"I don't want to die at sea!"

Wow, so a lot to catch up on. The end of last week/ this weekend was kind of crazy. It was all really good stuff, but I've just been so busy I haven't had time to do any updates. Thursday after work I might have seen the coolest thing in the world. So, it sounds totally unbelievable but it's true. Apparently there are 2 places in the world where the fireflies(aka lightning bugs) glow in synchronization and one of those places happens to be this little campground in the Smoky Mountain National Park. It has something to do with them seeing each other and lighting up so it gives this big wave effect. And it only happens one week a year because of mating habits or something of the sort. You can look it up if you don't believe me. http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/fireflies.htm
We found this little rock field back in the woods that was really dark to get a good view of them and it was incredible! They would start in the top left corner and then in a wave go from left to right in rows all the way down the height of the trees. Then we'd wait like 15 seconds and they'd do it again. Crazy.... It blows my mind to think about how first of all, God creates a bug that lights up, and then goes on to create a certain kind of this particular bug that knows how to follow its fellow bugs and light up at the same time- all for our enjoyment so that we might glorify Him for His creativity. And of all the places to be, somewhere in Asia and right here in my backyard. Before it got dark, I went with 2 of the mentors and a set of the house parents and we cooked hot dogs over the fire at the campsite they rented and just hung out, talked, tossed the frisbee around. Then once it got darker we hiked in to the Elkmont trail and staked out a good spot to see them. It was really incredible. I know I've already said that but discovering new facets of God's creativity always completely amazes and humbles me.
Friday there was some animal show at Dollywood happening so the Ranch got a bunch of free tickets. Even though I had just been to Dollywood last Tuesday, I had to go again Friday. I didn't have a super great attitude about going because it was hot and I just wasn't really in the mood to stand in long lines and feel slimy all day, it was actually quite enjoyable. I went with the Housers and we went to the animal show with the McDonnell kids. The show was alright; I really enjoyed the baby zebra they brought out. But the greatest part was watching the 7 kids I was surrounded by love their lives and be fascinated by the animals. It was really special to watch all those kids [all under the age of 8] be entertained. After the show, I hung out with Seth and Amy and Hannah and Caleb. All we did was ride the kids' rides, and I actually only rode one (the Dollywood version of the Dumbo flying elephants at DisneyWorld), but it was hysterical. You have to press a button to make the elephants fly up and down and I let Hannah be in charge of it. She doesn't always press the button in all the way, so we would descend quite quickly. One time, we fell really fast and she's cracking up and all of a sudden she yells, "This is SO crazy!" I lost it; I couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the ride. And Caleb and I finally became friends that day. Now he knows who I am and talks to me and lets me pick him up without freaking out that I'm a stranger. As soon as I got back from Dollywood, there was a volunteer group that showed up for the day and they had run out of jobs to do. So we decided to do some of the ropes course stuff with them and I learned how to belay for the pamper pull [a giant telephone pole you climb and then jump off to grab a trapeze]. It was pretty sweet. I can't wait to do some of the high ropes elements. I've done the telephone pole one before at a different camp but it's been years, so I'm pumped to do it again. Immediately after doing the ropes course stuff, I headed over to Kit and Ryan's for dinner and Laura showed up soon after. It was so fun to hang out over there and just talk about HoneyRock related stuff and people for a long time. It's definitely been good for me and kind of refreshing to not be up there this summer, but I still miss it, or at least a lot of the people.
Saturday Laura and I continued my tradition of a hike in the park and then playing in the river. We hiked to Laurel Falls, which was pretty, but is probably pretty glorious when the river is higher. This is the upper falls. There was a really pretty little footbridge over the river and then the lower falls. There were also these really sweet signs that said DANGEROUS CLIFF. They were pretty sweet. You can look for pictures of all the sweet signage we saw that day in the facebook album to come.
After hiking at the falls, we went tubing down this really sweet stretch of river. It was really great because there are decent rapids, but nothing you can get extremely hurt on. Also, it was sprinkling on and off for a little while, and so there was no one else on the river except us, which was awesome. Being alone and being with Laura made everything hilarious. Laura and I could not stop laughing. Between Laura getting ejected out of her tube, getting stuck on random rocks every 10 minutes, tubing for the first time, and the crazy random things we would say, there was quite a bit of laughter. The title of this post comes from some of the hilarity of the day. A tree had fallen across the river but was just high enough that the river could flow unobstructed under it but people and tubes definitely could not. I was up ahead so I saw it and made my way to the side of the river to climb around it. Laura was coming kind of quickly toward it and I didn't want her to get clotheslined by the giant tree, so I started yelling for her to swim to the side and get out quickly. Laura was paddling hard with her hands and kind of freaking out, and all of a sudden yelled, "I don't want to die at sea!!" I almost fell back in to the river because I was laughing so hard.
Laura also had a fairly intense case of poison ivy, which led to some hilarious comments and moments throughout the weekend. For all of you who might not know what poison ivy does to human flesh, here is Laura in agony [well, mock agony in the photo, but she experienced real agony throughout the weekend-zoom in and look closely at her legs].
The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. We did a little outlet shopping and dinner out and then came back to the Ranch, chilled with the mentors a little bit and then hung out in my apartment. Sunday we went to a church I really enjoyed- Evergreen Presbyterian. I think it's where I'll be going for the rest of the summer. The preaching was solid but not southern hellfire and brimstone baptist, which was nice. One of the worship leaders was a little distracting, but they sang a hillsong song, which was definite bonus points. Sunday afternoon was the usual- hanging out by the pool, doing laundry, and dinner at Kit and Ryan's. Louise was in a really good mood (she hasn't been lately), so it was definitely nice to play with her and get big smiles. Today was surprisingly busy- choosing a t-shirt design, driving to the Sevier county courthouse to get new tags for a donated van, and some other random stuff. Great news though, I get to ride tomorrow! I've only been on a horse once since I got here, and that needs to change. Hopefully for the next 2 weeks before camp starts, I'll get to ride in at least 1 or 2 lessons a week.
Alright, well I'm going to head out for the night- I'm a little tired from mini-golf and Starbucks with Laurel Ridge. Another sad reality today though, for which I would love some prayer. Yet another of the Laurel Ridge girls has left the Ranch, as has one of the Pleasant Hill girls. She's been here for quite a while and apparently has changed incredibly during her time here. Lately she's been pretty adamant about wanting to go home though. She went home over the weekend basically so her mom, who wants her here and knows this is a much better situation for her, could talk to her about why she should and needs to stay. Apparently that didn't work out so well and I found out today she wasn't coming back. It just breaks my heart because I had really connected with her and didn't even get to say goodbye. Pray for those two girls, along with the girl that left about a week ago. They're going back to hard situations and are most likely not mature enough to handle them. One of the girls isn't even going back to a family, she's being placed elsewhere. It's just really heartbreaking. That and I've had some hard news about another friend's health, so please keep her in your prayers. I'll leave you all with another stunning sunset from Saturday night, to revel in God's glory despite Satan's attempts to make this world a miserable place.