I know! I know! It’s been over 2 weeks since I’ve wrote anything for this blog! I’ve had some pretty busy weeks and weekends, so buckle up this is going to be a ride!

Let’s start with the work week of July 7th! I can’t decide if it was most favorite or worst week of labor yet (maybe you can help me decide). The main project of the week was creating rock caps for the culverts we put in the trail, we want things lookin’ mighty puurrrrty! But the problem is… that means we had to find the rocks, shape them, and insert them in a way that actually looks nice (which was basically an impossible task!) The rocks were always too small or too big, weren’t flat enough, weren’t wide enough, too brittle, or too heavy! Plus, when I was shaping the rocks, I split multiple in the wrong direction, essentially destroying my work and having to start over again. The bright side though was I crafted 2 rock caps pretty much on my own! I felt so accomplished for pushing through and creating something that is both sturdy and pretty! Plus in this week, I really started to notice that I’m getting stronger! I can finally do real push ups (it may only be 5, but hey that’s 5 more than I could do previously!).

Now the weekend following that work week was the best! My boyfriend and I took a mini vacation up to Michigan with his family! It might have been 10 hours each way (13 for him), but it was totally worth it! I have never been to that part of the Midwest before, so I had been looking forward to the trip for months! I had the pleasure of meeting a majority of his extended family, which definitely was not intimidating. Everyone was so nice there, we ate so much ice cream, and swam every day! My favorite part was getting to go to Sleeping Bear Dunes! We did the Dune Climb hike, we were so exhausted, but the view of Lake Michigan (and at the end the parking lot) made it totally worth it! I hope to get the chance to go to Michigan again someday, I’ve heard too much about the Mackinac Bridge to not go and see it.

Now, I couldn’t neglect my life, so back to work we had to go! It was really nice getting to see the crew again and share how all our weekends went. We were done with rock work and had to return back to constructing causeway. We finished the first two sections and were starting the third. It was mostly the National Park people who did the work, but they had us do small tasks like digging ditches, tidying things up, and digging better drains. The most notable part of the week was on Thursday. It was pouring. We had our final work day for the State Park, and we were maintaining another trail. It looked like it hadn’t been used in years because of all the overgrowth. We were all slipping and sliding, and eventually trees started falling so we had to bail! At least 4 fell in too close proximity to people, praise God we were able to make it out of there safely! We got end the work day a few hours early because the rain still wouldn’t let up, so I got to drive home for dinner!

After 3 long weeks, I finally got to go home and see my family! I missed them so much and just needed to actually talk with them and hang out. There was a lot to catch up on and it felt like I was a part of the family again instead of just looking in and feeling left out. This weekend was filled with a lot of fun activities! My parents taught me how to change the battery in my car, I finally bought myself sandals, I slept in a bed, and I got to go to the annual church lake day! It was wonderful seeing a new church family member get baptized and spend time chatting with all the people I’ve missed!

Now we’re finally caught back up to this current work week! The morale was low. It rained every day. No joke. And it never let up, we would get maybe an hour or two with clear skies, but the rain would always come back. It was exhausting just feeling constantly damp, having to stop and listen to make sure no trees were falling, listening for thunder, and slipping in the mud. It was so muddy that we all came up with “mud nicknames” for one another. I have been titled Kan’t Slip Mikel-Bog. Also, I made up nicknames for the people I was working with for most of the week, we are Worm Woman, Grub Girl (that’s me!), and Centi-Person! If you can’t tell, we all wanted to pretend we weren’t stuck working in the rain, and did anything to distract our brains.

Well, it is finally the weekend! Again I am at the laundromat with my McDonald’s fries and juice box. Both my boyfriend and my family are going to be coming up to visit this weekend! I am so excited to see them all! Plus this will be my dad’s first time seeing my current living conditions! Haha, hopefully he doesn’t have a heart attack! Thank you for taking the time to read through my blog. I appreciate all of the prayers, I feel like God has been protecting me from so much. The only “injuries” I’ve had from 8 weeks of working is a tick bite and migraine (don’t worry, I haven’t had any Lyme Disease symptoms). Please continue praying for me and my team in these last 3 weeks we have together!