We're home!

It feels like I've been gone for months. Dan explains that camp-time is different from realworld-time. In camp, a day is like a week in the real world. This explains why the friendships formed feel so strong even after a relatively short period. For example, Ben met a boy named Nat who was in his group. After less than a day, Ben told me Nat was his best friend. Fortunately Nat felt the same way, and they were inseparable for the entire two weeks. I had to pry them apart for an hour a day for "rest time" after lunch. Ben was in tears when the group went on a trip to the local ice cream parlor, and he wasn't able to ride in Nat's car because there wasn't enough room. Rebecca didn't seem to form an attachment to one single person, but she loved camp so much that she sobbed as we pulled away. I felt like a heel. Dan comforted her by recounting that he felt the same way as a boy, when camp was over for the summer. He even teared up a little. It's a very powerful place. All that being said, I was pretty darn happy to come home. I love being in my own place with the ability to get a little privacy once in a while. Plus, I do love air conditioning. And television. And my coolio NASA foam mattress. But I had a very enjoyable time at camp, and I made some new friends and strengthened some established connections. The best part was teaching arts and crafts to the kids; most of them were very enthusiastic about learning new things or just playing around with stuff they already knew they liked. One exciting thing happened. Not exciting in a good way, but it turned out okay. Dan picked up some cash that he was going to use to pay for the dog's kennel stay (he stayed at a farm upstate while we were at camp). On the day we took the little kids for ice cream, I asked him for some cash. He went to get it and it was gone. He freaked out completely. It was almost $300. He figured he probably left it in his shorts pocket, which had gone to the laundry earlier that day. He was convinced it wouldn't be there when they came back the next day. Sure enough, the laundry arrived and no cash. He was distraught. We had both searched the shelves where he had been keeping his money several times, but as I was putting the clean laundry away I decided to take ALL the clothes off the shelf and search the pockets. I was coming up empty until I picked up his swim trunks and the money fell out. Evidently I had been moving things around but not picking them up and shaking them out, and the money had been twisted up in there somehow. It was a huge relief for both of us, and tensions evened out. Until then, things had been pretty rough. We are very fortunate that Dan makes enough money that I can stay home with the kids, but with the way things are going with the economy that $300 was NOT disposable. We're both very thankful that I was brilliant enough to find it. ;) Now all that's left is to wade through all this stinky lake-water-smelling laundry and try to get the house back in order. I left it a mess when I went, and Dan didn't do too much to remedy it while I was away, so here it still is for me to fix. I have to get things ready for my friend Pam to come visit in just over a week! Yay!!! (She's heard me talk about my lack of housekeeping skills, so she won't be TOO shocked to find a mess.) So happy to be back and blogging again, and hopefully I'll have some knitting progress to share soon.