Slim shady.....

So this week has been so busy, that it is taking me forever to find time to update, but that’s a good thing. :D So we pulled into Lincoln, Nebraska. The three girls, Jacquie, myself and Maggie, were housed in one place with a couple from our church and the boys were housed at the Pastor’s house. Both couples were very nice. Our couple was a little awkward as they weren’t used to having “kids” in the house and they generally went to be by 9:00 to 9:30 and were up by about 6:00. Kris (the wife) said to us many a day, “You girls sure do keep weird hours.” Bless her heart; we had night camps all week so usually we had to be out pretty late.

Both couples had 2 dogs. All four dogs were sooo precious! The couple we stayed with, Kris and Darwin had two Schnauzers called Zephyr and K-9 who were their “children”. Pastor Tim and his wife Karen had two dogs, Lola (who was soooooo cute) and a little poodle something mix and Obadiah who looked like a Collie mix and was so loyal. It was funny because Lola was their 28 year old son’s dog by marriage and you could tell he was still getting used to her lol.

We didn’t do too much site seeing in Lincoln, NE. They had a really neat looking capital building which supposedly looked awesome inside too. They had a neat train downtown and a little park that went with it. They also had a historic square called Haymarket Square which kind of reminded me of Market Square in Knoxville and the Old City. We went to a neat Licorice Shop that had licorice form all over the world and I found these special rose mints from France that I had gotten in Epcot I think as a kid and loved them so much that I saved the tin because it smells like roses. I m pretty sure I still have that tin somewhere too lol. It was heaven to eat them again some 15-17 years later. I felt like that happy little girl again. I remember how much I loved sucking them down to their anise seed center. We also ate at the neatest Paneresque restaurant called The Bread and Cup. Its slogan was something about “simple food” and it was and I loved it. The food was wonderful and fresh and unique. I had a blue cheese and fresh bread and salami plate and loved and ate almost every bit of it.

Speaking of eating, I have never eaten so much in my life and so much of great food. This week alone, I’ve had custard twice and ice cream twice and its only Wednesday lol. The Pastor and his wife cooked for us twice and both times I think I had seconds, which I never do. Friday we hung out at a pretty, local lake and I got to catch up with people on the phone and then we went to a fun little shop called Rocket Fizz which had about a bajillion different soda flavors, candy types and tin signs.

As far as camp went, it was another awesome week. We had twentyish adult and youth volunteers and again, they had such great hearts for the kids. They were up for anything and we did our first Wacky Water World side show experience with them (which is as wet as it sounds) and they all took one for the team and got drenched! We were expecting around 60 kids and ended up with 80 which was soo many, but so amazing! My girls got to perform a sweet little dance for their parents and I was very proud of them, I felt like they did so well.

I got an email this week confirming my worst nightmare, that yes, indeed, as I had feared, that I had left my teddy bear (yes teddy bear) at Kris and Darwin’s house. Imagine how douchy I felt when I told the Camp Coordinator that yes, in fact, the teddy bear was mine. My excuse was and is that it was a graduation bear from UCF and is black and gold and has my graduation year on it and I brought it to remind me of home. I ended up sleeping with it the last night I was there and left it. Lol FAIL! Poor bear. He should now be on route to my PO Box is Knoxville. I was too worried for him to be shipped to an address somewhere around here this summer and risk him being lost lol.

So that’s about it for Lincoln. It was a pretty chill week. This week has been amazing and I am so excited about updating you about it next week. I think so far on this trip I’ve learned a couple things about myself or more else, confirmed a few things about myself, one being that I continue to suck as letting people serve me/be hospitable to me. It makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m so bad at letting other people take care of me and feed me, etc. I don’t know why, I guess I was just brought up to take care of myself then lived by myself for so long that I’m just used to providing for myself. Needless to say it’s been a humbling experience and I’m working on this silly character “flaw”. The second thing is how much I’ve really enjoyed (and needed) to keep up with my friends. I kind of figured that Id talk to everyone maybe once this summer, come back with cool stories, and catch up with people where I left off. (Not so little grasshopper). I’ve actually really wanted to call people and keep up with them and let them keep up with me. I’ve leaned on my friends this summer more than I thought I would and some of them didn’t even know it. Just hearing a familiar voice and knowing I was being thought of, needed, missed or someone was just bored and wanted to talk sometimes was very heartwarming. Sometimes when you miss home, all you need is someone who you know knows you and loves you for who you are (friends and family) to speak to you on the other line and it feels like a little bit of home. I know it sounds mushy and weird, but if you’ve ever been away in weird places every week with people you didn’t know super well and you’d never been gone for more than 2 weeks, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

No funny spider stories from Lincoln. We did leave Slim out in the rain for two days which was a huge fail, but he made it cuz he’s a hearty little fellow. (and by we I pretty much mean I, but nobody bothered to rescue him).
Two words I’ve caught and am saying all the friggin time now is “fail” and “legit”.
Lol man o man.

Keep seeking the Lord, for he is the key to joie de vivre!

In Him,

Shannon