Back to camp--Core 4!

I just found out that I will be in a 3rd and 4th grade cabin again this next week! There will be 2 other counselors in there, and then a girl who is on her last week of Work Crew. I remember being on WC and getting to go into cabin for the first time, so I am excited for her and giving her the chance to help out and take charge at times. It should be a great week and I'm excited!!


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Fall Classes

So I realized that when I tried to upload a picture of my schedule for next semester it came out really blurry...so I'm trying again and then just going to tell you my classes in case this doesn't work...


TEFB: no idea what it stands for, but it is the class that let's me go into the elementary schools and observe!

POLS: Political Science 2 (local/state government)

GEOG: Geography--also has a lab on Fridays.

MUSC: music... I'm sure there will be a blog post coming about that one atleast once... If not frequently! Haha

HIST: Texas History

Yay!! I'll probably have to take english and maths next semester though...yuck!

But for now this is looking good! Oh! And I just found out that TEFB (my 8 am class) doesn't actually meet... Maybe we just go to the elementary schools? Guess we will see :)

And to think... this was supposed to be my OFF week!

This week at home has been crazy and super stressful! For this to have been my "off" week, I feel like it's been more work than when I'm at camp! And I'm working 24/7 while I'm there!!

On Monday I kinda just hung out with Dad and Kole. We watched NCIS, I got a lot of my camp stuff reorganized after doing laundry, it was just a chill day at home but I got a lot accomplished. Tuesday and Wednesday I was up at A&M for my New Student Conference. After a lot of stressing out and worrying about classes/schedules, I ended up getting a schedule that I think will be pretty good for next semester!



Other than that stressful part of trying to secure classes with only a few open seats, it was fun being up on campus and getting to experience that Aggieland feel. I'm going to love it there!

Yesterday was a busy chaotic day. I had to have all of my stuff packed up and ready to go for camp, and had some things that I wanted to accomplish before I left for the rest of the summer. It was hectic, but everything got done and I even had time to watch NCIS with Dad and Kole yesterday afternoon.

Today, we are going to San Antonio as a "vacation". It's only 1.5 day vacation, but I think everybody else is looking forward to getting away from Houston, and I just want to spend this last day with them before I head back to camp tomorrow afternoon.

It's been crazy, but I'm glad that I had this time to spend with my family! I do miss my camp family, and am ready to head back to Livingston to see them and get a new round of campers on Sunday! Who knows what God has in store and how He will be working this next week at Cho-Yeh, but I can't wait to find out!

Core 2 was AMAZING!

I LOVED my first week in cabin at Cho-Yeh last week! Although we had our challenges (and boy, we certainly did), those girls were amazing, and by the end of the week we had broken through some pretty thick walls and barriers in their lives and were able to see their marvelous selves. Several of my girls came from broken homes and we were really able to convey to them how perfect they are in God's eyes and how they are His perfect daughters. The look in those girls eyes when they understood how much God loves them made all of the challenges of the week SO worth it!

I'm home for the next week. Well, kinda. Camp was over-staffed for this next week, and since I have my NSC at A&M on Tuesday-Wednesday and wouldn't be able to be in cabin anyways, I was told to go home for the week. So today we went to Kemah for lunch to celebrate Father's Day. Tomorrow I have some errands to run and Kole has a baseball game. Tuesday-Wednesday I'll be at College Station for my New Student Conference. Thursday is open... for now. Friday-Saturday we are going to San Antonio to get away from Houston for a little bit and then on Sunday I'll be back at camp early! It's going to be another crazy week!

Don't slam the door!!

I met all of my 3rd and 4th grade girls (we have 8 this week) yesterday! For the most part everything went smoothly too! We had one crier/meltdown, but that was resolved very quickly and was a huge misunderstanding in communication. I was woken up every hour most of the night by a different camper each time, but I think that tonight will be better as they are going to be so tired. We did have a problem with girls slamming bathroom doors when they were done in the middle of the night which caused almost everybody to wake up multiple times. We will be discussing that and making "don't slam the door" signs tonight though, so that problem will hopefully be fixed tonight :)

All in all it's going great though!!

Location:Camp Cho-Yeh

Bring On The Campers!

I'm in a cabin of 3rd and 4th graders this week! I am SO excited to meet all of these girls and get to show them the love of Christ this week! Be praying for us-I'll let you know how everything goes :)

Location:Camp Cho-Yeh

First post from Cho-Yeh

Whoo!! First blog post from camp! Let me just say, I love it here! As if you didn't already know that.

Once I got here I began lifeguard certification. I was a day behind because of graduation, but it ended up working out bc I had already been a lifeguard so could skip most of what happened on Sunday when I wasn't there.

On Tuesday we finished certing, and I'm now officially a lifeguard! Whoo!

The rest of the week I am on A-Team, which is just short for "you get to do anything random that needs to be done around camp!" I have been an alien in a night game, I have sewed together two huge (30 feet long) tarps together by hand with a needle and spider wire (essentially super strong fishing line), facilitated H2Chomania, lifeguarded during flex time, set up and helped with girls night, had fun with campers when counselors were overwhelmed, and just had a great time! It's been good to have this week as low-key as it's been bc I have been able to write all my graduation thankyous and spend time making relationships with other counselors and leadership, while having a chance to focus my mind on God and get ready for campers next week!

I'm so excited and love being here!! Be waiting for a post this weekend with what age group I will be with next week (hoping for the youngest, but would be good with any elementary aged camper!)


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Location:Camp Cho-Yeh

Here We Go!

This weekend was absolutely wonderful. As much as the picking on did get old very quickly (which it did), and I broke my toe so felt like I was walking awkwardly all weekend, I enjoyed all of the time with my family and friends.

My grad party was technically on Saturday, but I feel like this weekend was really just one long party. I loved getting to see friends that I hadn't seen in a while (like Warren and his mom!), and just enjoyed seeing everybody out there supporting me.

I graduated yesterday, but that still feels like a blur. I got to sit next to 2 of my friends that I've been close with throughout high school, especially senior year, and so being able to be with them as we shared the anxiousness before the processional, the nervousness walking up to the stage, the excitement once we crossed, and the laughter of throwing our hats in the air was an amazing feeling!

Now, it's 5:15 on Monday morning, and I'm getting ready to head off for another journey this summer--camp.

I'll be working at Cho-Yeh in Livingston, Texas until August 6th. I have no idea what each week will contain, but I do know that God will be doing amazing things this summer, and I'm so blessed and thankful that I have the opportunity to be His hands and feet. I'm looking forward to showing campers Christ's love--often time a love that they have never really experienced prior to coming to camp. It will be hard, and I know that I will get tired and wore out, but this is one of the few times that I can say that I know that God wants me there, and for that simple reason I am so ready to see what He has in store!

I will most definitely try to blog from camp, although it may just be short splurt posts since I'll more than likely be updating off my phone. Please be praying for all of us working there this summer, and for every single camper that is going to walk into camp and have their lives be changed. It's going to be a great summer!

Staff Training!

Let me just say, after what I've experienced the past 5 days at Cho-Yeh--this is going to be a phenomenal summer!

Here's what all happened!

FRIDAY: I woke up crazy early to go to DPS and get my license renewed, I then ran some errands (talk about last minute packing), brought Kole lunch and dad a lemonade from Chick-fil-a, and then went home. I loaded up my car (to the brim I might add)...


...and then went over to Renee's to help her pack for the camp that she is working at this summer. At around 1:00 I left Renee's and headed off to CHO-YEH! I rolled into camp around 2:30, and drove down to the cabin that I was going to be staying at this week. There were people taking a nap in there, so I quietly unloaded my car (not unpacking), and drove back up to the parking lot. I found Lindsey (co-counselor from last summer) and Carley (best friend) and we sat at the Cho-dome (basketball court) talking and catching up, while meeting the new people as they walked by.

For dinner, we all dressed up in one of the costumes that we have for the various theme nights this summer (pirate, hillbilly, nerd, luau) and had a cookout. There was a lot of introducing ourselves to each other and trying to remember all the names of the people that you had met. After dinner there were icebreaker games, and then there was a huge meeting where all of the leadership team was introduced and we talked about Cho-Yeh's mission and vision. Later, we had praise and worship around a camp fire (yes... there was in fact a burn ban) while making smores. We all then went back to our cabins to create our cabin's "full value contract" (essentially the rules that we want in place for our campers for the following week--often created on Sunday nights) and went to bed early. Well, like 11:30--which would prove to be early considering the times the lights finally went out the rest of the week!

SATURDAY: On Saturday we did typical morning things (prayer meeting, pretty potty (cabin cleaning), quiet time, and breakfast), and then spent 3 hours doing low ropes. It was a lot of fun getting to experience low ropes with people I had never met before, and getting the opportunity to get to know them more. We then had lunch, and had a cabin life round robbin where we learned about various different parts of camp. We had our first rally that afternoon, and learned how to have effective one-on-ones with our campers. We then had a camper bible study (all of this years bible studies are interactive--so neat!) and dinner. and then praise and worship that night with a speaker. We went back to our cabins and learned how to lead a devo, and finally went to bed... LONG (yet amazing) day!

SUNDAY: Morning things, 2 different Camper Bible Studies, learned how to "love your camper", lunch, rally, signed up for activities, learned how to run "lost campers" (person who walks around during activity periods to make sure that all the cameprs are where they need to be), had 2 more Camper Bible Studies (there are a total of 10 that are on 2 week rotations), had dinner, praise and worship, and then had a devotional back at our cabin. The 8 girls in my cabin got super close--it was really neat because we all came from different walks of life.

MONDAY: Morning things, we reviewed fundamental key points of Christianity, and how to not delve into different denominations and difference within their beliefs. We then had rally and Alpha/Omega showdown, and signed up for different Staff Bible Studies that we were interested in participating in. We had lunch out at the pool which was fun to just relax and chill (and watch a bunch of guys attempt to play water polo... they walked on the bottom, wrestled, and caught the ball with 2 hands...). We then learned how to meet campers where they are in their relationship with Christ and had to expand upon that. We had another camper Bible Study, and then got to go to an activity to learn how to teach it. I played volleyball for about an hour--I still got it down! We then learned about what to do if there is an emergency at camp. After all of that, we went to dinner at Garret's house (camp director). The food was yummy and the fellowship was awesome! We got into small groups and just talked and got to know each other, what was supposed to be a 30 minute conversation took about 3 hours... I don't think we got back to camp until after midnight. By the time we all showered and did devo, it was around 1. Another girl in my cabin ended up sitting on the porch and talking till about 3--it was such a great conversation that we really didn't care what the time was!

TUESDAY-after 3ish hours of sleep I was exhausted! Morning things, praise and worship, Camper Bible Study, lunch, and then we spent some time playing at the lake at camp. After that we got a chance to learn about the different ages of campers and try to figure out where we want to start out the summer. We then went to our 3rd activity (I went to sling shots). After that we had a question/answer session with returning counselors/new counselors. At that point, I had to pack up my cabin in order to head back to Houston for Senior Stuff this week.

Let me just say--this summer is going to be a phenomenal one! It's going to be hard at times, and I'm going to miss my family and friends back in Houston quite a bit, but I know that God is going to be doing amazing things this summer at Cho-Yeh, and I'm so excited that I will be there to witness and partake in them!