Hi everyone...I hope that all of you have enjoyed your summer and are excited to be getting back on campus. I'm SUPER EXCITED to have you all coming back over the upcoming days...it's a bit quiet around here without you...well it is once you get used to the noise coming from the patio project!
In order to be a successful staff we have to be able to communicate with one another, which includes feeling comfortable sharing information with one another and doing so in an approperiate manner. For that reason and a few others we'll talk about during training, we have a staff blog that we'll be using throughout the year. Sorry if this random request was confusing to you new folks! Hopefully my email beforehand cleared it up for you.
If you're ready...you can start this blogging adventure by posting a story from your summer...it can be funny, interesting, silly, disgusting, scary, etc. If you need a little help, check out my story by clicking on the word "Comments" at the bottom right of this entry.
Happy blogging and I'll see you all soon!
Take care & safe travels.
KELLY
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As Adeline has gotten older, she continues to teach Don and I the parenting lessons that only a toddler can. This summer she has given us many opportunities to learn. Here's my favorite. One Sunday afternoon we decided to take a trip to Wal-Mart. This is typically not something that we do as a family since packing up a toddler and carting them through a store can be challenging. This day was no different. Adeline wanted EVERYTHING that we put in the cart, but she wanted it to put in her mouth! She finally settled down when we gave her the mini bananas we picked up. The mini bananas are just that...miniature bananas and they come packaged in a plastic bag. Adeline held onto them all through the store and once we got to the car, she would not surrender them. So, I let her hold onto them in her car seat. The entire ride back, she was content as could be...not a peep out of her, this should have been our first red flag. Once we were back, I opened the door to get her out and found her covered with banana! She had been chewing on the bananas and punctured two of them and was attempting to eat the banana through the plastic! It was quite the mess and she ended up having the two bananas for her afternoon snack, so thankfully they didn't go to waste. Our Parenting Lesson Learned: When a toddler is quiet, beware of what she's doing.
Adventure Begins! (picture)
As many of you know, I went to Europe this summer for my brother’s wedding in Scotland. Well this story starts when my girlfriend Alyssa and I first got off the plane from the US and landed in the London Heathrow airport where we were supposed to catch a connecting flight to Edinburgh.
So they have these little card things people have to fill out about where they’re from and why they’re visiting Europe and where they’re going and who they’re connecting with. So I didn’t get very good details on things before I left and I didn’t know the exact address of where we were staying. (later we found out that there is not address for the castle we stayed at, it’s just “The Dalkeith Estate”. It’s the only castle in Dalkeith, Scotland and serves as the student living/learning housing for all kids in the Wisconsin study abroad program.) So we just left that part of the card blank. Well when we got to the security guard (a British Indian) the conversation went like this….
“You didn’t fill in a part”
Me: “Oh, what part”
“The address of where you are going.”
Me: “Oh, I’m not sure on the address, but it’s in Dalkeith.”
“That’s not good enough. Where in Dalkeith?”
Me: “Um, the castle?”
“There are many castles in Scotland, that is not good enough”
Me: “ Um, I don’t know then.”
“Who are you meeting?”
Me: “My brother, we’re because he’s getting married. He goes to the University of Edinburgh, does that help?
“No, there are many universities. What is the phone number of your brother?”
Me: “I don’t have his number.”
“How did you ever contact him then? How did you plan to visit?”
Me: “We talked on the phone, but when he calls from overseas the call gets rerouted, so I never actually had his real phone number.”
“How were you going to meet him then?
Me: “He’s picking us up at the airport when we land.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. This is a big red flag to me if you don’t even know anything about where you are going. What if someone kidnapped you! How would you know who to contact?! You cannot just come into a country and not have the information you need! And now you are wasting my time! You are wasting the que’s time! I shouldn’t let you into this country. You know I can deny this visa and you can just sit here and be stuck in the London airport! And if you get denied a visa it looks very bad and it will be very hard for you to ever get another visa into a country again!!
Me: “….all I have is this itinerary my brother made us…?”
*flips back and forth and back and forth through the itinerary”
“This is vague….., there is some things in here…………alright, I’ll pass you, but don’t let this happen again!!!”
Me: “…thank you…”
So we finally made it past the entrance into London. We still needed to catch our next flight to Edinburgh. Luckily we had several hours before our flight departed. So we walked around for a half hour and found the security check point where they throw away all your precious water bottles. So we walked around past there and found a big room and didn’t know where to go at all. So we walked up to a counter and asked a lady. She had a mixed Asian/British accent and I’m not sure if she understood us, but she told us we were in the wrong building (there are 5) and that we needed to go downstairs, find the shuttle and take it to building 1. So we found the shuttle and took the 15 minute ride to another building and found a bag check and waited in line and when we got there they had no record of us on the flight, and they found out it was because we were supposed to check in to Midland instead of Midland Airways, which was where we were (the names were something like that anyway) and lo and behold the one we were supposed to be on was exactly where we just came from. So we found the shuttle again, took the 15 minute ride back to the other building, found the right place to check in……which ended up being just around the corner of where we asked the nice lady for directions! :D
We then made it with about an hour to spare in our waiting area. Don’t bother being hungry or thirsty though, because there are only vending machines around, no water fountains, and you just came from America, so you only have paper pounds and no coin pounds, but vending machines only take coins over there (almost everything does) and they don’t believe in machines to split paper pounds into coins, only in machines that split larger coins into smaller coins……..and then we got on the plane and made it to Edinburgh.
And what do you know my brother wasn’t there..(what if we had been kidnapped?) and I was already upset at him so we walked around the airport for 30 minutes and decided to go back to the gate we came out and just waited there for him to show up. He eventually came….and I yelled at him….and then I went to sleep in a castle. There may have been a pea under the mattress, but I didn’t care, because I was soooo tired.
Dalkeith Castle (picture)
And this all could have been avoided if Kelly would have just denied my request to leave early and go to Europe in the first place! ;P
I am actually typing this in an airport terminal as my family and I are on our way out east to Hartford, CT to see a friend. I am leaving today, and return on the 21st at about midnight... to leave to head back to MC Hall at noon on the 22nd... Very fast paced.
The rest of the summer leading up til now was also very busy. I occupied it by working 3 jobs, and between 65 and 70 hours/week. I was promoted, then later had to hire my replacement at my one job, and then train them to do as well as I in the position. At my other job, i cleaned and detailed over 60 semi trucks. Fun time.
Unfortunately, I do not yet have a fun airport horror story, or any really interesting stories yet this summer, but that has potential to change on this trip. (I am not waiting to respond to the blog until the last minute like I normally do.) I will be sure to fill you all in on how Boston, MA Hartord, CT, and Waterbury, VT go.
Adamme- I had to read your blog aloud to my mother- it was THAT funny. But after all of that at least you have a good story.
Justin- I am so proud of you for making the cut on the first post of the semester... lets just give it 3 months and see if you can maintain it. haha
This summer I have been living with a co-worker and her family. The members of the family are Mike and Cathy and their son Sam (10,) daughter Isabel (13,) and dog named jack. It has been very fun to be a part of a family again and I have learned a lot about Justin Beiber and youtube sensations.
I've taken a few trips including road-tripping to and backpacking in the Smokey Mountain's with a few friends and hiking the Appalachian trail! I also spent a few days in Northern MN along lake superior and kayaked and hiked some. My story is about our kayaking trip. There were 8 of us or so and in lake Superior you have to wear a wet suit since its so darn cold and one can get hypothermia in twenty minutes. It was rainy and foggy and absolutely gorgeous. I was so cold but not nearly as cold as the water. We were cruising around in some sea caves when I realize that my brother is in the water. He was too cold to say anything and his first instinct was to try to get out of the water. I was super scared and my heart started racing. He needed to swim to some rocks in order to warm up and get back into his boat. He was only 50 feet away but he couldn't make it because he was too cold. He's a funny guy. Despite him being so uncomfortable ad cold, when he couldn't swim any longer he said "if only I would have eaten granola." This was funny because we were all so worried. Anyways it was pretty scary and he was dancing and doing push ups on the rocks for a good twenty minutes. The rest of our trip he had to wear a down coat and a fur hat. He looked like a bear on a kayak. It ended up being fine but it was strange because I have never been in a scary situation like that. The water was about 38 degrees. Insane.
Greetings.
Summer for me has not really felt like summer, honestly. The only really 'vacations' I got from work were going to Canada to be a bridesmaid for my cousins wedding (which ended up being work too because we decorated the church) and to the cabin up north with my best friend.
I nannied full time again this summer for 2 young kids and let me tell you it is the best birth control ever! I don't like the whole 'parenting the product of someone else's parenting' thing. It doesn't fly with me. I grew up finishing the food on my plate before I got dessert, where as the parents of the kids I nanny let them eat whatever and if they dont finish their food they can just throw it away and get a treat. At 7 & 8 years old, they both got Kindles and now they dont want to go to the library. I grew up going to the library, so this saddened me as well. Anyway, I have dealt with enough 'booger fingers', kicking eachother, spitting in food to cool it, singing in high pitch voices to their dogs and temper tantrums to last me a lifetime and I end on Friday. I am so thankful that I have a job but am glad to be getting done with it.
I have been so elated to be back at my home church (River Valley) and God has been doing great things in my life. I was offered a paid internship at the marriage center of the church and was told it will be waiting for me when I want it! What a blessing! This summer I read the books 'Heaven is for real' and '23 minutes in Hell' and I would definitely suggest them- they are those type of books that you cant put down.
Other summer adventures include being stranded out on a sandbar in the middle of the Mississippi for 2 hours during the biggest severe thunderstorm of the summer. We had about every type of precipitation whipping at our wet bodies (minus snow). Now I can say I have survived a severe tornado AND a severe thunderstorm outside. God is good.
Oh- and I'm tan. And for a redhead, thats a big deal. Booya.
At the beginning of the summer I had a fun volunteering to help clean up and do other service work in an area that was recently devastated by a flood. Anyways, my boyfriend and I had the fun job to go canoeing down this river (along with 4 other canoes) and pick up any garbage and debris that we could find (it's surprising how much garbage we found, and how many tires)! At one point my boyfriend and I stopped on a beach along the river to eat lunch and then it started pouring! We started to look for shelter and out of the blue, there was this old feed barn not to far away. What are the odds of that? That was an awesome blessing. It was really cold though because we were absolutely drenched! Eventually it all cleared up and the sun was shining again and we kept on canoeing and picking up trash. We got really muddy! Another fun trip I had during the summer was I had the chance to stay with my Uncle near Charleston, South Carolina for a few weeks to be his "intern." My uncle owns a photography business and gallery. It was so much fun to be exposed to such a wonderful arts community and to be in South Carolina period! It's such a beautiful and inspiring place, I loved it! I have a funny story from when I stayed there too. We're all sleeping one night during this storm, and then out of the blue we wake up to this explosion-like sound and then the power goes out in the house and the whole neighborhood. There's this annoying beeping alarm sound going off in the house and my uncle is running around all over the place to try and figure out where the heck it was coming from. It was kind of scary at the time but looking back it was pretty funny. It turned out that the explosion sound was from a nearby electricity line that got hit by a tree branch in the storm. Not much else happened this summer, I had 4 friends get married so there were lots of weddings to go to this summer, and I had lots and lots of painting commission work! I sold 9 of my paintings to a new clinic being built in Rochester, so it will be so exciting to see all of the artwork up in there! I've been running a lot this summer too, and I ran a half-marathon. My goal is to run an actual marathon next summer, so I'll have to see how that goes. I also just ran a triathlon this morning in Lakeville. Let me tell you, it is so much harder than it looks! The swim part is deceivingly difficult, I didn't have too much fun with that. It also sucks when you go from the bike portion right into the run. My legs felt like Jello! Overall, it was a lot of fun to do but you won't catch me running another one anytime soon. :)
Wow. It looks my story has a lot to live up to. Everyone seems to go out and explore the world! Or do something mildly more exciting than what I do with my summer which is work part-time making pizza and chillin' in my hometown of Eau Claire. Also, I played a lot of video games. I even competed in a local tournament. But that’s not exciting. The absolute last thing I've done that is semi-story worthy happened in late May.
During high school I was on the Improv comedy team. In my senior year, we as a team applied to a national festival to take the place the next year in Chicago. Only the nation’s top teams got to attend (and yes I over-dramatized that). Spoiler alert: we got accepted! Fast forward to May…
Besides our coach, we had another previous alumni chaperone. We will call him Jake. Jake had moved to Chicago to pursue a career in performing comedy. He had a show with his team the Friday night we arrived in Chicago. We were set to open. After rushing onto different L trains, we finally arrived in a fairly abandoned neighborhood. We walked down the deserted street when suddenly Jake says we arrived. What we arrived at was a rented out storefront in need of much needed renovations. Black sheets were hung in the windows. We entered to see a make-shift stage set up. The audience consisted of close friends of the performers (there were other teams there as well); maybe 20 people max. At the end, all the teams performed together. The other performers were much like Jake: young performers trying to make a break into the industry. And let me say, they were phenomenal. I was honored to have performed with them. Also, the show was definitely intended for adult audiences. All the performers were crazy! (That’s all I’m going to say…). Right after we were done we went back to the hotel to get some sleep for the festival the next day.
The teams at the Teen Comedy Festival ranged from middle-school to high-school. And to my surprise, three of the coaches for one of the other teams were performers from the night before! Now, I understand how insignificant this sounds to probably all of you, but it was cool to see the double-life of these struggling performers. They were high-school Improv coaches by day, eclectic and outrageous performers by night! It made me realize that when you find something you’re really passionate about, you embrace it and do whatever it takes to fulfill your goals.
Hi All!
I'm super excited to have you all coming back and starting a new year as a staff! My summer has been pretty uneventful! I took two summer classes, which kept me plenty busy, and went to a bunch of brewers games! :) (Go Brewers!!!) I also got to go "up north" to my boy friends house a few times and go on the lake up there, where we went on the jet skis and the boat! I also went to the twin cities with my best friend for a girls weekend, which was a blast! Overall there weren't any great stories that came from any of my adventures, but I did have a lot of fun! :)
I'm not going to lie, I kind of forgot about this ):
However, this summer I went on a roadtrip with my boyfriend's family to South Dakota and Wyoming!
It was a ton of fun, however, 6 people cramped inside of a 26ft RV is kind of a bit much..
Making lunch while being thrown from side to side tends to be a little difficult as well (:
We did end up seeing a lot of main points, such at Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, I loved it.
We saw a total of 7 bears, 3 moose, 1 wolf, and tons of elk!
I've always been into nature and wildlife, so this is definitely one of my favorite kinds of vacations (:
This Summer...
Was all mindless work. I scored a very good job at steal roofing company out of West Salem WI. I found the job on craigslist of all places too! Some great parts about the job were we got to go "out of town" each week which was at least 3 hours away from West Salem so we went to IL, MN and northern WI which was fun. The company also paid for hotels and provided a food allouance which was also epic. Overall this summer was great from an income point of view. I also worked on the weekends back in tomah at local restaraunt as a waitor. Thats about it just tons of work. Great money. A lot of fun. My summer. TA DA!
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