Boo boo of the summer award?

So as you know I went to camp last week, as I do every summer. I lost eight pounds, 20 hours of sleep, my blood pressure is 160/100, and I BROKE MY ELBOW!!! How, you ask? Well, on Thursday night after the carnival, I lead the kids all over the campus of Tot Lot singing "I'm in the Lord's Army" and eventually end up gathered around the pool. They we played Simon Says, and the last thing I said was, "Simon says JUMP IN THE POOL!" And I did. The kids are always so shocked and thrilled to see the "time out lady" as they call me jump into the pool fully clothed - and then they jump in too. A highlight of the week ... except this time my feet slipped out from under me (note to self ... do not jump in shallow end next year) and I caught myself with my left arm. It hurt like crazy when I did it, and the nurse took good care of me with an ace bandage and ice packs, but I had to "do camp" and just couldn't focus on it. Once I got home Saturday, it started feeling better but I wasn't using it much - yesterday I leaned on the counter and put some weight on it for the first time - YOW! Decided I should go to doctor ... expecting some anti-inflammatories and maybe a sling for a few days ... got sent to xray instead and found that I fractured my elbow. I asked the nurse, how could that happen when I didn't hit my elbow on anything? Her reply ... well the elbow is just not designed to take that much weight. Ouch. And I was so happy about the 8 lbs I lost.

Anyway, I'm now sporting a pretty pink neon cast (just for Lexi - she signed it this morning) for 4-6 weeks ... of course I'm hoping for 4. I've figured out I can do pretty much everything except shave my right arm pit - Christa will be called into action to help with that. :) Of course I haven't tried any housework or cooking yet - we'll see how that goes!

Camp!

I spent last week at Camp CUMCITO, as I do for a week every summer - a camp for homeless and poor inner city kids in the Ozarks. I direct Tot Lot (4-6 year olds) and this year I had 30 kids! (And 22 staff.) Needless to say it was a crazy week, but a great one, I wouldn't trade it. Lexi went with me as a camper and was an absolute angel, despite being the ONLY white child there - that has never happened before! But I'm convinced kids are color blind at this age.

A cool story for you. Each day after naps, the kids have a "tea party" before they swim. It consists of a paper cup of Koolaid and a couple of (store bought) cookies - not too thrilling. :) On Friday, the kids made cookies in crafts, and we had a special tea party. The boys and girls were separated, and the boys heard a story about being "warriors, super heroes for Jesus" about the kind of men God wants them to be. After the story they each got super capes (they took them home too) and FLEW to the pool! It was so neat to see their big grins and capes flying in the wind behind them.

The girls had a special tea party inside, with pretty pink sheets spread out on the floor, "girly" napkins, and a china tea cup at each girl's place. Sherris Bury (some of you might know her from Westbrooke) read them a story about how valuable and precious they are. Then she made a show of taking the paper cups, pretending to drink out of them and then crumpling them up and throwing them away. She then asked them, "Are we throwaway girls?" The girls all yelled, "NOOOOOOOOOO! Sherris asked, "What are we like?" Lexi shot up to her knees and pointed to her tea cup and said, "We're like THESE cups!" Sherris told her she was right and asked how we were like these cups, and Lexi said, "We're PRECIOUS, and we're BREAKABLE, and we're SHINY, and we have a silver ring around the top!" I wasn't there but I cry every time I tell the story ... that one will stick with me forever.

Unfortunately I did not have time to take one single picture! Hopefully my new camp friends will send me some, and I'll be able to put some on here. It was an amazing week, one which I could not have survived in my own strength, and I am so humbled and grateful to my Heavenly Father upon Whom I depended entirely. Praise His name!

Callie the sucker!

Check out Callie in this video - first, mugging for the camera, then watch for the "sucking" noises she makes especially after she gets a bite - she's will now do it on command, too, which is really funny. She's a little fussy here - sporting a nasty cough so probably wasn't feeling great - but still worth the upload. :)


This is "pure Callie" ...


She always braces her feet on the bottom of her high chair tray like this - to the point that she gets "owies" between her big toe and her foot from trying to grab the tray with her toes.