Christmas in July!

Yep...this week had a barn that was festively decorated with candy canes, Christmas lights, and stockings, counselors who were wearing festive suspenders, and snowballs and blizzards were the talk of lessons.  It was Christmas in July week....otherwise known as week 7 here at camp.  After a weekend of work it was off and running Monday morning.  The bright side to the week was that I had no lessons to teach so I could focus on working on chores.  There were buckets to scrub, blankets to clean, and arena walls to wash.  Monday morning was spent helping get everyone out the door, riding Katie for Rachel's class to make sure she was going to be okay, and getting all the chores lined up to start working on.  The afternoon involved the clinics of vaulting, clipping/braiding, race relay, and medieval games.  I worked on buckets for the afternoon and got all of those scrubbed.  That evening, after supervising trading post, the kids and I picked up some movies for Marc, an international counselor who had gotten himself hurt week 4 and needed something to keep him occupied.  That evening, Sarah had Amie hold onto Image and she got her first ride on Image.  Then, finally, it was off to bed!

Tuesday morning was the Cayuga trail ride and the morning lessons went well despite the threat of storms.  We kept the kids inside and did lessons inside even though we barely got any rain.  :-(  I had to rescue the 1st period LV pool clinic from RV after they'd been left down there for 20 minutes and 3 of my horsemanship kids were down there.  The afternoon clinics were bathing, driving, mounted trail obstacles, and bareback.  During the clinics, I was able to get a few blankets done.  Even though I was extremely tired, the kids talked me into going to the pool while Amie was on duty.  We did some pool and then back up to the house.  Amie stopped by with the tractor and we got the round bales put out for which the horses were extremely grateful.  Then....off to bed.

Wednesday was Crow's trail ride and I was able to keep working on a few blankets until lunch time when we took Rae back to Indy and we picked up a horse on the way back.  GPS changed the directions in my phone so at first we went to totally the wrong spot.  Then we went the wrong direction on the road and had to turn around.  We finally got the horse picked up and back to home we went.  That evening we watched "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (Christmas present from Naomi because I had mentioned that I had never seen it!) and had a nice relaxing evening.

Thursday had Iowa's trail ride and that is always such a difficult cabin to get out the door.  They are unfocused, slow, and it's like herding cats to get them to do anything.  We get out the door about 20 minutes late but the ride went without a hitch.  I rode CJ who was a champ for his first time leading out a ride.  When I got back and picked up the rest of the cabins, Steve was already here to do a few trims.  I then had to load up 3 horses that were going to Kathy Kelly's and by 11:30 I was back and done with all of that.  Storms looked to threaten the rest of the afternoon but, as usual, they were just faking us out.  I spent the afternoon with Reagan making friendship bracelets and watching Holes.  A quick dinner at camp and then off to listen to a speaker on hormones and health.  Yeah, sounds weird but a lot of good healthy material in all of that.  It'll be interesting to find out where that journey takes me.  Ever since my surgery, my eating habits have been horrible and no exercise.  I know that I'm sluggish and tired because of that and it's hard to change in the summer when you are just trying to make it day by day.  But in two weeks, camp will be over!  Days off will actually occur and I'll get to sleep!  Yeah!

Friday morning lessons went well for the most part.  Lizzie, a torchbearer who was dreading the last day, had been having a few issues with her horse so I said I'd go out to watch and help.  Made it through everything although I'd have to agree about her horse being a little stinky so I hopped on her when lessons were over to try to get her back in a thinking mind.  I spent lunch up at the EC because I had a project to start....washing arena walls.  I was pretty productive over 4.5 hours as I got 3/4 of the arena done.  My arms and shoulders were wasted but I was done.  Off to dinner and then horse parade with our jingly horses ridden by our barn assistants.  Amie and I rode in on candy canes to the tune of Sleigh Ride with Tiny Tim wearing a Santa hat and bells to give out awards.  We stayed to listen to "Tecumseh Counselor" with some awesome alumni and then, the peak of the evening, listening to Heidi play "Touch of the Master's Hand" with Vince.  Heidi is a special woman and it's a delight to have her back from China where she is a missionary.  Then it was time to head back and complete some work after getting the chance to watch campfire.  I complete most of the tests and then head off to bed.

Saturday morning held getting chores like sweeping, spraying helmets, and picking up and feeding all the critters.  I got a few more blankets done.  Steven's dad came to fix us all an awesome lunch that we shared with the EQ counselors.  They had a greased watermelon race and I watched Gavin and Reagan while Amie and Ben went to their softball tournament.  After falling asleep watching the Olympics, I took the kids into Monticello to eat at Monicals and watch Ice Age.  Now we are home, watching some more Olympics and getting ready for bed.  Sunday will be here and before we know it, we'll be in the staff meeting once more, ready to begin week 8.  It's madness.  Complete madness.  But we're pretty awesome at managing madness.

2 more weeks....bring it!