its been a while...

we had 2 weeks of camp big heart. the first week was kids, second was adults. they were awesome, both groups! it was real different from the other camps we have in the organization and involvement that we had with the campers but i think it worked out pretty well. fun times, very tiring though. a lot to deal with but also super rewarding.

this week we have twitch and shout and camp journey. twitch and shout is for kids with tourettes. journey is for kids with autism. they don't do much together because they are obviously very different camps, but they do all of the same activities, so its very exciting for both of them. i am cabin buddies with a twitch and shout group. little boys about 10 years old. adorable!!! troublesome, but adorable none the less. it kind of stinks though because i don't get to spend much time with the journey kids, except for while running some activities. i did get to attend their dance tonight though, that was excellent! it was very different from most because to start it their director had a whole shpeel about how to ask someone to dance and how close is too close and so on. it was funny, but they followed it perfectly. most of them were very into so it was a success. then we went down and met up with twitch and shout for their camp fire, and it was very noisy! still trying to not be startled by the sudden yells or jumps, its fascinating though. seeing how they deal with it and how its not a big deal at all. everyone has different tics and they just accept it. sometimes other kids will ask if that was a tic or if he is just weird, but once they discover its a tic they tell about a really odd tic they have. its just a great group of kids with a lot of energy.

today we put a twitch and shout group up on the tech course which is our high group ropes. they were ticing away at 40 feet in the air. up there the "shits" and "fucks" didn't seem so out of place! it was definitely nerve racking though, especially when the boy who has jumping tics went up, but he was a rockstar and didnt even fall, just stepped over those cables like a pro.

already love them and its only monday, cannot wait for the rest of the week. but now its time to catch up on sleep :)

you just let me know

these kids are awesome! all they want are some friends. and thats exactly what this camp is giving them. they are eating it up. i get high fives from almost every person i pass, i know almost all of their names and what makes them freak out or what means they are happy. its so fun seeing them interact with one another and just by themselves. some of the activities are not as interesting to them as kids usually find them, but they enjoy them in their own ways, even if its just sitting down for an hour instead of standing around.
they had their talent show tonight and it was funny. they all got really into it so it was a success. we started outside, but then the rain came, and we had to run to the dining hall and finish indoors. good times none the less.

the weekend is calling my name. it has been a long, hot week. i am ready for some athens...

you lookin' good in that pink.

so just fyi, if you ever need a pick me up, come to camp big heart. all the boys will tell you how pretty you are, except for justin, but hes so cute it doesn't matter. in love with my cabin already! i was meant to spend time with 16 year old boys...in a non pedophile way of course. theyre just awesome. they love to talk about anything!

basically today we just hung out with our cabin buddies and had some pool time. lots of fun. ive gotten asked to the dance 3 times. and i am sooo excited! not much for today, but there will be more after some actual sessions. yay BIG heart

youre a whine baby

so oo-u-la is the best!!! they bring all of their own stuff, mostly do their own, have amazing kids and staff, and have snacks for us! haha. they really are great. so prepared for everything and know how to get the kids super interested and involved. there theme this year was medieval times. so naturally there were knights and kings and castles everywhere. of course its burn camp though, so there were also handsome firemen and a gold cart suited up as a firetruck with siren and horn installed. it was great! the kids were awesome, so open and loving. one of our counselors talked about how hard it must be to have scars so visible. some of these kids have their faces and arms covered with skin grafts. i can't even imagine some of the looks they get. he talked about some of the kids and how the opposite sex doesn't want to date them because they look so different, but just talk to any of these kids and how could you not want to be with them all the time. i cried when they left today because of the impact they had on me. first it was rachel with the water works that got me going and then when my boy waylon came up i almost lost it. going to miss him the most.
waylon is the little country boy from dodge county ga. he lives on a farm and work in a watermelon field. he is 15, going to be 16 this year, and he is the love of my life! (sorry babe) in five years he will be such a stud. he said he already is. said he had lots of girls waiting a home lol. he got burned when he was about 1. he was riding around his backyard on his little toy truck thingy and ran through a hole that his dad had buried coals in from the barbecue. when his mom saw it she just thought it was like sand or something because his skin was bubbling up, so she ran water over it and then figured out it was a burn. to top it off when he was 6 his dad died. but hes a trooper. and now he has a step dad and an older step sister and a younger brother and he seems completely in love with his life. he doesn't take anything to seriously, but at the same time hes pretty mature for a 15 year old boy. i mean minus the watermelon comment about increasing size. :)
they were just fabulous! can't say enough about them, but i guess thats all i'm going to say. i really hope i can work here again next summer just because they all said i hope to see you next year and now i'm dying to since were not allowed to be friends with them on facebook :( super sad. because i have friends who are 16, and i would love to friend my boy...

you have a fake nose?!

so this week is camp oo-u-la. after missing sunday i felt completely lost. and that was only half a day. thankfully i feel all in the loop again. i eat meals with my cabin buddies but i definitely do not feel as close to them as i have to the other camps. my favorite group is actually the 14-15 yr old boys. love them! and ive only spent today with them, but they are fabulous. we did dynamic ropes this morning and it was fun getting to know all the personalities and such. theres one boy in that group that doesn't talk much and would not try any of the high ropes stuff. one of my bosses told us about him before the camp came. he got burned in a domestic dispute. his parents were in a fight and the dad decided to get back at the mom that he would pour gasoline on his son and light him on fire. ridiculous. i would be quiet too. but hes awesome. he still gets involved by cheering the others on and keeping the counselors company. definitely a good kid. my favorite kid in that group however is mr waylan. and he is as country as his name and adorable. he is fifteen and the biggest flirt i have ever met. loves him!!!

so yesterday kira was talking to this one counselor who is also a burn victim. he was telling her about how he got burned, and it turns out it was in a car accident. they actually put him in a morpheme coma for 2 months after while he was healing. but he said he had very vivid dreams during the coma, like when he woke up he remembered being in jail and getting raped by these inmates. he went to california and all sorts of crazy things that he thought were real. he could not decipher real and not for the longest time. i cannot imagine! but at the end of his story he was like wanna see something cool, and took his nose off! like its just a fake, he just has a hole in his face. we couldnt tell at all. he said it helps that he always wears a hat and he has glasses that cover up the bridge of it where it attaches and other scars so you can't really tell a difference, but it was still pretty ballin. and i know he probably doesn't think so, but i mean different can be very cool i think!

these kids are so cool! can't wait for more. but its time for flagpole and tonights my night off, so after dinner i will be heading to my real dinner :)

life with the campers

so this week we had to live in the cabins with the campers because this camp did not have their own counselors. such a different experience. it was great because we got to know the girls super well, but at the same time, it was a lot to handle them 24/7. this was camp weekaneatit. its a camp for kids with celiac disease, which is a fancy label for kids allergic to glutan which is a protein in wheat. (i think i got that all right...) anyways, the point of the camp is to give kids a week where they can have everything that is served. they dont have to go ask if it is glutan free or get the weird food from the other fridge while everyone else is having the good stuff. i mean just think about it. how many things do you eat on a daily basis with glutan in it? bread for one. pancakes, cookies, chicken nuggets, the list goes on. so basically these ids have nothing physically wrong with them except that most of them were very thin due to the absence of carbohydrates in their diet. i'm pretty sure there are people starting to eat glutan free as a diet plan. theyre crazy, the food is not so great, and we had the good stuff at camp.
so basically they were just like any other preteen kids. which is absolutely crazy. they hung all over us which is not exactly acceptable in our position and constantly talked or in some cases, ran away whenever confronted. it was definitely an experience living with them, but i will be glad to have my own bed with its two feather mattress pads and three pillows back for next week.

we had a little prank war which was an absolute blast. the boys started with silly string, then we planned our revenge, but before the day that we had planned it for, they got us again with water balloons, so we got some shaving cream water balloons and attacked them on their way back to their cabin. then we got them again at 3am on the last morning. we got all the girls together and went to the drumming/percussion closet. got the loudest items we could and ran through their cabins screaming bloody murder. (then we went to the visiting counselors cabins and did the same thing. one of the girls actually ran outside because she got so scared. it was lovely, but i'm sure payback is coming when their camp comes for the week.) that was the highlight of the week i guess just because it was so different from what we had been doing.

it was a great week though. the kids were sweet and adorable, just a lot to handle. last year they were the last camp to come, and our counselors still had to live in the cabins with them, and i can not imagine that. being so drained from the whole summer and then having to live your last week with them would be soooo tiring! kudos to last summer's staff!


well now i'm home. had a birthday dinner for my mom and brother last night after i got off, have a bridal shower for my cousin tonight, and a graduation party for my brother tomorrow night, so i'm taking sunday off. which kind of sucks because thats when opening cermonies and such are, but i'll have mon-fri with them, so no big deal. next week is oo-u-la. its cherokee for cool water or something like that. its the burn victim camp. i'm super excited because everyone says it is one of the coolest camps. they bring a lot of their own stuff for activities and such, and they have like 100 firefighters with them who are supposedly HOTTT (sorry eric <3). i'm pretty pumped! its a big camp too, so well be getting into the swing of what regular weeks are going to be like. its going to be crazy. can't wait!!! and well be in our own cabins so i will be able to keep you updated much better.