middle school retreat...

Hannah had a weekend long middle school retreat at camp grier this weekend. Camp Grier is where she goes to summer church camp in the NC mountains. She was to leave on Friday afternoon and return Sunday about 2pm.

Chris and I had a free weekend. Plans were made. Movie, dinner, chores, whatever we wanted to do. Anticipation. Freedom.

Thursday morning I received THE CALL. One of the chaperones had to cancel and could I drive up Friday, spend Friday night and go home Sat. morning??? Another parent would come up Sat. and drive them home on Sunday. Just one night....

No choice, I had to say yes. And by coming home on Saturday, Hannah would still get some time without a parent around.

So, the adventure began. We were taking H's friendCaroline with us - so we went by her house and picked her up. But in the confusion of getting her and loading up her 3 suitcases (or maybe it just seemed like 3) we forgot the permission slip.

Went to church and had to wait for the other kids. They were running late. Now we were running late. And no permission slip meant Caroline could not go. So we ran by Caroline's house to get the permission slip - only no one was home. We had to break in - jimmie the door with a credit card. Got the permission slip, met up with the rest of the group and now we were running even later.

Drove up to the mtns - 1.5 hr drive. Got to camp after dinner was being served but we did get to eat. Barely. After dinner we went to the bunkhouse to get our beds - all the girls picked top bunks. Sierra jumped in hers and I hear a loud crack! One of the support beams broke. So we got her into another bed and now we were one bed short. So I pulled the mattress off the bunk and threw it on the floor and I decided to sleep there.

We had singing, keynote minister, small groups, more singing and snack. At 10:45pm we went back to the bunkhouse and 11:15 was lights out. That is when I discovered that the floor was cold. It was pretty warm up on the top bunks, not bad on the bottom bunks and cold on the floor. I had on socks, long johns and a tshirt. I was in a sleeping bag and had a down lap throw on top. Froze. And there was a lady that snored. Loudly. Very loudly. Finally at 5am I pulled on another layer of clothes and that helped.

Needless to say I had a terrible night of sleep. I was ready to go home. Hannah begged me to stay. And I would have. Except. I. Wanted. To. Sleep. In. My. Own. Bed. So I went home.

And Chris and I went to dinner with friends on Sat night and had a great time.

Hannah is home safe and sound. Next year I will plan on being a chaperone for the weekend. And will take earplugs.