this summer. I got an internship at State Farm. I thought I would be okay with not working at the park, since I'm living in Bloomington, not to mention the fact that I hate kids :-) But since I've been home and it's been warm out again, I think I'm really going to miss it.
I'm going to miss working with everyone. I think that the camp staff are quite possibly the best group of employees anyone could ask to work with. I just want to hang out, play, joke around, give the campers a hard time, chase ducks, swim, plan pow-wows, and everything else that goes into it. I might even, dare I say it, miss the campers...very minimally though. But not Frank (Kelly) or Connor (Blair). Those kids will remain on my hate list forever!

Anyway guys, you may not realize how great you have it. The park is the best job ever! And it sucks that I'm going to be stuck in a cubicle all day, looking at a computer screen, when I could have been playing 4 square, watching Scottie do the "happy birthday" dance, and getting free lunch...*sigh*

Don't be strangers, I'll need some fun in my life. Call me and tell me how much camp rocks. Have a great summer guys!

Summer '05 & '06 Slideshow!!

2006-11-11T16:17:00.000-08:00

If you have any photos you'd like to add to this, please send them my way! :o)

Create Your Own!

GREATEST DAY OF THE SUMMER!!!

2006-08-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that today was in fact the greatest day of the summer at Camp Wa-Nik-Ska-Ka .... IT WAS SURVIVOR DAY! I love how it's always a surprise until we get there too ... and it was a million times better than last year (and last year was awesome!) ....

Anyway, first, WE WON! Biggest adrenaline rush ever! EAST SIDE PRIDE! We won it all ... I'll get more to that later, but a big hand to our allies (remember Dave, circle of life), the Red team of West!!! WOOT WOOT! Big second place....anyway ....

So we get to camp this morning and their doing morning announcements as usual and then they put the Survivor music on and all the counselors who knew what was going on went absolutely nuts and everyone else just looked confused.

We got split into four groups (north, south, east, west) ... our group was East represented by yellow. And we had an amazing group! THe campers were solid, and the counselor list was like a dream. I dont think I could have picked out a better group if I tried. It was Shane, Brandon, Carley, Katie, Teresa, Tristan, Aaron and myself ... and it was once again, amazing!

Anyway, I'll go activity by activity as experienced by my tribe.

Totem Pole Trivia: Great idea, but too hard to do with like 50 campers ...especially with not enough time. And you'd think since my Dad helped carve the totem pole (as did Red team's Sherrie Rhode's Dad) their be an advantage there. And yet both Sherrie and i were quite frustrated as we remember our fathers talking about each question listed, but couldnt remember exactly what the answer was. Nonetheless we must have retained something as the Red team took first and we took second.

Group Banner: #1 rule, counselors couldn't touch the banner at all. This also included a presentation of the banner to the group. We went with a Spongebob thing singing a spongebob tune with new lyrics and a banner that sports East outlined in gold glitter, yellow outline, sand at the bottom, a spongebob in the middle next to an oversized totem pole. It was amazing overall and we ended up placing first for that challenge! We led off the day by winning this (trivia winners werent announced till the end), so it was awesome to start off on a winning foot.

Pool Time: No challenge here. Although, last night I left my suit/towel on the deck to dry and forgot about them ... so they got rained on and I had no suit/towel to bring to the pool today. Nonetheless, it was a productive day as we formed an alliance with the West siders (red team) that proved amazingly fruitful at the end. It was also a rock solid alliance. Oddly enough it was formed at first purely for dodgeball in order to eliminate the team with Mike, Walter and David Lammers ...

Lunch time: This was supposed to be a silent lunch. And it worked-ish ... turned out to be really hard to judge. Especially because some judges were harder than others (i.e. Amy tallying like 8 times when the wind blew a few items that couldnt be stopped and "we could have stopped them" or something ridiculous like that, haha) ... also we arrived five minutes earlier than the next closest tribe (green), which means thats like 5 min more time for tallies ... among other things. All in all even if it had counted the lunch wouldn't have affected first place (we beat red by 7 and the scoring for each event was 8 for first, 6 for 2nd, 4 for 4rd and 2 for 4th) ... but it was good to scrap that event as it turned out to be way too problematic. All in all, it was like communism it looked like an amazing idea on paper but in the end it bombed out in a big way ...

Relay Race: This was a fun event! Although A) We got our butts kicked and B) it needs to be tweaked for next year, i.e. make it longer and incorporate more things with all the campers and counselors involved .... we got third, but pretty much singlehandedly because Shane was a track star who went so fast if u blinked u missed him and because of Brandon and his amazing canoeing skills. We started off decent, we left the first station in third and then in the third station our tennis girl couldnt serve it apparently so we got waaaay behind. The first place team was arriving at the 6th station when ours was just leaving the 3rd. True story. All in all, we did come back, as I said to place third because the campers leap frogged their butts off, Shane beat the wind to the lake and Brandon skillfully made the canoeing portion look like a calm walk in the park. At this point in the afternoon we hadnt heard about the trivia or lunch, so we went from leading with 8 pts after tha banners to being in second with 12 to Green's 14.

Team Dodgeball: This worked and didnt. It was a lot of fun. The alliance hung firm, except for a few wayward West kids who threw at us (knocking one of our best players out int he process). To which Sherrie, amidst a very apologetic conversational tone said, "We cant help it if our campers are just gnerally unintelligent!!" Green was the first to go (that was huge), followed by Blue. Then red make quick work of us, finishing first. However getting second and having green get last put us in first with 18, and green and red tied for second with 16. It was a tight ball game to say the least. However, to go back to the dodgeball, I still think it would have been better to play team 1 vs. team 2, team 3 vs. team 4 and then counselors of the winning teams play for first/second and then third/fourth. Not gonna lie, no counselors in team dodgeball was a huge let down and I think an oversight. I understand not playing with the kids, but a cousnelor only game for points should have happened ... anyway ... it was fun nonetheless.

"Suprise Challenge": Our initial choice for this "surprise" was Carley. However, minutes before hand our team observed cool whip in the kitchen and being hte detectives thy were took a gamble on it being a food challenge or something crazy at least and went with cousnelor Aaron. An excellent choice. The Animal (as I shall now refer to him) obliterated his competition in the whip cream pie eating contest (eat as much as u can in 2 minutes) Admittedly it was a close call with Jordan of the green team. However, seeing as how Jordan didnt touch the crust and pushed all of his whip cream out of the pie with his face in th ebeginning, forcing him to spread it around the table he tried to go for it, I think ti was clearly the Animal winning (we did end up getting 1st).

Break Time: Campers watched a Making of Survivors special while the counselors got a half hour off. In this half hour I disclosed to Katie R that I had Narcolepsy to which she made a comment like, "Jim, do yo uknow how exciting this is?!?" Clearly she meant it was cool for her to know someone with Narcolepsy or something ... I get a similar response a lot ... but we all got a big chuckle from her remark which seemed to imply how exciting it was for me to have a disability. Haha .... anyway, then came the big moment ...

THE TORCH CEREMONY: This was nerve-wracking. Blue got last (no surprise, good try gys). And then surprisingly green got third (by a point!). Scottie wavered between red and yellow forever, before putting out the red flame (meaning they got second). Our group erupted.It was such an adrenaline rush!! And as stated by Trisitn who was so giddy, its weird because were so happy and we all feel like we realy won something, like an international olympics someting or other. Anyway, I tried to stay as low key as possible. I felt like too much hoopla and chanting was bad sportsmanship and like we were rubbing it in everyones face. I felt like we did taht a little bit and then stopped. And then after we were dismissed Shane and I led the group for a victory jog to the totem pole, everyone touched/rubbed it and we chanted something about the East side. It was amazing! I think a victory jog and rub of the totem should happene every year for the winning team!

Anyway, it was like the greates day of the summer ... for the next year we are the reigning Survivor champions and all I gotta say is ... WHICH SIDE IT THE BEST SIDE?!? ... EAST SIDE!!!

Happy Birthday...

2006-07-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if this will work, but I'll give it a try...

Cockroaches, Mailmen, & Dilly Bars - Oh My!

2006-07-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

(I actually wrote this last Monday, I just didn't post it on here.)

...

While I have the basement to myself, it's time for:

Sherrie's Short Stories

Story #1: "When I Grow Up"
Perhaps just to prove correct the theory that little girls think about marriage from pretty much the day there are born, Shelby (a Monday camper) informs everyone at Check-Out that she knows who she's going to marry. After many giggles, the girls around her decipher that the future (and much unsuspecting) groom's name is Nick. Upon disclosing this piece of news, said camper (Shelby) proceeds to ask if anyone else knows who they are going to marry. Around this point, I lost interest and began talking to some other campers at the adjoining table. However, soon after, India (the camper across from me) informs me that she's knows who she's going to marry when she grows up.

"Oh really."

"Yep, want to guess?"

"Um, is he a camper here?"

"Nope."

"I give up."

"The mailman!"

"... Oh, so you think he's cute?"

To which she enthusiastically, yet shyly at the same time, nodded her head yes. Upon further conversation Melissa (another counselor) and I discovered that it was not indeed her mailman, but a different one. Don't be decieved though, he exists in the present. It's not just an occupation she wishes her future spouse to have. Perhaps mailmen should add that to the list of things they will deliver the mail inspite of: rain, snow, sleet, hail, and six-year-old admirers.

Story #2: "Cockroach Hide 'n Seek"
So last Wednesday, this camper randomly pulls off his shoe by the coloring tables and shakes it until this two inch long, half inch wide, cockroach falls out onto the ground and scurries around a bit. Almost as quickly as we shrieked in shock, one of his three sidekicks (Roof's Husband) stomped on it. Per our request, said sidekick then kicked it out into the grass, foot by foot. The four person eight-year-old gang then proceeded to tour the shelter informing every counselor of their cool find. I'm pretty sure the owner of the cockroach's ex-home was the hero of the day for any boy there. The girls, on the other hand, found much joy in going to look at the squashed bug and then shrieking with claims of "Ewwwww!" and "That's disgusting!" I just hope he doesn't keep his shoes in his house, *shudders*.

...

Yeah, that's it for now. I will say though, that watching six-year-olds eat Dilly Bars in the middle of July at one of the hottest points of the day is pretty amusing. Matthew, one of my campers, had ice cream pouring down one hand and chocolate down the other. All of their faces, and in some cases hair, had at least some significant amount of ice cream and/or chocolate on them. Way too cute ... and messy.

I'll leave you with a few photos from today:

PowWow Definitions

2006-07-30T17:21:00.001-07:00

So Ryne overheard one of our campers explaining to a new camper that PowWow was "when we eat a snack and sit around doing nothing for awhile." He said Zack overheard another camper explaining that "It's like crafts, only we eat a snack first." A few weeks ago Russell (one of our campers) informed me that he hates PowWow; I felt highly ... complimented?

Mmmm ... Dilly Bars!! :)

2006-07-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

2006-07-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

And camp just seems a little off all of the sudden ... can't quite put my finger on it ... wait, hm ... OH YEAH! Miss Melissa Ritchie left yesterday for Ecuador!! HOW SAD IS THAT?!? WTF! Seriously, camp today was fun, but something just seemed off today ... like camp was just missing something ... sad.

In other news, Katie Olson celebrated a birthday today!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today was generally a good day. If not a sad one. I did get to wear a clean shirt as Melissa hooked me up with two of her camp t-shirts and my immediate response at the time was, "SWEET! Now I dont have to do laundry the rest of the week!" Ah its the little things in life.

Anyway, Godspeed ... and now onto Friday morning's compass treasure hunt ... ARRRGGH MATEY!

-Jim-

Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka

2006-07-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka

Best quote of the summer by a Monday camper nominees:

1) "I thought I knew where I was going [checkout shelter], but then I took a wrong turn, and then I saw some ducks, and it got scary. I decided to find you instead."

2) "I was born to be a kisser." -Frank Sellmyer

3) "My tummy hurts, but I think its actually my head. I'm not sure anymore, can I go play now?"

Yesterday's Fowl Three-some

2006-07-22T17:43:00.000-07:00

The first Friday of the second session, also known as yesterday, was one interesting day all the way around.

First, the weather couldn't make up it's danged mind all day. It started off looking rainy-ish, and their was this huge green blob of rain covering most of Iowa coming towards camp ... however, it did get a little sunny around lunch time and then nose dived back to iffyness, sprinkled some in the afternoon, got really hot then really not and then back to general iffyness. Damndest weather we have here ...

Before camp was kick ball! WOOOO! And even better, its Friday kickball, which means the kids are pretty good and their are way less counselors ... oh how I love Friday Kickball! It's kickball, how it oughtta be! (POP QUIZ: Which baseball team's slogan did I modify there?)

For the morning had outdoor study with Ashton ... and we had the campers build a tent! WOOOO! The first hour was amazing. Mostly females. They whipped through one practice construction a timed deconstruction/construction and finished with 15 minutes to spare. Soooo we had Outdoor Study story time. HILARIOUS! Amazingly this group also took down the tent, put it away, took it back out, put it up, got inside it in a circle and zipped it all up in 12:22. The second hour was all male (save one lone female) and this was awful. They were bickering, had too many boy scouts, kept out thinking themselves, etc. It was a social experiment ... but they finished the first practice construction in 28 minutes and took so long that we didnt have enough time to give them a final time trial so we finished with a rock, paper, scissors and thumb war championships. The final group of the day wasnt as harmonious as the first, althought did end with a record breaking time trial of like 10:30, including me telling them their inside circle wasnt circley (yes that's a new word I crated) enough and that they needed to reform it.

At the end of the hour came the moment of the summer. A duck three-some, ON LAND! Never seen a duck threesom, nor ducks doing it on land so this was a huge event. And it happened right in front of Creative Arts and Outdoor Study so like 8 counselors and 40 campers all gawked together. Actually Roof and Ryne came running out of the shelter yelling at me to look quick cause I had my back to it. And it was actually less of a three-some and more of one duck on the other duck while a third duck seemed to fight the on-top duck for that position. So I suppose it was more like king of the hill or a fight over a girl while int he middle of doing it. And all the campers were squealing and screeching about "WHY IS THAT DUCK ATTACKING THE OTHER ONE?!" "IT'S TRYING TO EAT IT!!!" "EEEWWW CANNIBAL DUCKS! THEY'RE CANNIBAL DUCKS, SOMEBODY STOP IT!" .... haha, and while admittedly had I not known any better it certainly did appear more like one duck was attacking or eating the other, the information stored in my brain from the Animal Planet tells me different ... haha ... that was the news of the day that just spread like wild fire. Every counselor was talking about. I wouldn't have been shocked to see Anderson Cooper of CNN or Jeff Corwin of APL on loaction at any moment!

Not suprisingly in comparison, the rest of the day was shockingly bland. Backyard games was good times and then we went home. The end!

Haha, I'm sad because I remember some serious quote-age went down like twice that I really wanted to blog but for the life of me I can't remember it now ... sad ... anyway, yeah for the duck three-some ... on land!

100% Humidity, 500 million % Fun

2006-07-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentleman I do believe that today may qualify, once the dust has settled, as the hottest day of the year ... the heat index was predicted to peak at 109 (I dont know if it actually did, but it was close) and when I left my house this morning accuweather.com said the humidity was 100%! 100%!! Is that even possible? Shouldn't that mean the air was so saturated it was like raining or constantly misting or something?

Anyway, did get some good kick-ball-age in this morning. And I've decided taht one of my biggest irks at camp is how every single pitcher lines up with shortstop or thirdbase to pitch ... haha, its not bad with certain pitches, but almost everyone does it to some extent and its like either pitch from the dirt or move the bases a different angle but dont pitch from the shortstop position! Haha ... its sort of a laughing irk I suppose ...

Anyway because of the heat it was all camp everything today! All camp pow-wow wasn't bad, minus the camper needless booting the gator ball as far as he could over my head and thus into the Lake (what do you think is gonna happen when we're maybe 50 feet away and the last 15 of that is a sharp decline) ... followed by me watching the ball drift in the center of the lake until it became close enough to jab at with my 9 foot PVC pipe supplied by counselor Brandon! Woooo...

All camp swim was amazing. I had such a good time. It was great having fun with counselors I never ever see throughout the day. *sigh*.

Thanks to Zach again for readying our lunch table! Um, and thanks to everyone I ate lunch with for making sure I got pizza to go with the salad ...

The break conversation was hilarious. From debating whether mind control would establish my divinity (not spear headed by me), to slot c, to an intricate information Q and A session of how the male reproductive organ chills/hangs and finally an indepth lecture on the jock strap and jsut what exactly it's used for and why that explains baseball players readjust themselves every 10 seconds on national television .. it was a rousing break ....

Followed by the Incredibles, where the option was either turn the huge fan on and u cant hear th emovie oooor no fan but u can hear the movie. Eventually the campers voted ont he latter and it was about 125 degrees int aht basement. They'd probably have been better off in the sun ... I would have! But in better news, Kelly, being the excellent teacher she is, taught me how to make a friendship bracelet and an uber sweet design at that. SO THANKS KELLY!

Um, many many quotes occurred throughout the day...most of which being at the pool.

The first occurred after Tristin, Kelly and I had a conversation about a scary movie called "The Hills have eyes" which Tristin watched the previous night. A camper came over and butted in something like, Nothign scares me! Something inaudible to me was said by Tristin which ended with "no we're talking about scary movies" or something. To which the camper replied, Oooh, you mean like Harry Potter?. Between Tristin, Kelly and myself I dont think any of us expected any response remotely like that and we jsut sort of laughed our way through "Yeah just like that" ...

And then later one of the cutest and best campers Ive ever had (Ginny!) in the pool today, while in the midst of a discussion about Spongebob Square Pants (started because a camper called me Barnacle Boy) said ... "I think it's silly and has no redeeming qualities." Turns out its an opinion she picked up from her parents word for word and at the time it was hilarious to Tristin and myself ...

and that was possibly the hottest day of the summer at Camp Wa-Nik-Ska-Ka for Super Jim...! (or so the Wednesday campers have begun calling me ...)

The second first Monday

2006-07-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

    As stated in a previous post we did in fact return to the beautiful (and hot!) Camp Wa-Nik-Ska-Ka for the second first Monday of the summer! Here's a rundown of my day ...

    Woke up to my last alarm at 6:47am, the first being set to like 6:05 with like five in between. This was my last last last last ditch alarm. Thank God I set it, but not a great start to the day, arriving at 7:38am ... not the first time I've been a few minutes late either. *sigh*
    Nothing spectacular happened this morning except I forgot to bring the blanket for our campers ... and thank God my co-co Ashley was on top of the medical conditions. We have a camper with a "severe allergy to nuts. If comes in contact with any give epinephrin and call 911 immediately". This of course left both Ashley and I paranoid all day.

    Wait, wait, I remember the funniest story of the day did happen about five minutes before morning pick-up time was called. So I walk to the bathroom and as I near the water fountains I notice three kids standing by the silver tub/sink thing on wheels staring into it. I sort of keep an eye on them as I walk past, noticing their are totally mystified and excited. They all three are jumping around, giddy and looking quite adrenaline rushed. They notice me and take their eyes off the tub to exclaim in my direction, as if I should be totally in awe and excited too)! "SPIDER! LOOK A BIG SPIDER!" Mind you I am really arachnophobic, although I am getting better (slightly) at least at camp. And spiders are known to visit the tub, so I put my sarcastic "Yeah Woooo" face on and walked back a few steps. As I did, before I could look in the tub two of the campers, with the third squealing their guts off, peered deep into the sink's basin, went to poke the spider and then jumped up and back at least 10 feet squealing with disgust and delight simultaneously. They then yelled, "SPIDER!" "TOUCH THE SPIDER!" "WERE PLAYING TOUCH THE SPIDER" "YOU TOUCH THE SPIDER!!!" .... I could see where this game had been and where it was going and it was all bad news ... touch the spider is never a good game to play, for any age group ... especially six year olds.
    So before I even saw the spider I shooed them back to the shelter and some better game ... as I passed I naturally looked int he sink to see the spider they had been enthralled with ... and OMG, it was an inch long (which if u think about it a big spider), thick ugly wolf-spider, that was bristly, a nasty brown color with some black thrown in and just as mean looking as can get. And of course, being a wold spider it was nimble, ultra quick and a real athletic spider. Not gonna lie, I was way grossed out ... and had it been any bigger I might have reacted much more strongly. Anyway, I was like, you have got to be kidding me. They played touch the spider with that nasty thing. This was no daddy long legs ... oh man, these kids have more issues than I thought ...

1st period: In the early stages of our Pow-Wow time Ashley made sure that all the kids washed their hands after eating granola bars just in case they managed to contact the nut allergy and send him into epiphilactic shock. Good thinking. And I went to the front office to double check that we did in fact have the nut allergy's epi-pin and that someone in the front office knew how to use it ahead of time. Turns out we did and they do. So Mission Control, all systems were go for launch. And note to self: Pow-Wow today was very successful.

2nd Period: In leagues we played BLOB. Not gonna lie, I LOVE THAT GAME! Although after the first game, in which I managed to barely stay blob free (saved by the ending whistle) I decided to retire from the game of Blob officially. I know it's tough to leave at the peak of my game, but I felt that I wanted to go out a champion. I also announced my decision to join a minor league 007 team since I've always wanted to go pro as it was my Father's ... (quick, quick, which sports star am I?!?). With all seriousness, I do love Blob.

3rd Period: One of my most interesting periods at the day ... we were at swim which meant it was attack of the Japanese Beetles. Dave, Jordan and I began slapping at a few to try and rid the world of a beetle or two ... then one got in my hair, terrible feeling ... and by the end of swim time most of the counselors and a good majority of the campers were one crazed mob hell-bent on extermination. Although the beetles outnumbered us about 100-1, and we could have spent all day in the pool and not rid the pool or pool area of the problem we did make our presence known ... so just give a few kick boards and who ya gonna call?!? BEETLE BUSTERS! ...
     Oh and learned that smallest Monday camper at camp (by a lot), who is also the one of the cutest littlemunchkins has a Dad that is like 6'7", according to counselor Jordan ... that was shocking to say the least. Also of note, I forgot deodorant today (Thank you Jordan Van Loon!) and Gold-bonding was amazing ... wooo...

Lunch: Sat with the nut allergy in our little quarantined table. Whenever anyone asked I either told them I was in detention the camper was being a good friend and keeping me company, ooor I had been voted off the island and the camper was being a good friend and eating one final meal with me on the island. It was a good lunch, although I did have a total awe moment. The nut allergy and I talked most of lunch, but near the end we had like 5 min of silence. Then randomly and without warning, he spoke up and said "You're a pretty good teacher. That's what I think." It was sooo random and so like awwwww shucks kid, how do u respond to that.
    ...And it turns out this counselor named Zach Oyer ... yeah real good guy. Was scurrying to set up our lunch table as we arrived late from swim ... one armed and all. Really appreciated that.

Quiet Time: Apparently a camper of mine from last session, still has my nose that she stole ... I miss that nose ... it's hard going through life with no sense of smell ...

5th Period: Was fairly confident I was gonna kick in the head or crotch by a camper learning the self-defense kicks. Thank goodness that ended when it did. By the time this period ended our small tribe of 8 had been whittled to five by early pick-ups due to heat. Sad.

6th Period: Watched Cinderella. Never been my favorite Disney movie, but better than Sleeping Beauty.

7th Period: Took one of the most amazing naps I've ever had at camp in the old shelter with two fans on us. Of course Ed on the loudspeaker to end the period was a rude awakening ... although he was pretty funny as he concluded the day's activities by saying "Thank you for sweating here at Camp Wa-Nik-Ska-Ka". Okay its not that funny, but considering no one ever puts a little flair into the loudspeaker I was enthused.

And that was our first Monday back! WOOO!

Design Update

2006-07-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

The week-long sabatical has ended and once again we returned to begin session II of this summer. Unfortunately I did not get a new blog design created for this blog, although I did come up with an angle I want to take and hopefully I'll at least get some version of it out this summer. Unfortunately blog layout template creation takes a load of time (at least to do it up properly) and many versions. Anyway, thats my blog design update...

Midsummer Extravaganza!!!

2006-07-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

Okay everyone... party at the lake on Tuesday. Here is a link to a map with directions:

http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=40.60325~-89.015479&style=r&lvl=12&scene=1809377&rtp=pos.qrns9b7kh9n3_Origin~pos.qs6ngy7knjhf_Destination

1) Start off going north on I-39 out of Normal.
2) Take Exit 8 (Lake Bloomington Road) and turn right.
3) Go straight until you reach a 4-way stop with the Green Gables on the corner. Turn right.
4) Follow the road around the sharp right curve and it is the last driveway on your left before the left curve. The house is the yellow one on the end.

I know some of you said you were going to carpool. I was thinking we would get out there around noon. If y'all want to make it a different time, just say something. Bring food to share. The party is BYOKA, and we should probably wait until after day before we break that out too much. I know there is a soccer game that night, but if we want to have a bonfire afterwards, that would be fine.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Please call me at (309) 310-4710. See you all there!

Feeling sooo 'refreshed'

2006-07-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

Staff refresher day was tonight and let me tell you I feel soooooooo refreshed! Haha, anyway, it was good times ... tomorrow is the last day of the week and then we have our mid-summer week off! Hopefully Ill grab the time to update about camp like mad and completely revamp the blog look! Haha, I stress that word hopefully!

Godspeed.

-Jim-

pArTy TiMe!!!

2006-07-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! I sent this out on facebook so for all of you who do not have facebook then this is for you (you can also pass this on to other counselors who do not have facebook and are not a member of this blog):
I am goin to be having a bday party on july 29 at 4:00 pm to celebrate me finally turning 21!! We have the back patio at Gill St. reserved until 6pm because there is another party coming in at 7, but we could probably stay later than that. If you want something to eat or drink then be sure to bring some money, although we will be having birthday cake! However, do not bring a present...your presence will be enough of a present!hehe
So anyway, I hope to see all of you there cuz i guarantee it will be tons of fun :) please just let me know one way or the other so that i know how many ppl to plan on. thanks and c ya at camp!
Katie

Oh what a Tuesday

2006-06-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day at camp ...

Began the day by harassing a camper sitting by herself by following her wherever she sat. Fun game. Then getting my butt whipped in Uno ... and then going to relay race it up in place of kickball. Good times ... except bunny hopping is ridiculous and should not be a part of any relay race for anyone over the age of say, like 20. Haha ...

No first period swim becuase it was too cold. Convient considering I left my towel at home. We watched Sword int he Stone in the basement. Very nice morning nap. Even more convient considerng I barely got 5 hours in last night ...

Second period pow-wow was the peak excitement for the day. We started off with "Bird's nest" as a warm-up, amazing game the camper's love. We then jumped into Freez Dance, anaother amazing game. Well, we got a few minutes in and then disaster struck. I was stopping the music by pressing the power button, which sucked because there was like a 4 second delay when u pressed on again for it to go. So I decided to mess witrh the kids and slowly fade out the music and then fade it back in (the idea being the dancing u'd do would slow to a freeze and then speed back up from a freeze). Great idea, except the stereo volume control wasn't a dial. It looked liked a dial but it was a weighted switch that u moved slightly to the left or right to turn it up or down. Anyway, I turned it down okay, but when I went to turn it back up I dont know what happened. I slowly got it back up and going and then the tension broke and the knob could spin clear around ... it was no good.

Anyway, so I spent the rest of pow-wow and half of the next period working with Maintenance crew Jason Hospelhorn taking apart the stereo to fix it. I feel like a qualified stereo mechanic now! (Which means at camp we have both an aviator mechanic in Kate and a stereo mechanic in me!). Jason knew more of what he was doing than I did (big shock, he is a maintenance guy and a fireman!), but I wasnt completely useless! Anyway, we got it to the point now that its all unscrewed, but we figured out whats wrong. this piece broke off and so like I can manually adjust the volume deep inside the stereo, but thats no good ... but we're both fairly confident that given half an hour with a soddering iron and superglue it can be fixed up good as new .... so guess what Im doing tomorrow before camp or on break! Haha ....

And ofc ourse I got plenty of jokes about being fired and having the money for a replacement come out of my paycheck ... including some ribbing from Scottie! Hhmmm, oh and Sarah, Kate, Krista and Teresa in the main office were racking there brains trying to figure out what was going on because they thought I was dealing with a personal issue. First I came in asking for a screwdriver ... then Hoss came in and got the plastic medical tweezers from the cabinet (hes an EMT, remember that) and then I came in a little while later asking for metal tweezers ... and when I finally came in with the opened stereo to store it they all started cracking up and were like, oh its just that, we thought u had a serious personal problem u didnt wannat ell us about ... and that explained why Hoss was involved. And Im like, what personal problem could I possibly need a screwdriver, a pair of metal tweezers and an EMT for?!? haha ... it was sooo funny ...

In other news, lunch was interesting as not 20 seconds in juice was spilled on our blanket ... and then these two ducks kept approaching the kids for food. I shooed them away for the first 10 mintues, and then just let them get as close as they dared (pretty damn close) and had the kids not throw things and stay on their bottoms and I just hovered close in case. Worked well. the Kids loved it, and it beat having to beat the ducks with a rock or something to make thne understand that when I shoo them away that does not mean come right back!

The magician was great. Crafts was crazy ... Buffalo Bradley was MIA, so sad, and our movie afternoon which we all looked forward to got canceled as it rained for all of ten minutes (the only rain cloud in the area hovered over us for a few fleeting moments) .... All in all, another good day at Camp Wa-Nik-Ska-Ka

-Jim-

It's Back!!

2006-06-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend was good times all around!! Thanks to those who came over last night - it was a blast!!

I just wanted to post a little notice of an upcoming event, a repeat of last year's.

~*~*~COLORED BRA DAY~*~*~

This Tuesday, June 27 is our Second Annual Colored Bra Day. (Gents, feel free to join in if you like). I feel that it's relatively self-explanatory . . .

This Weekend

2006-06-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

Hello to all!! Just wanted to get an update in here on the weekend.

Friday Night
Kaite Rassi's place for movies, starting at 8:00. Bring movies, food, beverages; however you would like to entertain yourself for the evening. If you haven't been in her basement yet, you're definitely missing out and should come over tonight (we're talking 6-foot, wall-mounted projection TV with a surround sound system . . .), and of course, the people are worth coming over for, too. :o)

Directions from Veterans Parkway
Turn onto GE Road and follow it almost to Towanda Barnes. She lives in Hawthorne II, which is the last neighborhood on your left (across from a strip mall). Take your third left onto Longwood Ln. Follow this street around the curve and turn onto the second street on your right, Weaver Ct. Kaite's house is number 8, and it's at the very end of the circle.
Directions from Towanda Barnes
Turn onto GE Road and follow it just past a building under construction. Hawthorne II will be the first neighborhood on your left. Take your third left onto Longwood Ln. Follow this street around the curve and turn onto the second street on your right, Weaver Ct. Kaite's house is number 8, and it's at the very end of the circle.
Google map ps - don't trust the green arrow, just use the map as a street guide
Kaite's cell # (309) 706-9963

Saturday Night
My parents are out of town Friday afternoon - Sunday evening, so it's my house for movies/massages/food/good times, starting at 7:00 on Saturday. I don't work on Saturday (whoo-hooo!! A day off!!), so feel free to come over before 7 if you'd like; please just call me first. Bring whatever movies you might be interested in watching (my TV is several steps down from Katie's, and my basement doesn't boast a pool table, but we'll make up for it with coziness and an air hockey table!). Also feel free to bring pop, chips, candy, popcorn or anything else you might like to eat. Please don't bring any alcohol unless you're 21+. If anyone would like to stay the night, you are more than welcome to (I hate staying in my house by myself.) The more, the merrier!! :o)

Directions from Veterans
Take Veterans all the way north (past Sam's and the Saturn Place and all that jazz) through the road looking highway-esque, until you hit the stoplight at Northtown. Turn left. follow Northtown; you will see a neighborhood on your left - this is Ironwood. Turn left into the neighborhood onto Towanda; take your first (and immediate) left onto Ironwood drive. Follow the road as it curves around a bit; turn right on Quail Run Ct., the first sidestreet you come to. My house is number 1908, and is the second on your left. It's grey and may have my car (blue Saturn Vue) in the driveway.
Directions from Towanda Avenue
Take Towanda north out of town (past the Methodist Church and Prarieland Elementary). Towanda will take you directly into Ironwood neighborhood. Turn right onto Ironwood drive, which is the 5th and last street on your Right before you leave the neighborhood. Follow the road as it curves around a bit; turn right on Quail Run Ct., the first sidestreet you come to. My house is number 1908, and is the second on your left. It's grey and may have my car (blue Saturn Vue) in the driveway.
Google map - again, don't trust the green arrow, just use it as a guide
My cell # (309) 287-0368

Hope to see lots of people out both nights!! Have a wonderful day, to those of you who work Fridays, and hope it's not too sticky . . . see you tonight! :o)

Ducks

2006-06-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

I'll try to make this a quick post...

Wednesday 6/21 - I was at my meeting area at 7am dropping off my bag when I notice three ducks out in the lake. As I watch I start to think "oh my god, that duck is trying to drown the other duck..." and then the light bulb turns on "oh wait, no it's not." (side note: if there really was a light bulb above my head, it would have been so bright that it would have burnt out)

Yes indeed one duck was having sex with the other duck, got off and chased the third duck down for some more action. Unfortunetly I was in such awe that I didn't have the capability to call any counselor over for a "hey look at this" moment.

Just imagine what this situation would have been like if the Wednesday campers had witness this...how would you answer the question of "What are those ducks doing?"

The 2nd Wednesday of camp...

2006-06-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

The 2nd Wednesday of camp ... was generally uneventful in terms of stories and quotes...

My day did begin interestingly enough. I arrived, and as I checked in Key-staff Krista was like I knwo you just got here, but could you go check on that camper sitting off by himself. So I trotted over, and I was like what's up man ... and apparently he was sitting at this seat by his lonesome because he's got "lots of memories there" (implying that seat). He spouted something off about being stung by a baby bumblebee ... so I coaxed him over to the tables of kids/counselors coloring, except on the way he like ducked behind me and said something like, "only if you shield me. I can be pretty weird." Haha ... so yeah, interesting morning.

Played 007 for games ... AMAZING!

Swim was actually mildly warm. And i busted out the towel as a cape which prompted all campers all day to call me Super Jim. Haha, except one kid int he locker room who called me (while naked from the waist down and running around mind you), "Super Weiner #2" ... I just want to know who Super Weiner #1 is ... haha ...

Had a juice spill at lunch today ... I feel like we need a sign above our lunch tables that say somehting like, "This lunch table has been juice free for ____ days" ... or perhaps hours instead of days ...

And then during crafts I DEMOLISHED Logan in the seek n' find to regain my title. I blew through it, finishing it in like record time. He still had like four to find and was shocked. Anyway, that puts me at 5-1 and once again reigning supreme!

WOOT WOOT!

-Super Jim-

Some camp randomness

2006-06-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

Soooo much I've wanted to blog every night since that first post, and Im always too exhausted!

First, and foremost, THANKS TO KELLY, SHERRIE, ROOFIO and co. who made my birthday at camp last Thursday amazing! I definitely thought that after Kelly greeted me at the office and didnt say anything I was homefree, but then I rounded the corner and saw my tree covered in some ribbon stuff and I was like (instert bad word) people found out! Amazing friends...

I've had a lot of requests during pool time for the infamous "jet face" this year, and Im not gonna lie, not sure its gonna happen. I'm just not feelin. I am afraid it may have to be retired to camp lore only. I've tried a few times behind closed doors to duplicate it and I just dont have it. Something is missing. Maybe I'll re-read the posts about it to try and recapture the magic...

Anyway, quotes and incidents of the day ... let's see ...

As we began to put stuff away at like 8:15am Ashley walked by and said, "It's never good to get your butt wet to start the day" ... apparently she sat in a puddle.

Imagine Will Ferrel in Anchorman for the next quote. For first session pool it was overcast and freezing, so lots of campers and counselors alike were avoiding the pool. I was sitting poolside when a camper said something in a very Will Ferrell in Anchorman sort of way. "I like the water ... a lot. It's cold, but it's GOOD." (Imagine sort of a Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty for the "good" part). It was hilarious!

Then in Crafts (8th period not including lunch), I got beat in the seek and find. Everyone agreed it was by far the hardest seek n' find Camp Wa-nik-Ska-Ka has ever seen ... and newbie Logan upended my previous 4-0 record. First lost of the summer is tough, but hopefully I'll bounce back tomorrow.

Oh, and one of the most classic moment came compliments of Buffalo Bradley (see last summer) during 7th period games .... so Bradley, who is in another tribe, but my pod, sitting off by himself during some relay races. I decide to meander over and chat it up. He's playing with a bouncy ball and I was like "sweet bouncy ball Bradley." He got all excited, his eyes lit up, and he was like "It bounces (bounced it), rolls (rolled it) and it even spins! (and spinned it)" ... haha, ya really had to be there.

And then ... what made my day, he had a small plastic pokemon dragon toy (like real small) with a long red shoelace tied to its neck/torso with a nut on the other end of the string for weight presumably. Knowing how imaginative Bradley can be, I was like, "is that a leasch for your Charizard" as he dangled it in front of himself. He immediately stopped dangling it, got the biggest YOU'RE AN IDIOT look on his face and says, "No it's a red string." HAHAHA ... I couldnt contain myself. Best part is, not thirty seconds later after asking him what exaclty the red string was for since it clearly wasnt a leasch, he says somehting about how its the "perfect contrapection" to make his charizard fly "during battles" ... (He later described hanging it from something and swinging it at things) ... here we are discussing him making a way to make his plastic pokemon toy "fly" during "real" battles", but me thinking the red string was anything more than just a red string was absolutely ridiculously moronic. Oh it was way too classic!

Oh, I have missed Buffalo Bradley!

And now, onto Wednesday....!

The Controvery Continues

2006-06-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

So week one of my 2006 camp experience is over.

Camp on Tuesday, was pretty good. Several of my Monday campers from last year are in my pod on Tuesday so I got to see them all day even though they weren't in my tribe! Including, my Emily & my Natalie!! :) This was pretty much the highlight of my day.

My foot was bothering me nearly all day. Whenever we were stopped at an area for a lengthy period of time, I would take off my shoe to alleviate the pain a little. Finally, at the end of the day I removed my sock as well to see what was going on. There was blood all over two of my toes. Apparently I had managed to clip my toenail into a ridiculously sharp point and it had sliced down the complete length of the toe next to it. It was really bizzare, especially since it had been 2 or 3 days since I clipped it. A bandaid solved the problem until I could get to some toenail clippers.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was exhausting as those of us who stayed the night at Kelly's only got 4.5 hours of sleep. I tried my best not to let it effect me, but I know that it did.

Remember the Cardinals Fan incident on Monday? Well on Wednesday several of my campers came up to me at the beginning because they wanted to meet me (typical of the first week at camp). One of them, Claudia, sat down next to me and started asking questions including where our tribe's meeting place was. I pointed out the tree as you could see it from where we were sitting. Well, she sees the Cubs blanket hanging on the tree limb, where Ryne keeps it until we go over there, and asks, "Is that a Cubs blanket?"

Remembering Monday, I hesitantly say "Yes."

"Can I just stand? I'm a Cardinals fan, I can't sit on that."

Trying very hard to control my amusement, I calmly told her we had another blanket she could sit on. Though I think she ended up sitting on it anyway as the boys claimed the other one and it is apparently against the law to sit on the same blanket as the boys. At least, this is what I've discovered every day this week.

The story does not end there. For Pow Wow, we played "The Skittles Game." For awhile we got the typical "My favorite color is blue." or "I have two dogs and an annoying sister." answers, but then Ryne said "I like the Cubs." This of course, led to a very interesting round of:

Camper 1: "I like the Cardinals."

Camper 2: "I like the Cardinals."

Camper 3: "I like the Cardinals."

Camper 4: "I like the Cubs."

Camper 5: "I like the Cubs."

Camper 6: "I like the Cubs."

There were a few random non-sports related comments interspersed between those, including mine, but that's the gist of how it went. Well, halfway through the next round and leading into the round after, not initiated by Ryne this time, the facts went like this:

Camper 4: "I hate the Cardinals."

Camper 5: "I hate the Cardinals."

Camper 6: "I hate the Cardinals."

Camper 1: "I hate the Cubs."

Camper 2: "I hate the Cubs."

Camper 3: "I hate the Cubs."

My next fact was that I didn't really care about either of them. They of course looked at me with eyes wide open and jaws hitting the picnic tables. I'm pretty sure I lost about 500 counselor points on that one, but the looks were worth it.

So 2 out of 3 days with this big controversy and then we come to today where Ryne lays down the blankets and almost instantly a camper spews out his speech about how he can't sit on a Cubs blanket because he's a Cardinals fan. Ryne and I pretty much both lost it that time ... there was no holding back. Then later they were harassing him about it:

"Why'd you buy a Cubs blanket anyway?"

"I didn't."

"Is it Sherrie's?"

"No."

"Then you bought it."

"No, I found it at my house."

"Did your mom buy it?" (This was asked with that you-are-so-not-cool-if-you-say-yes tone of voice as if this soon to be 3rd or 4th grader's mom doesn't buy anything for him.)

"I don't know."

"Well the Cubs suck."

"That's fine if that's your opinion."

"It's not an opinion, it's a fact."

"... Okay."

I think he pretty much was getting tired of the Cubs/Cardinals debate at that point.

...

I almost forgot, quote of the day for Wednesday goes to Melissa R who after being thrown in the pool by David B and then brutally splashed while on the side nearly dry and in her towel (also by David B) shouted out "You're a ... bad word!"

Kelly later asked her which would have been her word of choice had there not been campers around ... she stated that she really didn't know and that all that popped into her head was "Jerk" but that it wasn't strong enough.

Good times.

The First Day of Camp

2006-06-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Captain's Log -
Stardate: -317443.83 (That's the stardate for June 12, 2006)

And so our new adventure has officially began. Having a full season under our belts, and nine months rest we began our voyage this morning with the utmost confidence, although admittedly I did have a few jitters as not all of of the pre-flight checklist went as planned. Then again, it never does. Nonetheless, what follows is an hour by hour breakdown of the first day in our long, yet all too short journey.

0630-0730
I wake up at 0n 0630, surprisingly on-time and well rested. I did toss and turn some the night before, however I had managed to get to bed early enough to still get the necessary amount of rest in for a Galactic voyage. However, not all was well with those in the same housing as myself. As i arose I made my way to the bathroom, put in my contacts, turned on the shower and began to strip (oh stop it, its a basic part of human maintenance). I had come to a complete state of nudity (easy now) when I realized that nature was in fact calling my name. I sat down on the pot and did my business.

As I stood up and flushed, my almost 19-year-old brother who got his first job this spring, and began working 7:30-3:30 about two weeks ago, knocked and then opened door. So there I am, completely nude, having just used the bathroom and about to get into the shower when he opens the door a crack sticks his head with his eyes at such a squint I'm not sure any sunlight was getting to his pupils and asked very politely (seriously), "Can I have my shower now?" - the implication being he normally showers at that exact minute of the morning and was wondering if he could. Having my smart-eleck side not awake, I didnt not say anything smart about how naked I was and instead said "Naw, wait 5 I'm about to get in". to which case Mr. Hyde erupted from Dr. Jekyll. He growled (I swear to you), slammed the door. Marched to my parents bedroom next door and had the shower on before I could turn around and hop in the shower myself (which was all of one foot away).

After the shower incident my brother left about 07:00, I ate a bowl of hot oatmeal in three minutes (I know, I'm amazing), and had planned to leave about 07:10. Unfortunately I could not find my camp sweatshirt, which I know I had a few weeks ago. This dilemma caused me to forget my mug and not leave until about 07:16, clearly a huge delay in a well timed launch.

0730-0830
I arrived according to camp time, at 0742. Although I am supremely confident this was not accurate. Nonetheless, the mishaps of the mornign we corrected by wearing a white long sleeve under my camp shirt and by having my dear dear friend Miss Counselor Ashton bring my mug from my house.

The interaction with campers began by playing with the building blocks with two male campers. We all found great amusement in how high we could build tower before an "earthquake" would come shake it down (I'd merely, with my butt in place, sway side to side ever so mildly on the benches in the lunchroom. This would chase the unstable atmoshophere of the bench to shake causing the whole structure to become unstable).

I eventually then followed one of the campers out to the kickball game where a counselors vs. campers game had begun. Literally it was like 15 counselors vs. a mob of about 200 screaming 1st graders. As I told Counselor Dave, in this history of Daycamp's top ten ideas, this easily cracked the top five. A little while later, when the campers were switching from either batting to fielding or vice versa Counselor Dave made the wisely hilarious crack, as a couple hundred first graders ran around like chickens with their heads cut-off: We have a name for this, it's called CHAOS!

0830-0930
Pow-Wow time! This meant the starburst name game, which lasted all of five minutes ... followed by the ball name game, which lasted about 10 minutes ... followed my improv of Simon Says, lasting about 15 minutes ... and then a rousing game of follow the leader. I didn't think it was possible to wear out Monday Campers, but we did, if even for a brief few moments. After Follow the Leader they were wiped and begging for mid-morning nap time! YES! SCORE TWO FOR ASHLEY/JIM!!!

0930-1030
It's games!! And the opening at bat for ex-counselor Aimee who is now the games coordinator (almost making her our boss, weird!). We played many rousing games of "Backyard Clean-up". Thanks to the new counselors, it was the most competitive Monday games session I'd ever experienced ... although that also meant it got a bit out of hand. But Miss Aimee handled herself and the sitch very well and I give her an A for the morning! It also turns out that despite trying to employ multiple ways to attain victory shaking one's hips and citing Carley's voice and words by saying "ITS A STRATEGY" does not in fact work or justify many attempts to win. Sad ... maybe its just a kickball thing. (Notably Carley did not bunt in her only atbat of the morning's kickball game, although she did reach first on a blooper single).

1030-1130
For the first time in my daycamp experience morning swim was cancelled! A bit too chilly. Which Im surprised mweant anything, as last year Im fairly it could have been snowing adn we'd have gotten in the water. As a substitute we played ont he playground. Good times, but it turns out that after about 3 minutes, anyone older than 16 gets too tired of or tired from freeze tag ... yet the kids could literally play it all day.

1130-1215
Lunch! AND A NEW RECORD FOR KOOL-AID SPILLAGE! Literally the first cup given to the first girl of orange kool-aid, which was on the table for no more than 2 seconds and had been given only after a two minute lecture about drink spilling, was emptied on the table by a young girl named Sabrina, who then had a second spill at the end of lunch. At least she's consistent. This, fortunately represented 100% of our juice spillage incidents.

1215-1310
GAMES AGAIN! We got to spend an hour playing with the parachute. It wasn't bad, although it was no backyard clean-up.

1310-1405
Craft time ... I love craft time usually. Today we colored in wooden airplanes! WOOO! I whooped Counselor Aaron Gross in the seek and find, putting me at 1-0 for the year ... counselor Lindsay (she's new) proved that while she's got seek and find talent she still needs practice ... and Craft Leader Kate had the quote of the afternoon as she said: "Broken Wing?!? No problem, I can fix that. I've become a real master at aeronautical repair." And in other news I believe the United States Air Force contacted Craft Leader Kate later that day about becoming a chief mechanic on their new F-22 Raptor, a supersonic military jet.

1405-1530
Napped with the other counselors that had the hour off. To which I also took my shirt off as wel as socks and shoes. Tiffany had the quotes of hour about 20 minutes after I did this saying, "Jim what happened? You're naked." I was quite tempted to look down and WHAT? WHO STOLE MY CLOTHES?!

And that ladies and gentleman was the first day of camp.

Here's hoping tomorrow is another fine day of flight. Until then, I remain Captain James P. Boyer of the Starship Comanche. Godspeed.

Hooray for the first day of camp!

2006-06-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Sun,

Thank you oh so very much for hiding just long enough for the kids to complain that swim time was cancelled and then blaring up just enough to make me bright pink. At least you picked a color that matches my tribe's bandanas.

Sincerely,
-Sherrie-

...

Really though, it was a good day ... our campers were great until about the last 20 minutes I was with them, and I couldn't ask for a better co-counselor. I wish I had a story to share, but really about the only thing story-worthy was when Ryne threw a ball at Aimee and she told the campers Ryne was going to be in trouble later to which one of our campers asked Ryne "Is that your mom?" I'm pretty sure the camper was dead serious, which is fairly amusing since Ryne's a year older than Aimee.

Oh wait, we also had a die-hard Cardinals fan. When Ryne laid down the Cubs blanket he brought for the kids to sit on, Brady asked me, "Can I just stand?"

Used to strange requests by campers, I replied, "Sure."

"'Cuz I'm a Cardinals fan, so I can't sit on that blanket," he explained.

To his relief, Ryne had also brought a sleeping bag with no Cubs endorsement so he felt it was alright to sit on that. Later he asked Ryne to wear his Cardinals hat while he played with the parachute.

"No, I'm not wearing your Cardinals hat!"

Really I'm not sure what the kid expected after making such a big deal about the blanket. It was pretty amusing, though. :)

...

Here are a few pictures:

...

PS. The cuteness factor of Monday campers is extremely high.

Friday's Frollies

2006-06-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to recount the wonderful times of Friday morning's training.

First and foremost, I'll catch anything remotely in my area in kickball ... total all-star ... put me at the plate and I pop out 9 times out of 10. Haha ...

We are going to start the first ever Camp Lacrosse team with our new junior lacross sticks!

Counselor Dave has not in fact in killed any children with his car.

Bunting, while normally not allowed in kickball ... especially when it's 4 on 5, or similar numbers, is a completely legal kick for Counselor Carley, who upon getting to first base shoke her hips from side to side and slowly said while she danced, "Its a strategy". (I wish we had an aud/vid uplink to demonstrate the hilarity of this.

The Kimbo/Carley/Jim captained kickball team is an unstoppable force. WOOOOO!

Oh my, I cant wait for camp to start tomorrow!

2006-06-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

Camp starts Thursday and so too does the blogging! Wooo!

It's Starting!!!

2006-06-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

Training started last Thursday, and camp officially starts one week from today!!!!

Who's excited??? I know I am!! :o)

It's Almost Time!!!

2006-02-24T15:53:00.000-08:00

I know people probably aren't reading this yet, but keep an eye on the mail, because the letters for this summer are coming out. I can't wait until this summer!

Long time listener, first time caller

2005-11-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hey all,
I know this may gon unsanwered for a while but does anyone have the track listing for the songs that David had that night we all watched Top Gun. If anyone knows throw up a post, thanks

Gross

2005-10-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

State Farm Day Camp Counselors 2005

2005-09-18T12:18:00.007-07:00

Teresa

2005-09-18T12:18:00.006-07:00

Sherrie

2005-09-18T12:18:00.005-07:00

Roofio

2005-09-18T12:18:00.004-07:00

Melissa Ritchie

2005-09-18T12:18:00.003-07:00

Miss Kyle

2005-09-18T12:18:00.002-07:00

Melissa

2005-09-18T12:18:00.001-07:00

Megan

2005-09-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

Matt

2005-09-18T12:17:00.004-07:00

Kimberly

2005-09-18T12:17:00.003-07:00

Kenny

2005-09-18T12:17:00.002-07:00

Ken

2005-09-18T12:17:00.001-07:00

Don David

2005-09-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

Corey

2005-09-18T12:16:00.003-07:00

Carley

2005-09-18T12:16:00.002-07:00

Brandon

2005-09-18T12:16:00.001-07:00

Batman, Alias unknown

2005-09-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

Zach

2005-09-18T12:14:00.003-07:00

Adam

2005-09-18T12:14:00.002-07:00

A-Gross

2005-09-18T12:14:00.001-07:00

Aaron

2005-09-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

Aimee

Hey!

2005-08-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!! I hope the beginning of the school year is going well and everyone is starting off on the right foot. I just wanted to let everyone know that I have created a blog to keep everyone updated on my adventures in Terre Haute.... http://sroof.blogspot.com/ I'm just trying to keep in touch with as many people as possible and I see this as an excellent way of doing so. Enjoy the school year!

-Roofio

Update on Camp Pictures

2005-08-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

So, apparently the free version of Webshots only holds 240ish pictures, I took over 500 this summer, so ... mine are all at
http://students.jbu.edu/rohdes/sfdaycamp.

If you want me to add any of yours to it, just email them to me or send me a disc. Otherwise, I'll delete all my photos off the webshots account so you can upload yours there.

Thanks guys! :)
-Sherrie-

PS If you had asked me for a CD and still want one, please remind me so I know who to mail them to! Thanks! :)

Hey Hey Hey!!!

2005-08-18T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!!! It's David. I hope everything is going okay. I was extremely sad to be missing the last day of camp. I think I finally found a job I love doing. All during RA training, I lamented on what I could be doing at Day Camp.

Life in Mississippi is great. I'm all moved in and someday I'm gonna have some great stories to share with all of you from RA training.

Move in started Wednesday, and on Wednesday night we a student went to jail in handcuffs for a drug violation. Talk about a great way to start the year. Within 12 hours of moving in, a kid had already been charged with a crime that almost guarantees to get you kicked out of the dorm for the year without a refund... that's a $3,000 dollar joint he smoking.

Anyway, I hope all is well with everyone. I'm on track to be home the weekend after Labor Day if ya'll want to hang out. Adios!

HELLOOOOO EVERYONE!

2005-08-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

Missing camp...what can i say. But, good luck to everyone moving in/starting classes. anyone at ISU or weslyan, or in town, i propose a craft night at the humble little pink apartment of kimberlina at some time. YAY!

Also, for those of you of the praying type, please pray for my daddy...he had to go in for emergency heart surgery last friday, and nearly didn't survive. He is home now, and doing ok, but it really shook up the family and all of us are in for some major lifestyle changes. Please just keep everyone in your prayers.

Thanks so much. Love and HUGS!
Kimberlina

The Tall Truth of Colby @ ISU

2005-08-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

First off dont drink the water!! .... not because ISU is a tropical dream getaway destination where you are constantly concerned about the purity of it upon returning from Mc Donalds I had finished eating up in Kyle Roberts dorm then found myself extremly parched and in need of fluids to cleanse the throat so I went to the water fountain roberts wanted me to fill his water bottle up so I took a sip first then began to replenish his empty bottle once I had returned with the dark yellow container in hand I had recieved some of the most horrific glares as if I had played a stupid joke that struck no ones fancy then I uttered this is the water fountain water! First reactions OOOHHH thank god I thought it was piss.... Thats Disgusting.. and from the mann who damn near drank a gallon out of it Vanderbush says..." AHHHHH MANN!!! I just drank from that water fountain" (all of these have been edited due to the uncertainty of viewers) I diddnt recall feeling sick though I know certain individuls that swim and boat out at Clinton Lake heaven forbid.... so I figured atleast Im not one of them....Moving on wait for it....I can hardly summon the means to type it....KYLE LAWTON MADE AN APPERANCE !.. okay so she stayed for a good while and subjected herself to a night of torchure endless games of Mario Cart 64& James Bond hey and the best part is she showed us her room gave us her editon of cribs and yes I know where she lives gentlemen I will be selling the directions on EBAY (contact me later about the auction number wink wink) Ohhh thank you jesus Dave shed the light on a new wepon that may finally end all other uprisings of the dark side...! Its the new light saber that yes has interchangeble color slides which make the whole saber light up one color again this is BADASS equipment not to be taken lightly by the likes of the Justice Leauge... so eventful stories I tell ya.. I bid you all farwell

THE END!

2005-08-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

Well I must say, I dont remember what my summer's were like before I started working at State Farm Day Camp and I think I am totally afraid of losing that fun camp feeling!! Friday was my last day as a Day Camp Counselor and I thought that I wouldnt be sad to see this summer end! All the drama and bs of the summer and it drug by so slowly! But it was towards the end that I started making my friendships and Im kinda sad that I didnt get to work on them more. Hopefully we will all keep this camp blog alive!! In my eval I asked about the possibility of coming back for key staff and I am totally applying for the position so we need to keep our fingers crossed that it happens!!! I would love to do that!!

I am off to NYC to see some shows and for you Wicked fans I am seeing Idina Menzel in concert on Friday( Original Elphaba). Cannot wait for my second Dee concert!!! I will have pictures when I get back!!! Then I start school next Monday!!! hehe so there wont be many posts the next few days but I will enjoy NYC/ Boston/ Cape Cod and Provincetown. I just found out that Friday in Provincetown is the Gay Pride Parade!! OMG ITS GONNA BE AIMEE HEAVEN!! A BUNCH OF GAY GUYS ALL IN ONE PLACE!!! EEKKKKK HAHAHA sad sad life I live!!

Love you all!!
~ Krazy Kounselor Kerber OUT!

Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka, we hold you in our hearts....

2005-08-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

Awww......that title reminds me of David and Salute Your Shorts. Just wanted to say thanks to you all for such a fun summer. Def one of my best, and so so many good times. I can't wait for the time at school when something reminds me of a camp memory and I start laughing and no one else thinks it's funny.

Well, i'm leaving for school on Sat. (or possibly Sun.......it's up in the air right now) but I hope to get to see you guys before I leave. Thanks for all the fun times this summer!

P.S. yeah, this is my first post, but better late than never, I always say =)

Roadtrip to visit Roofio!!

2005-08-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

I've just received info from Roofio about possible dates for a roadtrip to visit her!!

Roofio has games every Friday and Saturday night, so we'll get to see her in action when we visit . . . ;o)

Saturday, September 24
Saturday, October 8
Saturday, October 29
Saturday, November 12**

**Roof doesn't have a game this night, so if we travelled on Friday, we could crash at her place Friday night and then hang out with her all day Saturday (and maybe crash at her place again Saturday night, leaving Sunday morning?? Gimme some feedback on this, Fred.)

Let me know what works for you guys, and I'll get a-planning!! My vote is the November date, but let me know!!

After all, who says we can't visit Roofio twice??? :o)

--Counselor Kelly--

aka - George :o)

well well....

2005-08-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hi all it has been 2 days since camp ended yet I have just now joined the blog......yippie! well believe me the summer has been eventful yet there will be much more too write about soon I can assure you of that

Farewell Camp of 2005

2005-08-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

Sadly the end of summer has come and gone, and our fellowship has disbanded, at least for the time being. I leave you with this quote which I believe is most appropriate.

"Farewell, my brave Hobbits. My work is now finished. Here at last, on the shores of the sea comes the end of our Fellowship. I will not say, Do not weep for not all tears are an evil."
-Gandalf; LOTR:ROTK-

The last day of summer

2005-08-12T05:19:00.000-07:00

It's a pretty sad day in the neighborhood...

First I have to go to Diversity training this morning rather than camp ... and for those of you confused, Diversity is an old wooden ship from the Civil War...

It's really mostly sad, because today is the last half day of Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka ... which also means it's the last half-day of summer.

That's it. Just one more beautiful afternoon to run around screaming with the kids, making a hemp bracelet tied to my mug, getting a sweet tan, just having a ball. It's my last afternoon of summer! AAAAAGGGGHHHHH! *Major Tear*!

Not gonna lie, gonna miss the people at camp. Lots of campers I enjoy seeing ... of course I don't what I'll do without the beautiful and charming Kimberly Owens. I'm definitely going through withdrawal. There's a lot of people that were four year counselors I won't see again regularly and this saddens me as I have enjoyed many people's company. All of the counselors who just pick ya up when ya need it ... Cuckooooooo Choctaw! ... Too many leaving for school, too many paths to all be heading the same direction.

Camp is ending = SAD.

Camp is ending = Summer is ending = WAY WAY SADDER

Camp is ending = Summer is ending = Counselors are leaving = *tear*

Here's hoping it's a blast today...

-Jungle Jim-

MISSING YOU!!!

2005-08-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!! I'm missing all of you. Thanks for making camp so much fun this year and I'll try to keep in contact during these next 2 weeks but I can not make any guarantees because of volleyball. Just a reminder to mark your calenders for October 15th at 7pm, Indiana State will be taking on Illinois State at Redbird. Come cheer on ISU!! (Hehe I made a funny cuz we are both ISU!) Here is a link to my entire schedule since some of you don't go to school in Bloomington...I also play at Eastern IL, Northern IL, Bradley, and SIU Carbondale.

http://www.indstate.edu/athletic/volleyball/2005schedule.html

-Roofio

P.S. I'll try to get a list of dates together of goods times to take a road trip to Terre Haute if you are willing to make the drive....there were some fun times last trip!! Off to practice, AGAIN!!

Happy Trails to two more

2005-08-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to throw this out there, sadly last Friday we said so long to AZA Hooligan Counselor Katie Olson. She was a blast (even if she never did make it out to a social event after camp with us) and I'm gonna miss her ... here's hoping this is not the last I see of Miss Katie Olson ...

Just as sad, on Tuesday afternoon we said good-bye to Stephanie Roof, counselor of the Inuit tribe. Roofio was a lot of fun and camp, or our social group, just isn't quite the same. We had loads of fun bonding and all and I hope we get a chance to see her in Terre Haute ....

Both counselors left early to for their college volleyball teams and of course we wish them the best. It would also be awesome if they'd post their v-ball schedules on the blog so we can all see if there's a game here or there that's close enough for us to attend!

I am soooooo gonna miss you guys!

-Jim-

P.S. Remember this wisdom from yours truly when on the court: Always stick to your guns, stand your ground and when that time comes ... GIVE 'EM HELL!

My apologies

2005-08-10T16:40:00.000-07:00

First of all, I apologize to anyone on my lack of on-line blogging involvement for a little while here. With daycamp, RA training, moving in/out, RA work, social life, family and Megan ... oh yeah and Narcolepsy I am finding it harder and harder to get my blogging time, which believe me I miss (even if y'all don't miss me or haven't noticed a difference!)

I have posting I want to do from Friday and I am so afraid I am going to run out of time and miss my window to remember any of it. So here's hoping I get these posts up ...

Adios my fair and fantastic friends!

-Jungle Jim-

Terrible Tuesday

2005-08-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

Is it me or was today like the best and worst day of camp all together?!?!?! It was the best because KENNY METROFF IS BACK!!!! OMG was I excited to see him this morning. Story time was the best and I think i got more out of the story then the campers did!! Worst however because today was Roofio's last day and it was tough saying goodbye to her!!!! PS- DAVID IF YOU ARE READING THIS I MISS SINGING WITH YOU!!!! I just dont like Tuesday campers. They are whiny, klingy, annoying and since I still wasnt feeling all better today that pitched in to make it worse!!! I cant figure it out!! Mondays are great, Weds and Thursday are too??? What is the deal!!! oh well 3 more days to go and I am retiring from the fun world of being a camp counselor! I have done my time!!!

~ Krazy Kounselor Kerber out!

Appleton

2005-08-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

So today after lunch, I went to hear Kenny tell a story, meanwhile I was eating an apple. When Kenny was done telling his story I went to games in the old shelter. Still eating my apple, I go and sit on the edge of the table. After I was done with my apple, I look over at Heather and she was playing with a bowling pin. I thought wouldn't it be funny if she could hit the apple. So I toss the apple to her and she whams it back at my face and hits me square in the eye. owwwwwww!!!!!

Thursdays of Death and Doom

2005-08-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's a post I started Thursday night and never got around to finishing ... so I finished it to the best of my ability (it's denoted where the additions begin). Enjoy...

Took Ashton and my Pops today (I say that because I drove, so I did take...), which means it was a Jeep morning! Although randomly, after I put up the back window to give Ashton room to sit I noticed that I had blood trickling down my right index finger. It bled for a while and that sucker really bled! I gotta pretty good little gash there with no idea how I got it. I never felt nothin' and I am not sure I understand how it could have happened ... another mystery to life.

Ashton is a real hoot in the morning. She totally makes the trip a blast! Especially on the mornings she is barely alive at first, but then comes more awake and alert as the little drive progresses. She was awesome helping me put up the two side windows right before work, we did it in like 3 minutes .... NO PROBLEMO! Oh, and as we got there Redneck Yacht Club and HickTown came on the radio, which are two of my favoritest songs out right now. So we got to jam really early. great way to start the day!

Played kickball, campers vs counselors. Great game ... I love Thursday kickball. Made a couple of sweet plays ... played the right side of the field with Walter, Ken, Zach and Hos ... we rocked.

The Thursday campers are awesome! They are all great kids ... and they have great names .. how's this for a news team: Jackson Grant and Charlie Robinson seriously, awesome! Um, Kim made a mess of our morning tally sheet and it was way confusing, except her handwriting is amazing ... sooo it looked great. I really can't complain, I asked for a PB with no J and I got it, despite the facts I had my doubts.

Kelly made me an amazing ankelet since I've whined about it ... it's black with yellow glow in the dark beads that spells out I AM BATMAN. It seriously is amazing! She even got on one knee to tie it to my ankle! *INSERT OBLIGATORY JOKE TO KELLY ... "While you're down there...*

Games first: We played Nuke 'Em out in the sand volleyball courts. I love my pod on Thursdays, especially at games, so it was sad that we played Nuke 'Em thus counselors didn't play. Aaron Cleaver did another amazing job supervising kids while everyone else just sort of half-supervised or just chatted. We all got our feet or shoes dirty in the sand though, so at least we were present if somethign went down. Hos and I took this hysterical flaming picture that I am sure will be used as attempted blackmail in about 10 years. Good times...Oh, and Melissa, Kimbo and Kelly shared stories of dancing around their dorm rooms in their underwear, or of just changing and thus being naked or partially naked. Since I'm apparently already the pervert of camp, I'll say it: "Gigity-gigity, ALRIGHT!"

(BELOW HERE IS EVERYTHING ADDED TODAY)

Swimming second: Began with an attempted nap ... however, I randomly felt some movement and as I open my eyes I realize I am about 5-6 feet off the ground still laying on the chair. The guy counselors of the pod decided to toss me in the pool (assuming of course I was planning on napping the whole hour and not swimming). At first I debated hopping off the chair before we got to the pool, and they all realized it and later said they thought I was going to, so Cleaver joined the crew to make sure I didn't jump. For a few moments I was like a king, as the chair was being hoisted by bodies on all side carrying me ... they then tossed me off the chair face first into the water. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! It was awesome! A little shocking, got some water up the nose, but overall good times. Sadly, the session was overcast and breezy so while I did spend some time in the kiddie section with Kelly, it got too cold and I sat with a camper who came late most of the time. Fortunately we had swimming second and not third, as we actually got pool time. While we were herding kids into the locker room it thunderd and lightninged thus canceling pod 3. Woot woot, it wasn't us!

Pow-Wow: For the final installment of the morning, we did macrame (SP?!?) for Pow-Wow. It's essentially making bracelets, anklets, etc with beads and hemp. At first we had to recruit Kelly as I was worthless, but Kelly did teach me the very basics ... During Pow-Wow it did rain very minimally and thundered a bit, but eventually amounted to nothing.

Sadly the afternoon campers at Soccer this week were no where near as amazing as last week. The first period just whined and chatted and were an overall real bratty pain in the patella. However, group two was a little better and group three the best of all! For the second group Kelly and I created a name which was affectionately called Ring of Doom! There's five goals set up in a circle of cones, so their are five teams. At first we had it so that each team had one goalie and it was just every team for themselves, trying to score, with 3-5 balls ... and if a ball went outside the circle without going through a goal it was brought back in and still live and if a ball went through a goal it counted as a score and was dead. We had to keep tweaking rules as game play kept being interrupted. Essentially our field wasn't big enough, so we developed the game so taht there was one goalie, one scorer and one Ringer (also known as a circler) who circled the outside of the ring and retrieved any balls that lef the circle for their team only.

Here's where it gets really good ... for the third group I had this total moment of genius which Kelly and I took and ran with. We eventually dubbed this game Agent of Death (or something like that, I am sure Kelly will post the correct name). It uses the same field set-up of the circle and there are five teams of three with three balls in play. We had 13 people, so u do the math and u'll realize we had one odd-man out, which we further tweaked the game for. Here's the game, we split them up into their five teams and then gave each player a starting cone. They start at that cone at the beginning of each round and can either run to their goal to defend it or run to a ball to try and score. We made it so their start cones alternated by teams (so each player was 4 players away from a team-mate) and so that they didn't talk to their team-mates before the first round. Made for interesting chaos. But here's the best part of the whole game, each team had what was called a "Double Agent". That person actually played for another team, but they were the only ones who knew it. For example Players 1,2 and 3 were on red. Except Player 2, while still wearing the red jersey, was actually playing for the blue team. They had to try and play so that the red team wouldn't catch on, but so that the blue team would ... so u're essentially playing with no one knowing who's on ur team, if u're not a double agent u're constantly trying to figure out who is and if u r then nobody on ur real or fake team knows it. It's brilliant and the kids loved it! After all 3 or 5 balls had been scored, that round was over and kids returned to their starting cones. Oh,a nd the odd player was callled the "Super-Villian." They wore everycolor jersey and had the main job of just running around disrupting every other team and scoring pretty much anywhere they want, and tht person is their own team. And fianlly, since balls leave the ring at all times, we made the rule that whoever kicked the ball out of a ring had to retrive it and bring it to Kelly and i before re-entering the game. It was ana amazing game and an amazing success. Their are a bunch of othe rlittle rules, but overall I thought we created a kick-butt game I hope we play again sometime!

My final story is that of during check-out. While at check-out, I decide I have to check my voicemail to see if ISU called me to let me know about the RA position. My phone said I have one voicemail, so when I listened to it and it was Brian, I was pretty dissapointed. Humorously enough, it was Brian, my little brother tellling me that "Uuumm, Jim, it's raining...HARD and the windows in the Jeep are home ..um And you need to ... um, uh ... come home immediately!" ...

I cracked up! As if 1) Being outside all day versus Brian who's inside most of the day, I wouldn't know when it was pouring down rain. He said he called just in case I was in the storm shelter, which I responded with, ...I'd be there because it was raining! 2)It's not like bloomington-normal isn't big enough and oddly shaped that often when its raining at home its sunny at camp or vice-versa. 3) NO FAITH! I was the one who took the windows off the Jeep, left them int he backseat all week in case it rained, and told Mom the night before I thought it was going to rain and I'd need to wake up early to put the windows up. 4) If I'm at work, wouldn't it be easier to send Jason to me rather than telling me to come home? 5) I'm not allowed to use the cell at work ... haha, so had all the above not been true, I still wouldn't have ever known 'cause I wouldn't have ever checked! Too funny! I love my little bro ...

So Um, uh, COME HOME NOW!

-Jim-

hey friends

2005-08-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry bout wimpin out on camp today friends!! I felt like shit and I was either going to puke or pass out!!! I felt bad because it was the Monday campers last day and when I told them I was going home, one of them gave me a really sad look that made me want to cry!! However, I was getting really mad when they wanted me to tie there necklaces with the fruit loops on them! hahaha wow the fun of being a girl!!! This week is gonna be awesome because its the last week but tough because I know that its my last couple days as a counselor!!! Sadness is kinda hitting me!!! See yall tomorrow and hopefully I wont be feeling icky!!!

~ KRAZY KOUNSELOR KERBER OUT!

Team Pictures!!

2005-08-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

--FIRE-BREATHING TATER TOTS--
Official Team Picture Day
Monday, August 8
(**During Quiet Time?**)
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

ATTN ALL TEAM MEMBERS - Monday, August 8 (TOMORROW!!) is Beater Roofio's last full day of camp. This will therefore be Official Team Picture Day. For the picture, please bring your towel (cape), any sort of goggles (swimming goggles, ski mask, etc.), gloves, shin guards, and anything else Quidditch-ish you can think to wear. PLEASE ALSO BRING YOUR BROOM.
**Bring your cameras for pictures!!**

See you there!!

--Beater Snyder--

Adios Amigos!

2005-08-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I just wanted to thank all of you for making this summer a TON of fun! I cannot believe that it is over already...I am already missing camp! Have a great time this last week and take good care of my AZAs for me! Keep in touch and if you are ever in Indianapolis, feel free to stop by and visit... ta ta for now!

And In The End...

2005-08-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

So that's it. The summer is over. I just want to thank everyone for helping to make this summer as much fun as it was. It's sad that it's over for me, but hopefully next year we will all come back and do it again. Also, as for the question posted earlier, I am definately in favor of using the blog through the school year as a means of keeping in touch.

And so, because it is my last day, I am actually going to submit a story...

So today at mini-golf while we were explaining the rules, I told the campers they could name their golf clubs because they were their new best friends and they need to take good care of them. After we finished talking about the clubs, I began to explain that in each group, a each person needed to use a different colored ball. One kid asked, "Can we name our balls?" The comment flew right over the camper's heads, the mini gold attendent and I could barely contain ourselves.

Jim, what is the status of the Fear Factor video? I'm pretty sure there are many counselors who would love to see. Also, remember that I need that tape back.

Two Questions

2005-08-04T15:58:00.000-07:00

1) Why am I the only one who ever posts on this darned thing ... Okay, correction, How come Kelly and I are the only two who ever post on this thing? Some props to Roofio who manages to through up some postings from time to time ... It's more like the Kelly and Jim show with guest appearances from Stephanie Roof than a camp blog ... hm, maybe it'll keep growing and catch on next summer.

2) What shall happen with the blog during the other nine months out of the year?

Roof-E-OOOoooo . . .

2005-08-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

Right. So, I was asked by Jim (in a previous post) to recount the details of Stephanie's Tuesday Husband . . .

First of all, this kid is positively adorable and I'd love to have him in my tribe any day (especially Tuesdays. Those are Hell days. Badbad. Anyway. The kid is glued to Stephanie's hip (or sitting on her lap) from the second he arrives at camp every day. (For the record, it's adorable.) :o) So Aaron (or BIL, as I call him - stands for Brother-In-Law, since Stephanie and I are twins, and all . . . *ask me if you don't know and actually care* it's really cute - he figured out what BIL stands for and now he calls me SIL . . . awwww . . .) has been pestering Roofio all morning (imagine that - boys!) and (apparently in response to a threat made by his wife) comes up to Stephanie and says, "Bring it on, Roof-E-Ooo (not quite to the same effect that Jim originally demonstrated - not nearly as elongated with the Oooos, nor did BIL have the same O-Face that Jim displayed -- **Most definitely a good thing** -- but there was definitely a distinct difference between BIL's Roof-E-Ooo and Roofio.

It made me laugh, and I immediately ran out to the kickball game to let Jimbo know. Jim came running back in to verify with Stephanie, and then went on to say how he could picture the kid one day using the full Roof-E-OOOoooooo . . . I'm pretty sure Stephanie was disturbed by the whole encounter. Know I would've been.

Stephanie, please feel free to comment on the situation, from your perspective.

That's all for now. Over and out--

--Counselor Kelly-- :o)

Saying Farewell

2005-08-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a big ADIOS to two of my favorite ppl at camp ...

First, and by no means do I think he'll ever read this, so long to Ken. He left today as he has to report to WIU tomorrow for the first day of football. Sadly not only he is not just gone for this summer, but for good as it's his fourth year. Not gonna lie, I've had every day with Ken as we have the same pod schedule every day all summer ... while we weren't exactly brothers (a la him and Zach), I've really enjoyed having Ken around. He's been a blast, he's taught me a lot about the job and has been a good friend ... Rock on and hopefully I'll catch a game or something this year.

Second, ADIOS to DAVID or as Kelly calls him Don David (spanish accent). David is an RA at Ole Miss and has an eight hour drive ahead of him tomorrow as he heads down to start two weeks of training. David is definitely an integral part of our first-year crew and I'm gonna miss him! The kid is hysterical ... not to mention he's a walking broadway musical! Hopefully we'll see much more of him despite the 8 hour distance.

I'm gonna miss both of them next week at camp (or in Ken's case, next year) and I wish you two the best in all that life brings you! Thanks for everything and of course...

Rock on!

-Jim-

Pink

2005-08-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

PINK is definitely MY NEW FAVORITE COLOR!

Especially at Camp-Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka.

PINK=AMAZING.

The Worst is Behind Us

2005-08-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

No Jeep today, that was sad. No Krazy Kounselor Kerber, which was very sad too.
I arrived at camp 7 whole minutes early today! Best I've done in a looooong time. I attribute it to my wake call from Kelly and the fact I am always more punctual when I am carpooling with Ashton.
This morning Roofio was teased about a comment I made during last night's counselor party thing ... *FLASHBACK* When she was leaving we were all like Roof-E-Oooooooooooooo, just like in the movie Hook. I then piped up and stated to Roofio that one day in the future when her and her husband are getting it on, right before he gets to his O-face he's gonna be like, "Oh I love you so much Stephanie Roof ... Roof ... Roof-E-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (imagine eyes rolling to back of head with pleasure in a state of sexual estacy sort of way).*END FLASHBACK* Naturally this carried over today, much to her chagrin ... right away Kelly introduced me to her Tuesday husband, a short second grade boy who wore his worn blue Illinois hat slightly cocked (not in a hip way, but like a little boy not wearing his hat right). We all got that look like we were connecting the joke to this kid beign her husband and needless to say no one could speak from fits of laughter. Apparently later in the morning the kid made some comment calling Steph "Roof-E-ooo", but I am fuzzy ont he details so I hope Kelly makes sure it gets put up on the board.
Walter once again proved that he is not to be trusted to get an out by throwing in a game of kickball. He literally had a kid at point blank range (maybe a foot tops, mor elike 6 inches), with this giant green ball that was about the size of some campers and as the kid was going home and Walter had the kid for an easy peg, HE THREW AND MISSED! The kid leaped over Walter's throw (he threw it at his lower body) and scored. While it was a sweet play, HOW DO YOU MISS THAT THROW WALTER?!? SERIOUSLY. You're track record ain't so hot on throwing outs this year...
Not sure how it happened, but some little girl while up to kick, whiffed twice in her attempt to kick the ball. This ball literally went close to knee height on her. It's a big kickball, how she missed once is beyond me .... I chuckled when that happened, but when she did it again it was mind-boggling. I didn't think it was possible. Of course I said that and then 30 seconds later Walter missed his point blank throw which I didn't think was possible either...
Brought the second pair of 1980's big red sun-glasses for Kimberly this morning to pool time. They aren't quite as big and are my preferred pair. We were quite the hot pair. Totally on the leading edge of trendiness...
Whenever the lifeguard office blares country music over the PA I find my pool session is much more enjoyable. There ain't nothing like a little jammin' twang to put you in a good mood...Props to Katie O. and Melissa R. who are country nerds like me and sang along to the tunes ... Apparently Katie's dream was to be a country music star. I'd have never guessed. Well I guess you can't judge a book by it's cover or as they say (and by they I mean me) you can't judge a counselor by her sunglasses...Rock on Katie and Melissa!
Sidewalk Chalk is a failsafe for Tuesday campers...and I've never been as fat as when drawn via chalk on a sidewalk.
Tuesday campers can be such little brats! The twins leaving at 11:45 was a godsend. My afternoon was so wonderful!
So in the middle of games a camper that I've known for two years now from Sugar Creek says he doesn't want to play the game anymore. I told him I knew it was hot, but that he needed to play. He protested and said that his Dad said he could take rests because he got in a car accident. Now the very first day of camp I said hi to him and he told me his neck hurt from a car accident he'd been in the day before. So I calmly sit him down and tell him that he's used that story before and that he ain't getting out of the game that way ... He starts to get very frustrated, very upset and the water works begin flowing. Except they were legit ... it was obvious he had been in a car accident the morning before and had gone to the ER. SO it turns out that a camper can be in a serious accident twice in the same summer ... man, I felt like an a$$! I definitely apologized and did what I could to make him feel better.
Aaron went Muhammed Ali on me today. Ask Walter. The sun was too hot, Cleaver was running games and I harassed him a bit too much ... and he went after me swinging. Walter said he thought my life was about to end. Ten minutes later Aaron was totally calm and cool with me. Hm, not sure I entirely understand what happened, but I'm just glad he didn't decide I needed a knuckle sandwich!
Served hot dogs at lunch today. Despite common sense, a quarter of the campers went through the line with their buns closed. I felt funny hollering, "Make sure your buns are open when you get to me please" 3 times a minute.
Aeriol, the AZA, is the cutest camper of all-time. She was wearing my 80's glasses and strutting through the lunch room ... hysterical. Oh, and Melissa R looks really naturally in the 80's shades. Seriously, like she pulls them off. Everyone agrees, she's the only one they look good on, thus the reason we laughed at her too. It's almost more funny to see people's reactions when she tries them on! Consequently, I spent a lot of the day wearing her sunglasses while she had mine. Haha, such is the price of trend-setting I suppose...
Crafts was awesome! I definitely taught the craft and then made mine for Megan ... looking at it, I was sot of impressed. It's definitely the pinnacle of my craft abilities. It don't get much better than that folks.
Never attempt to nap while taking a break with other counselors, especially if their are more girls than guys ... or more than one girl at all ... it flat out won't work!
During games I reformed a camper ... did the same yesterday. A couple of criers ... not like this morning when the kid cried legitely, but a couple of hardcore cry-babies. The kid today was the worst case in all of camp. All summer he cries over everything. So today during games he went to crying and I went to reforming. We made some huge leaps. He had a second incident where normally he'd cry and he didn't! I started to, but he was hardcore fighting it off and eventually triumphed. It may have been a short-term reform but at least for the afternoon he was cured. Did the same yesterday on a small scale, so that was awesome to have my methods work twice. Let's hope this trend continues....
Busted out two new kickballs today to replace the huge green one which was a temporary ball. They were sooooo light, and got caught up crazy in the winds. However, it seems if we use one during a nice calm morning our goal of kicking it over the totem pole will probably be realized. TOTALLY SWEET!
Kelly has an obsession with making anklets/bracelets. I told her she needs to learn to color instead, because the bracelet making was getting out of hand. I only say that because she's only made me one ... haha ... that and she's got like 8 on each wrist/ankle.
Apparently a hive of bees has been secretly building their HQ in our check-out shelter and we have been oblivious. Some camper loudly pointed this hive of bees out to us ... and it was obvious the bees had been working at this hive for quite a long time. They mind their own business. I've never seena bee up there and even as we were gawking one would leave and head down this flight path and if any returned they took the same flight path. Unfortunately for the bees, the camper pointed it out at an inopportune time. Thus for state of mind of all the parents we moved benches and made all the campers sit on the opposite half of the shelter. Not that it really does anything, and considering the hive size, we've been sharing our shelter for some time ... but we needed to do something, so Ashley T. went off to tell Keystaff and we directed kids away. At least it looked good to the public, and that's really all that's important, right? Maintenance claims they would take care of it once all the kids were gone .... we'll see, but in the mean time, seriously, poor bees!

Coolest statement of the day: Counselor Kevin told me today that I am one of the top five coolest people he's ever met. Way sweet. In the pool locker-room somehow he asked a question and in answering I had to tell him I have Narcolepsy. He had the same response everyone else does, "NUH-UH! Dude, Seriously?" ... "Yep" .... "No way" ... only he was all like, "That's so sweet man" and giving me hand pounds ... "That's just tight, dude you are so cool" ... haha, not sure what's cool, but apparently my disability got me on someone's top five coolest ppl list. That's just awesome. Woot woot!

Fire-Breathing Tater Tots

2005-08-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka's first ever
COUNSELOR QUIDDITCH TEAM!!

Here's the lineup for your very own

--FIRE-BREATHING TATER TOTS--

Beaters: Stephanie Roofio & Kelly Snyder
Chasers: Jim Boyer, Melissa Finch & Aaron Gross
Keeper: Melissa Ritchie
Seeker: Teresa Peterson

ATTN ALL TEAM MEMBERS - Monday, August 8 is Beater Roofio's last full day of camp. This will therefore be Official Team Picture Day. For the picture, please bring your towel (cape), any sort of goggles (swimming goggles, ski mask, etc.), gloves, shin guards, and anything else Quidditch-ish you can think to wear. PLEASE ALSO BRING YOUR BROOM.

Thanks, team, and if you've got any questions, please contact Beater Snyder (contact info is in her Blogger profile).

ps -- if you don't know what Quidditch is, I'm very sorry.

***Team Name compliments of Last Session's Thursday Camper Jay Simmons (Kurt from the Sound of Music)***

***Team Colors compliments of Chaser Boyer***

ATTN: Tomorrow's Events

2005-08-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

ATTENTION ALL COUNSELORS

Tomorrow has been dubbed the first of several soon-to-be annual holidays by Counselor (Jungle) Jim Boyer.

Official Girls' Wear a Colored Bra to Work Day

Official Boys' Bring a Camera to Work Day

Official All Counselors' Wet T-Shirt Contest

I believe all are self explanatory, if you have any questions, please contatct Counselor (Jungle) Jim Boyer (see his Blogger Profile for contact information).

Proof that God does Exist!

2005-08-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I could possibly have overlooked the event Kelly alluded to in her comment to my latest post .... I knew I was missing something and here it is...

The OFFICIAL *GOD LOVES ME* Moment of the Day: Apparently, yesterday right before lunch Kelly invited her campers to douse her in water (and I mean completely soak). She just forgot one eeny weeny ever so tiny detail: UNDER OUR RAZOR THIN WHITE T-SHIRTS SHE WAS WEARING A BRIGHT BRIGHT ULTRA HOT PINK BRA. She came in to lunch, semi-dry and before she said a word I knew what was going to come out of her mouth. The only thing I could think was .... "NO WAY! NO F---ing WAY! So God really does answer prayers", hahahaha...she proceeded to explain how this whole situation came to be, although I don't think I ever made eye contact once, haha. This was a possibly once in a life-time event, I just had to ask her, "How did I miss the memo that today was wet t-shirt contest day?". Needless to say this was the sole reason God created camera phones. It's too bad we don;t have pockets to carry said phones along with us.

You just can't Make this stuff up...

2005-08-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

Guess what?!? IT WAS THE SECOND TO LAST MONDAY OF CAMP '05, AAAAAAGGGGHHHH! Made it today at exactly 8am ... set the tone for a good day. Well actually, driving the Jeep to work set the tone for a good day, making it right at 8am was just sort of the first step down that path.

You Just Can't Make this S*** Up Moment #1: Note: While I was present at the time, I didn't actually hear all of this so part of this was relayed to me, thus the exact wording may be slightly off ... It's nearing the end of pool time so counselors start getting out in order to dry off and prepare for campers getting out. Melissa Ritchie hops out of the pool, dries off and then asks to anyone within earshot, "Does anyone see a pair of sunglasses laying around?" ...Pauses for a moment, get's that look in her eye and says, "Nevermind, I'm wearing them." HAHAHAHAHAHA...she needs to dye her hair blonde just to give people a warning. Seriously, she had the sunglasses on, covering her eyes and she thinks she's lost them and goes as far as to ask everyone else if they've seen them. Hun, the fact the world was tinted black might have been a good indication you hadn't in fact lost your sunglasses...Haha...Oh, too funny...

You Just Can't Make this S*** Up Moment #2: The pool at 9am, being the apparently amazing time that it is, produced a second great quote about 5 minutes after Melissa's now infamously hysterical blonde moment. My co-co, Kimbo, puts on the EJ's that I wear to the pool. The EJ's, for those of you who don't know, are these huuuuuuuge pinkish red sunglasses my Mom used to wear in the 80's and they look a little Elton John-ish. She looks at the sun glasses, procedes to put them in the vicinity of her chest and exclaim, "These things are huge! I feel as if I could wear them as a bra..." .... needless to say my face lit up and I was laughing so hard I couldn't pick which comment to respond with first.

You Just Can't Make this S*** Up Moment #3: Maybe 10 minutes after this amazing event brought to us by Kimberly Owens, a camper in our tribe provided the third amazing moment of the MORNING. While sitting at our shelter eating our snack, a little girl camper (mind you these are first graders) blurts out something to the effect of "PEANUTS", giggles profusely, covers her mouth with her hand and then proclaims that she's "Allergic to Peanuts" ... Kim and I immediately looked at each other and began busting up. I am defintiely not sure she said peanuts and in fact I believe she used a similar term for the male genitalia. That's right, we both heard her say she's ALLERGIC TO MALE GENITALIA. Needless to say I was nearly brough to tears from the hilarity and I had to take a little walk in an effort to compose myself. It was just one of the priceless moments I'll always treasure here at Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka.

Totally Sweet Moment of the Day: Tribal treat today was a group of three black belt instructors coming in to teach the kids self-defense Tae-Kwon-Do style!! It was bad-a$$, no doubt! Coolest thing ever was teaching the kids some of the moves in terms they understand, like if someone is choking you we taught them the following sequence: Turtle (putting ur chin on ur chest), Distract (slapping attacker in face), Snake (weaking arms through their), Clap (putting hands together around arm by clapping), Yank (pulling down as hard as you can on the elbow to break their grip), RUN (self-explanatory). Turtle, distract, snake, yank, run! Totally cool.

More Hilarity: At the beginning of tribal treat one camper innocently asks the black-belt instructors, are you firemen? I kid you not. Not sure how they got the two confused, but a fireman's suit definitely resembles a Karate robe-thing ... or not.

Sadly, there was definitely more, but for some reason I am blanking on it. I hope this holds u over until then!

-Jungle Jim-

Do you feel old??

2005-08-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

So as we all know the after camp activity was a video instead of kickball, and with the mention of it being Aladdin I was pumped. But as I looked around at campers faces I saw blank stares. As a couple of campers asked me what the movie was about my suspicion was confirmed. The campers didn't know the movie Aladdin!! I was devastated!

To make things a little more clear, I had to look at the DVD booklet. Yes, the movie was on DVD not VHS. The movie was produced in 1992 making the movie 13 years old. I was 7 when I saw the movie IN THE THEATER!! These kids were born in 1999. Yikes! I can't think about this anymore, my head hurts!!

Massage Night Movie

2005-07-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

Oh, btw - movie of the night for Massage Night - Top Gun . . . :o)

For directions to my house, check out Yahoo! maps: 1908 Quail Run Ct.
By the way, the star on the map shows my house at the end of the street (for some reason . . . ) It's not - it'll be the second house on your left (the grey one next to the big brick one on the corner.)

In Case of Emergency

2005-07-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Ok folks! This has nothing to do with camp but I recieved this e-mail and thought it would be good to pass along...

Paramedics will turn to a victim's cell phone for clues to that person's identity. You can make their job much easier with a simple idea that they are trying to get everyone to adopt: ICE.

ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. If you add an entry in the contacts list in your cell phone under ICE, with the name and phone no. of the person that the emergency services should call on your behalf, you can save them a lot of time and have your loved ones contacted quickly. It only takes a few moments of your time to do.

Paramedics know what ICE means and they look for it immediately. ICE your cell phone NOW!

Reminder!!

2005-07-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

Remember, everyone - Massage Night No. 2 this Monday night (August 1) at my house!! Let's change the time from 6 to 6:30, we can order pizza or whatever. Bring any movies you might want to watch. Call me if you need directions - I live in Ironwood. Cheers, all, and I'll see you bright 'n' early Monday morning!

--Counselor Kelly-- :o)

Dirty Quote Thursday

2005-07-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

QUOTES OF THE DAY

"I was hot and I wanted to take my pants off"

-Kimberly Owens-

"I'm not really much of a pepperoni person. I prefer sausage"

-Melissa Ritchie-

I think I'll just let everyone stew over them before I say anything further, haha.

-Jungle Jim-

TONIGHT!!

2005-07-28T04:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight there is a large group of counselors (and several of their non-counselor friends) that are coming to see the Sound of Music. Here's the info:

Sound of Music and Picnic
@ Miller Park - Meet by the stage for the picnic
When? picnic @ 6:30, show @ 8:30
**bring blankets, beachtowels, pillows with you so you can mark your place in the audience off early, and so your posterior doesn't fall asleep during the show.
For the picnic, please bring something with you - hot dogs, buns, chips, cookies, pop (if you bring a bottle, please bring cups)

Hope to see everyone there!!
(And thanks again to those who have already seen it!!)

--Counselor Kelly-- :o)

Monday: Session 2, Week 2

2005-07-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

So this is the post that I started Monday and definitely just got around to completing now (it's Wednesday after work). Sad. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy! :o)

I found that today had several things that needed to be commented upon, so I'll go Jim-style on this one and give you the hits of the day:

Pre-Camp Mayhem (Or the Kick of the Morning) :

Started out with an intense game of Rat-Stew vs. Miss Sherrie and Miss Kyle, which quickly became UNO once the campers joined us (Mondays = no slaps = no fun for counselors)
After an everlasting round of UNO, I decided to venture out of the shelter, and found myself headed in the direction of Counselors Kimberly and Ashton, who had started an exhausting game of tag (no "flushing" of the arm to get back in for this one - their version most definitely required the crawl-between-the-legs-save.) Saw one camper nail another in the crotch with his head while attempting to save him from his terrible fate of out-ness. Had Ashton crawl between my legs in an attempt to . . . well, actually I don't think the game was going at that point . . .
After a few rounds of counselors-are-it tag with the campers, Kimberly and Ashton decided to call an end to tag for the morning. Ashton and I decided 'twas time to grace the kickball field with our shining presences. We definitely arrived just in time for the round of Counselors-up-to-bat.
While there were many stupendeous kicks made by the counselors, one stands high above the rest as the Kick of the Morning. . . Heather Richie is up to bat . . . Brandon pitches . . . It's a nice pitch, rolling straight to Heather . . . She kicks - straight at Brandon!! He jumps in attempt to let the ball fly under him, but NO!! Brandon definitely gets nailed in the crotch!!!
When asked about the halarity of the situation and why all the counselors were rolling on the ground (Brandon in pain and all others in uncontrollable laughter), they are informed that the ball nailed him in the stomach . . . So, Brandon, at your expense, we have our Kick of the Morning. We thank you for your sacrifice.
Following a wonderful serenade from Jim about his corn and the corn's purple tie (trust me - it'll definitely be a classic fifteen years down the road . . .), Jim and I had a deep discussion on the merits and drawbacks to Puppy Chow. More later on Puppy Chow.

First Period - All-Camp Pow-Wow (Or the Promiscuous Cats) :

Aaron and I hadn't played the Dice Game with our Mondays yet, and to honor the theme day (Down on the Farm!!), we decided to play the Animal Dice Game. Sooooo . . . They rolled the dice, and based on the total of the pair, the whole group (our tribe plus Brandon's, the Pawnee) had to act like that animal (complete with animal noises).
All was going well in animal-land; 3-Cow!-"mooooooooo" . . . 7-Duck!-"quack, quack" . . . 10-Sheep!-"Baaaaaa, baaaaaaa" . . . and then there was 6-Cat!-"Meow, meow" . . . Or so one would think.
The second time the number for Cat was rolled, all of the campers are crawling around on all fours on the grass, dutifully "meow-ing" . . . All except for one. This camper turns to me and says, "My family breeds cats!" then procedes to turn to the camper closest to himself, and mounts the poor boy. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's correct. I had mounting cat campers for pow-wow today. Needless to say, Brandon, Aaron, and I were slightly disturbed . . .

Second & Third Periods - All-Camp Swim (Or Peek-a-Boo) :

Thanks to the wonderful heat today, we had All-Camp Swim for two hours! Cherokee was one of the first tribes dismissed, so Aaron and I were able to get the kids down to the pool and ready quickly. (Unfortunately the same couldn't be said of getting them dressed after swimtime, owing to the fact that the lifeguards dismissed all of the campers at once . . .)
The water was beautiful!! Absolutely perfect day for swimming!! Enough said there.
Today I seemed to have at least one camper permanently glued to my hip. Or knee. Or back. Or wherever they decided to hang on me. At one point, one of my Cherokee girls (who had spent the past 15 minutes or so sitting on my left knee - which was uber-comfortable, let me tell you . . .) decided she wanted to take over my left hip instead.
Sooooo, I shifted her over to the side, and she decided to kinda jump up to sit on my hip. She definitely over-shot her target and from about her belly-button up was at my shoulder level. Upon scooting herself down my side she definitely took part of my swimsuit with her. Peek-a-Boo time for Kelly. Thankfully, all was covered by camper, so with some hasty adjustments (both of swimsuit and camper), all was set to rights.
Left early to get changed for the theme lunch - most definitely an excellent idea. Amidst French-braiding Melissa R., Kyle, and Teresa's hair, the announcement came over the loudspeakers for all - that's right, ALL - of the campers to exit the water and get dressed for the afternoon. Mass chaos insued.

Lunchtime (or Heat Exhaustion) :

Went all out today for the Theme Lunch of Down on the Farm (which I chose to interpret as Down on the Farm/Ranch . . . So mebbe my farm's in Texas? . . .) and wore my self-destroyed jeans, fake-ostrich-leather belt, brown-striped western shirt, bandana hanging out of the back pocket, my Mom's leather Cowboy boots from when she was in college, and a Cowboy hat. With my hair in braids, I must say I made a pretty darn decent cowgirl . . . and unfortunately, one that was absolutely roasting.
Walking down to the camp shelter from the beachhouse there was definitely a bit of a breeze (which kept me alive), but once under the shelter for lunch, no such luck. Of course the only day when we all wear jeans is the day when there is no breeze to be found!! (On the plus side, no breeze = hardly any spills!!)
Costume contest time!! Turns out all the counselors who were brave enough (or dumb enough - myself included) to wear jeans won for the day. Hooray for Three Musketeers bars!!

Fourth Period - Tribal Treat (Or the Period When Nothing Really Happened At All) :

Yup. Not too much to tell. Storyteller. Loads better than the guy from first session, except that all his stories (which were interactive; got to give him props there) were really really repetitive. Started to give me a bit of a headache. Luckily for me, crafts = break!

Fifth Period - Crafts (Or Girl-Talk Time) :

Sherrie and I (while not in the same pods for the day, luckily managed to secure the same break time) stole the Algonquin blanket and, while we had big plans for naptime, definitely spent the whole period deep in good girl-talk discussions about many different things. Puppy chow was included. I got many things sorted out and felt even better than if I had napped (course, I ended up taking a two hour nap once I got home, so there you go.)

Sixth Period - All-Camp Movie (or Naptime) :

Got my much-needed nap of the day, despite the fact that Lilo and Stitch is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies ever. :o) Counselors were loud. Kids were loud. Kelly can sleep through anything. Hoo-ray.

Post-Camp Mayhem (Or Spelling Lessons) :

Nothing too exciting at the checkout shelter. Worked on some hemp bracelets or keychains (yeah, I know - who'd a thunk it?).
Carley's spelling abilities were put to the test. I learned that you spell Shell, Shell with an H . . . ;o)

Busy day. Long day. Very interesting day. It was definitely a Monday.

Radio Edit

2005-07-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

I have recently discovered the wonders of Audioblogger ... in which I can post from a phone. I know, it's way sweet!

I am thinking we need to utilize this from daycamp.

Any thoughts?

-Jungle Jim the Goose Hunter-

Hunted

2005-07-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

I did forget to mention that on the walk to the pool this morning I passed along super-secret information to the AZA/Choctaw campers. They were getting too far ahead, so for their own safety I informed them that they need to stay with me in case the herd of geese attack. They are in fact, Soon to be Killer Geese* ... Geese are actually carnivorous predators who hunt in packs like wolves and can sprint in excess of 45mph, or about the equivalent of a Cheetah. Thus for their own safety they needed to stay with me.

While the average American does not know this, I hope it is material included in the next wave of textbooks.

-Jim, the Goose Hunter-

*They are "soon to be killer" geese because we can't very well call them Killer Geese if they haven't killed anyone yet. Their have been a couple close scrapes and one counselor is still in the ICU, but no deaths as of yet. So they are the "soon to be killer"geese. It's a distinction that seems silly, but needs to be made at this point in time nonetheless.

Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka

Contact List

Welcome New Counselors :)

GQ ... K?

Women's Locker Room

Making History

YEAH CAMP!

BWW!!

Summer 2007

Pool Closeups

guys...I'm sad

Summer '05 & '06 Slideshow!!

GREATEST DAY OF THE SUMMER!!!

Happy Birthday...

Cockroaches, Mailmen, & Dilly Bars - Oh My!

PowWow Definitions

Mmmm ... Dilly Bars!! :)

Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka

Yesterday's Fowl Three-some

100% Humidity, 500 million % Fun

The second first Monday

Design Update

Midsummer Extravaganza!!!

Feeling sooo 'refreshed'

pArTy TiMe!!!

Oh what a Tuesday

It's Back!!

This Weekend

Ducks

The 2nd Wednesday of camp...

Some camp randomness

The Controvery Continues

The First Day of Camp

Hooray for the first day of camp!

Friday's Frollies

It's Starting!!!

It's Almost Time!!!

Long time listener, first time caller

Hey!

Update on Camp Pictures

Hey Hey Hey!!!

HELLOOOOO EVERYONE!

The Tall Truth of Colby @ ISU

THE END!

Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka, we hold you in our hearts....

Roadtrip to visit Roofio!!

well well....

Farewell Camp of 2005

The last day of summer

MISSING YOU!!!

Happy Trails to two more

My apologies

Terrible Tuesday

Appleton

Thursdays of Death and Doom

hey friends

Team Pictures!!

Adios Amigos!

And In The End...

Two Questions

Roof-E-OOOoooo . . .

Saying Farewell

Pink

The Worst is Behind Us

Fire-Breathing Tater Tots

ATTN: Tomorrow's Events

Proof that God does Exist!

You just can't Make this stuff up...

Do you feel old??

Massage Night Movie

In Case of Emergency

Reminder!!

Dirty Quote Thursday

TONIGHT!!

Monday: Session 2, Week 2

*Radio Edit*

Hunted

Radio Edit