Hello Mother, Hello Father

Do you remember that song about Camp? I DO! I sang it for a school talent show when I was in 6th grade. LOL 

Camp is a BIG affair that requires a LOT of planning. There are supplies to be bought (travel shampoo with easy-to-open tops for Angela, body soap in a similar container, etc.) new swimming suits to purchase (long story there) and bags to be packed! 

Then you have to get all this stuff together. While Angela was busy helping Dean cook dinner on the grill, I was packing Angela's stuff for camp. I might as well have hung a 'do not disturb' sign on my neck, because really, if I lost concentration there was going to be a problem at camp later! 

I got all the stuff together, and laid it out on her bed. 

I know this doesn't look like a lot, but that's because I have a secret for packing a kid for camp! You see those little zippered bags? I've been collecting them for months! LOL They are the bags that new sheets come in, and boy are these bags handy! In the picture below you can see why. 
Each bag holds an entire day's outfit!!! Now, it's fortunate that camp happens in the summer months, and summer clothes don't take up as much room as winter clothes. LOL But, that big pictured above holds a pair of shorts, tshirt, underwear, socks, and a bra. So, when Angela gets up in the morning, she only needs to open that bag, and put on everything it contains. I packed long clothes too (jeans and sweatshirts and stuff) for the cool evenings, but this time of year you don't need as many of those, so you they can be packed separately. When my boys were younger and went to camp, the LOVED that I packed their daily clothes this way, because they didn't have to THINK when they got up. LOL What you don't see pictured here is the giant bag of meds I had to send along as well!

Angela and I had a long day ahead of us. The drive to camp is 4 hours, but we had a *slight* detour (of about 3 hours) to make first! So I had to wake her up at 4:30 a.m. Poor baby! I was secretly relishing the payback for all the times she's woken me from a sound sleep! I hated to disturb her sound sleep! 

And who doesn't love a mother who snaps a picture when your eyes aren't even open yet?

Ah, daylight! She did really well with all that driving we had to do! 

All the way to camp she kept repeating, "You drop me off right? Just leave, I'll go by myself!" When we got to camp, she was number 63 of 91 campers to be checked in!!! Aaaaahhhhhhhh We arrived when they were on number 32, so we had to wait awhile. She BEGGED me to LEAVE already! "But Angela, I have to meet with the nurse to go over your meds, and we need to unpack your stuff." Oh, she was very frustrated with the fact I was hanging around! And, she did NOT want me taking pictures. Actually, it was pretty clear that I was not to talk to her, or appear at all like I was with her. You know we had that 13th birthday a few weeks ago. LOL

While we were waiting to get checked in, we found out that the camp had closed early during last week's session because of confirmed cases of the swine flu!! Oh man! Have I mentioned Angela has a weakened immune system? The hired an outside company to come in and sanitize the whole place. All the new campers, and the counselors were checked over pretty carefully to make sure there wasn't a repeat this week!

FINALLY it was time for me to go, and FINALLY Angela let me be seen in the same vicinity as here, and to take her picture. Here she is on her camp bed. She sleeps in a hospital bed at home, so she's sleeping in one at camp too! When she went to this camp back in the spring, one of the other young ladies brought a stuffed animal and a blanket. Angela is not attached to any particular items, but she has spent these last 3 months reminding me that she wanted to bring this stuffed turtle. We did not bring a blanket though. 

And that is where I said my goodbye. There were other girls bringing their stuff in, and her counselor was helping them say goodbye to their parents. (they weren't quite so eager for their parents to leave as Angela was! Should I feel good or bad about that?) 

I called yesterday to see how she's doing, and was told by a counselor, "She's doing great!" and that's about it. I'm going to assume no news is good news, and go about my week enjoying doing NOTHING!