Girl's Camp 2011, part 2

Continuing from my last post, there were a lot of fun activities besides embarrassing the newbies. On our first full day there, I got to run around with some of the girls as they went from station to station. They painted prayer rocks, we all got to learn how to properly tie a full Windsor and a single Windsor tie (now all the girls have a preference and can tell the young men in their lives which tie to tie for church), and the girls also did a fun service project of tying quilts.

Some girls got it right away.

Some people struggled before attaining victory. 

We also set aside some time for spiritual activities. One of my favorites was when small groups were led to a hillside and told to find a peaceful place to stop and write their testimonies. Everyone was given a piece of paper and a pen and got to listen to quiet music if they chose to stay close or if they wandered a little ways off, they could just take in the sound of the breeze through the trees as they wrote. There were no rules as to what you could write, you just wrote whatever you were inspired to record--your testimony as it stood right then. It was a really cool experience watching the Young Women considering what to write.

One of the adventures that lasted the whole time of Girl's Camp was trying to find our Stake's rock. Every year someone hides a special rock that has been decorated ("bling-a-fied" according to the Stake leaders) somewhere within the camp boundaries, and this year it was the Priesthood that hid it. The Girl's Camp stake leaders were the ones that decorated it, and every day we'd get new clues as to where it was hidden. The girls looked everywhere. Every day you'd see tons of girls scouring the hillsides, looking under logs, peaking into crevices. One day Emilee, Shauna, and I all went trekking through the woods and up some hills. I got halfway up a really steep embankment (in my galoshes!) and realized that I'd rather keep going up than try to get down. This won me the honor of being called a mountain goat by Shauna then and again a week later when she shared that story with our ward over the stand. But alas, we didn't find the rock that day, or any of our days there. One of our YW Micah got really bugged when she thought she saw the rock (it was shiny and looked to be silver) and she half ran, half fell down a hill to get to it before anyone else did, only to find that it was a mylar balloon. Sad day. The search for the rock also led to camp pranks. Our dear YW decided to paint a fake rock, and hid it near one of the other camp sites. Their thinking was that if another ward found that rock that they would keep it to themselves, thinking they'd found the true rock, and they would quit looking. And once one rock was made up and set out, why not eight more, to hopefully keep all of the competition back at their camps and not looking? Well, it kind of worked. We watched as one ward found one of the fake rocks and started dancing around, then stop, scooped it up, and ran off with it hidden in someone's jacket. That evening when we were getting ready to hear our devotional, that ward was called up to show what they had found. They excitedly carried it down to center stage where the Stake Leaders said, "You have found a rock! But it is not THE rock. Keep looking." And they were given a consolation prize of a box of cookies.

More silliness:

Please click on this to get a good look at the faces these girls are pulling.

What is most amazing about this photo is that the girl at the top of the pyramid (Andi) had climbed up there on a broken arm. Did I mention that we slept in pods? In bunkhouses that were glorified rail-car containers?
Well, this is what the girls' side looked like:

If you'll notice-- the roof was smashed in from the snowfall that winter and there were roll bars only on the top bunks, not the second level. Apparently our bunks were the only ones that bad off. And little Andi went rolling off her bed in her sleep, all bundled up in her sleeping bag. She fell down right on her arm. It was a good thing her mom was our camp director. She was able to be with her and hold her and help console her. Only we didn't find out for sure that her arm was broken until three days after camp. Yep. She was such a trooper that her mom thought it was just a sprain, but she was wrong. Andi wasn't our only nurse's station visitor, though-- another girl went home with a stomach virus. And another girl had to go lay down because of altitude sickness, and a few others had to get stuff for their sunburns. Never a dull moment at camp.

Last, but not least of the silliness-- a spinner game of jellybeans. You could land on white and get coconut or baby wipes. Or you could land on green and get pear or boogers. There were also options of getting marshmallow or rotten egg, etc, etc. A bunch of the girls were playing it and wanted me to try a few beans, so I did, but they were all the tasty ones. The rule was, however, that you had to eat whatever kind you got.

I wasn't interested in partaking of toothpaste or moldy cheese flavored jellybeans because I could guess at what those would be like, but I told the girls that I might be persuaded to try the centipede flavored one. I mean, who knows what a centipede tastes like, right? The other option for that was strawberry jam. I ate five strawberry jam flavored jellybeans in a row, so then Emily grabbed one, and as you might have guessed, on her first try she got a centipede flavored jellybean. Oh, the faces she made as she tried to choke it down.

Emily then decided that it was to be my fate to have to go through what she did. So she handed me red speckled jellybean after red speckled jellybean, picking out only the ones that could have been centipede. I ate sixteen delicious strawberry jam jellybeans. And it looked like there were no more red speckled jellybeans. Emily was ticked. But she found two more. The first, strawberry jam. But I finally got my taste of centipede and man alive was it disgusting. It tasted like the smell of fungus, dirt, dampness, and rotting leaves. It was horrendous. And I hear that there are pictures of me eating it.

But since I can't get my hands on those photos, I'll share a photo of Paige eating some other disgusting flavor:

Later, we just started snacking on the jellybeans when hanging out in a group as a sort of jellybean Russian roulette. Yep, we're weird like that.

Girl's Camp 2011, part 1

As promised, good and happy things. Namely, my adventures at Girl's Camp. Most of you know this already, but this was my very first ever experience at Girl's Camp. I joined the LDS faith at seventeen and missed going as a last year Laurel. (Laurel meaning a young woman who is seventeen or eighteen.) Having been called as a Young Women adviser and now the First Counselor in our ward's YW presidency, I had the responsibility and opportunity of attending Girl's Camp this year. Being totally honest, I was a little nervous about it. I had no idea what I was getting myself into or what to expect. I was worried that it was going to be like some of my early experiences with the YW organization, namely that there would be cattiness, gossiping, and cliques. However, our ward is not like that. Our Young Women all care for one another and they do their best to include everyone. I should have known better, but I was surprised by how amazing our Young Women really are-- they are an example to me.

Because people want to see pictures more than read a bunch about how all of us were touched and how every one of the leaders cried at one point or another (in a good way), I'll include a lot of fun photos.

I got together at the Vanderheyden home at 6:30AM. We had all the girls together and organized into cars and were on the road by about 7:30AM. We were at camp and unloading things by 8:30AM. After a night of not sleeping all that well, that was a really early start for me. The Stake's theme was about seeking after Eternal Treasures, so each ward got to represent certain traits and qualities through a gemstone. We were the Sunstones/Hot rocks. And Sandy (the YW president) had the sneaky idea of incorporating an underlying theme that all of the girls could get behind: The movie Tangled. And you know (if you've seen the movie) that it is a cute story, and they have this thing with purple banners with a huge yellow sun. . . so yea, we took that up as our symbol and used the movie in other ways, too.

Decorating banners.

Emilee placed a lot of yellow vinyl hearts on the purple bunting.

First day, so we haven't gotten a chance to get grimy or too sweaty yet. 

Our treats that we handed out to all the other wards.
Notice the banners in the background....

We also came prepared with rain boots and boy were we ever grateful to have them. Six weeks before we got there, the mountain was covered in over ten feet of snow. Feet, people. Even a couple of weeks before we were to arrive, there was at least a foot of snow everywhere. But our camp director had prayed and prayed and felt strongly that some people needed the experience on the mountain. Last year weather forced them to have move Girl's Camp to Pinto, UT. If you don't know where that is, I don't blame you. It is outside of Enterprise, if that helps. Anyway-- it is flat there and windy and apparently that is not what we needed this year. So after many prayers, it was decided that we would go up to the mountain, and after many more prayers, the snow melted in time. And with all that snow melt came the mud. But like I said, we were ready for it. While others had to delicately choose where to put their feet down, we could easily tromp down the trails without a care.

And, just because it was Girl's Camp, we also got to coordinate in other ways, like wearing matching purple hoodies with giant yellow suns on the back, putting sunflower clips in our hair, necklaces with suns as our name plates, yellow bandannas, and cute yellow and purple nails: 

By the end of our first day, all of the first years had their chance to get embarrassed in front of a crowd. This included the first year leaders. It is that song where you make more and more silly gestures while singing "eh too ti tah" over and over again and at the end you are flapping your arms like a chicken with your knees bent in and your tongue sticking out. It is really attractive, let me tell you. And of course, I have a picture. 

Silly goofy ridiculous fun. 

More to come soon. Like maybe tomorrow. 

Blindsided

I promise, I do have lots and lots of good news and fun things to catch up on, but I feel the need to write about something big and sad right now. I got online to check my e-mail and I had every intention of following that up with some good happy blogging, but then I read about the death of a woman I really look up to--and I didn't know how to finish writing about Girl's Camp and the other events in our life recently. It just didn't seem right. At least not right now, not today. So today you can skip this post if you want, because it is a little sad. But it also a happy post, because I wanted to write about some of the ways that this woman changed me. In writing my condolences to her oldest daughter, I was reminded of all the ways that her mom helped me out in a pivotal point in my life, so I wrote her some of those things, and decided to share them here in detail, where I could look back on them later. ---

Candy is a mother and grandmother. Her home was not too far from the house that I grew up in and her family was one of the first that I got to know when I first joined the LDS church. Candy has that kind of personality where she always greeted people with a smile. And yes, I am writing about her personality in the present tense, because you know, I am sure that she is still the same person in heaven that she was here.

Initially I only got to know Candy as a peripheral figure in my life for the first couple of years after I met her. She was this nice mom to children that were around my age, and she was always friendly. She was always kind and sweet at church, but that was the extent of our interactions. That all changed when I first got home from my mission. And that is when she changed me.

See, when I got home from my mission, it was only 9 months into what is ordinarily an 18 month commitment for LDS girls who choose to serve full-time missions. My Mission President and a visiting Area Seventy (another church leader) prayed about me and my situation and decided that my mission was complete. Those are the words that they used when I was sent home-- I had an ill father, and other family things going on. I think that the decision was made to give me more time with the people that I loved back home, but when I very first got home, I was confused and hurt and sad and to be truthful, I felt like a failure. I thought it was somehow my fault that I was being sent home. I didn't understand why I wasn't given the option to choose to stick it out in the mission field.

Well, when missionaries go home, it is usually to a family that has been looking forward to their return, but in my case my mother was visiting Poland where she was helping out her ailing parents as well as my father, from whom she'd been divorced for some time. My mom is a huge example to me in a lot of ways as well. But because she was in Poland when I went home, and because my father was in Poland, and because my sister was already living in Oregon by that time, I flew home not knowing who would pick me up from the airport, and not knowing where I'd be staying (I didn't have a key to my house). As it turned out, the Bishop of my home ward and a member of the Stake Presidency (President Hanis) came to get me, and this member of the Stake Presidency just so happened to be Candy's husband. And as we drove back to Houston, just like that, I was invited to stay with the Hanis family. They didn't even ask how long I'd be there.

It was at the Hanis home that I got to learn how to live life as a normal non-missionary young woman all over again. I can't be sure, but I think it was Candy's idea from the beginning. She had a room set aside for me when I got there. She showed me around, and just like that, I was part of the family for my stay. She is the person who most helped me find my place again after coming home.

She took me shopping a couple of days after getting home and she bought me cute post-mission clothes. I had a few P-day outfits from the mission, but she was insistent that I get a few cute things. When I tried to pay her back later, she refused, saying that she would never ask a daughter to pay her back. She also never let me have the chance to feel ugly while I was with her. I had gained enough weight on my mission that it was noticeable, and I let one of my companions talk me into cutting my hair. This companion had not studied at a hair school, and it was obvious. So there I was, chubby and with a triangle head but Candy only ever told me that I was pretty, that the boys back at BYU would chase after me, that I would be a catch.

Candy was just so upbeat and happy and full of energy that I couldn't help but get swept up into it. She also threw me into daily family life and included me in her planning and ideas. There were chores to do and crafts to learn. I got to help with dinners and desserts. I was a part of Easter egg dying and family nights. She took me on a family field-trip to Brazos Bend State Park. She was the one that taught me how to crochet. She was so patient and positive while I stumbled with my crochet hook at first, and when I started getting it, she praised me and told me how quickly I was picking up on it. She had me crochet the edge of a baby blanket that I thought was going to one of her friends as a gift, but then told me to keep it for my own little ones that would come some day. To this day I think of her every time I begin a new crochet project. I think of her patience and kindness, of her upbeat perseverance, and her happy company while crocheting side by side.

Here is a photo from our outing at Brazos Bend State Park. I am surrounded by some of her family. Sadly, Candy is not in the photo. I can't find one of her right at this moment. . . but just look at me and how awkward I was. Candy deserves all kinds of awards for taking in such an awkward duckling and telling her she was a swan. And the clothes that I'm wearing in this shot? All bought by Candy.

Scan of an old 35mm photo from 2003.

I loved that she gave me jobs to do and crafts to work on.  She took away time that I could have been worrying or fretting and helped me fill my days with productive things when I didn't know what I was doing with myself.

When I opened up to her and told her of what my Mission President said about his reasoning for sending me home, she said simply that she agreed with him. "You were obviously on a faster track is all." She said it with a matter-of-fact tone that left no room for argument or doubt. I was home because the Lord wanted me home, that was all. It took me a while to fully integrate that belief, but whenever I doubted myself, I would think of her. This extended to years after getting home from my mission. When I was met by a person who looked down on me for not having served an eighteen month mission, I would think of her and how she never judged me. Instead, she focused only on the good she could see in me. And trust me when I say that I needed the strength I got from her when I went back to Provo.

When I got back into the swing of things in Provo, I thought back to my time with Candy often. She was right about a lot of things-- I did assimilate pretty quickly, I lost my mission weight soon after getting home, and I did have boys chasing me sooner than I wanted. And even though the timetable wasn't what she had predicted, Candy was right in saying that someday I would meet and marry and fantastic person. She also told me that one day I would make a great mom. We have yet to see that happen, but I hope that when that day comes, I can take what I learned from her and from other family and friends and make that prediction come true as well.

In the LDS faith we believe in proxy work. I believe that Candy was put in my life or vice versa, so that I could learn from her. She was my proxy mom when my own mom was busy taking care of her ex-husband, her mom, and her dad half-way across the world. Candy stepped in and taught me so many things about myself and about the person that I wanted to be. In some ways, I think she was able to teach me more quickly than family could just because she wasn't a relative, she didn't have any obligation toward me, and still chose to take me in wholeheartedly.

In writing this post I am reminded of the girl that I was when I met Candy, of how far I've come, and how far I have yet to go. I am so glad that I got to know her and for all the things that she said and did to help me out. Beyond my deep gratitude for Candy specifically, I am grateful for all of my other friends and family. I learn things from each and every one of you, even if I don't see you all the time and even if I am bad at sharing it.

If you made it this far, you have some of Candy's traits-- namely perseverance and patience. I'm sure you also have a bunch of other awesome traits, because you are one of my friends or a family member, and I only associate with people better than I am. That's just how it goes. So thanks for being someone I look up to, too.

Wedding day photos

I just realized that I never got around to posting the professional photos from our wedding day.
Please go HERE to see them. Click on any of the photos in that post to see them bigger.

Zig Zag

I'm working on a baby quilt for my friend Rebekah who just had a baby. It works out because I just happened to recently get a new-to-me sewing machine, and I needed something to experiment on. What's easier than a bunch of straight lines, right? So I decided to start this quilt. I've been working on it for a few weeks now. I was hoping to have it done by Rebekah's due date (June 1st) which is when I got the quilt top done. But little Sophia Elle came early, so now I'm way behind schedule.

 To see better shots of the quilt top and for my inspiration links, go HERE.

Luna likes to help whenever she can.

Stomach vs Social Life

I've been trying to get back into the habit of visiting friends. I have been out of commission for a while with what I initially thought was the stomach flu. I didn't visit people because if what I had was something that could be shared, I didn't want to be that generous. I kept it to myself and kept myself to myself.

As time went on and things didn't just work themselves out, I came to realize that somehow I'd developed food allergies. I couldn't eat anything with wheat or dairy in it. No fun. But I know people who have to deal with that on a daily basis, either for themselves or their loved ones. So I just did my best to figure things out to make my insides happy. The answer that worked for me was a round of probiotics, several vitamins, and completely cutting off dairy and wheat for two weeks. Guess what? It seems to be working.

I have started to reintroduce a greater variety of foods into my diet, and I'm working on reintroducing myself to some of my long lost friends.

Jon's childhood neighbor's the Van de Merwe's came through. We had enough time to meet up for a sandwich picnic-style lunch at the St. George temple. But first Jan had to get his hair cut. They were on their way north to visit his parents and they are "strict old-style Dutch" according to Martha. So, it was time for a hair cut. And the place closest to the Jimmy John's that we'd selected to grab lunch from was this dinky barber shop. It was awesome.

Check out that barber!

Jan and Marth on the temple stairs.

I think Martha was close to tears once they got done giving her husband a "missionary" hair cut, but then it was time to hang out on the temple grounds, and that makes everything better. We caught up on life and gawked at all the wedding parties circling the grounds. There was one girl with full-on cowgirl boots-- not the cute ones with girly colors or bling, just straight up country.

It just so happened that some of the missionaries that we know were working the Visitor's Center that afternoon. Martha was so excited to get to meet Sister Carnahan (who is in our area now and with whom I go teaching from time to time) and Sister Hyde (who taught Jon back when he was learning about the LDS faith last year). So of course, we had to take a photo.

Sisters Carnahan and Hyde (and us)

L to R: Jan, Martha, Janel, Jon

I've also had the chance to hang out with my good friend Rachel. We ended up going to the What Women Want Expo in St. George one of the times. Other than the company, it wasn't all that great. That night Jon and I took our friend Chad out for his birthday. He had been wanting to play laser tag forever, but we ended up watching a movie instead, which was just fine by me. (No photos for those events.)



On the 25th I saw my friend Ashlie from Salt Lake. We hadn't seen one another face to face in oh, about two years. We met up for cupcakes. She is as cute as ever and so fun to talk to--we ended up chatting until after they'd closed for the night and they were vacuuming. (We had a lot to catch up on.)  And the cupcakes were really tasty, too.

Two days later, it was time to say goodbye to Chad. He accepted a seasonal position at Cape Cod and will be gone the rest of the summer, if not longer. He stopped by the house to say bye and to grab a few things that he'd left at our place. 

Chad's sad face.

Realizing that I wasn't going to get sick also left me open to see Sophia Elle for the first time. She came earlier than Rebekah or anyone was anticipating, but she's a cute healthy little doll. 

No flash, and kind of blurry.

Add flash, and I'm shiny as all get out.

And finally, I got to help out with a wedding this past Thursday. Holly from my ward got married. She had been in the YW organization and her mother, Sandy is the Young Women's President. Their whole family is really sweet. Sandy does SO much to make sure that the YW activities go off without a hitch, that I really wanted to help her out in any way I could. So I went to work in the kitchen among some other really amazing women. I was glad to hang out with my pal Marcy again. I recently took her place as the YW 1st counselor and I really miss her presence in the group. She's always so on top of everything. Maybe some day I can be that together. :) So, my one photo from that evening is me working with Marcy on sandwiches.

We cut and skewered countless numbers of sandwiches.

I was exhausted by the end of that night, but it felt really good to help out. I still can only handle a couple of hours of activity, and running around Sandy's huge house, smiling, and arranging sandwiches and cakebites made me a tired girl.

Anyway, if I haven't seen you in ages (and you live close) I am super sorry. But I am trying to make amends. I've been especially missing Chrissy and hope to see her real soon. And to all the friends I have gotten to see-- hurray! It was so good to see you. :)

Red Cliffs Desert Preserve

Jon and I have known about this wonderful place not too far from home--set aside as the Red Cliffs Desert Preserve-- for quite some time now. But neither of us had gone hiking there until just recently. One day a few weeks ago I decided to walk around there on my own, and took a few photos. That was enough to convince Jon to hike around there with me a few days later.

So we walked around with our little Luna, and she did amazingly well. She loves taking walks and hikes with us, and considering her diminutive size, we're always impressed that she never tires on these little adventures. We once hiked her four miles and she was still a bundle of energy when we got home. On this day we hiked for longer than we were expecting, so we ended up squirting water into our hands to let Luna drink. We're going to have to invest in one of those collapsible dog bowls. I'm thinking one like THIS. Do any of you have experience with these things?

 

 I'm really grateful that Jon and I live in such a beautiful place. It is so unlike where either of us grew up, but we both love it out here.

 

So, this post is a few weeks behind... but I'm working on catching up!