Memories of the nose

I think everyone has certain memories that are evoked by certain smells. The smell of cookies in the oven, or the smell of pipe tobacco for some remind them of visits to the grandparents. For others a certain cologne or shampoo might remind them of their first love.
There are so many smells that bring back memories for me. The smell of snow on a mild sunny day makes me think of going out for recess in elementary school. The smell of soap and fabric softener reminds me of hugging my friend Dan who always seemed to have just gotten out of the shower and right into freshly washed clothes just before I saw him. Sometimes I'll smell something that reminds me of the barracks at cadet camps
There is one cologne, and I have no idea what it is, but every once in a while I'll walk past someone and get a whiff and it takes me right back to my first kiss.
There are several other smells that I associate with other boyfriends from my past but this one sticks out the most, maybe because it's the one that eludes me. Every time I smell it I am so tempted to sniff everyone around so I can find out what it is.
 I'm not sure if this is the reason why I tend to notice if people smell good or not soon after I meet them , It's become one of the things I look for in a guy.

Snocamp

(i've decided to do away with the code names since the person I wanted anonymity from is already reading and knowingly so...and I've run out of ideas for nicknames.)

I went into camp with high expectation, and Snocamp EXCEEDED them all! It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life!!!!!!
300 young Christians just worshiping and praising God and having a blast together. I also got to bond with some of my local friends and became quite close with many of them.

Lisa in the car just as we were leaving

We left Friday afternoon around 2, met the rest of the group at the church and headed out. I was in a car with Andrew, Lisa and Julie,which was AWESOME in my books! We drove for about 2 hours and arranged to meet up with the other car at Jack Astor's for supper in Whitby for supper around 4:30. Had a wonderful dinner together (And made a lot of fun of Julie, who read the menu, (Jack Astor's tends to have off-colour jokes all over) and read that there were wings for football on Sunday and drinks for tonsil hockey on Friday and asked what tonsil hockey was and when it started LOL. We got her to ask the waiter for a huge laugh (Julie was a great sport through all of this)
When the other group got there we ordered and Bowser (real name) asked a blessing for the food and we had a nice chat while we ate before heading out again to finish our journey to camp. (about 5 hours in total)
We got there about 7:30 and met up with the third car from our group and checked in to our cabin. We had a whole cabin (7 bunks) to ourselves for the 6 girls in the group so we all took a top bunk (except Lisa) and used the other bed for our stuff which worked out nicely.
Once we were settled it was time for snack before heading to the first session. I always get nervous about sessions at retreats, I find they can get dry and boring but these were great! They had an amazing band (Article One) Bring us into worship each session and a great speaker. We had 5 sessions in total over the three days (on Fri. Night, 3 Sat. and one this morning) And talked about everything from overcoming tragedy, to relationships, to the importance of coming together with other Christians for support.
We had a volleyball tournament, played broomball for a few hours, lots of card and board games, good food, good friends, old friends, new friends...all very good.

Julie and Bowser

Tina and Katherine

All the girls

Clockwise from top left: Kat, Tina, Brianne, Me, Lisa, Julie

Alex (King of funny faces in pics)

Julie

Andrew, Lisa, Alex

Alex, Julie, Rob

Bowser, He's yawning here (I think)

But this pic was a fluke and I LOVE it

Cardboard Bobsled Comp....

We failed...Dismally

We lost the volleyball tournament..

 14-11 in the first round

Tina, Brianne and Pat

The whole group

I'll add more pics as I steal them from the other girls.

I can't wait to go back to camp next year and in the meantime, spend more time with my new friends.