Yet Another New Room

Well, I am officially moved into my third new room of the summer. Yesterday was an adventure in unpacking (my mother was appalled at the way I treated my clothing), and today was another adventure re-unpacking. My whole family came up with me yesterday afternoon to move me in, which was nice. It poured the whole way up, which was a tad unfortunate since the futon didn't fully fit in my dad's truck bed, but it stopped raining just as we got here and stayed dry until we finished. Since my roommate (Erin) was going back home for a concert, I had to unpack rather quickly, so most of my clothes got piled in a heap in my closet (hence Mom's horror) and things were just randomly stuck everywhere, so we could leave. Today however, I got up, loaded my last few things in the car and took Karen to tennis before heading out of town for the last time. I made it to school around 11ish and started in on the organizing process. It was long and messy, but I made it through. Everything is now hung up, folded, set up, or put away. Except that one of my picture frames came crashing down approximately three hours after I hung it up, scaring the crap out of me and Merideth, especially since we were sitting in her room and didn't see it happen, just heard it.

Anyway, Merideth and Brittany are living right next door to me, and Heather will be in the building too, along with many of our other friends. However, Merideth and I are the only ones currently here, which is making for an entertaining evening. We had a Campus Ministry meeting tonight, and after we got back from it, we explored our building, found the laundry room and walked around looking at the names on doors. We've giggled a lot and had some adventures while walking around the building. Which is called Lottie, by the way. Tomorrow morning, we leave bright and early for a day and a half retreat down in the cities, which should be interesting. There are a lot of new faces in Campus Ministry, as well as some great familiar ones. Sunday, we help the first years move in, and then our friends should all start arriving. I can hardly believe that I am looking at a whole nother year up here, and I am getting more and more excited about the process. Well, I must go pack for my retreat now. Love to all!

Another Summer Come and Gone

I can't believe how fast this summer went! Actually, I can't believe how fast the whole last year has gone. Last year at this time, I was up in the Boundary Waters, anxiously awaiting the beginning of college, with no idea what was in front of me. Now, I know what's coming and I can't wait to get there. Last year, I was completely packed days before I moved.... I move today and I'm not even close to being done with my packing yet. In a way, that's kind of nice, because I'm not so stressed out about what the coming days and weeks will bring.

Ok, so I moved home from the cabin last Wednesday evening, and it was a very sad thing for me. The last week I was up there, it was absolutely gorgeous, and I got a lot of sun. I ended up getting home around 9:00 Wednesday night, pretty unhappily. It was a tough transition, moving from the cabin back home and I was exhausted with all the activity for the first couple of days... actually, scratch that, I still am exhausted. Thursday, I drove down to ABC and visited with all my co-workers there, and then Mom and I headed down to the cities for the night. We picked up Grandma and went to ValuThrift, where I got some great buys and so did Mom. Then we met up with the aunts and did dinner at iHop and dessert at Grandma's. Friday morning, we got up, went to church and coffee, and then hit the MoA. We walked the whole place and only bought 6 refrigerator magnets, 4 alpaca wool scarves, and a pair of earrings. It was fun though, and we all enjoyed ourselves. Mom and I finally made it home around 8:00 and stuck in a movie. Saturday, we got up and headed to St. Cloud. (We were in a shopping mood this weekend!) We did well up there too, my biggest buy being a Denali NorthFace jacket for only $100. Usually they're closer to $200, so I was pretty excited about that. Saturday evening, we got home around 7:00 and were both just exhausted.

The past three days have been filled with laundry, packing, meeting friends, and working on a few various projects. My room has been a perpetual mess, which I hate, and it stinks, because I'll have a messy room for at least two more days. I feel like I am bringing WAY too much stuff with me to school, but I can't figure out what the unnecessary stuff is. I think it may be that I'm just bringing a lot of clothes with me. But we'll see. The whole crew is coming up with me today to move everything in, and then we're going to get dinner in St. Cloud before coming home for one last night in my bed. I can't technically move in until tomorrow, and if I'm found there tonight I can get a pretty hefty fine. My roommate can move in today though, so that's how I'm getting in. Tomorrow, I'll move up for good, and I'll have a Campus Ministry meeting in the evening, followed by an all day/night retreat on Friday. Sunday the freshies move in, and then all my friends come back! I'm definitely looking forward to seeing them all again.

For those you going back to school/sending kids that direction, enjoy your last few weeks of summer. For the rest of you.... enjoy life :o) hugs and kisses to all

The End Is Drawing Near

This is my last full week of work, and I am very sad about that. It's been a wonderful five weeks here, and it will be hard to leave. Luckily, Steve and Bunny seem to like me, so I think I'll be back next summer. There really isn't anything new to report, I'm still doing the same kinds of things at work and slowly learning the remaining things that I need to learn. I've been taken out on "garbage runs" and I've "done cans", I've learned the bait house, and I've also helped clean a fish. That was exciting. It wasn't anywhere near as gross as I thought it would be, and I'm kind of looking forward to the next time. I didn't do the whole thing, but I watched Bunny do most of it, and I got to do almost half of it. Funny how I've changed in the past month: cleaning a fish is not disgusting to me, it's exciting!

Anyway, I leave for home next Wednesday night/Thursday morning and start packing up for school. I bought most of my textbooks this morning: $131.03 for six books, and I have two more to buy. I saved about $100 by buying from half.com, and close to another $100 since I'm taking a class that Jon took last semester and he gave me his book. I'm really looking forward to going back to school, regardless of how hard it will be to leave here. I've been talking to some of my friends that I haven't really been in touch with all summer, and we're making big plans for this coming year. Plus, I talked to Erin, my roommate, and we have a futon, a fridge, a "comfy" chair, a hammock, a tv and dvd player, and a microwave. Hopefully we can fit it all in :o)

Well, that's about all I can think of for now. Have a great first week of August! xo

Summer Adventures

Woo hoo!! We got wireless internet at work! Now I can catch up on everything that I've been missing; my friends' lives, my emails, my shows... I love it :o)

Well, I've been living up at my cabin for almost a month now. The first week and a half, my family was up, and this past week, my family was up again, so I haven't really had much time alone yet, which is just fine. I love living up here, and I'm pretty happy living alone, but it still makes me nervous to be the only one in the house at night. Anyway, my days typically consist of at least four hours of work, a minimum of six miles of biking, lots of reading, some tv, and food. And that's about it. It's a pretty simple lifestyle up here, and even though it's taken a little getting used to, I know that it's going to be very odd when I leave. There's just something that so peaceful and laid back about life up here: one channel on the tv, bad cell phone service, in the beginning; no internet.... it just kind of makes you focus more on getting outside and meeting new people. In a way, I'm dreading leaving when it's time for school again.

Work. I love it. I'm working at Sugar Point Resort this summer. For those of you who have never been here, it's about three miles away from our cabin, and we have 19 cabins available for rent. Right now, most of them are filled up, and it's been a busy couple of weeks. I almost always have a job to do when I get here: stripping cabins, checking toilet paper in the campgrounds, stocking the cooler/freezer, or something along those lines. Then, I pretty much just sit in the lodge until the end of my shift, reading, playing cards, talking to my coworkers, and selling candy/ice/pop/fishing licenses. It's very easy work, but it gets me out of the cabin, and around people, so it's fun work. I've read quite a few books sitting at that counter this summer :o)

I work with my bosses, Steve and Bunny, their grandson Jordan, and a local boy named Keith. Jordan and I started at about the same time, and he'll be leaving with his parents tomorrow to head back home. He's a typical 14 year old boy; always trying to tell me what to do, and acting super cool. We have a lot of fun together cause he's kind of like a younger brother, but better because I don't have to take him home with me. Keith is 18, and we've had an interesting road of a relationship. We get along pretty well; I think there's only been one day where I was fairly upset with him, and didn't want to see him again for a few days. Other than that, he reminds me a lot of my friends from St. John's, and we laugh a lot together. We're going to head into town later this week and catch a movie and some food, so that should be interesting. Steve and Bunny are just great. Steve terrified me at first, but now I love hanging out and chatting with him. It's been a joy working for them, and I'm pretty sure that I'll be back next summer.

I have two and a half weeks left up here, and next week I'll be down at the dock, since Keith will be out of town. I'm excited for school, but I know it will be sad for me to leave here. I've made some good friends, and I've enjoyed every second of the month. I don't know when I'll be able to get back on here, but my days are almost all the same, so there's not too much to update you on. Love to all, I hope you're enjoying your summer!

The More Things Change...

the more they stay the same. At least that's what the songs tell us. And funnily enough, I've found it to be true. In the past 12 months, I have seen more changes in my life and my friends' lives than I ever have before. After graduating last June, my class all went their own ways. Some of us were off to four year colleges in the fall, some to two years. Some of us went right to work, and others started looking for jobs. Still others joined some branch of the military, and a whole nother group went out and found places to live, far away from Princeton. I have made a huge new group of friends, and grown up a little bit. I have big plans for my future, ones that include France for a few months and an internship in another state (hopefully) after my junior year of college. Who knows if they will work out or not, but at least I'm planning. This week I've gotten lunch with a number of my high school friends, and it's been great catching up with them. However.... everyone's DIFFERENT now. They have their own plans for life, their own new friends, their own frustrations and joys. They're still my friends, and I'm excited for them as they each start "the rest of their lives" as they have them planned now, but it makes me a bit nostalgic for the good ole days of grade school, middle school, and high school. Yes, I know that as I continue to get older, those "good ole days" will consist of what is my current present, but for now, they're school before college.

Even as I've been noticing all of these changes, I've become more attentive to the things that haven't changed. One of my favorite memories of childhood is Thursday garage saleing in the summertime. We never had that many garage sales ourselves, but I can remember walking around the block with my mom and checking out the other ones that were going on. As I drove into town today to meet two of my friends for lunch, I saw a bunch of signs for various garage sales. Sure enough, a little ways down the road, there were yards full of people and things for sale. I haven't been out garage saleing in many years, but it's kind of fun to realize that it's not a thing of the past. I guess I'll just have to keep on keepin' on and see what kind of changes I find in the next couple of years while continuing to come back to the familiar. Love y'all!

Catching Up

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's been a while since I've been on here. And contrary to the usual, it's not because I don't have anything to say, it's because I've gotten really busy lately. Let's see. Well, last Sunday I went down to Rick and Drea's to celebrate Vanessa's Peace Corps posting to Swaziland, and to say goodbye. (For those of you non-family members reading, Vanessa is my cousin, Becca's older sister) It was a bittersweet party. I'm really really excited for Vanessa, because I know this is something that she's been wanting to do for a long time. However, I'm also a little sad that I won't get to see her for the next two years. Although I didn't see her much while she was still living here, I really enjoyed talking to her on those rare occasions where I was babysitting Becca and Ness was around for a while. It was nice to be able to talk to an older cousin, one who's already been through a lot of what I'm going through now. Plus, I just like her :o)

After the party, I drove out to CSB for the next four days. I was lucky enough to be able to be a counselor at Girls, God, and Good Times (aka 3G) this summer, and I really want to do it again next year. There's two sessions, one for 6th-8th graders, and one for 4th and 5th graders. I worked with the younger girls this year and had a total blast. It was my first time ever being a counselor, and now I can't wait to do it again. I was really nervous about it, but my girls were fantastic, my fellow counselors were great, and it was just a lot of fun.... I could go on and on about it, but I will keep it short and sweet. However, any of you reading this that have daughters that will be in grades 4-8 next year should really consider sending them to 3G.

My biggest news right now is that I finally got a job, and I'll be starting it in just over a week. I'm going to move up to our cabin, which I am super pumped about, and I'll be working at Sugar Point Resort. I'll be a "jill of all trades", doing everything from cleaning cabins, to mowing lawns, to working the docks, to being in the main building. It's about 30 hours week, broken down into five four hour days and one (Saturday) day with a four and a half hour shift in the morning and a three hour shift in the afternoon. As most of you know, at the cabin we do not have internet, and cell phones don't really work, so I'll be a little out of touch for a couple of months, but I'll try and find access somewhere to catch up with y'all.

Well, that's a pretty condensed version of everything that's gone on in the past two weeks. Love to all.

Summertime, Sweet Summertime

It's hard for me to believe that I've already had five weeks of summer vacation. It's flown by! I really haven't been doing too much, but it's been nice to relax and unwind a bit after the stress of the end of the year. I've done a lot of reading and I've scrapbooked a couple hundred pictures of my year, I try to work out, and I've watched a lot of movies. I'm working (kind of) on the job situation; at first I was going to try and get a job working up north either waitressing for some old family friends or cleaning cabins at a resort near the cabin, but so far neither of them has worked out. Now, I'm hoping to get some hours in at ABC and cleaning for certain family members of ours :o) That would be ideal, because then I would be fairly free to do things with my friends and I'd probably get the chance to go up to Cragun's resort again for a week to babysit Becca. 

My big excitement of the summer so far was driving down to Iowa last weekend. Merideth had just come back from Argentina and Brittany drove down too. It was absolutely fantastic to see those two, and hear about Merideth's trip. The only downer is that now I miss them even more. Anyway, it took me about five and a half hours to get down there, and the drive wasn't bad. I like driving, and it was kind of fun to undertake such a long trip by myself. We hung out with one of Brittany and Merideth's high school friends on Friday night, and on Saturday we went out to pick up Merideth's horse from where she had spent the school year. That was fun, partially because it was way out in the country which is always beautiful, and partially because I came home with a new kitten. Since Penny is getting pretty old, we decided it was time to get a new cat. He is all black except for a little white patch on his chest, and he has blue eyes. He's about nine weeks old, and he's a little shyster. I stopped in Bloomington for the night on my way back home, and he was tricky to keep safe in Grandma's garage. Monday morning when I left her house is when I started to run into problems. He managed to crawl out of the box I had him in and created quite a problem. I was fairly flustered, but we managed to make it home all in one piece. 

Next week, I'm off to CSB for a few days to be a counselor at a girls camp. I'll have five or six fourth and fifth grade girls, and it should be a lot of fun. Otherwise, not much else is new. So, love to all and I hope that you are enjoying the (somewhat) nice weather.