Edmonton Bound

First and Foremost I would like to say to those people who did not read the entire blog from yesterday that it was a complete and total LIE!!!!!! Yes that is right Michelle made it all up. Sorry for those of you who believed what she wrote (Sorry Brian, but thanks for the prayers anyways, we can always use them).

So today was quite the day, our morning consisted of the usual working the zipline/climbing wall and waterfront. After Lunch, Luke and I helped move the scaffolding to the only unpainted side of the wall so that the painting of the wall can finally be finished! I'm not quite sure what Michelle and Kaylene did during this time, probably hung out in the office. (working of course, shame on all of you who would assume that Michelle was checking her email!)

Finally around 3 in the afternoon, we loaded up the truck and set off for Edmonton. Our mission: buy a shwackload of stuff for the summer. Our first stop was Ikea! Some of you might be asking what the heck does Ikea have to do with Summer Camp? Nothing, we just wanted to go, how else do you expect us to decorate our office.......just kidding, we went to pic up picture frames for craft time. Our trip to Ikea was followed by stops at Michael's for craft supplies. After a brief stop at Michael's We all ventured to Wal-Mart to pick up hula-hoops, garbage bins, movies, cards and other such stuff. Next stop DOLLARAMA!!!! While Michelle and Kaylene were in Dollarama, Luke and I guarded the truck, not out of fear that someone would steal our fabulous decorations and bins, but because we didn't want to turn the truck off. The reason we couldn't turn the truck off was simple, once we turned it off it wouldn't start again (well at least not with a lot of cursing, I mean prayers....we were having problems with the key actually turning).

Our last stops on the southside of Edmonton were at Superstore were we bought a buttload of suckers, I mean honestly how many people buy 90$ worth of suckers?! And then to Subway for Dinner. Venturing further north we stopped at The Grocery People to pick up nothing but pure sugar. Chocolate bars and candy up the..... and pop too. While there we ran into a couple of sweet old ladies. They comment on our large selection of poop, I mean pop. Must be some party that we are going to have. (What can I say the older ladies just seem to love me).

By now we are all tired, and I'm sure many of you are tired of hearing about our day, so I will end it by saying that we stopped at the Canadian Tire in ST. Albert and driving back to Camp only to unload all of our treasures. Now I think we shall all go for a sit in the hottub, much deserved if I don't say so myself! Hope you all are doing great.




GO OILERS GO!!!!!!

rough 24 hours

well this is the hardest blog we have had to write yet. Things here at Nakamun have been totally chaotic and it looks like the summer may be on hold.

The Heritage caught fire last night. There were some kids in there who left some clothes and plastic baggies on heaters while they went swimming. The next thing we knew we were being ordered out of the lodge and had to help get all the kids out of buildings and get them off the property. The heritage went up pretty fast and it was SO scary before the fire crews got here because we had no way of contacting Rob or Don.

Anyways..no one was hurt and for that we are thankful. The youngest kids went and stayed in the Dunstable Elementary School gym and the older ones stayed in Busby. Luckily the heritage was the only building that was totalled. The lodge had some water damage and a bit of smoke damage but other than that the rest of the property is safe.

We were so happy in the morning when our pal Michael W. Smith came by to give us some support in song, we sure appreciated that.



....................................................................................................................................................................

whoopa. that was all a lie. all of it. no truth.

today was good.

go oilers go

cartwheels and piggybacks

That was how my morning started. Mel made me a Mickey pancake! It is little treasures like this that can really help make one's day better. Even if i did eat cereal already.

Today was pretty good. Me and Kayleen are working today which is always a riot for everyone around us because we are pretty much the coolest people we know. We ran zipline with Donny K which was....

Anyways, the day was good and we got to plan some stuff and I did some laundry. I am however, in other news, losing my mind. It took me a couple seconds to figure out why there would be a lint trap on the washer. Ohhhh...hugs not drugs kids. hugs not drugs.

TOMORROW we are having an ingenius ice cream dessert that Mel and Vange thought up with my help. (have i mentioned how much i LOVE Vange? She said today she would like to be my grandma.) the plan is a rice crispy crust, then ice cream and oreo on top? Something like that. I would like to say how much one learns from the Sr. Staff out here. From Mel alone i have learned about deep frying, why beans don't affect everyone's body and today I learned about poetry when he told me I struck him as a poet because of my creative speaking? yaa...i rained on that parade. poor guy. Vange teaches me about gardening and Survivor.

Oh and caleb cut off the top of his thumb. He's all good though. One and a half thumbs up.

Well Ludacris is singing (just like at home right dad?) I am including a picture of me and Jenny because we liked the picture and were disappointed when it wasn't on it last time.

go oilers go

Trips to Barrhead

Well today was another pretty slow day, the rain prevented us from doing activites again today. So what did we do instead, yes that is right, we helped the cleaning staff clean rooms in preparation for the next groups that are here for the weekend. We did get some very important planning done today though, that's right T-shirts! We know that camp t-shirts are one of the most important things that a counselor can be thinking about before getting to camp. We all know that putting on an ugly t-shirt can really ruin your mood. One of the most exciting parts of our day was travelling into Barrhead for Supper.

We were joined by Michelle's friend Jenny (Hope it wasn't too weird for you Jenny). We consumed our food at a local establishment called Frank's Pizza and Steakhouse. A decision that we quickly regreted as our waitress almost made Kayleen cry. Giving her some credit, she did come back and apologize. (Will we ever eat there again? Only time will tell, but my guess is not)

Afterwards we travelled to D.J's for ice cream where we were informed by Michelle that this picture has been on display for as long as she can remember (which is at least 4 different owners). Our evening concluded by a short visit to the local 24hour IGA for a few essentials. Back to work in the morning!

Bored?

Well today was a pretty boring day. It was raining out so we spent the whole day planning! It was nice to finally get some planning done, and well we got lots done. On the down side, Michelle and I are no longer friends. Ok, maybe not, but being inside all day in such a little space does definitely cause people to act a little strange. Happy to say that no ones friendship is actually crumbing. It definitely helps an extrovert like myself realize the importance of having alone time!

I think that most of us would agree that the highlight of the day was changing the battery in the clock in the kitchen. It has been stopped at 10:37 for almost a week.
Well we hope that you are all having a great summer. For those of you who will be joining us in such a short period of time, we hope that your excitement grows daily. We are all definitely looking forward to having you guys out here!!!!!!



I would also like to note that we are presently looking for a camp nurse. The position is available to any student returning to College/University again in the fall. The position would start immediately so get in touch with us soon!!!! Preference will of course be given to those who have nursing/EMT training(naturally).

Roger That

Today was nice. On a scale of glum to ecstatic it was ... good. We even got to plan stuff for the summer, which we have had virtually no time to do yet. So hip hip hoorah.

Many great things were apart of this day, I will tell you them.

1. Kris learned zipline
2. Luke caught the rope when taking the wall down.
3. A little birdy we named "Gustav' hung out with us at the the top of the wall.
4. Kayleen learned zipline.
5. I saw a girl microwaving her frosted flakes.
6. I saw a boy take a picture of his behind and then look at it and then delete it.
7. Michelle will never learn zipline.
8. Kris is taking his boat driver test...which is on the computer...?
9. Kris is now calculating how much alcohol he can legally drink and then drive the boat.
10. and we are having ham for supper. did I say ham? cause i meant ham. It would be crazy if we were having ham cause we always have ham. Thank goodness it's ham cause if it was ham we would all go crazy.
11. Me and Kayleen taught archery. We are not archers.


and now, as a new component of this blog, I will be adding a dating profile for someone who has amazed me in the past couple days. his name is kris corbin, and yes he is single. So hold on ladies, cause this man isn't just an almost boat driver...he can run the zipline too.

Kris Corbin is 25 years old. Not only does this Aries enjoy quiet books and mellow tunes, but he also enjoys time with friends and family. As the oldest of two, Kris knows how to take responsibility but also how to be layed back and listen to techno. Not only is he computer savvy but Kris also plans on using his brains to become an established individual. This surly young man is interested in a girl who will not only be herself but help him become a better person too. Kris's patience is always appreciated, as are his biceps. Kris's idea of the perfect date would have to be a trip to one of Alberta's northern lakes where they could take a dingy ride and then make smores. After finishing off the last of the graham wafer crumbs they would lay in the back of his two tonne and talk about memories from past YC's. On the ride home they would listen to Boys II Men and bee-bop along with their soulful tunes. Whoa Kris..sounds like you're more than just a pretty face!

If you are interested in this man-o-God, leave a comment, call the camp, or pray that he will fall into your path someday.

just so everyone knows..brad and angelina's baby is due at anytime.

peace out home dogs.

rainy days

So I have a song in my head entitled "Better Days" by the Robbie Seay Band, its pretty good you might consider checking them out. But anyways the reason that this song has been in my head, is that there is a line in it that goes, "Here comes better days", hence the title of the song, I know, but it gets me to thinking that in many ways we have so much to look forward to. Michelle and I have been counting the days that have passed and the days until the rest of the counselors arrive, we are looking forward to better days because we hope that camp this summer will be amazing.
<----what was once our clean office has now turned into this! So now that I've bored many of you with my sentimental thoughts, I will share with you the amazing day that we had today. I have to admit that there haven"t been many days like today it rained!!!!
So Anyways I had written a whole lot of other stuff, but when I went to post this, for some reason it decided to delete it all, so I'm kinda ticked off! No Michelle, I didn't even swear. So I will break it down again, only this time briefly. Kayleen worked on outtrip/outback stuff, Luke did cabin assignments, I fixed our server/network so the whole camp has internet again, rob and I patched tv up to the cedar room so people could watch hockey tonight. We attempted to put a group through on the zipline/climbing wall but it started raining on us again so we had to quit. Thats our like. Keeping us busy but we love it! Peace out for now!

eatin' fruit loops, chips and drinkin' coffee

that is what we are all doing right now.

NO we have not been on holidays..NO we have not had days off...YES the computer died cause some idiot flipped the breaker resulting in 24 hours with no internet or any nakamun files that contained allll summer info. It was stressful however Kris Corbin is my new hero and managed to fix it all. He only swore a couple times too...(don't worry, i picked up that slack)

Nothing uber exciting has happened around here in the time we had no computer. However today a man said the funniest thing at waterfront...there are a couple of blind people ( i accidentally typed "bling"..no..they are not bling) here and they have seeing eye dogs and this guy asked me.."so are the dogs blind too?" It was SO funny but he was dead serious. I almost lost it.

that is my most memorable moment..here are the others...
Kris- when michelle burst out laughing as the strange woman flirted with me at the wall.
Luke-when none of the ropes would go through the grigory at the wall and he wondered if we would have ropes for anything ever again.
Kayleen-playing "bump" in the rain and cold

happy victoria day!

sweet and sour meatballs

Maybe it is time to try a different font. This one is pretty urban i guess.

Caleb just walked in. He and the weed eater are no longer on speaking basis. He doesn't even want licorice...he must not know about the meatballs.

Kayleen and I cleaned out the bottom of lakeview today where we do crafts..it looked pretty good in the end.

I am so glad we splurged on the pool table.

This afternoon we got to weed the flower gardens by the Bluebirds. It was prickly and hot and we can vouch for Caleb that weeding sucks. We get to do more tomorrow. BUT i got to drive the gator which made is somewhat worth it.

Oh ..this is funny, Kayleen and I are in a motel room and there is a futon and a bed and the bed is SOOO high. It makes me laugh. The picture I will include of it shows my friend Piggy on the floor so you will better see the height of the bed. (Piggy is probably half a foot tall, even without legs)

Well..time to go get some meatballs aka peanut-butter sandwich.

buoy o' boy

May 17 already?? It was only two months ago that we were all drinking green beer! (right mom?)

Well today was long and ridiculously hot. Sunscreen was applied in copious amounts and we were all quote sweaty and sticky by the end of the day. HOWEVER...we accomplished a lot. We put all the rocks on the hard side of the wall..which will be quite tricky. Me and Kayleen cleaned out the boathouse and it looks beautiful. The boys repaired the ghetto dock but I think it needs some prayer and petition. Then we had to move out of our penthouse and into the mediocre main lodge. oh well. Luke and Kris have tomorrow and Friday off, so me and Kayleen will be here. I don't know what we will have to do though. I heard a little rumour about hot tubbing and pina colada testing with Carol? But that has not been finalized.

OH and we also got to test out the newwww boat. which was super great. It even has a radio so we got to hear the "bad day" song again. but it wasn't a bad day. hoorah.

keep it real. here are some pics of us on the boat.

tranquility

All is calm as I write this post...Single Parent Family Camp is over for another year. All of the hellians have returned to the comfort of their homes and we all have had a day off. Well Michelle is still off again today. Luke, Rob and I were however graced with the presence of another female. Kayleen has joined us now and is fitting in just perfectly. <----Kayleen already hard at work.
Even though it was only her first day on the job, Kayleen was thrown right into the busy life of Nakamun Leadership. In the morning more work was done on the wall, getting it ready for the summer. By the afternoon she was already working the top of the climbing wall, hooking kids onto the burma bridge. (Better watch out Michelle, she might try to replace you........don't worry, we know you don't want that, so we won't let it happen!) So being out on the wall again today, we all had the opportunity to work on our sandal tans..
<---Don't worry I'm not actually missing a foot! Other than that, not much to report, maybe some interesting stories will happen when Michelle gets back and we are (with the exception of Amy) altogether!
Peace!

chaos at nakamun

This weekend is "single parent family camp" which is a free camp for single parents and their families. It is really neat that the camp does this because I don't think lots of these families get this kind of break very often.

Sooooo...we get to plan a kid's program and run nursery etc. This is an easy concept in theory considering all the stuff we had to plan last summer. BUT it is completely different because these kids don't have a counselor and we don't know who is who..so over 60 kids come rioting into the poplar room and we have to somehow maintain order for 45 minutes. This would be easier if it weren't for...the hellians. There are about 5 of them, two are brothers and they could be in a movie as "the bullies." We played a game last night in the gym..and instead of playing they simply ran around tripping the little kids. I would take pictures of them, because I am sure you would appreciate their devilish sneers...however I think it is illegal? FOIP?Sarah..can I have some legal advice on that one?

so here are some pics of Braydon Toews, some animals at the petting zoo, and some defecation.

remember to bestow gifts upon your mother tomorrow...

grey eggs and ham

Kris and Luke are off today. Not that it changes my workload at all. They are a couple of freeloaders.

In case you all are wondering...
a) i got the paint out of my shorts.
b) me and Anna watched "A Cinderella Story"..and it was super lame. Kris? Was it on sale?

The most exciting thing of our day was...the fact that Mel deep-fried yesterday's ham for breakfast. I wish you could see it in real life, but I will provide second best for you.

This was some dialogue that followed...
Mel: a young, growing person like you needs a certain amount of oil to keep the mylin around the neurons in your brain functioning. Once you have stopped growing this isn't as important because your body does it naturally, but for you Michelle, you have to make sure to be getting some fat.Now,would you like to try the ham and hashbrowns?
michelle: uhh..I ..I ,,,uhhh....maybe later
Mel: But they will be cold then..
michelle: (nervous laughter)


momma... i want to come home.

nine-to-five

whew...just got back from my "me-and-Dreamer" time...That ole' girl can still canter like when she was a foal...

Nine to five is a little joke to us that never really gets old. But it makes me get that Dolly Parton song in my head that I did a talent show performance to with Colin and Brett. It was dang funny. Although i know SOME people didn't think so....

May 10th already. holla loo yah. It has gone pretty fast which is nice, although on the weekend i dreamed that it was mid-July. I hate waking up from those dreams. Not much exciting today...we put around 100 kids through zip and wall today. So that was tedious but the weather was nice so it was no biggy.

The highlight of my day and I am sure Luke's too was when the aggravating band teacher ( he annoys me primarily because i remember him from last year and I remember him asking me what grade I was in, and when I told him I was out of high school for two years he said 'oh really? I never would have thought that." )ANYWAYS..so luke was wearing a Star Wars t-shirt and we were serving and the guy's all like "wicked shirt etc" and luke said how his name was Luke so that associated him with Star Wars quite a bit (Luke Skywalker? I think. I have never seen one) Anyways..then Mr.Bandteacherloudmouth is like "hey luke..check this out" and he lifts up his sleeve and shows Luke his Star Wars tattoo. In the middle of the serving line. Carissa...you're not the only one with eyes for your man. Be aware.
(this picture is from nakamun archives)
And that is a wrap. I have to wash some shorts that got paint on them and then me and Ban-anna are watching a movie.

jealous?

Cain wasn't able

" i would kill you if i wasn't in this car. "

and we don't doubt it...

Well today there was a first. I don't know if it was a first for Nakamun but it was a first for Luke,Kris and me. Here's how it went...
(that is the wall now..by the way, and me on the scaffolding)

We were running zip and wall, it was a normal group of kids from St.Albert. I was doing top of wall, Luke was doing zip. I always ask the kids their names when they get to the top and this particular day one of the guys was named "Cain". As i was hooking Cain up etc. i was lost in thought about why someone would name their kid Cain...the guy who notoriously killed his brother, and then thought about how there were just some names that kids shouldn't get ("we'll call her...Jezebel.") So anyways, i went through the usual steps and sent Cain on his way. The next guy was up and then I heard Luke call to me and point at the burma bridge...and there hanging was a lone trolley. I can't express to you the thoughts that went through my mind at that time as I looked to the ground expecting a dead and mangled Cain to be there. Then I thought I was going to die for almost killing a kid by not hooking him up right..and i pondered how Don would finish me off...perhaps Phoenix? It turns out it wasn't my fault...Luke had been busy at the wheel so he told Cain to let himself in etc and as Luke was just about to grab the rope and hook him up to the zipline..Cain had just unhooked his trolley and sent it back down. After the nauseous feeling went away..we all had a good laugh.

Well since Kathy is gone, Mel is here to fill in. I like Mel for many reasons..one of which is how friendly he is..but I guess ALL the kitchen staff are..
I also like the way he moves from the kitchen to the serving area with such grace and poise. He could be in "Swan Lake." Maybe he was a ballerina in his past. Is there a male form of that? Ballermana perhaps? Or Manerbina? He also always remembers me, which I appreciate. Although he did think me and Carissa were sisters till last year...and he also thought her name was Celeste. Remember that one Carcar? I was thinking about that today and how I don't know anyone by that name but it still sounded familar...and then I remembered Babar's wife...and since then the Babar theme song has been in my head.

Kris seems to have a bit of a crush on one of the teachers here right now. He practically stared at her behind the whole time she was climbing the wall..and later tried to justify it by saying "he was belllayyying her."

And in other news...i have excema again.

oh well. like my brother Colin tells me..

"excema girls get noticed"

peace out home-dawgs.

Sippin coffee

<----- Here we are updating our awesome blog!
Well I wish I could say that I am actually sipping on coffee as I type this blog, but I'm not. Today is actually the perfect day to sit back and relax while drinking something warm. Its monday and we are back at work, well at least Luke and I are, Michelle has today off. The weather wasn't so nice today. It was raining and windy (at least 500mph winds I'm sure using Michelle's formula for measuring these things), so we were sadly unable to do any zipline or climbing wall today. Instead, Luke and I finished putting together the desks for Don's office. This meant that we were able to finally put all of his stuff that got dumped into our office back into his!
Other than that, we spent part of today preparing safety and operational guidelines for several of the activities. All in all today was a pretty slow in terms of work. I'd like to say that it flew by, but time seems to be unique here at Nakamun. The morning flew by and before we knew it, it was 5pm and time to serve dinner. The next two hours seemed to slip by and it was 7pm, and yet it felt so much later! Maybe a dip in the hottub or a movie will help us get back into the swing of things!

So Michelle wants me to make sure that you all know that this is Kris writing this blog, not her, so don't blame her if this is not quite as funny as hers usually are.

Quote of the night:
Michelle: I'm so Mad at you I could poop my pants

Well today was the end of our first official week of camp. We celebrated Kathy's last day at camp today with cake and ice cream. The ice cream was so frozen that even Anna struggled to scoop it out. I can only imagine how hard it would have been for Michelle. On another note Don's instructions to Kathy as she leaves for Europe for 3 weeks was to bring back a couple of single girls(assumably for Caleb and I) and a couple of single boys(for Anna and Michelle). Its good to see that Don is always thinking about us.
<-----Old paint, new paintl coming soon!!
Today we spent all day back on the wall, this time on scaffolding putting rocks onto the freshly painted Acorn and Paprika coloured wall. After hours in the sun, burns and bruises later the new wall looks really good if I do say so myself. While Luke, Rob and I got the joy of taking down, and rebuilding the scaffolding, Michelle was busy checking her email, I mean working with Anna and Colleen clean, getting camp ready for all its groups this coming weekend.
Caleb or Cable as he often mistakenly called was busy clearing trees, painting benches and putting the dock in the water! The brave guy even found himself waist deep in Nakamun water. We will let you know if any growths appear.
As we all have the weekend off, this will be the last post for the week. We will return again on Monday, with the start of a fresh week. Stay tuned for more adventures from Camp Nakamun.

Goodbyes are So hard

A Tribute to Kathy-the-Cook

How fitting that we are listening to the "Bad Day" song....Yes folks it is true. Kathy's last day at Nakamun is tomorrow. This is sad for many reasons, firstly, Kathy is a fun and funner person and is always a patient individual with any number of ridiculous antics. Secondly, she understands our anguish with the food here..so much in fact that she (like us) never eats the actual meal being served. So the fact that she is leaving is a shot to our hearts that cannot be filled by any number of pancakes or bizarre jell-o desserts.

it's sad that you're leaving,

we're bad with good-byes

we'll cope by eating sausages

and engoring in fries.

You introduced subs,

which was a great feat

And I am sure that your bug spray

contains lots of DEET.

In a world full of showers

You were a bath,

Who is this woman?

Her name is Kath

e.

Today was long and we are all very tired. I feel a hot tub party in the air. Due to the painting of the climbing wall (one side "acorn", One side "paprika" and the other side..."blue"-according to Rob) We have to take down all the rocks. This is no simple task. Luke constructed some crazy

thing that allows him to climb up ropes,

and then he constructed this "seat" to sit on for me. SO i had this hunk of wood strapped to my butt and had to go over the top of the wall and unscrew the rocks. In one hour..i got three off. So then we ran activities for a couple hours and Anna decided to give it a whirl..and as I stood by...i heard rock after rock hit the ground.

And each hit to the ground was a hit to my self-esteem. That is Anna competing what I started.I felt so inadequate...and then I remembered Jeremiah 29:11. phewf.

Well team. that is all. keep it fun.

this was a funny quote from yesterday...

Girl on top of wall: wow..i am so high!

Michelle:Ya..i have been this high the whole time.

Girl on top of wall: it's scary

Michelle: no..it's fun being high.

I decided to beat Anna because she is better than me. yes this is so obviously staged. get over it.