Happy 4th of July weekend!

Rory's mom sent this picture to me back in November and I've been hanging onto it ever since for this day. Sorry it's not any bigger, but if you look closer, this is all people. It's astounding to me. The picture was taken in 1918 with 18,000 men at Camp Dodge in Iowa.

I remember when I studied abroad in India, I was so nervous about what India would be like, and how I'd relate to that country. But on the airplane ride there I sat next to a tiny woman who was kind in her smile and persistant in her desire to communicate, even though we didn't share a single word of the same language. She was sweet and sort of changed my outlook as we landed in her homeland. After that airplane ride I could relax because I realized that I would get to know India, one person at a time. India became less of a place for me, and much more a people.

I love this picture, then, because it's the best representative of our country. We the people. And especially this picture showing many, many men and women who chose to defend our liberty and fight for our independence. One person at a time decides to take pride in our homeland and many more decide to fight for our freedoms. We are a blessed people.

So happy 4th of July everybody! I hope you're celebrating with some great people today.

mother theresa

life at camp

I realized I haven't written a whole lot about camp lately, which is funny, because it is basically my life right now. We are in the middle of our fourth week already...which is crazy and amazing that it has gone by so quickly and so smoothly.

The staff is fantastic and I am so pleased by how well they love and care for our campers. But last week it was obvious they were losing their steam. As a whole, we were missing the spontaneous, wacky, excitable staff that I hired.

So I threw out a challenge to them at our meeting on Friday and again on Sunday. I told them I wanted fresh programming, clever ideas and funny stories all week long. I held a carrot in front of them in the form of a $25 gift card to any place of their choosing from my very own personal money. And that the gift card would go to the staff person who comes up with the most unique/clever/imaginative program of the week.

The past two days I have come into work to find notes on my desk from counselors telling me of their plans. One cabin, tonight, is having a dance party on the platform of a tent that has no tent on it. Half of the campers have agreed to create a strobe light out of all of their flashlights, and everyone else will dance. I love this idea.

One site is making origami animals and hanging them from the trees. This whole site has rallied behind this idea and today I had the site coordinator frantically looking for more online patterns for these kids because they are so excited to make more.

I've heard whispers of other ideas too. One group is leading underwater basket weaving...literally underwater, in the pool. The best part is that the campers know of the challenge too, so they are trying to think of more and more creative things to do as well. It's getting really fun...and it's only Tuesday night! I'll report back on Friday with the best ideas from the week.

preggers surprises...

I have been making a running list in my head lately of all the things I just didn't have a clue about before I got pregnant. The list is long. But I was driving back from Old Navy this morning and started to think I should document these. So tonight, I will give you the first three that come to mind, but I plan on adding to the list as I continue to be surprised.

1. Nothing in pregnancy is unique to you.
This is a funny epiphany, especially when everything is so brand new to me. I will actually think that I may be the only one who has experienced symptom x, because it's just so odd. But I'm starting to come to the conclusion that a lot of things during pregnancy are just odd.

For example, I have been having trouble sleeping lately because I wake up when my right hip falls asleep. It basically goes numb, just like a foot or a hand would. But it's my hip. It's so weird...and really uncomfortable. I have to lay on my side now, and as a typical side sleeper anyway I thought this would be no problem. But the second I heard I shouldn't sleep on my back any longer it's like a switch flipped and my body decided that it would much rather sleep on its back. But I can't. So I sleep on my left side with my right hip numb, sometimes burning and annoying enough that I have to get up, walk around, rub it a lot, and then try to sleep some more.

So when I got on babycenter.com in the dead of night to look up if this crazy phenomenon has anything to do with pregnancy, and found 32,000 other women already talking about this symptom of pregnancy, I was very surprised. Numb Hip is not unique to me.

2. The amount of time it took for my belly to show.
I remember being in Minnesota for Easter and I was 10 weeks. And I made comments about how I couldn't tell if my belly bump was a baby or just the burrito I ate the night before. But deep down, I was sure it had to be baby. Now that I'm 22 weeks along and just recently started showing I am pretty sure back then it was just the burrito. I just had no idea it might take so long to show. So each week was sort of a let down. I'd talk to my baby, tell it I was ready for the world to know I had a baby in there and that it could stretch out if it wanted. But baby took its time and I just had to be patient.

3. You really shouldn't buy maternity clothes assuming they will fit when you get bigger.
My best friend, Heidi, tried to tell me this one. She said both of her pregnancies looked so different on her body that she never even grew into some of the clothes she bought. I heard her, but I didn't heed her advice. Instead I went to Target and bought some great tops that I assumed would get me through the summer. But they are still too balloon-like to wear and make me feel frumpy. So today I went to Old Navy and bought some sweet outfits that fit me right now, with probably will fit for another month or two. Or maybe they'll fit me until November. Again, I have no idea how this baby is going to show itself. But I do know I got some fantastic outfits today and that I strongly believe a pregnant woman should have some feel-good outfits in her closet.

I've got more, but I'll save them for another day. Anyone out there remember being surprised by anything specific during pregnancy?

three different fruits, each given the same name

To the untrained eye, someone might mistake all three of these the same. But they are not. I am convinced of this. A tomato really should have three different names.

First, there is the tomato that comes from the store. We might call these well-it's-better-than-nothing tomatoes. They do the trick in the middle of the winter. They can pass as something to be put on your salads and sandwiches. But once you've had the other two kinds of tomatoes, you know these just aren't actual tomatoes.

Second, there is the tomato that someone has grown for you. For our purposes here, we'll call these thanks-for-sharing-your-bounty-tomatoes. I grew up on these tomatoes from my mom's garden, our next door neighbor's garden and lots of relatives. These tomatoes are in a class far above the first kind of tomato mentioned. They have flavor. They have character to their shape, color and size. They taste like summer and they often lead to multiple nights of BLT's which is basically my personal heaven.

But the third kind of tomato changes EVERYTHING. It's the tomato that you, yourself, grew. These tomatoes might be best called, Lord-you-are-so-good-to-us tomatoes. Rory and I were gifted with a tomato plant from some super camp friends, Bud and Betty, and I cannot explain the pomp and circumstance surrounding the first tomato we harvested. Rory brought it into the apartment, washed it and shared it like a sacrament. It wasn't even all that big. But it was the best tomato we have ever eaten. And it changed my world of produce forever, birthing an excitement for gardening that is brand new to me. Rory has always had the green thumb in our marriage, but this tomato has changed everything.

(special thanks to my niece, Mara, who took this picture while playing with my camera out on our patio. It's a nice shot, Mara, and happens to be the very tomato Rory harvested.)