Camp Time (week 1 at Fort Walton)

After a long day of riding in the car we finally made it to the white sand and beautiful beach. We ate at the Crab Trap for our first dinner as a staff. Lauren and I are finally on staff together again. They moved her and Brian to Fort Walton a few years back, but we are thankful we get to spend this year with the Bone's.

They make flip-flops with bottle openers on the bottom. What is this world coming to?! :)

I mean how creative are we?! This is the buzzer to let us know our table is ready at the Crab Trap. It would light up when it was time.

Menu

Okay, so just imagine a bowl 4 times the size of a normal cereal bowl. I walked into the kitchen one morning to Jeremy pouring him a bowl of cereal. Well, it was more of a cake mixing bowl than a cereal bowl! I was like really?! He said that was the only bowl he could find in the cabinets other than tiny ones. I told him we'd have to go get more cereal every other day if he was going to eat that much every day.

We decided to eat at the condo from then on since they have complimentary breakfast. Their breakfast is pretty crazy. They have about 6 choices. #1 is composed of 2 pancakes, eggs, and sausage/bacon while #6 is a muffin. I mean really?! How can one choice have lots of food, and another one have 1 muffin?! Oh and you can't mix the numbers. You can't say, "I want a muffin and a banana" because #5 (cereal and fruit) and #6 (muffin or bagel) can't be mixed. In addition, they have tiny cups maybe the height of one of my fingers. Jeremy asked for a refill on his apple juice since he drank it in one sip. They said it was a dollar for another one! From then on I get an apple juice and give it to Jeremy, since my complimentary meal also comes with a drink. (We were not stealing, I just gave mine to Jeremy every day). Sorry for any confusion!

Here's the accident scene. So, most of you know by now I was running camera on Wednesday morning when I felt week. My camera was up on the screen, so I told Beecher (#2 video guy and director at that time) I was weak. I remember him saying, "Going to camera 1" but that's the last thing I remember until I found myself having a hard time breathing. I remember sweating and having people all around me. I told them I was going to throw up. They brought me a canvas basket we use for offering. In my head I was thinking I will not throw up in this! I told them I had a hard time breathing and wanted to switch positions. They didn't really want me to move, but I did anyway. Through the time I had my eyes closed most of the time, but voices kept asking me questions... "Do you know where you are?" "Can you wiggle your toes?" "Do you want some water?" I didn't answer many of them with verbal phrases because I was struggling to get air. I also remember hearing Brock, the illusionist, talking from stage about trying to not focus on the distraction. He was doing the invitation and I fainted so it was a little distracting to hear a thud. The other camera person, Logan got a little distracted to and his camera started shaking and not focusing on Brock anymore. Beecher was calling for Logan over the com, since he was backstage, but I had pulled the com cords apart when I had fallen and so they couldn't hear each other. Brock just froze on stage and didn't know what to do. Then another staffer, Dan, ran to get Jeremy so then they were aware of what happened. Later on Brock told me he saw me fall over and it was like slow motion. He saw Doug making a "cut it" motion so he tried to wrap things up. Apparently he said, "I have something for you guys outside, but I need you to exit this back door behind the stage." The kids thought he had a surprise, but he just needed to get people out of the room when the ambulance came. Doug also saw it happen and he said I locked my legs. I stand up when I do camera because I feel like I get a better picture. Who knows, but either way I still fainted. The ambulance came. I remember opening my eyes when they were putting me on the board and putting the neck brace on. I was looking for Jeremy. He looked scared. I remember them telling Jeremy he could ride in the front of the ambulance and him telling someone that Beecher was bringing his car. I started opening my eyes a little more on the ambulance ride. I started realizing my hand and back were hurting. The lady was putting IVs in my arm and taking my blood pressure. She also put me on oxygen for a little while because I couldn't breathe. We got to the hospital and they took me in a room. I remember them hooking me up to a monitor and Doug walked in. The doctors were pretty concerned about him just walking back there. They escorted him out. The nurses and doctors were extremely nice. Each time I met a new one they asked me what happened. It was neat to share what the camp was about. They couldn't draw blood from the IV so after about 10 pokes and a change to an IV in the other arm they finally were able to get some samples. I kept telling them I was weird! They put a whole bag of saline and pain meds in me. At some point I went to get x-rays. I remember standing up for my back x-ray. I thought I had broken some ribs. I sat down for the hand x-ray but got really dizzy so they laid me down in the bed again. While waiting for the test results, Lauren and Brian came in with Chick-fil-A. I couldn't eat much, but it was so good to laugh and talk with them. It meant a lot that they would come. Jeremy said he got really emotional two times, when they were putting me on the back board and when he saw Lauren and Beecher at the ambulance entrance at the hospital. The x-rays came back fine and the rest of the tests came back normal. They said my blood pressure was low and that they thought I was dehydrated. They told me my orders were to drink lots and get rest. I went to the condo and took a 3 hour nap. I woke up and tried to get ready for the service but halfway through I got really tired and couldn't do it. I told Jeremy to go and make sure things were okay. He went for a while and then left to get me some Advil and some dinner. Doug gave him his credit card and told him to get dinner. It was too sweet. The next morning I was convinced I could make it through the morning session. I couldn't put up much. Even my purse is too heavy. Jeremy and the other staffers have been great! They constantly ask to carry things and do things for me. The youth leaders and conference center workers also were concerned for me. I got a sweet note and card as well as some really sweet words from the attendees. I'm thankful I wasn't hurt worse and will be healing for a while. It's been interesting to hear different points of view through the days since the accident. People asked me if I remembered them. I usually said no, because my eyes were closed and there were a lot of people around me after I fell. I also heard rumors about the girl who had the seizure, had a heart attack, who broke her ribs... yep, that's me.

I wanted you to have a visual picture of how tall the podium is. Imagine me being standing on it and falling off. I wasn't sitting down either.

Same color scheme.

Saturday we had a relaxing day. We woke up around 12 and then went to the pool to hang out with the staff. After getting cleaned up, the staff went to see Toy Story 3. I cried! We decided to go to Dewey Destin's after Toy Story 3. We all got a table outside and then a HUGE storm cloud moved our way. We got a little nervous about sitting outside so Brian got up and took off towards his car. It was hilarious. Lauren, Jeremy and I took off after him. We ended up getting a table inside and were glad we got to enjoy the yummy food.

One side of our table. Logan, Allie, Amber and Emmy

Our side of the table- Lauren, Brian, Kaleb, Jeremy, and me

The other table- Beecher, Owen, Courtney, Lana, Andrew, and Dan

We really didn't plan to color coordinate. Promise! My hair doesn't like the humidity.

Here's the only visual evidence of my fall. The picture doesn't do it justice either. My thumb is pretty bruised and hurts whenever I move it.