Super Saturday

Today for the past 8 years I have gone to Ukriane, but today I am experiencing my first Super Saturday at Muskoka Woods. One word- Bedlum!!

I will miss Ukraine this year.

More N. Irish, the giant bruise on my arm & 16298

Its all systems go here at the woods, 300 new staff arrived on Friday. It hit that for all these new people coming it is the start of something new but for me and a few others it’s the beginning of the end as I start my forth and final season at the woods! I have to say it made me pretty sad. Among the new staff are a few Northern Irish- great to hear the accent again, chat and of course work out people we all know, great banter. Its sweet to have been here all year, to know all the full time staff and to go into the summer with fellow O Rec staff, the full time staff are more lenient, than they are with just summer staff, and its good to know people in a huge crowd like this and to be in the know as to how things run.

As I’ve said before I’m running the shop this summer, I met the 12 staff on Saturday that I will be working with. We started training with a few team building games, then got stuck into some real work getting the shop ready. We have already painted the shop and priced a lot of the clothes etc but still a lot to do before the first ‘Super Saturday’.

I moved cabins and am now living in Hazelwood which is pretty much at the opposite side of camp to where I was living before. I have a double room with my friend Lauren which is pretty good as all the other rooms have 4, 6 or 8 people in them!

Here’s to the dumb and dumber finger/arm point, Tom getting his lip pierced, Bex dying her hair black and pink, my roller blade/ mountain bike exploits with Lindsay and co in the wee hours of the morning, to staff number 16298, my eye constantly twitching, “Oh now he IS nice!”, Spring summery- “The BA craic was 90, oh no she didn’t, Just kidd’n.. eeennndddd scene!”, getting up at 5.30am every morning, crashing the golf cart into the side of Hazelwood [my house] and wreaking my arm,My briuse is the slightly smaller than the span of my hand!, My tuck cart is not as nipping or having a tight stering to what I was used to with the O Rec cart!], Bex asking me to be her one to one this summer and to going to Florida in a month!!

Pictures: Just for a wee bit of fun and to sizzle up the blog. Top we have myself and my good friends Kariss, Ponchie and Lauren. Bottom is Myself and Lauren.

The end

Today marks the final day of Outdoor rec. It’s a very sad day. I worked out that since I arrived in September I personally have approximately worked with 71 schools and out of those 71 schools I have worked with 923 kids, its weird to think that at one point I knew all their names. Not to mention weekend groups. I will really miss it, I grew to really love my job and be good at it. Next week I start as the ‘Muskoka Woods trading company’ Supervisor!!

I will miss… Our Friday afternoon meeting, giving the climbing wall talk, surprising myself by impressing kids with my archery and golf skills! The smell of bug spray in the morning, getting in early to get the good radios, playing empire, organising the closing shifts, talking to teachers, my rec staff friends that are not staying for the summer, sitting in Ferndale, sneaking into the office and sweet talking Cathy into letting me stay, "Can you go to 2 please?!" all the radio banter, Wednesday – the bus transfer day, the craic and banter with my kids, easy truck and golf cart access, playing touch rugby, my specialist introductions, the good chat times in Braden & Yetundes office, the dishes banter, mountain biking, freaking my kids out by telling them what to do if they see a bear, playing camouflage, writing messages on the white board, staff dance parties after the kids go to bed, the freedom to use all the activites whenever we want, frequent eye rolling, Sunday night pizza and Braden & Yetunde.

I will not miss… Instructing inline skating, low ropes and waiting for meal times

I am off for a few days visiting Lindsay, then back to train 12 new staff and get ready for the summer bedlam!! Let the good times roll…

Here’s to my last teacher having turrets, Tom and I convincing our groups that we were twins & wanting to do my challenge again!

Picture: Muskoka Woods Spring Crew 2007.

Challenge

Here's to completing a summer challenge in spring. There is only one person in the world that knows the challenge and I know as they read this they will be a) a little suprised at how quick the challenge was completed b) laughing very hard, and c) will want to hear the whole story!! Good times, great craic and its all good!!

Rec staff til I die!

The craic has continued to be 90 here at the woods! I told my summer boss that I was only going to be rec staff until my outdoor rec ends on 17th then I will join leadership. She was ok with it when I explained my reasons. One of which being a was going to leave 3 leadership positions on rec staff to join “Leadership” and I don’t think that walking out on rec leadership is very good leadership in itself!! It’s all good now. No pressure to be one or the other I can be and do what I love. My boss is one of my favourite people here Yetunde is leaving next week when rec ends so we headed into town for dinner last night was great craic I will miss her. Hopefully going to go see her out west on my travels after the summer.
We pretty much have destroyed the golf cart we used for our rally sessions. Driving it down the tubing hill didn’t help. It was going to give up the ghost soon anyway.

Here's to “That’s sick… not like sick sick… But sick!!, racoon poo in the staff room, accidentally killing a chipmunk by standing on it! I’m now called the chipinator!, wreaking the sterling on the golf cart, driving the golf cart down the tubing hill, running into the forest thinking we had been caught making a monster fire, “Rachel you told us about the 4 T’s and you only follow 3 of them!!”, throwing everyone in the pool at Kandices leaving party, accidentally breaking the tv with the rugby via stephs head!, The return of oatmeal raisin cookies, Big Ronada, “Sorry I’m late I couldn’t find my radio”… “That’s what you said last time!!”, making a massive fire up at Witmock, Tom and Michelle hitch hiking into Huntsville and to the last week of rec staff! :-(

Pictures: Top on the golf cart with Lauren, Katie & Kandice, Bottom piture: me, Katie & Lauren with the bear!

More pictures on my bebo.

Bang, Kayaking & laughter

We are well through Spring here with only 2 more weeks until Summer officially starts. I have to say the past week or 2 have been SO much fun. We went for a kayaking adventure on Friday night out to the light house and back along by the cliff and shore line some very beautiful houses and scenery. Yetunde and I were in the same Kayak I think we did more laughing than paddling! We then went jumping off the docks, jumping of the docks seems to be the activity to end all other activates we do. So swimming gear is always kept at hand. Lake Rosseau is so nice clean water and doesn’t smell which is always a good thing! I had a good birthday weekend with Lindsay we went to a car rally. Which consisted of 6 cars in an area the size of a tennis courts bashing into each other until only one car is still going! A bit like real life dodgem cars.

Last night we had a fire… check out the video, it takes a while to get going so bear with it:



One thing that is pretty poor at the minute, leadership arrived on Sunday for 3 weeks training. I am officially leadership and I am also officially outdoor rec, so I’m feeling the pressure to do both. What do I want to do? - Outdoor rec, unfortunately no one seems to care and everyone wants me to do both. So I am rebelling! OUTDOOR REC to the bitter end!

Here’s to: “Where is Spencer?!”, The Mexicans trip to Dairy Queen [6 of us squeesed in the back of the van!], the red bull party, “What kind of doorbell do you have at home?!”, Lindsay painting my toenails when I fell asleep during a movie, “Situation!”, full contact rugby in the rain, 4 people on a golf cart rallying around b3/golf, Amanda picking flowers out of the hanging basket, the 22 insect bites on my neck, Tom’s surprise midnight birthday dance party, The Jurassic park golf cart experience, “How do you like those apples?!”, Bratunde, jumping of the tower into the lake, The Outdoor recers, the dodge ball tournament, "did that instructer just ask you for crack?" to Matt Preace leaving, and to Justin’s custom.