Camp Wyatt

Hey y'all! Since summer is just around the corner, my thoughts are beginning again to stray toward Camp Wyatt. :) In case I haven't yet drummed out exactly what that is to you yet, every summer I volunteer as a counselor for the American Lung Association of Utah's Camp Wyatt for kids with [moderate to severe] asthma. The camp educates the kids on their asthma and plans activities for them that are a BLAST to teach them that their asthma shouldn't limit what they can and cannot do.

Some of these activities include, canoeing, archery, rock wall, swimming, crafts, field games, egg drop, marshmallow-shooter fight, all-nighter, sumo wrestling [as featured above ;)] movies, etc. And the other counselors are quite a blast, as well as the kids. :) SO! After that marketing ploy (haha), here it comes: If any of you are interested in the best week of your summer and have the time July 12th-18th, here is the link for the application, and you can naturally ask me any questions. :)

You won't regret it!
http://www.lungutah.org/pdf/Counselor%20Application%2008.pdf

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RACH!!!

Today is my favorite sister's BIRTHDAY! -her twenty seventh, to be exact. Since she is not nearby to count down for all of us, as she usually does, I just wanted to reassure her that, nonetheless, I didn't forget.

Rach, I love you down to your toenails and am thankful to have such an outrageously neato frito sybling! ;) <3>

Here are some of my favorite Rach-pictures through the "ages."

A Pink Lady in the flesh!

Stuffing the face at Grandma's

I wonder what these girls studied in college...

Ahhh ... the pretty days ....

Rach was always very pious...

Well ... we know what Rach did in her spare time ...

"Em, how dare you show these pictures of me!!!"

"Mom, why don't boys like me??"

OOooo, look at those legs!!

Hots shots at the hot pots

The bathing beauty has ... been beached.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Mom, take the picture quick--Dad is being weird and Em is ... always being weird ..."

Ahh, the natural look ...

"AHH! MOM!"

Feisty little Rachy.

"See these rocks? Yep, comin' straight atchya!"

No, no, no ... this is the natural look. :)

General Conference

It was awesome, wasn't it? And can I just say that I love our new prophet. His talks were good and true as always and his concluding remarks on Sunday afternoon were so funny. :0)

My notebook seemed to love Elder Oaks, but Pres. Eyring and Elder Bednar continue to be favorites. Instead of elaborating on their talks, however--since you all heard them yourselves--I want this to be more of a feedback entry instead of an opinion-spew.

SO! -What are some of your Conference traditions?

I remember when Rach and I were littler, we'd build forts and during the Sunday morning sessions, blueberry muffins were always made. Then as we got older, the forts stopped and the notebooks came out (and some accidental sleeping).

So what do you guys do? Does the whole family come over for dinner? Do you cook a big breakfast? Please share. :)

Kids and the Bible

LOT'S WIFE: The Sunday School teacher was describing how Lot 's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt, when little Jason interrupted. "My Mommy looked back once, while she was driving," he announced triumphantly, "and she turned into a telephone pole!"

GOOD SAMARITAN: A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan. She asked the class, "If you saw a person lying on the roadside, wounded and bleeding, what would you do?" A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, "I think I'd throw up."

DID NOAH FISH? A Sunday school teacher asked, "Johnny, do you think Noah did a lot of fishing when he was on the Ark ?" "No," replied Johnny. "How could he, with just two worms."

HIGHER POWER: A Sunday school teacher said to her children, 'We have been learning ow powerful kings and queens were in Bible times. But there is a higher Power. Can anybody tell me what it is?' One child blurted out, 'Aces!'

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD: A Sunday School teacher decided to have her young class memorize one of the most quoted passages in the Bible: Psalm 23. She gave the youngsters a month to learn the chapter. Little Rick was excited about the task, but he just couldn't remember the Psalm. After much practice, he could barely get past the first line. On the day that the kids were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the congregation, Ricky was so nervous. When it was his turn, he stepped up to the microphone and said proudly, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, and that's all I need to know.'

UNANSWERED PRAYER? The preacher's 5 year-old daughter noticed that her father always paused and bowed his head for a moment before starting his sermon. One day, she asked him why. "Well, Honey," he began, proud that his daughter was so observant of his messages, "I'm asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon.." "How come He doesn't do it?" she asked.

BEING THANKFUL: A rabbi said to a precocious six-year-old boy, "So your mother says your prayers for you each night? That's very commendable. What does she say?" The little boy replied, "Thank God he's in bed!"

UNTIMELY ANSWERED PRAYER: During the minister's prayer one Sunday there was a loud whistle from one of the back pews. Tommy 's mother was horrified. She pinched him into silence and, after church, asked, "Tommy, whatever made you do such a thing?" Tommy answered, soberly, "I asked God to teach me to whistle, and He just then did!"

TIME TO PRAY: A pastor asked a little boy if he said his prayers every night. "Yes, sir," the boy replied. "And do you always say them in the morning, too?" the pastor asked. "No sir," the boy replied, "I ain't scared in the daytime."

ALL MEN/ALL GIRLS? When my daughter, Kelli, said her bedtime prayers, she would bless every family member, every friend, and every animal (current and past). For several weeks, after we had finished the nightly prayer, Kelli would say, "And all girls." As this soon became part of her nightly routine, to include this at the end, my curiosity got the best of me and I asked her, "Kelli, why do you always add the part about all girls?" Her response, "Because we always finish our prayers by saying 'All Men'!"

SAY A PRAYER: Little Johnny and his family were having Sunday dinner at his Grandmother's house. Everyone was seated around the table as the food was being served. When Little Johnny received his plate, he started eating right away. "Johnny! Please wait until we say our prayer," said his mother. "I don't have to," the boy replied. "Of course, you do," his mother insisted, "We say a prayer before eating, at our house." "That's our house," Johnny explained, "But this is Grandma's house and she knows how to cook!"

Young Women's Broadcast

As most of you are aware, the Young Women's broadcast was held yesterday. This year we actually ahd tickets! I went down with Ashley and Jill, her mom, and Keri, a YW leader. Ashley's and my friend Mason informed us he would be an usher at door 19 so we made sure to go through that one and saw him, haha--this cute little genius Asian taking our purses and putting them on the conveyor belt. As he took mine, he said, "Hmm, I'll have to be sure and check this one." And at the end of the conveyor belt, as a woman was looking through my purse, I asked if she "saw anything she liked." She answered, "No. No chocolate." :)
It was a good meeting--as always--but Pres. Eyring's talk was so perfect. He talked about a few things that I definitely know to be true and it's always ... moving to see them moved. I'm not sure they like it, but I sure like it when they get emotional. You know they feel what they're saying so much, sometimes the outward expression of that helps convey something to me, personally--I don't know about anybody else. :) I won't do a recap of his talk just because you all probably heard it and/or will read it in the Ensign. :)

Afterward, the four of us went to Wingers. I was excited to tell Rach this because she worked there while in college, but I'd never been there before that night. I naturally got their famous wings and wasn't disappointed! I must say, however, that the appetizer was unique--it being popcorn!

Well, it's not much of a blog entry, but I was kind of getting sick of my ugly sunburn being the first thing I see when I pull up my blog! -and if I'm sick of it, you are definitely sick of it. I can't complain, however. The sunburn I thought would stay with me for a month and eventually turn tan in such wrong places and make me look like a Mexican with my dark unibrow and the mustache, but it's almost all gone already! I just kept peeling and peeling and it has healed very well.

~~~


The parents are still on their annual March vacay and I've been enjoying the independence and lack of 'the-watchful-eye', but they just called and said they've had some aches and pains that haven't made things too fun and are toying with the idea of coming home either tonight or tomorrow. I told them to come home tomorrow because I still don't have the house cleaned. ;) I hope you had a good weekend and, Bonnie, I hear your dad met Sandy this weekend ... and at Grandma's nonetheless! Wow, I remember when I told my mom that I'd brought my date there and she just said, "Wow. You apparently don't want to see this boy again. That was risky." I bet it was no big deal to her, though. :)

My Spring Break Cycle of Suck

In case any of you have been itching for a good, hearty, merciless laugh at Emily, I have good news. Your itch ought to have its satiating scratch after this blog entry, but especially if you shall have the misfortune of seeing me this week.

Yesterday, Friday, I went skiing with mi madre at Deer Valley--something I haven't done in probably 10 years. Needless to say, I stayed on the green circles (the easy runs)--except for when I was forced into a blue square because the only other ways down the mountain were black diamonds. Yeah, I remember when, as a kid, black diamonds weren't so inhibiting, but they definitely were this time. So after hours of keeping my "skis parallel" and my "butt in the mountain," my legs were a bit shaky, having resurrected my ballet muscles--and currently, it's hard to get into or out of a chair.

I have to say that the day was fun ... but I was stupid. When applying sunscreen I did a shotty job and only put it where I usually get sunkissed: the cheeks, forehead, and nose, and maybe chin. For some reason, I didn't pay attention to that little voice telling me to put it all over and, as a result, it looks like my clown make-up didn't come all the way off. I have a red unibrow that is slightly yellow because of blistering; my hairline is crimson/brown; the edge of my cheeks are ... comical, really, and my right cheek looks like some sort of siberian-tiger-themed patch work quilt--and don't forget the small yellow-tinged hills there as well.

And just in case that wasn't enough, I went to bed and awoke with a searing headache and a sore throat. That would be the result of sun, dehydration, lack of sleep, and excess stress. I think last night was the earliest I've gone to bed in ... years. I was in bed, lights out, exercises done, prayers said, scriptures read, teeth brushed, face washed, retainer in, chapstick on by 10:14 p.m. YEAH! And I got a good 13 hours in. . . . . but to no avail, it seems. It's gonna take me at least a week to look semi-human again.