Nothin' like a Hike to Clear the Mind...

"August Rush" is the title of a movie because that is the kid's fake name, but if you think about the phrase it's pretty intuitive...Does anyone else feel like the month of August is a huge rush??? It always is, but this year has been particularly crazy. Getting back to the teaching full-time (the first day with students was yesterday), got a new large calling in my ward, I'm in Seussical the Musical (which is fun, but rehearsals every night), moving things around, getting rid of old clothes, switching out roommates, trying to get in some quick fun before the summer is over...you know, just stuff. Rush, rush, rush...I'm at least TRYING to avoid a speeding ticket when I drive lately, but I definitely speed. I even eat in the car most of the time...and put on makeup...a couple days ago I changed, my whole outfit, while driving. Plus, things just change when reality starts setting in, usually in August...people change...relationships change sometimes...emotions...SO, it was extremely therapeutic for me when I got to take an hour yesterday afternoon to hike up to the waterfall in Battlecreek Canyon- right up the street from where I live. It's amazing how quick one can find beautiful nature in Utah...well, in lots of places. I love the outdoors and I LOVE hiking- the smell of the air, the sites, the feeling of my body getting a work out...it just clears my mind.

Speaking of school starting, I want to thank all my wonderful friends and family that helped me so much in the "setting up the classroom" process. I know that I am really blessed to have a great family and so many giving friends. I don't take you for granted! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Mostly my mom and Aunt Pam are the bomb and helped a ton...I think Pam gets the trophy since I pretty much called her everyday for a week in a panic to come help me. Good thing she lives here now! ha ha ha Here are some classroom helpers:

Tiff! She is pictured here with Mckay, who is not her baby....lol...a little trickery

This is Rachel...who is McKay's mom, but is holding Dylan...who is Tiff's baby...he he

Carrie "Mate" and her cute baby Chloe

My mom and Chloe

AUBRIE!!! Leslie came down from Idaho and came and helped out a ton too...Aubrie is not quite as helpful :)

Layna and Andrea..they're checking out the math books!

The Reality of my Life...A, B, C, & D

Before I get going on this reality I speak of, I just need to say that I've been putting off blogging lately because I don't know how to catch up!!! There's so much more I could say about my crazy summer experiences, but I will leave that alone for now. I did recently spend a wonderful week in Oregon with my family and we did fun things like biking, hiking, swimming, river rafting, water-skiing and eating great home cooked food! It was a blast and a perfect detox from EFY. We also stopped in Boise on the way back to Utah to see Gerard & Janie, Shannon, Bill, and all their kids. Twas wonderful to spend time with them! Here are a very few photos to give a glimpse:




So, I've been back in Utah for...what?...4 days now, and it didn't take long for 4 very prominent realities of the life I lead here to reveal themselves again...

A. All the good ones are taken
Firstly, my favorite thing about being back is that Pam now lives here so I've been at her house everyday and night and am in denial about returning to my condo for some reason...well, maybe because when I walked in the other day it was 90 degrees inside, not clean, and smelled like a dead rotting rat. So, Pam and I go to Knight's Furniture and Mattress a couple days ago because I'm in the market for something to sleep on that I don't have to fill with air first, or that I can't feel the springs poking into my back, or that isn't made of plastic in case of an accident. Anyway, the fellow that was helping us there was all smiles and really talkative and seemed to be halfway flirting...he was also quite attractive, obviously successful, and just cool. So, as he's chatting with me, Pam is winking and giving me the eye behind his back as if to say, "Hey, check him out! And he likes you" This went on for a good 15 minutes until he says, "My wife and I manage the store." Dum duh dum dum DUM!!! Crap! Quick glance to the left hand...NO WEDDING RING!!! WHY DON'T PEOPLE WEAR THEIR WEDDING RINGS?! It would sure save all of us poor single souls from any wishful thinking/humiliation!

B. I'm still in the "second best" club
Remember how I was the second fastest girl runner in elementary school every year? Behind Katie Alba.
Remember how I was 1st runner up for Touch of Class Princess in Jr. High? I don't even remember who won...actually, I think it was Nicole Huntinck.
Remember how I got the second highest number of votes for Jr. class secretary? Did Jenny Dasenzi win? Who was it?
Remember how I was second place for best smile in high school? I actually really don't remember who won that one...dang, it seriously might have been Nicole again.
Remember how I was second to last at my high school graduation? There was one"Z"
Remember how BYU shut down the Jerusalem Center the semester I was supposed to go?
Remember how I auditioned for the Nauvoo performance mission and they sent me a letter to the affect of, "we narrowed the group down three times and you were in the last 25 possible acceptances, but sorry you didn't make it to the top 12 we decided on."
Okay, that's enough background...So, a few of the musicals I've auditioned for in this happy valley have called me back for a leading role, cut it down to two or three and then...I never get it. For example, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers got down to Mandy and I for the part of Millie, and then she got it (which I was way happy about and wanted to happen, but it helps prove my point). Then a few months ago I auditioned for Joseph and the Amazing... and they called back 10 of us for the Narrator, cut it to 4, then double casted their daughter and one of the other chicks...so I actually ended up just quitting that show...lol Well, Tuesday I auditioned for Suessical the Musical, got called back for a dance audition Wed night, got called back last night for the part of Gertrude...how many people were called back for that specific part? 2... I think just the irony of the situation made me extra nervous and I had almost already given up so it didn't go so well...I haven't found out yet, I will know tomorrow, but the odds are in her favor...

C. I spend a lot of time with babies
And I love it that way! This is not a complaint at all, but seriously...they are everywhere...all my friends have them. I already got the chance to help out my friend Tiff in a pinch and babysit her cute little Dylan yesterday, then finished up the evening visiting another friend pregnant in the hospital. She's actually having some minor complications and could use your prayers...her name is Alisha. And today I was planning on going to see Kim cuz it was her birthday, and I would have been able to hold cute Mclaren...but alas, I didn't have time because of point "D" See below

D. Moving crap...always
I have moved so many damn times...pardon my cursing...pretty much every blasted fall for the last 10 years, I've moved into a new place. There is ONE time that I didn't...bless the Riviera apartments where I lived 2 years in a row. I've also helped others move countless times of course, as I'm sure you all have. And at least 6 times I've moved classrooms or closets or across the country and had to store my teaching Paraphernalia, which is a hefty load, in family basements. So today Pam and I had access to my Aunt Jane's dads' truck...we thought we better take advantage of the situation so we went and bought my mattress and took it to my place, put all my teaching crap from Rick and Jane's basement in the truck PLUS a way heavy piece of furniture that Pam wanted me to take off her hands (all this was a hilarious sight to see, by the way, and wasn't what you'd call smooth). Off we went to try and get into the school, which had all doors roped off by our ever so loving janitor who doesn't want any of us walking on his waxed floors. The ride there was death defying, as we could not manage to close the bed of the truck, due to too much crap. I also was sitting behind and under piles of file crates inside the cabin of the truck and contorting my body to make it work. So...now...luckily, the secretary who is awesome lives close to the school and has a magic key that opens everything. She came to the rescue and let us in one of the outside classrooms where I stashed all my stuff until next week when I face the reality of going back to teaching full time and having my own class, the same kiddos everyday, teaching every subject, going to work without Tiff and Rachel :(, and getting up at 6 a.m. Sick...

Silliness

There are always some silly fun times had with the EFY gang- especially after eating food in the various college cafeterias...makes us a little crazy, ill, delierious, you know, whatever...here is documentation of one such time. Karly, Brittany and I thought we'd see how much we could come up with...Bonnie gets her cute little face in there a couple times too. This is really a talent I have people. My face is like Gumby or something. I never run out of spontaneous ideas...Karly and I start out cute:

The Lord's Hand

Many thoughts are streaming through my head, as they often do when I start to detox from a summer of jam packed experiences at EFY. So, while I have a five hour layover at the Denver airport, I will share a bit. I am on my way to Oregon to spend time with my family, for which I could not be more grateful. I love my brother and sister-in-law and nephews a whole heap and they are so much fun!

The Especially For Youth program is near and dear to my heart because of the youth of the Church and the world who need help and encouragement and support and good examples. I have cherished my last five summers that I have spent wholely devoted to this cause. It has strengthened me, tested my limits, tried my patience, taught me many things, and I hope made me a better person. All this becaue of the wonderful youth I am able to watch grow, the wonderful counselors and friends I have been able to work with, and of course the eveidences of the hand of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the details of my life and the lives of others.

All kinds of things happened this summer, but I want to share a completely wild situation that came up this last week. A girl named Jaedyn (I think she would be okay with my sharing) came to EFY in St. Petersburg, Fl all the way from her home in California. It's pretty random and rare to come from across the country since the EFY program is in many states. On Tuesday she was having severe headaches and nausea so our wonderful health counselors, Brittani and Chelsea tended to her. It turned out that she had been having bad headaches for months. I will skip over some deatails but basically for the next couple days we could not get the pain under control and she couldn't keep any food down. It was finally decided to take her to the emergency room with her father's permission. She quickley got a CT scan (which the emergency room doctor later said was completely not something he would have done under normal circumstances and it was by "chance" that he deicided to that day) Well, the test showed a mass in her cerebellum about the size of a plum- a tumor. They rushed her in an ambulance to another hospital and I met up with them there. I had some unique and emotional experinces talking with her parents over the phone and sitting with Jaedyn and the health counselors in the hospital for a couple hours. They got her in super fast for an MRI that lasted two hours and it was clear that she needed to have surgery ASAP. (By the way, I have a brain tumor...in case any of you don't know or forgot....lol...cuz I forget all the time...but it all came back to me during this experience...I was also 15 when it was discovered)The doctor said there was a 95% chance that it was benign. That was soooo relieving. I got that information over the phone as it was pouring rain on our games night and Dave and I were coming up with an alternative plan and improvising with 300 kids and carrying speakers and a stereo system in the rain (just giving you an idea of the insanity and business of life in this job) Back to the hospital I went later that night with our session director, Brother Dixon so he could give her a blessing. Meanwhile, everything worked out great with both of her parents getting flights out to Florida. Her mom's ward actually paid for the flight and got her in to stay at the Ronald McDonald place. Thursday was the surgery, and after four hours her dad called me and said everything went great and they got it all and it wasn't cancerous. YAHOO! Well, after a few more trips to the hospital, packing up her stuff and amongst everything else going on to make the end of the week run smoothly...I concluded my summer of EFY...my last session ever. That's the story.

I speak of the Lord's hand in the details of our lives because things could not have gone more smoothly with this situation and I can't help but feel that the only reason Jaedyn was in Florida this week was because that is where she needed to be, not for EFY, but either to find this tumor thanks to our thorough health counselors or to be at this particular hospital to have the surgery or to have her parents forced to fly across the country to bring her family together in a unique way or something. I don't really know, but I have felt the Lord's presence so closely during all of this and couldn't help but notice how efficiently everything was done and how quickly it all was taken care of.

All of these experiences I've had at EFY in the past couple summers out in the South would not have been a part of my life had I never moved to Florida. I wouldn't know some of the most wonderful people and best friends I have (that goes for friends I have from Orlando too). I have been so uplifted and inspired by amazing session directors and the examples of their wives, by wonderful co-workers and friends, and by tender fun little teenagers. Life would I'm sure be great in other ways if I had made different decisions and been doing different things, but I know that we are in particular places at certain times meeting specific people for a purpose and I know that if we live our lives in a way that keeps us in tune with the Holy Ghost and our Savior we will be in the best places and the best times making the best decisions.
I love all of you so much! Espeically if you have the patience to read all of that...ha ha Thank you for being my friends!

Addendum...

My last post sounded sort of negative...sorry about that...I have many positive things to say about EFY. Unfortunately the nature of my role here is to put out fires all the time and trouble shoot and deal with any speed bumps in the flow of the program. BUT, meanwhile there are fantastic things happening! Many excellent lessons and devotionals and constant spiritual upliftment! I do love being in an environment where I am continuously learning more about the Gospel and the Savior, and watching the excitement in the youth as they gain a testimony of these things. Here is an email written by one of the young ladies who attended EFY in Miami:

“Hello! I just wanted to say that I am so grateful that you were inspired to bring EFY to the South Florida area. It could’ve never come at a better time. Living in South Florida , we don’t get many opportunities, especially like this. Most of us wouldn’t be able to afford it any other way; and most of us, nay, all of us really need things like EFY. It has truly impacted my life. I’ll never forget this experience.
I’m going to turn eighteen in a month and will be going to Relief Society and college soon. I wholeheartedly believe that you have ’saved’ my adulthood and future. I never realized how important it is to be aware of our standards and such. Every decision I will make to stay close to the Church and keep my standards—even the seemingly insignificant ones—can and will be traced back to this once-in-a-lifetime experience. THANK YOU!”

Too Busy!

I just wanted to let you all know that I'm alive and kicking and living the insanely busy E.F.Y. life! There's probably no possible way that I'll be able to keep up with blogging, but for now I will say that I am living the life of humidity, living out of suitcases, finding hairballs and dead bugs on dorm room floors, showering with a drain that doesn't drain, hanging out with teenagers all day, wearing pants and a polo shirt, hearing Mississippi accents all day, eating who the heck knows what all the time, laughing it up constantly with Dave and our team of BC's, getting approx. 5 hours of sleep every night, traveling a lot- with an expired driver's licence, driving rental vans, being technologically inclined, trying to successfully be the go-to-gal for every possible thing you can think of, and uh....lots of other things. I worked a week in Miami already, and again, I think I just won't ever talk about Miami. I'm in Columbus, Mississippi currently, and two weeks ago I spent a week in Orlando with my old roomies and pals and it was excellently fun...pictures will come someday. Hope all is well with everyone! I don't have so much time to look at your blogs, but I'm sure you're doing fun summer things!

Women of Steel!

Lisa, Jess, and I competed in a mini-triathlon on the 17th in American Fork called "Woman of Steel". It was awesome! I've been training pretty well for a few months and seemed to make it with quite a bit of ease. I will push myself harder next time! We swam 300 yards in a pool first, and it was way fun! They tried to have some order to it all, but there were just people everywhere and arms flailing. It was a funny sight. That part was fairly easy and then we ran over to our bikes, which felt crazy because I always wear board shorts, but not that day! I felt a little naked running across the field. The biking was fun, but a little humiliating for me because I used Kevin's good old mission bike- a mountain bike with like 10 speeds. Ha ha! But I'm glad I had a bike to use! There were lots of hard core road bikes passing me the whole time. Oh well! I will remedy that for next time too! It's pretty awkward to switch to running after riding a bike for 11 miles, so that part was a bit rough...but then off we went, running our 3 miles into the finish. WEll, I say "we" but really there was nobody around me. I was a lonesome dove. It was a beautiful hot day and we loved it!

The finish line! Horray! We're hot mamas! And here's Jessica showing us that she wet her pants the whole time she was running! (She's 3 months pregnant!)It was hilarious! Love you Jess!