Catch Up

When I woke up the day after Christmas, it was thirty degrees in my bedroom. Forget St. Rugglin's day in April, I'm ahead of the game. After shivering myself to sleep that night, I woke up sitting up with my heart pounding due to what I think may have been a pack of coyotes eating a nearby raccoon. That afternoon I attended a surprise sixteenth birthday party for a girl from church whose birthday is not usually very exciting because people are worn out from Christmas. She was shocked.

On Thursday, team Barr camp up to work. I forgot to take pictures during the first official time that all four sisters worked, so here's a shot stolen from Kaitlin.

Friday was the first breakfast that I've worked since moving to camp. It was so nice being able to walk right down to the kitchen.

Bacon fried rice for 120: delicious at a price. I somehow put my fingers directly onto the grill during Saturday's dinner prep. I know. You can't tell from the picture. Mom- remember that you were worried about the recipe not turning out well when doubled? Well, I'm happy to report that you can do it successfully for pretty much any number of people.

We served breakfast on Sunday before church where Cameo was in attendance. She later came to camp to visit, then offered to work Norman at dinner before some late-night Catan! playing.


On New Year's Eve we served three meals, and I became addicted to Guitar Hero. After spending a few hours at the Tates' I took my tired self over to the youth group party at church. I was disappointed to find video game tournaments being held in four different areas because I hate video games. I finally agreed to play when I saw the Beastie Boys on the screen, and before I knew it we were told to turn it off because it was almost 2:00 a.m. and it was time to clean up and go home. We served brunch at camp on New Year's Day, lazed around a bit, then Annie made us a delicious spaghetti dinner and all six of us played Catan! around a tiny card table- without fighting. Happy New Year!

I'm all for big strawberries, but I'm not sure we should be trying this hard.

Point Loma

Right after Thanksgiving, Josh and the Shirleys and I went to the 3CA national conference in San Diego. While on the deck of the U.S.S. Midway I heard someone say "that's Point Loma over there". Josh gave Kaitlin a call, and later that night we ended up driving out to her campus, enlisting Steve Leader as our tour guide, hanging out in the library until her shift was over, then going to Denny's for coffee and pie. Yes, the picture montage is a little random and blurry, but we had a great visit!

What's The Game Sensation That's Sweeping The Nation (or my mom's house at least)?

I was one of the scores of lucky people to get a Bobberball set for Christmas, and was intent on getting my whole family hooked. Success! I got a kick out of hearing things like :"Okay, I'm almost done. Just let me get a finesse."






I don't think that Ethan ever hit the ceiling, but he had fun trying.

This shot is dark, but I like Jen's blurry hand. She's a shark.

Found Money Update:

$29.07

Gladlig Lille Jul Aften!

Saltwater Glop

Here's taffy attempt number two with some youth group kids. The first time we scorched the batter-dough-whatever-you-call-it-goo because the pot that we used was too big. This time went much better, but the girls just didn't seem to have the muscle for it. They "pulled" it for almost an hour, gave up, then ate it off their fingers. Poor Sarah who offered her kitchen wound up knee-deep in sticky.

Holiday Shopping Can Be Stressful.

Some Of The Obstacles Thus Far

I've been brushing my teeth at the kitchen sink to avoid this (today is my fifth day living here- the rust is almost gone now).

This is the only thing that really made me freak out and have a short, crying anxiety attack during the move. You know how moving is usually a grueling, exhausting task for a group of movers that takes from sunup to sundown? Well, when you do it alone it takes six days. Josh helped me move all of my furniture on Friday, and fortunately for me, he was a tremendous mover. And he worked for diet soda. Brilliant. I was already kinda brain-dead from the pre-move, and he didn't get mad at me for not knowing in advance what furniture we'd move, and what would go to the dump. After we had gotten all of the big stuff in, I tried to get things settled into their permanent places. We ended up dropping a lot of stuff off in the living room of the Maple Lodge (which is not mine) so I decided to clear the boxes off of my dining room table and move it into place after I'd wrestled with the couch, huge chair and entertainment center (which, by the way, is a term that I hate- entertainment center- so pompous). It wouldn't fit through the door. After trying every angle, I used all of my remaining energy to lug it out of the building and around to the back door while trying to keep it out of the snow. I got it halfway through the door and started brushing some snow off of it and somehow broke one of the legs. I straightened it out, put it in its place then realized that the space was too small for the chairs. Cue the freakout.

The next day I realized that the refrigerator could be moved over about six inches, so it's tight, but they fit.

And this is the hole in the wall where lots of cold air blows in. I didn't notice it until my second night sleeping there, but once I taped it up there was no longer need to sleep in a hooded sweatshirt.

This Is The First Load Of Laundry I've Done Without Leaving My House In Almost Eight Years. So Happy!!

Goodbye #71!

No more coolio peacock screen door for me. On the 15th I moved the last of my things out and cleaned up shop.







On one of my last trips from apartment to parking lot I saw the Bensons getting their Christmas decorations out of a nearby building that I had never seen opened up before. It was an old shower house with cracked windows- a pretty standard defunct camp building. Leave it to me to find out on my last day at Tahquitz that each of us had storage lockers. I was consoled though by the thought that I could have had even more stuff to cart to my new place.

Happy Birthday Job!!!!!

Happy Birthday Paul!!!!

Mmmm...Necessary Gluttony

The coconut cookies that we make are not delicious if they sit around for very long. They cannot be rationed throughout the week. They must be eaten within two days!

It's Off To Anaheim For Me

Acquire the Fire is tomorrow so we're headed out tonight to sleep on the floor of a church that I've not heard the name of. Then Sunday is my mom's annual slave labor-, uh, I mean cookie-baking, light-hanging, Christmas tree decorating party! I should really write a lot more so that turkey picture gets bumped further down the page, but I've got to go pack.

I've added some stolen pictures, including the one snapped just as Erin and I had begun looking for her dropped olive.

Here's My Cute, Cute Jen Who's Having Baby Number Two!

The Number One Reason I Love To Visit...

and number two.

Confessions of a Professional Foodie

I made soup for the first time today, and recently bought my first cookie sheets. No more baking non pizza-type things on my pizza pan.

Moving

I scored a chunk of the Maple Lodge. In about two weeks I will be enjoying my first rent-free residence (with a washer and dryer even!) since I lived with my parents. No, the bunk beds won't be staying, neither will the curtains.

Introducing...Lisa Richard, Youth-Slave!

At our last Christian Camping Sectional Conference, I attended a seminar geared toward twenty-somethings in ministry. The speaker was awesome (how twenty-something of me to say) and he talked a lot about Paul's relationship with Timothy and how people our age are often wise enough to listen to our Pauls, but neglect to seek out Timothys of our own. He did so, of course, much more eloquently than I've so far lead you to believe. At one point during his message he asked for a show of hands from those who have a million things to do without enough time to do them. I was the only person in the room whose arms stayed planted on the armrests. A-ha! I'm lazy.
So, after some prayer for direction and a meeting with the youth pastor last spring, I am now completely buried (or another word with a happier connotation) in youth group functions. I've had twelve already this month, including the 30-hour famine sleepover extravaganza. It didn't take them long become savvy to my grossly uncluttered calendar. I had to laugh yesterday after Keith commented a second time how fast I was "keyed in" at the church. Some people are even beginning to recognize me (couldn't resist)!
Why do I tell this story? Mostly because my collection of recent pictures have all been taken at youth group events and I feel weird about posting the kids' pictures without parental consent. The highlights though, include some pretty good throwing-homemade-pizza-dough-in-the-air shots. So, here's a picture taken by the kids.

Conversations That I Could Really Only Have With Sarah

Her (as we cross paths with a typical Palm Desert type): I'm glad you don't wear that much makeup.

Me (sarcastically-I know, weird): Well, not yet. Just wait 'til I'm thirty, then I'll really start to pack it on.

Her: If you did, I don't think we would be friends.

Me: Oh, please. We'd be friends.

Her: Yeah, you're right. But we wouldn't hang out.

Not My Typical Seinfeld Post

Jessica Seinfeld has a cookbook out which is full of sneaky ways to get vegetables in your diet via food processor. This piqued my interest immediately, and I tried her brownie recipe last night.

It includes pureed carrots and spinach,

which looked fairly commonplace until I dumped them into the chocolate.

They turned out pretty well. They are very dense, but moist and the vegetables are undetectable once they've cooled. Next time I plan on increasing the sugar a bit since they taste more like bread than brownies.

Okay... what is Newman's favorite candy bar?

Ipod Nation

Disclaimer: Kelly- I am completely addicted to your cd mixes, and am in no way speaking poorly of them in the following post.

One of my favorite things to do as a music fan is sit down with a cd and fully claim it by listening to it from start to finish, liner notes in-hand. As a teenager I was in a cd-buying club, and spent tons of time pouring over the contents of those little brown boxes that so often appeared in box 274. And although I do own an ipod shuffle (that I don't know how to load or recharge without my brother's help- it is currently juiceless and useless) hearing the music alone, for me, does not match hearing it holding the band in my hands.

Dave got me an Arcade Fire cd for my birthday last May, and I immediately put it into my car's changer where it stayed and played until I took it inside the other night to really make it mine. I wonder how much longer it would have taken me to realize how much of it is in Frenglish had I left it in the car.