The end of an era

It is so crazy to think that it has been two and a half years since I wrote this! Two and a half years changes a lot of things, but I never thought my time as Young Women's president would actually be over. We were released a week ago and I have to say, it has been a sad week. This calling was a huge challenge for me, but I really loved it and I love all the girls and leaders soooo much. I am going to miss the time I got to spend with them, which was usually at least twice a week. Sometimes more, if I was lucky. The good news is, I now have 25 babysitters at my fingertips. They are all such good girls. I can't even look at that picture without feeling a huge pang in my heart. Is pang a word? It just fits somehow. Anyway, I don't know why I'm so sad. It's not like I'm moving or dying or something and I'll never see these people again! Most of them live in my neighborhood. I'll still see them every week at church and whenever I decide to venture out of my cave during the week. But it's just that sometimes, change = bad. Sad. Mad. Well, not mad or bad but sad. Okay, I'll be honest, I've been sitting here for like an hour trying to upload some pictures of my time in young women's, highlights if you will, but blogger is not cooperating and I'm going a bit crazy. That is why I'm making no sense. So I'll just tell you a few of the highlights, and perhaps I will upload photos later. Yeah right, have you seen my blog lately? How many posts have I even done in the last year? Good luck getting any pictures from me. Moving on! Highlights: the funny thing is, the biggest highlights were the things I dreaded the most. Like, camp. Youth conference. Our Valentine's dinner dance. The big combined activities that I was in charge of, like the giant slip and slide, and feeding the homeless, and boating at Utah Lake. Oh man, those were some good times! I will miss attempting to play the piano for opening exercises on Sundays and listening to Alicia's outstanding lessons and eating the treats she was so famous for... I will miss hearing the girls talk about everything going on in their lives and all the things their parents would probably die if they knew they were telling everyone. Now Jason has been put in as first counselor in the Young Men's so I won't feel totally out of the loop. We just get to switch who leaves every Wednesday night at 7. Young women, I will miss you! Okay, now it's time for some closure, in the form of rolo cookies.

Youth Conference at Camp Williams

Last week we had our Stake Youth Conference at Camp Williams. Being the pessimist that I sometimes (usually) am, I was really not looking forward to it. I thought, "How in the world are we going to control a bunch of teenagers on an army base, who are probably not too excited about sleeping in barracks, getting up at 6 am, and doing service projects/listening to devotionals all day long?" Well, I was wrong. It was so fun! I was actually sad when we had to go home on Saturday. We have the greatest kids in our ward and stake, and they have a good time no matter what they are doing. They get along, they participate, they include everyone, and there wasn't a single discipline problem the entire 3 days (that I'm aware of). I was so impressed. And Camp Williams was very cool. I've never been on an army base and it was so crazy to see all the military peeps there, marching around and singing their little chants. They were so cute. Ha ha.

This is the rappelling tower. We all got to go down twice. I was so proud of many of the kids who were terrified of heights, but did it anyway, like my little buddy in red.

The kids got to do the Leadership Reaction Courses, where they are issued a challenge and have to figure out how to make it happen. Most of them involved getting heavy (50-60 lb.) boxes of ammunition across water with almost no supplies to help. I was secretly glad the leaders weren't supposed to participate, but the kids loved it and did a great job.


This little lizard was our mascot for about 10 minutes until somebody pulled his tail off. We all got MASH t-shirts, which I will wear proudly. To bed at least.

And the new Young Women's President is....

Okay, so maybe camp went a little TOO well. I was looking forward to just getting through it and taking a small break from life and all things stressful until the baby gets here in a few months... and then I got a phone call to go meet with the bishop last Wednesday. So I thought, well, our ward just split, they probably want me to do some small thing and that's okay, I guess I can handle it. So I wasn't really worried, even though they said to bring Jason along. I just figured they liked him or something. Then there was a little confusion about the time so I ended up bringing the boys instead of getting a sitter, which was a huge mistake. It was also a mistake to give them suckers to keep them quiet because it had the exact opposite effect on them. So I'm sitting there trying to ignore the two wild monkeys tearing apart the bishop's office and maintain a calm composure using the falsetto I-really-am-a-good-mother-and-don't-beat-my-kids tone with them that is about 3 octaves higher than my normal voice while still focusing on what the bishop is saying to me, when he asks me to be the Young Women's President. I was like, "The holiday who-be whattie? What did you say?" It was one of those moments where time just stands still and you know your whole life is about to change and it feels like it really isn't even happening. Meanwhile, my children are putting on a huge display of why I am a totally incompetent mother, and I don't know why the bishop didn't just change his mind right then and there. But he didn't, and I accepted, and here I am. I'm trying not to be completely overwhelmed, but to tell the truth, at this point, I am. Am I doing things the right way? I don't know. Will I ever get it all figured out? I don't know. Do I need a nap? Yes. Well, at least I know one thing. So I better go squeeze in a few minutes of rest before Jason gets home from work so I don't completely scare the daylights out of him when he walks through the door. I mean, if I hadn't just been at camp and seen firsthand how great the girls are in our ward, I really couldn't do this. But I know that even though I will make a ton of mistakes, and I feel like I already have, it will all be worth it in the end. Right? Here's to hoping....

Camp Schmamp

Well, it's been a little while since I updated my blog, mostly because I was so busy trying to get ready for Girls Camp and trying not to freak out that I actually had to go. I somehow got out of it when I was in Young Women's a few years ago (as a leader, I never got out of it as a YW, even though I'm sure I would have liked to). I was the assistant camp director this year and I was in charge of all the food for our ward, among other things. But it was the food that had me stressed, especially because a week and a half before camp I got an email saying we were not allowed to have fires this year!! After planning a whole menu involving cooking over the fire, it was a little distressing. And what is a camp without fire, I ask you? But it all worked out for the best and I am repenting for my bad attitude. I guess my biggest concern was that the girls would turn up their noses at the food and be ungrateful and hard to get to help when it was their turn... I could not have been more wrong. The girls in our ward are AMAZING and I am not even kidding. The entire time I did not hear one single complaint or have one meal preparation or clean-up when I didn't have girls flocking to the cooking area asking, "What can I do to help?" even when it wasn't their turn. And not only that, every single thing that I served was met with, "This is my favorite salad in the whole world! It's even better than my mom's!" and "Did you go to cooking school? You should be a gourmet chef!" and "This is the best food we've ever had at Girls Camp!" So, they might be a little delusional, considering the fact that we were eating food like sloppy joes and taco salad, but I personally don't care if people are crazy as long as they are nice. They made me feel so appreciated and so welcome. I feel like inviting them all over for dinner at my house every night, except that would mean I would have to cook, and I am a little burned out on that right now. But the whole experience of going to Girls Camp just could not have been better. And I was prepared for the worst, believe me. I thought of every possible thing that could go wrong: I won't sleep at night (I was the only leader that slept well), everyone will hate the food (they at least pretended to like it), it will be hotter than 4 foxes fighting in a forest fire and all the food will go bad (it rained almost every day and never got too hot), I'll be too tired because I'm 7 months pregnant (I felt great), I'll feel like an idiot because I don't know anybody and they all know each other (everyone was so nice), etc. etc. etc. It just was really good. Plus, it was a very spiritual camp where there were several faith-promoting things that happened that I know made a big impression on the girls, because they made a big impression on me. I'll just tell you one since this is getting a little lengthy: The last night we had Ardeth Kapp speak (hello, the Pella ward would be lucky to get Henry Baker) and as we sat through the opening part of the meeting, dark clouds were gathering and there was thunder coming from every direction. This exact thing happened the day before and we had a downpour that lasted at least 40 minutes, complete with lightening and hail (I was in the leader's tent at the time and enjoyed it thoroughly - I told you I was blessed). So I was prepared to head back to camp when the meeting got rained out. However, right before Sister Kapp's turn to speak, the Stake Young Women's President got up and said, over the thunder, "We'd like to ask the Stake President to come up and give a blessing on the elements, so the meeting can go on." She said it like she was asking him to do something as simple as move his car. I was like, oh dear. He's not magic. This is going to be really great for the girls when we are all drenched in about 4 minutes. But the SP, bless his little cowboy heart, got up and prayed that "the clouds would be moved and the meeting would go on without incident and without delay". Then I was really nervous because I had expected him to say something like, "Please bless that the meeting can go on if it is thy will, and that we won't get hit by lightening on our way back to our tents." But, oh ye of little faith, within about 10 minutes, the clouds literally cleared and by the time Sister Kapp was about half way done with her talk, there was a blue sky with high white wispy clouds overhead. There were still clouds around the horizon and faint thunder in the distance for effect but otherwise it was beautiful, complete with chirping birds and chattering squirrels. I was hardly paying attention to what she was saying because I was so busy watching the sky the whole time. It was amazing. The weather stayed perfect until exactly midnight when we were just finishing up our ward testimony meeting around the campfire (another miracle at Zuckerman's, we could have fire after all because of the rain the day before), and then it rained most of the night. I could not believe it. Anyway, I only took a few pictures at camp, which I am regretting now, but here they are. This is the sign that I made for our ward, which is kind of gay, but it survived the rain somehow. And then a few of the girls and other leaders. Nicest people in the world!

I was actually a little sad to go home....