I'm back!
So at long last, faithful LJ audience, I am updating! (and there was much rejoicing) I will try to be brief and at least 10% amusing....
Summer has flown! I figured the last time that I wrote that I'd have all this free time once school ended and would be updating all the time. Well I happened to be wrong. :-P Once our stupid teacher meetings ended, I was back in Dayton for Rob and Ashley's wedding and reunions w/ the gang. That was fun....after 7 months without a wedding I was starting to go through withdrawal (not really, ha) and it had also been far too long since I had stayed up til 3 AM bowling, listened to hour-long arguments about nothing, and heard profanity used in high concentrations. :-P The rest of the summer has gone by at breakneck speed....so here are the highlights:
Theater camp: Good times!!! That was basically the coolest summer job ever; I was paid to hang out w/ middle schoolers all day, and occasionally go on wild adventures in search of props for our plays (ask me sometime about the quest for an old-fashioned phone and a pipe :-P) The people I worked with were awesome too; Mitch and Dan were pretty much the most laid-back people in the world (which was at once fun and aggravating) and Kara and Lindsey (the other counselors who are closer to my age) quickly became good friends w/me.....I think it was our mutual addiction to caffeine, resulting in daily Starbucks runs "for the sake of the children" that did it. The kids were also a lot of fun, and it was nice to spend my summer *doing* something...I think that going from being run-around-like-crazy-busy every day to having absolutely *nothing* to do would have driven me crazy. And planning Spirit Week activities and making beehives out of newspaper and masking tape is a lot more relaxing than lesson planning and grading homework every day.
Family: Rachel went off to Texas A&M for 8 weeks to do a research internship. I missed her like crazy, but now she is back! yays! :-D Sarah has been busy playing for masses at the local churches and working on our faith sharing CD (my sisters and I singing praise and worship songs for our faith sharing groups at church...so yeah, we were recording artists this summer, ha!) Jessica and Mary were busy with their own theater stuff with "Brigadoon." Jess played Jane, the fianceé of the lead, who got jilted in the end. She was brilliant, and it was very much fun to have a sister in the main cast. :-) The 'rents went off to New York for a week, taking my dad's boss' brand new Corvette....leaving my sisters and I very jealous. We had our own fun, though.....recording ourselves singing by day, watching cheap horror flicks by night, and randomly trying to stalk strangers we saw at Starbucks (don't ask....)
This summer is also affectionately known as "The Summer of Scrabble, Matchbox 20, Ice-Road Truckers, and the Coffee Maker on the Stove" to describe other random family quirks, namely Mom's addiction to Scrabble (which resulted in us playing it every day, and me getting good enough to beat Dad!), Sarah's and my obsession with Matchbox 20, Dad's obsession with (and the rest of the family's loathing of) "Ice-Road Truckers" on TLC and his decision that the steam from the coffee maker won't bleach the wood on the cabinets if he puts it on the stove....even though that is the weirdest place ever for the coffee maker to be. :-P OK, I can't believe that I'm spending more time talking about the state of the coffee maker than I am about, say, the girl at camp breaking her leg and other more interesting stories like that. I swear, this summer has been more exciting than that; yet, for some reason, it seems a lot easier to write about the random stuff. But now I'm starting to ramble...
Cake-Eating Season: Birthdays were fun this year! Dad and Sarah's fell in the midst of "Brigadoon" performances, so we basically celebrated around that. Highlights from my bday were a balloon drop from my sisters, Rachel coming home (!!!!!) and spending most of the day at Starbucks (omg, I have now mentioned Starbucks like three times in this entry....I might have a problem...) and Mom's bday yesterday was also quite eventful....as Sarah puts it "remember that time it was Mom's birthday and we partied like it was 1999?" :-P let's just say that I prob have now beaten Snyd at being the biggest lightweight....to add to my victory at beating Simon at arm-wrestling. haHA Simon! that reunion was also a great ending to the summer. yay for baseball games, bbqs, frisbee, playing w/ crazy cats, going to Waffle House at 3 AM (whyyyyy?????) and catching up w/ the gang (esp. ppl like Ben whom I hadn't seen since New Years!)
And now....I am going back to Everest in 8 days. I can hardly believe how fast the summer went by. But I'm also excited about next year. I am looking forward to seeing the kids again, and to catching up w/ my coworkers. Every year is an adventure, and I'm excited to see what's in store....
So, all that said, time to get off-line for another two months before I update again. :-) I hope everyone's been having wonderful summers! Love y'all~~
Summer has flown! I figured the last time that I wrote that I'd have all this free time once school ended and would be updating all the time. Well I happened to be wrong. :-P Once our stupid teacher meetings ended, I was back in Dayton for Rob and Ashley's wedding and reunions w/ the gang. That was fun....after 7 months without a wedding I was starting to go through withdrawal (not really, ha) and it had also been far too long since I had stayed up til 3 AM bowling, listened to hour-long arguments about nothing, and heard profanity used in high concentrations. :-P The rest of the summer has gone by at breakneck speed....so here are the highlights:
Theater camp: Good times!!! That was basically the coolest summer job ever; I was paid to hang out w/ middle schoolers all day, and occasionally go on wild adventures in search of props for our plays (ask me sometime about the quest for an old-fashioned phone and a pipe :-P) The people I worked with were awesome too; Mitch and Dan were pretty much the most laid-back people in the world (which was at once fun and aggravating) and Kara and Lindsey (the other counselors who are closer to my age) quickly became good friends w/me.....I think it was our mutual addiction to caffeine, resulting in daily Starbucks runs "for the sake of the children" that did it. The kids were also a lot of fun, and it was nice to spend my summer *doing* something...I think that going from being run-around-like-crazy-busy every day to having absolutely *nothing* to do would have driven me crazy. And planning Spirit Week activities and making beehives out of newspaper and masking tape is a lot more relaxing than lesson planning and grading homework every day.
Family: Rachel went off to Texas A&M for 8 weeks to do a research internship. I missed her like crazy, but now she is back! yays! :-D Sarah has been busy playing for masses at the local churches and working on our faith sharing CD (my sisters and I singing praise and worship songs for our faith sharing groups at church...so yeah, we were recording artists this summer, ha!) Jessica and Mary were busy with their own theater stuff with "Brigadoon." Jess played Jane, the fianceé of the lead, who got jilted in the end. She was brilliant, and it was very much fun to have a sister in the main cast. :-) The 'rents went off to New York for a week, taking my dad's boss' brand new Corvette....leaving my sisters and I very jealous. We had our own fun, though.....recording ourselves singing by day, watching cheap horror flicks by night, and randomly trying to stalk strangers we saw at Starbucks (don't ask....)
This summer is also affectionately known as "The Summer of Scrabble, Matchbox 20, Ice-Road Truckers, and the Coffee Maker on the Stove" to describe other random family quirks, namely Mom's addiction to Scrabble (which resulted in us playing it every day, and me getting good enough to beat Dad!), Sarah's and my obsession with Matchbox 20, Dad's obsession with (and the rest of the family's loathing of) "Ice-Road Truckers" on TLC and his decision that the steam from the coffee maker won't bleach the wood on the cabinets if he puts it on the stove....even though that is the weirdest place ever for the coffee maker to be. :-P OK, I can't believe that I'm spending more time talking about the state of the coffee maker than I am about, say, the girl at camp breaking her leg and other more interesting stories like that. I swear, this summer has been more exciting than that; yet, for some reason, it seems a lot easier to write about the random stuff. But now I'm starting to ramble...
Cake-Eating Season: Birthdays were fun this year! Dad and Sarah's fell in the midst of "Brigadoon" performances, so we basically celebrated around that. Highlights from my bday were a balloon drop from my sisters, Rachel coming home (!!!!!) and spending most of the day at Starbucks (omg, I have now mentioned Starbucks like three times in this entry....I might have a problem...) and Mom's bday yesterday was also quite eventful....as Sarah puts it "remember that time it was Mom's birthday and we partied like it was 1999?" :-P let's just say that I prob have now beaten Snyd at being the biggest lightweight....to add to my victory at beating Simon at arm-wrestling. haHA Simon! that reunion was also a great ending to the summer. yay for baseball games, bbqs, frisbee, playing w/ crazy cats, going to Waffle House at 3 AM (whyyyyy?????) and catching up w/ the gang (esp. ppl like Ben whom I hadn't seen since New Years!)
And now....I am going back to Everest in 8 days. I can hardly believe how fast the summer went by. But I'm also excited about next year. I am looking forward to seeing the kids again, and to catching up w/ my coworkers. Every year is an adventure, and I'm excited to see what's in store....
So, all that said, time to get off-line for another two months before I update again. :-) I hope everyone's been having wonderful summers! Love y'all~~