immediately after we moved into this new ward, we heard the bishop - a.k.a. my uncle
loren - had some callings in mind for us. hearing that i became terrified that i would be put in as a relief
society teacher or something. two weeks later i was put in as the beehive advisor and kyle was put in as the 13 and 14 year old
sunday school teacher. whew, i blew a sigh of relief. we pretty much just left those same two callings in our last ward and i knew i could handle that one.
our ward beehive count is ridiculous. we have 15 girls in my class alone, compare that to my last ward where the beehives was also the largest class with an average of four to five girls per
sunday.
mia maids had two - three girls average, and the laurels class was virtually non-
existent. i didn't go to girls camp with them since i was nursing, or trying to, but i remember my president ( i loved
kim johnson) saying we only had eleven girls go to camp that year. then she told me we weren't the smallest ward to go. holy crap!
well, i went to girls camp last week and had a blast!
it was incredible how much i missed kyle and
addison. i thought about that they were doing every day and worried about something happening to
addison while i was so far away. she wasn't too happy to see me when i came home. she had been woken up very early from a nap and didn't warm up to me until that evening. and speaking of that evening. i went to take a nap at 5:30 and didn't wake up until 9:00 the next morning. i was
exhausted!
but that's getting off topic. our theme this year was EXTREME MAKEOVER: SPIRITUAL EDITION. how do the leaders come up with these ideas?!? it was amazing. we learned a lot about building our foundation on
christ, being strong for him, and what we want in our homes. each ward represented a different part of the home with a value assigned to them as well. our ward theme was the front yard where we talked to the girls the importance of how the curb appeal for a home reflects what the home will look like on the inside. also that it is one of the more important aspects of the home because if we compare it to our bodies we need to make sure the first impression of who we are and what we stand for is clearly visible on the outside, the first thing people learn about us. the motto the girls came up with was "how's your curb appeal?" i thought it was great.
not everyone likes it, but i know that girls camp changes lives. it gives the young women in our ward families a chance to learn more about
christ and how to gain a
stronger testimony of who they are and where they really want to go in life. i hear about girls who make excuses of why they can't go... work, vacations, they're not campers, or some other reason. these girls are really denying themselves a great opportunity to get away from the pressures and ugly things of the world and surround themselves with leaders and fellow girls who love them. girls camp is like drinking a huge energy boost, but instead of
caffeine, they will be full of
knowledge and experiences that will
strengthen their testimony and fortify it against those things that will try to tear at them. nothing else can compare. it's a week of the best positive peer pressure out there. and if you have teenage girls you know they don't always listen to you, but at camp, surrounded by those that become best friends, you don't need to worry about their choices. they all choose the best together. and by the time the young women need a reminder, a year has gone by and girls camp is back again!! what could be more perfect? girls camp is truly inspired.
i told the girls in my ward how i went to girls camp all six years and after i graduated, i begged my young women's president to let me go again, but i wasn't allowed. i wanted to go because i knew what i was missing out on, and i cried. i know, somewhat dramatic.
as a leader, camp was still
incredible. i loved getting to know the girls better and i gained a huge
appreciation of all that my leaders did, starting months before camp. i really love
megan and
jessica - the second counselor in
YW and ward camp director. we had so much fun together even though i was at least ten years younger than either of them. (yes, i got confused for a young women almost hourly).
one thing we did that i personally loved was the hike. i wasn't excited to go at first because i was already so dirty, but it was a great experience. at the beginning of the hike, we each
received a
paver (basically an
over sized brick) to write our names and the date on. we listened to the hiking leader, brother
olsen, talk about burdens and what they are. some that we talked about were anger, guilt, sickness, school, financial, and jealousy. he told us that as we hiked we were going to carry these
pavers, representing our burdens, on our hands. he wanted us to constantly think of them as we hiked (leaders were asked to carry a
paver too).
right away my five little first years,
weighed down by their burdens, started to have a hard time ascending to the top of the
mountain. we had breaks every ten to fifteen minutes and the girls
talked about how much they hated their
paver and wanted to put them on Lou the donkey to carry for them. i encouraged them as best i could to carry their burdens themselves and stay in lead of all the hikers, that helps you a lot mentally. at the top of the mountain we had lunch, rested for about an hour, and talked
some more about burdens. some of the stake leaders shared personal experiences that helped everyone to really understand why we were doing this.
then we went back down the mountain and i was so proud of all my girls who stayed together in the front and had great attitudes. when we had hiked 3.4 miles, we were stopped and given bio-degradable pieces of paper to write down the burden that we have been carrying. hiking a bit further, we placed our paper under our burden in a path brother
olsen had made for the entire stake. he explained that
jesus, as part of the atonement, will carry our burdens for us, if we are willing to give them to him. when it rains, our burdens will wash away.
towards the end of girls camp, after we did singing trees, the whole stake walked on the path of "burdens" from each person and we had a devotional about
christ. these are the kind of
experiences the girls will remember throughout their life because of the physical things they did that represented spiritual things they need to do.
i love girls camp and i am so glad i got to go!
for the first two months that kyle and i were married, we lived in an apartment in north mesa with no tv. kyle comes from a family where tv was only allowed on weekends for a couple hours by his mom and never by his dad. i love to listen to him tell stories about watching saturday morning cartoons while his mom slept in and his dad was attending a scouting activity. that was their favorite saturday because if dad was home, he would turn off the tv and tell the kids they had chores waiting. kyle recalls how awful it was to be home, sick from school, on a thursday - his dad's day off. dad thought being sick meant not moving from your bed, and of course no cartoons. it felt a lot better to be sick any other school day when mom allowed you to watch all the cartoons your heart desired.
being a lot more tired starting at the beginning of the summer kyle would get up with her and let me sleep. when summer school started, addison used to sleep until he got home, but recently her clock is getting her up a few hours earlier. so kyle would let me sleep, turn on nick jr. for addison, and slip out the door. every week she is content by herself for longer and longer periods of time. it's horrible, but i just can't pull myself out of bed. so tired. 
what a great daddy huh? we put her down for a nap, turn on one of the last episodes of prison break, and blew the whole pool up. i did the whale. man it took forever and i was really light headed! kyle put it on the back porch and we grabbed addison. bubbles, toys, the hose - she was a happy camper!
Busy eating is Jesse, Michelle, and Jalee.
All the food was gone when everyone went back inside the park. It was a great time to chat and fill up!