kamp, thunder muffins(not what you think) and unexpected art projects

yesterday i took a little journey down to one of my favorite places! k2! little has changed, and it felt good just driving into my old kamp. so many great memories and amazing friendships were forged there.

on the way down, i was low on gas, but i had it calculated out that i could make it to the quick trip i am super familiar with. well, when i got to the all-familiar exit, i was thrown for a loop because i didn't see QT on the exit board for gas, nor did i see a QT in the place i expected to see it. hmm...maybe i had made a mistake...but i stopped at casey's general store anyway for gas, and asked the girl, who said it had changed about 2 years ago.

after driving ever so slowly into kamp (in order to avoid hitting kampers in triathle, who dominate the road on foot and bicycle) i parked stealthily in the chapel parking lot where the signs do say in big bold letters:OVERNIGHT CHAPEL PARKING ONLY! parked there anyway, looked like i knew what i was doing. then i walked down to the main office to sign in.

then i walked around to dj's office (the owner's wife, and dear friend), and i opened the door and walked in. when she turned around and looked up, and it registered that it was me, she got very excited. on the way up, i was laughing in my head thinking that when i went up, wouldn't it be funny if she had some little art work for me to do to tweak the Bible study she does with the kampers every morning...(when she created the original Bible study, she had me do all of the drawings for the study, and almost every year she needed something tweaked, or had a new idea to add to it). so you will understand my amusement when she asked what i had planned on this visit and if i might have a little time to spare. smile.

it's an honor to do work for dj, because she genuinely appreciates it and uses it to impact others for God! so i spent the next few hours producing the posters she needed for the next day!

it was totally Providence, because i was debating between going down yesterday, or tomorrow, and she was planning on using them today! she was going to have the office gals work on the posters, but none of them are artists, plus, it was their dock day, so someone else would be filling in for half the day. the first poster: adam and eve...with a leaf covering certain parts...funny.

when we went to lunch, one of my dear friends, trish (the girl's side director), did a double take when she came in and saw me. "how long have you been here?" and i pointed at dj and said," i would've found you sooner, but.." and dj took the blame for the thievery. it is always good to just sit and talk with trish-she is so busy during kamp (during the year, too, for that matter) that it's a rare opportunity to be able to have one-on-one time with her.

yes, it's kinda' funny wearing an orange tag

when i left, i of course had to stop at the blueberry farm. i love it that the gal who works there remembers me-family business. and of course, i was in need of a thunder muffin. totally hit the spot!

almost as good as mom's (it's bigger than it looks!)

see the sign in the background? i have another story about that for another day-suffice it to say, it may have been a little on the sketchy side.

today i've been able to get some reading done: the founders on the founders. very good book-character sketches using compiled letters from them, to them, about them, autobiographies, etc...love it.

dad's been working on some chalk drawings-his specialty. and he just popped his head in and asked if i had started one of a little girl when i was back in iowa (years ago)...i couldn't remember, so we looked through them. and yes, as a matter of fact i did.

they're pretty big-about the size of a posterboard

apparently i'd done an old man too.

now that i see them, i recognize them and i remember doing them, but i don't remember the original pictures that i used.

who knows what tomorrow will entail-i am guessing a little rest and reading. i love vacation! smile.
julie

i'm cool with art out of trash, but c'mon, in my classroom?

so today our arts integration person was something else...bless her heart (just gave myself the license to complain). we have a combined classroom of almost 30 kids. well, she brings in a boat-load of trash and asks the other teacher if he might be willing to rinse out some milk cartoons she pulled from the trash earlier this morning. (gross). then she started passing out the trash so the kids could create something out of the trash.

cool idea, just not enough time or space. she kept leaving the room to find more trash, the glue gun, etc. then it was time for the kids to clean up and once again she was MIA, so i had to head that up as well. and the kids didn't get to hot glue anything. the gal says, "in your free time, you can supervise the kids and let them glue their things together..." i don't think so. no law-suit for me please. and then the kicker, "...and hopefully i can get your teachers to help me take the sculptures outside next week and help me spray paint them black..." umm..i'm sorry, in what free-time would you like me to do this? and....really? do i look like i am wearing or have an art smock anywhere in this room? and lastly, i'm pretty sure there was nothing in my face that was even vaguely hinting at the fact that i remotely wanted to have any involvement in this? didn't think so.

a little blurry, but you get the idea-today's crazinesss made me realize that i really prefer order with the sporadic organized chaos.

cupcake wars commercial just really made me want a cupcake...if i make it through tomorrow and finish all of my fluency testing (can you believe they are having us do a dra type testing at the beginning and end of this 5-week summer school? how tragic), i might just have to get a sprinkles cupcake...just sayin. i spent all day on those things today-fortunately i still have brooke around helping out with the students--she was great. need to come up with something good to keep the kids busy tomorrow while i finish up the last of the testing!!! boo.

so, in preparation for tonight's game, i am actually listening to garth brooks' the thunder rolls. inspiring. it actually reminds me of my aunt beth. when we were younger and garth was quite a bit younger too...she was not yet married, and she took me with her to the pool hall and of course garth was playing in the background and that was pretty much my first encounter with him. this song and friends in low places. hmm. good times. i think that might have been the night she went on a first date with her now husband of many years.

it's kinda coincidental, but i think the first time i heard billy ray cyrus and achy breaky heart was in sioux city as well-with my cousin, at a small rodeo-fair on a crazy muddy evening. ah, sioux city, how many wonderful memories you have afforded me! i love to revisit the past!

good times. i need to try to get my lesson plans done before the game begins, because last week i was trying to do both at the same time (as well as playing words with friends...) and that just really wasn't healthy, not to mention, i don't know if my plans even made sense!
julie

painting, ted's not a mexican, and taking the dog to the yard where the tramp was

today we woke up to a beautiful day! it is in the 80's here in oklahoma. i'm sure you didn't realize that ok was a spring break hot spot. so i had my egg with flax seed and brushetta, and turkey bacon for breakfast, and i worked on a drawing for shea's next art piece. last night we finished our painting, and they turned out really cool.

there are more, so it looks kinda like mosaic tiles. i love the way they turned out! the only problem now is that i really don't have anywhere for them in my apartment right now with my colors.

oh, and we made the fudge yesterday and it's almost all gone, so we need to make some more for tonight's dinner (don't worry, we didn't eat it all, we shared a lot of it with friends that we went to dinner with last night).

shea really liked it..she licked the spoon and the cup...

 we had a lovely dinner at ted's a mexican restaurant....i know, ted..not a mexican name. i don't exactly know how that came about-perhaps he married a mexican lady who made great tortillas...

i didn't get a pic of the lady making tortillas, but i got a pic of a girl trying to take a pic of the lady making tortillas.

we got to have dinner with katie and bmayes and brooke! i haven't gotten to see brooke in a long time, and she lives in norman now for at least another year, so i need to make sure that next time i'm up i make a point to see her as well! she's so much fun to be around!

so, once shea got up this morning, we went for a walk with the boys and then stopped at bmayes' house to play for a bit with reagan and thatcher! chaco loves playing with thatcher because he is about the same size! they were really cute! and reagan just kinda went off to do her own thing and bruno remained somewhat anti-social and did his own thing. he likes to pretend that he's too mature to do the childish things they like to do. but i could tell he enjoyed the yard!

reagan, chaco and thatch sniffin' around

and of course, there's the tramp in the back yard...don't be confused, it's short for trampoline silly people! they really liked hanging out underneath and playing in the shade and laying in the clover! and shea liked playing on the top and jumping!

i love the pic of the guy landing on his neck!

she's a jumper!

but she deserved to play for a bit because she spent a ton of time just taking portraits of the puppies! i will post more pics of them when i get them downloaded.

must go prepare part of dinner!