365 days.

a year ago i was dragging a 3 foot seafood box full of frozen salmon and sweaters through the juneau airport in my xtra tufs like it was no big deal. 

a year ago i chatted with the TSA guys in juneau like they were my next door neighbors. 

a year ago i almost threw my cell phone across the seattle airport because i was so unused to having one.
a year ago i wanted to walk back onto the plane that brought me from juneau so i could go back.

a year ago i started Jesus Calling.

a year ago i sat with my fish box in front of baggage claim at the chicago airport, crocheting a hat while i waited for my best friend to pick me up after not seeing her for months.

it's been a whole year since i've been in alaska. boy, does that feel weird. 

this summer has been so stinking hot. the exact opposite of last summer. i wore my xtra tufs almost every single day in alaska. i've only worn them once this summer. that makes me so sad. i miss the rain. 

as much as i like looking at this everyday,

i really do miss looking at this:

i've come to realize that i was not made for the heat. i would truly love to move to alaska. i wish that it wasn't quite so expensive to travel there because i feel like no one will come visit me if i do move there. i'm just a rainy, cool weather kinda gal. its my fave. 

anyway. it's been a long year. i am hoping that it will not be another whole year before i make it back to alaska. that would be tragic. 

ko.

missing these friends today.

the result of my inability to adjust to the central time zone.

i find myself incredibly incapable of going to sleep before 2. which is only 11 alaskan time. i read on the internet that it only takes a day for every time zone that you cross to get over jet lag. and it has been 7. maybe if i didn't sleep until noon, i would be able to go to bed. but i always find myself with this need to accomplish all these tasks before i go to bed and then i lie in bed hoping for the night to go fast so i can get up and accomplish more things. for me, this is weird. i enjoy sleeping. i enjoy doing nothing all day long. but i have very quickly found myself back into the routine of running around nonstop and checking things off lists with this mentality that if i don't get it done today, its not ever going to get done. being back from alaska is strange for several reasons.

1. i can do whatever i want, whenever i want. there is no schedule, there are no time constraints, there is no one to tell me what needs to be done. i am in charge of myself for the most part. as much as i was craving this freedom during the summer, i want a routine. school starts soon(ish) and that will help with that. but for now. i just go, go, go all the time. 

2. the world is at my fingertips. literally. my phone is always within reach, i can find anything i need or want on the internet, if i need to go somewhere, i just get in my car (more on that later). i hate it a little bit. i liked having to work a little bit to communicate. i liked trekking all over camp if i needed to find someone instead of just sending them a text. don't get me wrong, there were days where i thought it was ridiculous. really? i have to walk allllllllllllllll the way to the gym just to see if so-and-so is there? today, i was shopping for backpacks with my precious little (ha.) sisters. i went to a different part of the store than them, when we needed to talk to each other, we just called each other. how ridiculous is that!? it would have taken less than a minute to find each other. earlier, my mom texted me from her room when i was just down the hall. seriously?! this is what the world has come to? i miss my detachment from the real world. 

3. all i want to do is shop. i did practically no shopping this summer and i feel like i need to make up for lost time. i keep thinking of all these things that i need. hello. i don't need any of them. i hate it. consumerism makes me want to puke in someone's shoes. 

4. i keep forgetting about things like blind spots and turn signals. driving is weird. thats all i have to say about that.

5. the squirrels here are huge. 

6. there is no oceans.

7. it is not socially acceptable to go days without showering.

8. i feel as though life is meaningless. booooooo.

9. its too hot to drink hot chocolate 4 times a day.

10. uh. its too hot period. 

i don't want to sound ungrateful for the wonderful life that we as americans live. i just wonder whats so dang wonderful about it. how many of us are truly happy? maybe a lot of us are. but what is it that is making us so happy? our stuff? our friends? living in the lower 48 like i did in alaska is going to be nearly impossible. but i'm holding onto as much of it as i can. 


"I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." - John 4:35


ko.

the weekend.

hello amurrrrica.

i don't exactly remember what the last thing i blogged about was. but i do know that there were some pretty  exciting things that happened this weekend. the most exciting of all these things was when laura, joanna, and brittany and i put on all of our clothes. now, you might be wondering what exactly that means. let me tell you. it means that we each took every piece of clothing we brought with us and we put all of it on our bodies. and then we paraded around camp and showed everyone. oh man. it was hysterical. we were so hot and sweaty and it was disgusting. we kept walking up to people and quoting joey from friends saying "could i be wearing anymore clothes?!". dang. it was funny. it took a long time to get everything on and off  but it was really funny.
last night we had an all staff girls night. we had homemade ice cream and brownies. it was delicious. i won human bingo. naturally.
i also went on a horse ride yesterday. it was nice and enjoyable. my horse hated me. i kept trying to take pictures while riding and it just did not work out. we were going to ride out to this cool place called the point but the tide was too high. just so you know, every time i talk about the tide, it makes me feel really smart and scientifical. not sure why. yes, i know scientifical is not a word. live a little.
i also learned to crochet a mitten this weekend! it is the most awkward looking mitten ever, but it was my first one and i will treasure it forever! at least until i make one that i like better.

i can't think of anything great to tell you. but i miss the poop out of all of you!

ko.

colt camp.

holy smokes. i feel like i held my breath all week long. thats really the only way to explain my complete exhaustion. who knew a small army of 7-9 year olds could annihilate 18 people twice their age. we all look a little tired. colt camp only goes until thursday, so thats nice. i might have gone crazy if i had to keep them until friday. colt camp consists of the following things: going to the bathroom 10+ times a day, being asked the same question repeatedly, explaining why we are doing the things we are doing over and over, puking, crying, having children hanging off of you, whining, explaining why life isn't fair, and lots of screaming. oh dear. it was really tiring. and for the most part, anything spiritual is completely over their head. which makes all the babysitting seem pointless. nothing exciting happened this week. except that me and laura got to counsel together. we wore matching outfits every day. naturally. apparently their has been a bear running around camp the last few nights. so i'm naturally freaking out. me and joanna just spent some time trying to catch a mouse. i didn't shower for 4 days. ahhh camp life is good.

i forgot to mention last week that we had a live nativity for the senior high banquet last week. i was baby Jesus. there is a picture on facebook to prove it.

i'm going to bed now. sorry this wasn't a real good one. but i'll be on work staff next week, so i'll try and update more.

love love love.
ko.

senior high.

well howdy. i'm sick. so that's cool. except not actually. due to the fact that i'm absolutely exhausted out of my mind and i'm sick, this is not going to be a long post or full of details. sorryz.

we had senior campers this week. both senior high camps have been some of my favorite weeks. i was pretty nervous about my campers at first, they didn't really seem like they were going to be very interested in anything remotely serious, but that turned out to not be the case.

tuesday we had crud war. i dislike crud war due to the smell. but i was prepared this week with a swim cap. nick powell is a jerk and he pulled it off after about 2 minutes. that did not feel good. but it turned out to be fine because this crud war was delicous. we had pancake batter, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, raw eggs (not delicious or necessary), flour (also not delicious), and whipped cream. it couldn't stop eating it. it was loads of fun.

i don't exactly remember anything else that was outlandishly exciting. i went down the sky trolley in a dress. that was interesting. they wouldn't let me down either. that was interesting too. i was on the boat for tubing a lot. that made me happy. there were some really ridiculously cool girls in my friend joanna's cabin. we hung out a lot. we're hoping to see them again before we leave. some of them weren't really much younger than me. which is weird, but also cool because it's easier to talk to them.

this week was also hard. there were a lot of girls in my cabin who had been through some pretty horrible things in their lives and recently. it was hard explaining to some girls that being baptized as a baby didn't give them salvation. it was hard to see the gospel explained over and over and still not be accepted. i don't understand where a lot of these kids get their beliefs. they are so incredibly confused and its so hard to sort through all of that junk and lies and plant the truth in them. especially when they won't let go of the junk. by the end of the week, i was out of ways to explain Jesus. i ran out of things to convince them and things to say. but i know that they heard it and i know that that is all i can do anyways. all i can do is give them Jesus, i can't accept it for them. if i learned anything this week, or really this summer, its that i can't save these kids. i have to let them leave on friday and know that i did my best to give them the gospel and that God will continue to work in their live and that His timing is perfect.

this weekend was good. it was short since they didn't leave until saturday. but it was still good. me and laura found a new hammocking location and spent a large amount of time there. then we spent some much needed time in the sun. we had a counselor leave last night. he was the first to go. it was sad. and the rest of us will be following suit shortly. but i'm choosing to not think about that yet. today was a really chill day. i enjoyed it a lot.

but now, for the best news that has ever been written. drum roll please. next week... me and laura are counseling together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (i don't even like exclamation points.) man. we are so excited. it will be so good.

by the way. my camera pooped out. no worries, its under warranty, but i have to wait until i get home to send it in. my mother is sending me a small, cheap replacement camera for the last few weeks of the summer, so that's nice of her.

thats all for now. i love the crap out of all of you and i seriously miss you dearly.
ko.

bronco camp round 2.

we finished our second round of bronco camp this week. i had a fabulous cabin. they were all really sweet. we had a lot of fun. i co-counseled with a fellow kansan, so that was fun. the theme has switched from adventures on the high seas to holidays. i'm thrilled. we have thanksgiving, birthdays, christmas, easter and valentines day every week. and we have halloween this coming week since it is senior high camp. man oh man. i get so excited for christmas. we redecorate the dining hall every night for the next days holiday, and i got so excited when they put the tree and the lights up. we play christmas music all day long and sing christmas songs in chapel. its incredible. we also eat thanksgiving dinner, have birthday cake (including candles!), easter baskets, heart shaped cookies and those sweetheart candies. i had a surprise for my cabin on christmas this week. laura came in dressed like an elf armed with hot chocolate, christmas books and popcorn kernels. we had popped popcorn over a bonfire before, but hadn't really tried it out on the woodstove. it was interesting. it ended up taking about 1.5 hours to pop. at one point, we had the stove all the way open so the smoke was going into the cabin instead of the chimney thing. the smoke alarm only went off for a minute or so. the girls laughed at us cause we looked like idiots. but it ended up working out fine and they liked it. we had a slip n slide on christmas too. we told them it was sledding. just so you know.. a mouse just ran by. puke puke puke. overall it was a good week.
yesterday, me laura, joe and ethan went to the river to fish. i bought a one day fishing license for $20. the only fish i've ever caught in my life before yesterday was a perch at the lake of the ozarks. not quite the same. yesterday i caught 6 salmon. i only kept 4 though. ethan and joe caught several and donated them to my "i really need to take some fresh salmon home to my mom so she can make me avacado salad" cause and i ended up with 11 nice looking fish. we killed them and filleted them. they taught me how to do both, but i didn't really enjoy either of those activities, so i stuck to fishing. they kill them by smashing rocks on their heads until their spines snap and then they slit their gills. filleting isn't that gross, but i'm just not great at it and i wanted good ones. we vacuumed packed them and they are all ready to go. we caught an extra one and filleted it right by the river and cooked it over the fire. ethan sliced up some oranges and put some seasoned salt and jalapenos on them and they were so delicious. we stayed out there for like 7 hours. it was a good day.
today, we had church on the beach and i've just been hanging out for the most part. everyone is at a campfire on the beach right now and there is some beach volleyball going on, but i'm crafting it up in the craft room/writing a blogpost. its nice to have some time without 93582938 million people around me.
senior high camp starts tomorrow. it goes until saturday morning. this is my 4th week counseling in a row. i'm expected to be physically, mentally and spiritually exhausted by the end of the week. not many people have done 4 in a row this summer. i want to counsel colt camp next week, so i might do 5 in a row. we'll see.
i think that is all for now. i learned today that the lawrence sidewalk sale is this week. obviously i wish i could partake in that. so shop your hearts out for me people!

peace and big fat blessings.
ko.

edit: i forgot to mention that sarah rhodenbaugh who is obviously the best person in the world sent me buckeyes in the mail! for all you unohioian people... they are chocolate peanut butter balls. so delicious!

fourth of july and soccer camp.

hey, hey, hello from the great state of alaska. last weekend we went into juneau for the fourth of july. i spent entirely too much money but i haven't gone shopping in a long time, so its fine. we went and saw the glacier. it was dirty, which i thought was weird. there was a hike to this waterfall near the glacier and it was supposed to take 45 minutes, we only had 20 minutes so a guy named joe and i power walked/dodged tourists. we made it almost all the way there and back in 25 minutes. it was beautiful. after that we went downtown to shop. there were 4 cruise ships in town so it was ridiculously crowded. it was super weird being around that many people since we hadn't experienced that in awhile. besides the crowds, downtown juneau is pretty cool. after that we went to a place called Jesus' beach house. i think a church owns it and guys live there. it was sweet. it had huge windows overlooking the harbor or bay or something and it has a million crazy stairs down to the beach. they shot the fireworks over the water and it was cool. it was sort of rainy and cloudy and it wasn't all the way dark, so it wasn't the fourth of july that i'm used to, but it was still cool. i'm hoping that i can shoot off some fireworks when i go to the lake in august. (please uncle harry!? :)) we stayed at a church sunday night and then walked in the parade monday morning. we spent more time downtown on monday afternoon and then went back to camp early evening. 

since soccer camp started tuesday and i've never played soccer in my life, a couple girls took me down to the field and taught me a few things so i didn't look like an idiot. soccer camp was really fun. we played soccer a lot. like a ridiculous amount. at the beginning of the week i could sort of keep up with the kids, but by friday they had learned a bunch of fancy little moves and they left me in their dust most of the time. but i learned a lot of actual rules and the campers were more than willing to instruct me and tell me everything i was doing wrong. 

i rode into town with the campers again on friday and they let me go to joanne fabrics to buy more yarn to crochet with. i bought a ton of yarn for 10 bucks. so great. friday night we went back to town for this event called the MAZE. it's this christian illusionist whose goal is to challenge what our reality and absolute truth is. it was cool. he did a bunch of illusions that blew my mind. at the end he presents the gospel and ties everything in. we came back to camp that night and laura and i slept in hammocks under the gazebo or "kazebo" as laura would say, on the beach. i slept absolutely horribly and laura slept like a rock. there were mosquitos flying up my nose all night long and it was only dark for like two hours. around 4 am a raven woke me up while it was loudly pecking at a bag a cereal that we left on the table. 

saturday was another enjoyable day. me, laura and two of the wilderness counselors went out to sourdough, the wilderness camp, to clean up from father/son camp. i felt weird the whole time but i'm not sure why. when we got back, me and laura went back to the hammocks and attempted to have quiet time which was the stupidest idea in the world because we are incapable of being normal or quiet. after dinner laura and i ran to sourdough and beat the tractor trailer full of people there. we thought it was two miles.. apparently it was only 1.3. whoops. a lot of the guys fished and some people played a dysfunctional version of wiffle ball. one thing that i have in common with laura is that we both like to combine things together to eat. so we made several different versions of smores and it was delicious. the salmon are running like crazy in the river, so the boys were catching a fish on practically every cast. it was ridiculous. the threw a lot back but they kept a pretty good amount too. i wasn't a big fan of them smashing the fishes head with rocks to kill it, but i guess it has to die some how. i was going to buy a one day license and go fishing today, but i don't really feel like it, so i'm going to do it next weekend. i want to catch a salmon so bad. 

the guys stayed overnight at sourdough, everyone else took the trailer back and laura and i floated down the river on a piece of styrofoam. it was 10 pm and still light out. it was fun, i'm pretty sure the tide was going out, so the river carried us pretty well. the bugs were terrible. BUTTTTTT, we saw a bear! we were rounding a corner close to the saw mill and i looked over and saw this grizzly bear staring straight at us 50 yards away. it took me a minute to register that it was a bear, but once i did, i quickly alerted laura and we started yelling to scare it away. it stood up on its back legs and i feel like it was sort of large. i got nervous, but then it turned around and ran off. we started singing and paddling really fast. i'm so glad we got to see it, but it was scary. we slept in the hammocks again last night. i brought a sleeping mask and wrapped the hammock all the way around me like a cocoon to avoid the bugs and the sun. it was much better. 

bronco camp is this week and i'm counseling again. they are 10 and 11. i really liked bronco camp last time, so i'm excited. plus, its holiday themed now and not pirates, so i'm excited for the change.

this was really long. lucky you.

peace and blessings.

ko.

i am 100% unmotivated to write this blog.

by the time the weeks over, my brain forgets how to work and it makes it really difficult to write things. anyway. jr. high camp wasn't as terrible as i thought it would be. we had really quiet girls (go figure?) and they were all pretty young. we had a good time and i napped a lot. they opened up on the last night, so that was good. we ended up getting so wrapped up in our good conversation that we missed the entire campfire. everyone was leaving when we got there, so i asked if we could stay by ourselves. i golf carted myself back to the kitchen and surprised the girls with stuff to roast smores. they were so excited. this week's speaker and his wife stayed out there with us for almost 2 hours. they are from canada and they told some really funny stories. we had a really good time. we had another crud war this week. not my favorite, but stil fun. the kids love it and thats all that matters, right? me and a few other girls got rubber medical gloves and stretched them over our whole heads. it sort of worked? haha the pictures are hysterical. we ran into the ocean again. it was freezing again. we sprinted back to the showers and the warm water felt like it was burning cause the ocean water is so cold. one thing i do like about getting in the ocean is that your lips get all salty and then you can lick them and its just like eating chips. i can't really remember what else camp included which is funny because after i do stuff i always mention that i can't wait to blog about it. oh! i do remember one thing, we played this game called storm the castle. the kids basically have to get through all these people throwing things at them and then the go through the castle and get treasure and bring it back to the counselor. so my cabin lost. badly. by like 30 treasures. it was really hot that day and the kids completely shut down when its hot out. so they kept sitting down. anyway. i was punished for our loss with a lovely bucket of freezing cold water on my head. my co-counselor was also awarded this punishment, but she is a giant cheater head and she dodged it at the last minute. so i held her under and they did it again, but i got the majority of it. we also played mission impossible and my cabin didn't lose this time! we finished! such an improvement. i got a package at the beginning of the week, so they made me sing a song by myself during lunch. jerks. i was trying so hard to not let my voice crack. haha. i rode the bus into town with the kids again yesterday. it was lovely to get out of camp for three hours. today i slept until ten. ran a mile? that was interesting since i haven't ran in months. then me and the lovely laura jones had the best day ever. we went to the craft room armed with crackers, peanut butter, chocolate chips, honey and carmels so that we could have a fatty fest while we crafted. we did a lot of great work. we melted a ton of wax for no reason and then decided to make candles. sort of fail. still fun. then we used the wax burner and put a baby food jar on it and put all that delicious stuff i mentioned earlier in it and melted it, spread it on the crackers and ate it up. it was so tasty. we made a large sign/poster thing with some song lyrics on it. splatter painted some stuff. went through all the stickers. wore trash bags and classy sunglasses and listened to music. we laughed our heads off and it was a really good day. sometimes i look at her i all i can think is "where did you come from and why did you take so long to get here?!?!" we have loads of fun and everyone stares at us which makes in more fun cause we know they are just jealous! tomorrow we are going into town to watch fireworks at midnight, shop and be in the parade on monday. i'm excited.
off to bed!
peace and big fat blessings!

ko.

love is in the air. metaphorically of course. but maybe actually. (not mine.)

oh hey there. my favorite game to play at camp is "match up the counselors". its an enjoyable way to pass the time while i'm waiting for the internet to work. it makes my life happy.
anyway. on friday we were supposed to hike a mountain. we forgot to do it. just kidding. the clouds were covering the top of the mountain, so when that happens, climbing the mountain is against the rules. so, instead we went on a kayaking trip to a place 3 miles away. we hiked up this little hillish thing to a beautiful waterfall. it was really fun. my boots were full of water which is sort of not the point of wearing boots. our trip back to camp was a little nervousy. we got in our kayaks/canoes and the smart wilderness people made us turn back because the water was apparently really bad. i was getting really nervous and the guy in my canoe was getting nervous and it was just bad. apparently if we would have gone out, all the canoes would have flipped and we would have gotten hypothermia and died. cool. so we waited on the beach for the blondina to come get us. we got all the canoes on but we had to leave the kayaks and people went back for them today. it was a lovely time. we had a lot of fun. when we got back to camp we had another swing dance night. we do so many fun things here that it blows my mind a little bit.
today we watched movies and i crocheted a hat. ahhh camp life.
jr. high camp starts on monday. i a little less than hate jr. high kids. so its going to be a tough week.
by the way. i'm wearing an indian braid wig on my head right now. its cool.

miss you people lots and lots.
ko.

i don't have anything clever to name this. sorry to disappoint.

hello america.
i can't remember what i said in my last post and i'm too lazy to look. but, colt camp is over. work staff is over for the most part. we still have to help with meals and i still have laundry to do tomorrow, but we don't have to clean bathrooms or anything so thats good. work staff is... well a lot of work. i think my hands are going to fall off from all the dishes i did. when i'm the actual dishwasher, my hands get so pruny that i look like a life size raisin. it's fun though. i get to use this giant sprayer thing. not a huge fan of wet food. but, i'm working on getting over that. when i'm the dish putter awayer (thats not a word?) my hands turn red from all the grabbing of hot plates. we're not allowed to towel dry anything so we have to air dry it all. we get impatient, so we just wave the plates around and look like idiots. its fun. there is usually music playing loudly during all of this, so its a pretty good time. laundry is fun too. i have the whole room to myself and its nice to just sit and fold stuff. its not so fun when people bring me sleeping bags that campers peed in. yesterday a kid pooped his pants while he was playing tether ball and didn't tell his counselor for awhile cause the game was so exciting. those clothes were fun to wash. i learned how to drive the tractor yesterday. so fun! i was so excited. not driving for a long time is weird, so i get excited whenever i can. today, me and a few other counselors rode the bus into town with the kids. we had to kill time in town for awhile, so they let us take this super old green pickup truck to the store and then to this waffle place. i made the guy who was with us let me drive. there were three of us squeezed into the front seat. it was nice to be able to see a little of juneau. we'll get to see more on fourth of july weekend. we went to this waffle place and ate delicious waffles. i can't think of anything else exciting. tomorrow we are hiking hog's back which is a mountain right across the cove from camp. i'm a little nervous, but really excited too. i'm sure i'll post about it. i think thats all for now.

i hope everyone is lovely. i miss you people!

peace and all the blessings in the world.
ko.

when in rome...

wellllllllllll hi. i wish i wasn't still awake. but i want to write a blog before all the information falls out of the back of my head.

so. yesterday was sunday. sundays are good days. they include holding hands while we sing the doxology, ice cream annddddddd crabbing! well usually not crabbing. but it was time to pull the pots, so that's what we did. so i was not fully informed about what crabbing included. i got on the boat thinking that we'd just get the little crabbies out of their pots and then take them back to camp and someone would kill them and stuff. uhh, wrong. they kill them on the boat! i was so disturbed. but, i figured that you're only given the opportunity to kill a crab in alaska a few times in your life, so i decided to go for it. the crabs are like walking around the boat and you have to pick them up and flip them over so they don't get you with their little snappers (also called claws). then you hold their legs and you use the edge of the boat to pop their shells off which was really disturbing and upsetting to do and then you bend them until they snap in half. followed by the ceremonial shaking of the guts back into the ocean. it was nasty. but it was cool. we saw a whale. only in alaska.

last night, me and laura decided to sleep in her hammock outside. we hung it up in two trees over looking the ocean. man, it was nice. there aren't really bears on camp and we had straight up 100% deet on, so our biggest threat for the evening was the horses that roam free. i was a little nervous that one was going to eat the rope and we were going to crash to the ground. but we survived. it wasn't dark when we fell asleep at 11 and it was light at 3:30 am when the rain woke us up. we moved to a cabin for the rest of the night, but it was still good. probs going to make it a tradition.

i'm on work staff this week which means i can but probably won't use the internet every night. now i'm going to do some online window shopping and then go to bed.

peace and blessings. aloha. blah blah blah.
ko.

life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

yo yo yo. laura jones just brought me a hat with a salmon on it from her adventure in sitka, so i'm feeling pretty cool.

this week was senior high camp, which was way different from bronco camp. bronco camp involves way more babysitting and senior high includes a lot of convincing sr. highers that its not uncool to sit on the floor. i was in 5 of 9 skits this week. that took more time away from my campers than i would have liked, but it was still good. we played a game called mission impossible. we start late at night so its sort of dark and then we have to sneak around the camp and do tasks without getting caught. my cabin didn't finish because it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to open the luggage truck which was a requirement to complete the game. it was still fun for them. i hate that game. it makes me anxious. we also had a banquet this week. since its a pirate theme they made us eat with our fingers. we had pie. i chose to skip a step and just use my face. it was successful. another thing we had this week was crud war. we played this weird version of musical chairs and the boys dumped buckets of spaghetti, oatmeal, beans, apple sauce and chocolate syrup of our heads. we did it to them too. it smelled awful and it was sort of raining and it was cold. after we finished musical chairs we lined up civil war style and threw flour in each others faces and then again with shaving cream. we were disgusting. me and a few other girls ran to the ocean to clean off after words. IT WAS SO COLD. i thought i was going to die. our clothes still smell terrible after being washed multiple times. yesterday, i was thrown into the freezing cold ocean by the program director, nick. we were on a boat by the beach and i splashed some water from a bottle in his face. obviously the equal retaliation for that is throwing me into the ocean in all my clothes and rain boots. fun times. today was also an enjoyable day. we decided to float down the cowee creek in canoes. the creek is run off from the glaciers and it feeds into the ocean. me and another girl decided that canoes weren't quite adventurous enough, so we opted for a giant piece of styrofoam and floated on that with paddles instead. it was really fun. we stood on it for a while and surfed. kinda. it was beautiful. we stared at a giant mountain the whole way down. some curious little sea otters hung out with us for awhile.. from afar of course. we saw a salmon jump. it was great. it was sort of hard work to paddle to the shore once we were in the ocean because the tide naturally wants to take us out. but it was fun. tonight we had a swing dancing lesson/party. we wore ugly dresses and it was marvelous. some people are super uncoordinated, so that just makes it more fun for people like me. yippppee.

next week is colt camp. they are 7-9 year olds. i'm not counseling for them anymore because a bunch of jr. counselors are here this week. so i'm on work staff. the next week is jr. high camp and i'm probably counseling for that. not exactly my first choice but i suppose i'll make the best of it. the good news about work staff is that i can use the internet everynight. so happy.

i have to go to bed now because i have two leftover campers that don't leave until tomorrow.

until next time!
ko.

one down...nine to go.

wow. alaskan children are crazy. like actual straight up crazy. the first week of camp has been over for 6 hours. the thing i love about camp is that you can shower on monday and then not shower again until friday and nobody cares. yes. i went 4 days without showering. it was my choice... i just kept putting it off and then before i knew it, it was friday. also, we're watching ferris bueller's day off in the staff loft and i'm finding it very difficult to focus on this post.
let me tell you about the first week of camp. i was assigned to hiking the kids in when they got here. which means i got on a wagon with a couple other counselors and we drove on the sand while the tide was low all the way to the end of the road. the kids ride buses to the end of the road and then we hike with them on the beach back to camp. it's like two miles and some kids want to run the whole way. they love it and they are so excited to get to camp. i really like hiking in. it's a good chance to get to know the kids and gives you a good jumpstart on names. we had like 90 kids this week. i was so tired tuesday morning...and wednesday morning...and thursday morning...and friday morning. we got a hour off every other day and it was marvelous. i napped. i helped lead motions for chapels. that was fun and enjoyable. i worked the top of the zip line a couple days, that was really fun. the mosquitos here are absolutely insanely ridiculous. they're like the size of bugs. today i trapped one in my hands and then pulled its stinger thing out. it was a nice little moment of revenge. we played a lot of really fun games with the campers. its really crazy how much energy they have. its really hard to get them tired. we get tired way faster than they do. by wednesday i was ready for a 12 day nap. but it was still a good week and i had a lot of fun. i'm counseling again next week for senior high camp. it's really different than the camp we just had, so it's going to be a whole new ball game, but i'm excited.

soooo, thats all for this exact moment.

peace and love yo.

ko.

let me tell you what happened today.

tonight, we had steak. thats good. always, but me tell you what happened next. we had crab. like real live crab. except it was dead obviously, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. anyway. they caught the crab in the ocean that i've been staring at. they pulled the crab pots today. (if you don't know what that means, watch the deadliest catch). so i've never eaten crab. because thats just gross. but this was fresh crab. like hours old. so, they made me eat some. it felt like i was eating a hermit crab. i don't you should have to crack things to get the food part out of them... except nuts i guess... and i didn't like it. i couldn't get past it.

tomorrow is sunday. obviously. we get campers the day after that. its going to be insane. i took a three hour nap today to prepare.

i don't have anything else that is interesting to say.

you people make my heart warm.

ko.

week 1.

helllo people!

i should really start writing down what we do everyday.. i keep forgetting. lets see. alaska is warm? its been nice practically everyday. they are really beating the heck out of us and i'm insanely exhausted. we don't even have campers yet. sheesh. the last two days have been spent pretending to be campers. we ran through a typical camp schedule and got to do a lot of the activities that campers do. we learned how to do the sky trolley today which is basically a zip line. i rode it five times...upside down. pure joy. i also have a massive bruise on my leg from trying to unhook someone. we were supposed to do CPR training this morning, but a girl completely snapped both of the bones in her leg last night when we were doing an obstacle course, so the nurse had to go into town. she's going to have surgery next week. huge bummer, pray for her. we have been learning some camp songs, practicing puppets, learning how to clean, we went tubing in the ocean(!) yesterday, we're eating delicious food, rode horses, did team building things (for some reason these include a lot of people standing on your shoulders.. i have the bruises to prove it.), we've done lots of other fun things that i can't think of. Oh! i saw a whale breach 11 times today! and apparently they don't have moose in this part of alaska because they don't have the right trees or something, but i did see a moose on a shower curtain. goal complete. we went on a fantasticly beautiful hike the other day. we went to a lake and then this place called "the point". it's exactly what it sounds like, a bunch of gigantic rocks that make a huge point of a mountain into the ocean and its beautiful. we eat in the wilderness, which blows my mind. i made pie... in the wilderness! it was delicious! i have a really cool farmers tan. sorry mom. the people here are ridiculously fantastic. and i'm really glad to be here. we get our first group of campers on monday (EEEEEEKKKKK!!?!?!), but i'm not sure if i'll be counseling or on work staff. 

i have a bed time. so thats all. i miss the real world a little. i hope you people are keeping it real for me. 

peace and blessings.

ko.

hollla from the last frontier.

well hi. i'm sitting in a room with a whole bunch of people right now and its sort of difficult to make thoughts come out of my brain. alaska is my favorite state. i like to look at it. and then i like to remind the other people that they should look at it too because its so dang beautiful. i still haven't come to the realization that i'm going to be here for 11 weeks. i still think that i'm going to be back in kansas likkkkke tomorrow. speaking of kansas, there are two other counselors from kansas and a staff member from kansas. the staff member and one of the counselors own a ridiculous amount of k-state stuff. but i'm working on converting them.

we had canoe safety training this morning. it was like 50 degrees out and we were canoeing in the ocean! we had to pull people out of the ocean into our canoes. it was fun. i got water in my rain boot. it was cold. the water is really cold. if you go more than 50 yards out you only have a 50% chance of surviving.

the internet stops working in 3 minutes. so thats all for now. we're hiking out tomorrow to horse camp tomorrow to camp. should be interesting. i hope everyone's life is going fabulous.

peace and blessings, yo.

ko.

ps. pictures aren't a go so far. i'll try again soon though.
pss. next time i'll try and write a blog with some sort of thought process behind it.

wazzzup from seattle.

Howdy.
I’m on a plane right now. I’m typing this into a word document due to the lack of internet 36,000 feet up in the air. All my i’s are going to be capitalized cause it does it automatically much to my dismay. So, my left shoe is too tight. I squished my finger. And I might throw up. But besides that my traveling experience has been just lovely. (Minus the part that the guy sitting next to me reminds me of the guy from Red Eye?!) I enjoyed a nice $5 parfait from the little old lady at the airport and now I’m just enjoying the lovely flight. I spent $50 on iTunes the other day, so I have plenty of new music to enjoy. But honestly, I’m bored already. Only 3.5 hours to go until I land in Seattle. I’m 78% bummed because I’ve never been to Seattle before and the only part I get to see is the airport. What is that pointy thing in Seattle called? The space needle or something? I’ve always wanted to go up that thing. Maybe next time.

In an effort to keep myself entertained, I’ve decided to write a list of goals for the summer. Ready? Go.

1. See a moose (this is for you rho!)
2. See a bear
3. Attack Laura Jones with marshmallows at least once.
• Side note #1: in case you were wondering, Laura is a girl that I already know who is also going to Alaska. She went last year and she’s sort of awesome. Only sort of.
• Side note #2: I’m flying over Manhattan, KS right now. It looks just as awful from the sky.  How do I know its Manhattan? The pilot told me.
4. Get a tan. (I can dream, can’t I?)
5. Stay off Facebook.
• Side note #3: if you are desperate to talk to me, you can email me @ Kimberly.oyler4204@student.indwes.edu orrrrrrrr write me a letter. The address is right over there -> by the picture of my face.
6. Take a lot of pictures.
• Side note #4: MOMMM! Don’t forget to send me that memory card!!!!!!! Also, I ordered a book. It will be there by June 7th. Send that too! Thanks. Like you a lot.
7. See an Eskimo.
• Side note #5: I’m in Nebraska now. Next I’m going to Wyoming. This pilot is really into geography.
• Side note #6: is it weird that I’m scared to drink liquid on flights? Not a big fan of airplane bathrooms. (Aunt Cindy, this is your fault.)
• Side note #7: I have serious goals/aspirations for the summer, but I’m having difficulty putting them into words/I’m trying not to have any expectations.

I can’t think of anything else. Cool. On another note, I was showing my nephew a map today so he would know where I was going and I realized that Alaska is really far away. Like really seriously far away! I thought it just sort of hung out real close to America. Like if you jumped from the corner of Washington to the corner of Alaska, you could completely avoid Canada. Uhhh, wrong. Alaska doesn’t even touch Washington…I think. It’s like seriously far away! I’m sort of nervous. Especially about giving up my phone for so long. How will I talk to the people that I like/love!? That part is going to be difficult. I’m going from thousands of text messages a month to zero. My poor phone, it’s going to feel so neglected. It’s going to be really weird, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. And then when I come back, having a phone will be weird.

I’m pretty sure I’m just typing to keep myself entertained at this point, so I’m going to stop. This was long. Sorry.

Next time I get on this I’ll be in ALASKAAA!!!!!! Yipppeeee!

peace and blessings yo.
ko.

Ps. Isn’t 2pm a little early to be drinking whiskey? Geeeeeeze.

official countdown: 6 days

less than a week to go. i'm starting to freak out a tad bit. yesterday, it suddenly occurred to me that i am going to alaska. for two and half months. without a phone. or a car. or my friends. and let me tell you, i. freaked. out. and then i remembered that i wanted to do this. and then i was okay. and then i remembered that i have a lot to do. there is something magical about hitting the one week mark that suddenly makes the rest of the time go super quick. and i got nervous. my list of things to do is long and the time is running out. and then i remembered that i am ridiculously good at getting everything done at the last minute and i thrive under pressure. i'm hoping that this was the first and only freak out moment, but i'm almost positive that it will happen again.

this time next week i will be enjoying the hot alaskan sun. ha. actually, i'll probably be starting my first day of staff training. by the way, i love trainings. seriously. i feel so cool and official. trainings, meetings, convocations (shout out to paige), assemblies,  you name it. i love them all. i believe we have 8 days of training, so i'm obviously excited about that.

i don't know what else to say. how do people come up with so much to blog about?! i'm surprised you're still reading.

its nap time now. ahh summer life, you exhaust me.

peace and blessings.

ko.

ps. if anyone knows how to pack for 2.5 months in alaska... i could really use your wisdom.

life as an eskimo.. sort of.

hello people that i love!

i leave for alaska in 8 days and i'm beyond excited! i'm not entirely positive how good i will be at blogging this summer, but i will give it my best effort. but first, lets chat about a few things.

1. i think life is 93842 times more fun if you don't capitalize your i's, so the chances of me doing that here are slim. i also can't promise that i'll always use proper grammer just because i'm an advocate for typing like you talk. just a heads up. sorry mom. 
2. i'm not going to be living like an eskimo at all! but "life as an eskimo" sounded like a cool name for a blog. there will be no igloos or fur lined coats, i will not be ice fishing, nor will i be dog sledding. the weather will probably be rainy and somewhere between 40 and 60 degrees. sorry to disappoint. 
3. the internet at camp is evidently sketchy and we only have internet on the weekends (if at all.) so that means that i can only blog once a week and i don't know how easy it will be include pictures. but i do love pictures, so i'll give it the old college try. 
4. no cell phone service means no texting which means that the only way you people can tell me about your life is through snail mail or carrier pigeon. if you would like to write me, send your letters and carrier pigeons to 
• Echo Ranch Bible Camp
  Kimberly Oyler
  PO Box 210608
  Auke Bay, AK
  99821

well. thats all i can think of to say at this moment. there is lots to be done before may 26th. packing a suitcase sounds like a good idea. 

peace and blessings, yo.

-ko.