Letter to Mom

"The sweetest sounds to mortals given, are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven." - William Goldsmith Brown

Hi Mom! I'll be in Heaven when you, my mother, are home. :)

Here comes the "Malorie epistle" you requested. After sending my previous, lengthy email I realized I'd failed to ask you at all about your trip! How silly of me.. I'm veryyy interested! How are you doing? Ready to come home yet? 

I'm SO ready to have you home, Mom. I do think I'll survive a few more days, but I'm predicting that by Thursday I'll be having a complete and total breakdown. I need you in my life! 

You'd like to know about New Years camp? I feel as though whenever something extremely fun happens and I go to write about it, I lose interest! Very odd.. but describing certain things that I enjoy very greatly is difficult for me!

As I said.. I enjoyed myself greatly. By 12:15 AM, January 1st, I was most definitely ready to be home.  I went Wednesday night, the camp started Thursday. Some of Wednesday and all morning on Thursday was spent decorating for the luau that was to happen. Camp had a Hawaiian theme this year which I think you're already aware of. In the end the Lodge looked ridiculous, exactly how we wanted desired! Nearly every item came straight from the Oriental Trading Company or a garage sale.

There were five girl CITs and only four girl cabin groups. They normally have CITs in the two younger groups and day camp, but day camp doesn't exist during New Years. So! I ended up with the Mustangs, the oldest group of girls! Many of them were fourteen, nearly fifteen. It was a new experience, having campers who were only a few years younger than me. These girls who seemed so young were only a year behind my two best friends! I think I work better with the Texans, but I really enjoyed trying something different. I also had kitchen duty all weekend. I had the second shift, after lunch 'til clean-up after supper -- 12:30 to 8:30. I didn't mind at all, but it would of been nicer if I were either working in the kitchen or working as a counselor rather than trying to do both. It was exhausting and it sad that I wasn't able to get to know my campers very well. There is a new cook, Heidi, and I love her! It was weird adjusting, after working in the kitchen with Ms. Rachel for so many years, but it was fun! Heidi said we were her best kitchen workers and asked Mr. Matt if they could hire us full-time. :)

Yesterday I ended up leaving right after the campers left instead of cleaning the whole ranch.. Hannah was home and I didn't want to miss my only opportunity to see her! I'm so glad I did come home! In the evening Blake, Zach, Richard, and Aaron stopped by for twenty minutes on their way to Tyler and I learned that Rockin' C paid $30-$50 extra to anyone who filled out an application right then! Ughh! I've already sent mine in and didn't get any extra money! Haha, I suppose I don't mind losing that money too much.. I didn't have to clean.

When leaving the ranch, the first thing I wanted to do was have Kat over! And that is what I did! She came over this afternoon too. I picked her up from work and then we headed to Brookshire's to buy supplies for a cheesecake! After buying our groceries I realized I was missing my keys. We scanned the store, looking everywhere we'd walked, but the keys weren't to be found! I figured they'd be in the truck.. and they were! Abigail came to the rescue with the spare key and we headed home. Though extended somewhat, the trip to Brookshire's was still successful. We made an AWESOME cheesecake. It's title is "Autumn    Cheesecake." It was cinnamon, apples, and pecans. Yummmmmyy. 

-- Kathrine and I put pecans on only half of it because I'm not a fan of them. We also went on a wonderful walk. Bundled up in our coats and scarves, we were protected from the cold and were able to enjoy the sunset. --

This evening I finished my book, The Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. I'm feeling very inspired! The whole book is little stories and the things the author, Randy, learned from them. The whole time I was reading this book, reading of his vibrant life and experiences I knew he was no longer alive. Randy Pausch wrote the book while dying of terminal, pancreatic cancer and he only had a few months left to live. It was something of a memoir, something for his kids to read when they're older. Anyway! I looooved it.

I am feeling a little impatient about life. Hannah's pregnant, Abby's getting married, and all I have is a long road of school stretched out in front of me. It is irritating. I guess it could be comforting, I have something of a plan for once.. I know what I'm doing. I have an end goal, school is the means to the end. But see, I get my satisfaction by finishing things.. journals, books, classes, etc. so being here in the middle doesn't hold much pleasure for me. In some ways I wish I wasn't in college yet, then I would be feeling the joy of nearly being done with high school!  When I graduate nothing much will change, so I it isn't any fun. Aaah! I'm impatient right now.

Okay! Going to bed now. I hope you enjoy this letter, in my normal, rambling style. 

I love you so much and I hope you're having a blessed trip! Praying for you, and Nu, Mats, and Andrea. 

Your Mal 

P.S. I'm loving this right now. "But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." (I bet you already know what the reference is and have the verse memorized.) -- 2 Corinthians 3:16-18