She Sells Sea Shells

Today brought the smiles of dreams realized. 

First, I received the email for my student teaching placement in the fall, I will be with kindergarteners (oodles of cute!) Though I'm nervous about the young age I know it's the place God has hand chosen for me, and that knowledge gives peace. I may indeed be a teacher someday. Dream 1!

Second, yesterday while painting I made a whole bunch of middle school  friends who admired and desired to buy my sea shells which set the ball rolling to make them available for purchase, an item on my summer bucket list (that I felt was most unattainable) So after talking to some of the right people I will be selling my sea shells in the Harvey Cedars Bible Conference book store!!!!!!!! Mega dream (#2!!!!!) 

And finally I ran the longest I've ever run in my whole life, 4 whole entire miles, coming from the girl with anxiety before 1 mile runs in lacrosse and field hockey. I am a new creation because of my Savior! Dream 3!

A summer by the seashore. Dream #4! 

She sells sea shells....

Day Off

Wake. French Toast. Bikes. Friend. Surf City. Shop. Trinkets. Art. Postcards. Books. Produce. Bikes. Apples. Crunch. Juice. Core. Trash. Shoot. Score! Arrive. HCBC. Lunch. Kitchen friends. Jeep. Beach. Walk. Waves. Lame. Shower. Doll up. Staff lounge. Bang. Notes. Paint. Admired. Pizza. K2. Ministry. Snack. Kids. Balloons. Over. Under. Pop! Rita's. Sweedish fish. iPhone. Annoying. Fixed. Curfew. Friend. Birthday. Dance. Party. Swoon. Social media. Sleep. Zzz.....

Toothpick Umbrellas

Do you know how hard it is to find toothpick umbrellas?

I do now!!!

On Saturday, some of my new friends and I began to plan cupcakes for some HCBC staff birthdays coming up this week to celebrate at our staff inning Sunday.  Originally, we wanted to attempt to create a giant cupcake with the humongous coffee filters we have for our industrial sized coffee maker. But this endeavor was traded out for some simpler ones with beach decor (though I still haven't lost the desire to attempt one with the filters).

Most of the ingredients were easy to locate at Target and/or CVS, all except toothpick umbrellas! Those little stinkers. So yesterday morning the dorm head and I set out on a quest to find them. We tried CVS, several small shops, two grocery stores on the island, and the 5 and Dime (which had about everything else you can imagine) all to no avail. I even bumper bumped a wall of a building in this journey without any success. After grabbing the gifts and some coffee we headed back to the conference center empty handed (minus the other shopping I got sucked into from entering so many shops).  After dinner, I resumed the search for these little parasols and decided to call a number of places; Costco, Walmart, Michaels, and a few other dives on the island before making the drive. Nada. Zilch. Finally, a phone call to 5 Belo and a Jeep ride over the causeway brought us success. Check out the creations...

So we end the second week. It was a fun one full of energetic middle schoolers whom we high fived as they entered the dining hall every meal. Many of them lived by Messiah and I even met some leaders who were Messiah alum and a student their now! I loved seeing so many Messiah shirts. One day my spill count was at a two as I dripped water on two of the guests. Whoops! Middle schoolers are quite a riot and we have quite a rambunctious group coming today, or so I hear! Happy Monday all!

Week 1 and Done

Blogging around this place is tricky because internet connection is spotty, but excuses aside I am currently blogging from a secret location I discovered while trying to watch Bachelorette online Sunday night. So here I sit on the stage over looking the entire dining hall bringing you some updates.

After those first few days things got busy and we got 150 adult singles for the weekend and then brought in 250 homeschoolers  this past weekend. Lets just say I worked some 9-11 hour days and lost track of my spill count though I did drop a roll on some lady's back. We also got some new servers, one of which is my "twinny" because even apart from our uniforms we continuously dress alike unintentionally (i.e. matching headbands, shirts, etc).



While work is great, I've also been doing some pretty fun stuff too.
Take a look:

Before and after our dance in the rain!

Grabbing ice cream at the cutest ice cream parlor the Big Dipper in Surf City.

Beach, surf and bike 

Can't go wrong with a little Chegg action even when trying the spiciest sauce (Ludicrous!)

And as always a sunset (add in a bike ride and its the perfect beach evening!)

 Now I'm off to start my second lunch shift of middle school week. What a whirlwind and I got a nice juice, French toast, milk and whatever else mixture to clear at breakfast. Eat up!

Turn Left: Day 1 and 2ish in the books

I made it! I turned left!

I rolled up the this yesterday!

It's been a whirlwind of a 30 hours or so. Yesterday was pretty chill just moving in and a little bit of orientation.  I met lots of people and even went on a Target run.

 Today was my first day of work and I really like serving in the dining hall. I found out I actually had to carry trays on my shoulder. Its going to be an interesting summer for a klutzy gal like me. I think I'll do a spill/drop/major mistake count, one of my fellow and servers and I may make a game of it.

Today's Spill Count: 1 and a half. 

I stacked some plates too high before emptying them and they toppled. But no damaged just loud. Of course the HCBC board was there. Yep.

Despite the mishaps I like the buzz of the kitchen, the hard work of it. It's fun working with the other servers, as well as the dish and kitchen guys!

Looking forward to serving more this summer.

And this view from our backyard doesn't hurt!

Turn Left: my last summer of adventures before the "real world" spent left of the LBI causeway!

 All good adventures have a back story, here is mine:

Last summer was spent the usual way; babysitting, bits at the beach, just going along.  It was by no means a bad summer, there were lots of fun and exciting moments but college summers are loooonnnggg and I craved time with my peers.  Six years ago my family spent our first vacation on Long Beach Island, traversing the Garden State Parkway, down 72 and across the causeway before turning right onto the Boulevard the spans the entire island from the tip at Barnegat Lighthouse to the very end of Holgate.  Each and every year we would explore the southern end, spending the first few years in Beach Haven, renting our last summer on Joshua Ave. in Holgate before our family finally decided to buy and settle down on West Ave in Holgate just two houses from Beach Haven.  Each of the past weeks away, I spent my time at the beach dreaming of ways to live down there for the entire summer.  In November, Harvey Cedars Bible Conference came to my attention.  We were down at our house over Thanksgiving weekend cleaning up from some minor damages due to Hurricane Sandy (I was exploring the wrecked beaches and houses in our beloved beach town) and I became really excited about the idea of working at Harvey Cedars on their summer staff.  Once back home, I did some research and found out that you could basically be an RA at the beach.  At Messiah I talked with a girl who had worked there previous summers as well as talked with her brother who was a Nauglet who worked there as well!  I sent out my application over the winter and in March I found out that I was accepted (though not for the Room Counselor aka RA role, but still!).  Harvey Cedars, unlike the other towns on LBI that I have stayed in, is located on the northern end of the island requiring beachcombers to make a left onto the Boulevard when arriving on the island.  This will be my first summer making this left (besides visiting Harvey Cedars over Memorial Day Weekend just over a week ago).  As I am about to embark on my journey I am excited for the opportunity but nervous about a few challenges, including the small crate of storage space of have to fit my stuff in, more conservative rules and my own anxieties about starting new and being away from home for the summer.

I began my packing yesterday, making sure to select clothes that meet the modest dress code while also keeping in mind limited space. Anyone who knows me knows that despite many, many efforts I do not pack light. I have too many craft supplies for that.  Let's just say that my college roommate freshman year went without shorts for the beginning of the school year because she saw Facebook pictures of what I was packing and got nervous that we would not have room in our supplemental triple.  Anyway, I managed to pack most things into this suitcase, with a couple of additional bags but I think I did well. (The other caveat here is that I packed a separate bin to store at my beach house to make switches later in the summer if need be so I really didn't have to struggle hard!)

So this morning was filled with last minute packing and counting my "Beach Fund Jar" of coins that I collect all summer. I got a total of $54.15! Not Bad! My check in time today is between 1-3pm so I will be leaving shortly to make the 2 hour trek. I've prepped a summer cd and have the Jeep top down for the occasion. The main feeling I have as I put the pedal to the gas to begin this journey is uncertainty.  Uncertainty about my job as a server in the dining hall.  Uncertainty about the friends to be made.  Uncertainty about the schedules and hours of work.  Uncertainty about the amount of beach time to be had.  Uncertainty about any anxiety and homesickness. Uncertainty as to whether I will nail surfing.  Uncertainty about about the adventure.  Uncertainty about turning left.  But turning left means something new. It means adventure.  With every dream comes uncertainty but that doesn't stop the dreamer, so with that I begin!