Thursday

Today began with pancakes. Mr. Colie woke up extra early in order to make these amazing pancakes for us. After breakfast, our group had a meeting in which we sent off two now un-needed group members to new projects. When we got to the thrift shop, we all split up to continue working on what we had left undone the day before. Some of us worked on the drop ceiling, some finished putting up the drywall, and others began to put a second coat of paint on the other walls. Work continued on that way, everyone working diligently, until the first big news came in the form of a completed drop ceiling. Finally! We finally got the grid all worked out, and all the ceiling tiles cut and placed into their spots. The shop looked amazingly up to date with the new ceiling in place. especially with all the new lights on and working where there had formerly just been bulbs hanging off of the ceiling.

Lunch was fairly uneventful, as we ate our lunches and heard some of the funny stories from other work sites. When we got back to the shop, everyone cleaned up all the saws and other tools, so that we could paint and be already cleaned up when we finished. Painting was long and tedious, especially the trim and touch-up painting and paint scraping (to get it off the windows), but looks really fantastic now that it's done.

Once we finished painting, the job was complete and we were free to relax. So we went to the swimming hole, of course! The water was freezing, but with the higher water levels this year the rope swing was the big hit. The people were willing to brave the frigid mountain water were rewarded with 15 foot falls off the rope swing into the deeper parts of the swimming hole.

After the swimming hole, everyone came home to shower and eat. We ended up getting three guests to come to our taco night, and the food was pretty good. But "taco night" ended up consisting of taco filling on nacho chips. The most amazing thing was that one of the guests brought home made ice cream and frozen yogurt, so we all got to have sundaes for desert. After dinner, we gathered around the card tables and listened to music while playing cards.

And that's about it for today. Hopefully we'll catch up with you again tomorrow!

- Written by Ben