The month of July....

26th... Peter and Gabrielle W. picked us up a little past 8:00 am and took us to Regina for the weekend. :-) We shopped for a few hours with Gabrielle then had supper, which was a dish of pasta and chicken, along with olives and tomatoes. Peter made it and it was very very good. :-) He kept saying that he wasn't a good cook... if you want a semi-fancy dish that looks Italian/Greece then ask him how he made the pasta and chicken. :-) After supper while Peter picked up two movies us ladies walked part of the way to Ray B. house which was about 8 blocks away from where P. and G. live. Naomi knocks on the door and Ray (who had no clue that we were in Regina) opened it... his eyes widened and his mouth dropped. It was so much fun talking and kind of catching up on things. We talked for 45 min. or so and then he had us listen to a song that he had recorded with a computer program. Upon returning home we watched Inkheart. We got to bed a little past 12:00 am... a bit later than any of us expected I think. :-)
27th.... Germany played England in the world cup soccer that morning at 8:00 so we watched it. Germany won by the way, 4 goals to England's 1. I'm not a great sport person... therefore I only ended up watching about half the game. I suppose I could get excited about games but it's just not something I feel I need to get involved in. :-) We walked to church at 9:50. It was good to have a sermon again.... something more familiar than what we've had in F. Banga's church. The catholic church has more singing, which I enjoy but I like a good sermon as well. :-) So I prefer something like our church in Endeavour or the one that we attended in Regina. No offense to those of you who are catholics. :-) Peter's brother and son had come to watch the soccer game and they came back for dinner as well. We had fully dressed hamburgers and then a store bought cheese cake for dessert. (which was very good, I haven't tasted a non-homemade cheese cake that tasted that well since... I don't think ever) :-) Gabrielle took her dog and us girls (LOL! That sounds funny) for a walk 20 min. after dinner. It was good to have a bit of exercise. After we got back we loaded very relaxed, and then headed for Kenosee. We listened to bluegrass on the way back since Peter and Gabrielle have satellite radio, so that was lots fun. :-) We also stopped in Arcola for fuel and Peter insisted that we get ourselves a frozen treat, it's been a while since we've had any treats like that. :-) We showed Peter and Gabrielle around the camp and then talked for 45 min. in the Kome 'n' See. The weekend was so much fun.... so here's another THANK YOU for P. & G. 's hospitality and friendship. It was lots and lots of fun. Thanks so much. :-)
Hannah
28th I painted the showers up at the pool. That took about 3 hours, mostly being tedious since it's not plain boards.... it's sheet metal, and all those grooves take time to cover with the green paint. :-) I have some problems with oil-based paint. For some reason, my eyes burn pretty bad and for 2-3 days after I have the feeling of the paint in my lungs. :-/ Though I am glad that it's me not Lydia or Naomi doing the oil-based painting, they've both had problems with their lungs (Lydia has had a cold hang on for a long time) so I shouldn't complain. :-) We ate lunch early since we didn't have a 10:00 am snack. :-) Loretta H. was here.... she drives bus for Carlyle and the kids had a day at the water slides. She wasn't needed for a few hours so she spent it at the camp. :-) Naomi and Lydia cleaned chairs, pressure washed the cement of the outdoor chapel and set up the chairs and benches while I was painting. I cleaned the painting stuff... then F. Banga had me mow around the evergreens. Places where the tractor mower can't get. :-) We hauled old boards to the old board pile behind cabin 4 ½ , sledge hammered in some boards near the outdoor chapel. Hauled one more bench up to the pool, took down some long handled broom/brushes for cleaning the pool. Then F. Banga told us to take the rest of the day off. Lydia and Naomi went to the Kome 'n' See, and I took a canoe out for ½ an hour. First time I've paddled a canoe, I've kayaked before. :-) It was fun, other than the canoe leaked some so by the time I got back to the dock my shoes, socks and part of my dress were wet. :-)
Hannah
29th.... moved to the MTC room #2 that morning. F. Banga told us to use the van to bring the loads over so I made two trips with that. It certainly helped. :-) F. Banga had gone into Carlyle that morning, returning about an hour after lunch. I started working on the flower arrangements, and Naomi took over wiring them to the frame. While I got more willow for another frame and for filler. We worked on them till supper. Lydia pressure washed the pool walk way. It was very windy, but I went out on the lake any way.... found myself going backwards half the time. LOL! Got in, showered watched a DVD on my lap-top. Then finished up watching a soccer match of the world cup with Lydia.
30th.... cleaned the Kome 'n' See cedar cabins in the bush with Naomi. That wasn't exactly fun. It would have been fine, but I haven't seen mosquitoes that thick for a long time. They were in big clouds hovering and diving. Yikes. Definitely not something I enjoyed doing. :-/ Finished the flower arrangements. They turned out okay.... I'm no hand at that artistic stuff. After lunch we were off.... Naomi and Lydia went to the MTC or for a walk and I took the canoe out. Got back around 2:30 walked over with the girls to F. Banga's shack/cabin. Met Tylene.... who did music at the camp for several years. She taught us three songs for teaching the kids. F. Banga made Hungarian noddles for supper. :-)
1st.... Happy Canada Day! :-) Cleaned up more things. Seems there's always something little that needs doing. F. Banga needs to take a walk through this tomorrow and see if we've missed anything. After lunch we were given till 4:00 off (which is where I am now.) Naomi and Lydia settled for different movies. I took the canoe out again. Did kind of a round circuit of the camp part of the lake. It's really hot today. But I don't think I got too sunburned. :-) Watched a movie when I got in. We're going to see a partial pow-wow and also the fire works this evening. :-) Should be fun.
Hannah...... later. The pow-wow isn't till the evening of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. The fire works were great. But the mosquitoes were really rotten. LOL! It was worse than usual, since the day had been very muggy and humid. We didn't get to bed till mid-night. Myself some later as I had to wait for the shower since F. Banga told us we should use the main girls washroom shower instead of the ones in the MTC. Around 2:00 am I awoke to being splashed on. A terrific thunder storm had blown in and our window was open. :-) So I shut that one and two others that were open. Not much sleep with all the lightening and thunder playing over head.
2nd.... we all slept in this morning. Bad girls that we are we didn't get up till almost 8:00 am. :-/ Oh well. :-) Gordon Food Services rolled in early that morning. So we a bit of time putting everything away. Then some staff started arriving some in time for lunch others not. AL and Loretta H. came for lunch and also loaded up the last hide-a-beds. Good to have them gone. :-) After lunch Naomi and Lydia went for a short walk and I took the canoe out. Now I'm going to try to get some GED prep reading in. I want to take the tests after camp so I can say that I legally graduated. :-)
Several more staff had arrived by supper time and a couple more came in just as we were leaving for the Pow-wow in White Bear. The Pow-wow was interesting. And very neat. :-) The costumes were pretty incredible. We stayed there for about 1 ½ hours then the mosquitoes were getting bad so we went back to camp. Some of the staff/counselors watched a movie till 10:30 or so but we and several others headed for bed when we got back.
Hannah
3rd... we cleaned up the cabins again, did a wash with bleach water. I fixed part of the screen door of the music room. Tala (15 year old native counselor) helped us set up the sound system in the outdoor chapel. Other staff cleaned the pool, visited in the MTC and some ran to town. It was a lazy day. :-) I read/studied more in the GED book as well. Had a campfire, we don't know most of the songs that they sing around campfire but we will be learning them in the next month. :-)
4th.... got up at 6:52 and took a canoe out for an early (Yeah right) jaunt. So quiet on the lake in the morning, no power boats at the other end. Just me, God and the water. Well I guess the canoe and paddle help as well. :-) Church in Carlyle at F. Banga's. We sang as we did last time. :-) Got back around 12:30 pm had lunch and then talked some, read some till 2:00. Went and stood by the cabins that we're counselors of. I'm counselor of cabin 4 along with Tala, Jenna and Austyn (Austyn's 15 and Jenna's 18) Ours is one of the loudest cabins. They're all 10-12 and wow crazy. LOL! Tons of energy, and the things they come up with.... :-) But they're all really good kids, and although it takes a bit till they hush when you want them to, they all listen pretty well. :-) They had two times of swimming in the pool (with the instructors who can swim). Then we played three games of capture the flag. Lots of fun, I'm kind of known as the slow one. LOL! I've always had a bad time as sports. :-) Then we had snack and campfire till 9:30. The kids have to be in bed and lights out around 10:00 pm. In three of the cabins the male counselors slept in the cabin as well. The kids in the older cabins don't need a counselor with them at night. The rest of the staff had prayer time and hit the hay. The first bit is always on the rough side. Speaking about rough.... There's are some plastic rack things that the people put their shoes on outside the pool. They measure about 1 ½ in. tall, 1 foot wide and 4 feet long. Any how I ended up stubbing my left foot into the end of one of them and sliced two of my toes. :-/ I am such a klutz. LOL! 5th.... well it's late afternoon here the first day is almost gone by. We have about 4 ½ hours left before they go to bed. :-) Music actually went a lot better than we had expected it to. Which was a real big answer to prayer. :-) I was praying so hard last night, feeling very unconfidant as I lay in bed. :-) So, breakfast 8:00-9:00 am then three, 1 hour long sessions in the morning... different groups of people. And two sessions in the afternoon. :-) They all went pretty good, some better than others, but for the most part it was really really good. Naomi led us in prayer before each session, and we teach them 6 or 7 songs. Then comes the fun part, they all get a chance to play the instruments. Piano, fiddle, banjo and guitar. They all really enjoy that. It's then that we get to know them a bit more. :-) Do you know how hard it is to learn 35+ names in a few hours? LOL! I think I might have half of them down, but it's hit and miss for the main part. We have two rules/stipulations in the music room. First each group will be judged throughout the week as the best singers, doing all the motions, and the most obedient. The group who wins gets a prize at the end of the week. So that has helped with the incentive to be good for most of the groups. :-) The other rule is that they have to stand while singing.... so in between songs they can sit down while we girls get our act together then we/I give the stand up order, they have up to 3 (counted slowly) to stand up or they get tickled to death. LOL! Almost all of them stood up upon command but some needed a little extra incentive to get to their feet. Second or third time around the other campers can join in the tickling to get the stubborn one out of the chair. We end up pulling them out while tickling them and they usually stand pretty well for the song. :-) So now... I need to practice banjo. I did a couple sections of GED English and arts before this but I need to get in a few things before supper rolls around. :-) So see you later.
Hannah
6th.... after supper there was mass, and because it was cool we didn't do campfire. Instead we gathered them all into the MTC living-room area to watch part of a movie. They then had a snack and went to bed. Naomi and I led prayer, and then we had some B-day cake, as one of the counselors mother's had brought some. :-)
Morning dawned, prayer held, breakfast eaten, and sessions began. :-) Today it was a little tougher, the kids were more relaxed and were starting to push their limits. So we had a few times of crazy.... :-/ The worst was the last session from 2:30 to 3:30pm.... the couldn't seem to quit screaming, or singing the wrong song at the top of their lungs. LOL! Canteen, then most of the kids left for waterslides, mini golf or horse back riding. The few kids who stayed here took a survival walk with Daniel. :-) We three girls talked with Jesse (who's 15 almost 16) for 1 ½ hours, it was good to get to know him better. :-) The kids got back and we ate around 6:00pm. Talked with my cabin kids about doing the 5 min. skit on Friday evening for the presentation. I really don't have a clue about what to do and the other three counselors who are with that cabin, one (Tala who really hasn't a clue anymore than I do) will help the best she can but Austyn and Jenna who know more about the skits haven't done a whole lot with the cabin these past two days. Hopefully they'll come to our rescue later on. :-)
Anyhow mass at 7:00, I played the banjo there. Not great, interestingly the mic I was trying to play into wasn't working. LOL! So I wasn't to worried. :-) Then water polo... fun to watch. :-) I need to run... so talk later. :-)
Hannah
7th no extra curricular things today (horse back riding, water slides or mini golfing) so there were two free swims. And mass was at 5:00, supper at 6:00. Cabin cleanup 3:00 – 3:30 and inspection before canteen. No extra time for studying GED or writing here. (today's the 10th and I can't remember things properly)
8th people started getting sick, flu and cold. Two kids threw up... and several sound really rough. One from our cabin threw up, and another one was feeling really rotten so they slept all morning. But after lunch they were up around. Not doing much, but at least on their feet. Two of the boys in my cabin were asking questions about the bible... and stories of different things. So I ended up reading/explaining two bible stories to my whole cabin after canteen time. I had been really praying that at sometime God would open a way for me to be able to talk about God to them. And although I was reading/explaining to “only two” of them, all the others were listening. So that was a really big answer to prayer. :-)
9th.... last day. One camper was still sick and I had to clean up a couple times. LOL! Reminded me of being at home again. I have one of the strongest stomachs for cleanup duty, so I end up getting it a lot. :-) We only practiced two songs, since there was no mass that night. And then we chilled and I took the kids to the trampoline to play a ball game. Did a run through of the skit, handed out shirts. Signed shirts... I got my staff shirt signed by all but 4 people at camp. F. Banga, Clinton (the nurse, he says that since he might be famous one day he doesn't give out autographs.... LOL!) and my two sisters. So as Lydia said to me.... “is your shirt black or orange?” :-) the evening concert, skits and music went very well. The gift for the best group in music was a DVD of the first week of camp, pictures set to music. Naomi, Lydia and I took the pics, Naomi made the DVD and I copied it since my computer works quicker than hers. They were very happy to receive the gift. :-) Good byes were said hugs, hugs and more hugs were given. The camp emptied and grew quieter. By 9:00 only 7 people were left at the camp... :-) So quiet. And we're all like, we miss the kids. LOL! :-) But at the same time it's so nice to have peace and quiet. Watched part of the last Pirates of the Caribbean with the rest of the counselors but I went and showered and crashed into bed about half way through.
10th.... lazed in bed for a while, talking to the two other girl counselors and my sisters. Had breakfast, then cleaned out a cabin. And sat around. LOL! We're being lazy today. I've going to go clean bathrooms now though. :-) And the mess hall floor needs to be mopped but we might leave that for the other two maintenance guys who'll be back either tonight or tomorrow morning. :-) Naomi and Lydia are making cookies, and we're going to make pizza later on today. I also need to practice banjo. :-) So till later... or in a few days. :-)
Hannah
11th.... cleaned bathrooms, ate supper, watched Alice in Wonderland (the new one) then went out to the music room and watched The Beverly Hillbillies while the others watched a different movie in the MTC. Showered and hit the hay. Naomi has a cold so she didn't go to church with us. We sang with Brian and Tim today. Okay. :-) F. Banga took us to DQ for lunch then we got some things for the kids this week and also for us and B-day presents for some of the counselors. I'm in cabin 2 with Jesse and Stirling.... boys ages 10-12. So this should be fun. :-) The first free swim is just over.... so we'll have rules, supper, another free swim and then campfire. :-) I need to run.
Hannah
evening... played capture the flag again. Lots of fun. Campfire time was short, only a few songs.
12th every thing went well in music. Of course that's what happened last week as well, they were good the first day and then they lightened up and were trouble the next days. :-) With 85 kids here, they've been divided into 6 groups, and we're only doing 45 min. sessions so we can do 4 groups in the morning and 2 after dinner. While horse back riding, mini golf and water sliding is going on the others left here were put into three groups and taken on different excursions around the place, like 'rock wall' climbing, building a fort, or a nature walk. They've put survival in as a regular session with so many groups of kids. Mass went well, Sam A. and Stirling W. came and sang with us up front so that was fun. :-) played capture the counselor afterwards as is was nearly 10:00 so all the kids went to bed.
13th..... kids were tired and kind of on edge today just like last week. :-) Music went OK, but not great. Naomi has a pretty bad cough and she can't always sing. Praying hard for her and also for my voice since Lydia can't sing very well either. So really praying that God will make my voice hold out. Thankfully it's held out so far. :-) Played Red-Rover with lots of the kids and other counselors during the afternoon while the extra curricular things were going on. Had supper, mass and then free swim. Two girls from cabin 4 ½ were really home sick so I sat with them for a while, took them to the pool side and sat there for ½ an hour then brought them back to their cabin where they wanted to just snuggle in their sleeping bags so I left them to snuggle. :-) Snack and then bed.
14th.... music didn't go as well today, they were really pushing boundaries. The group (can't remember the #) that had been good the first two days really wrecked their chances of winning the prize with their behavior. Two of other groups were a lot better than them. It rained off and on today.... cabins were judged today as well, so that was interesting. :-) Going to try to play/sing If My Nose Was Running Money for Friday night. So I really hope that works. :-) Dance tonight..... so things were a little different, we had mass, supper and then cleaned up the mess hall somewhat. Put away all the chairs and tables. :-) I need to run, talk later. :-)
Hannah
July 31th..... what can I say? I have a very good excuse though. My computer cord disappeared.... it was there on the table in the afternoon but when I went to get it to charge my battery in the evening it was gone. So I was wasn't able to type anything about the last two weeks. After searching through all the rooms (thinking that maybe someone took my cord for a prank) and finding nothing I/we were looking through a variety of cords laying on a table that had been placed there a little time before(the last few days of week 4) and we found a cord... not mine but another computer cord, so I tried it on my computer and it works fine. We figure someone miss placed their cord and took mine home with them instead of looking for their own cord. I'm not complaining. :-) I'm just glad to have a live computer again. :-)
The two last weeks went well.... I had a good cabin both weeks. Started getting sick last day(s) of the third week and was sick with a cold the 4th week. It's cleared up pretty good. And my throat doesn't hurt anymore except in the mornings. I sound terrible, and am still coughing, but I was able to sing and take care of my cabin so I'm doing good. :-) Dad, Mom and family brought Jesse down yesterday (the last day of kids camp) and he along with Jason (who's 15) will be doing maintenance for the fiddling camp. We'll be staying here till the 23rd.... and on the 24th we have to go to Swan River for an orthodontic appointment. :-) The kids for kids fiddle camp are coming at 4:00 pm today..... they stay till Tuesday afternoon/evening and then we have two days of rest before starting the regular camp. There's only going to be 12 kids in the kids fiddling.... there were going to be around 25 but the Indian reservation at the last minute decided to pull all the native kids out so, it should be a fairly easy week. I and Naomi will just be around. Lydia will be helping teach guitar and we'll all go to sessions on how to teach music. :-) I need to go check the laundry.... I'm doing a lot of the sheets and also some towels from the MTC, and I need to get our laundry done as well.... then I'm going to take a dip in the pool. :-) I can do my back flutter and I'm working on my front flutter but it's a little harder keeping afloat. I also need to figure out how to actually “swim” :-) I'm better about my fear of water over my head, my stomach still clenches up nicely but I'm learning to relax and take deep breaths. :-) I played water Polo several times, and had lots of fun with the kids during free swims (where every one gets in the pool and chills or plays games, or talks, or swims... just generally having fun.) :-)
One last thing.... we have two support posts/ 2x6's in the music room and we allowed the kids to sign them this year. One of the kids who has ADD is a real handful during camp but he loves music and sings his heart out (he's 10, but looks about 7), everyone else seems to think that he's got little horns but we were looking over the signatures and we found that he wrote this.... “It's all about Music, Jesus and God.” WOW! :-) Even though he was pretty good in music class we hadn't realized how much he had been touched by what was being said, played and sang. If I were the crying type (LOL!) I would be sniffling right now. :-) What Mason wrote sums up everything I prayed for the whole last year, that we would overflow with music, love and be examples of God the whole way through. I know we failed in so many ways (humans do, it's not something we can cure) but I also see the lives that God has touched through us. And I say again and again Thank you Lord. :-) You'd have to know Mason (and understand what his background is... it's not pretty) to see the whole meaning and specialness of what he wrote. :-)
Okay I really have to run..... :-) Maybe sometime we'll get a chance to get to have some net time. :-) You'll be so bored reading about the last month you'll not know what to do with me. LOL! Praying for y'all. :-)
Hannah
1st.... It's hard to believe that it's August already. It poured about an hour after I typed the last post.... and then settled for raining off and on into the evening so we didn't have a campfire. I was really tired so I showered and went to bed by 10:30. Naomi and I helped in the kitchen today.... right at Dinner Naomi, Gordon, Shamma and Michelle went to play a gig at Cannington Manor. They called during supper saying that all had gone well with the music but on the way back Michelle's car blew a tire so Will had to go pick them up. During my free time from the kitchen 1:15 – 2:45 I hit the pool. Worked on my flutters and my dog paddle. :-) It was nice to have the pool to myself for a time. :-) Went back to the kitchen by 3:00 and began working on getting supper on.
I need to run now.
Hannah