Livin' the High Life

Before I provide all eager blog-readers with an update on life in Camp Shawnee, I feel the need to share a few favorite pictures that I discovered when I emptied my camera last week:

Nabel and Captain David Woods McCahill construct pod-racing helmets and battle to the death in Jordan South 31. And yes, Nabel is wearing underwear of some nature.


Nabel enjoys chocolate pudding out of a paper cup while snuggled in 4 blankets on my bedroom floor. He then places empty pudding cup on said floor and leaves it there, where it stays until I find it approximately two weeks later.


This is the home that I left on June 1st...


... and the one that I moved into.

Camp Shawnee was a little rough around the edges when I arrived. Fortunately I arrived first, so I promptly bought some bleach and went to town on a few choice items. Jennie arrived second, promptly starting to laugh upon seeing her new home. I sent Audrey a message saying "I think your Mom is going to cry when she sees this..." or something of that nature. But Ann Mangan was not intimidated. She actually went shopping and brought us bag after bag of groceries to put in our fridge, which didn't actually shut unless we wedged something in the door. After some deliberation, however, she declined Meri's empty bed and chose to sleep at the Devlins'. So there we were, left with a week before Meri arrived, determined to clean up our crap-hole of a house.

So we cleaned everything in the kitchen and cleaned it again. We spent two hours scrubbing mold off the bathroom ceiling, black mildew out of the bathtub, and scouring the floor. Kinney Drugs provided us with two bathmats for $3, which covered the 3 square feet of missing tile nicely. We got a neighbor ot tack some plywood over the 4-foot holes in the ceilings downstairs and get the fridge to kind of shut. We bought scrapers and sandpaper and paint and fixed up the most offensive walls and ceilings. Then we covered the remaining holes and graffiti with posters and stolen street signs. Most importantly, however, Audrey bought us a hammock.

Audrey hugs a bag of Oreos in her hammock.


So we finally got Camp Shawnee turned into something that resembled a livable residence, and now that we can actually walk in the bathroom barefoot without worrying about getting diseases, we're settling in. Training is picking up,and employment is at least on the horizon for most of us.


Aww.


More posts and pictures to come soon,
-Schlutzer