Week One: Hosanna Christian Academy.. Baton Rouge, LA

Hey everybody!

SO.

After a VERY LONG DRIVE. We arrived in Baton Rouge on Friday evening. It had been a long day, but we had NO trailer or van problems, which we have had in the past! Thank You for traveling mercies! Once we got into Baton Rouge, we dropped the truck and trailer off at the host building and went to eat dinner.

Dinner was very nice. We got to eat at a local Mexican restaurant, which is unusual for us normally it's home-cooked at the church or fast food for us, so eating out is a treat! When we walked in.. I couldn't help taking this picture! 😂😂

We actually have a bear at our Stafford performance space that looks VERY similar to this (minus the Mexican garb!) I thought it was hilarious! 

When we got back to the school (It's a Christian School this week instead of the usual church) We had to find the rooms where we were staying and the shower facilities. THAT was interesting. haha. It normally is for the showers. We never really know what facilities we are going to have until we get there! Sometimes it's a shower trailer, sometimes it's in the janitor's closet, sometimes in the bathrooms! This week we found our showers being used as storage closets, so we had to clean three of them out!  It was a lot of boxes and bins, but we were successful! 

Saturday morning we met for breakfast and gained two more of our staff members! We then had the task of unloading our trailer. ALL of our tour gear loads in the trailer. Portable staging, lights, sound gear, the works! It only took about an hour, so that was nice considering it was 90 *thousand* 😂 degrees outside! (WELCOME TO LOUISIANA! haha) Once we got the trailer unloaded, we took a break and had some lunch. I had some administrative work to start that needed to be done by Monday... So that's what I did... highlighting the scripts!

Soon it was time to head to the airport to pick up the rest of our staff! It was an exciting ride! It was lots of fun to spend time just hanging out with the staff! By the time we got back from the airport, it was time for a good nights sleep!

Sunday morning, we went to a local church. It's always fascinating to me to see how other churches lead worship services. I guess that's the worship major in me! It was a great service!

Sunday afternoon commences CAMP SET-UP! DUH DA DUH!! 😂😂 We set up the stage, synthesizer, sound and projection for camp on Monday. Setting up the stage takes interesting skills... being small is one of them. The way the stage works is the back row of platforms is higher, essentially making built in choir risers, but with no way to attach the platforms together. So in order to accomplish that, someone has to go under the stage and clip the back two rows of platforms together! This is Haven. She is the smallest staff member... this has almost always been her job, for most of her tour years! haha

Soon we were camp ready and it was time for another night of rest... but the excitement of camp kept me awake for a little while. My mind had to slow down! Eventually I slept. 😴😴

FAST FORWARD!!!!

Here we are at the end of Day 1!!

A very interesting and unusual thing happened today. Because it was a holiday, we only had two campers show up! The host had told everyone that even though it was a holiday, we were still having camp, but the families misunderstood. So what we decided to do was cast the two campers we had here and go ahead and give them parts and solos so they could work on them tonight and be ahead of the game tomorrow! They were great sports about it and were VERY excited to learn the drama and solo parts!

The camp day usually goes from 9 to 3, but the campers were picked up by 9:45! The staff decided that the best thing to do would be to learn the music and choral choreography, so that tomorrow they would be more prepared to help the campers learn. By the time all that was accomplished it was only 11:00! Everyone then separated into teams and started work on getting more of the set up done. Finishing the sound install, putting up pipe and drape to hold the back drop and get our safety system put in so that there is a railing on the back of the stage... it looks like this...

Eventually they will add a PVC pipe railing that will go along the back of the stage. It is designed as a way for the campers to feel the back of the stage and not step off... if they happen to fall off the back... the railings are breakaway and will slow their fall to the floor. You would think it would never happen... but it HAS!

A few years ago in Chattanooga, a camper had come back stage during a run-through

to get their mic. After changing her mic and sending her back on stage I had turned

to do something else. The next time I turn around, there she is on the floor between 

the backdrop and the back of the stage. Luckily, the safety rails did their job and 

she was not injured. It was also lucky that the camper was the host's daughter

so he was not upset and was glad that she was okay, we still laugh and talk 

about it today!

Now all is quiet in the gym. I am sitting at my administrative station basking in the silence! haha! The staff can be a rowdy bunch! But I love them to death. We have a much smaller team this year. We went from having 12 to 15 staff members last year to only having 9 this year! In some ways it will be harder because with more campers there are less staff to help, but in other ways we work much closer and have less time on our hands to sit around (which happens sometimes!) We all pitch in and help each others teams when we can! It is going to be an interesting summer, but I think a very successful summer if we all continue to work and grow together!

Thus ends this blog for today! It was a lot of information! haha... Hopefully soon I'll have exciting summer stories to tell!

Until then! 

Katie🎶🎶🎶🎶

SUMMER TOUR 2017 CHALLENGE!!!!

Well. I'm back again! It's been a VERY long time since I posted last. 2011 was the date I saw! TWO-THOUSAND ELEVEN! That's a long time ago. I would always come to this blog and say THIS is the year I am going to keep up with it. I am going to post every week and keep my friends and family updated on my summer! But then I wasn't ever sure how many people actually read this blog, and I would forget to get on and post something, then I would never go back and actually do it. Hence, TWO-THOUSAND ELEVEN. SIX years ago!

A lot has happened in six years, but one thing has stayed the same. SUMMER TOUR. Guys. This is my NINTH year on summer tour. WOW. I can't believe how fast 9 years has flown by! It seems like just yesterday I was interviewing to get this summer position.

So, in the past 6 years, I have graduated college, worked with amazing students teaching handbells, helped my parents pack up and move from my childhood home, and found an AMAZING new church family, thanks to my parents! 😀

If anyone reading this wants to know more about the past six years... You know where to find me! 😉

Here comes challenge... and here's where you, dear reader, come in. For all of you reading this, I want you to keep asking me about my time this summer. Annoy me. Bug me! Ask me how my week has gone. Or say KATIE, you haven't posted this week! (You all know my social medias: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat(if you have that haha) (Now, I will tell you some places we have poor internet, but I will post when I can on those weeks) I am going to post at least ONCE a week this summer! (For those of you wondering, I'm gone for 10 weeks. So at least 10 posts) If I have something particularly interesting or cool or fun or amazing, you may get an extra post!

So that's my promise and challenge for you. I will keep you up to date on all the exciting things that are happening this summer.

With THAT said, this sadly will be my FINAL summer on tour. (More on the future later!) I hope to be able to look back on these blogs and remember fondly all the memories and experiences that I had for many more years to come!

Thanks for anyone who has read this all the way through!
Feel free to leave comments and happy thoughts and check out my older blogs, there's definitely some good stuff in those!

Love you guys!
Until Later

💜💜Katie