Okay, so I've been mistaken several times in my life for my dad's wife instead of daughter (Stewarts comes to mind), but really, this is a bit excessive.

Pretty much, I needed to send in a picture with my staff biography for Double H. I looked through the few pictures I had of me of school. After all, my mom had just sent me some. After careful study, I came to the realization that there was not one normal looking one of me. For some reason, I decided that me with all my birthday candles in my mouth or sticking my tongue out probably wouldn't make the best first impression possible. So instead, I cut up one of me and dad senior year at a cross-country race (oh, those were the days). He has his arm around me in the picture, cue for several people to come up and ask me if he's my boyfriend. I now labeled the picture with "<-- MY DAD!" Hopefully that will dispel any suspicions. I'm home to fix my camera which was flung into the campfire ring but landed in ashes (nowhere near the fire). Since then the lens is spastic when it's turn on. I'll try to be more careful with the kids! Speaking of the kids, they get here Thursday! We kind of wanted to drag some back with us when we were at the Great Escape the other day, but decided being charged with kidnapping probably wouldn't be best for the ranch. Also, two points that I'm not sure if I mentioned or not. First, the Double H in Double H Ranch stands for Health and Happiness, also inspired by the H-tree. You can see a picture of it at http://www.doublehranch.org/photos.htm. Second, there is no charge for any of the kids to come to the ranch for a session.

Orientation week is Now Over.
Here's to a week of two platefuls at every meal,
Here's to a week of the most hilarious stories ever.
Here's to a week of learning,
Here's to a week of remembering.

I've never been around a group of people that's so universally good, caring, fun, funny, and amazing with kids. The guys especially are so fun to watch during those times when campers have visited.

Here's the deal for next week. My cabin has seven staff members and a capacity of fourteen girls. We will also have a few people who volunteer for each weeks session. Each cabin also has a volunteer nurse who is responsible for administering meds and checking out the kids. While our job does involve personal care and knowledge of different illnesses so that we can be pro-active and respond to situations, most of our job is just going above and beyond to make it a week that is jam packed with fun for these kids. Simple, right?

We'll get up, have breakfast, go to two program areas (ie high ropes course, the barn, arts and crafts, project discovery, pool, outdoor extreme, team adventure etc), and then have lunch. After lunch is two hours of quiet time, where we have quieter structured activities and rest time. Then kids pick two program areas they'd like to go to again (free choice) for the afternoon. This is followed by dinner and the evening activity. The evening activities are pretty extravagant, let me tell you. Not expensive, but still extravagant because of the creativity and effort that is invested in them. Cabin night, for example, is pretty intense.

That's the lowdown! Next time I update will probably be at the end of session one! Also, if you're looking for an extra prayer this week, please consider saying one for Gramps! And Mareeg too, because you know no matter what he never sits still :P