Final Camp trip #3

Looking back, I am thankful that I get paid mileage when I drive to camp near Knoxville since yesterday completed my third trip of the summer. I am always a little sad when resident camp is over because I know what a great experience it can be for our girls - it is a memory making machine, which is exactly what we hope for!

This week was a great week. I got to work with some girls that were working on an environmental/food based Journey book (set of badges, basically) and took them on a field trip to the farmer's market in Knoxville. These girls are the oldest girls we have had at camp for the summer - they are Counselor-in-Training aged - so it was good to get to hang out with them. I had a captive audience while we drove into town and back and I got some really good feedback about what events they would like to see us do in the next year. I told them about our tentative plans for travel and events and they seemed really excited about it! That makes me feel like we are on the right track and that is great news!

I rolled in from camp around 5pm yesterday and went straight to the yacht club where Chad's parents are members. (Yacht club uses loosely...more like sailing club...which is more like, a bunch of retired guys getting together and fiddling around with their boats.) We were filling in for Chad's dad on the race committee, meaning we were to help set up the Wednesday night fun races, run flags, timers, etc. but of course, we've never done it before. Thankfully, the woman in charge gave us lots of instructions and was super sweet and knowledgeable - in a "I want to share with you what I love to do so maybe you'll love it too" kind way. Sadly, some storm clouds blew over and took all the wind with them so sail races were not to be had.

I will be living in budget land for the next 2 weeks or so as I write my team's first budget so I am pretty nervous about it. I want to do well so that we will have plenty of funds for an entire year of programming but I also am not so great with numbers so yeah...knowing that I am choosing budget amounts for events that are over a year away and not planned yet is a little stressful. I wish I could just write up my entire plan - since I am a words girl! - and give it to someone and have them put numbers with it. But alas, that is not how it works.

50 hours.

I thought on the way home yesterday (back through 4 states to get to my guy) that I wish I was earning SkyMiles for all the miles I have driven on the road the past few weeks! I would be earning myself a fun vacation in a tropical destination instead of just burning my gas money!

It was a lovely trip to Biloxi and back and I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with my dad, mom, and BFF J. It has been quite some time since I got to spend that much interrupted time with J and I am glad that it worked out for her to go. We spent most of Tuesday getting there after leaving around lunchtime but Wednesday was enjoyed tooling around Ocean Springs and sitting by the pool (where I missed my shins with the sunscreen and had pink legs for 48 hours). Thursday we drove around and saw the sights a bit more and then headed out on a historic replica sailboat to watch the fireworks. If you follow me on Instagram or if we are friends on FB, you will have seen that what started as a beautiful sunset cruise and fireworks show turned into a drenched in rain haul it back to the marina ride. No one was injured and we surely made some memories so it was really loads of fun (and hysterical once we got over the initial shock of it raining on us rather unexpectedly).

Drove from Biloxi to Columbus then to Chattanooga yesterday so after being in the car around 9 hours I was thrilled to pull in my driveway. Chad is off today and tomorrow and I am soaking up every minute with him (and unwillingly sharing a few of them) before I leave again EARLY Monday morning.