"Hello muddah!

Hello faddah!
Here I am at
Camp Granada
Camp is very
entertaining
And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining!"

You might have guessed it--or not, it's kind of outlandish-- but I have (had!) not gone camping before!!

FOR REAL!

I don't think that sleeping in a tent in our backyard when I was 6 counts... especially since we had to go inside when it started raining...

Anyway! So this summer I decided to go to a student congregation instead of a family congregation. All the people in this congregation are AM-AZ-ING! I LOVE THEM! But moving past that, we were planning a boating trip down at Lake Rathbun and I happened to mention that I had never, in all of my 21 years, gone camping. And so all plans were changed and we went down a day early so that we could go camping!! HOORAY!!!!!

We got down there just as it was getting dark, and I helped to set up my first tent. Then we had MARVELOUS food provided by Hibby (the main organizer of this fantastical event!) and Hibby's family. Then we sat around the campfire in true camping fashion and chatted until aboooouuuut... 1:30 in the morning.

Then we went to bed.

Alas, did we sleep? NO! Some raccoons were having a HAY DAY outside of the girl tent. AND THEN the wind had a COW all over the place AND WE ALMOST DIED because our tent wasn't staked down! (I didn't set that tent up!) AND THEN IT RAINED FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT! And the little *plink plink plink* on the tin roof nearby almost DROVE ME NUTS! But no worries! We DIDN'T die. It was an AWESOME adventure.

I LOVE CAMPING!!!

Above is a picture of all of us on the trip-- seriously, one of the. funnest. weekends. of. my. life.

Well, to start off with, here is a picture of Iowa. Is it everything you thought it would be--

AND MORE?!?!?!
(Those are soybeans, by the way- not corn)

And here is a picture of me.
Dead.
In the middle of this country road.

JK! JK! This "pass off" on my list is to lay (lie?) in the middle of a country road. I know, I know, I know. Lame, right? WRONG! There is something terribly thrilling about stopping your car in the middle of the road, getting out, and laying down in the very spot that someone else (whether animal or human) could have been run over and actually DIED before! (did that make any sense?)

Or it could just be thrilling cuz you've never done it before.
OR maybe because it is the breaking of a social norm.
OR! OR! OR!

Above is the view of my on the road. And below is the view from laying down on the road.
And there is my photographer, Padder (after I got the camera from him). Doesn't he look just wonderfully contemplative?
So yeah. It was AWESOME! I recommend anyone and everyone to go and lay down in the middle of the road! (preferably when no one is coming, but hey- who am I to tell you what to do?)

(Sing the following song to the tune of the "Oscar Meyer Wiener" song)

Smarmy, smarmy, smarmy, smarmy smarmy.
I really like that word, oh, can't you see-ee-eeeee
Smarmy, smarmy, smarmy, smarmy, smarmeeeeee
Though it's not my personality.

Smarmy really has nothing to do with this post.

Moving on! Oh boy have I ever done a ton of things this summer that pass things off my list! The problem is finding the time to write down all of the experiences... So I guess that I'll write down the most recent one that I did: make a market bag!

This bag is supposed to the "green" way of doing things- you know, use your own bag at the market to save all sorts of plastic trees and things...
But I already don't use plastic bags very often cuz it's just kind of wasteful, and I generally have really big purses that I can fit things into. (makes the five finger discount veeeeeery efficient! Jk! Jk!) This bag was only supposed to have the handles, but I added a shoulder strap because I just like shoulder straps, that's why.
But see, the next problem is that this bag is made using triple crochet! And what does that mean, class? That there are gigantic holes! But what about coins and pencils and other necessary writing accessories- wouldn't they slip right through? Yes, class, you are correct. Therefore, I made a cute little pencil bag and a cute little coin purse to eliminate that problem. I thought that they turned out rather cute and little.

THE END!