Each year we try to take our residents, or the guys, as they have become known as, on a vacation for a week. We have been to places like Mackinac, Disney, Great America and the Renaissance Faire. This year the guys all decided they would like to go to Chicago to see the sights. So last week the Guys, Tony and Karol and the kids headed off as a family. They all picked things they wanted to see; Science, space, history, and ocean Museums-Richard and DJ, Navy Pier-Brian, Top of the John Hancock building-Nick, Buckingham Fountain, Architectural River Cruise-Karol and Annissa, Gioradanos Pizza-Tony, The Robot Store-Anthony, etc... So it it was a packed week and a new adventure especially for the guys who have never been to a city. Richard steering the tall ship with the captain standing by!

Deep Dish Chicago Pizza at GiordanosNavy Pier for boats cruises, ship sailing, eating, mini golf, amusement park, eating, fireworks, movies, eating, shopping, stained glass museum, eating!

Monday

Today was a full day on the Camp Daniel grounds

In the morning, Little Tony and the guys finished getting the concrete forms ready for a 10 yard pour. Tim caulked the molding in the large bath of the craft cabin, and Karol filled the nail holes. Afterwards, they worked with the ever-fun epoxy grout. Grouting the stone sink top in the small Craft Cabin bath, and the outdoor tables that Karol rescued from the St. Vinnie's store. Chrissy brought the Kelly kids out to Camp Daniel where she could work on a grant and the kids could swim and play.

After lunch John cut the grass. The concrete crew waited for the truck... Karol cleaned up the sink/dresser by staining the worn areas, then put on the new hardware. Still no concrete truck... Karol put mulch on the garden in front of the guys house. Still no concrete truck... Tim starts cleaning tools out of the Craft Cabin. Finally, 10 yards of concrete pull in.

The first section: by the Bait Shop

Second: Patio outside craft cabin

Third: continuation of main lakeside path.

The crew worked hard, and two hours later, they were putting finishing touches all three poured areas.

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Sunday June 14

We're back! Sorry we missed so many days. The blogbreak is over.

Sunday,

Today was Mega. John played a bible character today, Little Tony ran the computers and DVD's and Tim ran sound. After church, DJ, Marceaux, the Koch's and the Kelly's went to the Mandich's for a graduation party. Little Tony worked in the office, Jen left for two weeks of Joni and Friends camp in Illinois.At 6 all gathered at the Camp Daniel lakefront for our weekly dinner to talk about things going on this week. After everyone went home, Little Tony headed back to the office to work on camper/counselor matchups.

Saturday was the Living Hope Church community picnic. It was a great success and many new families came for the free blowup things, food and fun. Some came back for Mega and "grown up church" (That's what those who do Mega every week call the service in the sanctuary) John, Jen, Sue and the guys manned an Able booth to promote Camp Daniel and Able events. The Mega Micro Mini bus was there playing music. Annissa, and her friend Ruth did face painting for the kids. Karol ran in the Bellin 10K run in the morning, with Little Tony's cousins, Becky and Tim ( and by "with", I mean "behind"). After the run and a shower, it was off to the picnic for a brat and chips. Camp Daniel was happy to let the church ministries use the cotton candy and sno cone machines. They make every event better!

Last week Tim buffed down the concrete countertops. They are almost done. More info/pics to follow. He also trimmed out the large bath. Marceaux finally got his part from California and had the Mega van running. yea!!

Tony, John, Jen, Tim and Marceuax finally arrived home last night at 11PM from The Special Touch camp up in Alexandria Minnesotta. It was a great week of ministry and growth for all of them. Tim and Marceaux where both counselors. Tim took care of Curt who is in his 20's. Curt had a brain trauma as a youngster and is mentally disabled as well as physically disabled. marceauxs camper was Shannon who also has a brain trauma due to fever as an infant. Both of their campers where in need of total care. Tim and Marceaux recieved much from their time serving. The rest of the crew had an opportunity to do chapel services for people with a lower functioning mental ability. This opportunity helps the C amp Daniel team in learning more about reaching a group of people with gospel who have unique needs when it comes to learning. All where stretched and grew and brought home some new ideas and thoughts on the ministry.
The time in was also a time catch up with many old friends.
Tony, Jon and Jen Spent much time on what will become a process that could take many years to translate the new testament into a language of understanding for people with mental disabilities. This process began a few years ago when Tony and John went to Florida and met with some leaders with Wycliff about the possibilities of this. Since then they have worked on how it will be done as well as a format for it.
Saturday morning saw the delivery of 2000 Sq. Ft of cultured stone for many of the buildings at Camp Daniel. One of the guys helping with the delivery was an excavator and offered his services to us. He wants to donate time to the work. This could not have come at a better time as the opportunity for a donation of building septics for the dorms fell through and are really needed. God always provides and always when He sees it is needed!
After unloading the stone Tony, Karol, the kids and Richard, Nick, Brian and DJ left for a vacation to Chicago for 5 days. Although there was a breakdown of the Suburban they where going to borrow, they found rental vehicle that could sit 8 people after a search. please pray for the opportunity to get an 8 passenger vehicle for them. The guys picked places they wanted to go this week; museums, planetarium, Sears Tower, on a boat ride etc... So it will be a great vacation for the whole family.
Tony Sr. has been working on camp replies for campers this week as next week acceptance and rejection letters begin to be mailed out. Jo has been cleaning, stocking and getting the nurses trailer ready for camp. Jen and marceaux where off to wedding in Rhinelander. Jen's week was especially tuff last week as her grandmother died as Jen was enroute to camp. Jen returned to green bay for the funeral last Wednesday and then made the 9 hour trip right back to the camp for the last two days of ministry. Pray for Jen as she misses her grandmother whom she lived with over the few years, taking care of her. Also pray for Jen as prepares to head of to the Joni and Friends retreat for people with disabilities for another 2 weeks of ministry.
Look foward to the coming post of pictures from everyone week of camp last week.

Wednesday, Thursday

Wednesday:
On Wednesday, Chrissy entered the rest of the camper information into the computer.
Karol went to the food bank in Omro to get food for camp, and did some camp errands on the way down.

Thursday:
The Piantine and Kelly kids' last day of school! After school Chrissy took her kids to Green Bay. They visited Bay Beach and grandma's pool. Annissa and Anthony were picked up at school by Grandma and Molly Stonelake, whom is visiting for a few days, and went to McD's for lunch and to the park.
Karol cut the grass and worked on turning and old dresser into a sink base for the small bath of the Craft Cabin. Tim had already cut the holes in the back for the water lines and drain, and attached the dresser to the wall. Unfortunately, it had to be taken down and remounted with 2x4 and 1x4s in the back to give the sink extra depth. After getting that part done, Karol used the old wood top (which was too warped to use with a sink) to cut a strip to cover the ends of the raw lumber. The top (1/2" plywood and cement board) was then cut to size. The front is bowed and echoes the oval sink. Those were glued together and screwed down into the cabinet. The top drawer was cut apart and the front nailed into place. A 1 1/2" strip of cement board was cut and screwed on as an edge to all three sides.
The next part was the worst. Cutting the hole for the sink. For much of the circumference of the oval, the tools had to cut thru the plywood, cement board, and either an inch of pine, or a couple of inches of oak! The jigsaw was struggling and kept getting too hot. So while that was cooling down, the roto zip was used. That went only deep enough to get thru the first layer, but better than nothing! Then it was more slow going with the jigsaw. Too got again. Finally, in the back where the oak was, Karol sawed many holes with a 3/8 in drill bit to perforate the stubborn area. Then she broke it out. Let's just say, the hole is out, but it's not too pretty. Finally onto tiling, which turned out to take about 6 hours. The edges were done first, then the top, and finally the asymmetrical backsplash. It'll be a week or so before this project is finished. Really hoping to find an easier way to work with that epoxy grout!

The white line that you see in the above picture is the wood strip that's temporarily attached to aid in keeping the facing tiles in place til the adhesive dries.

Little Tony, John, Jen, Tim and Marceaux had their last full day of camp today.

Tuesday

Hello blogreaders! Karol here. Since there's not a lot of physical stuff going on on the grounds, I thought that I'd answer the question, "So what do you do when you're not at camp?" Here's what I did today:
7:00-8:00 am - run
8:00-8:30 am - shower
8:45-9:00 am - met with the guy we order our t-shirts from
9:00-9:15 am - showed Richard and Brian a job that Little Tony had left for them
put up blue tape in closet in craft cabin and painted first coat of a stripe
9:15-9:20 am - spackled holes in table tops that I'm redoing for our patio
9:20-9:35 am - ordered a plant for Jen's grandma's funeral, made two doctor appointments and talked to Jeff Sielaf about some tomato plants he's going to give us.
9:35-9:40 am - got together all of DJ's socks for a bleaching/whitening
9:40-9:45 am - painted the spackled holes on the table
9:45-10:00 am - charted (made diagram) of the gardens at Camp Daniel
10:00-10:20 am - breakfast
10:20-10:35 am - worked on paint and countertop samples for a lady I'm helping with her kitchen remodel.
10:35-11:00 am - Set up office to work with Chrissy later/finished charting garden/talked to Johanna whom was weeding her adopted garden at Camp Daniel
11:00-11:45 am - finished painting the stripe in the bathroom, and touched up the blue paint in the whole bath (the fun grout job left some mess on the walls)
11:45-12:00 - returned some phone calls and got camp banners from the garage so I know what size to make the one for this year.
12:00-2:30 pm - Chrissy and I went over the menu details for camp this year
2:30-3:00 pm - the internet isn't working in the office. I called Centurytel for some troubleshooting. No luck. They're sending a repairman out tomorrow.
3:00-3:30 - lunch
3:30-4:10 pm - mulch the garden behind the snack stand and plant a shrub by the lake
4:10-5:45 pm - I sewed the fabric to make the banner for camp this year and started on the shower curtain for the small bath in the Craft Cabin
5:45-7:15 pm - went to my client's house to decide on the finishes for her new kitchen
7:15-8:00 pm - Jen left a message while I was going saying she needed a phone number from the office, so I got that and talked to her for a while. I checked on the kids up at Jo's and said hello to Molly, whom is staying at grandma's for a few days. I emailed Tony giving him phone messages received today.
8:00-8:30 pm - while my dinner was in the oven, I did some research online. Thankfully, our Internet still works
8:30-9:30 pm - tucked in the kids and read a chapter of Harry Potter to them.
9:30 pm - Frost warning tonight! Gee, I thought it was June. Had to go outside and cover a bunch of plants.
9:30-10:30 pm - wrote this blog!

Sorry if that's everything you never wanted to know. Good thing is, next time someone asks what it is I do all day, I can refer them to this blog!

Monday

Today Chrissy came out to Camp Daniel and entered Camper information into the computer for this summer.
Karol worked on Tony Sr.'s computer for 2 hours again this morning, and FINALLY got the labels to print. (Of course, for how long it took, they probably could have been handwritten!) Then she finished planting the rest of the plants from the plant sale. Detour to check out the concrete countertop: still looking good! It's very light gray and powdery and rough (for a counter). Anxious to see what the grinding process will do to the color. Karol then organized stuff for carnival, theme nights and high tea for camp.
Nick went to his parent's house in Appleton to spend the week. Richard and Brian worked on leveling the sand where the concrete ramp will be poured by the Craft Cabin. They also picked up sticks and debris by the lake and brought extra sand to the beach.

John, Jen and Tony set up their chapel this morning at camp in Minnesota. Then they helped with orientation. Tim and Marceaux went through orientation and their campers arrived early in the afternoon. The afternoon consisted of recreation and evening chapel at 7 PM. Jen led songs around the campfire after chapel. It was a surprise when Larry Campbell showed up to visit the camp for the next two days. Jen will be doing the chapel in the morning and then leaving for her Grandmothers funeral. She will then ride back with her cousin on Thursday and be back for the Friday Night Chapel.