Camp CARE

I just spent an amazing week at Camp CARE (Cancer Ain't Really the End).  It's a week long camp held each summer for local Charlotte kids who have or have had cancer and their siblings.  There were about 170 campers, ranging in age from 6-17.  It was an unbelievable week for several reasons...the kids are great, the staff was great, I've never actually been to camp before - ever, and the theme of the week was Disney - the happiest place on Earth!  How could you go wrong??  I came home more exhausted than I have been in a long, long time, covered in bug bites and bruises, and with a laundry bag that smelled horrific...but it was definitely all worth it to spend a week with some of the most unbelievable kids I've ever met and a pretty fantastic staff.  Everyone who'd been to camp before told me it was going to be the greatest week of my life...I have to admit, it was extraordinary and I'd go again in a second.  I'm going to see if I can talk Barrett into taking a week's vacation to go with me next year.  :-)

Here's a little recap of my week.  I could seriously post a thousand pictures because I think they tell the story best, but I'll try to restrain myself.  Oh...I can't technically show you pictures of my campers b/c I don't have "signed consent" from all their parents.  One or two may slip in here or there...pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. :-)

Saturday -

Saturday, all the counselors and staff arrived around noon.  The new guys (that'd be me) took a tour of the beautiful site.  Camp CARE is held at Camp Lurecrest in Lake Lure, NC (where Dirty Dancing was filmed!).  We then had a few hours of training and went out for a night on the town before the kiddies came to town.

I made that sign. :-)

My awesome, amazing, fabulous, fun coworkers Angela & Katy

The Crew from Presby!  I work with the best people!

Good times.

Sunday -

Sunday, we got to sleep in a little. :-) Around lunchtime, our LIT's (Leaders in Training...18-21 year olds who are training to be counselors one day) arrived at camp.  We had some more training, worked on setting up or cabins, and just for fun....went slip & sliding.

This is what happens when you fly down the slide....you fall out the back and land in a mud puddle.  :-)

Our cabin....The Little Mermaid

Monday -

The campers arrive!!  Holy wild and crazy commotion!  Piling 170 excited kids off a bus after a two hour ride from Charlotte is like the running of the bulls!  We dropped of luggage, headed to the dining hall for lunch, learned some camp songs I'd never heard before but will be singing in my head for weeks, and settled into the cabins.  We had a little storm that afternoon which cut into free time activities a bit, but after it cleared we sent all the kids for swim tests, ate dinner, and headed to the amphitheatre for Staff Follies (which is just a venue for all the staff to make total fools of ourselves).  We partnered with a boys cabin and dressed their counselors up as characters from The Little Mermaid, had them sing "Kiss the Girls", all while we swayed in the background blowing bubbles.  Then, we snuggled into our sweltering cabins for a "good" night's sleep (however good no AC, twin bed sleeping can be!).

They're here!

Tuesday -

Our first full day!  Breakfast started things off right with Silly Hat Day.  Then, our cabin headed out for our two activity periods...Slip & Slide and the Craft Cabin.  Off to lunch and more music with Hot Rod (real name: Brad...real job: actual musician who lives in Texas...real story:  he was amazing!).  Then it was free time so we headed down to the waterfront.  What's so amazing about this camp is that it's right on the lake.  So, we've got boats, tubing, a rope swing, gigantic water slide into the lake, The Iceberg to climb, and just general swimming.  So fun!  After dinner Tuesday, they planned the cutest little carnival/scavenger hunt.  We were all given maps and a list of Disney quotes.  When we figured out what movie the quote came from, we looked it up on our map, went to the location, and participated in an activity.  It was super cute.  Our activities were Slip & Slide (fun...but I've had my fill of that for the next few years); a pool water war where a counselor (that would be me) from each cabin had to sit on the side of the pool...the other cabin used water guns to try to fill buckets lined up in front...if they filled the buckets....I got water dumped on my head...mostly this turned into "shoot the counselor with your water gun"; a relay race; and laser tag!

Wednesday -

Pajama Breakfast started us off for the day.  Then, we had two fun activities for the morning:  Gepetto (a "make your own shoes" in Gepetto's shop sort of a thing....the kids would make a shoe out of paper/tape/etc, then present the shoe to Gepetto who would then give the kids "money" for their shoe.  They could take the money and buy better/more fun/fancier materials for their shoes.  Lots of creative juices flowing in that room) and Cardio Funk (Super fun!  This guy - Andre - who teaches a few classes at the Y and at a church here in town came up to camp for the day to teach the class.  Think aerobics meets dance meets fun booty shaking.  I sweat more in that air conditioned hour than I did the entire week at camp. My kind of exercise!  Will definitley be taking his class here in town!  That afternoon was the Memorial Service.  It's a time for us to remember and celebrate all the kids who once came to camp but are no longer with us after succuming to cancer. We planted a flower bush for all of our Presby kids.  Not the most fun day at camp, but it really brings everyone together and reminds us all why we do the jobs we do.  It was really sweet and special to be a part of.  Wednesday night there was a pool party for the kids over 11 so we headed to the pool for some more swimming.

Gepetto's Shop

Gepetto - AKA my coworker Greg :-)

Shana, me, and Angela...best counselors....obviously. :-)

Thursday -

Thursday morning was Silent Breakfast...best invention ever by the way.  Then, we spent our activity periods at the pool and making music with Hot Rod (fun idea....lyric Mad Libs....take a song and remove some key words and replace them just like you would with a Mad Lib.  Brilliant.)  Thursday afternoon, there was a whole transformation station set up before the Pirates and Princesses Dance (think Bibbity Bobbity Boutique at Disney).  There were dresses for the girls, Modern Salon & Spa came up to provide hair, makeup, and nails, and lots of princess accessories.  For the boys, a whole slew of Pirate-ness was available...makeup, patches, hooks, bandannas, temporary tattoos.  It was unbelievable.  The dance was so fun and the staff had just as much fun dressing up as the kids did!

Presby Loves.

Fierce.  We know.

Friday -

Last full day of camp.  It went so fast!  Breakfast was Disney dress up day...awesome pic of best costume ever to follow.  We spent our entire morning as a cabin down by the waterfront.  I have some pretty gnarly thigh bruises to prove I braved the rope swing....the slide was super fun...and the Iceberg was literally one of the most challenging things I've ever done!  It was so awesome to watch our kiddos conquer some major fears out there on the lake!  Friday afternoon I used my awesome powers of organization/throw away useless random things skills to help pack up the craft cabin.  :-)  Friday night at dinner we had world famous (or maybe just Camp CARE famous?) Cookie Mush for dessert (think cookie + whipped cream).  Then...the Untalent Show!  Kids are hilarious.  Seriously.  Some were actually really good singers/dancers and others were just too cute for words.  We had your run of the mill singing and dancing, but we also had joke telling, a fashion show, acrobatics, and The Wobble (courtesy of our awesome cabin)!

twins :-)

greatest costume ever!

This will be conquered.

Walter the Pirate

Success!  (only took like 30 minutes.  seriously)

Cabin 2's awesome counselors and LIT

cookie mush

not just a dessert...also an activity?

do the wobble.  You Tube it.

Saturday -

The last day.  Breakfast, load the buses, clean the camp.  It seriously flew by so fast!  It was an amazing (how many times can I use that word?) week.  So many awesome things crammed into 7 days.  I would be honored and lucky to be able to go again next year.  Here are a few more random pictures from the week that are fun....

For the entire week, our girls were in an all out war with the boys in cabin 7....we're talking stink bombs, water balloons, silly string.  Problem with all that fun is that the counselors ended up taking it more seriously than the kids did.  It started with a push in the pool and ended with pies in the face and peanut butter in the hair.  Gross.  But definitely fun. :-)

Peanut butter?!  Seriously!?  We had to wash our hair 4 times!

For now...I'm going to catch up on my sleep and try to knock this cold I've had for 12 days!  (That's right...12 days.  I lost my voice the first day the campers got there....effective?   Not so much.)  I am already excited to head back next year!  It was a reminder of why I go to work everyday and why I should feel truly privileged that I get to work with these awesome kids on a daily basis.  Definitely nor a vacation, but I do feel rejuvenated. :-)

July? Seriously?

How fast is the summer flying by?!  Holy cow!  I honestly can't even recall what we've done in the last few weeks in order to give an update!  I can give a bullet point update....and I've always got photos...but no promises that these are in order!  :-)

Play Ball!
Father's Day weekend, Barrett and I went to our first Charlotte Knights baseball game!  It was so fun!  We had great seats...the weather was awesome (it had just rained and cooled off quite a bit)...the game went into 11 innings....and the Knights won!  Bonus:  There were fireworks!!  Not a bonus:  Someone hit our car in the parking lot...that's right...our new car....hit and run...good times.

Showered with Love

We went to Burlington one weekend and I went to a bridal shower for Kristi!  She is getting married in just about a month down in Key Largo!  I am super jealous and am still trying to figure out a way to sneak myself into someone's suitcase. :-)  I also got to meet Katie's baby Landon for the first time!  Really...he's 7 months old now.  Why does it get harder to get together the older we get??  Shouldn't it get easier?!

Cousins

Buddy got to meet his fur cousin for the first time too.  Two hundred pound dogs (one who actually is a puppy and one who just thinks he is) are quite the barrel of fun.  Needless to say I could never get a good picture of them....way too much movement happening.

House Stuff

I've finally conceded to the fact that we're going to be in this house until the end of time.  OK...maybe not exactly that long...but you get the idea.  With that being said, I am finally pulling out some projects that I've had benched for a while.  I stopped doing things to the house/decorting for a while because it was always like, "Well, we aren't going to be here much longer..."  Anywho, now we are, so projects commence!  We started easy and just worked on redecorating our half baths a little bit.  The second floor bathroom (the yellow one) is complete except for a light green valance I'd like to get for above the window.  The first floor half bath is complete...except I have no pictures?  Weird.  Will post those later.  I also FINALLY got two bedside lamps for our bedroom.  How did I live without one before!!??  No idea.  The next project on our list is a little bigger.  We're going to turn our first floor living room into a third bedroom.  We NEVER use it as a living space and it'll be so much more functional as an extra bedroom.

Camp CARE

I just spent 7 days at Camp CARE....a camp for children who have or have had cancer and their siblings.  It was AH-MAZING.  I'll tell you all about that in a separate post.  Suffice it to say it was a wonderful week and I am still exhausted.  :-)

Fourth of July

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!  This is the first year in a LONG time that we haven't been at the beach.  I got back from camp on Saturday and we just knew that I'd be tired and we thought it would be nice to just hang out at home for a few days.  We both took of Monday and Tuesday, so we spent a lot of time by the pool just relaxing.  It was lovely...I vote for stay-cations more often.  Jeff and Cindy came over for a cookout on the 4th and we had a great time.

Hope all is well in your neighborhoods!!

Bangin' Good Shrimp

Our second try for a recipe from Skinny Taste definitely did not disappoint!  (This was several weeks back by the way...I'm backtracking since I've been a slacker blogger lately!)  The recipe was for Bangin' Good Shrimp which is a skinnied down version of Bonefish Grill's Bang Bang Shrimp. 

It was super, super easy and fast to make.  And it was SO yummy!  A must, must try if you enjoy sweet/spicy/fried/shrimpy goodness but aren't so in love with the sky high fat and calorie count.  Here's the exact recipe from Skinny Taste.  We ate it as our main course, but you could totally use this as an appetizer or finger food and can double or half the recipe as needed.  Hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Bangin Good Shrimp
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 1/4th or recipe • Old Points: 5 pt • Points+: 5 pt
Calories: 215.7 • Fat: 7.6 g • Protein: 23.8 g • Carb: 11.9 g • Fiber: 1.0 g • Sugar: 6.3 g
Sodium 443.9 mg

Sauce Coating -

• 5 tbsp light mayonnaise
• 3 tbsp Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
• 1 tsp Sriracha (to taste)

Shrimp:

• 1 lb large shrimp, shelled and deveined (weight after peeled)
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp canola oil
• 3 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
• 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
• 4 tbsp scallions, chopped

In a medium bowl, combine mayonnaise, Thai sweet chili sauce and Sriracha. Set aside.

Combine lettuce and cabbage and divide between four plates. Set aside.

Coat shrimp with cornstarch, mixing well with your hands.

Heat a large skillet or wok on high heat, when hot add oil. When oil is hot add the shrimp to hot pan and cook tossing a few times until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Remove from pan and combine with the sauce coating well.

Place shrimp on lettuce and top with scallions.

Would it have been prettier on the lettuce?  Probably.  Do I care?  Nope.  :-)

Edamame and Shrimp Gyoza to accompany our Shrimp
(Side Note - Shrimp Gyoza from Trader Joe's....AH-MAZING!)

The Best Laid Plans...

OK...seriously...can we please make a life plan and stick with it?  Geez.

Apparently I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, so my life plan keeps changing a bit.  However, I think we might finally have a winner.  Seriously.  I mean it this time.  :-)

Let's turn the clock back about a year and a half ago or so.  Barrett and I aren't going to be in Charlotte forever.  We'd eventually like to be closer to family...closer to the beach.  So, we talked about it a little a decided we'd probably be in Charlotte another 3 years or so.  OK.  Great!  Here's the issue...I love my job.  It is lovely.  But...it's a hard job to get.  The positions are few and far between & to be honest, I'm not sure that I'd want to start over again, from scratch, at another hospital. My bachelor's is pretty specific.  I got my BS in Child Life....wonderful for my profession....not so wonderful if I want to switch careers.  Yes...there are other things I could do with my degree.  I could teach preschool or be an early interventionist.  Do I want to do those things?  Nope.  No way.  So, we needed a back up plan.  Hmmm....what would be a good career change?  Something that doesn't take too terribly long to complete a degree/certification in; a job that is easy to find and easy to get; a job with good pay...good hours.  What did we come up with?  Dental Hygiene.  It was perfect really.  In two years, I could complete my degree while still working part time at the hospital.  There are dentist offices in Every Town USA, and I thought I'd be a good sell at a pediatric office because of my background.  The pay is really great, and you can't beat the hours.  Have you ever tried to make a dentist appointment on a Friday??  Good luck.  On top of all that, once upon a time (like back in 2002 when I started college and was young, fresh, and excited about the possibilites of the future) I thought about going to dental school.  I even started out as a Biology major....but realized I hated science too much to study it for eight years.  So, no dice there. 

The only real obstacle in this "go be a hygienist" plan was that we'd have to sell our house and probably rent a place in Charlotte for a couple of years to bring our expenses down enough that it would be OK for me to work part time.  I started taking classes last spring...just one at a time...to knock out a few classes that I was able to take without being in the program.  Good plan right?  Well, you know what they say about plans....

Here's where the life plan change comes in.  We can't sell our house.  At least not anytime in the near future.  Apparently, there were two foreclosures in our neighborhood that recently sold.  So, the comps in the neighborhood were WAY lower than what we'd put our house on the market for.  WAY lower.  We're talking about $60,000 lower.  Yes, that's 4 zeros.  Good times.  So, it is not fiscally responsible/possible for me to go to work part time anytime soon. I refuse to be stressed out about money or paying bills...it's just not worth it to me.  Plus, if we want to go to the beach or take a vacation...I want to be able to do it!

Besides...if we're not selling our house anytime soon...then we're not leaving Charlotte anytime soon either.  If we're not leaving Charlotte, there's no point in leaving my job.  I love my job.  It's fun and rewarding...I pretty much make my own schedule and get lots of time off.  And, I love the people I work with.  Not everyone can say that and I think it says a lot.  Besides, it's not like being a dental hygienist was my life long dream.  It's not something I need to check off my bucket list or something that I'll be sad if I never do.  It was just a backup plan.

OK, so we're not moving and I'm not going to school for dental hygiene.  What am I doing now?  Applying to Grad School:-)  More on that in another post...

First up....GRE on June 20.  Good times.