Mama's turn...

Even if we didn't have time, we made time to redecorate last week. Since we moved here in '05 to now, Mama's room has been on the back burner, so to speak, and has not made it to the top of the "things to do" list. Poor room (or should I say poor Daddy and Mama), it hasn't had a new design since Clay was born 16 years ago! Things have definitely changed. Wednesday, right after lunch, Mama's new bedding from Williamsburg arrived in the mail. That inspired us to paint so Mama rushed off to Lowe's and by 4:30 p.m. Mama, Susan Liana & I were painting up a storm. Benjamin joined the painting party when he got home from work, but there wasn't room for the rest of the guys to join us. By 4:00 p.m. the next day we had pulled the room apart, taped, painted, and put it back together. We finished really decorating that night. So we were done with it all in a little over 24 hours (we slept in between though). You can still smell the paint, but every time you walk in the room you get a sense of satisfaction. It is a beautiful, peaceful haven for Mama & Daddy.

Survival...a week of fun.

Much to my great surprise I actually enjoyed Survival South East. Up until the week before we left I had been dreading this trip. You all know me, I am very much a "girly girl" and so surviving out in the wild wasn't exactly my idea of fun...so I thought. Everyone had been telling me I would have fun, but to be honest I didn't really believe them. They all said that since I was such a "social butterfly" I would make lots of friends...well, I didn't really believe that either. In the end I did make lots of friends. I guess it helps when you go on an event like this to have other friends who are going with you; I had 6; Clay, Anna & Kevin Heritage, Lillie Hobson, Catherine Mullins, & Abby Shackelford.

We drove up with the Heritages, a fun 5 hour drive. In Barnesville we stopped for lunch at a local little pizza place. OH MY GOODNESS! it was the best pizza I think we had ever had! If we go through Barnesville again we know where to stop. We planned on going to the camp a few hours before check-in time just to look around, but our pizza excursion made us just on time, not early. It was alright because once we got there we realized there really wasn't a whole lot to explore. We met up with the Hobsons there, checked in, then the moms went to everyone's cabin to drop off our luggage and we headed to the gym. We played a few games of "Four Square" and met a couple people. Then it was time for the moms to go. When they left I kind of got that lonely feeling. It was different; I had never been off like that without Mom. It was a good thing Clay was there.

That week was definitely Thermally Oppressive (we weren't allowed to say "hot"). They divided us up into our teams and then the first activity was to make our flag and come up with a chant. The Yellow team's (my team) chant was definitely not worth repeating, but Clay's chant (the Orange team) was awesome. I will just go ahead and tell you that my team won at the end of the week with 2200 points!! I was excited.

I will tell you some of the activities: seeing how many people your team could get over the wall, seeing how many people you could get over a beam, getting your whole team on a 2'x2' box, and lots more. My favorite thing I believe was the beam. We also would sit in on 30 minute sessions and learn about fire building, shelter building, primitive fishing, etc.. The last day they sent us off into the woods for a few hours and told us what we had to do. It was a simulated survival experience. We had to build a waterproof shelter, build a trap, make a water still, do some plant identification, & build a fire. Later they came along and graded our work. Free time was also something we had a lot of. Generally during free time you would go tho the gym and hang-out or play sports. Dodge ball was my favorite. Some people went to their cabins and took naps which most days sounded really good to me, but I was too afraid I wouldn't wake up. Talking at night in the cabins was always a lot of fun.

Over all I had a very good time. It might have been Thermally Oppressive, but the cabins had A.C.! I believe I would like to go back next year, which is a good sign that I had fun.

Me going over the wall.
A teammate getting the rope.
The spider web.
Trying to get the whole team on the box.
Our team and our Teepee.