nordic.

i

love

luther

college.

Nordic Fest was amazing. I guess I didn't really tell you guys about it though, did I?

Oops... well here ya go :)

Nordic Fest is this big festival in Decorah where they celebrate Norwegian-ness. So they have stands with lots of Norwegian names like "Kringle", a parade, fireworks, troll statues, gnomes... everything you need to draw in Norwegian's from around the country to celebrate their heritage, I guess.

I'm not Norwegian... so I went up to celebrate Decorah's Norwegian-ness, which was amazing! I got to catch up with so many of my friends from school that I haven't seen since the school year, plus I finally got to meet Jack's dad! I realized recently that being at college is totally different from being at home, especially in my case because Decorah is such a tiny town compared to Des Moines. I felt like no matter where I went, there was someone that I knew while I was in Decorah this weekend. That NEVER happens in Des Moines, and when it does, it tends to be casual acquaintances, or people that I would rather not run into. In Decorah, I run into people that I love. The first night I went out I got about 8 hugs upon entering the club, all from people that I really truly have missed all summer. That alone made me want to go back to school, pronto. And I still have over a month until move in! I'm sure I'll appreciate the summer once I move in and really start missing my friends from home... but for now.

I miss Decorah,

and I want to be there.

NOW.

Jordan and I at VFW

Jennie(my roommate) and I getting ready to go out!

Laura and I enjoying some ice cream from the infamous Whippy Dip!

(If you haven't tried it, and you've been to Decorah, I'm pretty sure it's a sin... You might want to get on that ;) )

Me, Greg, Jennie, and Alyse chillin at the Courthouse!

(Excuse my extra chin)

At the courthouse with Kelsey, Marlena, and Desi!

Jack and I :)

Taylor, Desi and I!

Listening to: Dynamite By: Taio Cruz (Theme song for me and my girls!)

wildwood in a whirlwind

Wildwood Hills Ranch

was my home for the first 5 or 6 weeks of summer. And it was amazing! Even though my friends and family never ever want me to go back, I think it was a great learning experience and a great way of growing in my faith.

So I'll start out by talking a little about the people I worked with. The directors ranted and raved after only a couple days of training that this seemed like one of the best groups of team leaders that they had ever had and that they were really excited to see how the summer went with all of us. I could see why they thought that... we all clicked right away and had a really positive air about us, or at least I thought so :).

So after training we went home for a weekend where I got to tell all my friends about how amazing the staff was. And they proceeded to tell me that after that week they already felt like I had been gone forever, and didn't want me to go back. But I was excited to actually get to work with campers, even though I knew I would miss my friends.

So then the campers came. The first week was supposed to be an "easy" week, and then a little girl in my group got lice... and so did like... HALF of my group of 8 and 9 year old girls. It made the week so much more stressful and a lot of people lost a lot of clothes because everyone in the cabin that had the little girl with lice had to have their clothes "de-liced"... if you want to call it that. AND we had to move cabins, and provide the kids with clothes to wear, not to mention there weren't enough bunks in the cabin that we moved into for counselors to stay in, so we had to wait for our other bunk to have the "bug bomb" settle so that we wouldn't inhale the deadly toxins, and get some mattresses from there to put on the floor of our new cabin... Oh, and we didn't have pillows... or any of our shower stuff. Pretty intense. I broke down one night because I was just so stressed because kids were so upset that they weren't going to be able to swim and all this crap because all of their clothes were being washed. Ugh.

StressStressStress.

Nomegusta.

That week was pretty much the worst. Most of the rest of my time at Wildwood was pretty smooth, other than some major attitudes from some ghetto or highly medicated kids. Or kids that didn't like getting dirty... which was just annoying. I felt like throwing a mud pie at their face... or maybe not. I may or may not have gotten fired for that. ha

But anyways, its kinda bittersweet that it's already over. I really miss the people that I worked with. They were all amazing and I plan on going back sometime in the next couple of weeks and volunteering and visiting them. :)

But until then... it's SUMMATIME! And I'm gonna live it up!

Listening to: Phantom of the Opera Soundtrack

Watching: Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me (BAHA!)

busy and buddies.

So remember when I talked about how proud I was of myself for cleaning my room back in this post? Well... that didn't last long. Because of the new placement of my desk, everything piled into that area cause it's pretty out of the way. So now I have friends coming in town tonight, and I put it off until today to clean that area... again... and my closet area... and take out the trash... OH! And dishes. So yeah, working on getting all of that figured out! Actually, I'm still in the midst of it, but I figured I would take a break and tell you about my ridiculously busy day!

Things I have to do today(in no particular order):

1. Memorize "I Remember" By: Steven Sondheim, from the musical Evening Primrose, for seminar tonight.

2. Sing at seminar, Jack might go... PRESSURE! ha...

3. Go to a track meeting, but not track, because I have too much to do today... luckily, Coach understands my busy schedule, and gives me some grace.

4. Clean room... workin on that one. =/

5. Still have to hand out some Paideia shirts! Remember those? They came in yesterday!

Woo hoo! So we passed them out, and now we have like... 4 left? Yeah, pretty sweet!

6. 4 of my bestest friends are coming to visit me tonight! (They're the only reason my room is being cleaned) And I'm super excited! But, have to entertain them in the mean time! =/

7. Floor meeting, that I think is going on while my friends are here... awesome. Hopefully short and sweet.

8. Taking the DM kids out on the town! Woo! Wednesday nights in Decorah... how fun. If I haven't told you, at Luther we don't have "Thirsty Thursday" we have "Wasted Wednesday". So people go to Americana and karaoke, and have fun! AND it's the last wednesday that people will be able to go out! So there should be lots of people! I'm excited to take them out!

busy busy busy

But it's all good! Some stressful stuff mixed in with just enough fun stuff! Woo!

Listening to- Devil Wears Prada. Go listen. "Louder than Thunder" if you're not into heavy screaming. "Dez Moines" if you like the heavy stuff=]