quick review of many events

A lot has happened during the past couple of weeks. I went home and visited my family. I went to my Auburn Hills home and visited that family. I mixed up Gaylord and Grayling in my head. I made it safely back to Camp.

We are now midway through the second week of spring cleaning here. Both weeks I have been assigned to the chapels. This means that I get to clean some of my favorite places at camp and that I have an overwhelming, and unexpected, desire to play ping-pong. I blame it on the fumes from the Murphy's Oil Soap.

This weekend was stuffed with guests and good times. Amanda, Nathan, Claire, and Zeke all made the journey up to see me. Well, me and The Hunger Games. We also went shooting early Saturday morning to celebrate Nathan's new pistol and Kevin's birthday.

Obviously, I was taking this picture very seriously.

I will leave you with a brief story. Today I was washing the East Side Chapel platform when LB came to join our crew. He looked at me, "We've been trying to get you on your knees at the front of chapel for years!"

Home for Birthdays

The last weekend retreat of the fall season was cut short by an enormous snowfall which took out the power at camp. While the Dining Halls have generators, none of the cabins have a secondary power source and the temperature was predicted to drop to nearly zero on Saturday night. The difficult decision to end early was made when the power still had not returned by three-thirty Saturday afternoon. The campers were understandably disappointed but my family seemed delighted when I walked into the house on Saturday night rather than Sunday afternoon.

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Zeke and Toby's joint birthdays. Toby enjoyed his birthday greatly - you can read more about it here. Zeke also seemed to have a good time, but he was understandably less vocal and less enthusiastic in his devouring of orange finger jello. I didn't manage to snag any pictures of Zeke - he cleverly distracted me with games - but here are some of four-year-old Toby.

He unexpectedly took a nap as part of his birthday.

He was exhausted.

When Toby woke up, he seemed rejuvenated.

Toby's energy gets transferred to his new bear - apparently it can't sit still for pictures.

Terrariums with Cherry

This afternoon, Cherry and I embarked on a terrarium-creating adventure. I embarked with a modicum of trepidation, as I am known neither for my craftiness nor my neatness. And terrariums have dirt as a main element - dirt, moss, and lizards (no reptiles were harmed in the making of these terrariums.)

Our ingredients await.

Dirt is amazing stuff. It's amazing how quickly it spreads.

We placed the dirt, more or less carefully, in the glasses.
One of us was more successful with the tidiness factor.
One of us scattered dirt across the counter.
I was the messy one.

We then took the moss and laid it gently on top of our soil.

Cherry's lizards lay peacefully on top of their moss, secure in their new homes.

My lizards tried to make a break for it.

Finally, all was completed. Pieces of springtime rest on the counter.

PG arrived home to be greeted by our terrariums.
He was intrigued, "Is this what's for dinner? Lizard pie?"

Cherry and I both, I believe, enjoyed our adventure greatly. The dirt resides within its boundaries, the lizards remain where placed, and all is well. All photo credit goes to Cherry. Read her blog post about our time at http://chirpchirpcherry.blogspot.com/2012/03/fun-with-friends.html
photo credit: Cherry