First of all, I was given 2 awards recently: The Rockin' Girl Blogger Award by Ashley (not my sister :-), and The Blogger Reflection Award by my mom. 

I'm awarding:

Emma - whose blog often makes me laugh

Marissa - my little sis who is definetly a rockin' girl!

Elizabeth - a fellow singer/pianist whose blog I enjoy

Rein - whom I have not known for very long, but I enjoy reading her blog!

I'm awarding:

Rachel - who has had some very good entries reflecting on Christian values

Rachel R. - a very mature Christian young lady...check out her website, Priceless Purity!

    Well, I know that's not 5 for either one, but I was having a hard time finding people who had not been awarded yet!  Sorry if any of you that I did award have already been awarded and I didn't know it!

    Okay now on to camp.  My week as a camp counselor last week turned out to be very enjoyable, contrary to what I thought on Sunday and Monday.  When I signed up to be a counselor, I thought I would have at least 10 or 11 year olds.  If I had thought I would have little kids, I probably wouldn't have signed up!  Even at counselor training a few weeks ago, the other counselors kept telling me that, at 17, I would have older girls.  Surprise!  When I got there on Sunday afternoon, I had been assigned to Cabin 6 out of 25 cabins (higher number = older girls)!  I had six 8 and 9 year olds in my cabin!  The younger cabins have 2 counselors per cabin, so I was with a girl named Ashley (which got confusing since my sister Ashley was there, along with several other Ashleys).  I figured out later that there were a lot of younger counselors this year, and the 15 y.o. counselors have to have an older counselor with them.  Ashley was 15.
    The sign that I made for our door:

    The girls arrived at camp on Monday morning and we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon getting everyone signed up and settled in.  For me, it was an extremely hot, stressful day.  I wasn't sure how I was gonna make it through the rest of the week.  But on Tuesday I woke up feeling better about the day, and like I said before, it turned out to be a good week.  My girls (I ended up with only 5 b/c one got sick and went home) were very sweet and listened well.  I did have one who whined a lot and kept tripping and scraping her knees up.  But other than that they did well, and I was glad that they all got along!
    On the first day the girls sign up for 5 of the many elective classes offered.  We counselors get to teach 3 of those classes a day.  I taught personal development (makeup, hair, nails, etc, with an emphasis on inner beauty!) to younger girls and older girls, and art to older girls.  I really enjoyed teaching the older girls because they were all talkative and we all had fun together.  On the first day in personal development we painted nails, but it only took them a few minutes so we spent the rest of the time chatting! 
    Wednesday is a fun night because we have Frontier Adventure.  Everyone dresses in "frontier" clothes (bandannas, freckles, cowgirl hats, etc.) and we eat hot dogs, watch skits, sing songs, and play games like tomahawk throw, panning, and sack race.  It's also a nice break for the counselors b/c we can send our kids off to play games and hang out with each other. 
    Here's a pic of Ashley and me at Frontier Adventure.

    Thursday is a very busy day because we have Olympics and the talent show!  The younger cabins had pool Olympics first, then field Olympics.  Our cabin didn't do very well.    We did win 2nd place a couple of times.  My co-counselor Ashley also left in the middle of field Olympics.  She had a tennis tournament that she found out she HAD to be at.  A staff girl came and slept in the cabin with us that night, but other than that I was on my own the rest of Thursday and Friday morning.  Thankfully it wasn't too bad. 
    The talent show is always fun.  My cabin did a skit called "The Ticket" based on John 14:6.  They had a lot of fun with that.  One of my girls also sang a solo, and tied for 3rd place!  All of my girls loved to sing, and they were entertaining themselves while other people were doing field Olympics by doing so.  All the counselors (including me!) started turning around listening b/c this one little girl was singing really good!  She had a very strong, mature voice.  So we put her in the talent show singing "Tomorrow" from Annie. 
    Here's one more pic, the cast of the Indian drama that we get to watch on Monday and Wednesday nights:

    So now here's my news.....I'm going back tomorrow!  This was very unexpected.  I knew I wanted to go back next year, but I never would have thought to go back the next week!  But on Monday morning I was having my quiet time and all of a sudden I just wanted to go back.  Even if I had little kids again!  (I would prefer older girls, still, but it's not that big of a deal anymore)  Between wanting to go and some verses that I read that morning, I felt like God was leading me to go back.  So off I go!  Hopefully this week will go just as well as last week did.  Your prayers are appreciated! 
   

    I updated my Compassion blog yesterday with a new featured child.  Anyway, I guess that's all I have to say for now!

    Love,
    Briana