Siblings: Forever Friends

Want to know something so cool?

Heavenly Father blesses so many of His children with permanent friends. That means for life and beyond! And for those who don't have any, He gives other friends.

Looking at my family, I realize how much I take them for granted. What would it be like it my parents had only decided to have one child: me? I would miss out on so much! I know that the Lord placed those personalities in my family that would be very different, but also fun to unify. How can I not help but love each and every individual in my family; all of those traits that I can learn to apply in my own life, that seem to come so naturally for them!

Oh, of course, we cannot forget the daily/weekly romps! I watch my younger siblings run away in terror as I growl ferociously on my hands and knees, charging dramatically at the nearest little flying body part. And the game they made up called Dragon Shoulders. Has absolutely nothing to do with dragons, it's simply an excuse to test Haley's upper body strength and stamina. I tell you, with these kids, I'll never get old and fat! =D

But really. How often do I take them for granted, too? Coming home from school after a long day, and all of them want to show me each of their creations, or tell their stories for the day, and I simply don't have the time. It helps me to remember that building relationships with people I get to be with forever is so much more important in the long run. It's like what President Monson said: "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." Find joy in the journey.

Homework can wait. Friends can wait. Life can wait.

Let's play!

Oh, oh oh oh...For the Longest Time

Hi everyone! I know it's been awhile, but I'd like to start blogging my own page again, thanks to some inspirational friends. So, here goes.
Just a thought I'd like to share.
Some of the greatest trials that we face are not physical, though things like the death of a loved one are extremely sad, but on a much more personal level. Today, as I was sifting through the choices I had made, I looked back with some slight frustration that I had not handled certain situations better, or said something a little kinder, or perhaps just been more humble. There are so many things that I battle with every day, just with myself.
This inner struggle, that each of us face daily, inspired me to begin writing again. In poetry. I used to write so much more when I was younger and had more free time. But I would like to pick it up again, simply because it allows me to let some of my pent-up emotions out better than just writing. Rhythm helps me organize my thoughts into coherent phrases. Perhaps it will help you to understand where I am coming from as well. :)

The Inner War

There is a battle
Fought deep within
To purge the soul;
Destroy the man

Of choices, truth
Or choices, lies
Each decision rests
To what ye stand

Deceiving one
And blinding more
Cannot you tell
Ne’re told before

‘Tis light, ‘tis truth
The pathway clear
Which moral standard
Abides here

O Man! Continue through
The strife;
See
Exactly what you were
Perfected
Designed
Created
Tried
To be

This battle, daily, for me fought
Of forces good and forces ill
Choose ye this day, as I cannot
For such decides the human will

Cannot ye see?

Girls Camp to the Max

I'm sure all of you guys wonder what Girls Camp is really like, so I'm here to share with you all my first Girls Camp as a Youth Camp Leader, or YCL. (I just found out that here in Utah they also call fondly call them "yuckles.")
My mother is the Young Women's Secretary (her first ever Young Women's calling) so she was responsible for activities, handouts, manuals, camp books, songs, and basically everything except the food! She was SO busy, scrambling around out house, printing off stuff 24/7 , and couldn't sleep at night thinking about all of the stuff she had to do. So here's my mom, 3 1/2 months pregnant, stressed beyond mental help. I did what I could to relieve her, but wow, that was a fun time for all of us! It's hard for us to be peaceable when mom's flying around, organizing stuff and yelling to "Switch that paper on the printer, before it runs out!" and "Don't touch that! Oh NO!"
I had a few responsibilities myself, but not nearly as much as she did. I and another, more shy YCL from my ward, were in charge of a 20 minute lesson on media, music and dancing, handouts for that, also a tuck-in thought for the first night, plus handouts for that. I had people running to the store and last-minute shopping to get 35 nerds ropes, ("When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!") and 35 ring pops. ("When it comes to media, music and dancing, don't get distracted by the 'bling' of the world!")
When we finally left for the cabin, (yes we were really roughing it at our ward-member's fancy cabin in the mountains,) I was praying like crazy. I knew it was going to be very hard on mom, especially on the first day, when we would be getting everything set up. Despite all this though, she kept the girls in our car entertained, by talking about silly stories like having to pee in a cup, (because you didn't want to stop for a bathroom break when travelling,); oh and bugs, weird gorilla dreams, and other strange stuff. Hey, we all thought our topics were fitting, since we were going to girls camp! =D
So we got there, and everyone picked their spot, only to find out that our leaders wanted us to be together in groups (ie: 1st years, 2nd years etc) So we re-organized our stuff and got our camp chairs for the orientation and flag-ceremony.
The theme for this year was "Mission Possible: The Power of One" so we all watched as our leaders ducked, rolled, and jumped around obstacles while the "Mission Possible" theme was playing. It was very entertaining. Then they went over our "Camp Commandments" and watched them demonstrate each of those as well. My mom gets so hilarious when you let her be center stage. She really knows how to share the dramaticness (I made that word up) that is simply her!
We all received our special spy-mission sunglasses to wear, and our assignments for the week. Then had a break to unpack and just talk. Our first meal of the week was taco soup, and boy was that good! I got out mine and Mom's mess kits, and ladled that yummy stuff into our beckoning mouths. Ohh Sister Hubbard's cooking was fantastic!!
After lowering flag-ceremony, I got out my pillow-tucks for the girls. Then I handed out the extras to the other YCLs, and brought my own down to my 4th year girls. Since the 2nd year YCLs weren't there yet, I tucked them in as well. We had a prayer after sharing the thought and passing out the treats and handouts. I sure hope they liked them!
Because there were lots extra, I tucked in the leaders as well. I wanted to make sure they felt included as well, 'cause this was their first night at Girls Camp too! :D
A few of the first-year girls (as expected their first night of camp) stayed up 'til at least 3:00am, keeping us up with them, shouting, screaming, and laughing at really dumb things. (ya know that point you get so tired even 'toilet seat' sounds hilarious ;D)
The next day we all had a 3 mile hike down the road to the first gate. On the way there, we sang camp songs like the "Jellyfish Song", "Baby Shark," and "Kirby." Some of the girls who weren't singing with us turned around to look at those that were, (me included) raising their eyebrows and laughing. I admit, some of the songs must've been very funny to watch us act out while hiking down a mountain.
At one point, we were all talking and giggling about random stuff when suddenly we heard the loud beats of horse hooves coming from directly behind us. Immediately all of the girls started screaming and running as fast as they could, trying to escape the stampeding herd of horses.
I tell you, I've never heard that many girls scream so loud in my life! You'd think they were all about to die or something... ;)
We got to about the middle of our hike and sat down to eat lunch in a clearing. After we were all full of more yummy food, our leaders blindfolded us and told us to be extremely quiet. They gave us no other information. I held the hands of the two girls on either side of me, making sure they were still there. Then they guided our hands to a rope, and feeling my way around, I knew that the two girls were holding the rope in front and behind me. I assumed that they had done this for all of the girls.
Then it got really confusing. Someone started playing instruments, one cowbell, one shimmery sound, and a drum. I grabbed the two nearest hands and started walking toward the cowbell sound, because it was the loudest and easiest to follow. The ground got steadily rougher the closer I got to the sound; I nearly tripped a dozen times.
After they let us take off the bandanas, they explained that sometimes in life we aren't given any previous directions, and we have to choose to either follow a voice, or just to stand there and not do anything. Most of the girls, we found out later, didn't do anything, simply because they didn't know what to do.
I chose the wrong sound to follow, because the cowbell was the loudest and most distracting, it was compared to Satan and how he tries to keep us away from the better, or best we can be. That's why the ground got rougher to walk on. Oh well, at least I did something besides standing! : )
When we got back, all of us were sore and tired, but very happy to see the cabin again! One leader even ran the last uphill stretch, she was so excited to be back. I forget what we did in the afternoon...oops....
I do remember that dinner was good though!
Okay I'm gonna skip alot of stuff cause I'm getting bored of my own article. :P We had flag and evening devotional, then went to bed. Fortunately, the first years had learned their lesson and went to bed at a relatively good time, saving us from strangling them all in the morning.
Oh dear, I'm blanking out....I think I lost a few brain cells my first week of high school, and I'm still trying to recover. :P
More later, I guess.
Then again, maybe not.