Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 5.

Day 5 of Not Back To School Camp

I woke up that morning...wait a minute. I've used the "I woke up" beginning for these last few posts, way too often...I'll try a new opening this time. Alright let me think. Something more creative...

I arose that morning (haha!) feeling rather tired and achy with a sore throat. I was greatly in need of a shower that day, so I jumped in the freezing shower right as the breakfast bell rang. I took a very fast shower then ran to breakfast while brushing the tangles out of my hair. I didn't eat much breakfast that morning since I wasn't feeling too well, then went over to the art cabin and made a fancy-sparkly-happy poster for my Fairy God Child and had Ian take it to his cabin.

We had Check-in and morning meeting (Check-In, by the way, happens in the morning and at night. They check in all the campers to make sure everyone is still here and safe and not being attacked by lions or something like that. ;-) ) Then we had Advisee meeting and we played this game. I can't remember what it's called, but it's like a mix of Pictionary and Telephone.  One person writes a short sentence and then they pass it to the person next to them and that person draws a picture of what the sentence says. Then they fold over what the first person wrote and pass it to the next person who looks at the picture and writes a sentence about what they think the picture is, and it goes on. So when we played I wrote "A fish in a cup with a spoon" and by the end it was "an alien escaping in a watering can". Hahaha but it was really funny but lots of fun.

Then I ran around camp and I got ready to go on Blake's hike. He had found a new trail that morning that lead to a cool place in the forest where you could see very far and he was taking some people out there to have lunch. I started to go, but I didn't realize how steep and long the hike was going to be so I turned around and went back to camp. I figured that I got poison oak on the bottom of my jeans since there was so much of it when I was walking around that when I got back a carefully changed clothes and put my jeans into a bag. I didn't get poison oak though, don't worry.

The Pool

I went over to the pool where everyone else was, and they were playing pool volleyball. It was lots of fun to watch them. I sat on the side and watched for a while, but it looked like so much fun that I ran and put my swimsuit on and joined them. It was SO much fun, and it turns out I'm not too bad at serving. At some point I made at least 5 points in a row with my serves. It was so much fun. I was on the underdog team, if you will. We had three players on the deeper end, and the other side had five players on the shallow end. So it would seem that the team with more players would easily be winning. Right? Nope.  We were winning for more than half the game. It's all thanks to Abbi. She was on the other side, but she kept talking and forgetting that we were playing so we kept getting loads of points because she kept missing. It was really really funny. We were all laughing so hard, even Abbi. I'd call it one of the best games of Volleyball ever.

After getting changed into my pink dress, there was a workshop slot so I went to Danielle's French workshop and learned a bit of French. It was very interesting and she did a great job teaching us. From then on whenever I say Emily (who was at the workshop too) I'd greet her in French. I'd yell "Salut!(hello) Cava?(how's it going)" to her across the room and she would yell back "Salut! Oui(yes)! Et vous(and you)?" and I'd yell "Oui" then "Revoir(goodbye)" and leave the room. Or when I started getting my cold, when she asked me how I was doing I'd say "comme ci, comme ça(eh so so). It was so much fun! 

We went down and ate lunch, then we were hanging out at the swings for a bit and I talked with Matt about books for a while. Then I saw Danielle and ran up to her and we talked for a bit. I told her about the silk flowers that I had brought so I ran up to my cabin to go get one, and when I came back Serena was talking with Danielle and she had a gift from my Fairy-God Parent. It was a feather necklace and I had Serena braid it into my hair. It looked lovely :) Matt also had Panda dye his hair blue, which looked more purple than blue.

You can't see the feather, but this
is how I braided my hair. :)

Then we had our first Women's Meeting, which was very interesting. Then we had dinner and I had my first night of babysitting Yared. He's so cute! We had enchiladas for dinner. Jake, Sage, Garret, Panda, and Arden had dinner with me and Yared and we had a lovely talk about weird laws while we ate. After we finished eating he got to eat his cough drop. Apparently, Yared loves cough drops. He took me to his cabin and got his "hippie bus" then we went and played the piano for a bit until it was time for Nighttime meeting. So Yared and I walked over to Uncle Dell's and sat down in the back until Grace came and took over watching him.

Next was Trust Circle. It was intense. So what happens is everyone gets three beads and stands in a circle. Then one person walks into the center of the room puts their bead into a basket and makes a statement. Then anyone else who agrees with that statement can step forward. So I could say "I'm Rhanna, and I like cookies" and everyone else who likes cookies steps forward. Except it was much darker and sadder than just liking cookies. At then end I think most people were crying (including myself). After a bit of crying and hugging,  most of us went over to the Lodge to have tea and brownies, and of course chocolate brownies helps everyone feel better. I got "Bedtime tea" in my clothes-pin mail that day so I drank that while I had my brownie.

The couches in the Lodge
that are very comfy!

 Then I went over to sit on the couch where Josh and Joel were playing music and I wrote about the day. Matt and Jake sat down next to me, and we drank our tea, talked and listened to music. It was fantastic and so relaxing, I could do it every night. I stayed up talking and listening to music till about 12:20 then I got ready for bed, and went to sleep.

and THAT was day 5.
~Rhanna xx

Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 4.

Back to write about day four:

I woke up a bit later than the last few days because I stayed up late the night before. I woke up around 8:20am, made some tea and went to go read for a bit. I read a bit of Tamora Pierce's "Tortall and other Lands."  Quite a good book so far.

  Ben and Robert came and said hello then went over and joined Abbi who was doing early morning yoga. More people woke up and we all went and had breakfast. French toast, sausage, fruit, oatmeal, and cereal.  I had the GF french toast and sausage.

We went over to hang out in front of Uncle Dell's and Matt and I tried to play Ping pong but I was terrible so Jake went after me and I watched. I ran up to my cabin real quick and got some of my cold medicine because my throat was starting to hurt. Then we went in for morning meeting and I sat in one of the stacked chairs and I had a GREAT view of the room. Had a regular morning meeting and it was announced that Assassin and Fairy God Parent/Child were starting today. I went and took my cold stuff then went and picked my Fairy God Child. I decided not to play Assassin this time.

Assassin, for those of you who don't know, is a game. Everyone who wants to play Assassin puts their name into a bowl and the next day everyone picks a name. So let's say that I'm playing Assassin. I'll pick a name and I have to go up to that person and tell them "you're dead" but I can't whisper it and no one else can hear me say it. If I successfully do that, then I get that person's piece of paper with the name of the person that they were trying to get and I take the paper and try to go get that next person and the game continues until there are only two players left who have each other's name. So then it's only them trying to get each other and who ever "kills" the other person first wins the game.

Fairy God Parent/Child is another, much nicer, less deadly game. It starts out the same as Assassin. Everyone who wants to play puts their name into a bowl and the next day everyone picks a name. So, again I'll use myself as an example. After choosing a name, I secretly do nice things to my "fairy god child" like make a poster saying "have a nice day" and have someone go put it up in their cabin or another place where that person will see it. Or send them gifts through other people, or give them nice letters in their mail, or just send people to go hug them. And you usually keep everything a secret from that person. 

So after morning meeting I went with Jules and Arden and finished moving the wood chips into place and then we went to Advisee group where I taught them to sing the song 'Robin Redbreast' by Music Together and we sang a few other songs and did check in.

I had my workshop that day. I was teaching how to make Needle-felt Pumpkins. While I walked up to my cabin to get my stuff Matt followed me so that no one could get him at Assassin. He followed me around or had me stick close to him pretty much all day, which was really funny.

At one point, one of the campers Ben all of the sudden started running down the hill with his hands over his ears, yelling and screaming and all of us were like "what just happened." Turns out he was running away from the person who was trying to kill him in Assassin. Then once we got why he was running and yelling we all started laughing. It was hilarious! It also seemed like a lot of the people playing Assassin had bodyguards, and I was used to protect a few people. one camper would run up to me and throw her arm around my shoulders and have me walk her to where she was going so nobody could get her.  It almost felt like I was playing the game. hahaha!

While I was up at my cabin I grabbed the bottle of bubbles that I brought and I grabbed my bag of supplies for my workshop. I gave the bubbles to Yared (Grace's son. he's 3 and super cute) and then I went into the Library where I was holding my workshop. Danielle, Matt, and Kione came to my workshop, and I think it went very well! I told a little history about Needle-felting and how it works. Matt decided to make a planet with his wool, but Danielle and Kione made cute pumpkins. It was lots of fun!

After I finished I ran up and put my stuff away, and went and helped a tiny bit with some work-trade until lunch. We had chili for lunch and it was VERY good and had a lovely conversation with the people at my table. Then I hung out on the really comfy sofa in the Lodge, talking and stuff like that until Siesta and then I called Mom. I was really missing her that day. 

I was supposed to  have my first day of Babysitting Yared, but he slept through the whole time that I was supposed to watch him. Dad came by and we took a hike up to the Watering hole, which was really nice, and I told him all about camp and everything that had happened. When we got back they had started the Teen-to-Adult panel that I voted for us to have earlier that morning, and Dad and I listened to it. They were talking about what it's like moving out and living with other people and stuff like that. 

Dad left and I had a lovely dinner of Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Soy-free Lasagna and garlic bread with GF carrot cake for dessert. and I had a lovely conversation during dinner though what it was about I can't remember. 

We went to nighttime meeting, and while we were waiting for Grace and the rest of the Staff to come a few girls started doing this hilarious dance and when the Look-out ran in saying Grace was coming, we all broke out into Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Then we were all laughing really hard.

 After meeting we had some more workshops. I went to Retta's Israeli dance workshop and it was awesome! I left half-way through because I was feeling very tired that night, but I went back and they had just finished learning this really cool dance, so I jumped in and learned the next one which was amazingly fun. I call it the Kiss Kiss dance. We did that until it was time for the 2nd Talent Show which was being held in the Lodge with Sage as MC (Mistress of Ceremonies).

Robert played his wonderful Native American flute, Roxy showed us her fashion design drawings which were great, Serena sang a song and played guitar, Matt S. and Abbi told hilarious stories for Moth Radio, and Ben did an amazing improv dance to a song. At the end of his dance everyone was standing up and clapping and cheering. Then we walked down to the fire-pit and watched Daniel do Poi. That's the fire spinning. It was incredible. 

After the Talent show I went to Uncle Dell's to write a bit, but it was too crowded in there for me the really think so I walked back over the Lodge and it was much more quiet there so I sat down and wrote about the day. Danielle came and we wrote and talked a bit before I went to bed. I said goodnight to everyone, and told Matt to go to bed (he said he had been feeling like he was catching a cold earlier that day) and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was so tired and I was really missing Mom that night so I was very happy to go to sleep.

and THAT is day four. Day 5 will be coming shortly :)

~Rhanna xxx

(P.S. sorry there are no captions for the pictures. Blogger wouldn't let me put any without messing up the rest of what I had already written. So I'll put them here. The first picture is the cover of the book I was reading, Then 2nd is me in front of my cabin, and the last one is a view that I took from the hike up to the watering hole. So lush! and the fourth one is Daniel doing poi.)

Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 3

Day 3 of Not Back To School Camp:

I woke up early again because I was starving. Got dressed, very quietly, and went down to the Lodge and made a cuppa tea. Matt S. was up listening to the recordings he took last night during the jam. I sat next to him and listened for a bit, then took my tea and went and sat outside and wrote about last night.

The Lodge where we eat Breakfast, Lunch,
and Dinner. 

Then went and took a very fast shower. I walked back up to my cabin and grabbed my cloak because I was freezing after getting out of the shower. I did a bit more of drawing and I was joined by Serena and we talked a bit before breakfast. It was kind of fun watching everyone slowly wake up and tiredly walk over to the Lodge and get ready for breakfast. Blake came over and joined us and he and Serena talked about back-packing. I learned that Blake LOVES mac-and-cheese while he's hiking. lol!

We circled up before breakfast, and quite a few people liked my cloak. I ate breakfast with Matt, Sage, Danielle, and Panda and we had a lovely time talking over breakfast though I can't remember what we talked about.

The bell. They rang this
when it was time for any
sort of meeting.

After breakfast we went over and hung out at the swings for a bit until Advisee group.We each had three minutes to do what ever we wanted. I asked if we could play Ye-Haw again. And, I think it was Sydney, who had us sit in silence listening to the forest, which was really relaxing. I almost fell asleep.

When advisee meeting was over I went to do work-trade with Arden, Jules, and Macy. We were moving wood chips under a play area so it would be more safe.   I saw Dad's car parked and I knew that he must be somewhere, but we were further out and I knew he'd never find us. So I stared doing our family whistle. It's a special whistle that whenever one of us hears it we know another person in our family is calling us. So I'm whistling like mad. Cupping my hands around my mouth as I whistle, and Arden is like "what are you doing?" So I told him I was trying to call my Dad and he tried whistling along with me. Then Jules was whistling too. So all three of us were whistling, and STILL Dad didn't hear us. So I ran over and found him talking to Matt who was learning how to walk on the Slack line. I gave Dad a big hug and we walked over to where we were working and I showed him what we were doing, then he left and we finished our work.

I went to Abbi's Bookworms Unite! workshop, which was great! We all got to give a little reviews about books that we liked. It was so much fun, and we all agreed that we could have done it for hours.

We went and had lunch and then we finished work-trade. I called Mom during Siesta and then went to hang out at the swings with Matt and Sage. Matt was playing on the Slack line and I met Jake who was watching. I tried the Slack line with help, which was lots of fun. Sage, Matt, Jake and I all went swimming in the pool for a while. Sage didn't want to jump in at first, but when Garret started walking towards her, she jumped in. I grabbed a bunch of  noodles and floated around. It was so relaxing. Then the lifeguard on duty blew his whistle (very loudly) and we left and got dressed.

Then Matt, Sage, Jake, Galen, and I all hung out at the swings for a while, while most people went to a panel/talk with the staff that we weren't interested in. I don't know how it happened but everything that we talked about ended up being about food. Everything! We'd be talking about anything. At one point Galen said sticks. Sticks lead to fire, which leads to cooking, which leads to a conversation about steak. It was hilarious. After the meeting a few other people came out and joined us and we all hung out and talked until dinner.

The clothes pin mail. Everyone
has a clothes pin with their
name on it and you
can give that person
mail.

After dinner we went to Uncle Dell's for the nighttime meeting and the first talent show. There were some great acts! Jules did a trick with his Japanese Yo-yo, and Josh sang a song that he wrote. It was amazing! Then we all went to the Lodge and watched Galen do an awesome dance. We hung out at the Lodge and Matt and I gave lots of people mail on their clothes-lines.

Then is was time for Bonding night. Bonding night is AMAZING!
We started by circling up in front of Uncle Dell's and held hands and sang this song "Under the full moonlight we dance. Spirits dance, we dance. Joining hands we dance. Joining souls rejoice" and we did a Spiral dance into the room. It was amazing. Then we split up into groups of 5 people and did Appreciation circle. That's where 5 people sit down and they take a minute to tell one person what they like about them. It felt really nice having people say such wonderful things to me, and I liked telling other people what I liked about them.

Next was Eye Contact. We all stood up and closed our eyes and we were paired up with another person and we had to hold eye contact with them for a whole minute then we answered a question at the end of the minute. That one was some what tricky.

Then the last thing we did was Unconditional Love. That's where we are split up into two groups. One group stands with their eyes closed, and the other half walks around giving everyone a hug. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. Standing there with your eyes closed and having someone walk up, tap you on the shoulder, and give you a long tight hug. It fills your heart right up! After the first hug, I think I smiled through the whole thing. It just felt amazing. Then we switched around, and it was still so much fun giving everyone else hugs. You could see the smiles on their faces. After every hug I gave everyone's hand a quick squeeze. I think I hugged everyone at least twice.

I loved Bonding Night. If you ever go to Not Back To School Camp I highly recommend that you go to Bonding Night.

We then hung out in Uncle Dell's for a while. We did the laying-on-someone-else-while-having-someone-lay-on-you thing, and did another massage train, then I sat down to write about the day. While I was writing I saw a few people dancing, so I jumped up and learned how to dance with a partner. Arden taught me how, then I tried to teach Matt. It was loads of fun! I learned how to spin, and I tried to do a dip. But It was lots of fun dancing.
I stayed up until midnight I think, then I went to bed and slept like a rock. Again, another AMAZING day!

To be continued.... (sorry! couldn't resist saying that. lol)
~Rhanna xx

Not Back To School Camp 2011, Day 2

Hello! Back again, with more stories about Not Back To School Camp:

My Bed for the week.

I woke up early the next morning. Like really early. Like 6:30 in the morning (that's really early for me ;) ). I laid in bed until 7:00 but I had to get up because I was really hungry, so I quietly got dressed and tried to leave the cabin as quiet as I could. I kinda failed. I had my arms full with my backpack and jacket that the door slipped and before I could catch it the door banged closed. Opps!

It was so quiet in the forest it felt like no one else was around.  And It was beautiful with the sunlight coming in through the trees.  I sat down in one of the many circles of chairs (there were chairs all over camp) and had a little snack. I didn't have much appetite because I was really missing Mom and Dad. The first night and morning were the times that I missed them the most.
I started to do a bit of drawing since there wasn't anything else to do. A little while later Ben came whistling over and he joined me. We said good morning and talked a bit ("Good morning" "Good morning" "How'd you sleep" "Pretty good. you?" "Pretty good, thanks" "What do you think of camp so far?" "It's great! I love it" "Good. Me too"). Arden came over and he joined us. Then Ben asked if he could borrow my pencil because he had some writing he had to do. Danielle came over and we checked in with each other ((read above)).

Then I went and took a freeeeezing shower. The water was warm but it was very cold when I got out into the cold morning air with wet hair. Brrr!

We then circled up and had breakfast outside the lodge and did the Yum prayer. It goes "Yummmmmmmmmmm". Then we all go inside and get breakfast (they had it set up like a Buffet, with Gluten-free and Vegan foods on the counter.)
 All of us new campers and sat outside and the older campers talked about Camp and what happens and stuff like that. It was nice to hear and talk to the other campers.
 I didn't have much appetite that morning, because I missed Mom and Dad so much. I had grabbed two hard boiled eggs because I thought I'd eat lots, but I stopped after eating half of one and then I placed my plate on the ground and three yellow jackets started eating it. I let them have it.

Then after the meeting I saw Dad walking around looking for me, so I jumped up, ran over and gave him a huge hug. I was so happy to see him that I teared up. Dad brought me some cookies that I had baked before the trip to have a snacks and after seeing him I regained some of my appetite so I ate a few. Grace came over and she gave me a hug.

We had a little time to before Advisee meeting so I  hung out at the swings fora bit then headed over to where my Advisee group meets. I got there ahead of everyone else so I put sunblock on, and did a bit of writing before we started. Everyone slowly came over and when Jasmine came we started. We had Highs and Lows, and we talked more and got to know each other a bit better. We played a few games. One we played that I like is called YE-HAW!

This is where our Advisee group met up

In the game you pass the sound "ye-haw" with a arm movement...this may be VERY hard to explain and there is a very good chance that what I say will make NO sense whatsoever, but I shall try. Okay, so you pass the sound "Ye-haw" to the person sitting next to you and then they pass it to the person sitting next to them. Then if you want the sound to jump/skip a person you shout "Pitchfork" and make a movement like you're throwing hay with a pitchfork. And if you yell "Hay-barn" and put your hands up over your head like a roof, then the sound turns around and starts going the other way. If you do "Get Down Little Doggy" you try to give the sound to someone sitting across from you. If that person doesn't want it they say "ping" and do a silly movement, and it comes back to you or they can accept the sound and they start is going again. Then there is "Four Shifter Gear Box! 1 2 3 4!" and the person who last accepted the sound when we did "Get Down Little Doggy" starts the "yehaw" again. and if you mess up you can start shouting random things trying to mess the other players up. "Pitchfork!" "Hay barn!" "1 2 3 4!"  It's lots of  fun to play.

The little sweat-lodge. There are about 17
people inside there

Then we also played "Hot seat". One person sits in the middle and everyone asks them questions. That was fun too. We asked questions like "Can you speak another language?" and "If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live" and stuff like that. I enjoyed it. After Advisee meeting we went and had a very yummy lunch of tacos. I wolfed down a taco rather quickly. I hadn't eaten much since I got there (because of the excitement and nerves).
Then I talked with Matt S. and the other work-traders and together we worked out a schedule for when we'd do our work-trade. Who wanted to do what workshop when and when we could all be free to work.

Then we all went on Tilke's Magic Trail Tour, and she showed us around all of camp. She showed us the beginnings of trails, A lovely river, the sweat-lodge (which we fit 17 people inside all at once. It was hilarious!) Then we crossed this huge tree that had fallen. It was so cool, and really wobbly. Someone started making it swing which was really freaky! I jumped off (and when I jumped off the tree, by backpack swung and landed on my back rather hard. ouch!) we walked a bit more, and we saw the Labyrinth. It was so cool! It's lots of stones stacked to make a Labyrinth and as soon as we saw it a lot of us started to walk around.
We all walked back and I was super hot from the walk (Still being in my morning cloths. T-shirt, Jeans, and sweatshirt) so I ran up to my cabin and changed into something cooler. (tank top, skirt, knees socks, Ugg boots, backpack...I wore that backpack everywhere, but for the last two days I started to just leave it in the Lodge and go get it when I needed it. Too heavy!).

Crossing the fallen tree

After I got changed  I ran into Panda (Very lovely girl! ;) ) asked me if I wanted to try to play Tether Ball with her. We were terrible but it was so much fun and we laughed lots. Matthew came by and said that he and a few other campers were going up to the watering hole, and asked if we wanted to come - I said yes. As I was walking up I ran into Sage and we talked for a bit. Sage is lots of fun to hang out with!   She wasn't going on the hike. She was in the middle of this book and she really wanted to finish it (which I can understand). So we talked, while Matthew went and got changed, then when he came back we left with Margie and Garret.

The waterfall/water slide
at the watering hole.

 It's an amazing hike up to the watering hole. I'd say it's about a mile long hike, but it's so lush and green there and we could hear the river from far away. For a while we thought we had taken the wrong trail. We were joking around about how we would get lost and all the bad things that could happen. There was this HUGE tree(with a smaller tree next to it) that had fallen down across the road. It looked like it would keep sliding down the hill at any moment. We all quietly tip-toed under it, and kept walking.
It got more more lush.
 We got there and some other campers and staff were already there. I climbed over on the rocks and watched as Garret, then Matthew, then Margie all jumped in. And I watched them all come up out of the water with shocked faces because the water was freezing. It was so funny. I didn't go swimming that day, but I did put my feet in and I agree it was very cold water. We stayed there for less than 10 minutes and then hiked all the way back. Matthew didn't put his shoes on the whole hike back because he didn't want to make us wait, so he kept saying "Ow" the whole walk back. Once we got back into camp we ran and told Sage all about it.

Me up at the watering hole

We went to Uncle Dell's for a meeting and everyone who was holding a workshop did a quick demo. I did one for Needle-felted Pumpkins. And everyone else did theirs. It was great and I went to a few workshops later in the week.
I went and had a nice dinner and then went to the swings and hung out there for a bit. When the bell rang we all went Uncle Dell's for the nighttime meeting and Staff Talent Show. I then remember that I hadn't called Mom or Dad yet, so I ran and called them both. Then I ran back to Uncle Dell's for the end of the Talent show. It was great.

Then we all headed over to the Lodge, and out in front they were having a music jam! It. Was. AMAZING! They played amazing music, and Matthew, Danielle, Adli, and I were all dancing around together. It was so much fun. I was writing down notes about the day during the slow songs, and dancing with the fast ones.

The swings in the daytime.
They were a great place
to hang out.

Danielle went to bed (i gave her a big hug) and when the music ended  Matthew and I went out to the swings and were swinging in the dark which was super cool. The stars were amazingly bright and it was so quiet. Then we went and sat by the tepee in the moonlight with Dandy (Dandy is the "night owl" he stays up late and makes sure everyone is safely in bed). It was so peaceful and relaxing. Then I went to my cabin and went to sleep.


And THAT ends day 2 of Not Back To School Camp!

Not Back To School Camp 2011.

Hello Everyone!

A cool wood arch that you
see as soon as you walk into
camp, with a nice sign.

I just got back from my first session of Not Back To School Camp, at Camp Latgawa in Oregon. . It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done in my life. I had SO much fun, and I met so many interesting people (I have now added pretty much all of them on Facebook ). I came back feeling so inspired. Seeing so many other awesome unschoolers/homeschoolers doing such amazing things has made me want to start doing more, interesting things with my life.
I was taking notes the whole time so I could write about it when I got back home and tell all my friends who couldn't come about it. And since SO much happened, I think I'll split up all the days into different posts. Each and everyday was packed full of excitement. I was smiling pretty much the whole time and I laughed so hard all week. So I'll start when Dad and I left...

I woke up at 7 in the morning, feeling very excited and nervous. We gave my Mom and and my siblings a teary good-bye and Dad and I left. Now I won't bore you with the very boring details of the car ride. Because trust me nothing much happened, though I was texting Mom the whole time.

The concrete bridge
that we had to cross
to get into camp

We got to Sacramento, got some coffee and met Danielle who was driving up with us. I was so excited to meet her, and we talked pretty much the rest of the way there. About the Harry Potter movie, Nancy Drew games,  traveling and lots more. We stopped twice. Both times it was because we needed more gas for the car. At the first stop a fly got into the car and we couldn't shoo him out so we named Zamora the Fly him after the exit (I think he made it all the way to Oregon too.). I also pulled out my 'surprise' there. Before we left Dad bought a box of See's lollipops, so I had a few of those in my bag, and I offered them to Danielle and Dad. It was nice to have a sweet treat on such a long drive. Our other stop was at another gas station, and there we picked up BBQ chips, nuts, and some drinks and kept going. For the last little big of the drive Danielle and I read for a bit and when we got to the dirt road that leads to camp we got very excited! We opened up the windows and it smelled so nice. The fresh forest air! I lost my reception as soon as we hit the dirt road, so I couldn't text mom anymore. We had been driving for a while when we thought "Oh great! We missed it! We're lost" So we decided to turn around, read the directions and start again. So we drove back to the beginning and started again.  We kept going and went past where we turned around the first time and found "concrete bridge" and then we found camp! It was beautiful. The sun was streaming in through the trees and it was so quiet. I was super excited!

View of the Cabins

We got out and started walking around and we didn't see ANYONE. After walking around for a bit we found Roxy watching Yared (Yared is Grace's son) and she lead us to the Staff's cabin (good place to look right? ;) ) where we found all the staff hanging out and waiting for the campers to arrive. They were a little surprised, I think, to see us arrive so early. They showed us our cabins, which were super cute. They each had four bunk-beds. I choose the top bunk in the back corner and then we went and looked at Danielle's cabin. After she put her stuff down we went and took a little tour of the place. We looked at the names on all the cabins. They all had Greek names, I think. One was called "Athens" and one was called "Corinth"  and there were lots more fancy names. So after we walked down the hill away from the cabins we saw: The swing set (which I spent most of my week on), the tether ball, the pool (it was 2 feet to 9 feet deep.), the Lodge, Uncle Dell's, the ping pong table, lots of chairs (there were chair circles set up everywhere), the art cabin (called Jerusalem), then we walked down a bit to the Teepee, and fire pit area (They had archery targets set up which I was really excited about, but we couldn't do any archery while we were there.) We saw this tiny little sweat-lodge. It was made of mud and sticks (it looked like) and you'd put hot stones in the middle and pour water over them. So it's like a mini sauna. It was really cool! We went behind the mini sauna and found a little creek. It looked so magical, like the only thing missing was fairies sitting there drinking tea. Really.

The Swings of AWESOMENESS!

We walked back over to the lodge and all the sudden kids with lots of luggage started streaming in. It was a little weird at first. Danielle and I watched, and waved to the campers as they walked up. It kind of felt a little awkward at first since there were a lot of new campers who didn't know each other. Some of the older campers were VERY excited to see their old friends (and I'm sure next year I'll be that way). There were some introductions, then Tilke led us on a tour of the camp, and showed us some places that Danielle, Dad, and I hadn't seen. Once all the campers had arrived we all walked down to the Teepee area and we made a big circle. Grace walked into the middle holding Yared and introduced  herself and the staff and talked a bit about camp. Then Tilke told us how to play an introduction game. So I turned to the person standing next to me (Sage) Tilke asked the whole group a questions. Then I told Sage my name and what my answer was to Tilke's question and she did the same. Then we walked over to another pair and did the same thing (Tilke had a new question) and we kept doing that until we were two big groups, then one big group. It was pretty cool. We played ultimate Ro-sham-bo.

 Then we met our Advisee Groups. That's a group of about 7 campers, and an Adviser and we meet up everyday to do check in and play games and talk. Jasmine was our adviser. We met at a quiet little place with LOTS of mosquitoes. I got eaten alive by the bugs at our first meeting but besides that it was a good first meeting. We only had a little time before dinner so we went to the lodge to have dinner. Greg and Eva who run Camp Latgawa, did an amazing job with the food. They had Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free,and Soy-free food all week. I didn't get sick once. Thank you so much Greg and Eva!!!!

The Lodge where we eat, and
sometimes meet up.

All of the Advisee groups sat together during dinner. Afterwards we walked over to Uncle Dell's and had our first meeting.
 We met most of the staff, and  they talked a bit about camp and the schedule and  Evan read a quote.  Then they taught us a song (I can't remember what song we sang). I was a little nervous at first to sing, but it got more and more fun.

Then we headed back to the Lodge to hang out for a bit and Matt S. told us Work-traders what kind of things we'd do in the week.
 I used the phone and called Mom and Dad. I cried a bit during both phone calls, because I missed them. A lot. After I called them I walked out of the kitchen (where the phone was) and saw that most everyone else were playing games. I watched them play for a while, and met Panda who was too shy to join in, then joined in myself. We played a game called Bird on a Perch. That's where you partner up with someone and  you walk around like a bird making goofy sounds until one of the staff yells "birdie on a perch" and you have to find you partner and one person has to hold the other person so they aren't touching the ground. It's pretty fun and everyone was laughing. And then they played what I like to call the Yahoo! game (I'll explain later).

While I was walking out of the Lodge I said something about being Gluten-free to someone, and that is how I met Matthew. He's gluten-free too! We walked back down to Uncle Dell's together where Brenna was holding a relaxing-quiet time-massage thing.

The doors that lead into Uncle Joe's
(I call it Uncle Dell's though)

We did a massage train (which felt reeeeally good. I should have had more people rub me while I was there.).
Then we did this thing where one person lays down and then another person lays with their head on the first person's belly, then another person lays on that person. It's like a people chain. We did that and  I don't know how it started but we couldn't stop laughing. And when we'd finally stop laughing someone would make a funny sound and we'd started laughing all over again. I was laying on Matthew's stomach, and Blake (one of the advisers) was laying on mine. We laid there for about 20 minutes I think. We were laughing so hard. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so much. And every time I laughed, it made Blake's head bounce which when that happened his just got this annoyed look like I was disturbing him. Then he's grin and laugh a little too. It was H I L A R I O U S.

Afterward we did something which I heard someone call Whale Watch. It's where one person lays down and 4 or 5 other people rub them for a few minutes. We did that and it was really funny too because as soon as we finished rubbing someone then the next person would leap into the middle.
Then I went and got my note book and jotted down a few notes about the day and talked a bit longer. I was really tired so I said good night to everyone else in Uncle Dell's and went back to my cabin.

 I went into my cabin and turned the light on and started finding my P.J.s when I realized that people were sleeping, so I quickly tip-toed over and turned the light off and finished getting ready for bed. Whoops! I felt like I had a hard time sleeping. I'd wake up in the middle of the night and it felt like I'd been awake the whole time even though I knew that I had been sleeping. It was kinda weird.

And that was Day 1 of NBTSC. Amazing and the start of an amazing week! Hoped you enjoyed! :)
~Rhanna xx

My Night at the Theater

Hello Again!

The other day, my Dad and I went to our local community theater to be volunteer ushers and to see the play, Up the Down Staircase. It was my first play that I've ever seen (that I remember that is) ! and I loved it! It was so cool! :)
I borrowed my mom's black skirt and shirt to wear(I didn't have anything fancy enough to wear. hahaha!). The theater isn't very far away from where we live, so it was a quick drive for me and my dad. When we got there we met Harvey, the guy that is in charge and he showed us around and what our jobs were. Our jobs were to help people find their seats and hand out programs. My dad told people where their seats were, which was the perfect job for him, because he's so tall and his voice is loud and I kept teasing him about his head being shiny (my dad is bald by the way ;-D ) from the lights on the ceiling. Hahaha!

And then during the intermission I stood behind a counter and handed out cookies to people and Harvey collected money and sold drinks. And my Dad held the door open for people to come out and when they were coming back in, he made sure no one brought food into the theater. Towards to the end of the intermission, a guy came up and wanted to buy a soda, and Harvey told him that there were only four minutes till the show started again, and soda isn't allowed in the theater either. The guy hesitated and thought about it for a minute then said "Shoot! now I've wasted another minute trying to decide!" and we all laughed. He did end up buying the soda and drank most of it before the show started again.

The rest of the time Dad and I got to watch the show! We were very lucky, because two seats right next to each other in the front row were left open, so Dad and I could sit next to each other and watch the play! So lucky!

I Loved it! The play was called "Up the Down Staircase". It's a comedy about an English teacher who goes to work at a new school, but she has a very hard time getting to know all the kids in her class. It's a bit hard to explain, but it was VERY good. There were some scenes that were really funny! I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to see another play! I wonder what i might be able to see next? I'd LOVE to see Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella live some day. I have the 90s version of that play on DVD. It's my favorite!
Anyway, Dad and I got back home around 10:00pm! As soon as I got home I jumped into my jammies and told Mom and Thane about it. Then when I went to bed, I was asleep by the time my head hit the pillow ;)
I can't wait to do that again!
Peace! ☮
~Rhanna

Mother's day!

Happy Mother's day(or as my 3 year old cousin would say, "Happy Muddah's day" ;-D )! 

Wow it's been a while since I've last been on here. I'm reading 'The Last Enchantment" by Mary Stewart. It's book three in a series all about Merlin and his whole life. It's are really good! I love how it is are written. It's so easy to read, and to imagine all the places that Merlin describes :-)  I've also read the two books that came before this one, "The Crystal Cave" and "The Hollow Hills". but besides that, I haven't done too much reading lately. :)

So for my mom, today, we went to Big Sur State Park for a lovely lunch of goat cheese, lunch meat, crackers, and cookies. It was BEAUTIFUL there today! Sunny, warm, with a little breeze! We had such a nice time there. I love driving down the coast to Big Sur, because I really feel like I am on the very edge of a continent! It's the coolest feeling! Seeing the ocean, and how it just goes on forever...So cool! :-D We had to get gas for the car first, and while Dad was washing the front window I said "I love watching squeegees" which made everyone else in the car laugh a lot. it was kind of funny ;-)

Half-way there, mom asked me if i remembered to bring knives and a cutting board. (I forgot to bring any!) but thanks to my trusty purse i HAD two plastic butter knives and we were saved! haha! I felt so smug, when i pulled out those two knives ;-D

Our favorite place to go is Pfeiffer State Park, in Big Sur. it's the most beautiful place in all of Big Sur, I think. There are huge, old redwoods everywhere. the Sycamore trees and the river make the whole place smell amazing.I wish I could bottle it...;-) Every time we get to Big Sur, we always roll down all the windows and breathe in the fresh air! 

It was strange. There was no one there, where we went and had our picnic. Only the blue jays and the chipmunks, which seemed to be stalking us, waiting for us to drop a crumb for them to eat. It was really funny to watch them hop around! One time we walked over a bit to take a quick picture, and in two seconds the birds had flown over and were sitting on the benches making cheese and cracker sandwiches, drinking our iced tea, eating the middles out of our chocolate sandwich cookies and talking about the high-rise in bird taxes. ;-) Hahahaha! 

After our picnic, we took a walk to our favorite place to throw rocks into the river. I took a lot of pictures of everyone and the sunlight streaming through the trees. I can't believe how nice it was yesterday. We threw rocks into the river for a bit, then when we walked back, I carried Gwynnie on my back for a little while, which made her happy, because I was bouncing around and making silly nosies. 

Oh and I pet a lizard! When we were waiting for Dad to get the car, there was a cute little lizard on the stump I was standing by, and s/he(?) crawled out of a hole in the stump. and I reached down slowly and petted his(her) back, then s/he ran away. it was really cool though, and Gwyn loved seeing the lizard! It was so cute! :-)

On the way back everyone fell asleep. Mom, Gwyn, Thane, and Emrys. Dad and I were the only ones who stayed awake. When we got back, Mom and Gwyn went in the bedroom and slept some more, Thane drew, Em and I play solitaire for a little bit. Then dad and I worked on a VERY fancy dinner of, (AMAZING) steak, mashed potatoes, grilled corn, artichokes, asparagus, and sparkling apples cider. It was SO good! and then I made GF brownies, and mint-chip ice cream(dairy-free) for dessert, and we watched the Amazing Race finale! 

I think that we all had a fun day! I think going to Big Sur for lunch is my favorite thing to go out and do.

Gwyn had a lot of sand in her cloths that she just dumped on the floor...I think today will be clean the floors day ;-) lol!

Peace out and Happy readings! 

~Rhanna~

Happy Valentines Day ♥

Happy Valentines Day Everyone! (I've discovered how to change the color of the text. And who knows what I'll do next. Haha! :-D )

I hope you're all having a lovely day! I've caught a cold and it's at it's worse today. :P Not much fun. I was planning to make a pink breakfast but I was too tired this morning. Oh well. So I thought I'd do some writing. It's a perfect day to write when you have a cold. It's gray and windy outside and I have my Artemis mug full of Jasmine tea, I've got a warm sweatshirt on and I have my music on. :) I almost feel like a real writer. Haha! the only thing that would make this more perfect is if I had a heater on under my feet. Brr!

I was looking at the Map I have on this site, that shows all the people who have looked at this blog. WOWIE! I can't believe so many people all over the world have looked at this blog. It's so exciting! Hello to everybody all over the world!!! ((Jumps up and down and waves)) It's super cool! :)

I wonder how people celebrate Valentines day around the world...We've never done too much for it. My mom makes pink food (pink pancakes, pink tuna sandwiches, pink mashed potatoes, etc.) And sometimes my dad will surprise us in the morning with chocolate. This year my grandmother sent all of us kids cards.
I was planning on making pink pancakes, pink hash browns, and bacon (which is kind of pink) for breakfast, but I woke up very tired and stuffed up. I'm feeling much better so I'm going to make dinner. We're going to have roast beef (pink in the middle) pink mashed potatoes (I'll cook a beet in with the potatoes and when I mash them together it'll be pink) and red Swiss chard. YUMMY! I think that will be good. :)

What do you, my lovely readers, like to do on Vday? What are your traditions?

I'm going to go eat some lunch for now. Goat cheese, lunch meat, and GF crackers. Mmm! Happy Valentine's day everyone! :) I'll write more later.
See you later people! :-D
~Rhanna~

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

In which Hannah Swensen, the middle-aged owner of The Cookie Jar, is running her bakery smoothly when one day she finds the Cozy Cow Dairy delivery man dead. Shot in his truck surrounded by her Chocolate Chip Cookies. When her brother-in-law, Bill, a detective on the police force, asks for her help solving the case she accepts. During her investigation she goes garbage searching, deals with her persistent mother, bakes cookies, meets the local dentist, bakes more cookies and when the owner of the Cozy Cow Dairy goes missing suddenly, Hannah's suspicions grow. Will she solve the murder in time and live to bake more cookies??  

I read this book a while ago, so I forgot some of the plot, which makes it hard to write a review. Haha! I really like this book though. The murder scenes weren't at all gory or gross, which was nice if you don't like gory stuff. The book includes about 7 recipes for cookies that are in the story. I think it's cool! Hannah is a fun character to follow. She's smart, funny and somewhat sarcastic. and Norman, the local dentist, is very lovable and sweet. The only thing I didn't like about it, was that Hannah gave her brother-in-law all the credit for solving the murder when she did all the work. And there's one woman who is being beaten up by her husband which was annoying (don't worry! If you don't like that part  of the story the husband goes away soon). I still really liked the books. They have sort of a Nancy Drew feel, just with more murder and cookies. It was fun for me to see what it was like running a bakery. I also like Hannah's cat, Moshie.

This book is in the Hannah Swensen series.

Recommended for people who like: cookies, murder, and Minnesota winters.

Happy Belated Imbolc!



A Really cool Brigid. :)


Happy...err Belated Imbolc Everybody! It's spring time! and boy is it beautiful here! It's been in the 70s the last two weeks here. Just gorgeous!  It's January...wait...it *was* January. Now it's February. Duh! Haha! ;D

 Sorry I haven't been writing more! We moved again! but I won't get into too much detail. ;) We moved about 10 days before Christmas about 20 miles south... south?...or its it north?....or west?....or east...?......We moved 20 miles in some direction from where we used to live. ;) Haha! This house is lovely! So much bigger and less moldy. And since then I have just forgotten to write on here (plus I have been doing a lot of reading ;) )


Ok, I just want to do a quick what-books-have-I-read-lately-check-up and then I have something cool to talk about!

Blueberry Muffin Murder
the 3rd book in the series.

So I got a few books for Christmas, that I'm still working on! Mostly they were Cozy/Murder mysteries, which I love! I have been going through the Hannah Swesen mysteries by Joanne Fluke very quickly. They are about a woman named Hannah who runs a bakery in this little town, with no crime but lots of murder (What?!). Hannah likes to solve the cases (She is always the one to find the body with some kind of baked good that she made around it) and ends up getting trapped by the murderer in the end, but narrowly escaping with her life (kind of like Nancy drew, but with more murder and more baking ;D). The first book is called 'The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder' and the rest of the series has names to do with some baked good.

Terrier, the 1st book in
the Beka Cooper series.

I also read 'Terrier' by Tamora Pierce. It's in the Beka Cooper series. It's about Beka Cooper, a young girl who is training to be a 'Dog' (police. trainees are called Puppies, and bad guys are Rats) in the Lower city of Tortall. Beka is the great-great-great-great-(you get the idea ;D)-grandmother of George Cooper. George, as in Alanna's husband in the Song of Lioness quartet. Eee! :D It was VERY good! Beka is so awesome! :) I can't wait to read the next book 'Bloodhound'



The Cat Who Played
Post Office. The 6th
book in this series.



My Mom and I are listening too 'The Cat Who' series by Lillian Jackson-Braun. They are GREAT! It's about a middle aged journalist, Jim Qwilleran (Usually called Qwill) and his two cats Koko and Yum-Yum who solves murder cases. He's really funny! I'm half way through 'The Cat Who Played Post Office' It's very good!

And finally, I have been skimming through the Mythology books I got for Christmas: Bulfinch's mythology, Ovid's Metamorphosis, and some other non-fiction books. Though it takes a lot of concentration to read Bulfinch. Hahahaha!!

So now to my big news! :)  I'm going to go to this year's Not Back To School Camp!!!!! Yay!! :D I'm VERY super excited! And another cool thing is, I paid for it all by myself! I have been saving up money for years, from watching neighbors' pets, to birthday money, and I didn't know what to do with it! One time I was saving up for a horse, then I thought maybe I'd fly to the UK to see my friends, then I started saving up to buy a bakery. But now I know what I'm going to spend it on! So then my Mom had a great idea. I'll make things (wire fairies, and crafty stuff like that) and sell it to make enough money again, to go to camp again next year! I think it's a great idea! So I'm learning how to make fairies out of wire and silk flowers. I might do other stuff too, like watch neighbors' pets, make some cat toys, or something like that to sell too, and maybe (Hopefully) I can start sell my baked goods. :) That would be awesome!

 It's a camp for unschooling teens in Oregon. It's one week long (or if you want to you can stay two weeks. I'm only doing one week since it's my first time) and it has from 70 to 100 unschoolers. This is my first time going. It's in August and I'm staying for a week...by myself...for the first time ever away from home. I am nervous about being so far away from my family for so long! Golly! 

I learned about it last September from Idzie on I'm Uschooled. Yes, I Can Write.(Great blog! Idzie's a wonderful writer!)  and I got very excited when I watched this video. It gave such a warm feeling, to think what it would be like to be surrounded by people like me (not that I'm not, since I'm with my family all the time...but you know what I mean. With new people who have some of the same views as I do) Wow! So I signed up yesterday. and I can't wait for the next 6 months to go by! Haha!
I'm going to dye my hair before I go (I'm going to do it soon, but I want to save the leftover dye for August, since I never use it all at once. I've dyed my hair twice before. My dad helps me do it.) This time I want to go a big more crazy! I want to do all my hair in this color  and then I'll put my hair into two ponytails and dye just a little streak this color . Like two streaks at the bottom of my hair. Won't that look so cool! I can't wait! :D And then we're going to order some crazy purple tie-dye tights, that I can wear with my new blue tie-dye skirt. I want to start going with a colorful-hippie style. :) Or just try it out for a while. ;D

More later!
Happy readings!
~Rhanna~
 xxxxxxx