Today has already been a little bit frantic as I am making last minute preparations before I leave for camp tonight. We leave Castle Rock at 11 p.m. on a charter bus with 40 11-18 year olds for Kids Across America or KAA. I've never been but I hear it is a lot of fun and it is where we get all of the cheers that we do with the kids during the summer.

The camp is actually split up into 3 different camps, based on age. I will be in K1 with the youngest kids. I have already started to get to know one of the girls who will be in my camp and I'm very excited to get to know her better.

We'll arrive tomorrow around 2 p.m. and we'll return to New Orleans on Saturday, July 18. I am thankful to my parents for sending me to summer camp for all those years growing up so that I have a better idea of what camp is all about. I'm really looking forward to spending time outdoors where things are a little cooler. I will also have no cell phone or internet access and actually, I'm really looking forward to that.

I'll post photos and info once I return!

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since I last wrote! As I said, the trip to Iowa was great and as far as the trip there, I can't complain. We made it in what may be record time.

It was so good to see family and friends in both Cedar Rapids and Des Moines. My mom and I also drug John out to take a few more senior photos and ended up with more goofy shots than anything else.

My dad made the trip back with me instead of John because there was still much work left to be done on the quad. He spent several days painting and doing other small detail things to make sure that my apartment was in the best shape it could be when he left.

We didn't do much sightseeing and generally stuck to the same restaurant when eating out, but it was so good to be able to work together on my apartment and to spend that extended time together. We also spent a good deal of time watching HGTV and learning about all sorts of home improvement tips and techniques.

After he left I had two days to recoup and then my friend Emily from Nashville flew in. It was so good to have her here when the city was "normal." Last year she flew in just before Gustav hit and ended up evacuating with us to Birmingham. We checked out some of the sights and caught a few festivals in the French Quarter. It's always so much fun to have people come down and see what I do and where I live.

A few days later I was able to meet up with the missions team leader from my home church and show him and another church member what we do here for National Project. We talked through a lot of things and they were able to ask flood recovery questions of Laura as they are from Cedar Rapids and in the continued recovery stages themselves.

That Friday, June 17 A few people helped me move most of my things back into the quad and I am so grateful for their help as it was immensely hot that day.

The following Monday I was on a plane headed for Minneapolis for the week for the EFCA National Conference with Laura, Pastor John and Wendy. I had only been to a district conference and didn't know what to expect. We had a great time and it was a blessing to be able to catch up with some former staff members and pastors from a few of the churches I've attended over the years.

We had amazing hosts in Bloomington and I can't say enough about their hospitality. I hadn't really slept in a real bed (I'd been using a blow up bed while not in the quad) for almost two months and that alone made it amazing. But more than that they were so giving and fun to hang out with that often we'd find ourselves up way past our "bedtime."

I love learning new cities and quickly acquainted myself with the greater Minneapolis area. I always tell people I don't get lost, not as a matter of pride, but simply as a gift. It seems a strange gift perhaps, but it comes in very handy and we made our way all over the city with no GPS and of that, I am very proud.

There has been a lot to do since I returned to New Orleans and I am slowly but surely settling back into my home at the quad. However...

Last night I was in the bathroom and I saw/heard a giant spider running toward me. As I squealed and moved it turned around and ran the other way. I tried spraying it with hairspray, as that was all I had, and it ran for the fridge. So I soaked the entire area around the fridge with bug spray. I also sprayed by the back door, front door and my bedroom door.

Thinking I had surely kept it from going anywhere past the fridge, I layed down to read for a while. No more that 30 seconds later out of the corner of my eye, I spied it running up the wall in my bedroom! I'm not gonna lie, I almost wet my pants. I was terrified at this point, especially because we had recently been talking about the brown recluse spiders that live here and cause incredible damage with their bite.

I, thankfully, had thought enough to leave the bug spray by my bedroom door and so I inched over to it while not once taking my eyes off the spider. Then I had to make the decision to spray or not to spray. I seriously thought about going to sleep somewhere else, anywhere else. So I sprayed and it flew off the ceiling, just like in that movie Arachnophobia. Creepy! So I jumped and after a deep breath, moved the pillow it had run under spraying all the time.

I thought I had killed it because it curled all up like they do, but after 3 seconds of not spraying its legs shot out and it proceeded to run away so I sprayed it some more and smashed it with a piece of a chalkboard thing that happened to be close by. So there is was, in a lake of bug spray, finally dead.

All night I was creeped out because it felt like there were things crawling on me and tonight I will for surely be doing more spraying all along the baseboards and anywhere those nasty huge spiders may be coming from. I never thought I'd say it, but I'd rather have the mice!