July - A complete summary in one wee little post

So, while I have posted a bit in the last month, I must confess that I feel like I have been a little absent - or at least absent minded - and have missed so much. It's amazing to me, now that we're in August, to think of how fast July seemed to fly by and yet how much was fit into it. Things at the beginning of the month feel soooo long ago! Thousands of km's on my car, several plane rides, a move, an opera, only 4 days in the office and not much sleep later and you've basically got my month of July in a nutshell!

So, to make it fun, I've decided to work backwards through the month...here we go....

Today I made my first commute from my new home! Not too bad. 30 minutes and only a few slow places (I can make it in 20 minutes when it's not rush hour). We're in and getting ourselves settled pretty quickly. There's only a few boxes left as long as you don't look in my room. There's sheets on my bed - what more do I need? The move went well - 4 hours to get everything loaded and unloaded. Thanks so much to a great moving crew! Love you all!!!

OOOOO...and the Phantom. That was Sunday afternoon. It was incredible. I sat through the whole thing with goosebumps - right from the minute they raised the chandelier. It was amazing to see it all live. Our seats were pretty good too - the only thing that would have made them better would have been to be closer to see the faces better! I couldn't believe how well they did with things like the set changes (seamless, completely part of the production), lighting and costumes. And the voices! One day I want to sing like that!!! I could really get used to going to the theatre. As I was waiting for the the Phantom to start, I was thinking of another production I went to - Handel's Messiah. I think that's still my top favorite although I think part of that was the context...and the front row seats. Phantom will be a close second!

Baby Peterson finally got a name...Seth Isaac. Isn't that great!? Can't wait to meet the little bundle in person!

Okay, then conference in Denver. I think I basically gave the rundown on that, haven't I?
Coke Blak - check.
Shopping - check.
Bath and Body works for sure - check.
Did I mention the cow parade? If it wasn't enough that my first 'yehaw' of July came in Denver (Yup, missed the Stampede completely), now there's a cow parade almost identical to the one in Calgary a couple years ago. Pictures included somewhere.
And the Denver Zoo - Saturday Dayna and I had a little bit of extra time on our hands before we caught our plane home. Apparently its the 4th biggest zoo in the states. Funny thing is, now I've been to two of the four biggest zoos in the states but still haven't been to the Calgary zoo to check out the animals and I've lived here for almost 10 years!!! Crazy. I can turn pretty much anything into a spiritual discussion, too. Dayna and I got talking about how creative God is and what a sense of humor he has. Have you seen some of those critters? The anteater, for example? Seriously, cartoon creatures aren't even that creative. My favorite will always be the monkeys. I could have spent all day just watching them. There was one creepy one though. He looked just like the skeleton monkey off pirates of the Caribbean. And there was dipping dots! A seriously fun way to eat ice cream!All in all, a great day and a great way to relax! Bet no one would be surprised to hear that I have pictures from there too!
Conference - inspiring, encouraging and frustrating all at the same time. I think we got that in an earlier post though so I'll spare you the reading time. Put it into perspective. I'm still thinking through some of the stuff I've learned and trying to figure out how to put it into my context at ABC. One of my sessions was on strengths and talents (so good!!). The facilitator asked us to find a time when we felt the most alive in our jobs. I'd have to say that leads me right into the next thing to share - the first two weeks of July at camp...talk about a seguay!

The first week of camp was at Pine Lake's Sr. High camp while the second was at DVM teen camp out by Lumby, BC. Let's start with Pine Lake. First, what a great bunch of campers...and of course, my cabin was the best of them all! Love those girls soooo much! We focused on times or seasons of our lives, Ecclesiastes 3 as our reference. To add emphasis to the idea of time, we switched to a 20 hour clock. It's not a hard concept. Instead of 24 hours in a day, you have 20. Up for 14, sleep for 6 (if you're lucky). Basically, we started at midnight on the day we got there by going to bed, got up at 6, were up for 14 hours doing our day and then went to bed at 8. Up at two, live the day, to bed at 4..and so on. If you're doing the math, you've realized that we ended up sleeping during the day and being awake during the night...my internal clock was so confused! The kids all played along pretty well but we were all exhausted. I may have to post a list of some of the stupid things we said in our very tired state of minds. Yes, we started writing them down 'cause there were just so many! Hey, we were exhausted! Pictures on my online album...check them out!

And then there was Lumby. Love Lumby. It's a totally different bunch of kids...and each one of them is so special. I could write forever but, seeing that I pretty much have already, I'll keep it relatively brief. Paintball on the paintball course-I didn't go 'cause of the whole bruising fiasco (another story) and, well, I've never gone before. I wasn't sure I wanted to embarrass myself completely at camp. Pranks ran wild. No sleep. Good food. Great speakers - way to go, Jeff and Dave. Swimming in the lake. Mountain nights. Did I mention great campers? Big water fight - love the trust game (again, check out the pictures!). Good idea, Will! Love the Youth Alive team. Realized how much I miss having students around the college. Night prayer walk - dark and slippery but really, really good. Great campers - inspiring really. Being surprised by the simple lessons God teaches through unlikely people. Giggles with the girls in my cabin - that's for you Kayley - mostly at the expense of Christine although she loved it. Singing doing dishes. Worship times together. Sitting around and asking questions..."if you could be a...." Going Greek. Oh the memories. Again, pictures to check out on my album. Check them out. Plus, I should probably post our award winners later 'cause they're all full of memories too.

Anyway, my best two, most EXHAUSTING weeks of my work year. I keep trying to figure out why I love it so much, which of my strengths it uses more than the rest of my work year, how I could bring more of that into my every day and, well, what it all means. For now, I love camp - I miss being away from home but, hey, look at all the stories I have to share!

So that's the major events. Of course there's still things like softball games, visits with good friends - welcome home, Katie, awkward moments 'cause I can find those pretty much everywhere, yummy fruit from the Okanagan Valley....