Summer Study Session

So in honor of my being at camp and barely ever getting away, I found a day off which ended up being a day to write a paper for my online class. And being that the internet at camp is slower than anywhere I have ever been, I headed into town to find a fun bakery or coffee shop with free wi-fi. I first found myself at The Coffee Critic, a pretty cool place in town but due to stupid people pirating movies on their internet, they no longer have wi-fi. So i moved to the next stop and instead of getting coffee, I got a pretty amazing sandwich which I enjoyed with a glass of water with lemon. The sandwich was very delicious with its crunchy dutch crunch roll, sprouts, tomato, lettuce, onion, smoked turkey and all sorts of other goodies, although I truly enjoyed the ambiance most of all. Through my four hours of being there, at least a dozen families with little ones camp in, including a couple sets of twins. It was so wonderful to see families doing things together and actually enjoying each others company. Just watching families together, truly made me miss Ryan (yet again) and realize that I am so incredibly excited to be a part of a new family! Who knew that searching for good wireless internet could do all of that? : )

http://www.schats.com/

Just a Glimpse

Here are two of my helpers... Just a glimpse of what living at a camp does to a people. They thought of doing this all on their own. Not only have this group of volunteers created a new fashion for cleaning the cabins during camp clean up, but they have also come up with some pretty awesome games. Some of these games include Ninja - a game where hitting people is an art form, the animal game - where animal noises are subjective to each individual, and the "name" game - where you slap a person as hard as you can in the stomach if you fair to remember and use everyone's proper nickname. O these people have proven to be truly amazing. Although most of them have left and a new batch of volunteers will be coming in, we will not forget them and all of their silliness and laughter! : )

No Suffering Blogs!

So... I have decided that since I am away from my lovely doting fiance and slowly working on wedding shenanigans AND I never leave the two mile radius bubble I am in... my blog would suffer if i didn't find a new topic to write about! So since all I do all day is cook, clean and hang out with crazy high schoolers with way too much summer on their hands... I have decided I will switch gears for part of my blog and write about fun recipes and funny things high schoolers say and do all day long! : ) i hope it will be as funny as it has been in the kitchen! So first I give you one of my families most sacred recipes! STICKY BUNS!!!! O YES!!!

Sticky Buns
24 Parkerhouse/ Bridgeford Frozen Dinner Dough Rolls
1 Small Package Cook N' Serve Butterscotch Pudding Mix
1 Stick Butter
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

The Night before:
Take the rolls and place them in a greased bundt pan.
Sprinkle with the butterscotch pudding mix
Melt together Butter, Brown Sugar and Cinnamon
Pour over sprinkled rolls
Cover with a plate and leave in a warmish place overnight

The Next Morning
Pre-heat the oven to 350.
When oven is ready, remove plate from the top,
Push in any dough that might have exploded out over the edges
Bake about 20-25 min or until dark golden brown and bubbly,
You can even pull apart a roll from the center to make sure it is finished
Once out of the oven, flip over onto serving plate!
Serve and Enjoy!
THEY ARE SO AMAZING!!!!!

These sticky buns are so good we make them for the last breakfast of EVERY camp! Could you imagine being abound those sticky buns about ever five days! Imagine how sticky your buns would get! : )

Back at Camp... For the Last Summer

So the summer has officially begun. To my surprise I am rather indifferent of how I think this summer will go. While I do feel that some things will go swimmingly, I know others will be much harder to bare. As most people already know, I work in a commercial kitchen as the head cook at Hartstone Bible Camp. This will be my seventh summer there and I truly love the job. I have grown to learn so much about cooking, baking, and just plain living. One of the blessings but also hardships, which I am sure most of you would agree, is living at home with my parents. They are the directors of the camp and so I have now made the summer transition to living back with my parents. Most of the summer I have my own private room out on the porch : ) sounds like I got kicked out there, but honestly it is the coolest, the most fun, and is the place where I find the most privacy. I sleep out on my day bed and enjoy the echoing sounds of nature around me every night. At the moment it is raining (some summer!) so I have taken up lodging in the extra bedroom in my parents trailer. Which even as I write this, I am so close to my parents I can hear the pages of my Mother's magazine flip and the clock sitting next to my dad tick. Let's just say, you haven't truly experienced paper thin walls until you have lived in my parents house! Though it is difficult living with parents for the usually reasons, it is also a blessing. They take care of me, they feed me and put a roof or overhang (because of the porch) over my head all summer! I love being home with my mom as she helps me work on wedding planning and loves to play skip-bo and mexican train with me. There are always project to be done and the work never ends, but it is part of the beauty of being up here. It is also fun being around my dad as he follows his honey-do list and tries to make this place into the heaven my parents tend to envision. The hard part is going to be away from Ryan for three whole months. Typing it is even difficult for me. Yuck. We did about a year, I know we can do another three long distance. Right? Ugh...
But back to happy news, I am excited to be in charge of the kitchen again this year, though I really don't know what all is in store for me. Now that my old assistant Courtney is six days over due with her first baby and is planning on not running around the kitchen this summer with a newborn on her hip, I have a new assistant Julie, who also just found out she is pregnant! Babies Babies everywhere! O my! Julie is super fun though and I know this summer will be great with her as well.
I am kind of at a stand still with wedding stuff. I really need a photographer and a cake person. Anyone know any affordable cake people or photographers in the walnut creek/ danville area? Let me know if you do!
Tomorrow I am off to see my nephew Emery and my brother and sister-in-law. I am so excited! I haven't seen E-Money since Christmas and being that he is almost two, those last six months I am sure have brought more changes than I even want to admit! I am so stoked to see him run around like a little boy saying and doing funny things, since I hear that is his usual temperament. I will give a full report of my time with him when I get back to camp next Sunday.
Speaking of family, I just got to go see my sister and brother-in-law and got to have a blast with them this past memorial day weekend! My sister is one of my best and dearest friends and I always forget how much I miss her and her husband Noah until I am around then again. They are always such a wonderful example of what love should be. They are always so ready and eager to listen to me and anyone who needs an ear to hear. They are thoughtful and so open to helping those around them. O how I love my Michelle and Noah! While I was there we were able to do so many wonderful things! I got to go to church with them on Sunday, and have an extendedly long coffee date with my sister at Simone's. We went to the beach and got to hang out with their adopted church family. Then we had an amazing dinner of fresh salmon burgers from Trader Joe's with homemade soy mayo and fresh cole slaw. Then on Monday we got to sleep in and then spend the day slowly turning my sister's porch into the menagerie she has always longed for. Continued by a wonderful BBQ with some of my sister's friends from work and their husbands. All in all, I got to see my sister and experience a little more of her day to day life, which I always enjoy!
So I have come to a halt on my old movie watching, simply because the internet is too slow up here at camp to even watch a you-tube video, let alone a full blown movie!

When it comes down to it, I know this summer will be good and being that it will be my last one here it is bitter sweet for yet another reason. It is interesting to reflect back on years past, seeing how you change and seeing how the world changes around you... because it really does! All this change just reminds me that I need prayer, prayer and encouragement to get through the summer, and to come out on the other side, happy, healthy and ready to move on to my next adventure!