OOZED at Camp

That's me getting OOZED at camp this past week. Our theme this year is "OOZE Cruise" - where we are cruising through Paul's missionary journeys...sailing the "7 Cs". It is pretty cool. I had a blast during Week #1. I thought I would make it the whole week without being OOZED. It was up to the kids to nominate leaders to be oozed. Every morning they would get nomination slips and each camper would nominate a leader of their choice. Then, all the slips went into a bucket. We would spin the bucket and choose 8 names. Those 8 names would get 8 different colored hats. The different colored hats represented the 8 colors on the wheel. We would spin the wheel and whatever color it landed on was the person who got oozed. If your name was drawn more than once, then you got multiple hats. Wednesday at lunch I ended up wearing 5 different hats. The entire boys dorm ganged up on me and every single boy at the camp voted for me. Lovely little boogers. Needless to say, the odds were in my favor and I got OOZED in the OOZINATOR! It was slimy, chunky & cold. Yummy! Pistachio pudding...slightly watered down. I don't think I'll ever eat pistachio pudding again after this year's camp. :)

On a brighter note...15 kids gave their life to Christ by the end of the week!! 10 were baptized at camp and 5 will soon follow at church. Amazing week!

Has it been 10 years already?

So, out of the 3 Mitchell kids...I always voted John "most likely to go to his 10-High School Reunion". And so far, my calculations are correct. He was always the social butterfly, involved in every possible extra curricular activity and every sport imaginable. And somehow he managed to land a date to almost every formal dance during High School - even as a freshman! Unbelievable. Matt and I would make fun of him, but deep down, we were just jealous that we weren't as cool. :) I made it to 2 dances in all my 4 years of High School. Senior Homecoming and Senior Prom. Both dates sucked. But I wanted to say that I went...so I went. Oh wait...don't forget the Junior/Senior Reception. That was was a winner too. Somebody should have given my date a mint. Haha!

The invitation came a couple months ago. I read it. Max asked if we were going. Thought about it for two seconds and said no. It really is sad. All those years of my life and I could only care to speak to a few people from High School. And those are mostly friends from the youth group. They were the ones I grew up with and they were the most genuine people I knew.

I think it funny to watch "teen movies" now. They stereotype the "jocks", the "popular girls", the "geeks", and the "band kids" in those movies and although they exaggerate a bit...it is not too far off from real life High School life. Sad, but true. You do have the "weirdy-mc-weirdees", the "jerks" and the "mean girls". I tried to stay under the radar as much as possible, but if you had to label me...I probably was a band kid. That is where I spent most of my time. Music was my life and I loved it. Serves me great in my job now. :)

My husband is the opposite of me. He LOVED High School and would go back in a heart beat. Of course, he was the Captain of the football team, wrestling champ, choir, show choir, clubs, honors, had a date to every dance....wait a second...I'm thinking John and Max are a little too similar! :) He can't wait for his HS reunion, where as me...I lived vicariously through Ang's pictures on facebook. I'm pathetic. I wouldn't know what to say to these people. In my dream world, I would rent an expensive car, pretend to work a ridiculously awesome career, and get a makeover that day to impress people. I would flaunt my good-looking husband in front of all my "crushes" who passed me over during my "ugly duckling" phase. haha

But when it all comes down to it. I love my life now. I love how God has worked through my heart over the years. He taught me how to work through some tough situations in my HS years. Friendship. Loyalty. Faithfulness. Heartbreak. Hurt. Frustration. Loneliness. Worthiness. Respect for myself. Direction. And the list goes on. I wouldn't trade my life for anything...well, somedays I think about how I could have done things differently, but other than that...I'm pretty happy.

I'm happy for those who had a great HS season in their life...like my husband and my brother. I hope that they can share with me their secrets of making the most of that time in their life. I'm sure the fact that they were both "ladies men" helped them get through just nicely. :) But to all of you still in HS - enjoy it as much as you can. Make the most of each opportunity. Make good friends. Laugh alot and don't worry about what people think of you. Stay away from alcohol and drugs. Get involved in extra curricular activities and find out what where you are gifted. Study hard and respect your teachers. And maybe...just maybe....when your 10-year HS reunion invitation comes around, you may think a little longer than 2 seconds before saying no.

This bitter bug is done now. :)