Today

My Tanya left me today. It was a long night. I spent a lot of the evening on the phone with my girlfriends and we were all trying to reach Tanya. I had told her to call me even if it was 3 in the morning before she got on the plane. I spent the night watching my phone, or dreaming about getting her on the plane at the airport. Finally at 5 she called me and I talked to her for probably a good hour, until she boarded.

It's hard to believe that this is all actually happening. Over a years worth of planning something that seemed so far away and now people are leaving right and left. Tanya is the first one of my five girlfriends to leave. In all honesty I feel like I'm being left behind. Yes there are a lot of my friends that are staying behind with me, specifically Jenn and Lori, but I was supposed to be leaving about now and I want to go! I really don't know how people without God do it. Because if I didn't have the assurance that this is where God wants me and that He's going to be helping me through this, I don't think I could be handling this disease/situation nearly as well. I was so frustrated and angry last night but He kept telling me, it's OK I've got better plans then Spain, ones you are going to love, and I can trust that because He created my universe and He always keeps His promises. I leave for Pisgah on Tuesday. And I'm excited to be going. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It IS a dream I always had, even if it wasn't the one to Spain. Someday I'll go, this trip is only postponed.

I don't know if you've ever seen the movie, but we've started our own sisterhood. Not with pants, because I don't think that is physically possible, but with a journal. Tanya and I started it on our last night together at 1 am. You can tell too, because it's from the minds of people at 1 am, but I guess that's what makes it all the better. In a week I'll send it to Tanya and she'll send it to Grace. And so on...

Tanya left today, Grace leaves within the next 3 weeks (they haven't told her yet), Laura leaves Tuesday, Merrie's not far behind, Trina left a month ago... And that's only a few of us. Please pray for them, we've got some big jobs ahead.

Sporadic Trip to DC

Since Jaclyn left us for vacation with Ryan the rest of the Ford decided last minute to take a trip and were out the door within the hour.

Ever see that commercial that has a couple walking into a really nice hotel room that they absolutely love and then they walk outside to the balcony and look over a construction zone? The point being that they can help you find the perfect hotel in the perfect location so this doesn't happen to you. That commercial happened to me....

The inside was perfect, and as long as you were looking out of certain parts of the hotel there was a great view down to the capitol building and some of the rest of DC.

First stop, the National Cathedral. Did you know it took 80 years to build this thing?

And then the zoo...

I WANT!!!

Lizard love

The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Tell me how this is biblical?

Social Workers have their own Saint!

I didn't realize it but apparently Catholics still have relics. If you don't know what that is they tell you that by looking at one of these you get so many years taken off of your time in purgatory. The number of years is based on what class the relic ranks in. This shrine was lucky enough to have pieces that contained...

Jesus' swaddling clothes

Thorns from the "true" crown of thorns.

And pieces of the true cross... Other things were bones of saints and the Apostle Andrew, among other amazing things. Who knows how many years I am saved from purgatory! Thank goodness I made the trip.

The Washington Monument... which we tried to get up in but apparently they only allow 1500 people in it a day now and you have to reserve two weeks in advance. Who knew...

Crazy Days

My job configuration has changed quite a bit this week. I told Rick that next year I'd like to try something different, and since Grace isn't going to be here they have been training Rachel into programming, so she's taken my job this week. next week she'll be director when Grace leaves and they are going to give her an assistant, so I have gotten relocated... well sort of. They can't completely get rid of me, I know too much. :)

Monday was ACA. They accredit us, and tho there are benefits, I'm still not sure they are worth the trouble. I have never in my life dealt with such stupidity. But I could write a book so I'll stop.

Tuesday is the banquet so that's what I did most of day, well except for taking out the jet ski with deaven for Prayer Patrol, which was quite fun because we were racing up the the boats with a siren. Their faces were priceless. One camper told me later he thought someone had died. But then the real excitement happened...

Robin came into the office saying that we were missing a camper from his activity. 10 minutes turned up nothing so all ad staff jumped in the search. 15 minutes still no sign so Rick called a missing camper. Talk about excitement. Ad staff were running everywhere trying to get campers down to the line call. The girls and boys director, plus half of the counseling staff had gone for a treat, so that really made things even more difficult. Fortunately, we ended up finding him. He had been sleeping in a cabin that had been checked by three people, they had even yelled for him. At least it was good practice.

Right before the banquet the girls director, Grace, and Rachel went on their days off so that meant that I got all of their jobs. I was up till midnight coordinating 4 camp outs/cabin parties, plus cleaning up from the banquet.

Up again at 6:15 and today started and never stopped. the 4th is THE biggest programming day of the summer hands down, and the two programming people who had planned it were both gone. I hadn't been to a single meeting about it so I had no clue, and that doesn't take into account that I was girls director. Very busy was I. But would I do it again? yes, most definitely. It's one of those good exhaustions.

The parade was even better this year.

Then my all time favorite...

Don't forget to notice the rims.

Isaac and Josh started a fight over which was better, spoons or forks. It's been all out war all day long. Yelling matches in the cafeteria are so loud you can't hear yourself think.

Shalaine the mountain man...errr woman.

I LOVE MY JOB!