State Farm Day Camp Counselors 2005 

Teresa 

Sherrie 

Roofio 

Melissa Ritchie 

Miss Kyle 

Melissa 

Megan 

Matt 

Kimberly 

Kenny 

Ken 

Don David 

Corey 

Carley 

Brandon 

Batman, Alias unknown 

Zach 

Adam 

A-Gross 

Aaron 

Aimee 

Update on Camp Pictures

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!!!

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!

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 END!

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!

Roadtrip to visit Roofio!!

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)

Farewell Camp of 2005

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

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-

Happy Trails to two more

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

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

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!

Thursdays of Death and Doom

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

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!!

--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--

And In The End...

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

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 . . .

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

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

PINK is definitely MY NEW FAVORITE COLOR!

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

PINK=AMAZING.

The Worst is Behind Us

• 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

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

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!

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...

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-

Massage Night Movie

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.)

Reminder!!

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

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!!

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

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*

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

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.

Massage Night No.3

Okay, so it's really the second one, since Salute Your Shorts/Massage night definitely turned into Salute Your Shorts night, but anyway . . .

Massage Night No.3 - Monday, August 1. My house. 6-11-ish? Dunno. Whenever. We've all got work the next morning (and some of us earlier than others . . .)

Let me know if you're interested!!

--Kel-- :o)

Kyle's Army

I forgot to mention yesterday that during our break, what caused the huge religious debate was Kyle Matthews proclaiming if God sends him to hell he is going to lead the Devil's army against God and would overtake him.

Not sure if that was a threat against God, or just a back-up plan to avoid boredom in case he doesn't get his first choice of being accepted to heaven, but it was hilarious to hear!

He's be like Spawn (come on u comic book junkies), except I struggle seeing Kyle's decaying form leading an army of hell's creatures against to the gates of heaven ... I can't really see him winning either, but I mean hey, I'm not going to count him out. Stranger things have happened .... okay, maybe they haven't, but nonetheless....

-Jim-

Another Day Done

The Quote-able Kyle Matthews (@11:30am): "Why is it still so hot out today?!? It's like ten degrees cooler and it's still so hot we don't even notice." That's a totally true story folks.

-For all you keeping track at home I arrived 6 minutes early today. Woot woot. Sadly however, I accidentally took my name tage home and forgot to bring it to camp. Eh, such is life. Speaking of taking things home, I forgot my two 'Three Musketeers' bars in the fridge for about the millionth consecutive day!

-Played kickball twice this morning, and let me tell ya, the second one really stunk. Playing kickball at 11am in the heat with campers being made to play rather than choosing to (like before camp) really deflates the energy of the game. One odd play did happen when Ken and I were an intense pitcher/batter duel, he threw me some insane heat which I approached and was right on target to a direct whomping ... everyone says it was going to be beautiful, like kickoff to the goaline beautiful, when at the last moment the ball took some nasty hop and bounced over my thigh as I swung through. It apparently got as high as my belly. I claimed to be aiming over second base on the next kick, but I hit a liner about 5 steps left of it. Sad. Ken 2, Jim 0.

-Swam first. Wore the stylin' huge 80's shades again. They keep falling off my face, not such a fan. Helped Lifeguard David with lessons. Good times. Bummed around talking to Melissa R and the Kyle's most of the time. Kim was in a rare mood. She made like three inuendo-ish comments in about 5 minutes and like half-smacked my bosom when no one was looking at the pool as she passed by (and then started cracking up about how she had no idea where that came from or why). She got to bed before midnight and it was obvious! Didn't have to wait to enter the locker room today, which was exciting. I also got to take the AZA's today. I love taking the hooligans. The AZA's are a ton of fun and I look forward to Tuesday swim because of them.

Celebrity Look-A-Like Contest: Kevin told me today that I looked liked Jim Carrey ... the good Jim Carrey ... who looks tight and is hilarious. Which prompted Carley to once again bring up her feelings of how I look like a Skinny Josh Hartnett. So I am definitely a mutation of Jim Carrey and Josh Hartnett. Funny and Good Looking ... so why am I not famous yet?!?

Oooooooh *&%^ Moment of the Day - As a bunch of counselors are hopping out of the pool, Kyle takes a kickboard (light as all get out) and frisbees it about 20 feet away into seemingly open water. It begins to sharply curve left all crazy style as it zips toward the surface of the water. As it took this sharp veer down and away a camper emerged from the water out of nowhere seconds after the board passed him. With all seriousness he was about a half second away from emerging and getting a board straight to the face. It probably would have killed him or something, haha ... can you imagine the shock of emerging and opening ur eyes to a board hurtling right between your eyes. Kyle was like OOOOOOH (insert curse word rhyming with twit) after he realized how close that came. We started cracking up half-out of relief and half out of how funny those odds would have been. No idea where that kid came from, but I never knew he was in the area until he was nearly down and out. Someone's Guardian Angel sure was paying attention .... and good thing too!

-During Pow-Wow I gave the campers a 5 minute lecture on "DON'T EAT THE MARSHMALLOWS FOR ANY REASON." At the end of the period the Kim is globbing up the excess mallows into a giant marshmallow ball and asks, "Do you want to eat some? We could play chubby bunny with these small ones!" She was serious folks. And she says I can be gross! Her giant marshmallow ball was sweet and I wish we had a picture.

Girls are confusing Moment: Apparently today was the one month anniversary of Kyle L. and I dating. We figured out it had been four weeks since Aeriole (sp?) told me that Kyle and I were together. Kyle told me in the morning that she was "about to break-up with me" which I heard as "we're breaking up." She then told me that I wasn't taking well and showed signs of being abusive. Later, after finding out we weren't actually broken up, I was told that I need to listen more and be a better boyfriend. Kyle L. also said that I need to break up Megan because she's a monogomous women. I tried to tell her that infringed on my religious rights of being a Mormon, but she didn't listen. So we almost broke up, she complains about how good of a boyfriend I am, I find out we aren't breaking up and in fact we are going so strong I need to break-up with my other girlfriend. Haha, now any of you tell me girls aren't confusing ... 'cause whoa! I'm lost and I was there!

-Pooped during quiet time. Now that is need to know information!

-During Tribal Treat a magician came. It looked cool, but Kim wanted it so I took the period off. Had it off with Kyle L, Melissa R, Kelly, Michelle, David and Sherrie (I think Sherrie was there). Layed blankets down in the basement. I took the only chair butt pad in all of camp, layed Kelly's sweatshirt over it for precautionary reasons and layed on my stomach, sharing the pillow with Kyle all period. After 5 minutes I was out cold. I mean cold. Apparently they took a picture. I didn't wake up until the break had ended like 45 minutes later. I remember nothing. Except the concrete floor really F-ED up my back. It hurt a lot after that. But the nap was amazing. As usual.

-Craft time rocked! We made the activity that was ranked #1 in the craft catalog: A Kalaiedascope (sp?!). They were way sweet. The campers thought they were the coolest thing since, well ever ... and they were right. Amazing! Although at the end of the period when trying to put them all together I started rushing and sweating up a mother. It was rough.

-Played with beads ... played slap jack ... got my bottom handed to me in Chess by a very good camper ... went home. There's ur ballgame folks.

Saddest Quote: Dana and Carley had a conversation about how camp isn't nearly as much as fun this year. They are just feeling blah, and they looked forward to camp all year and now their like, eh. Being a part of the new class of counselors that came in, I'm one of many things that changed, and I wanted to come in and make camp that much better, so it's sad to hear that camp isn't as much fun for them. Wonder if there's anything I can do...

Country Livin'

Today was a theme lunch day, "Down on the Farm" theme lunch day! Which is tied with Illini day as the best theme lunch day ever!!! (And by ever I mean this summer!). Unfortunately, predicting how darned hot it was supposed to be I had to alter a few plans, such as leaving the Wranglers at home...

-Definitely left running about 5 min behind, got 5 minutes toward camp and realized I hadn't taken my medication nor had I brought any ... turning around was a no-brainer. Speed Kills, unless you have Narcolepsy, and then it saves lives. Words to live by right there. Amazingly I was only 10 minutes late ... I still got highlighted for being late in the log book. Irk. I hate being highlighted.

-I thought today we'd have like 4 campers a tribe or something, but when I got there we definitely had a full camp! What parent in their right mind sends their kids to daycamp on a day the National Weather Service sends out a weather advisory for such insane heat... apparently waaaaaay more parents than I thought. By Noon our numbers started dropping swiftly, but still!

-The kids were absolutely dead this morning. I tried serenading them with my famous rendition of "I can love you like that" Jim Boyer style ... but that bombed. Old McDonald had a farm wasn't much better. The kids were barely audible. Although we did find out that horses have a screaming neigh and that Kimbo's favorite boy Preston can quack like a duck farely well. I also tried the infamous Alive, Alert, Awake enthusiastic with them. That worked well.

-It also turns out that these kids are getting pretty insanely good at Simon Says. You can be right in front of them outlining the clearest of instructions and they don't hear a word, yet you put it in the form of Simon Says and the little snots hear whether Simon Says it or not every time! I'm a terrible SIMON apparently!

-We had all camp Pow-Wow to start the day. I had secured a radio for Pow-Wow so that we could jam to some country tunes, but Kim "couldn't find it" and then I saw Megan Tripple's group stole it ... no country jammin' for Jim. *Tear*. We made animal masks for the kids. Securing the masks on the head became more difficult than anticipated. Not so brilliant on my part to discount Kimbo's ideas of making them hold-up masks by using popsicle sticks.

-Had a camper who flat out didn't wanna participate this morning. I tried to get him to play Simon Says and he started balling. He didn't even listen to threats of pulling hte plug on the pool. He siad his stomach hurt. So during P0w-Wow I consult keystaff and call his Dad. Nice Guy. He suggests I make the little guy take a dump, cause sometimes "things get alll clogged up and he doesn't realize it". Wonderful, this kid could be about to spew poo like Mount Vesuvius and wouldn't know it. He takes a dump, says that poo came out and he was feeling a little better. Still wouldn't participate int he craft. Said he didn't like making projects. I let him swim 'cause I didnt want him out in the sun. He's fine the whole time. As soon as we're done and in the locker room, apparently he rushes off to the bathroom where he gets on his knees ready to puke. I usher the other kids out in case he is serious, and 10 seconds later I return to him telling me he's puked. I don't buy it. He says he doesnt feel like it anymore, but his stomach still hurts. The kicker, I asked him what color it was and he replied, "Diorrehea colored". No Joke. I try and get him to tell me the truth about him not really puking, but he stands by his story. Won't eat lunch. I call and leave a message for Dad. Miraculously 10 minutes later his name was called for an early pick-up. The heavens were smiling upon me.

-Pool time wasn't too bad. Chilled with Carley most of it. Good conversation. Many counselors came and went, but we remained, just chillin' ... not moving from our post, just hanging out. Got pretty red on my back/neck apparently, but I haven't seen it yet. Oh well. Oh, and apparently Ken loves Carley, at least that's what undisclosed sources tell us. Funny, he had everyone at camp fooled! Hahaha...

-Kimbo and I chilled with our tribe for about 10 minutes poolside while everyone was else wa sin the locker-rooms. They kicked everyone out of the pool at once. MISTAKE! We suspected how crazy it would be and Aaron C. came out and confirmed the mad-house image I had in my head. We waited out the storm fairly well.

-Late start on lunch, 'cause of Grant. Whether it was all the discussion of puking or the insane humidity I had little appetite. Felt a little nausea. Ick.

-Wore my cowboy hat witha blue bandana around it and my faded gray McLean County 4-H t-shirt all day and for lunch added the old boots and my air conditioned jeans. They have built ventilation in the forms of random large holes and rips, specifically in the knee areas. Their pretty darned sweet. Although even withthe ventilation, added like 10 degrees. All the counselors that wore jeans won the costume judging. Yeah for a second Three Musketeers I left in the fridge. Oh well, I found the first one today, hopefully I remember them both tomorrow.

-Had break next, while Kimbo took the kids to listen to some story-teller. I tried napping, but that was a big no-go. Got lots of bug bites tho. Listened to the counselors have a huge discussion of religion and homosexuality. Very interesting. I didn't interject ever, despite my hankering too ... too many voices already.

-Craft time. Darned Seek and Find was one heckuva SOB today .... wasn't strong enough, had to have someone tell me where some stuff was. Got overheated just doing that today. Had to dump water on myself from my mug like three times. I was sweating up a storm. Way miserable. Waaaaaaaay miserable.

-Popsicle time, which meants that like 6 girl counselors took time to take waaaaaay too many pictures. I rebelled by making fun faces at the camera when I was involved. It was for the good of mankind (in some round about way).

-Video time. Lilo and Stitch. I love that movie! Seriously, almost teared up once, no idea why. I'm going soft. Sadly the movie was ruined because half the dialogue was to most of the campers from the drone of the large fan we had to have on and the constant chatter from all of the counselors. Some of my favorite and best counselors were guilty today of waaaay too much chatter. It was frustrating for the kids and in turn I felt frustration for them. But whatever, it was a good movie.

-Check-out time. Surprisingly this flew by! Played Go Fish .... solid game. Cutest camper in the history of camp played. He has the worst memory ever, he kept forgetting Kelly and my name and he called Jared, Jerry. Sooooo funny! Oh, and he called Aces: A's and Jacks: J's. That was way quality!

-OOOOOH, and I forgot to mention that Friday I met Jared's fiance ... the girl is a fox! He done good, he done real good! Way to be. Haha, rock on y'all!

-Jim-