When Dreams meet Reality

Hello friends, family, and many loved ones,
This has been a fast couple of weeks, but many dreams are coming true.
I am still loving Y Camp, and just having a blast, two weeks ago I did pottery for the first time in gosh, 10 or so years. It was kind of rediculous, but for running a kiln for the first time in, I don't know, ever, I think I did a good job. I did bolt awake at 7 am, and said, "I think I burned down Dahl (which is my arts and crafts lodge)".  I asked Christa, "If Dahl burned down, do you think I would have heard about it by now?" She responded with, "Yes, but not if it's smoldering in the back room, I grabbed my toothbrush and tooth paste (I'm kind of intense about making sure my teeth are brushed twice a day) and ran to Dahl.  Nothing was burned down, and the pottery turned out perfect, so it was a great day.
After that I put on my Red Lips, so I didn't have the "I-just-sprinted-from-my-bed-to-work-to-make-sure-I-didn't-burn-anything-to-the-ground", I know that is a style these days, but trust me, it's not my best look. I'm old enough to acknowledge this fact.

But in newer and more exciting news, it is officially official that I am becoming a mermaid.  I have talked to a few of you about this, and wrote about it a few times and said that it would be a few years off, but I was able to talk to Jeremy about it, and so my anniversary gift is going to be my monofin!!! Yay! The monofin is what goes into your tail.
Kind of ugly on it's own, but what happens is they then cut into the monofin, and people make tails to fit around it.

I know many who read this, will be like this is the coolest thing ever, and I quite agree. I also know that some are going to read this and say that I am absolutely ridiculous.
 Which is also fairly true, my parents told me from a young age to go after my dreams and to do what I love. I've wanted this with my soul since I was a child, and now I have an opportunity to do and make a difference in the lives of those around me, through ocean conservation, working with nonprofits, and mermaid birthday parties, and even just as a way to work out, I can't see a downside. Ask anyone who has worked with me this summer, I have been dying with excitement about all of this, and I have actually found who will eventually do my mermaid tail: http://www.facebook.com/Merberrytails

Life was not created for us to simply sit back and become complacent, life was meant to be met with challenges, and to try new things.  I'm still working on my poi when I can, I finally had some free time this week at night when I wasn't toast from the day, and was able to practice for a few hours, felt amazing.  And no, I still have not used fire poi yet, I'm still too terrified. :-)

I just wanted you all to know what's new in my life and what's shaking, because I'm so beyond stoked.  In the end, what is really important is these five things:
1. Jeremy gets done with tech school in exactly 1 month, which means I leave for England in less than two. Love that man.
2. I am becoming a mermaid, and get my fin in a week!
3. Jer's and my 3 year wedding anniversary is in 3 days on August 1st!! Yay for marrying your best friend!
4. God is amazing and has really blessed my time here at camp.
5. I'm still exploring life and all that it has to offer, and trying new things, and learning all that I can.
Love you all,
I'm going to be a mermaid, and I can't believe it,
Aj

Faith.

Faith.

'Tis a good thing to have.

Tough to keep sometimes.

Always worth it.

Keep up the hard work.

Love,
Am

Camp, Tie-Dye, and being a Pirate, Mermaid, and French

Hi!
So I've been crazy busy, and this is the first chance I've had to actually blog. So many cool things have happened, so I'll do my 10 things list again of what's been shaking.

1. I'm Arts and Crafts Head. I may have talked about this in my last blog post but I'm not sure. I'm fairly sure this is pry the best gig on camp, and pry in my top 2 if not the top job I've ever had. I'm having a BLAST. Basically I do anywhere from 4 to 5 crafts a day with anywhere from 6 to 8 groups a day.  It seems like a lot, but the afternoon is all cabin crafts and then in the morning it is pathways, which is like a focus area.  I'm just loving it.

2. I get to have a ridiculous amount of fun. This is obvious, but I'm fairly sure I'm stretching my job a bit by being as absurd and awesome and dressing up.  Last week I dressed like a pirate and became a pirate (with an eye patch, peg leg and Scottish pirate accent, "Captain Aj") and we made pirate flags.  This week we did French Masterpiece painting (group painting to different types of music) and I was a french, "Master French Painter Aj".  It was hilarious. I even had a ridiculous french accent and a blue french looking mustache that I painted on every day. Just grand.

3. I figured out how to tie-dye in bulk, which is awesome, and has become a great hit, this makes me quite happy. The first day I was super nervous and high energy (read slightly stressed), but once it started going and we were in a rhythm of cabins coming in to tie-dye it was fantastic.

4. I have made some really cool friends, Cydney who is fun and is absolutely adorbale, Tess from New Zealand who is head of horses, Christa who does retreats, Sawyer who is pool head, and Brandon who has dubbed me as his little sister.  All of these people live in lair, which is kind of like an apartment-esque thing on camp.  We share a living room and kitchen, and it's a blast. Super cool people. Tess is dying my hair tonight, and Cydney is going to tie some beads and hemp into my hair this week again. :-)

5. Jeremy got a laptop, and some other fun things, but most importantly a laptop which means we had our first skype date, actually we've had a couple this week, and it's been awesome. It's so so so nice to be able to talk and see him. So that was simply fantastic and made my week that much better. Also we will be going on 3 years of being married come August 1st, isn't that crazy cool! Talked to Jeremy today about possibly coming down that weekend, and then we realized that it would only be two weeks before I saw him again, so we decided to save that money and take an anniversary mini trip in England after we move. I way approve of this plan, why I'm so spoiled with all this traveling I don't know, maybe it's because God hears our prayers, and I have a man that loves to travel as much as I do so it's a priority. Life is good.

6. I really love red lipstick. I bought outlast covergirl lip color, and not only has Red Lips started to become a thing at camp, but it makes my heart smile, and I just feel awesome.

Not so good that I can check my email underwater, but better than I was 3 weeks ago for sure.

7. I've been practicing my mermaid skills.  I'm getting better, I only get to practice about 3 times a week when I don't have a cabin, and even then it's only for about 20 minutes, but I can twist in the water and keep my eyes open without choking or breathing in the water which is awesome.  Meaning I can swim with my face facing the sky but underwater and not look like a seizuring bat while doing it.  I told someone this week that I half go to the pool to cool off in the heat, and I half go to practice my mermaid skills.  They smiled and told me I was awesome and good luck.  No lies, I'm really excited about this, so your just going to have to stick with me, because I'm bound and determined.

8. I found a place called "Grandma's Attic" in Ames, basically it reminds me of Grandma Grace's box of jewelry she had when I was younger and would dig through, this lady had tons of clip on earrings, so today I went and emptied out the entire bag and went through about 40 pairs of clip-ons and bought 6 pairs plus some awesome beads for my hair and bracelets for 20 dollars. AWESOME. Plus two pairs of earrings are great for my mermaiding, one is starfish, and the other is sea shells. I also bought a pair that reminds me of Cinderella. I am an easy girl to please.

9. We are moving to England!! I believe I found out this news last weekend, and if you don't know yet, well, you do now! We are moving to Mildenhall, and will be there for about 4 years, unless told otherwise. Things can always change but that's what is new in the married life of Jeremy and Aj.  ALSO, Jeremy just became a yellow rope, which is like a middle level of leadership at Tech school which is way exciting. He's doing great and I'm really proud of him.   Also, base housing allows dogs, which means in the next 5 months or so we are going to be parents of a new puppy or dog!!! Super pumped!

10. Being here at camp is bringing me to focus on what I love to do, and who I am and who I want to be, I know this has been a major theme for me for the past I don't know, year. :-) but I'm enjoying learning new things, and discovering that even if I'm terrified of something I can still do it. I'm happy, and I'm learning to really not sweat the small stuff. My new favorite saying is 'details, details', as in you get the big picture, the details aren't important. You should hear me do it in my french accent, it is what you say in America, 'hilarious'. You can check out photos of camp here: http://y-camp.org/en/photosvideo/photo_gallery/summer_camp/

Anyways, no pictures as of now, because they are all on my ipod but I'll post some later of some of the crafts we've been doing. Thank you for all the prayers, and thoughts being sent my way. It makes my heart smile.

As French Master Painter Aj would say "Paint with your Soul!"
Love,
Aj

Ps. I am in love with the love letter tattoo, as well as with the lamp...3 year wedding anniversary gift....hmmm...
;-)