August 7, 2007
I began my first day here at my new "camp" in Richmond, VA. I am really looking forward to all the great things I expect to happen while I am here. I will write more about it as I get a few more days under my belt. Until then I am happy to share about the past week as I have continued to travel around Iowa making memories with relatives.

Last weekend I spent a great afternoon with the Giffords - playing frisbee golf and canoeing.
    

Later that night, Scott and Ann's family came out and we enjoyed helping create Kelly's famous homemade pizzas.
    

We played games together, visited, and had a great time.
   

Grandpa Bill turned 81 on July 30th, and on Sunday we had a party for him. After lunch we all met at the Turner's pool and enjoyed watching the show of flips and other splashing entries into the water.
   

   

Also, Malachi went swimming for the FIRST time! Dad always insists that we take note of the remarkable resemblance between himself and Kye.
   

After swimming and hanging out by the pool, we went over to the grandparent's house for dinner together. We always have so much fun.

This past week I went back down to the farm and got to hear all about Karlee and Tamy's trip to Africa. They took me to see Taylor show his pigs at the county fair - which was a CRAZY experience. Check out these sheep - they have them dressed up in spandex to keep them warm or something... I can't remember exactly why.

Taylor and Mindy's poster about how to handle guns won the biggest ribbon you can win (I think...) Two weeks ago, when I was visiting Grandma Mary, Mindy and the boys came over and said they needed me for a photoshoot. Obviously I was happy to cooperate. I got all decked out in the orange hat and vest and they even let me hold a big gun for the pictures! I must have done well in my photo shoot for them to receive such a great result. Now my pictures are going to the Iowa State Fair! I'm going to be famous!

I was able to spend a day with Gabe and Emily later in the week - and Kye of course! They took me out to a GREAT sushi lunch in Iowa City - home of the Hawkeyes. I really enjoyed walking around campus with Emily, revisiting my old stomping grounds.  

While I was visiting Gabe and Em, they each had some pictures in mind that they wanted me to take. We did a photo shoot for Gabe's "after" pictures, as he has been working so hard for the past year to really get himself in great shape:
  

Emily and I took Kye to a park near their home and we took some great mother and son pictures. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my brother and his family.
  

I spent the rest of the time with my mom and dad, soaking in our days together before I had to leave. We went back over to Gabe and Em's house Sunday night and played Imagineiff... together while enjoying some of mom's fresh peaches. Of course we all cherish every minute we get with Malachi. Here are his grandparents as they played with him.

That is all for my farewell tour around Iowa. I really loved every minute of the time I was able to spend with everyone. I hope that in the future, I can enjoy the same kind of "quality time" that allows me to feel like I get to know each person much better. Thank you all for working so hard to allow us to make those memories together.

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August 12, 2007
My new life in Virginia has begun. I will be here at camp until the beginning of October. After being here almost a week I have already experienced so many different emotions. There is so much to learn, so many ways that I see my need to grow, and such a long list of tasks that are so personally challenging. I have no doubts, though, about my need to be here - and I can trust enough to know that everything will be done that needs to be done, as my father takes care of each and every detail of his plan.

I have a GREAT roommate here. We met back in April, and click very well together. We live in a "quad" - which is a small building with 4 small apartments inside. Each apartment has two bedrooms and one bathroom, a tiny kitchen and dining area, and a washer and dryer. The quad has one large meeting room in the middle, where we can gather together. We have a playground right in front of our quad, and a beautiful pond right behind us. It is a wonderful place to live, as far as I am concerned. The other three apartments in my quad. contain families - two of which have small children. Here are some pictures of my bedroom, my apartment, and my roomie as we checked things out on the first day.
  

  

  

  

It is important for each person here at camp to work for all around health; in body, spirit, and mind. So one thing we did this week was a mandatory run/walk, where everyone went as far or fast as they could in 20 minutes, around a soccer field. 10 laps on the inner circle was equal to one mile. I thought it would be easy for me to hit 2 miles - 20 laps - in 20 minutes, if I pushed myself. I only did 17.5. I was disappointed, but now I have a goal to work towards. We will do the same activity at the end of our time here, so we can see how much we've improved. I have been getting up at 6am and going running each morning. I will be pushing myself much more now, because I know that I have not been running as far or as fast as I could be.

We are all serving on teams here, and I signed up for the Recreation Team. Our team is providing the entire group of people with good choices for recreation and exercise. My part of that is leading groups to the really nice rock climbing gym in Richmond - about 20 minutes away. I am very happy with this because it allows me to go there twice a week. Because I have many people coming along we all get a very good price. We took our first trip on Saturday afternoon. We only had 4 in our group that passed the test to be certified belayers - so I belayed climbers most of the time, and only climbed one wall at the very end. It was really fun to see so many people trying something new and enjoying it!
  

We have had a great time in our gatherings. We have covered a variety of topics to prepare us for what is ahead here in VA, as well as after we go our seperate ways. This next week the president of this organization will be speaking about the real enemy that we face - not one of flesh and blood. I think we will learn a lot and it will be a very helpful week of gatherings. Here is a picture from the inside of the main meeting room. I am blurring faces in all of my pictures - just to be sensitive to their situation.

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August 20, 2007
I am having such a great time in VA! Camp is so much fun. It is a lot of work and I am being stretched in so many ways. Some people here aren't used to the amount of sitting and listening we do each day - but for me, it's an improvement over sitting in my chair and working on my computer all day long. At least here we take breaks each hour, and the topics of discussion are much more exciting and relevant than computer part numbers and prices.

I have made so many great friends and I don't know if there has ever been a time in my life where I felt more surrounded by people with the same passions, perspectives, attitudes, and deep desires to see him work in their lives. It is truly a joy to experience the comradery.

This past week has been very full of activites, learning, and hard work! We have had a lot of really cool, meaningful events. I did take pictures of most of them, although some were just things we talked about or learned. You'll have to see me in person for my BEST stories and pictures.

But I try to take pictures of many of our silly and fun activities, so that is what I'll share primarily on my blog. One of the guys here is a Salsa dance instructor, so he has been regularly teaching lessons in our free time. It's pretty funny because the majority of people attending are girls in their early teens, and the boys they have bribed with freshly baked cookies. We have learned a lot and we have a very skilled teacher, which makes all the difference.

This past Friday night all the people in my "single and 20-something" category got together at the camp director's house for a pizza party. We had such a wonderful time hanging out and getting to know each other as a group. We did several surveys about people's names, where they are from, where they went to school, what they studied, and how long they like to travel; for a little while or maybe for their whole lives. It was pretty hilarious and after each survey we tallied up the numbers to see which state or major in college or whatever was the most popular answer within the group. I am really grateful to be part of a group like this.

We were totally crammed into the house, and it got pretty hot, but everyone had a blast.
   

Saturday night they showed the movies "High School Musical" 1 and 2, for all the kids and adults to be entertained by - if they wanted to come watch it. I had never seen it before, but I heard it is like the "Grease" for this generation.
I have to tell you - it was pretty cheesy. I didn't really get into it at all, and left about 25 minutes into the movie. Not very many guys decided to come watch it, but a few of my friends were there. For the short time they stayed and watched the movie, they found themselves experiencing feelings of shock and horror and the overblown singing and dancing. It was pretty funny to watch them watch the movie. They stayed even less time than me, and then left to go play computer games.

Much, much later Saturday night, many of the people in my group here at camp were on a secret mission. Our mission was to find the legendary secret room that is only whispered about on campus. Legend has it that there is a secret room hidden in one of the buildings, where people from each camp session go and leave behind artifacts, pictures, written notes on the walls, and other very mysterious treasures. It is only for the people in my age group.

We had heard that some of the guys had found it late Friday night and so we were determined to find it for ourselves Saturday night. But the guys seemed to think it would be very amusing to stay up and WATCH us search for the room which they had already found. So we were running around the building trying to ditch the guys and also test the walls, floors, and ceilings for any hidden panels we could move to find our way to the secret room. We had some major "mission impossible" good times.
  
Eventually we found it, and I am only showing a few pictures of what it looked like inside. The best pictures I am keeping to myself, along with the location and entrance to the secret room. But I will say that I was quite surprised at how MUCH stuff was up there, and how much people had written over the years. It was well worth finding. (even though we technically didn't find it, and the guys eventually took pity on us, and crawled through the secret opening to let us all inside)

Today my smaller group (with various ages and backgrounds) was doing a team building project together. We originally thought that team building events would consist of paintball or doing a high ropes course, but we found out that OUR team building events are going to be manual labor times of service around the camp. It wasn't too bad, and I think we did all grow closer as a team by doing it.

We were assigned to work on the landscaping by trimming the hedges, raking and gathering up all the branches and leaves we trimmed off, and taking them to the burn pile. As jobs were being handed out to do this task, I quickly saw an opportunity to do something a bit more fun than raking and carrying damp leaves around. I volunteered to be the person that drove the truck around to all the branch piles, for people to load the branches into the back, and then drive it over to the burn pile to unload. I definitely think I got the best job of the day, but I did my fair share of carrying armfuls of leaves and sticks too.
   

This evening I was able to attend a Women's Tea, and it was a very special event. The wives of all the camp directors in the organization invited us to meet with them tonight, to talk and think with them about topics on our hearts. Things that we would like them to be thinking about for us in the future. It was lovely, and was my first time to have a decent cup of coffee since I've been at camp! The homemade desserts were great too.

 

Sorry about all the blurry faces in my blog pictures. I just want to be sensitive to each person's wishes.

 

 

 

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August 27, 2007
Man oh man. I have learned so much this week. I feel like I have grown and been stretched in ways I didn't know were available to me. I am learning how to live each day of my life in a different way than I have done before. I have been challenged on areas that I thought I had already figured out, and come to new convictions about certain things which GREATLY impact my daily walk. I have such a deeper trust now, and am so happy to truly know that I don't have to lean on my own understandings when I am searching for direction or answers in my life. I really can trust him to direct my path, and know that I am where I am supposed to be. It's not that I didn't know many of these things before - but the DEGREE to which I know them now is quite different.

I am so grateful to be on the path I am on - being refined in the many areas I am being refined - and to better know the One who holds me in the palm of his hand, as he works ALL THINGS toward his purposes, and for his glory.

Well, here's the skinny on this past week:
I went to Barnes&Noble bookstore with some girls I am becoming good friends with. We went just to have some time away from camp, and drink coffee and read. We laughed a lot. It was a fun. These girls are great.

I began my series of immunization shots last week. My second round is actually tomorrow! (pictures to come next week) I felt very proud that I got 4 shots! Some poor souls only got 2 or 3. One lucky guy got 5! I found out tonight that one of my 4 shots was a combo shot to immunize me from two different things, so that made me feel really lucky. Honestly, I feel so blessed to have these because they are normally very, very expensive. I feel like I'm getting liquid gold injected with each shot, and am really appreciative of the value of this gift. Plus - it makes me a few steps closer to invincibility with each shot - as it eliminates 4 or 5 possible means of death for me.
I will have three rounds of shots before I am done, and I'll have pictures of each shot given! I have realized that I kinda make a face when I am getting a shot - which was surprising to me because I normally think of myself as a very tough girl. Pictured below is me while the needles are actually in my arms (they did me double-duty - giving two shots at once - one in each arm), and then me modeling my cool band-aids afterwards.
               
I tried to make "shot-day" fun for everyone who didn't have my level of appreciate for this great gift of immunization. Especially the little kids who were scared and crying in anticipation. I got them all worked up about being tough and bragging about who gets to have the most shots at once. It was fun to see them run out of the nurses' office and lift up their sleeve to show off their band-aids with PRIDE. I did the same thing - except that I wore a tank top so I could show off my "badges of honor" all day long!

We have a few times while we're here that we eat "special meals." This is supposed to be a meal that everyone must eat, and each meal represents the food of a different culture or part off the world. Pictured below is our meal from Hungary. I was disappointed in the non-adventurous food, but thoroughly enjoyed eating it. We had cabbage of some sort (the purple stuff) and a type of goulash, with freshly baked bread. They served us family-style for each table of people. I'm just clarifying so you don't think this whole tray of food was all for me!

We studied some GREAT topics this week in our sessions. One fascinating topic was (surprisingly) anthropology. We got to hear from a dynamic speaker who really brought it to life and made it very applicable for all of our future activities. Here is a skit they started the lecture with, which demonstrated the very "non-women's lib." practices of some cultures in Africa. I learned a great deal from these lectures, and would be very interested in studying anthropology more in the future.

I took some pictures around camp of the pretty pond and also some profile shots with the landscape in the background. My purpose for this photo shoot was to get a picture to use for my goodbye cards, which I will give to people to put on their refrigerators, so they can remember me often, and with specific thoughts. I'm really happy with how the final product turned out, and will enjoy seeing the cards when they arrive here in a week. You will definitely notice all the extra work I did in Photoshop when you see my cards compared to the pictures below. I'll pass them out when I return to IA, and then my friends will bring them to OK to share.
     

 

Here is my roommate posed next to the mini-fridge in our room. She has all of her drinks so beautifully organized in large quantities. It just struck me as funny one day. In the freezer is our D.Q. ice cream sandwiches for special occasions.

On Friday night, everyone decided to get away from camp for dinner, rather than eating from the cafeteria AGAIN. And when I say "everyone", I really only mean about 30 people. But when 30 people decide to go out to eat, it becomes a pretty big deal for the restaurant they arrive at during the dinner rush. Anyway, we all went to a Mexican place, and called ahead, so they had the back room prepared for us when we arrived. It was fun to go out with friends, and also fun because EVERYONE was given wrong directions, along with the phone number to the restaurant in case we got lost. The restaurant probably got over 20 calls from our group Friday night, and each car load of people arrived from different directions, over a period of about 40 minutes. Talk about making a simple thing overly-complicated!

Over the past two Saturdays I attended an all-day ESL/EFL certification class. Many people at camp were there, and I actually learned a lot and really enjoyed it. We had a wonderful teacher, which made all the difference. Here are some guys who chose to act out their lesson plan, rather than just explaining it to the group verbally. Pretty funny actually. They are acting out a parable. Can you guess which one? I'll give you a hint: the guy in the yellow shirt is playing the role of "the crop." See how he grows and has leafs branching out?
   

As I said - our ESL teacher was great. Actually she was possibly one of the best teachers I have ever been instructed by. I was so completely impressed in her technique and ability to make her lessons interesting to every personality type in the room. At the end of our final session, we had a graduation ceremony of sorts, and she gave everyone their official certificates. Here I am, proudly holding mine up with our teacher.

For lunch on Sunday I was invited to join several of my Korean friends for a truly authentic Korean meal out at the gazebo. (Remember that I live in a quad building with 4 apartments, and two of the apartments are Korean families.) It was different than the type of food you get at a restaurant. This was the real deal folks. I was the only person there that didn't speak the language, but they were all very welcoming to me.
I went to the food to fill up my plate, but my hostess must not have thought I was doing it right, because she came up and took my plate from me and proceeded to heap much larger quantities of food upon it. Several of the Koreans don't speak English very well, so we are not always able to communicate everything clearly. Anyway, I got a big plateful of food - including something I have never seen up-close in real life (in an eating situation): Anchovies. Ah, yes - but those are just a joke topping for pizzas, right? Nope. They are real, and people eat them. In fact - now I eat them! Although I will freely admit that they were by FAR my least favorite part of the meal. I didn't even finish all of them. But I did take a picture of my plate when I was done. You can get an idea of their size because they are next to some rice on my plastic plate:
   

And with that, I'll sign off until next week. Have a great night!