Child Discussion of the Week

A little girl was talking about how she is going to be a flower girl next weekend. One of the boys asked her what a flower girl was and she said that flower girls throw the flower petals. Another little boy looked up from his coloring and said completely seriously, "Yeah, it's just like throwing chairs, " and started coloring again. 

Whaaaaat?

Baby Gremlins

I wonder if being badly behaved takes up as much energy as disciplining those being badly behaved. I'm guessing not, because at the end of today my kiddos were still climbing walls, jumping on my back, and spilling kool-aid while I curled up in a corner mumbling profanities. 

I need to report at least 30 break-ins. Between the hours of 4PM yesterday and and 8AM today 30 young angelic children were kidnapped. Left in their places were 30 replicas. 30 tiny little graffitiing and pinching gremlin replicas. I say gremlins because they are so dang cute but as soon as you get too close they bite. No really, they do... I'm not even joking. Yesterday two boys came up to me, one was crying but it ended up being a misunderstanding. The one boy kept crying though so I asked the other boy why he was still crying and he said, " I dunno. But he did bite me. Maybe that's why." The little tiny teeth marks were still there even. A whole bunch of gremlins is what I have.

Fair Oaks Dairy Farm

This past thursday at the Place of Occupation we took the kiddos on a field trip to Fair Oaks Dairy Farms. This farm is massive, I'm talking like 35,000 cows. Intense and super cool.

Well one of the sites the farm offers it's guests is a chance to view a calf being born. There are like 10 calfs born a day there so it happens pretty often. Well we lucked out and got a chance. Here is a picture I found online of what this room looks like. 

This little glass area is surrounded by stadium seating. Stadium seating. There will be no stadium seating in my hospital room. Poor mama cows. And the poor mama cow we saw just happened to have some difficulty. I won't go into details but the whole ordeal ended with ropes, a vet, a few of my older boys complaining of nausea for the rest of the day, and me being scarred for life. There will also be no ropes in my hospital room. 

Side Note: The last thing we did was watch a movie called "From Grass to Glass". I had no idea what they meant by "Glass". I just kept thinking about it, do they make glass from milk? Is there something I don't know? And after the movie I still didn't get it. I was super confused by the title. Just 5 minutes ago did I realize that it meant glass as in a liquid retaining device. Ya know, something you drink milk out of. Oh my goodness. Not good Char, not good. 

Wigs and Boas

You know you have a great job when your male coworker calls at 9 pm asking if you have a wig or a feather boa he can borrow for work the next day. And then seems genuinely disappointed when you tell him you don't have either. 

Summer Come Quick!

Can I tell you just how pumped I am for summer?

No, not summer weather, I'm not a heat kind of girl.

Number 1? Work. I'm soo ready to be back at camp. I love all my little kiddies and I miss them! It's tough to come back and see your kids so much older and cooler and so much less interested in you, but still, it's fun to see them grow up! And there are always new little poopers (literally...) to love! 

Number 2? Friends. Camp means I get to see my fellow counselors. I'm so lucky to have a job where I love the people I work with. My first year at the Y I struggled. I came in in the middle of the summer and I didn't know anyone. Last year, my second year, somehow I was cooler and made friends with my friend soul mates, Digger and Bingo. How I wish that I went to school with them, college would be so much more fun. They are some of the few people that get how crazy I am and totally embrace it, just like I embrace their crazy. I love them and I miss them!

Number 3? The BF. Summer means BF visits. Every two weeks I go to his house or he comes to mine. It's tough getting into the schedule of only seeing each other every two weeks, but after awhile we get mostly used to it. Plus when we do get together we have such a blast! 

Number 4? Crafts. I drive past Hobby Lobby every day on my way to and from work. Nuff said. 

Every Time a New Song Plays I'm Starting a New Topic

"Can't That Away From Me"

I cannot concentrate on my work. It's physically impossible. The problem is I would much rather sit here listening to Ella and Louis than write a paper on the importance of viewing the French Holy Childhood Association without the frameworks of Christian missions, imperialism, and communism. 

"Anything Goes"

Hermione and I went shopping in the Fort today and she learned one more reason why I am utterly frustrating to most of the people in my life. We got lost, a lot, and I was cool with it. I kept saying things like, "Well yeah we got lost but we aren't anymore, that's a good thing! We could still be lost, this is way better." or "Yeah but think of all the things we learned today! Now we know how to get form one mall to the other and we found another Favoli's." The BF has experienced this before. The fact of the matter is, as long as I'm not late for something, I don't mind being lost and am thoroughly confused by other people's complete aversion to it. 

"They All Laughed"

The roomie's feet stink. Really badly. Before it was ok because the stench was only here when she was here because when she left she took her shoes with her and she's almost never in the room. Now her socks smell though. So even when she leaves her dirty socks stay here. However I will gladly take this smell over the stinkiness of my old roommate... Plus, generally a little febreeze can fix this problem...

"Dream a Little Dream of Me"

Speaking of the roomie. Christmas is coming and I'm not sure I was to celebrate with her. I am a Christmas freak, I want twinkle lights and bulbs e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e, however, they have to be my twinkle lights and bulbs. If that girl tries to put colored lights or red and green ornaments on my perfect brown and turquoise decorated tree laden with 2 strands of perfect clear lights I will f-l-i-p and I really feel like she's a crayola red and green kinda girl. 

"Dancing Cheek to Cheek"

Last night Bingo and Digger called me : ) I've missed my Y girls sooo much and I was sooo happy to hear from them! However I was slightly embarrassed to tell them that while they were out partying I was sitting in my room reading about Nixon and the demonstrations outside the democratic debate in Chicago 1968. 

"Every Time We Say Good Bye"

I really want it to snow. Sooooooo much. Please snow. Please. Please. Weather.com said that it was going to snow today and now they've changed it to Monday. That was cruel. Something that important should have 100% odds of happening before they post it, that stuff is important. 

Dream

Over the summer Digger and I found out something really bad about one of our little  girls at camp, it was quite honestly, the worst thing I've ever heard in my life. I had a dream about the little girl last night and I just remembered it, she was fine and happy and I got to pick her up and hug her and hold her. I can only hope that this is God's way of letting me know she is ok. 

Missful...

   

I know it's not a word, get off my back... So last night was Halloween and for me it was fairly sucky. Hermione traipsed off to Purdue (I didn't join because I'm pretty sure I'd be out of my league, I'm pretty much out of my league in MC when it comes to partying...) and the BF went out with his friends to B-Dubs. My other friends are RAs so they were busy busting people dressed up like angels and pimps. So I ordered myself a pizza and watched Reba. I had been cranky all day and Herm and the BF kept asking why and I just couldn't give them a straight answer as to why. I guess it could have been because I wanted to dress up and go out, or it could have been because I wanted to stay in and make fun of the lingerie, I mean costumes, the other girls were wearing. But neither was the case. I miss my YMCA girls. I know that they would've dressed up with me or stayed in and made fun of those other girls. Either would have been fun because I would be with them. I almost called to see if I could go down to IU and visit with them for Halloween earlier this week but I thought it would be too short of notice. I should have still called. We got really close this summer, but at the same time I still fear that out of sight out of mind. I mean I haven't forgotten them by any means but they're all together at school, they see each other and have fun together every day. Hopefully we'll see each other soon, but so far this year every time by the time I get to the weekend I'm either exhausted or still busy... But hey, everybody goes home for Thanksgiving, right?

Lots of Lake MIchigan

So last week kind of stunk, even though it was my birthday. On Monday another counselor and I found out something about one of our kids that has been somewhat difficult to get over and it left quite the dark cloud over the week. However, I had a really good weekend with the BF which made me feel a lot better. Friday was the last day of day camp (tear) and apparently I missed the kids already because I fell asleep on the couch watching the Olympics with my parents and the BF and he said that I kept talking about getting the kids on the bus and asking how their parents were going to pick them up... I dunno... Saturday we went up into New Buffalo to Redamak's (best burger place ever) and walked on the beach. That night we went and saw Tropic Thunder (nothing too spectacular...) and once again I fell asleep before I was supposed to. Sunday, however, may have been my favorite day. We went to church and then Bridges for lunch with my family and some church folk. Honestly I'm still amazed that I can order drinks with my food. I haven't yet, but I've definitely studied some drink menus... After lunch we went to Mt Baldy and went swimming and then we came home and watched Harry Potter and then I stalled him from leaving for about an hour, I'm pretty good at it. 

So all I can say is there's nothing better than cute BFs to bring you out of a slump!

My Week

Weekend 1 & 2 August 

Spent a fabulous weekend with the BF and went to the Cubs game on Saturday. He got such amazing seats, he must like me! There's nothing I love more than being in Chicago with the BF! And now I'm more determined than ever to live there for a year after I graduate college. Wrigleyville is so amazing, all of those brownstones covered in ivy, I really want to experience city life firsthand. 

Monday 4 August

The first day of my new schedule, 7:30-5:30, and now I have 2nd-3rd graders. Miss my K-1s... That evening a huge storms riped through Northern IL and IN, especially my area. I spent most of the evening in the basement with my family amidst different tornado warnings. I have this ridiculous fear of tornados so this was not fun for me. Before I went to bed I heard on the TV that only one person died as a result of the storm and I remember thinking that it was such a blessing that only one person died in that.

Tuesday 5 August

I was woken up at 6:15 by my boss in tears calling to tell me that the man who died in the storm was Tim, the fiancé and father of the baby of one of my fellow counselors and that I needed to get to work right away to cover for her. On the way to work I was surprised first that there was so little damage and secondly about how someone could die in such a tragic way yet everything went on as normal. Traffic lights were working and people were rushing to work, somebody cut me off on 421 and people were getting gas. Eric and Kathy in the Morning (radio) kept making their normal jokes and when I got to work there were kids playing on the playground outside. It felt very surreal. In order to cover for Mia (the counselor who lost her fiance) my new hours became 6:30-6:00.

After work we went on as planned with our end of the year dinner at Hacienda. I was worried that it would be very sad and quiet because of the loss but we all managed to forget for awhile, which in itself is sad yet reassuring, it's astonishing how quickly humans can forget in the moment. Mia, of course, wasn't there. The dinner was pretty wonderful. Sometimes I wish that I'd met my counselor friends earlier and that we went to school together. I feel like they're the kind of people you would meet and think to yourself, "These are the kinds of girls Char would be friends with." They're so goodhearted and kind, and so funny. We're all oddly mature in some ways and terribly immature in others and I love them all! I'd post some pictures (there were thousands) but since I had to go straight from work to Hacienda I smelled a bit and looked like I'd just worked a 12 hour day...

Wednesday 6 August

This was our end of the year Carnival at camp and it was a lot of fun, but very tiring! After camp me and 3 other girls from work went to see the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants which was fabulous! However Digger and I pretty much cried through the entire thing... 

I also found out that day that the man who died was one of my dad's past students...

Thursday 7 August

By Thursday I was so exhausted. 12 hour days look great on a paycheck but they aren't so great in real life. At some point that day I looked in the mirror and was so embarrassed because I appeared to have mascara smeared all over face. So I pull out the makeup remover and try to get it off but it wouldn't budge, turned out it was just under-eye circles because I was so sleep deprived... After work I went home and picked out my new cell phone. Mine is beyond falling apart. My contract has been up for awhile but I didn't want to get a new one until camp was over...

Friday 8 August

Friday was a great day at camp, I had a really good time with the 2nd-3rd graders, you can do so much more with them! And I got a lot closer with a counselor that had seemed kind of standoffish previously. Oh and I burned my calves... After work Digger and Daisy were telling me about the viewing for Mia's fiance and it was the saddest thing I ever heard. Their child who is now 2 years old kept pointing at the casket and saying "That's my daddy!" in a happy little kid voice. Their neighbor (they lived together) came and told Mia and a few of the girls a story about how one day when Mia came home Tim ran outside and kissed her, then threw her over his shoulder and took her inside with Mia yelling at him to put her down the whole time. That's the stuff of movies. It's just so sad. 

That night I went home and watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics with my dad and fell asleep on the couch around  10.

Pink

So on Tuesday a little girl sat next to Buzz and I on the way to camp and told us how she had pink eye and that she had just started her eye drops that morning. Fast forward to this morning. I wake up with crusty eyes. I soooo dislike that girl's mother. Oh the dangers of being a camp counselor. 

Doctor's appointment at 3:00. 

Girlfriends

There is nothing like some good girlfriends. Don't get me wrong, boyfriends are important, but your girls are your girls no matter what, they're on your side, they'll listen to you always, they're good people. Well recently I've been a little depressed- I sooo want girlfriends like the ones I read about or see on TV. Ya know, BFFs through thick and thin, a tight group of 4 or 5 girls that have been together forever and hang out at cutesy coffee bars and complain about guys and share in everything, they're all different but compliment each-other perfectly. I have never had that. I always had a lot of friends, but generally they weren't friends with each other, they were all from different cliques and they all appealed to different sides of me, no one fit me completely. Anyway, these girls in books are generally in their late 20s or early 30s and have been friends for 10 years or so. Well I was always so bummed when I read those because I didn't have that and I figured it was too late, that I needed to have made those friends earlier and be BFFs already. Well not so. Right about now is when I should be meeting those friends, those tight girls that will stick by me (that is if I'm following the timelines of multimedia which obviously isn't necessary) and I'm so psyched because I am getting so much better at making girlfriends. I've mentioned before how much girls intimidate me, but I have so much more self confidence than I used to and that is making a difference. But I digress, I think someone should write a book about when you're just meeting these girls. Usually friendships are already cemented in the beginning book, I want to see one where the girls are just then meeting and getting to know each-other, maybe I'll write it... (haha) Sooooo tonight I went to go to see SATC (YAY!!!) with a fellow counselor (we were supposed to meet up with another but it didn't work out which led to hilarious results and a brief interlude into the world of stalking) and we had such a good time! I haven't had this much fun in soooo long and that is what led to this blog. It sounds so loserish but I sooo hope these new friendships I'm making last after the summer and we still hang out because these girls are so awesome and I have such a blast with them!!

Fillin' In the Blanks

So I've vacated the blogging world for awhile which makes me sad, but as such I feel that a "Fill In" blog is necessary, a teeny update. First off, all of my work issues are fixed which is a big YAY. Turns out my bosses boss doesn't hate me, she turned everyone else's schedules upside down because she was worried I'd quit. I feel loved. Secondly, a long time ago I wrote about how I was throwing my best friend a bridal shower and how unbelievably mystified I was about this secret wedding world with it's private protocol and elusive etiquette, well it went quite well. The weather was gorgeous and even though not as many people showed up as we expected it all went very well and I really think she had a good time. Now thirdly, the BF has permanently exited the blogging world. Sad face. But now I can write mean things about him. Happy face. Kidding! Fourthly (I didn't think that was a word but my Mac spell-checks everything and it's not underlined so I guess it is a word) my foretold scrap-booking addiction has not yet fully bloomed, however with my love of pretty paper and embellishments I'm fully enjoying just collecting things to help me start so much so that this stage could last for awhile... However the delay can be blamed on the BF and I. For our first Valentines Day I gave him a disposable camera so we could work on our small number of couple pics, well 1 year, 4 months, and another Valentine's Day later we've yet to use up even half of the pics. So I decided that our next weekend together we would take tons of pics and finish it off and those pics would fill my first ever scrapbook. But we forgot last time. Sooo maybe this time. Fifthly, my little sister graduated from high school amidst much drama (blog to follow, it makes me too angry to not blog about it) and had her open house. I'm officially old. Sixthly (this just doesn't seem like it should be a word), at said open house one of her friends offered to give GIVE  us his 6 month old Westie puppy. Yes we have 2 dogs already. Should I want another one? No. But do I? Yes! So if you happen to see my dad anywhere, it would be great if you could tell him that Westies always fetch the ball and bring it back, and that they are an underground symbol of the Cubs. Yup that would probably do it. Seventhly, I got a High School Musical back pack today to carry at camp- Monday I am going to be the coolest counselor EVER. 

Quotable 5 Year Olds

Case 1:

Counselor Winnie: Aaron, did you kiss Emily on the cheek?

Aaron: Well, I tried to.

And he didn't say this is a cute five year old voice, he said it in this 25 year old playboy voice- incredibly adorable though . Let's just hope he quits his philandering ways before he hits puberty...

Case 2:

Paula: Twinkle Toes, that little girl said something she shouldn't have said.

Counselor Twinkle Toes (Me): What did she say?

Paula: She asked me to do sex with her. 

Twinkle Toes: Oh! Um. Well. Ok then...

What do you say to that?? I promptly whisked her away to her counselor and let her deal with that one... Where does a 5 years old learn what that is??

Case 3:

Kasey: Twinkle Toes! Twinkle Toes! Will you go ask Brandon how old he is and what grade he's in?

Twinkle Toes: Um, why do you want to know?

Kasey: Cus' I like him!

Twinkle Toes: Ohhh. Well why can't you ask him?

Kasey: Well I every time I get close to him he runs away... But he's smiling when he does it!

Update!

So for all of my worried friends (um one of you) things at work are much better and despite the fact that we are currently under a tornado watch I am a much happier person which is good because I really hate not being happy. Thanks to my wonderful boss everything is great, well it's better and hopefully it's on its way to great! AND I get to go see the Sex and the City movie tomorrow!! Plus, when I was driving home from work today everything was just so green and I had the windows down and it just smelled like summer, like this thick heavy velvety green summer smell and it was just wonderful. And during my drive I just kept thinking about how lucky I am and what great friends I have and what a wonderful boyfriend I have. Oh one more thing! I'm going to go and start a new addiction tomorrow, I plan on picking up my first scrapbooking materials tomorrow and oh what a glorious addiction I plan on it being! All is well in the land of optimism. 

Currently...

...I'm wallowing in self pity. I'm going to call my boss and ask if I can meet with her for a few minutes before work today. I think I'm going to tell her that I really don't want to quit but that I cannot justify driving to camp twice a day for 2 weeks so either I need to be off the schedule or something has to happen that gives me something else to do, I don't really know. Maybe she'll have some advice for me. 

Oh and it stormed last night and Boomer is scared of thunder so he slept with me. And not by my feet, like he slept up against my back. So not only am I wallowing, I am wallowing and cranky because I didn't get any sleep. 

Terribly Terrible Day

So my boss hates me. No, scratch that, I'm pretty sure that my boss likes me, which is good, because she's awesome. My boss's boss hates me, which is obviously, not good. During my summers I'm a day-camp counselor and I love it, last year I had my little 5 and 6 year olds and they are just so great and full of love and I just love my job, it's really hard, but I love it and it is so rewarding (not in the form of a paycheck bc Walgreens cashiers probably make more than I do, but it's rewarding in the form of receiving lots of hugs and hearing lots of "I love you Twinkles!"). So we've been going through camp training the last 2 weeks and I was getting pretty pumped for camp. Well, our boss's boss came in today to give us a little speech and to pass out our schedules. So here's the thing, you aren't guaranteed a tribe (a group of kids) every week, sometimes you have to open and close and some weeks you just work the field trip on Thursday. However, returning counselors are guaranteed the group they want and since we're experienced we generally get to work almost every week and have a tribe. Well for every other returning counselor that happened, but for not me. Well here's my schedule: Week 1 and 2 Open and Close (which is really bad bc I live 20 min from camp so that means driving there twice each day for two weeks, unless I strike oil in my back yard this is not doable), Weeks 3, 4, and 5 I work field trips which means for 3 weeks I only work Thursday, for the last 5 weeks I actually have a tribe and even one in my requested age group for 4 of those. But even still, I think you can see why I think the maker of the schedules (boss's boss) hates me. Now I knew last summer that she didn't really like me, which surprised me. I mean this sounds bad, but I'm just not the kind of person people dislike. People usually like me, and if they don't they're indifferent and just don't care, and even then they think I'm nice. I am a nice person- I'm super polite, I do whatever I'm asked, I'm opinionated but also super open-minded, I do my best to not judge, I just don't get it. I'm not controversial enough to really have a vendetta against. Plus, my name is Char. That just doesn't sound like someone you'd dislike. "I hate that Char girl" just doesn't sound right. Maybe "Katie" or "Jamie" or "Paris Hilton", but not Char. Anyway, I thought maybe she didn't like me last year because of my military dictator counselor style. I'm quite strict. But I had to be! I had the worst K-1 group in the camp! You might say, "Come on Char, bad kindergartners? What did they do- color outside of the lines?" And to this I would reply, "No, they were very careful to color inside the lines. However, they did enjoy peeing in squirt guns, pulling out dental work, making me sniff out their poop when no one would admit who pooped their pants, and sitting down in the middle of the woods and refusing to proceed unless I would allow them to go frogging. Oh and I had a 4 year old who swore." So, the military approach was necessary, and they still loved me. I can honestly say that I was a good counselor, and that my kids had a good time and left camp with great memories and a lot of tears. And I was always so polite to my boss's boss and I just don't understand. The brand new counselors have more hours than I do. Obviously I need to quit. It's just not logical to continue. But I looove my job! And I looove the other counselors! And I just made new girlfriends, and due to my gossipy high school friends I'm really bad at making friends with girls, but I did it this time, twice! And if I quit I'm sure I won't ever see them again. I'm just so bummed. This is not how I wanted summer to go. Why does she hate me?????