Hosting

So on Monday (the first day back to work after Christmas break) we had a meeting and I was told I was going to be the support host for the week. So I went around turning all the lights and heaters on in the building that the group would be staying in. the heat would not come on in Line camp to I told Zig who was hosting with me. Amid that conversation I discover that I am hosting!!!!!! not support hosting!!!!!!! Sweet! Gulp!

Well, we get a guy in to fix the heat. I get the group, which turns out to be 140 youth of Asian nationality, welcomed and settled in. They will be eating in shifts because the dinning room is too small for all of them. The kitchen, which is being run by Bill this week because Doug is still out of town, will be serving every meal twice.

The week was pretty great! I had a fun time working with their group leader, getting them what they needed. Bill was a rock start in the kitchen! and the workers we had come in were and are amazing! (once again, i just have to say how much i love those kidos!) I feel I did a pretty good job!

There is one funny thing that kept happening.... they kept telling me their rooms were cold. so I would go over to check them out and find door wide open to the outside freezing world. I would shut them and the rooms would get warmer! go figure!

another funny thing.... I had an Asian kid tell me hola! that is funny stuff right there!

catch up

wow has it really been a month since i blogged last! so much has happened! let me catch you up!

• we have been working on winter meltdown prep.
• winterizing the OTM!
• we ran the zip line in the dark... it was freezing!
• TNT reunion! love those guys!
  
• Christmas parties with staff, with the radio station, with the community, with the ladies at rvr and with the interns!!!!!!
• drove home in the snow!!!!!!! almost didn't make it.
• Christmas break!!!!! lots of friends and family, spent the night at Megan and Aaron's new apartment!!!!!!!! Christmas eve at WEC! a trip to Harrisonburg, and Gloucester, made it back to RVR safe, in good time, and with my weight in baked goodies!!!!!!!!

good times, good times!

Since coming back to the ranch from Thanksgiving vacation our schedule has changed a lot. We have been doing more classroom work. (mailings, bible classes, initiative folder....) Here are some events that have happened... ( in not particular order because I can't always remember what we did when!)

• Lead staff devotions. We (and when I say we I mean mostly Taco) made an audio presentation and lead them in worship.
• Painted the Filly cabin ceiling.
  
• Played in the snow! Sledding with the Cline girls and snowball fights with Matt.
• Chick-Fil-A opening number 2!!!!!
  
• Attic sale! I got Chacos for $20!!!!!
• I got 5 inches of hair cut off!!!!!
• Decorated the Buffalo Lodge for the Christmas party.
• Set up the inflatables in the gym. Wiped them off, let them dry and then stitched up the holes. (plus all of the "testing" that you can imagine going along with that!)
• Babysat the Zigenfuse children!
  
• Chick-Fil-A with the gang and then Christmas shopping!!!!!!!!
• We took pictures for the internship brochure.
  

Funny Things:
Dinner at the Cline house. I laughed so hard I couldn't breath for so long that my sides hurt.

Somehow a hole the size of Ryan's backside ended up in the wall in the attic of the Buffalo Lodge!

Josh Canapp to the girl interns and Matt when we pulled up in my 4 wheel drive truck to get the huge pile of trash: Where are the guys?
The girls: Sewing. (some of the inflatables had to be sown from the inside and the guys were brave enough to crawl in)
Josh: What kind of internship is this! The girls are doing the dirty work and the boys are sewing!

Taco to Tom Bisset (director and son of the founder of the Peter and John ministry that includes RVR) at the Christmas party: So what do you do here?
Mr. Tom: Well you know, I am what they call the director of the whole operation.
Sarah: Taco, this is Tom Bisset.
Taco: Ohhh, you must sit in the big chair!

Taco played a game with Matt where he had to say the words "peanut-butter", "jelly" and "peanut-butter and jelly" durring one of our bible classes with Zig. Only Matt and Taco were in on it. Taco won! Here is how he did it...
"That is crazy like peanut-butter!" refering to some O.T. laws.
"Our God is a j..ja... jelly....jealous God." in reference to God and the Israelite nation. He stuttered! on purpose!
"Man, that goes together like peanut-butter and jelly! in reference to O.T. happenings that point to N.T. events. And then we had a small off topic conversation about sandwiches! We had no clue till after bible study and then we all burst out laughing when we found out!

And much more that I can't remember but that is ok because you probably had to be there in that moment for them to be funny anyway!

A series of unfortunate events...

There are times in life when you just need to step back and let things slow down before everything spins out of control. Unfortunately, these times usually occur when there is no time to slow down. The result is a series of unfortunate events, which, when occurring separately from each other most often is just enough to ruin a day or a situation. However, when these events occur sequentially the result can lead to one hilarious experience.

Here is the condensed version of the story...
Sunday afternoon, after a weekend of hosting I am finally on my way home. I left the GPS at RVR to avoid hearing the "make a U-turn" that I heard the entire way to RVR. After a few hours of smooth sailing the printed directions fail me and I have now clue where I am. The gas station man didn't speak English very well and just threw a map at me. That would have helped if I had had a fat clue where I was. A man who had walked in the store behind me told me where to go (I wasn't that far off track) and I was on my way again. Not five minutes after getting back on track the right front tire on my truck blows. (with all the bumping, thumping, smoking, swerving, and exploding that you can imagine would go along with a situation like that) After several phone calls with dad and the AAA people, all trying to figure out exactly where I am (because I really had no idea) the mechanic showed up and changed my tire and I was back on the road. A little over 8 hours after beginning my trip, I was at home.

Monday morning takes me to the airport with my sister on our way to Florida. We get to the airport with no problems. There are short lines and things are running smoothly until security check. I apparently looked like a terrorist. I don't know if any of you have ever been frisked in an airport, but it is an experience. One that I don't care have again.

The flight was good, Florida was good. We had a lot of fun on Monday getting a tour of Jason's ship and seeing the beach. On Tuesday we headed to Orlando for Sea World. I was really excited about this and really looking forward to it. Then we found out that because we didn't have military i.d.s we couldn't get in under Jason's free pass. (bummer)

So we went to Downtown Disney and walked around and explored. After a long day and a little bit of trouble getting our rooms we were finally checked in and ready for bed. Wednesday morning we decided to go to the Hollywood Studios Park. We got in! And then it started raining. So we ran around the park seeing cool things and watching sweet shows soaking wet and cold.

I decided that I was brave enough to try a ride that I was told was not that bad. It was inside and they said that it just went fast and didn't flip or dip. Lies. All of them lies. (Except the fast part, and the inside part.) Needless to say, it didn't go over well. But I did recover.

Then we had problems with the rooms. They changed them and then we didn't know where and we had to get our stuff because we had to catch our plane and they wouldn't give us the key..... craziness. We rushed to the airport. Got there on time and made the flight. (I even had time to change out of my soaking wet clothes.) We got in a few minutes early but there were problems with parking the plane and such that took quite a bit of time. (still not sure what that was all about) Then we had to run to catch our next flight that was 3 concourses away and at a different gate than they had originally said. We made it with like 10 minutes to spare only to find out that it had been delayed 30 min. We finally got on and got home around 11:30 pm. Exhausted. (and when I say Exhausted, I mean EXHAUSTED.)

What an adventure.

I can canoe, can you canoe?

So today we all showed up to work expecting to clean the lodges that were used over the weekend like we do every Tuesday. When Matt showed up he had little Lilah with him because Michelle had to take a friend to the airport. We just chilled in the classroom for a bit... thinking that we were waiting for Michelle to get back and get Lilah before we all went to clean. Then Matt handed Lilah to Beth and tried to drag a canoe into the classroom. As you may have guessed it didn't fit through the door, so we all went out on the porch and Matt told us that we were going to clean in the morning but that in the afternoon we were going to go canoeing. So he told us the basics of canoeing.... how to get in and out, different strokes to use, etc... We were all excited. Michelle came and got Lilah and then we went to start cleaning. Not 10 minutes after we started cleaning Matt came and found us and told us that his meeting was canceled and we were going to go as soon as we could get ready. We loaded up the stake body (truck) with 4 canoes and threw our packed lunches, extra change of clothes and life vests in the trunk of Bill's car and headed to the Codorus State Park Reservoir. We put in at the dock. Taco and I took one canoe and Beth and Dessa took another, Bill and Ryan shared a canoe and Matt had all our stuff in teh fourth canoe with him. It was pretty fun! We played around for a bit, getting used to the movement and practicing strokes. Then we paddled out to an island and got out to have lunch, skip rocks, compete in a rock throwing contest and have a devotion and quiet time. Then we all got back in the canoes and went down the reservoir. We went all the way to the end. Literally. It turned into marsh and the canoe was only a few inches over the bottom. Matt and Taco and I followed it past the shallow parts to a little stream that was feeding into it. Then we ran into a dead end because a tree had fallen across the stream and we couldn't get through. It was so narrow and shallow that we had to go backwards for a ways till it was wide enough again to turn around. It was really cool to see the fish and rocks and water plants. Then we paddled back to the dock. We were out there from like 12:00 to 4:30! No one flipped! It was awesome!

Funny sayings from the day:
Michelle as she is picking up Lilah and we are all standing there around a canoe after the initial greetings and questions about the baby's general welfare: Is the car seat inside?
Matt: yeah by my desk.
Michelle as she is walking into the classroom to put Lilah in the car seat: Ohh.. I hit a deer this morning on the other side of the car there, I hope it isn't too bad.
All of the interns look at each other shocked at how off hand Michelle just mentioned that she hit a deer and then look at Matt who is shrugging his shoulders. Every one bursts out laughing.

Beth after Matt told us about some really "gnarly" white water rafting stories from when he was a river guide: Isn't that dangerous? I mean people die from that right?
Matt in a voice that both communicates "duhhh" and "so...": yeah.

Giggles in the canoes... water "fights"....quoting "Oh Brother Where Art Thou"...singing...group hug...

Taco as we are in the canoe paddling away: Hey Sarah...Remember when I told you I had done this a couple times, I meant literally a couple times. Like two or three.
Sarah: Thanks for telling me this now Taco. Now that I already put my confidence in your abilities and we are out here on the water.

Guess you had to be there for all of those funny moments. sorry...
One regret... no one was brave enough to bring their camera out onto the water so there are no pictures. bummer huh!
The day ended with free Chick-Fil-A!
Did I mention that I love my job? Because I do!

Get Away to Gettysburg

It was a long and busy month of October for us interns. To celebrate surviving our first retreat season Matt planed a trip for us. Our first official GPS trip took us to Gettysburg, PA. A friend of Matt's father was generous enough to offer his cabin to us for a few days. So on Monday afternoon Matt, Michelle, Lilah and the six interns loaded up the van and the Merson's Subaru and headed to the mountains. The weather was great for our get away, and the scenery was beautiful. We had a great time relaxing, sleeping, eating, hiking, watching movies and playing games.


On Tuesday afternoon we drove up the road to Devil's Den and climbed, jumped and played on the big rocks. We also visited the Gettysburg outlets. We took several hikes looking for the A.T. that was somewhere behind the cabin and still aren't sure if we were ever on it. Our trip also contained several games of Settlers of Catan, a board game that seems to have become a quick favorite with the interns. We taught Matt how to play and I think it is safe to say that by the end of the trip he was successfully hooked on it. We were all having such a great time that when Wednesday evening rolled around we all couldn't believe it was time to head back to the ranch. But after a few days of "vacation" we are all ready to get back to work.

Have a Cow... Get a Cow.

At 3:00 on Wednesday morning 14 RVR staff including myself headed off to Chick-fil-A to stand in a line in the cold rain in hopes of getting 52 coupons for free meals. It was so cold and we were so wet. But we were all part of the first 100 there, so we all got in. We registered and got i.d. bracelets and then we were allowed to set up our tents. Once the tents were set up we had roll call. When they come over the intercom and tell you it's roll call time you have to line up in order of your numbers and they come through and make sure everyone is still there. They did this several times throughout the day. If you aren't there for roll call you are out and don't get coupons. I was number 59! Then we all took a nap. When we woke up the rain had stopped and the sun was starting to shine. Some of us played a game of Settler's of Catan to pass the time. Then Chick-Fil-A had some relays for us to play to entertain us while we waited! Someone from RVR won all the relays we competed in. We dominated! Later that evening after some card games and more Settler's of Catan, Chick-Fil-A set up a tv so we could watch the world series game. Then we all went to bed in our tents and woke up the next morning to get our coupons. Sweetness. We made it back to the ranch in time for work that day!

Did you know:

• That Chick-Fil-a feeds you while you are camped out in their parking lot over night? They do... twice 100 people walked through the drive through to get their food and once we were served inside.
• That when a tent says it is made for four people it really is made for four people. You may think that it will only fit three... but you would be mistaken.
• That a little girl will latch on to a total stranger in a Chick-Fil-A parking lot and talk to them for hours without stopping to take a breath. It's true!
  

Funny things that happened at Chick-Fil-A:

• Brad and Taco's relationship hit a whole new level.
• Beth and Betsy got hit on by the really creepy sailor man who showed too much man thigh.
• Beth left her coleslaw on the heater.
• Spooning. (boys... you know it happened... we girls had the same amount of people in the same size tent and had to squeeze in tight, so we know you had to too!)
• The giggle fest in the girls' tent before bed.

Funny sayings:
Chris Fournier to the little girl snuggled on my lap and talking insesently while watching the ball game: Is that hot chocolate hot?
little girl stops talking and only nods at Fournier.
Fournier: on a scale of 1 to hot, where is the hot chocolate?
little girl pointing to the drink table: over there.

And now the moment you have all been waiting for....
The story of Sarah and the Chick-Fil-A cow:
As most of you know, or found out, I have a fear of mascots. It is a legitimate fear. Everything at Chick-Fil-A was going fine until right before dinner time. We were standing in line for roll call and I looked up and there it was, that big ol' cow. And it startled me because I wasn't expecting to see it. I freaked and jumped and don't exactly remember what happened but somehow my face ended up between Taco's shoulder blades with my fists full of his sweatshirt. Taco and Chaloux who were on either side of me in line are looking around to see what is going on. I catch my breath (it is hard to breath when your heart and stomach switch places) and somehow remind Taco that I am scared of mascots. We are then informed that Chick-Fil-A will be serving us inside for dinner and that we will be going in one line at a time to eat. The problem with that is that I now have to walk past the cow to get inside and get my food. As the line moves up the cow moves away and I am safe. Taco, Beth and some others from our group who are near me in line stand close to offer me both support and protection. As we get to the door the cow comes out from wherever he was hiding and heads inside. This means that both the cow and I will be in between the two sets of double doors at the same time. Not an idea I am comfortable with. I am shaking, coughing because I can't breath, holding on to the back of Taco for dear life and pressed far back into the corner of that small room as I can get with my eyes closed while Taco and Beth form a protective wall in front of me. The cow moves on and Taco pulls me out of the corner and into the restaurant. I am gasping for breath and whipping tears and my face is all red. Then I look up and see one of the managers looking at me. ( he is a nice guy who was hanging out with us earlier that day) He has a look on his face that tells me he saw the whole thing and is wanting to laugh but isn't sure if he should. I tell him with a half laugh in a scolding tone that I almost died in there! He chuckles and I relax a little as the air and blood start to flow in the normal places again. The line moves up and Taco and I get sent to different cashiers. This means that I have to let go of the back of his hoodie. Not something I am totally comfortable with. With nothing to hold on to anymore I start to freak out again and Taco tells me he is right behind me. I take a couple steps forward and then I see the cow coming back to the front of the restaurant. I reach and look for Taco and he is no where in sight. It is my turn to order and I can't get any words out.. I am gasping for breath and for someone to hold on to. The girl behind the counter is looking at me funny and the cow is getting way too close way too fast. ( it is in this moment that I am about two seconds away from pure panic. I mean screaming, flailing, and hyperventilating. I might have even attacked the cow because my option to run or hide was nonexistent.) About two seconds before I loose it I see Beth step up to the counter beside me. I yell her name. ( i feel like i yelled her name... i wasn't getting words out too well at this point so it took two or three "yells" for her to hear me) Beth looks up sees my face and grabs me. She holds me and helps me order while I hide my head in her shoulder. No joke that cow walked right behind me... like no more than 5 feet away. Thank goodness the Chick-Fil-A servers were being trained and therefore caring every one's trays or my food would have been all over the place because I was shaking so bad. Taco came back from somewhere and got me in my seat across from Beth. We are in a corner where the cow can't get me with the rest of the rvr staff who saw the whole thing and are staring at me with wide eyes and open mouths. After a few minutes of sitting there the tears stop and the blood and air start flowing right again but the shaking doesn't stop. I choke down most of my food before the cow makes his rounds to the back of the restaurant again. This time I am well barricaded and have plenty of people to hold on to. But because the shaking hadn't totally stooped the coughing and tears come back. I am trying to laugh because I know how pathetic this situation is and to get everyone to believe I am ok, but I am still trying to catch my breath. Other people in our group start to chuckle and then the manager walks over to us and says something along the lines of a slight tease to me. I chuckle between breaths and jokingly tell him (even though i am being serious) that I just want the cow to go away. He pulls a little stuffed Chick-Fil-A cow out of his pocket and hands it to me saying something along the lines of here start with a small one and we'll work your way up to the big one. We explain to him that it isn't the cow it is mascots in general that I am afraid of and he jokes with us a little before walking on. Taco, Beth and some of the others flank me and get me out of the restaurant. The cow leaves me alone the rest of the night. In the morning we line up for out coupons and there is a big ribbon cutting ceremony and everything. The cow is back. This time walking up and down the line of us. I hid behind Taco again. The lady almost yelled at me for not being in line but then Taco showed her that I was behind him and that I was scared of the cow. The cow walked away... I peaked out from behind Taco and she took my number and gave me my t-shirt. Then I had to walk through the restaurant to get my coupons... the cow was there and I had to walk right past him, but the line was moving fast and Taco was right beside me and that manager saw me coming and stood between me and the cow. So I got my coupons with only a slight freak out! The end!

life at the ranch

Life at the ranch has been going pretty good! My sister and Aunts Verda and Nancy came for a visit on Sunday during Maizefest! It was awesome to see them! I miss my family! They brought me more goodies than I though was possible to eat... but somehow they are almost gone! The cookies were a big hit with the entire staff and Doug (the most awesome camp cook ever) said that they were his favorites! The brownies were the first to disappear and there isn't much left of the cake. Way to go Aunts! Thanks for coming to see me!

Maizefest days have come to an end. Sad day! I think I am going to miss it. But I am glad things are about to slow down.

Halloween was fun. I was a Green Crayola Crayon! The costume worked great! Everyone loved it! It was so much fun to all be dressed up! The guys' costumes turned out great too! The sewing machine and I had some tough moments together. But in the end it all worked out. Taco was great about keeping me company at the sewing table and keeping me laughing when I wanted to throw the machine. I was able to finish all of Bill's costume with the machine before it gave out on me. But Taco's costume still hadn't been hemmed at that point. So Chaloux, Taco and myself stayed up till 1 am on Saturday morning sewing. Those boys are awesome. If it weren't for them I would have been up all night and it might not have gotten done! But it did! And the boys really did look great! Here is the picture I promised!

Rain, Zip Line and Costumes

(I feel like I start off most of my blogs by saying that I am sorry for how long it has been since I last blogged and for how long this blog will be. So, in order to keep things from getting old and boring, I am not going to open my blog in that fashion this time. Just know that I am thinking it and I am really sorry.............)

To condense the entire last few days into one blog (and because it is more fun to read) I have assembled and organized bullet points.

Last week: (in no particular order)

• We cleaned.
• It rained so outdoor ed groups canceled and we worked on initiatives.
  
• We made a "Maizefest canceled" sign just in case corn maze was canceled, I got to use a power tool and a paintbrush!
• We served meals to the groups that didn't cancel.
• We had a three day weekend because corn maze was canceled because it rained.
• We went shopping.
• I worked on my costume.
• I babysat the Cline girls. They are fun.
• We played like 4 games of settlers. (Did I mention it rained)
• I actually did 100 push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks during pt!!!!!!!
  

Tuesday:

• We cleaned all of camp.
• We set up for corn maze.
• I worked on my costume.
  

Wednesday:

• Baby Merson was born!
• We had a large group in for Outdoor Ed. I ran the zip line unload all day. (When I say "all day" I mean from 9 - 2 with a 15 min lunch break. And when I say "ran" I mean ran. Physically.
• I worked on my costume.
  

Thursday:

• Early morning. Worked the exit tree at high ropes from 8:30-11.
• Ran the zip line unload from 11:15-1:15. (Once again... I mean "ran")
• I worked on my costume.
• We went to see baby Merson.
• I finished my costume!
• I started Bill and Taco's costumes.

Friday: (today)

• Another early morning. Worked the giant swing from 8:30-11.
• Ran the zip line unload from 11:15-1:15. (Yes, that is correct, and yes, once again...I mean ran.)
• Blog.
• Now I am going to work on Bill and Taco's costumes.

Funny note: I really have no clue what I am doing with these costumes. (mine looks pretty sweet though.) Case in point..... when we were in the fabric store getting stuff for Bill and Taco's costumes.....I picked up a child size pattern by mistake and didn't realize till we got back. But it is better than having no pattern at all!.......Right?!?!?!?! ...

Epic Fail Wal-Mart....

Ok so a lot has happened in the last week. But it was all stuff that happens every week. (mostly)
Clean, serve meals, host, run ropes activities, repeat! Same stuff done in new and fun ways all the time. Something different that happened this week....

The interns have been looking for costumes to wear on Halloween at the corn maze and to a party later that night. It has been a difficult process for most of us. I for one had no idea what I wanted to be. That is till I talked to my sister. She told me about a costume idea that a friend of ours had a couple of years ago! (thanks Meredith, hope you don't mind my copying your idea, and congrats on the wedding!) I could be a crayon!!!!!! I love this idea.... so I decided that for Halloween I am going to be a green crayola crayon! That's right.. awesome... I know! I figured out what all I would need to make this costume and how I was going to make it so that it would be all of three things...1. warm 2. comfortable and easy to move around and work in 3. freaking awesome! With all this in mind Taco and I headed out to Wal-Mart last night. (Everyone else was busy or lame.) We decided that since the Wal-Marts in some of the closer towns had failed us in the past, we would go to the Super Wal-Mart just past the PA border line. (about 10 min. farther away in the opposite direction) When we got to the Super Wal-Mart we went to the toy section. There we found some cool stuff, got distracted a little, and found out that the sand pail that I wanted to use as a hat to be the sharp part of the crayon was a seasonal item. They didn't have any. Ok... re-think. No biggy, I half expected this. Plan B: a plastic flower pot! In the lawn and garden section we were told "No, we don't have any of those right now, we are getting ready for our Christmas decorations." !!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!!!!!!! How are people supposed to make Halloween costumes if all that is in stock are Christmas decorations!??????? (slight freak out/ laugh at the ridiculousness before moving on t0....) Plan C: a little basket we found on the clearance shelf that I could cover with green felt. Now, on to the body of the costume, my green wrapper. For this I need some fabric that I am planning on making into a jumper like thing. After wandering around Wal-Mart for 10 min and then asking the lady in sporting goods, we realize that Wal-Mart no longer has a fabric section. What is this world coming to!???? Ok.... on to Plan D: Standing there in sporting goods... trying to figure out what to do now... (because all the fabric stores are in the towns in the opposite direction of where we headed when we left RVR...) Taco spies a dark green fleece sleeping bag. It is pretty much just some fleece fabric with a zipper! It is on sale! I can cut it to the size I need and still have some left over. We then went to the craft section to find some felt for the black lettering and to cover my basket hat. The felt came in 8 x 11 sheets and was $o.47 a sheet! I would need like 6 or 7! Plus they didn't have a green that matched. Plan E: fabric paint would be better right? I told the nice lady in the craft section what I was doing and she told me that the type of paint they had wouldn't work as well as the felt because I was putting it on fleece. In other words... we don't have fabric paint, only puffy paint. Plan F: Taco spies some black duct tape! That will stick to fleece and I can stitch it down to make sure it stays. That means I can by a roll of tape for cheaper than I could paint or felt and I don't have to get fabric glue, just a needle and thread, which I needed to get anyway! Next step... get the needle and thread. They had all that! With hope restored we head to the clothing section to find a green sweat shirt that I can wear under my jumper-wrapper for my green body. They only have one color green and it doesn't match the green socks I was going to wear as the bottom. So I decide to get the matching sweat pants. By now I have a little basket, thread, needles, duct tape, matching sweatshirt and pants and a sleeping bag. All this improvising has made this costume a little more expensive then I had planed. And I still don't have anything to cover the basket. Plan G: We found a fleece blanket on sale for cheaper than the sleeping bag. I can use it just as well as I would have the sleeping bag and save like $6! cha ching! Problem is that the only color green sweats they have looks icky next the the only color green blanket. No one wants to be an icky color crayon. Plan H: forget the blankets... towels! There are a wide variety of green towels! Several of them look OK next to the sweats. The problem is that I would need to by two towels to have enough fabric and at that point the blanket is cheaper. Plan I: I got Beth to text me a picture of my green towels at home and decided that they would work since I use my pool towel at home anyway. On the way to putting the blanket back I see warm fleece hats! That would be better than covering a basket. Only they don't have green at all! Plan J: Get rid of the basket idea because I don't have anything to cover it with anyway, and buy and extra set of sweatpants to cut up and make into a hat that will be warmer than a basket and will actually match the rest of me! Wow... poor Taco has been following me around Wal-Mart, laughing and carrying random things for about an hour. I am sorry he had to see the train wreck that was my creative genius! We got out of there having told 3 employees about my costume idea, (one of them laughed, told me it was a good idea but that she wasn't creative and couldn't help me but good luck) having several people walk past as I was looking in the mirror with the basket on my head to see if it would work, and several more people walking past as I was wrapped in a towel trying to figure out if I would need one or two. None of this would have had to happen if Wal-Mart would have had what I needed! Then I wouldn't have had to improvise on the improvisations in the middle of Wal-Mart and end up on Plan J! Epic Fail Wal-Mart! Epic Fail! In the end I have what I need to make this costume work and I am pretty sure it is going to rock! (I'll post some pics of it when it is done! )

Bruises, pretzels, and bean-bag chairs..."Bless her beautiful hide..."

So this weekend I was a support host for the groups that were here. This means that I got meals and their activities started on time, made sure that they had everything they needed and was available to them in case they needed anything else. (which they did... a lot) It was pretty fun. Chris F. was the host that I was shadowing so we hung out a lot. He is crazy and lots of fun. One of the groups had high ropes for one of their activities so I belayed all afternoon on Saturday. It rained on Friday night so both groups had a hayride and a bonfire on Saturday night. While we were being flexible with that and trying to get everything ready both groups came to us and told us that they had a bathroom that was flooding. (it turned out to not be a big deal in either case) So we moped a lot that night. Support hosting means long hours. I was exhausted. On Sunday for lunch we ordered pizza. The last guest through the line got the last piece of pizza. That is cutting it close and we were sweating it. On Sunday afternoon Taco and LaDessa "surprised" us with a picnic and a fun afternoon in the park! It was great... we ate, busted a pinata, napped, talked and wrestled for the huge bean bag chair. Good day!

random fact of the day:
I am covered in bruises! they are all over my arms and legs and back. most of them I have no clue where they came from. they hurt too!

Funny things:

The girls had a hard time getting to sleep one night because some one (Beth) had more than just the giggles!

Sarah to Chris Fournier in an attempt to make small talk while waiting for the guests: how many siblings do you have?
Fournier: I am one of 7.
Sarah slightly intrigued: Really? Where are you in the line up?
Fournier showing pride in his position: Third from the top, fourth from the bottom.
Sarah thinking about this for a moment asks again and gets the same answer then says: Wait, that isn't enough... how many siblings are older than you?
Fournier:2.
Sarah: And how many younger?
Fournier: 4.
Sarah: Doesn't that mean that you are third from the top and fifth from the bottom?
Fournier pauses, counts in his head, looks at Sarah with a confused look and then exclaims: Wow, you are right. I have been telling people that my whole life and never knew. How come no one has ever caught that before!

The host staff and the tnt staff are just sitting down to lunch after a very busy and stressful weekend that came to a climax when we almost ran out of food when the sneeze guard falls over and smashes to the floor (not breaking, thank you) knocking over a big bowl of pretzels.(they shatter and scatter all over the floor) We all just look at it and Sarah says: Eat. We'll get it later.
When the other staff members come in for lunch and see the sea of pretzels on the floor that people are walking over they ask what happened and are told: What pretzels? There may or may not be pretzels on the floor... if there are, we are ignoring them.
After lunch instead of sweeping them up the tnt staff try to vacuum them up with the back-pack vac. in Bri's words: I feel like this is not necessary.
trust me... this was more than just funny... it was roll-on-the-floor-laughing-funny... guess you had to be there. and be as exhausted as we were in that moment.

Watching " Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" with the guys! 'nuff said

Bill realizing that he snores!

Wrestling for the beanbag chair. lots of tickling...lots of flipping...lots of screaming...lots of laughing...lots of grass stains...lots of fun!

What a week...

Ok so it's been like a week and a half since I last posted and a lot has been going on! I'll try to keep it to only the things that are blog worthy.... no promises. Bear with me... this could get long.

Thursday we celebrated LaDessa's Birthday after work by eating whoopie pies! Then we literally ran down the road to Doug's to watch Survivor with a bunch of other people. While we were running Taco tripped over Ryan and flew and then landed on the side of the road on his face. He is fine! Much laughter occurred after that!

On Saturday we worked the zip line all afternoon. In the rain. Not fun.

Taco, LaDessa, Bill and I went to Bill's house in New Jersey over the weekend. We left Sunday after church. It is only about 2 hours away. We spent the evening with his family at his sister's house. There we had, in LaDessa's words, "Crab out of the crab." Too funny! Too good! Then we went across the bridge to Philly. and walked around a bit. On Monday we went to Jersey Shore and laid in the sand, walked the board walk and played in the waves. It was really windy and kinda chilly so we didn't get in the water. Then we came home! We played hot seat the whole time we were ever in the car and sometimes when we were out of the car! It was great! When we got home we watched Ratatouille and Equilibrium while I did laundry!

Tuesday, or as I like to call it... My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. (or "suck at life" day for short) I woke up to an unpleasant, angry visitor that proceeded to repeatedly kick me in the gut for the rest of the day. (are you with me on that one ladies?) Then while we were detailing I tripped over the vacuum cord. At lunch I stubbed my toes on the coffee table and got my arm stuck in the fly paper. While we were working in the corn maze after lunch I fell in the ditch full of corn stalks. Then I couldn't"t break the rock with the sludge hammer and I got scratched by a nail while moving picnic tables. I thought my day had taken a turn for the better when the lady at Chick-fil-a offered me a free cheese cake sample, but then I knocked over my sweet tea. Lucky for me it had a lid or me and several other people whom I do not know would have gotten very wet and sticky. The day ended at Wherly's. It is a hill billy auction. Pretty fun. We got some cool stuff cheap. But my Ibuprofen ran out so I was ready to go home.

Wednesday. We had PT this morning. I didn't die! Work was detail in the morning, serving meals and maizefest prep. in the afternoon. We had fun with maizefest prep. We played on the playground at fort roller and on the mine shaft (mini zip line)! We also man handled some inflatables and trailers and boards and corn and hay... we were fairly productive! Then we went to Walmart and to Zach and Chris's "Tray-tray" for a bonfire!

Thursday. After we detailed and served meals, I refereed. paintball games all afternoon. Too fun! Then we had Merson Madness! Or game night at the Merson's! Fun stuff!

Funny sayings of the week:

Sarah, referring to Ryan's OCD dvd collection: I am gunna go through them one day and turn them all different ways.
Ryan, being all defiant and sassy and in a threatening voice: You do that and I'll spend an hour and a half putting them all back.
Taco, while the whole room is rolling in laughter: Wow, you really showed her!

Beth, laughing at Taco who was laughing at something funny that happened on 'the office',sprayed water out of her mouth and all over the room getting Michelle's pant leg wet. After a roar of laughter and Beth turning red and trying to apologize ...
Matt says: At least now you can say that you have spit on a pregnant woman.

And many, many other things that made us laugh really hard that I can't remember right now because they happened so long ago. Trust me, we are very funny people!

the last few days...

What has happened that last few days?

We played disc golf.

Funny thing at disc golf:

• Taco steps in a hole and falls over... we all laugh and Beth says: Was that for real? Taco sarcastically replies: Can you see my ankles? This is funny because both of Taco's ankles are in the hole and can not be seen.
• Ryan went for a swim trying to find the disc he threw in the water.
• Sarah in a slow, monotone voice that moves with the arrow as she is realizing that the arrow moves: Guys wait..... how.. do .. you .. know..which way... to ...go..............
  

We went to Kevin and Barb's for wings and football.

We had PT.

Funny things that happened at PT.

• Matt forgot and didn't show up. So the interns just played volleyball. Alone. Without Matt. Because he forgot all about us and didn't show up.
  

We had a film crew on grounds filming a movie.

Funny things with the film crew:

• Trying to clean while they are in all the buildings.
• Watching people in cowboy costumes walk around the grounds.
• Being shushed by the film crew every time we rounded a corner.
• Walking into a room and realizing that they had sets set up in there.
• Having both entrances to my house being blocked my either a set or them filming.

We had van training with Kevin.

Funny things that happened at van training:

• The movie we had to watch.
• Kevin. (he is just that funny)
• Beth needing to pee. (like a billion times)
  

We went to Chick-fil-a.

We went to that weird coffee house again. (nothing funny really happens there, there was a little girl that was pretty cute and she was making us all laugh... but that really isn't blog worthy.)

I saw a black Cat.

This is the story of the black cat:

Once upon a time there was a black cat. I saw this black cat for the first time today. Now, you might think that it is strange that I would live here for 3 and a half weeks and only now be seeing this black cat. You would be right. However, today I saw this black cat not once, not twice, but three times. (The first of which scared me because it jumped out from under the trailer.) Tonight (as in after dark) while we were coming back from Doug's we kept hearing a horse neigh. So we went up the hill a ways to check on things. We found nothing. (mostly because we have no idea what we are looking for) We saw that Hannah was in the office on the computer so we went in to ask her. (because she knows what goes on) After a short conversation, Hannah mentions that she thought she heard tires squeal like it was swerving to miss something. So we went outside to see what we could see and just out side in the middle of the road in the middle of the cross walk, lays the black cat. (when I say lays... I mean splattered) So we scooped it up with a shovel, put it in a trash bag, walked it down the road (funeral procession style), and put it in the trash compactor. And that is the end of the black cat.


PS: Bransen, a beautiful golden retriever, who belongs to Brad and roams free on grounds is spending the night in our house because Beth found him as it was getting ready to storm and he was freaking out. So, if you don't mind.. I am going to go curl up in bed with Bransen!

uuuu a guinepig...uuuu a guinepig....uuuu a guinepig.....Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!

So it has been a while since I last posted. There is a reason for that! The reason is not that there hasn't been anything blog worthy. The reason is that there has been too much going on. The last few days have been full. I will try to recap for you...

• I was support hosting for an Outdoor Education group that came in for a few days. They were pretty chill. Mostly I just followed Brad around and learned about hosting and outdoor ed. stuff. It was pretty cool!
  
• We finished weed whacking the corn maze. My weed whacker's name was Dixie by the way. I didn't name her. She came with that name written on her. They name the weed whackers for some weird reason! I don't know. It's cool though...
  
• Many more things were set up or put in place for the corn maze. Such as... the grave yard, clue boxes, signs, platforms, benches, trash cans... etc.
  
• In the Kitchen for almost every meal. (no quite... but close)
• Chic-fil-a and a really weird coffee shop. I mean this place was weird! The open mic music wasn't bad though.
  
• Club seats at the Orioles' game! Some one gave the ranch a bunch of tickets! The six interns got club seats and a few other staff members were a couple rows up from the dug out! It was pretty cool! ok I am not going to lie... It was really, really, really sweet! Also, it rained and we decided to leave after the second rain delay. But the Orioles did go on to win the game! I like to think I had something to do with that!
  
• Dinner with my adoptive family, the Zeigenfuse family! (families at the ranch adopt an intern for the year) They are awesome and I love them. John and Jolene are amazing and so sweet, (they gave me an open invite and said I could use their washer and dryer!) and the kids Garrett, Abby, Logan, Austin and Wyatt are too fun!
  
• Girl movie night at the Merson's. We watched Maid of Honor and talked about guys... well kinda...
• Plus all the other intern stuff that we do. Such as detail, run program elements, detail, read books, write papers, detail, help get the horses when they get out, detail... ohhh and did I mention detail. (when I say detail, I mean clean. we call it detail so it sounds like less of a chore. not that it really changes anything...it's just more fun to say!)

Funny things of the week:

Matt getting ready to show all the interns silly little videos about two guinepigs that he shows the campers before meals: now when you hear the opening music start you have to chant uuu a guinepig... uuu a guinepig... uuuu a guinepig
Interns slightly confused and a little weirded out: ok ....( music starts ) Uuuu a guinepig... uuuu a guinepig.... uuu a guinepig ( interns really getting into it now) Uuu a guinepig.... uuuu a guinepig.... ( getting a little old now) uuu a guinepig... uuuuu a guinepig
Matt can't get the movie to play at first....
Then it does and we all cheer and then like the silly little videos so much we beg him to play more... mostly just because we now like to chant uuuu a guinepig!

Taco dancing at the ball game to entertain us during the rain delay!

The perverted old man at Walmart.

Playing hot seat in the car with the guys. (not funny...just worth noting)

Playing Candyland at the really weird coffee shop.

Truck bed surfing. A really fun game that I like to think of as something I started...

....did I mention Uuuu a guinepig! 'Cuz that is just funny!

Corn, weed whackers, giggles and rain...

So today I spent the entire work day in the 6 acre corn maze with a weed whacker. We were clearing the trails of the over growth that grew after they cut the maze. We got about 3/4 of the way done, or at least we think we did. It is hard to tell really. We got lost twice. I am pretty sure both times it was Matt's fault. We got rained on once, for about 15 or 20 minutes. PS. when you are covered in grass clippings (and I mean COVERED) and then you get rained on, the grass sticks to you and you really can't get it off. We got nasty. We had fun though!

On a side note... I just found some grass in my ear lobe.... thought I washed that... hummmmm

Funny sayings of the day:

Matt, referring to the exit of the maze: It should be just up here.
Taco: It is over this way... I just came from there and all you have to do it cut through and you are out.
Matt, not hearing Taco, or not listening, either one: ...The next left maybe...
Taco slightly fed up but still in a good mood turns around: Do you want to get out of here?
Sarah laughing really hard at the situation: Uhhh Huhhhhh!
Taco walking past Sarah in the opposite direction of Matt: Well follow me then.
Sarah, struggling to walk through the corn that is 3 feet taller than she is, caring a weed whacker and laughing so hard she can hardly walk: Taco... wait!

Matt the second time he was referring to the exit of the maze: Head up that way..I"ll finish this up and be right behind you.
Bill, Taco and Sarah walk up the trail and follow the loop right back to Matt who turns around to see them and assumes they waited for him: I'm ready, let's head up that way.
Interns: We did. We ended up here!
Matt: What? Did you follow that trail?
Interns: Yes it loops around.
Matt: Are you sure?
Interns, finding the situation very funny, start laughing and amid various sarcastic remarks confirm that: yes, we are sure
Matt, seeing the interns laughing, apparently thinks that we are trying to trick him or something: Let's head up this way and see.
Sarah: ok.. I'll wait for you here!
Matt heads up the trail and the interns don't follow him, when he is out of sight the interns head down the trail and meat up with Matt in the center of the loop where Matt realizes what just happened: Ohh it is a loop. We must need to go that way then (pointing in the opposite direction)

Doug fighting bees to get some trash out of the gator: These bees are pretty bad.
Taco and Sarah: yeah they are.
Doug: I'm having to move all the trash because the gator apparently isn't working.
Taco and Sarah exchange knowing looks: no.. no it isn't.

Funny sayings of yesterday:

Taco to the nurse in the parking garage: Where is the shock trauma unit of the hospital?
Nurse: Do you know where the hospital is?
Taco: No, I'm from Illinois.

Things I have learned in the last few days:
1. Sushi is pretty good.
2. Flashbacks can have flashbacks (we watched The Prestige)
3. I really am allergic to cats, even really cute kittens that follow you around
4. Helicopters can land just about anywhere.
5. Baltimore is so confusing that even people from Baltimore don't know where things are.
6. Boring books shouldn't be read in a hospital waiting room.
7. How to start a weed whacker.
8. That I suck at Candyland.
9. Who Mike is! Finally!
10. I want Bill on my team when we go through the corn maze.

I bathed in trash...

ok so there were many things that happened today. I am hosting TNT this weekend. TNT is our Teens in Training. They are teenagers that come in on the weekends to help serve the guest groups in the kitchen. That means I am in the kitchen with them. Being in the kitchen is cool, they are cool, the weekend has been pretty cool but very long. Too many things have happened in the last two days to even write about. But there is one story that can not go untold. Here it is...

My TNT workers took a while to clean up from lunch today because they were playing with the dish washing hose and seeing who could get soaked the fastest. (no really, but it seemed like it) PS: everyone loses in this game. No body wins when everyone is wet, no one. So after every thing was cleaned up from the cleaning up I sent them to the game room while I took the trash out. Taco stayed to help me. Probably because he could tell that I was soaked and not thrilled about it. (Lord bless Taco) Anyway, several meals worth of trash is sitting by the gator waiting to be taken to the dumpster. It is all wet because it is raining, it has been raining for the last few days. Taco and I load all the trash into the gator and trailer. Most of the bags have holes in them and are leaking colorful, sticky, smelly substances. Each bag is being swarmed by half a dozen or so yellow jackets. I got stung by one of them on the finger. After we get all the nastiness loaded onto the gator and trailer we discover that the battery on the gator must be dead because it won't start. We went for a walk to find the other gator only to discover that it has a flat tire. So we found Bill, got his car keys, moved his car so my truck could get out of the driveway and took my truck to the trash pile. We then loaded the same wet, sticky, smelly, leaking, yellow jacket infested trash bags into the bed of my truck. We took it all down the road to the trash dumpster/compactor. There we unloaded the same wet, sticky, smelly, leaking, yellow jacket infested trash bags into the dumpster. It was then that we discovered that the compactor part of the trash dumpster/compactor wasn't working. So we had to shove the nastiness into the dumpster. This took a lot of pushing and throwing and over all man handling of the trash. (Taco is my hero...) We got the door shut, pushed the button a couple more times (just in case it wanted to start working) and then rinsed out the back of my truck. By this time there is what appears to be red Jello down my left pant leg, some mystery blue stains on my knee, spaghetti sauce on the front of my shirt, puddle water soaked halfway up the shins on my pant legs, what I can only assume to be cottage cheese on my arms and a slightly swelling bee sting on my pinkie finger. As I am walking back to the house to get cleaned up I run into my TNTers. The conversation went something like this...
TNTers: We are going to the game room to play carpet pool. We went to get dried off first.
Sarah: Ok, good call. I'll be there in a little bit. I am going to go get cleaned up first.
TNTers: What did you do?
Sarah: I bathed in trash.
TNTers:...ohhh...Sounds like fun!
Sarah: Yeah... not really.
TNTers: Why did you bathe in it?
Sarah:(after explaining that I didn't really bathe in it and that I didn't do it just for the fun of it)...Because we couldn't get the gator to start because we are just the interns and we don't know what we are doing.
TNTers: No, you are doing great. That was your internship test... you passed! Good job!
Sarah, not appreciating the sarcastic encouragement at the moment because of the whole being wet and bathing in trash thing just gives the blank stare.

Just thought I would share...! haha I love my job!

Too tired to Blog...

Ok so here is how my day went...
6:30 am (that is before the sun is up...just in case you were wondering) P.T. in the gym. We did some stretching, push ups, jumping jacks, crunches and anything else that you can think of along those lines. (because we probably did them and I just can't remember. It was early and I was just trying to keep up. Survival was the goal here...) Then we ran up the hill to the climbing tower. (I use the word run very loosely here) After that we played a game of basketball. Followed by several rounds of knock out. (Note to self... not horrible at knock out)
7:30 am (the sun is up by now) Back to the apartment for showers and breakfast. I made scrambled eggs for the girls and then remembered that I forgot my laundry was still in the dryer. (PS the dryer is like 3 houses down the street)
8:30 am Clothes have been retrieved (I still need to fold them... remind me later), shower has occurred, breakfast has been eaten and we are on time for our meeting in the classroom. Bam sucker! Today we started a study about theology. We have a paper due next week.
9:15 am Detail! There were a few things left to clean before the group came in today. We got it all done before lunch!
11:30 am Went to work in the Kitchen! I helped set up, served and then helped clean up, lunch!
1:30 pm Helped set up Zip line.
2:00 pm Helped run Zip Line. I was at the unloading end of the zip line. It isn't one of my stronger areas. Three of my people kinda hit the ladder and twice I couldn't get the tether off the line. But it's all good! Nobody died today!
4:30 pm Help take down zip line.
5:00 pm Taco and I have trouble getting the door to the adventure barn locked. We take the lock off the door to look at it, and it locks. So we take the lock to Matt and get Him to unlock it for us. We take it back to the barn, put it on the door, and it won't lock. Laura drives by and tells us that we have to stick the key in it to get it to lock. We don't have a key. Laura lets us use her key and the lock locks on the door this time! Thank you Laura for saving the day!
5:30 pm Work in the kitchen. This time I am on dishes. I helped set up and then washed all the dishes and cleaned up from dinner. (PS I got soaked)
7:45 pm (well it was supposed to be 7:45 it was more like 7:55 because we were running late because the dish racks fell on my head and set us back a bit. I'm fine.) Snack shop. We have never done snack shop before... it is pretty easy... when the computers work right.
9:00 pm Clean up from snack shop. Then head over to Doug and Lisa's house to watch the football game.
10:40 pm Realize that I am too tired to watch the football game and go back to the apartment.
10:50 pm Start blogging because I know I need to do that, and there is no way I am going to let a day like today go by without sharing it!
11:20 pm Realize that I am really too tired to be blogging. Time to go nappy-poo in beddy-bye land.

Funny sayings of the day:
All of us are sitting there at lunch and Brad says to Matt: Did you all go running this morning?
Matt: yeah right by your house.
Brad: Yeah I looked out when the dog barked. Did one of you not go?
Matt: No we all went.
Brad: I only counted six and I know you were one of them... Who am I missing?
Sarah from beside Brad at the table: That was me. I was there... I was just that far behind.
Brad looking a little bit embarrassed about pointing that out in front of everybody: Maybe I just counted wrong...
Sarah: no...no you didn't.

Sarah: It's been a long day.
Taco: I know... I can't even remember what we did this morning.
Sarah: Hey Taco remember that time we went for a run. Remember how that was only this morning.
Taco: ohhh yeah ...that was only this morning... it feels like it was last week. man...

Details

We detailed today... that means we cleaned the lodges after the guest groups from the weekend. We learned that vacuums, brooms and mops can all be danced with, and your voice always sounds better when singing in the bathroom!

Dan S. came over tonight to tell us that the auction we were going to go to was canceled. We invited him to stay for dinner and while we were making it he cleaned out the bottom of our sink and fixed the drain. Dan S. is the man!

Ps. Taco helped me make a movie! (and when I say helped I mean he did it for me) It is pretty sweet! Check it out!

funny sayings of the day:

Matt while explaining to us how to host a guest group:... One of you will serve and the other will work the piano.
Beth, whispering to Bill but everyone can still hear her, with genuine concern: I don't know how to play the piano!
(you don't play the piano, you pump it and it plays itself)
Everyone laughed and the giggles were hard to stop...

Mandatory Fun Day

We went hiking in Pretty Boy National Forest. Matt took us to the Pretty Boy Dam and we ate lunch there! It was pretty cool, and really pretty! We had loads of fun! On the way down the trail we got attacked by bees. LaDessa and I both got stung once and Ryan got stung three times. When we got back we played ultimate Frisbee with some of the other staff and then went to Sheets for some MTO dinner! After that we watched Slum Dog Millionaire. Long fun day!

Funny sayings of the day:

Sarah, as she is swatting bees: Who made the bees angry!?
Everyone in the front of the line stops to see why everyone in the back of the line is screaming.
Sarah and LaDessa, in a desperate attempt to get away from the stinging bees: Go, Go, Go!
Everyone runs down the trail away from the angry bees!

Taco and his book of penguin facts.

Sarah saying Superman kiss instead of Spiderman kiss.

Beth: ...he is in Africa now. BUNNY!!!!!!!
she got distracted in the middle of a story by a bunny hopping across the field. The word bunny was yelled with an excited squeal and partnered with a point and a really big cheesy smile!

fun days

So work at the ranch is pretty fun. Today we learned how to set up the inflatables...which means we needed to test them and make sure they were bouncy enough. We also got trained on the giant swing...which means we needed take turns swinging so that the others could get practice in hook up. Then we lead a group of Spanish speaking people at the zip line. So of course that means I had to ride down to the end after walking the group up... to save time and energy. PS: I spoke through an interpreter for the first time today... it's awkward trying to tell people how to put on a harness when you don't speak the same language.

Funny sayings:

Neighbors to the ranch were doing a little target practice today. So while we were in the woods at the giant swing we would hear their random bursts of gun fire. While we were pulling Beth up on the giant swing...
Matt: Wow, that's a big one. ohhh not you Beth... I meant the gunfire.

Ok so after we were working really hard on the set up and "safety checking" of the inflatables Matt tells us all to get in the truck because we are going to get a drink before we go to the giant swing. Then instead of taking us to the kitchen, he takes us to his house. While we are all getting out of the truck he runs inside. We go inside and Michaele, his wife, says as she pulls drinks out of the fridge...
Michaele: So Matt riped his pants huh?
Interns: Really...... hummm..... nope he didn't share that with us... ohhh is that why we are here?
Matt received much ridicule for this one.

Matt; What are you all going to do tonight?
Interns: Get into trouble... We are going to break rule #1.
Michaele: What is rule #1?
Interns: Leave the bison alone.
Michaele: ohhh, They don't really come to the fence anyway. Well, they will if you have corn.
Interns: ohhhh... so we need corn....

Thanks Michaele! You were a wealth of information today!

Solo

So spending 24 hours alone in the woods is amazing. I recommend it. For the first 6 hours I was not allowed to read or journal. So ... I dug up rocks with a stick and build a tower out of them. That took all of about 2 hours. Then I ate my lunch. Then I watched ants crawl across the top of my tent until I fell asleep. Matt woke me up to tell me that I could read my Bible. So I did that for a few hours till he came back with dinner and a lighter for my fire. I spent the rest of the evening stoking my fire and reading God's word. Awesome evening. Then I went to sleep in my tent and woke up to Matt calling my name telling me that I could come with him to get the others and eat breakfast. It was a pretty cool 24 hours. What I left in the woods: me, and my desires to please myself and others, and my worry about what they think of me. What I took out of the woods: God, and a desire to please Him and to do everything for Him with a servant's spirit.

Ok, so... So far we have learned about our conduct here at the ranch, how to run the zip line, how to tie knots and where all the light switches are. We did most of this on Tuesday.
That is right... I have gone down the longest triple zip line on the East Coast, twice. It is awesome. The hike up the mountain to get to the zip line platform... not so awesome. I have also done that twice.
Funny story of the day: Last night while cooking diner...
We couldn't figure out how to get the exhaust fan on the stove to turn on so the smoke detector kept going off. We would all run to the doors and wave them to get the alarm to go off and then get back to cooking. Then after diner the boys were doing dishes and I decided to look behind a door that looked like a closet door for a broom. Behind that door were some stairs that led to a basement we didn't know we had. That basement we discovered had (has) about 8 inches of really nasty water standing in it. Then we realized that a pipe must have broken because when the boys turned the water on to wash the dishes, water would come pouring in to the basement pool. We are pretty sure no one knows about this because this water looks like it has been growing stuff for a while. Fun stuff... Thanks for the indoor swimming pool RVR!
( we will tell someone about this very soon)

PS: Phase ten is a really long game...

Flood mud, tilts and squeaks

Day 1 at the ranch was not what I expected. The was a flood a few days before I got here and a lot of the ranch was destroyed. Even one of the staff's house was trashed as well a some bridges and fences. So we spent the day bleaching chairs, bed frames, tables, dressers, etc. and cleaning up the mud that was everywhere. (Still is everywhere really.) It was really cool to see the staff, that I don't even know that well yet, rally together and get dirty to try and save what they could from the buildings with water damage. There were a lot of volunteers here today, and more coming later this week, to pitch in and help and businesses are donating stuff. It is awesome to see that there are so many people who love and support this place and want to see it succeed. It gives me a good feeling about this place. Speaking of this place... it tilts. I'm not joking. Almost every building I have been in so far has a door that won't hang right or a floor that "waves" to you! It is too funny. I'll post a video later of my tilting dresser. There are many things here that squeak too, like the doors and the floors and the handles on the sinks... too cool. I am going to like this place.

Funny sayings of today:
Matt: ohhh yeah rule #1 guys, leave the buffalo alone.

Matt: one of our interns has a frohawk.
Beth: what is a frohawk?
Taco: a mohawk out of black people hair
(yes, taco has a frohawk)

Taco: lets go to the store and get some new sticks...