did you all know that "xc" stands for "cross country"? well it is just that kind of useful information that you have come to expect from my blog...

anyway i did NOT want to go to xc camp. i don't know why. perhaps because i had already been gone from home for 5 weeks this summer. and another week might put my house over the edge into the "needs attention from the health and welfare of sanity society." but adam thought it would be a good idea for me to go and to cook the food for that horde of hungry teenagers. since i usually cook every meal like there were 197 people at the house he felt like that would be a good use of my talents.

anyway (and i sincerely hope adam doesn't read this) he was totally right about me needing to go to xc camp. it was in ellijay, ga. the boys had one HUGE mountain cabin and the girls were in the other identical HUGE cabin next door. and it was the SWEETEST gig EVER.

first of all, i LOVE these xc kids. the girls are so sweet and kind and not difficult to chaperone at all. seems that if you run kids up a mountain TWICE a day that they get VERY tired and aren't able to get into too much trouble at all.

here was the daily schedule for xc camp.

7:45 wake up in the lovely mountains of ellijay. make some tea. walk down to the boys cabin to see what kevin (one of the dads) is cooking for breakfast.

8:00 the kids start up the hill for their first run of the day. "help" kevin cook breakfast. mostly that means "sip my tea and chat with umi and amy (the other moms)."

9:00 kids back from their run. they go shower and then come back for breakfast that "we" (meaning kevin) cooked for them. the kids clean up breakfast.

10:00 start cooking dinner. which means i tell amy, umi, and kevin what to do. dinner is easy when 3 other adults are there to do your bidding. we would get dinner in the crock pot or made and put back in the fridge until it was ready to cook.

11:00 done for the day. so time to read. hang out by the stream. make a walmart trip for more groceries. play games. whatever i wanted to do. it was awesome.

12:00 lunch set out. just sandwiches and fruit. kids clean up.

1:00 nap time. really most of the kids took a nap to rest up for their big run of the afternoon. i felt like napping with them for solidarity in running sisterhood.

3:00 head out for the big run. this is where we drop the kids off on various points along a mountain and they run UP THE MOUNTAIN. yes, UP THE MOUNTAIN. let me say it one more time... THEY RUN UP THE MOUNTAIN. some of them (maxx included) run 12 miles UP THE MOUNTAIN. it was nerve wracking enough for me to have to drive UP THE MOUNTAIN. and then for the kids that we dropped of at the bottom of the mountain to appear running at the top of the mountain in just about 15 minutes after we arrived in our cars up the mountain is pretty amazing.

then we hand the kids popsicles or watermelon slices and they think we are the BESTEST people ever. because they are crazy. they have just run UP THE MOUNTAIN.

and to be EXTRA kind to them, we let them go and rinse off in an ice cold stream. for FUNZIES. i don't understand xc camp. but i like it.

back to the cabin for dinner. heat it up or spoon it out of the crock pot and they EAT and EAT and EAT. and then the kids clean up. lovely.

then after dinner movie time. or games. or reading. or whatever again. let me emphasize how much i LOVE xc camp.

10:00 bed time. which isn't a difficult sell to the kids. they are TIRED. something about running UP THE MOUNTAIN that tends to wear a body out. something about cooking for kids who run UP THE MOUNTAIN that tends to wear a chaperone out.

it was the BEST vacation that i have had in YEARS. but it ended too soon. i had to come home wednesday evening (driving until 2 a.m.) so that i could be here for millie's wisdom teeth extraction early on thursday morning. which isn't quite as vacation like as xc camp. not at all...

witting.lea