Last day of HSJH and first day back at Camp T

If you've been checking for updates on the blog all week, I apologize. I've been packing in time with friends between packing and cleaning and teaching and knocking out friendship bracelets and just not making time for the ol' bloggity blog. But it has been an awesome last week and it has flown by.

Last year I made 54 bracelets leading up to camp. This year I wanted to get too 55... I passed that over a month ago. This weekend I figured out who all of them will go to and labeled them so I'm ready for camp. I never really made bracelets when I was a kid but now they're one of my favorite things.

This week I got to reunite with old friends. I had dinner with Emily, Mac and Kayla, met Hannah for frozen yogurt. I hung out with Libby on Tuesday and she helped me move more furniture out of my apartment. We got to see Haleigh when we dropped it off and I said good-bye to her too.

KCraig and I met with all the 8th grade girls one last time on Memorial day. On Thursday night I got to hang out with Julia and Olivia before our last day of school. All of these people have such a big part of my heart and I will definitely miss them while I'm gone all summer. I hung out with Rach and Em one last time, so strange to be going to camp without them again after working together for so many summers.

 

Today is my last day with my students. It has honestly been my favorite year teaching. Between this incredible crew of kids, sharing the hallway with Mr. Hodgin, starting Wyld Life in our building, visiting kids in the lunchroom, getting to work with Trulock and KCraig and all my different bible study girls I won't forget this year.

The last few days are a blur of signing yearbooks, showing up at the 8th grade celebration, playing jeoporady, getting caricatures from 8th grade art students and saying good-bye to everyone. Some students bring in gifts and the best are the most thoughtful-- a scrapbook from a group of best friends, a decopauged W to hang on my wall, a gift card to Barnes and Noble so I can get a new book for the summer, all of my favorite candy and the kindest letters and notes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. When I started teaching I had no idea that these kids would make such an impact on my life and take up such a big part of my heart. They are still shaping who I am.

After the award programs for both grades today (and watching movies for 20 minutes in each class) I will trade my dress for a party tank and jump in my car to drive to Camp Tecumseh. My car is already packed with my drawers, backpack, neon hats, devotion books and sleeping bag. The other counselors are already at camp running to greet each other and going on tours to see archery and riflery. I can't wait to jump out of my car in the LV parking lot and run to meet them at flagpole. So strange to say good-bye to so many people I care about and say hello to so many a few hours later.

 

 

This has been a year I won't soon forget. Thank you to everyone who has been part of it!

 

Sunday Funday

I went to brunch with Mindy Hiatt this morning. I lived with her in the Longhouse for two summers and she is such a great friend. I don't get to see her very often anymore but I loved getting to catch up. 

Jordan and I went to church together. They knew it would be a smaller crowd since so many people were at the Indy 500 so church was a little different. Instead of rows, the chairs were all set up in circles. A couple times during the service we prayed and talked with the people in our group. It was a cool idea and way for people to get to connect.

Late in the afternoon I met Alana, Kaylee and Maddie at the carnival in Fishers. They've got this mini-theme park set up in the parking lot of the mall and everyone has been going all weekend.

It was fun to run around with these girls trying all the different rides. Our motion sickness arrived about the same time as the rain which was our cue to leave. I think the swings or the Ferris Wheel is my favorite.

 After a quick nap to get rid of my nauseousness I was joined by camp friends for Chick Flick Sunday. Alli, Molly, Karissa, Lizzy, Sarah and Erin all came over to watch Something Borrowed, work on friendship bracelets and fill Instagram with hashtags. We took a trip to McDonalds for McFlurrys afterwards and played the Newlywed Game and Would You Rather. We're all very ready for camp to start in just a few days.

Color In Motion!

A few months ago Sarah had the great idea to have some camp friends do the Color In Motion run together. I was so excited to get to do a race like this, especially with camp friends. Our group ended up being Jamie Z, Amanda, Molly, Alli, Sarah and I.

We met up just after seven this morning and carpooled to the State Fairgrounds where the race was being held. We had our official Color In Motion shirts and some of us got sweatbands, neon socks and fanny packs too. And if they had the tu-tus for sale you better believe we all would have been about those.

There was music blaring right where everyone walked up which gave us plenty of energy that early in the morning. We're more the dancing kind of people (as opposed to running people) anyway so we danced for the next 45 minutes until the race actually started.

We got to see Breezy and Brice, two counselors from last summer, and made friends with some really fun and loud ladies waiting in the start corral by us. We're all about fun, people and colorful things so this event was perfect for our Tecumseh Team.

Slowly the street behind the start line got filled up as the minutes ticked down to the start. We continued to dance in place even breaking out in the electric slide and helping to get the crowd to do the wave.

We really only ran about a quarter mile of the race which I ended up being totally okay with. Walking made the experience last twice the time. There was a color station about every quarter mile. You could see the cloud of dust in the distance from pretty far back. Volunteers sprayed the colored powder as you ran through. On our second station we had the brilliant idea to roll on the ground in the station to pick up powder that was on the ground. We got so much more powder on us and everyone around us found it pretty entertaining.

After rolling in the blue we were covered in the stuff.

Some of it shakes off while you run and when we rolled in the yellow just about 10 minutes later our color was changed again. A friendly volunteer and security guard took our picture mid-race.

We sang a couple Taylor Swift songs and camp cheers as we walked the course. After a loud rendition of Lake Ladies a girl yelled, "Camp T!" to us. I yelled back asking if she was going this summer and she said "No" to our disappointment. But then she yelled, "Are you Miss Wright?" It was Jackie, a girl who used to go to my Junior High and older camper!

After we crossed the finish line people were throwing the powder everywhere. You automatically got a color pack for participating in the race. If you turned in your trash to the merchandise table they would give you a new color pack for free.

The mob of people in-front of the stage all threw up their color at the same time to create this giant rainbow cloud.

I'm so glad that Sarah suggested this race and that we could all do it together. It really was so much fun. If you ever have the opportunity to do an event like this don't pass it up. I hear the Color Run is coming to Indy later this summer...

We were starving after the race so we went to the 3 Wisemen for lunch... looking like this. The food, company and look from strangers were all awesome. 

Now I just have to get all of the color off of me!

Wyld Life Paint War!

Tonight was a Wyld Life Club we won't soon forget. We arrived an hour before hand to get ready for the Paint War of the century. These brave leaders and HS helpers showed up to fill paint bombs and figure out a semi-organized plan for the madness that was about to happen.

The kids arrived in droves. Their last weekend of the school year, everyone was excited for tonight and full of excess energy. 

These are most of the 8th grade girls that came tonight. It's been the biggest blessing to get to work with them this year and get to know them better. I'm so excited for them to become part of YL group next year but will definitely miss them at Wyld Life Club and seeing them every day in the Junior High.

These are some of our 7th grade girls. It's sweet that these will be the first group of kids that will get to experience Young Life in Fishers all the way through from 7th grade to graduation in HS. They've got five more years of awesome ahead of them.

These boys have prided themselves all year in going all out in their costumes for every Club. Even though tonight only required clothes that could get messy, they still crafted these matching tank tops for the "HSE Wyld Life Wyld BYFE'S"

We tried Dominican Chaos at the beginning. The nine teams each had between fifteen and twenty kids on them-- it really was chaos. I'm not sure they really ever caught on to what they were doing but everyone had a fun.

In a game of trivia about summer and our school, the guesser buzzed in by popping a paint filled balloon over their partners head.

We played Pictionary by drawing on people's backs, just your every day kind of canvas, and the audience shouted out the answers.

Everyone was corralled for KCraig's last Club Talk of the year. She talked to the kids about friendship and what it means to have Christ as your best friend. I love that she acknowledged that some of these kids are two feet in--they're following Christ and pumped about it, some are one foot in and one foot out--not quite sure about how to live this out but interested in growing in their faith, and some kids are two feet out--they just showed up for the paint. 

Wherever they are, Christ loves them and cares about. He's given them free will to choose how invested they are in all of this. KCraig challenged them to think this summer about taking the next step to grow closer to Christ. 

We spread out the paint all over the field, plastic lunch bags filled with paint and the empty paint bottles refilled with water to get out the rest of the paint. The army of kids sprinted into the field to grab as much ammunition as they could and the rest was history. In seconds there was paint flying and no one was safe.

I asked Michelle and Janelle, two moms of YL kids, to come be our photographers for the night. I knew that if I was going to be running around getting covered with paint with the kids I wouldn't be able to take pictures too. They did a phenomenal job capturing all of the action.

I have loved hanging out with these girls for the past two years. I'm so excited to go to Wyld Life camp with them in just a few weeks. They're going to love it.

No one wanted to miss the Paint War tonight and we had quite the turn out. I was so excited to see at least twenty brand-new kids show up. I love getting to see kids from all different friend groups interact like this. Everyone belongs.

Brooklyn had the great idea to bring a canvas to the paint war. She had everyone sign the back and then ran through the field asking people to throw paint on it.

I had a blast tonight. I love anytime I get to hang out with kids like Haleigh and Milly but this will be pretty hard to beat.

I love Wyld Life. I love getting to hang out with these kids. I love that they get to hear the good news and cover their friends in paint. I love that so many different types of kids show up. I love that their are five different teachers in our school involved with Young Life. I love that nearly 70 of these kids are coming with us to Michindoh in a couple weeks. I love that we get to do awesome things like this together. I love that we're bringing color and joy to the world.