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...