the day chaych saved my life

My neighbor Chaych and I were treading water earlier today, enjoying the beautiful weather and the fact that we have a pool "in our back yard". Whilst treading she calmly asked "is that a snake swimming right behind you?" I (not so calmly) lunged toward her and turned to look at the snake. We confirmed it was indeed a live and nimble little snake. It was only 7 inches long but needless to say, we jumped out of the pool- I've never seen Chaych move that fast. She was brave and caught it with a skimmer, but we had no idea what kind of snake it was. I thought maybe we should release it in the woods- I am a sucker for sparing wildlife. We figured it was better to call the fearless and knowledgeable girls who work in the office. They (and some very knowledgeable guys) came out and confirmed it was a baby water moccasin. Chaych had saved me from a venomous terror! Then those more courageous than I killed it with a hammer... so all is well. A tiny poisonous snake in our pool? No thank you. 

in regard to your comments...

I cut my hair, it's true. The day after camp ended actually. I just felt the need for liberation from the straw on my head I was trying to pass for hair. And I have been thinking about a short cut for quite some time now. It has been my plan all along, ever since I dyed my hair black almost a year and a half ago. You've heard the story. So I found a great salon and cut off all the hair that was once black, turned golden (via stripping it), then dyed brown, then turned reddish by the sun... I basically had three tiers of color from root to tip. Now, I am pretty much back to a complete head of hair a' la Tara- the stuff God gave me- just a little bit shorter. Hooray!

  

And completely unrelated: I drank coffee at 10:00pm which caused me to do this while trying to snap a photo of my new 'do. So I thought, why not share the ridiculousness with you... 

we did it!

...Not that I had any doubts about anyone other than myself... but, I went on a bike trip this weekend with friends and we had a great time. Best part is, I kept up (with the girls anyway) and I did not fall off or crash into anything! A real accomplishment, I think. As I shared in my last post, the worst part about my beach-biking-accident a few weeks ago was the demise of my little bell on my handlebars. When we were on the trail in DC some National Parks Rangers were installing bells on bikes for free! So my broken bell was replaced with a shiny new one! A successful trip indeed!

on why i am not athletic...

What I didn't tell you about my vacation to the Outer Banks is, we hauled our bikes down to the beach for a little outdoor exercise and fun. Ben, his sister Tori and I got our bikes off the truck and filled our water bottles to go on a biking excursion. The first indication that I am not cut out for athletic activities is that Tori and Ben both had athletic clothing; Under Armour and other moisture wicking fabrics, while I was wearing khaki bermuda shorts and a tank top, because that is all I packed. 

Anyway-- we were biking along a lovely flat bike path on the side of the road and as I am experiencing my sports-induced-asthma (which of course is not a real thing) the next thing I know I try to brake slightly and my front wheel goes all wobbly and I find myself tumbling over my handlebars. Somehow, to avoid serious cranial injury, I rolled over to my right and the bicycle tumbled over top of me. (The last time, mind you, that I crashed my bike is when my uncle first removed my training wheels). Ben checks to make sure I am okay and asks "what did you hit?". Nothing Ben, I hit nothing, I just... crashed my bike. A nice lady in her eighties was walking by and assured me not to feel badly because she cannot ride a bike either. And no, of course the 60 year age difference between us didn't make me feel ridiculous at all. I had a few awesome scratches on my right side, but the best was a bruise the size of an apple on my left thigh. I felt like a big i-d-i-o-t. Mostly, I am just thankful that my bumps and bruises were nothing time and a band-aid couldn't fix. 

Here is my sweet bike when I bought it 2 years ago. I bought it in the fall and it has nice fall colors, so I named it "harvest". It came complete with a big comfy seat and bell. The worst part about my crash is that I broke my little bell. Sad day.

This incident got me to thinking- I am really really not cut out for biking (if you read my blog post about Bermuda, you may remember the alleged incident when I ran the motor-scooter into someone's hibiscus bush). Not only biking, but I am really not so much an athlete at all. I would like to think otherwise, as I did play sports when I was a kid, and I am now married to Mr. Outdoors. 

Nevertheless, despite my athleticism deficit, a few years ago I tried paintballing for the first time. I hated it. A lot. One shot to the head and I was more than over that outdoor activity.

This unfortunate photo was snapped when we went hiking with Kaley and Nick. Who lies down in exhaustion on a rock during a hiking trip!?

All that's to say, we are talking about going biking this Saturday- so my plea is that you would pray for my very un-athletic self to make it out alive. I'll let you know...

so, what's next?

Summer camp 2009 is officially over. It is bitter-sweet. I just love living here and working in what we call the "conference season". I love my neighbors and having the opportunity to work with them. I also love summer camp, a lot, and I am sad that it's over. It is always so incredible to see the hand of God working in the kids lives.

When I go into the Day Camp room it is just an empty shell- the games and books and coloring books and crayons have all been put away until next year. Some kids come for all 40 days of Day Camp and it just made me so sad that they wouldn't come back on monday morning. The staff that greeted me every morning has dispersed back to their homes all over the country. I will probably have no reason during the conference season to sing worship songs about bottles of ketchup or do "moose ears" to get a group of people quiet. Nor will I look out my back window and find a sea of children in my "backyard". All in all it was a really great summer that is behind me and I am looking forward to the fall that lies ahead. Camp is so great, but it literally absorbs most all of your time in the summer. If I haven't seen you in the past 10 weeks because of this, let's get together! 

This conference season I speak of all starts in just a couple of hours. I am the host for this weekend's group of about 100 church members. I hope I remember how to do everything... I am sure tonight's dinner will be a little different than camp- no cups banging on the tables or chanting down the aisle. 

Anyway, Ben and I finished out our summer by spending the past few days in the Outer Banks with his family. I read an entire book in two days on the beach. I swam in the ocean a little, checked out some seashells as they washed up with each wave, and I even went out in a kayak on the ocean one day. Saw some dolphins, which got me to thinking about the sharks in the ocean and so I parked my happy self on a green beach chair (where I finished my girlish-fiction novel) for the duration of my stay. 

We got to take Rigby on vacation with us (since her new home is with Ben's family). It was fun to have her there, she's such a sweet dog. I took her with us to the beach one day and I even made her swim- it occurred to me that this was probably her swimming debut, so it took her a minute to realize she instinctively knew how to doggy-paddle. Then she rolled around in the sand and got disgusting, but she seemed to enjoy it. 

Add in a half-mile jog back to the beach house and I am pretty sure she hated me at the end of the day. That is about all the excitement this old girl could take in one week.

 

It was a nice end to our summer. So, we'll work this weekend, and then next week Ben will head back to school. A new school actually, as a science teacher exclusively, which I think is just hilarious seeing as he took only one online biology course in college. I think he is a really fantastic science teacher though. I am looking forward to substitute teaching again this year and cleaning here at camp (with a partner this year! which is very exciting). And thus begins the "conference season".  

So long, sweet summer.