Day off!

I'm posting some pictures from the Carnival as well as from my day off in Asheville today! I went with a senior counselor, Carly, and two junior helpers, Dylan and Becky. It was SO much fun! We got there around lunch time so we went to Mamacitas for burritos. Then we just walked around for a few hours and looked in some really cool shops. It was really nice, but it got really hot, so we went to the theater and saw Iron Man and that was fun. I love days off :)


Otherwise, everything else is going pretty well :) I miss home a lot but summer's really close to being over and it's crazy that I'll be home soon! The horses are doing really well, and I'm so happy about that. It makes things a lot easier for me. The seniors are on their four-day hike and they'll be back on Thursday, then the session ends on Saturday. AHHHH! I can't believe we only have one more session! I'm really getting to know everyone here so well and I'm going to hate to leave them all! But I need to live in the moment and not think about the future, because right now I just want to have tons of fun :)



Dad and Margaret are coming to visit next weekend and we're going to Asheville and I really can't wait to see them :)

Another Good Day

I had another very good day today. We had a carnival this morning and combined junior and senior camp. I was in charge of pony rides, and the horses did very well. I'll put some pictures up later from it! I did get a tiny bit homesick today because I got a big package in the mail from my daddy :) It's awesome though...he sent me a better rain jacket because I was using disposable ones and it rains here everyday, and a ton of yummy food and magazines. It was awesome, but it made me realize how much I miss all my friends from home and my family especially. And my doggies!

But it's ok, because I'm really only gonna be here for another month! I absolutely love it here though, and I know that when I have to leave it's gonna be unbelievably hard. It's such an incredible place. But I do miss Joey a lot too, even though I just saw him...but I'm still having a great time at camp :)

Roller Skating!

These are a few awesome people; on the left is me and one of the senior counselors Russell (who's from Atlanta and went to Paideia!), and on the right is Leah and Carly who are also senior camp counselors.







Yesterday after Joey left I was still on my day off so I went roller skating with the senior campers! It was so much fun, and I only fell once! I'll put up a few pictures...Today was the first day I did riding with the new horse, and it was great! I'm SO happy because everything went so well. Foxy is great, and I think her being there calms the boys down a lot as well. I believe that my confidence has been boosted a lot since she got here, and I am not as afraid of the horses here as I was a few days ago.

It's strange for me because I'm never afraid of horses and I never have been, but being at Celo is different. When I worked at Girl Scout camps with horses I was never completely in charge and didn't know what that was like, but now at Celo I have complete control. It's so scary because now I'm in charge of kids and horses at the same time. I mean, there are only three horses here to work with, but it still makes me nervous because it's all about the safety of the kids. It's hard to deal with sometimes, but I think it will get so much better now that we have a new horse that is safe and easy to work with!


We also had the best breakfast and lunch today; breakfast was eggs, grits, biscuits and cheese gravy; lunch was pasta with fresh basil and garlic from the garden and tomatoes, and fresh bread and salad from the garden.

Joey's Here!

Sorry I haven't written in so long!! It's been really busy lately :) Joey got here Tuesday night, and he just left a few minutes ago :( Sad! But we had the best time! I also have more exciting news...we got a new horse! One of our horses, Fancy, was getting way to old to ride (she's like 30!), so we are borrowing a horse from the therapeutic riding center down the road. Her name is Foxy and she is a 16 year-old paint racking horse. She's beautiful and I got to ride her a few days ago; she's amazing!

So Joey arrived on Tuesday evening with enough time for me to show him around camp. We had a great time; it was nice and relaxing, and he even got to milk Goldie the cow this morning! I felt really thankful that he was able to visit me this summer, and right at the midway point! I realized a few days ago that yesterday was actually the official middle of camp. There's only one more week left in the session, and then it's gonna be the last session! It's crazy! Only one more month pretty much. I know that it's gonna be SO hard for me to leave this incredible place.

Joey and I had great conversations while he was here; we talked a ton about college (he's going to Pfeiffer University above Charlotte, NC) because he had just been to his orientation and was all excited about it :) I've decided that I'm gonna go visit him the weekend after the first week of school (we start at the same time) because I've never been there before. Here are some recent pictures! I hope you enjoy!


The first one is our new horse Foxy; I found a fawn curled up in the horse pasture; some pics from Joey's visit...we got to milk the cow!

Camp out!

Some pictures from the camp out.

More later.

Relaxing

This morning I weeded the corn with Erika who is one of the gardeners here. It was a lot of fun; I have come to discover that weeding is a great stress reliever for me because the weeds suffocate the plants and by getting rid of them, I feel like I'm helping life continue. So that was very relaxing. I also helped to make a lovely breakfast of pancakes this morning for the campers, and that was also nice. In junior camp where I am usually, they go on camp outs once a week to spots really close by and cook on a fire and sleep under the stars. I get to go on one today with the boys tent that I'm helping out this session, and I'm really excited! It will be interesting sleeping next to five 7-8 year old boys that could potentially have bed-wetting problems, but I'm up for the challenge :)

Yesterday went a lot better than the day before. The horses behaved, which was great, and everything else about the day was nice. I felt like a ton of positive energy flowed through my body, and it was just what I needed. I was in charge of a few activities and skits was one of them. Usually we have to really work hard just to think about a plot for their skits, but this group came up with a great idea and now we have a really great skit!

Also, right before supper I went with one of the cooks, Mika, to this place called the ATRC; the Appalachian Therapeutic Riding Center. It is a co-run non-profit center where kids with disabilities from the community can come and ride. I went with her to feed the horses; she and the other instructor take turns feeding them each day. The horses seemed really sweet, and after going there I thought a lot about therapeutic riding as a career. I would love to go to a school with a good program, and I think that might be a path that I would want to take in life.


It's something to think about :)

A Very Scary Happening

Today was gonna be the first day of riding but it never happened. The seniors were gonna ride this morning but one of the horses had a freak accident. No one or animal was hurt thankfully. We had brought the horses to the ring and had them tied up and everything was fine, but then someone slammed the bathroom door. One of the horses, Fancy, didn't like it and she ripped a fence post out of the ground and dragged it to the middle of the ring. Cowboy let himself loose and was fine but right when Fancy freaked out I was in the middle of picking his back hooves, so I could have easily been really hurt. It definitely scared the mess out of me and I'm really lucky to be okay and that none of the horses got hurt. We decided not to ride and I worked calmly in the garden instead.

I'll write more about the past few days later because the lunch bell just rang!