Friday, July 10, 2009
ORCA update
Verified this morning that all the kids ARE enrolled in Oregon Connections Academy. School starts August 27th. Yay!
Rory update
Anybody that hasn't heard about Rory's fight with myriad medical issues must have also sat in the back row at all their classes and been happy with a "D-" on the report card. START PAYING ATTENTION ALREADY.
This week she had another acupuncture session, which I'm sure she will write about when she comes out of shock. As that same appointment, however, her doctor did go over some lab results from some testing they did. Turns out that her Vitamin D level was OFF THE CHARTS. Off the BOTTOM of that chart, that is. This is a strong indicator of a reason for her depression, so we're hoping that the Vitamin D supplements she is starting will help her make the turn.
Another lab result was low selinium (or something like that) which is probably causing her sleep issues. All she has to do is figure out a way to stomach fish oil (remember "cod liver oil" from your parent's growing-up stories?) and oily Brazil nuts every day. If it helps her sleep through the night it's totally worth it. Maybe I can even include the nuts as a medical expense come tax time.
Thursday was also Kaeli's birthday, and she and Rory had been planning a trip to the coast for forever. Sounds like the weather was perfect, and they had a grand time. Watch for updates from her, hopefully to include some photos.
Today was also the ORCA lottery. For those who are only just now starting to pay attention, we've been trying to enroll the kids in a virtual public charter school (a home-based public school program). After weighing all the factors we decided as a family that this was our best choice because of all the awesome courses to choose from, and 99% of the negative stuff kids have to go through at regular public school would be avoided. Then we found out the state legislature was pushing a bill through to basically shut down virtual public charters. After many phone calls, emails, letters, and even a trip to the capitol building, the bill that was finally passed only limits the school's enrollment to the number enrolled at the end of last year. Still not great, but much better than what the teachers' union was asking for. Anyway, Oregon Connections Academy (ORCA) is limited to about 2600 kids for the upcoming school year, but only 500 of those would be available "slots" to new students (the rest are reserved for those returning from last year). Since they had about 1000 applications, they used a lottery system to determine who gets in. One good thing: if a child was selected in the lottery, all his/her siblings would automatically be enrolled too. Well, I got an email saying that WE WON THE LOTTERY. School starts August 27 right here in our kitchen.
I'm still hopeful we can be on the road Saturday headed toward Utah. It's going to be a long day Friday to get everything packed, bulletins printed, Sunday meeting agendas prepared, work wrapped up, etc. Wish us luck!
Preston
This week she had another acupuncture session, which I'm sure she will write about when she comes out of shock. As that same appointment, however, her doctor did go over some lab results from some testing they did. Turns out that her Vitamin D level was OFF THE CHARTS. Off the BOTTOM of that chart, that is. This is a strong indicator of a reason for her depression, so we're hoping that the Vitamin D supplements she is starting will help her make the turn.
Another lab result was low selinium (or something like that) which is probably causing her sleep issues. All she has to do is figure out a way to stomach fish oil (remember "cod liver oil" from your parent's growing-up stories?) and oily Brazil nuts every day. If it helps her sleep through the night it's totally worth it. Maybe I can even include the nuts as a medical expense come tax time.
Thursday was also Kaeli's birthday, and she and Rory had been planning a trip to the coast for forever. Sounds like the weather was perfect, and they had a grand time. Watch for updates from her, hopefully to include some photos.
Today was also the ORCA lottery. For those who are only just now starting to pay attention, we've been trying to enroll the kids in a virtual public charter school (a home-based public school program). After weighing all the factors we decided as a family that this was our best choice because of all the awesome courses to choose from, and 99% of the negative stuff kids have to go through at regular public school would be avoided. Then we found out the state legislature was pushing a bill through to basically shut down virtual public charters. After many phone calls, emails, letters, and even a trip to the capitol building, the bill that was finally passed only limits the school's enrollment to the number enrolled at the end of last year. Still not great, but much better than what the teachers' union was asking for. Anyway, Oregon Connections Academy (ORCA) is limited to about 2600 kids for the upcoming school year, but only 500 of those would be available "slots" to new students (the rest are reserved for those returning from last year). Since they had about 1000 applications, they used a lottery system to determine who gets in. One good thing: if a child was selected in the lottery, all his/her siblings would automatically be enrolled too. Well, I got an email saying that WE WON THE LOTTERY. School starts August 27 right here in our kitchen.
I'm still hopeful we can be on the road Saturday headed toward Utah. It's going to be a long day Friday to get everything packed, bulletins printed, Sunday meeting agendas prepared, work wrapped up, etc. Wish us luck!
Preston
Thursday, July 9, 2009
EFY- DAY 3
WARNING: THIS IS A VERY, VERY, VERY, LONG POST. READ AT YOUR OWN...RISK?
Wednesday- This morning some of our other girls gave another devotional about being an example of the believers in spirit. Something that was actually in the lesson that I thought was really cool was this:
"Dare to be a Mormon;
Dare to stand alone.
Dare to have a purpose firm,
And dare to make it known."
(Thomas S. Monson)
The girls talked about not being ashamed of who you are, and not being afraid to stand up for what you believe in. There was also an awesome story to go with it:
"As a 17-year-old, I enlisted in the United States Navy and attended boot camp in San Diego, California. For the first three weeks, one felt as though the navy were trying to kill rather than train him on how to stay alive.
I shall ever remember the first Sunday at San Diego. The chief petty officer said to us, “Today everybody goes to church.” We then lined up in formation on the drill ground. The petty officer shouted, “All of you who are Catholics—you meet in Camp Decatur. Forward, march! And don’t come back until three!” A large number marched out. He then said, “All of you who are of the Jewish faith—you meet in Camp Henry. Forward, march! And don’t come back until three!” A smaller contingent moved out. Then he said, “The rest of you Protestants meet in the theaters in Camp Farragut. Forward, march! And don’t come back until three o’clock!”
There flashed through my mind the thought, “Monson, you’re not Catholic. You’re not Jewish. You’re not a Protestant.” I elected to stand fast. It seemed as though hundreds of men marched by me. Then I heard the sweetest words which the petty officer ever uttered in my presence. He said, “And what do you men call yourselves?” He used the plural—men. This was the first time I knew that anyone else was standing behind me on that drill ground. In unison we said, “We’re Mormons.” He scratched his head, an expression of puzzlement on his face, and said, “Well, go and find somewhere to meet—and don’t come back until three o’clock.” We marched away."
The company devotional was given by Kristen, and it was on how we study our scriptures. She compared it to water skiing, snorkeling, and scuba diving. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Water skiing is like skimming the scriptures, not really reading them. Snorkeling is when you read and understand the scriptures. Scuba diving is reading and understanding and pondering. At first you may be water skiing, but as you read them more often, and come to understand and love them, you will be scuba diving before too long. Don't give up, and keep a continual routine going. Set a time aside every day to read them. I know this works, and I have come to have a testimony of the scriptures. I have been reading them slower, and thinking about what the characters went through. I have started in the Book of Mormon, because that is the book we are going to be studying this year for seminary.
All right, here comes one of the best parts of the day for me. The morningside given by Bro Smith. It was on influencing others by living right. He said every time you do something right, there is a CELESTIAL CHEER going on up in heaven. So he had us do one. Here is how it goes. He told us to get completely silent, and then he would count down from 3. When he got to zero, we would stand up and cheer as if we just found out that we made it into the Celestial Kingdom, the highest degree of heaven. The first time we tried it, nothing really happened, because we didn't really know what to expect, or what to do. But the second time, oh my gosh. It was DEAFENING! A little under 400 people, teens and adults, all yelling at the same time. It was amazing. You could feel something in that room. You could actually believe that you had made it in. That was what kept me going through the whole day. It gave me such a good feeling. Imagine hundreds of thousands of angels all cheering for YOU. Doesn't it make you feel something?
Then we were off to classes. By the way, the speakers for yesterday were Sister Cindy Bezas and Brother Rick Taylor. Those speakers were for my classes. There is also another speaker, Sister Lisa Olsen, whose classes I went to today, along with Sister Bezas's again. My classes today were called: The Joy of Journaling, You are Limitless, not Limited (stand for who you are, and don't limit yourself to other people's standards), The Word of Wisdom, and Each Life That Touches Ours for Good (friends). The last class, by Lisa Olsen, was my favorite. Not because it was the last one, but because she gave a talk on something I really care about: friends! Love you all! This includes family too!
After classes we had free time, or the music party. Savannah, Ashlyn, and I all went to the music party again. We did that during our free time every day until Friday. It was a lot of fun. This medley included: Our Savior's Love, I Feel my Savior's Love, Because I Have Been Given Much, Come Follow Me, I Need Thee Every Hour, Jesus the Very Thought of Thee, More Holiness Give Me, it was a medley of hymns.
We had dinner and then we got together with our company to come up with a cheer, and to decorate our banner. I was in charge of helping with decorating the banner. We put our company's name on it, Contend With Anger, and Hollie did a cool painting of an angry, depressed person with a not allowed sign over it in red. She is a very good artist. To add some more decoration, we splattered paint on the banner with all of the colors. Meanwhile, the guys and the other girls were working on the dance and song. The genius boys that they are, they came up with a song about the single's ward, to the tune of Don't Stop Believin'. I will get our lyrics to you later. It was so fun, though. The counselors weren't allowed to help us at all.
We then carried our flag and walked with our group to the game field. All of the groups were there, and some were already playing the games. We had to wait our turn to show the judges (Bro and Sis Smith, and some counselors) our cheer. When we did, we put our flag in front of them, and we did our cheer. They laughed at our cheer, not because we were bad, but because we had some funny parts in our cheer. Our walking-out cheer was "Contend! Contend! Contend! With! With! With! Anger! Anger! Anger! Contend With Anger!" at the top of our lungs!
It was our turn to play the games, and the first one was the EFY relay. We had three points that we hd to run to, and we had to run to the first point as an "E", the second as an "F", and the third as a "Y". We had to yell it as we were running. Our group won! We were competing against another group throughout all the games.
The second game was Crossing the Sweetwater, and it was based on the story of the pioneers. It is a sad story, about 3 young men who helped the people in their wagon train across the river in the middle of winter. They got everyone across, and they died shortly after. What they did was very brave, and they will always be remembered for it. It is one of my favorite pioneer stories. So to play, we had to pick 3 people to be the "rescuers". We picked 3 of our strongest guys. They were the only ones who could go across the "river". The rest of us had to pretend we couldn't walk, and they had to carry us over to the other side. They pretty much piggy-backed everybody. That was the easiest. The rescuers could only go one at a time with another person, nut they could run back and get ready with another person. It was a really fun game! We ended up winning that one too. I think that one was my favorite out of all the games.
The 3rd game was called DVD Players. It was like Red Light, Green Light, but the counselor had different symbols, like on a remote control.
Slow motion: they move forward in slow motion
Pause: they freeze
Previous chapter: they hop backward until the next symbol
Next chapter: they hop forward until the nexy symbol
Rewind: jog backward
Fast forward: jog forward
Play: walk normally
Special feature: strike a dance move!
We didn't end up winning that one, but what made it fun was the most energetic and hyper counselor was directing it. He is very cool. He was also one of the ones who was helping with the musical program party.
The last game we played was called Murder, I think. I won't explain it in full detail, but you sit in a circle, and someone is the murderer. Everyone closes their eys, and the murderer starts by squeezing the next person's hand a certain amount of times. It goes around the circle, and the next person squeezes the person next to them one less, and if the person before you squeezes your hand once, you are dead/out. If you want the rules/whole game info, email me, or leave me a comment. It was super fun. That one wasn't a competition game.
At the very end we had a cheer-off. Everybody who made it to the finals got to do their cheer in front of everybody else. We had made it to finals! There was a few groups to each age group. Our group was part of the 14-15 year-olds. They started with 4th place for each group, and slowly went up, and our name still wasn't called. At second place, I could tell that everybody was holding their breath, and then 1st place was announced, and we stood up and cheered! We had won! As we were sitting, some scary dark clouds had come in, and there was lightning and thunder. It was pretty AWESOME!
Apparently some of the people in our group had made a "bet" with our counselors, that if we won the cheer-off, they would have to go on a date. Our counselors had never had a group that had won before, so they thought that they weren't going to have to worry about it. WRONG! I will tell you what Jason has planned for her later...
Our night is not over, and I will try and keep it short. Tonight was also Pizza Night! Everybody got to do it! Earlier in the week, we had payed Kristen, and she had ordered pizza for us. She also bought cookies, drinks, and chips. Those lasted us the whole week. Don't worry, it didn't go bad. :) We chatted about lots of things. We had good bonding time. During that time after we were finished talking, Kristen gave a devotional on the Atonement. Through the Atonement, we can repent of our sins, and be forgiven. The Atonement is very important because without it, we wouldn't be able to return to live with Heavenly Father.
So, today was a ver fun-filled day! Thanks for taking time to read!
Miss and love you
Happy Sammich
Wednesday- This morning some of our other girls gave another devotional about being an example of the believers in spirit. Something that was actually in the lesson that I thought was really cool was this:
"Dare to be a Mormon;
Dare to stand alone.
Dare to have a purpose firm,
And dare to make it known."
(Thomas S. Monson)
The girls talked about not being ashamed of who you are, and not being afraid to stand up for what you believe in. There was also an awesome story to go with it:
"As a 17-year-old, I enlisted in the United States Navy and attended boot camp in San Diego, California. For the first three weeks, one felt as though the navy were trying to kill rather than train him on how to stay alive.
I shall ever remember the first Sunday at San Diego. The chief petty officer said to us, “Today everybody goes to church.” We then lined up in formation on the drill ground. The petty officer shouted, “All of you who are Catholics—you meet in Camp Decatur. Forward, march! And don’t come back until three!” A large number marched out. He then said, “All of you who are of the Jewish faith—you meet in Camp Henry. Forward, march! And don’t come back until three!” A smaller contingent moved out. Then he said, “The rest of you Protestants meet in the theaters in Camp Farragut. Forward, march! And don’t come back until three o’clock!”
There flashed through my mind the thought, “Monson, you’re not Catholic. You’re not Jewish. You’re not a Protestant.” I elected to stand fast. It seemed as though hundreds of men marched by me. Then I heard the sweetest words which the petty officer ever uttered in my presence. He said, “And what do you men call yourselves?” He used the plural—men. This was the first time I knew that anyone else was standing behind me on that drill ground. In unison we said, “We’re Mormons.” He scratched his head, an expression of puzzlement on his face, and said, “Well, go and find somewhere to meet—and don’t come back until three o’clock.” We marched away."
The company devotional was given by Kristen, and it was on how we study our scriptures. She compared it to water skiing, snorkeling, and scuba diving. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Water skiing is like skimming the scriptures, not really reading them. Snorkeling is when you read and understand the scriptures. Scuba diving is reading and understanding and pondering. At first you may be water skiing, but as you read them more often, and come to understand and love them, you will be scuba diving before too long. Don't give up, and keep a continual routine going. Set a time aside every day to read them. I know this works, and I have come to have a testimony of the scriptures. I have been reading them slower, and thinking about what the characters went through. I have started in the Book of Mormon, because that is the book we are going to be studying this year for seminary.
All right, here comes one of the best parts of the day for me. The morningside given by Bro Smith. It was on influencing others by living right. He said every time you do something right, there is a CELESTIAL CHEER going on up in heaven. So he had us do one. Here is how it goes. He told us to get completely silent, and then he would count down from 3. When he got to zero, we would stand up and cheer as if we just found out that we made it into the Celestial Kingdom, the highest degree of heaven. The first time we tried it, nothing really happened, because we didn't really know what to expect, or what to do. But the second time, oh my gosh. It was DEAFENING! A little under 400 people, teens and adults, all yelling at the same time. It was amazing. You could feel something in that room. You could actually believe that you had made it in. That was what kept me going through the whole day. It gave me such a good feeling. Imagine hundreds of thousands of angels all cheering for YOU. Doesn't it make you feel something?
Then we were off to classes. By the way, the speakers for yesterday were Sister Cindy Bezas and Brother Rick Taylor. Those speakers were for my classes. There is also another speaker, Sister Lisa Olsen, whose classes I went to today, along with Sister Bezas's again. My classes today were called: The Joy of Journaling, You are Limitless, not Limited (stand for who you are, and don't limit yourself to other people's standards), The Word of Wisdom, and Each Life That Touches Ours for Good (friends). The last class, by Lisa Olsen, was my favorite. Not because it was the last one, but because she gave a talk on something I really care about: friends! Love you all! This includes family too!
After classes we had free time, or the music party. Savannah, Ashlyn, and I all went to the music party again. We did that during our free time every day until Friday. It was a lot of fun. This medley included: Our Savior's Love, I Feel my Savior's Love, Because I Have Been Given Much, Come Follow Me, I Need Thee Every Hour, Jesus the Very Thought of Thee, More Holiness Give Me, it was a medley of hymns.
We had dinner and then we got together with our company to come up with a cheer, and to decorate our banner. I was in charge of helping with decorating the banner. We put our company's name on it, Contend With Anger, and Hollie did a cool painting of an angry, depressed person with a not allowed sign over it in red. She is a very good artist. To add some more decoration, we splattered paint on the banner with all of the colors. Meanwhile, the guys and the other girls were working on the dance and song. The genius boys that they are, they came up with a song about the single's ward, to the tune of Don't Stop Believin'. I will get our lyrics to you later. It was so fun, though. The counselors weren't allowed to help us at all.
We then carried our flag and walked with our group to the game field. All of the groups were there, and some were already playing the games. We had to wait our turn to show the judges (Bro and Sis Smith, and some counselors) our cheer. When we did, we put our flag in front of them, and we did our cheer. They laughed at our cheer, not because we were bad, but because we had some funny parts in our cheer. Our walking-out cheer was "Contend! Contend! Contend! With! With! With! Anger! Anger! Anger! Contend With Anger!" at the top of our lungs!
It was our turn to play the games, and the first one was the EFY relay. We had three points that we hd to run to, and we had to run to the first point as an "E", the second as an "F", and the third as a "Y". We had to yell it as we were running. Our group won! We were competing against another group throughout all the games.
The second game was Crossing the Sweetwater, and it was based on the story of the pioneers. It is a sad story, about 3 young men who helped the people in their wagon train across the river in the middle of winter. They got everyone across, and they died shortly after. What they did was very brave, and they will always be remembered for it. It is one of my favorite pioneer stories. So to play, we had to pick 3 people to be the "rescuers". We picked 3 of our strongest guys. They were the only ones who could go across the "river". The rest of us had to pretend we couldn't walk, and they had to carry us over to the other side. They pretty much piggy-backed everybody. That was the easiest. The rescuers could only go one at a time with another person, nut they could run back and get ready with another person. It was a really fun game! We ended up winning that one too. I think that one was my favorite out of all the games.
The 3rd game was called DVD Players. It was like Red Light, Green Light, but the counselor had different symbols, like on a remote control.
Slow motion: they move forward in slow motion
Pause: they freeze
Previous chapter: they hop backward until the next symbol
Next chapter: they hop forward until the nexy symbol
Rewind: jog backward
Fast forward: jog forward
Play: walk normally
Special feature: strike a dance move!
We didn't end up winning that one, but what made it fun was the most energetic and hyper counselor was directing it. He is very cool. He was also one of the ones who was helping with the musical program party.
The last game we played was called Murder, I think. I won't explain it in full detail, but you sit in a circle, and someone is the murderer. Everyone closes their eys, and the murderer starts by squeezing the next person's hand a certain amount of times. It goes around the circle, and the next person squeezes the person next to them one less, and if the person before you squeezes your hand once, you are dead/out. If you want the rules/whole game info, email me, or leave me a comment. It was super fun. That one wasn't a competition game.
At the very end we had a cheer-off. Everybody who made it to the finals got to do their cheer in front of everybody else. We had made it to finals! There was a few groups to each age group. Our group was part of the 14-15 year-olds. They started with 4th place for each group, and slowly went up, and our name still wasn't called. At second place, I could tell that everybody was holding their breath, and then 1st place was announced, and we stood up and cheered! We had won! As we were sitting, some scary dark clouds had come in, and there was lightning and thunder. It was pretty AWESOME!
Apparently some of the people in our group had made a "bet" with our counselors, that if we won the cheer-off, they would have to go on a date. Our counselors had never had a group that had won before, so they thought that they weren't going to have to worry about it. WRONG! I will tell you what Jason has planned for her later...
Our night is not over, and I will try and keep it short. Tonight was also Pizza Night! Everybody got to do it! Earlier in the week, we had payed Kristen, and she had ordered pizza for us. She also bought cookies, drinks, and chips. Those lasted us the whole week. Don't worry, it didn't go bad. :) We chatted about lots of things. We had good bonding time. During that time after we were finished talking, Kristen gave a devotional on the Atonement. Through the Atonement, we can repent of our sins, and be forgiven. The Atonement is very important because without it, we wouldn't be able to return to live with Heavenly Father.
So, today was a ver fun-filled day! Thanks for taking time to read!
Miss and love you
Happy Sammich
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
EFY- DAY 2
Tuesday- 2 of our girls gave a small devotional before we went to breakfast. It was on "being an example of the believers in Charity. Charity is the pure love of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 13, in the chapter heading, it says that charity exceeds almost all else. It was a nice lesson.
Later in the morning, after breakfast, we went outside with our company to have gospel study. We had this every morning, and this is when one of our counselors gives another devotional, and we also read our scriptures/write in our journal for 30min. It was calm, and peaceful, and a good time to think. Our lesson was given by Jason, our guy counselor. It was on why we study our scriptures.
We then listened to a morningside by Bro Smith. It was about being an example of Christ no matter where you are. It was a good reminder to me, and it was something I thought about often after that.
Today was also the first day of classes. They were each a good 50 minutes long, if not more. They were lessons filled with easy-to-remember information, and they were easyto understand. We had 2 classes before lunch, and they were "Talents Given from God", and "Ambassadors for Christ". I took notes, and it is good to read over them and remember. After lunch I went to 2 more classes: "Salt, Sacrifices, and Sancastles: Building the Kindgom as Saviors of Men", and "The Principle of Music". I picked my classes based on the topics, whereas some people picked theirs by the teachers. They were all really awesome classes.
During our free time, Savannah, Ashlyn, and I went to the Music Program Party. This is pretty much a choir, and we had until thursday to learn our songs. They were all hymns, so it wasn't hard music. It was really spiritual, and I am glad that I gave up my free time to do it. It was called a party because we hung out and played games before we rehearsed, while we were eating lunch. It was super fun!
After dinner, we met with our company and our counselors prepped us for the dance. "The dance?" you say? Yes, the dance. This night it was casual dress. Our counselors showed us how to do the foxtrot, and it was really fun practicing. Everyone worked really hard. It was pretty easy, though. So, the dance. Um, we danced? There was a lot of energetic songs, and we didn't really do the foxtrot much. Our girls pretty much stayed together most of the time. We had fun jumping, and dancing, and just being goofy. We also met neew people by dancing with them. Yes, there were slow dances, and we danced with guys. It was a good way to get to know people. There was also a dance contest, and the guy who won won because he could do the splits. It was pretty amazing. The guy in second place could breakdance. We have some pretty talented people in our youth group. It was amazing.
After the dance, as we hobbled more than walked back to the dorms (we had sore calves from jumping so much), we thought about that night, and at least for me, I was falling asleep.
Before we could go to bed, though, our counselor gave us one last devotional for the day, and it was on prayer. She gave us lots of good things to help us be able to pray more sincerely, such as: imagine your Heavenly Father sitting in front of you, listening to you; focus on what you are saying; tell him about your day! We know he knows everything that went on that day, but he wants to hear it from you. He always listens to your prayers.; pray slowly and thoughtfully; and listen afterwards. Ponder what you have told him, and listen for an answer. Whether it be feeling the Spirit, or having a thought, he will always answer your prayers.
Happy Sammich
Missing you all very much!
Later in the morning, after breakfast, we went outside with our company to have gospel study. We had this every morning, and this is when one of our counselors gives another devotional, and we also read our scriptures/write in our journal for 30min. It was calm, and peaceful, and a good time to think. Our lesson was given by Jason, our guy counselor. It was on why we study our scriptures.
We then listened to a morningside by Bro Smith. It was about being an example of Christ no matter where you are. It was a good reminder to me, and it was something I thought about often after that.
Today was also the first day of classes. They were each a good 50 minutes long, if not more. They were lessons filled with easy-to-remember information, and they were easyto understand. We had 2 classes before lunch, and they were "Talents Given from God", and "Ambassadors for Christ". I took notes, and it is good to read over them and remember. After lunch I went to 2 more classes: "Salt, Sacrifices, and Sancastles: Building the Kindgom as Saviors of Men", and "The Principle of Music". I picked my classes based on the topics, whereas some people picked theirs by the teachers. They were all really awesome classes.
During our free time, Savannah, Ashlyn, and I went to the Music Program Party. This is pretty much a choir, and we had until thursday to learn our songs. They were all hymns, so it wasn't hard music. It was really spiritual, and I am glad that I gave up my free time to do it. It was called a party because we hung out and played games before we rehearsed, while we were eating lunch. It was super fun!
After dinner, we met with our company and our counselors prepped us for the dance. "The dance?" you say? Yes, the dance. This night it was casual dress. Our counselors showed us how to do the foxtrot, and it was really fun practicing. Everyone worked really hard. It was pretty easy, though. So, the dance. Um, we danced? There was a lot of energetic songs, and we didn't really do the foxtrot much. Our girls pretty much stayed together most of the time. We had fun jumping, and dancing, and just being goofy. We also met neew people by dancing with them. Yes, there were slow dances, and we danced with guys. It was a good way to get to know people. There was also a dance contest, and the guy who won won because he could do the splits. It was pretty amazing. The guy in second place could breakdance. We have some pretty talented people in our youth group. It was amazing.
After the dance, as we hobbled more than walked back to the dorms (we had sore calves from jumping so much), we thought about that night, and at least for me, I was falling asleep.
Before we could go to bed, though, our counselor gave us one last devotional for the day, and it was on prayer. She gave us lots of good things to help us be able to pray more sincerely, such as: imagine your Heavenly Father sitting in front of you, listening to you; focus on what you are saying; tell him about your day! We know he knows everything that went on that day, but he wants to hear it from you. He always listens to your prayers.; pray slowly and thoughtfully; and listen afterwards. Ponder what you have told him, and listen for an answer. Whether it be feeling the Spirit, or having a thought, he will always answer your prayers.
Happy Sammich
Missing you all very much!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
CEANA- EFY
Sorry, I haven't been able to catch up on stuff, but I decided to start with EFY since that is the thing I would have blogged next. This year's theme was Being An Example of the Believers 1 Timothy 4:12. For all of you who don't know, EFY stands for Especially For Youth. It is a week-long camp, I guess you could call it, where kids from our church that are 14 and up go for a spiritual week. It's not like Girl's Camp, which is actually camping. At EFY we stay in dorms (at Weber State University, in this case), and we are around LDS members the whole week. I think you will catch on as I explain the days...
Monday morning- Grandma Afton drove me down to Ogden, where the university was, and we got checked in all right. Apparently the people there were worried about the swine flu, so they were checking everybody's temperatures. We got a CD with this year's music on it (every year they hand out a special EFY CD with music on it about that year's theme), a lanyard (name tag), booklet, and movie. The movie has lessons on it that are based on this year's theme. I got my room key, and we were told that we were on the 10th floor of that building. Thank goodness for elevators! I had a window in my room, so I had a nice view of Ogden. It was esp pretty at night. We got my stuff put in my room, and we were going to head out for lunch. We had some questions about what we were supposed to do, so we decided to ask the girl next door, which I later (in the week) found out that her name was Savannah Astle. A.K.A the girl I was closest to at EFY. If you are reading this, HI SAVANNAH! Anyway, we asked her, then Grandma found that she hadn't had lunch yet, so we decided to treat her to lunch. You see, check-in was at 11am, and they weren't feeding us lunch that day. We ended up at Subway, and we got to know each other better. We talked about family, and her past year at EFY, this year was her second year. So she kinda knew how the flow was going to be like. We came back on campus, and we said our final goodbyes, and Savannah and I headed up to our rooms. We went into her room after I finished getting settled in. We weren't roommates...yet. We ended up chatting for at least an hour and a half on her bed, waiting for our rommates to show up. Neither one of our roommates showed up. At all. It was the same way with another one of our girls too. So, we only ended up with 7 girls in our group. We talked about where we live, and school, and where our roommates could be. It was good bonding time, I thought. Later we were having a meeting in Savannah's room with all of our girls and our counselor. Our group included me, Savannah, Hollie F., Hannah C., Ashlyn D., Annie D., and Michelle B., and our counselor was Kristen L. We had a get-to-know-you game, and we said random things about each other, like how I am allergic to green peas. I love to eat them, but I am allergic. Anyway, we did that until we had to go down to meet our other half of our "company", which was the guy half. There was a 2:1 ratio, guys to girls, well, almost. There was 12 guys, not including our guy counselor. It was pretty awesome! We played some team-building games, but we still kinda separated ourselves, between guys and girls, which is not how it was by the end of the week. :) We played a game that was kind of like duck-duck-goose, except the person who was it (mostly the counselors) said duck, and they would have you answer a random question. It was pretty funny, we had some good laughs. Our company name was Contend With Anger by the way. All of the other groups had different names too. The next thing we did was walk over to another building where we had a "rules/regulations/orientation" presentation. It was also a preview about what we were going to do that week. We also met our session director, Bro Smith. I liked his devotionals/FHE lessons throughout the week. He is a good speaker. After that we had dinner, and our whole company pretty much sat together. I remember us having salad at every meal, except breakfast, every single day, but I can't remember what the main course was. After dinner we went back to where we were before for the rules talk. Bro Smith gave his first devotional (for this session) on being an example in word and conversation. In the little booklet they gave us at registration, it also has room for notes too, so I was able to take some good notes. After that we spent some more time with our company, and we set some goals. Goal #1: to be the most grateful group in this session. Goal #2: to be able to read Moroni 1-9, so we could read chapter 10 as a company on the last night. I think that is what we started with. We couldn't have too many goals, because then we wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything but our goals, and anyway, it was a good start. After that we went back to our dorms, and we had a small devotional, just with the girls, given by Kristen, our counselor. She gave a great devotional on recognizing the Spirit. After that we had lights out.
I thought that this was the longest day, because I didn't really know anyone, and we didn't really know what we were doing, and we had a lot of time to kill. It was a pretty good first day though.
It is almost 11:30 here, so I am going to go, but I will get the whole week in+ ASAP.
Pics are coming next week!
Missing you, hope you are having a wonderful summer!
Happy Sammich
Monday morning- Grandma Afton drove me down to Ogden, where the university was, and we got checked in all right. Apparently the people there were worried about the swine flu, so they were checking everybody's temperatures. We got a CD with this year's music on it (every year they hand out a special EFY CD with music on it about that year's theme), a lanyard (name tag), booklet, and movie. The movie has lessons on it that are based on this year's theme. I got my room key, and we were told that we were on the 10th floor of that building. Thank goodness for elevators! I had a window in my room, so I had a nice view of Ogden. It was esp pretty at night. We got my stuff put in my room, and we were going to head out for lunch. We had some questions about what we were supposed to do, so we decided to ask the girl next door, which I later (in the week) found out that her name was Savannah Astle. A.K.A the girl I was closest to at EFY. If you are reading this, HI SAVANNAH! Anyway, we asked her, then Grandma found that she hadn't had lunch yet, so we decided to treat her to lunch. You see, check-in was at 11am, and they weren't feeding us lunch that day. We ended up at Subway, and we got to know each other better. We talked about family, and her past year at EFY, this year was her second year. So she kinda knew how the flow was going to be like. We came back on campus, and we said our final goodbyes, and Savannah and I headed up to our rooms. We went into her room after I finished getting settled in. We weren't roommates...yet. We ended up chatting for at least an hour and a half on her bed, waiting for our rommates to show up. Neither one of our roommates showed up. At all. It was the same way with another one of our girls too. So, we only ended up with 7 girls in our group. We talked about where we live, and school, and where our roommates could be. It was good bonding time, I thought. Later we were having a meeting in Savannah's room with all of our girls and our counselor. Our group included me, Savannah, Hollie F., Hannah C., Ashlyn D., Annie D., and Michelle B., and our counselor was Kristen L. We had a get-to-know-you game, and we said random things about each other, like how I am allergic to green peas. I love to eat them, but I am allergic. Anyway, we did that until we had to go down to meet our other half of our "company", which was the guy half. There was a 2:1 ratio, guys to girls, well, almost. There was 12 guys, not including our guy counselor. It was pretty awesome! We played some team-building games, but we still kinda separated ourselves, between guys and girls, which is not how it was by the end of the week. :) We played a game that was kind of like duck-duck-goose, except the person who was it (mostly the counselors) said duck, and they would have you answer a random question. It was pretty funny, we had some good laughs. Our company name was Contend With Anger by the way. All of the other groups had different names too. The next thing we did was walk over to another building where we had a "rules/regulations/orientation" presentation. It was also a preview about what we were going to do that week. We also met our session director, Bro Smith. I liked his devotionals/FHE lessons throughout the week. He is a good speaker. After that we had dinner, and our whole company pretty much sat together. I remember us having salad at every meal, except breakfast, every single day, but I can't remember what the main course was. After dinner we went back to where we were before for the rules talk. Bro Smith gave his first devotional (for this session) on being an example in word and conversation. In the little booklet they gave us at registration, it also has room for notes too, so I was able to take some good notes. After that we spent some more time with our company, and we set some goals. Goal #1: to be the most grateful group in this session. Goal #2: to be able to read Moroni 1-9, so we could read chapter 10 as a company on the last night. I think that is what we started with. We couldn't have too many goals, because then we wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything but our goals, and anyway, it was a good start. After that we went back to our dorms, and we had a small devotional, just with the girls, given by Kristen, our counselor. She gave a great devotional on recognizing the Spirit. After that we had lights out.
I thought that this was the longest day, because I didn't really know anyone, and we didn't really know what we were doing, and we had a lot of time to kill. It was a pretty good first day though.
It is almost 11:30 here, so I am going to go, but I will get the whole week in+ ASAP.
Pics are coming next week!
Missing you, hope you are having a wonderful summer!
Happy Sammich
Truck Saga
So by now most of you have heard that I was in a car accident last week while on my way to drill. Thankfully everybody is OK. It now appears the guy who caused this might not have been covered at the time (something about just purchasing the car, and maybe it wasn't yet on his policy). We'll see how that goes.
Anyway here are some overdue photos:
His car caught the truck's rear bumper, and he ended up under the back of the truck. I saw him coming in my rear-view mirror and had time to brace myself. I also was able to "cushion" the blow by letting off the brake, although we did end up running into the guy ahead of me. Fortunately no visible damage there though.
They had to get two wreckers to tug-o-war us apart. Fortunately the truck is still driveable, but his little car was hauled away on one of the wreckers.
Anyway here are some overdue photos:
His car caught the truck's rear bumper, and he ended up under the back of the truck. I saw him coming in my rear-view mirror and had time to brace myself. I also was able to "cushion" the blow by letting off the brake, although we did end up running into the guy ahead of me. Fortunately no visible damage there though.
They had to get two wreckers to tug-o-war us apart. Fortunately the truck is still driveable, but his little car was hauled away on one of the wreckers.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
4TH OF JULY FUN!
I tried to get a shot of our whole group. You can't tell from here, but our group that represented 4 families (jeffries, eastwoods, baxters) took up quite a bit of space - we would have spanned the entire road! I loved this pict because I caught Kels in the corner contentedly watching the parade. I was surprised she did so well with all the sirens blaring, but she never made a sound and just seemed to take it all in as no big deal.
Ky, on the other hand, really had a hard time with all the noise - esp the sirens. All he did before the parade started was to repeat over and over "we will see cars, horsies, animals and firetrucks!" He is my cars/trucks/train kiddos, but I dont think he realized that real ones would be so loud. This is a classic pict of what he did most of the beginning of the parade - hold his hands over his ears and scowl at whoever was trying to help him calm down from all of his screaming. The noise really freaked him out and it was a good long while before he calmed down enough to enjoy the rest of the parade.
This one is for Ceana. She would have really loved all the horses and riders in the parade. The colors this year were very striking and it was amazing to see how many cavalry/posse groups we have in the county.
Eventually Ky did settle down and enjoy the rest of the parade. He was VERY excited when he saw the car with Ronald McDonald in it, and even more thrilled when he waved and RM waved back and pointed to him and the all the kids with us. He just thought that was great fun, and it was good for me to see that he had calmed down enough to enjoy his time sitting with his friends and watching all the fun.
Ky, on the other hand, really had a hard time with all the noise - esp the sirens. All he did before the parade started was to repeat over and over "we will see cars, horsies, animals and firetrucks!" He is my cars/trucks/train kiddos, but I dont think he realized that real ones would be so loud. This is a classic pict of what he did most of the beginning of the parade - hold his hands over his ears and scowl at whoever was trying to help him calm down from all of his screaming. The noise really freaked him out and it was a good long while before he calmed down enough to enjoy the rest of the parade.
This one is for Ceana. She would have really loved all the horses and riders in the parade. The colors this year were very striking and it was amazing to see how many cavalry/posse groups we have in the county.
Eventually Ky did settle down and enjoy the rest of the parade. He was VERY excited when he saw the car with Ronald McDonald in it, and even more thrilled when he waved and RM waved back and pointed to him and the all the kids with us. He just thought that was great fun, and it was good for me to see that he had calmed down enough to enjoy his time sitting with his friends and watching all the fun.
4TH OF JULY FUN II
One of the floats had to do with upholding and showing we still believe in the "10 commandments" - the guys from the float were handing out "$100,000,000" dollar bills to show that the commandments are worth more than $. The kids thought they were handing out REAL $ and you should have seen their eyes popping out! The big boys started thinking about all the things they could buy with that much. Not sure anyone explained things to them on the other side of the group, but it was hard to try to explain to the little boys that it wasnt real but that they could use it with the toys in the playroom. Even though I think Colton finally understood that it was pretend $ he had fun showing it off anyway.
This one is for Ceana. She has always been my horse girl - and she would have loved seeing these up close - here ya go missy! There are lots more shots of these if you want them too!
This one is also for Ceana. This is her best friend since Kindergarten, Ana, who happened to be walking in the parade with the float her sisters were on. She stopped and let me take her pict. I know the girls are both sad that they wont see each other for the whole summer, but hopefully this pict will help Ceana know that she is being thought of - by us and Ana.
Kels had a blast playing with the pretend $. She just kept holding it and switching hands and showing it to me. I loved this one best because it shows her playing, but also shows off her cute little toes!
This one is for Ceana. She has always been my horse girl - and she would have loved seeing these up close - here ya go missy! There are lots more shots of these if you want them too!
This one is also for Ceana. This is her best friend since Kindergarten, Ana, who happened to be walking in the parade with the float her sisters were on. She stopped and let me take her pict. I know the girls are both sad that they wont see each other for the whole summer, but hopefully this pict will help Ceana know that she is being thought of - by us and Ana.
Kels had a blast playing with the pretend $. She just kept holding it and switching hands and showing it to me. I loved this one best because it shows her playing, but also shows off her cute little toes!
4TH OF JULY FUN III
Ky really enjoyed all the candy flying from the floats and that people kindly handed to him because he was so little. He couldnt wait to eat every piece (which I didnt let him) and to show off all the loot he had aquired. I got this great shot of him showing off all of his candy to B
Ky was VERY pround of his haul of "loot" from the parade
By the time the parade was over Kels had had enough. She totally zonked out in her stroller with her hat pulled down over her face.
Ceana just happened to call on the cell phone from SLC when one of her friends in the parade walked by us. As she started to squirt us with her water bottle Preston handed off the phone to her to talk to Ceana - it was pretty funny, but I think E enjoyed talking with Ceana and I am sure Ceana enjoyed that too!
Ky was VERY pround of his haul of "loot" from the parade
By the time the parade was over Kels had had enough. She totally zonked out in her stroller with her hat pulled down over her face.
Ceana just happened to call on the cell phone from SLC when one of her friends in the parade walked by us. As she started to squirt us with her water bottle Preston handed off the phone to her to talk to Ceana - it was pretty funny, but I think E enjoyed talking with Ceana and I am sure Ceana enjoyed that too!
BIRTHDAY ADVENTURES
I had another day of "recognition of my birth" this past week. I never look forward to birthdays for myself - the whole week was filled with tears over the coming of the day. To help me get through things better I chose to give some gifts for my birthday vs receive them. I spent the day before and during that day giving gifts to those friends who are closest to me and have helped me through so many things, esp recently....esp through all of the tears.
Thankfully, for the most part, the day itself turned out really wonderful.
I was in doubt it would be when Preston woke me up at 1am that day to tell me that "we have a situation" - which usually means something not so fun with the kids. He was right. Ky had thrown up all over the couch in the library - BIG yuck. Preston took care of Ky/laundry while I tried to deal with the couch. Not fun, but eventually we got everything cleaned up. (kiddos have picked up some kind of bug, though we didnt realize it at the time - ky throws up over something or nothing - we have spent several days cleaning up floors, bedding, kiddos, etc)
I was treated to a YUMMY breakfast by 2 very good friends. They came to visit it me in the early AM loaded down with a plate piled high with doughnuts, a gallon of milk, a container of yummy fruit and a wonderful gift. It was a nice surprise and I enjoyed the time they took to come and bring breakfast and stay to visit for a bit. Thank you M & C for your friendship, kindness and patience. It really does mean so much that you continue to put up with me and did something more "low key" just to help me do better. FYI all those doughnuts lasted all of about 10 minutes - it was a wonderful treat for all of us!
That morning I had a massage therapy appt too. That was hard, but really helped me to be able to get through the rest of the day. Thank you W for all your kindness, patience, friendship and for never giving up on me! And also for teaching and talking with Preston too - I know that was a big step for both of us.
Preston was able to take the day off work, just to spend it with me. We spent the morning running errands - and running back to the house for things we had forgotten - which Kaeli thought was pretty funny as she kept asking: "are you sure you're not coming back now?". We got lunch "on the fly" and then got to go visit some good friends of ours who just had a new baby.
Thankfully, for the most part, the day itself turned out really wonderful.
I was in doubt it would be when Preston woke me up at 1am that day to tell me that "we have a situation" - which usually means something not so fun with the kids. He was right. Ky had thrown up all over the couch in the library - BIG yuck. Preston took care of Ky/laundry while I tried to deal with the couch. Not fun, but eventually we got everything cleaned up. (kiddos have picked up some kind of bug, though we didnt realize it at the time - ky throws up over something or nothing - we have spent several days cleaning up floors, bedding, kiddos, etc)
I was treated to a YUMMY breakfast by 2 very good friends. They came to visit it me in the early AM loaded down with a plate piled high with doughnuts, a gallon of milk, a container of yummy fruit and a wonderful gift. It was a nice surprise and I enjoyed the time they took to come and bring breakfast and stay to visit for a bit. Thank you M & C for your friendship, kindness and patience. It really does mean so much that you continue to put up with me and did something more "low key" just to help me do better. FYI all those doughnuts lasted all of about 10 minutes - it was a wonderful treat for all of us!
That morning I had a massage therapy appt too. That was hard, but really helped me to be able to get through the rest of the day. Thank you W for all your kindness, patience, friendship and for never giving up on me! And also for teaching and talking with Preston too - I know that was a big step for both of us.
Preston was able to take the day off work, just to spend it with me. We spent the morning running errands - and running back to the house for things we had forgotten - which Kaeli thought was pretty funny as she kept asking: "are you sure you're not coming back now?". We got lunch "on the fly" and then got to go visit some good friends of ours who just had a new baby.
We had a wonderful visit with them and it was so fun to get to hold a new baby - she is SO sweet and only a week old! I also got the fun opportunity to do a newborn shoot as my gift to my friend. Preston was a HUGE help, I would have never been able to do it without him. He did all the hard stuff and just let me do the fun stuff. Thank you sweetie, for all you did, you are an angel!
I know we wore out the baby and my friend too, but I hope it was worth it J! These are just a couple from the fun we had. I will be posting more soon to my photography blog - so watch for more to come!
After the photo fun we asked our friends for their recommendations on a good restaurant to go to for my birthday dinner. They made several suggestions, including an Italian place near by. Z talked up the Calzone they served and that it is a great place. We decided to try it out. From the outside it didnt look like much, but the inside was a totally different story! The walls were painted with murals that made you feel like you were looking out a window into the gardens and streets of old Italy. The ceiling eves were bursting with ivy and decorative lights that looked like huge bunches of grapes. They even had a guy who wandered the place playing an accordian and seranading the customers! It really was fun.
The best part, by far, was the amazing food! We had a cute waitress who took our orders and helped us, and smirked at us. We had never been there before so we asked her what she would suggest. I asked her about several flavors of the Italian sodas that were on the menu. She told us not to order the chocolate because it had a "funky" flavor. And they didnt have caramel (my fave) so we ordered sodas at her recommendation. Mine was raspberry-vanilla with cream, it was SO YUMMY. Preston got one with boysenberry and cream, it was yummy too. We had ordered appetizers too (we love breaded cheese sticks and zuchinni). Little did we know that we would also receive complimentary "appetizers" - bread and salad and a plate with veggies/meat/cheese. By the time we had eaten those we were both already full! We hadnt even ordered dinner yet!
Next came the dinner order. There were SO many things to choose from, so we chatted and decided to each get something different and share. When the waitress came back to take our order Preston told her he would like to get one of the calzones. She looked at him for a minute, and then asked "are you sure?" When he said yes, she got this funny smirk on her face and said she hoped he liked leftovers.....we thought that was a very odd response and didnt understand - until they brought it out! It was literally 5 POUNDS of meat, mushrooms, olives, cheese and crust - that thing was HUGE! I really wish I would have gone out to get my camera - though you still wouldnt have appreciated the size of that thing! Preston & I both looked at each other and at the calzone several times before he finally dug in. It was VERY yummy, but he didnt even eat a third of it. My dinner portion was much smaller in comparison, but still way more than I could eat too. The waitress was really great and I am sure she had a hard time not laughing her head off at us as she took our dinners and boxed them up for us.
Even still, we broke our own family rule (if you are too full for your dinner, you are too full for dessert). How can you not when you go to an amazing restaurant like that and NOT order their most decadent treats on the menu - full to busting or not. We decided that since we were so full that we would order dessert to go - take one taste and take the rest home. It was a good idea, in theory. I ordered a wonderful piece of cheesecake (by command of W) :) and preston ordered their chocolate torte to go. I also saw that they had Spumoni on the menu, and since it is one of my most favorite kinds of ice cream, I just had to get some. The waitress brought my ice cream and the boxed desserts - and then seemed to disappear for a bit. My Spumoni was heavenly, and even though I thought I had been so full, I finished the whole dish! It was cold and refreshing and wonderful. Preston decided to have a bite of his cake - and share one with me. My first reaction was "OH, WOW!" - it was THAT good. I could only handle 2 little bites because it was so rich too. By the time the waitress appeared again my ice cream was gone, and so was most of preston's cake. She did laugh at us then, good naturedly though, as we chatted about how awesome the desserts really are. It was a wonderful dinner and if we get the chance, we will definately go there again.
After that Preston & I ran a few more errands and then headed home. Kaeli had gone to sleep on the couch while all the boys were still up and running around. I know she was prob tired (as I am sure M was too after having our kiddos most of the day - THANK YOU!) and she had totally zonked. After some effort we finally had everyone in their beds and asleep. By then I was pretty wiped out too and also headed to bed while preston caught up on some episodes of Star Trek Voyager.
It really turned out to be a wonderful day. Esp that I got to spend the whole day with my best friend. So much has happened this year, esp with my ill health, and yet he has never stopped giving me his very best. My greatest birthday gift was knowing that he is mine, and that he truly does love me. It has taken me a very long time to get to this point, and it truly is a gift to me that I can feel the way I do, and belive it and trust in it more than I ever have. Through the day we ran errands and visited friends and ate out, and just enjoyed our special time together. Thank you, my love, for standing beside me through sickness and health, through clouds and sun, through smiles and tears, for taking time just for me, and esp for always loving me no matter what. Thank you for our wonderful day together. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Love You.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)