Saturday, May 23, 2009

First week of Campers

Tomorrow officially starts the first day of summer campers. I am so excited! I'm a little nervous but in a good way. I also think if you are not nervous then you are bored of the job. I'm not bored so that means I can be nervous!! LOL Anyways my group looks great. I can't give you really any details but I can tell you that it is adult week so I will be working with adults all next week and the week after it.

I am now officially trained in CPR/First Aid/AED, so if anyone gets hurt, has an heart attack, or is chocking I can officially save your life! Last week at training was pretty good. I met a lot of new friends. We now have about 42 summer staff. Some are from Iowa, Colorado, California, Michigan, and Nebraska! I am so excited that my state is represented with excellent people. My goal is that next year we have more campers from Nebraska! Next week is going to be busy I start work Sunday about 2:15 and work until Friday at 2:00. I then have about a 4 hour break until I help with respite. The respite is the weekend so I will be working over the weekend and start work again on Sunday. June 5-6 I am doing Med-Manager Class so I can pass out medicine to the campers. Oh before I forget I can now drive a bus. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not. I went and got my Chaffeour's License. I can drive a bus with 16 people or less. Also the bus can not have a lift in it. That way I can go on trips and help out driving the bus. There are two trips that I really, really want to go on. The first one is to Wisconsin Dells. It is an amusement park. I just really want to go due that I have never really went to Wisconsin before. The next trip that I really want to go on is the Cheyenne Trip. The trip is to go see the Cheyenne Frontier Days. One reason why I want to go is because I want to see the rodeo. I would also like to see my parents since the trip will be kind of close to my birthday. I guess if I get to go on any trip that would be awesome!

This weekend I really didn't do that much. Last night I went to the movies and out to eat with some friends. It was pretty cool. The movie we went to was The terminator. It had Christian Bale in it and some other actors and actresses. The terminator was basically a prequel to the other teminators that had Arnold Schwanger. (However you spell his last name. The governor of California now.) The movie was good. I wouldn't go out and buy it but it was pretty good. Today I really didn't do anything except dishes and read a book. I also saw the finale of One Tree Hill. It was good, sad but good. I'm really hoping that Hillarie Burton and Chad Michael Murray do not leave the show! It would be really weird without them! Well I think that is all for now. So I will be signing off and figuring out what to do with the rest of my night! Hope everyone is enjoying themselves and having a wonderful day!!

God Bless Everyone!

Ellie

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Summer Season

Right now we are in summer training. We start summer season May 24th. So far everything is just a review. We have more counselors here now then we did for spring season. We have about 44 counselors all together. From now on I am know as a program specialist. My job doesn't really change but in the fall and winter time I will do more donating for camp.

Okay so much has happened since I wrote here last. I told you about my friend that had to get her appendix out. Two days later two other friends of mine came down with spastic colons. Then after that another friend came down with spastic colon. We were short staffed for a while. I was so scared that I was going to get sick but I didn't. I also haven't been sick since I got here. I have rehurt my knee but right now it is good.

Be for I forget, my Uncle Ron Milner died two weeks ago. Please pray for the family and his wife Mona. Thanks. Also thank you to the Dupeire's for praying for me and my family! For summer training we went out to the river and canoed. I got sunburned yesterday. I did put sunscreen on, I just didn't reapply it. Oh while I am thinking about it, I will have pictures up here soon. Hope everything is going well for everyone!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

First Week of Overnighters

Last week was my very first week of overnighters. We had campers come Wednesday and stay until Friday. I was so nervous for this group to come. First of all we get our list of campers the week before and we also get their applications. Well I only got their names. I knew they were in elementary grades but not a specific grade. I was hoping that their were really no serious problems with any of the campers. I prayed and hoped that my group would be good. Well Wednesday came, I was so nervous I couldn't even eat breakfast. I had HUGE butterflies in my stomach. Then about 9:30 my group came. I took a DEEP breath in and let it out. I was as ready as I could be. From then on it would either be smooth sailing or bumpy waters. Either way I thought I was ready. The day turned out to be good and I thought my butterflies were going away. Then I remembered that I had night duty that night.

Night duty is when I have watch the campers in their cabin. We have alarms so they can not go out the door. My butterflies came swooping back! The staff who has night duty usually gets 30 minutes break. I didn't get my break. I only had enough time to hurry back to my room and change into some comfy clothes. By the time I got back to the cabin almost everyone was sleeping. The teachers that came with them got them all ready for bed and put them to bed. I did have some campers who wanted to talk but I laid down the rules. I had a very cute camper who was in kindergarden and couldn't sleep. I told him a bedtime story and left some lights on, so he could sleep. By 10:30 that night everybody was fast asleep! I was so shocked and happy. I stayed awaked until midnight and then slept for a little bit. I woke up off and on the check on everybody. Thursday and Friday went great! My campers were amazing! I did feel bad because we couldn't do some things due to the rain. They did have fun though. Friday we were suppose to get off earlier then 4:00 but we had to clean the cabins, look at our schedule for this week, and we talked about last week. I am now ready for this week. We have two overnights this week. Our first one is Monday through Tuesday then our second one is Wednesday through Friday. After that I am doing respite weekend. So I am basically working Monday through Sunday! It really doesn't bother me. I am really pumped for this week. I know it will be long and tiring but the aftermath is my reward. To see the campers leave with a smile on their faces and not wanting to leave, that is worth not getting that much sleep.

Last week was good and bad. On Tuesday afternoon a friend and co-worker of mine went to the hospital. Her right side was in pain. The doctor told her she needed to have her appendix out. We took her to Cedar Rapids, IA (that is a 30 minute drive from here) to the hospital so she could have surgery. Her surgery started about 8:30 that night. We waited for her surgery to be over, to see her. While she was in surgery we went out to eat. The food was really good. When we went back to see her, we stayed talking to her until 12:30 am. We didn't get home until 1:30 am. Then to make this week bad, starting Thursday two other friends of mine were sick. They went to the doctors and came back with a spastic colon. In one week we had a girl that had her appendix taken out and two girls with colon problems. We were all scared that swine flu hit the camp. I didn't want to get sick. I helped them out as much as possible but just in case they had something catchable I put distance between us.

Today we had a going away party for our Travel Director. He and his wife our moving to Wyoming. He had a job offer from a park. I told them that they are closer to my house and they invited me to come and visit whenever I can. I told everyone that they can come home with me to go visit them. Next week on Mother's Day we have a baby shower for a co-worker. This is her first baby and the baby is due in June. Summer traing starts May 17th at 1:00 pm and goes till Friday at 4:00 pm. Then summer season starts May 25th. I am excited but nervous at the same time. I will be starting off as a program staff May 17th. I will not be able to go home until August. Then in August I am going to Las Vegas with a friend to celebrate our 25th birthday. I am also thinking about going to Alaska with the camp. Then comes December and I will be off for a month. Then back for two more seasons and see what happens next.