First full day at camp - with a baby!

Monday has been a much smoother day. We’ve had our share of little bumps along the way, but we are figuring it out. Meal time is going great. Her high chair attachment works really well and she loves being around all the campers! We are in the smaller “VIP” section so it isn’t so overwhelming with half the camp looking at her all the time. She is loving it. Every single minute has been good from her standpoint I think. Expcept her afternoon nap today – one of the maintence guys was fixing the roof and was nainling and pounding and she didn’t exactly sleep right through all that. But she got 45 minutes, and we rolled with it, went swimming and had a great afternoon.

I am kinda wishing she didn’t take two naps at this point. Its taking a lot of time away from all the activities at camp and its hard to get to know people and get involved with stuff (like I like to do) when I’m always up at the cabin with a sleeping baby. Don’t get me wrong – I love how she sleeps and gives us 2 naps a day still, but I would like to be able to participate more than I can right now. And the stinky thing about this being a high school camp and everyone being able to stay up later is that evening activity doesn’t even start until around 730-8 and that is when Evelyn starts to melt and really needs to be heading towards bed. So more time for me to miss out. But again – its all good. I am here at one of my favorite places,  spending a week with my daughter and loving meeting all these new campers, counselors and I know that each day is going to get easier. 

Wesley Woods High School Camp

I had the opportunity to be one of the camp nurses at the most amazing church camp last week. I wrote about our week, but had bad internet connection and couldn't upload to the blog! So here it is.. my week at Wesley Woods! 

So night one of camp isn’t exactly going as smoothly as I envisioned. I got to camp much earlier than I thought I would…yay! About 7:30. But I was thinking I could probably get her right to bed, but that really wasn’t the case. I needed to put some stuff away and get some stuff accessible to me once Evelyn fell asleep. And my co-nurse was doing nurs-y things and I felt bad that I wasn’t helping out. Well it turns out I probably should have just focused on the baby because by the time I got her bottle going and she took it, she was a mess. And I mean a mess. Aching, screaming, thrashing, all of the above. I was in tears right along with her. We tried side-to-side rocking on a little school chair and that wasn’t working. Campers kept coming in for water, that wasn’t helping. Thankfully my co-nurse has the amazing zero gravity camping chairs and I slid one into my back bedroom and laid back with Evelyn and tried to rock her to sleep that way. It worked. For now. The campers should be coming back from firebowl any minute now and I am just waiting. I have a sign outside that says “please be mindful that there is a baby sleeping in this cabin, Thank you *huge smiley face*” We’ll see. Big mom fail…forgot the sound machine, so I currently have a box fan blowing around our room, which is sort of nice, but sort of cold for a baby who doesn’t like to stay under covers and mom decided to dress in a short/t-shirt pj combo because it was ‘warm’ tonight. I might wake up to a baby with frostbite, buuuut, we’lll make it through the night – hopefully.

I’m looking forward to getting to know the counselers here. Or hopefully get to know them. I feel really alone right now, but I can handle that, I’m sure it will get better. I’m usually good at making some friends. But what is hard to deal with is not quite knowing really anybody here and being the nurse. I mean I’ve done this camp nursing thing for 7 years now – this year 8. I know what I’m doing, but its just with new people and I want to learn some of their new ways, and I’m trying to show them some of mine. And I know that there are some campers who loooove being with the nurses. I’m not so into that. You’re here for camp, not to hang out with the “cool nurse.” And this year, it will probably be worse because I have a baby with me. Hopefully we can keep the campers focused on camper things and we can make this all go really, really smoothly!

Camp is such an amazing place and I am excited to experience it with new people, new schedules, my little baby & I hope I can help pass on an amazing camp experience to 150+ campers! 

The best days

It seems that life has a funny way of making you grateful for everything you have. 

There hasn't been one incident in particular that has really impacted me lately, there is just this little life inside of me, being a constant reminder of how precious and fragile life is. Like I talked about in an earlier post, I am very fortunate to have had the pregnancy I've had. I won't even begin to start down the list of why I'm grateful , but I just know that there are far too many things that can go wrong, and even though I am not out of the woods, I know that I am truly grateful for every healthy day that I do get. 

I've been thinking about all the destruction, death and hate that are going on in our world right now. I wonder if is much different than in the past. I mean I know that sounds a little silly because there are more ways it seems to easily kill massive amounts of people with one explosion. But how does living in such a technology centered world affect our perception of crime? We all know that big news stories about murders, wars and other bad things all get more air time. With every part of our lives being so accessible with a click of a button, I just wonder if we are just more aware of the evil that people can possess. I don't know, just a thought. 

And then I think about how blessed I am to have all the family and love I could have ever imagined. Seeing all these devastating stories on the news doesn't make me lose hope for mankind, it makes me think of the good that may come out of these situations. How people come together to help their neighbors and are more generous to each other. How people are influenced by a loved ones unexpected death and are moved to start a charity, or pledge to live their lives to the fullest because their loved one can't. People may be lead back to their religion, or volunteer more. I just think that sometimes you can't appreciate all the good in your life without realizing that there are awful things that can happen. 

Now I'm not saying that all these tragedies are good by any means. All I'm saying is that we need to all take a step back and see what good we can do without a tragedy. Why do we need something bad to happen in our lives, country or world for us to do good? Everyday I try to make the best of each day. I always try to go out and be happy and put a smile on somebody's face. I might make a fool of myself and be a little silly with things, but I don't see a reason to sit and feel sorry for myself for having a bad day. Sure, I have bad moments or times when I am stressed out and not acting as kind to my loved ones as I should, but I really try to stay positive and focus on the good in the world. I hope that other people can notice that in me and I'm not just blowing smoke up my own butt to make myself feel better about my outlook on life. 

Maybe I am infinitely happy that I am going to be a mommy and my husband is going to be the best daddy in the whole world to our little babe. Maybe I'm not quite right in the head (I know I'm probably not, but who is?). Maybe I just want to share a smile and make a difference in somebody's day. Maybe I am filled with so much peace because I know my Lord and Savior died for me and everyone else so that we can have a second chance. Whatever it is that is making me so happy, I'm just going to soak it up and enjoy it. There may be a day coming when I'm sleep deprived and my little babe won't stop screaming that I may find it hard to see the joy. But I pray that no matter my circumstance, I always will find happiness, love and joy in each and every day, because I know there are far too many people who wish they had one more day. 

A Quiet Morning

After spending a week at Wesley Woods, I found myself at the waterfront before the sunrise this morning. I went to bed well after midnight, but for some reason, I was wide awake enough to watch my favorite part of the day. I do know why I was awake though. It was God’s way of reminding me to slow down and pay attention to my surroundings and what life has to offer.

I’ve spent a week here at camp with middle school children from around the state of Michigan at a United Methodist Church Camp. It has been one super week. So many children who may not get enough love at home having the time of their life. Some kids have great homes and they are able to share God’s love to others and not let their positive home situations cause them to act as though they are better than anybody else here. Sure, there is the usual girl on girl drama and middle school mean-ness. And sure, some boys might play a little rougher than others and have those middle school crushes as the hormones are raging. But the point here is that everybody is loved equally and everybody has a chance to find God in their own way. 

I was one of the nurses at camp this week and thankfully our biggest problem relating to campers was a girl getting her first period. Long story short, she was swimming with a pad, and thought tampons caused cancer! I know it was terrifying for her to be "starting" at camp, but looking at the situation it is slightly comical and reminded us of all of our first periods. We played in our AWESOME mud-pit, making "mud angels," playing tag, balancing on workout balls, and 4 corners tug of war.  We had breakthroughs and breakdowns with campers as the lack of sleep and busy days went on, but all in all we had a great week witnessing to these 90 children. 

Our theme this week was, rightfully so, about the Olympics, as the 2012 London Olympics are currently in progress. Good enough to be an Olympian. Am I really good enough? Being good enough for God. All potent themes we’ve had this week. One night at firebowl, hearing about so many successful people failing before they found success, brought us all to tears. To feel as though I am not worthless even though I didn’t succeed at that last task. To know that I am still loved and still able to do anything I set my mind to because I am good enough. What an amazing thing to be reminded of. There are so many things that can drag us down in this world and it is hopeful to remember that fact. 

It's hard to imagine a life where people cherish every moment and never take anything for granted. Being at camp for this past week reminds me to slow down and take it easy. I seem to always have things planned and organized and completely thought through before I do anything. Is it so hard to just let things be and go with the flow? I am thankful for this peaceful morning and the time to be able to reflect on my life as a wife and a nurse and how I can better live each moment. Why do we all forget how precious life is until a terrible accident or a terminal diagnosis? Why can't we remember that fact BEFORE we are faced with a loved one's death?  How different would our world be if we all slowed down and enjoyed the simple things in life?