Camp Comes To An End

What a great month of camps!  We have had 5 separate kids camps come through, and 3 weeks of Discipleship Boot Camp.  There were a few sleepless nights, and many late nights. But they were all worth it!  My prayer is that lives were forever changed, and that students never forget the commitments that they made here.


Here's a few more pictures from the store-the Interlude, two people trying on a 4X shirt, and just a random shot.

New Campground

June camps are coming to an end!  And so it is time to get ready for the July and August camps!  My co-workers and I visited the location of the July and August camps today so we can do some planning for the upcoming events!

This is the dining hall-most of the buildings have the same stone look to them.  In some ways, this facility is similar to our regular campgrounds, but in many ways it is different.  This one is a little more rustic-it even has horseback riding and a petting zoo!  I am looking forward to the new location!

Ojeda's

Today two of my co-workers and I went out to eat at Ojeda's in DeSoto.  When my hubby later asked where we ate, I was afraid to pronounce it since my guesses at Spanish pronunciations are always wrong.  I think he told me "Oh-hey-duzz".  I had never been there before, but I was guessing it was not a chain.  (After a visit to their website, I quickly discovered that they actually do have others across the metroplex).  I saw their special on the menu board-briskit tacos, and immediately knew what I was ordering.  My co-workers ordered enchiladas and puffy tacos.


While we waited for our food, we enjoyed their chips and salsa.  My salsa was a little spicier than I generally prefer, but the flavor was amazing-and by my own admittance I don't like very spicy food.  When I mentioned that, one of my co-workers mentioned that she didn't think hers was very spicy-and she really doesn't like spicy food, either.  After trying her salsa, we discovered that hers was different than mine-it had more of a sweet taste to it.  But I kept my own-it had better flavor.


My tacos were great-wonderful flavor.  Most briskit tacos I have had before have been pulled meat, but this was chopped.  It was served with fresh cilantro and onion to add to the tacos, and some rice and beans.  If I am ever in the area, I will make my way back here!

They're Ba-a-ack!

The boys flight yesterday evening was cancelled-and so American Airlines rescheduled them for today.  I am frustrated with the airlines-it's not like they were flying standby and got bumped-AA just cancelled the flight.  It makes me never want to fly.  But I digress.


They re-scheduled for this morning-not a convenient time-their original flight was an evening flight-and planned that way so they wouldn't have to wake up super-early before making the long drive to the airport, and so I wouldn't have to miss any work to pick them up.  But again, I digress.


They re-scheduled it for rush hour.  Did I mention I don't like 360 ever, much less during rush hour?  I discovered that after a month of not having to make my long commute to work, I am no longer used to having to drive in traffic.  Or maybe I was just still a little ticked that the airlines changed the flight.

But, despite all that, when I pulled up to the airport, my boys were both waiting with big smiles and hugs for me!  So glad they are home!  (Sorry-no pics-I figured it wouldn't be smart to take their pics while I was driving at the airport.)

Prayer Chapel Worship

This week we decided to have a worship service with the Boot Camp students in the Prayer Chapel.  After the service was over, I mentioned to my hubby how great it sounded in there.  The acoustics were amazing!  Here were are waiting for the instruments to be tuned before prayer began:

Prayer Walk

Since we knew this would be our last night without kids during this portion of Kids Camp, my hubby planned a prayer walk around the campgrounds for the Boot Camp students.  We had several many stops, and at each stop, we have a different scripture passage and topic to pray about.


Here we are at our second stop:

And walking to another stop:

And our stop at the fire pit:

I think the students got a lot out of this special time.

Boot Camp at Whataburger

After church was over, we stopped at Whataburger.  Here, our intern was asked to keep an eye on some drinks while our students went to the ladies room.  He took his job very seriously!

Back to Church!

I missed church last Sunday because I had a camp registration to do.  And then on Wednesday we had cancelled youth since our church was at Kids Camp.  So today, when I got to church, it felt so good to be back "home"!

Free Time-Pool!

The camp staff agreed to open the pool for our group for an hour today-it was fun!  Some of us played volleyball, and the others just enjoyed getting wet-a reprieve from the heat!

Free Time-Basketball!

All the campers have gone home, and the next group doesn't come back for a couple days, so we gave our Boot Camp students a break for some fun time.  They enjoyed playing basketball for a change of pace.

Why Camp?

Camp is fun.  Camp is busy.  Camp is exhausting.  But, most of all, camp is worth it!  I love camp because it helps draw kids closer to God.  Today I was able to attend a service, and the altar time was amazing-it is just so special to watch kids worship God!  Pardon my dark pictures-I didn't want to use my flash and distract anyone.

Outdoor Worship

Praise and worship time is vital to growth, so we have been providing times for it during Boot Camp at different locations.  The fire pit was a neat location, but the students were nervous about snakes the whole time.  It has been great to spend this time with our students!

Funky Clothes!

At a certain point when we go to camp with a group of students, they start dressing a little funky.  And they have so much fun doing it!

Staying Together

It's been great to see our church's kids at camp!  One day while at the nurse's station, they marched past us.  We have a great student leader who kept the boys together and made it a lot of fun for them.

Water Games

Today the kids from our church joined us-they are attending Kids Camp this week!  It will be fun to watch them playing games, and enjoying all that camp has to offer.

Worship Time

When we made it back to the campground tonight, we relaxed some, and then the Boot Camp group had some worship time.  We have a couple guitarists and a drummer/vocalist in the group.  It was wonderful to worship together!

The In N Out Experience

After visiting the prayer labyrinth, we took our students to In N Out.  For most of them, it was their first experience, so I shared the secret menu with them.  Overall, I think everyone enjoyed it.  Most of them said they still prefer Whataburger, though.

Prayer Labyrinth

Today the discipleship boot camp students had the day off from camp-we had a break between 2 of the camps.  We drove them into Dallas to visit the Prayer Labyrinth at Kessler United Methodist Church.  It was neat to see them learn about labyrinth's and to experience it with them.

Longest Night

Last night was a long night.  It had already been a long day, but one of our discipleship students got hurt late in the evening, and so my hubby had to take him to the ER.  I stayed back at camp, but couldn't sleep.  Our student will be fine, but he has a possible fracture.  They sent him back in a boot, and with crutches.


Since I couldn't sleep, my evening (and morning) consisted of laundry, getting caught up on some email and blog reading, and enjoying chips and salsa-perfect 3 AM snack.  I have zero energy now, but am just running on adrenaline, I guess.  Glad the injury was not any worse than it is.

Rest at Camp?

We are all beyond exhausted!  It has been a long week already, and there is still much more time to go!  While we were working in the camp store, this this guy sat in the corner for an hour getting in a nap.  I wish I could have been in his spot!

Wordless Wednesday: The Fun Ride to Church

Camp Interlude

Between sales at the kids camp store, our discipleship boot camp students would stop everything to do the interlude.  The little kids loved to watch, and some would join in.

June Camps

Over the course of the next 3 weeks we have a lot going on.  For my job, I have 5 kids camps that I will be working-primarily in terms of the paperwork in advance, and registration on site.  Simultaneously, my hubby is running a discipleship boot camp with the students at our church.  They are actually working the kids camps, plus going through biblical training.  I won't have much time for blogging, but I will try to post pictures of what we do.  Here are some of our students getting ready to run the camp store.

New LB Spot?

In Defensive Driving today, we had a couple breaks, so I took advantage of that time to walk around outside to thaw out from the excessive A/C.  Just around the block, I noticed a tiny park (which looked more like a place for county employees to take a smoke break), and I figured this would be a neat location for a letterbox someday.  I will have to remember this spot!

Defensive Driving

A few weeks back I got a speeding ticket.  I was inclined to just pay it off and get it over with, but to keep my insurance low, I figured I ought to take Defensive Driving.  It has been probably over 5 years since I have had a ticket, so it has been at least that long since I have taken defensive driving.  And I have taken everything out there-the video, the internet version, the free meal, and the comedian.  Since the video and internet versions don't keep my attention, I don't get it done, so I figured I would be better off taking a class.  The comedy version was not near me on days I was available, so I opted to take it though the local driving school-the same driving school my son attends.


Was it fun?  No.  But it was necessary, and the teacher made it as painless as possible. Glad it is over. :)

Sam's Pizza and Pasta

Have I mentioned to you that we have been looking for a good sandwich shop?  Not the chain restaurants, but a nice little bakery that has original sandwiches that don't taste mass-produced.  No?  Well, we have been.  After passing Subway, Quizno's, Schlotzsky's, and who knows how many other chains, we saw a sign for Sam's in Red Oak.  The sign boasted "pizza, pasta, subs".  I figured it would be a great place to get a nice Italian sub.  When we went inside to order, though, I changed my mind.  I wanted a hot sub, and the Italian was listed under the cold subs.  I guess I could have asked for it to be heated, but I just selected from the hot sub options instead.  I went with the Eggplant Parmesan sub-it's one of my favorite Italian dishes-why not put it on bread, and call it a sandwich?


It turned out pretty good, too.  The sauce itself was not a "red" as I prefer, but it was quite tasty.  The bread was nice and yummy-which was good for my sandwich craving.  The eggplant was good, but it tasted like it had been fried in old oil, so that was a downside, but I would definitely be willing to go back, and try a non-fried item next time.

Pictures Now Hung

We moved into our house in February of 2011-which translates to nearly 18 months ago.  And up until today, the only pictures in our living room were the family pictures on and around our fireplace.  Decorating is not my thing, and it doesn't really bother me too much to not have anything on the walls.  But today as we were doing some (late) spring cleaning, I noticed that our pictures were still hiding beneath the love seat, waiting ever so patiently for me to do something with them.  Yes, today was the day.  We finally have some pictures on the wall.  I realize they are probably not fung schway, but I like them, and that's all that matters, right?