that i am my mothers daughter.

we were in Walmart trying to find decorations and prizes for the harvest carnival for around $100 or less when the statement is made that, ‘we need cupcakes for all the kids coming to the carnival tomorrow.’

ok, i think. ‘well, either we can buy boxed mix or just the ingredients, which would be cheaper.’

ten minutes, two boxes of eggs, two tubs of margarine, a bag each of flour and sugar later, it looks like i’m making cupcakes for 170.

with no baking cases.

friday morning, and jordan and i go on an expedition to the end of the street to get baking cases from family dollar. (at this point jordan thinks i’m looking for cases of bacon.) family dollar = fail. save a lot = success!

once i have the baking cases and extra margarine, i start making cakes… thank the lord for the electric hand mixer (which i pretty much break) in the kitchen…

four batches of cake batter (so that’s 32 eggs) later, we’re done with cupcakes to spare…

and margarine. so orange buttercream icing it is…

anyway. the point of this story is, apparently i relish baking large amounts of cakes for children and teenagers and all the other interns, and then helping people decorate them whilst wearing a tartan-ish moo-moo/housecoat thing and a tea cosy hat and slippers (baffies) and offering people ‘a wee cup of tea?’ in a weird old lady scottish accent.

so the other exciting thing that happened this weekend was that we went to Hershey Park and Messiah College with a bunch of our 3-5th graders. and i charged my camera batteries. and i took the camera… but then i left it in my bag in the van… ooops… sorry guys, i failed. maybe someone else will have great photos they can share…

so Hershey on saturday was awesome, i had Shydel and Craig (pronounced the american/canadian way like creh-gh, not cray-gh) and they were both up for all the big scary rides… however we planned badly with the first part of our time there, and missed out on lots of big ride opportunities, BUT, aftr dinner we got a map and hit up 3 of the biggest scariest rollercoasters and lots of other slightly less scary still cool rides. it was a lot of fun…

back to the hotel, and then into the pool- i had three girls in my room in the end- and we had a freakin’ good time- especially with the jacuzzi…

snacks, ghost stories, tv and bed, and we were all out like a light…

the clocks changed that night, and so i woke up at 8am thinking, oh crap! we have to be at breakfast already, these clocks probably changed automatically… shoot! and then realised, by looking at my watch that actually, it was only 7am. so we had an hour to get ready, which was just as well, cos all three girks wanted showers and Winnie and i still had to get dressed and packed too..

Messiah- the kids got to go explore with the students, and we got the day off…. lunch in the cafeteria, almost losing a child, then more free time… where i got attacked by sharpie… yuh.

back on the bus… and time to go home… all was controlled mayhem for about 20 minutes and then, there was an hour or so of brilliant peace, card games and magic tricks were played, several games of squares were enjoyed (that game is a life saver!) and then… we got near home. and it became crazy again. it was just really sad to see a kid that had been enjoying himself so much for so long need to react out, and become unable to listen to directions or enjoy the last half hour of the trip.. it made me sad.

over all, an awesome trip and i’m really sorry i don’t have photos for you…

i took photos. real photos. on 35mm film.

they are at walmart.

this time next week, i will hopefully have them back.

yaaaaaaaas.

oh yeah, and i’ve finally put some batteries on to charge (but i can only find two of my four… ooops)

there was something else i was going to say-

oh, we made yellow cake buns today.

and i think i’m learning how to not be so scottish in my attitude towards myself and other people- to accept compliments, to be positive rather than negative, all that good stuff. don’t worry- it’s a very very very slow process… but i realised today that it’s starting…

is a day for beards, and back rubs, and using a manual camera with black and white film that contains pictures of orphans from romania. yes. today is that day.

also, for having the word ‘poop’ written across your forehead.

i will aim to finish this film and develop it and post the pictures as soon as.

and i get to start making a new beard soon (yeah josh!)

oh, but the rest of life this past week? well, friday we went to the beach. and it was cold. and i read Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott and had to think quietly a lot. it’s an awesome book. i’ll send it to whoever wants to read it…

saturday, we went to NY for the day, hung out and wandered around in the rain… spent too much money at a comedy show in the evening that a few of us stayed back for, and then slept in a bit on sunday, spoke to some VERY important people back home (yay!!) even got to see a few of their faces (sorry if you weren’t one of thosse people. you’re still important) and generally slob around in my pj’s. then, instead of going to church i went to the downtown house and we made three bean chili and banana bread. and it was good. and so was the conversation. in fact, the conversation was so good, it was like church. though i’m beginning to believe more and more that just living with christians and doing life with christians is how ‘church’ should look. cos i know that church is not the building. it’s the people.

so, then the week started up again. and it’s been good so far. better because ellen and i discovereed that we’d each love to have a beard, for real, if it were possible and (for me anyway) i could grow one that was crazy.

yeah. that’s my life. :)

and yet i still haven’t charged my camera batteries.

so-

wednesday and thursday we had the banquet days, we were rehearsing and setting up and doing an evening for the parents wednesday, which was AMAZING! and then on thursday there was the actual banquet…

so my week was pretty packed, between rehearsing kids for their speaking parts, dressing the set, running around trying to remember how to ’stage manage’, just generally enjoying being back in the theatre again…

the show they created was full of songs and stories from the kids about what all they had learnt and how they’d grown through being part of urban.. they sang songs of God, of love, of strength and of their freedom… they spoke about their hopes and dreams… it was brilliant.

some of my favourite bits were seeing the kis who just weren’t sure at all during rehearsals really come into their own… it was awesome! this one kid, and his Mum, were up on stage talking about how he’d built a boat with urban, and they’d both been on it. They killed out there- the audience loved it- especially the first night when he forgot his line and his mum prompted him… just a really true evening. (most of the photos on the front page, here, are banquet photos)

so there was that, and now, i gotta go to camp… i will finish the rest of the fun of camden later… :)

i was going to take lots of photos for this post. but my camera battery died.

so instead, i’ll tell you that we’re doing a penny drive at camp and in three weeks, we’ve raised over $200!

two HUNDRED dollars! we were expecting maybe $60 by this point.

these kids are crazy.

i’ll get some photos and give you guys the photo love soon… sorry i’m so lame.. :)

i honestly never knew that slurpee’s were the way to a kids heart… or could be the cause of an intense rivalry…

yesterday was the day of slurpee-bribery-redemption. so they all (9 kids. x-large slurpees cost $1.89 each… yeesh.) got their ‘large’ (they tricked me!) slurpees, and we came back to class, played some games, hung out for a bit… then, Garianna gives her slurpee and asks me to hold it. so i do.

she comes back, takes the slurpee, then hands it off to me again, so i say, ‘oh, can i drink it?’ and make as if to drink some.

she says, ’i wish you would’

so i do.

today, she went off on one about how i owe her a slurpee… uhm, no. you invited me to drink it. but she’s just in it for more juice… it’s never gonna happen.

i keep finding myself saying things that are not real english… between picking up the slang, being mocked for the scottish accent… it’s quite a ride out here in camden new jersey.

:)

so today has been a nice day. apart from the space key on this keyboard which needsa ’super-hard’ hit to get it to work… so i apologise for any lack of spacing….

hada little bit of asewing party with some of theother girls around urban…

but i get boredeasily.

thursday, one of my girls(5th grade, but i like her a lot…) told usthat she was getting baptised that evening!! exciting times! so hopefully we’ll find out howit all went on tuesday atclass…

worked with some kidsat camden forward for the banquet trhat is coming up soon…

i feel likethere should besome big stories from thelast fewweeks, but it has mostly been life… i will havebetterstoriessoon.. \

those who are on the update list- a proper one is headed your way soon!!

i have nothing else just now… :)

it’s been an interesting week here in camden…

to illustrate, here are some photos:

this was before the class arrived, i put up a streamer partition…

the rainbow (a beautiful double- you can’t really see it n the photo) that we saw on monday night…

so these are some of my kids and one of the street leaders at our site… :) we were building towers to talk about the tower of babel… tenuous link, but it was a lot of fun…

i’ll be back again soon with more pictures and some more storiers for you all… :)

and just in case you’ve forgotten wqhat i look like…

not the greatest photo ever, but hey… :)

is a school.

hopefully, we’ll do a mural there come december…

eeeshk. i hate red tape.