Thursday Thirteen: 13 Reasons Why I love Deer Run!

In honor of my cousin Martha out at camp the last two weeks, I thought I would make my "Thursday 13" about Deer Run.

1. Pine Trees-"In the Pines, In the Pines where the sun never shines..." The smell, the cool breezes day and night, you just can't experience anything greater.

2. Starry nights-If you visit Deer Run, you must walk in the middle of the ball field at night-and take a moment to look up. It just does not get any better than than. You can't help but feel God's presence as he covers you with twinkling lights.

3. Hymn Time-30 minutes out of the day is spent singing praises to God. The best Hymn times were done during outcamping-underneath the trees-many times this was the coolest part of the day so it was refreshing-body, mind and spirit. Fellow Deer Runners: Remember singing "Lord Be There for Me" and "Someday" over and over again. I have chills just thinking about all of our voices blended harmoniously together.

4. Night games- Not be/c I am a game fanatic but because it was during night games one summer that I met my "Deer" friend Jodi. We snuck off to the woods and sat down to talk b/c neither one of us wanted to run around and get sweaty...we had to stay looking cute for the boys. After that night we were bonded for life!

5. Horses! Whatever! I hated riding horses! I always loved the counselors (who will remain nameless to protect them) that allowed us to sleep instead of ride. Most of the time we had been up all night laughing or playing pranks on the boys, so it was nice to have that hour nap.

6. Rolls of toilet paper- let me explain... one summer on staff the girls bathhouse had run out of toilet paper and it was late at night. So I took it upon myself to run down to the mess hall (dining room) to stock us up-didn't want a camper to go without. I did not have a flash light! (Young ones do not follow my example always carry a flash light at camp-esp the middle of the night) But b/c I did not have my flashlight I was able to sneak up on my two "Deer" staff friends kissing in the middle of the ball field. So I ran back to my cabin without toilet paper and when she came back to the cabin all googly eyed-I suggested she go get some more toilet paper in the mess hall-which she was happy to do b/c a certain someone had said he too we be hanging in the mess hall. Don't know if the toilet paper was ever really stocked up that night!

7. Quiet Time-15 minutes each day was taken for the whole camp to sit and spend time reading your Bible and praying to God. I think this is where I learned that I could actually sit and talk to God. I still have some of my prayer journals from that time-I prayed for patience often. Since I had the youngest cabin or the cabin filled with high maintenance 14 year old girls.

8. Crafts-"Let's get crafty!" I was craft mama whenever I was not counseling staff. I liked the younger boys cabins best. They were always making stuff out of rocks,wood and sticks. Big long sticks, were the item of choice. They would find them on the ground outside then paint them up real nice. They were so adventurous that it made me laugh! You never knew what they would come up with.

9. Sadie Hawkins Day-girls get to chase boys-need I say more!

10. Killi Creek-it's a camp thing-unless you have been there you won't understand. B/C to the untrained eye it is just dirty old water but through the eye of a Deer Runner-it has healing powers! No really, it does!

11. "Listen Freak Boy I don't need your help, I have got it all under control!" My Deer friend Seth who died of leukemia when we were sophomores in college-was always on my ball team as a camper. When it came my time to serve in a volleyball game he thought he needed to offer me advice. I could serve-just didn't want to (it was that not wanting to break a sweat thing) So one day I yelled out, "LISTEN FREAKBOY-I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP! I HAVE IT ALL UNDER CONTROL!" It stuck after that and now I am know as the girl that called everyone Freakboy!

12. Cousin Time-all my mom's cousins went to camp-all the cousin's kids went to camp and later worked on staff together. We had so much fun together. One Christmas Cousin Nancy bought us all shirts that said on the front, "You messin' with me!" then on the back, "You messin' with the whole family!"

13. Life long friends-thank you Deer Friends for all the great memories. I can't wait for all of our children to have the time together when they are all old enough to go.