Powerless

I’ve been called as the Howell Ward Young Women Camp Director for this year.  I was called in January, which sounds like such a long time ago, but in the “I have so much to plan before July” sort of way, it’s just NOT.  I was called and not really given a guide as to what I am to be doing in preparation.  I did have this position in 1995 before I got married to Adam, and had NO CLUE then what was expected.  They called me and I showed up at camp for the week…I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t plan anything, I was just there. At least this time, I have an idea WHO the youth are and some of the things I should do to interest them in the activities. 

I am in touch with the Stake camp director and the assistant stake camp director is in my ward, I have printed off the forms for the girls to fill out and get back to me in a timely fashion, handed them out at two consecutive weeks of meetings, and only now – coming up on a month late – am getting them back.  I need to get them in to the stake with the money for everyone.  I think I will actually just send in the forms so they have at least a “body count.” I have 3 girls who JUST this past Sunday have shown an interest in attending camp.  I need to hustle them along to get the stuff in. 

And then there’s the matter of the money.  I know I don’t have $100 for me and $120 for Sariah to attend camp.  Her sure, me nope.  And the three who just said “yeah, were in.”  no interest + no forms + no money in = ????…so what’s up?  Do I pay for them to go and then have them back out at the last minute??  I’m not feeling so awesome about that option at all.  And then, there are the two rebels…”I’m not going because she’s not going” and “I’m not going because it was awful last year.”  I assured her it would be totally different this year but I guess it’s a no go.

I feel like I’m ranting on and on and on, well, yeah I guess I am actually.  I just want everyone to come and get in touch with their growing testimonies. I want them to have fun and grow as women.  I want them to COME play with me.  I ought to be grateful to have the girls I do have coming…it could be worse.  There are 5 definite “yes” and $$ is in.  The 3 “yeah, I’ll get you the stuff”  There are 3 leaders coming – at the END of the week for the fun finale.  And for that I am grateful.  I’ve got to talk to my in-laws about keeping Tallen and Miranda that week…or Steven needs to work out the timing for someone to watch Tallen while he works anyway. 

It will all work out to God’s timing…BREATHE…

The Boy with Fins

Tonight as it started to get cooler, we went over to Thompson Lake in the middle of Howell to flap around in the water.  We went Tuesday after activities to wade in the edge of the water because I needed to de-stress after dropping the sewing machine we had borrowed to sew the jammie pants off at Sister Down’s home.  It was a very stressful night with the Young Women.  They were very disrespectful and the lack of attention reminds me of the Sunbeam class.  It’s infuriating to me! I love being in the calling of camp director but I feel this time crunch and they are not anywhere near ready for the program at camp.  I need them one more night to work on it.  I guess we should not have even started the jammie pants this late in the month…that took too many weeks away from other more important things…like learning the song/skit for camp!!  And sometimes I don’t feel a lot of support from the other leaders.  But maybe they don’t feel support from above either.  What are we supposed to DO about the lack of respect???  Is this learned in the home? At school?? What gives?

Anyway, I digress… It is a new day, Wednesday, and Steven and I took Tallen over to the lake this evening and he got to wear his new floatie “suit” that I picked up at the Salvation Army for $4.99 last fall.  It worked great!!  It has the floatie built into the suit.  It zips up the back and he is very secure.  Tallen was able to be brave.  He ventured out on his own in the “deeper than he can reach” water after 10 minutes or so.  He would swim back and forth between Steven and I.  Daddy would say “Kick your feet, paddle your arms!  That’s right keep going!”  Mama…well I just grinned and giggled and held my arms out to receive him when he returned to me.  My heart swelled with pride in his learning one more thing to make him independent.  One more step away from his Mama.  But that is okay, I hear it happens all the time.  I heard once that Moms teach the children to be careful and Dads teach them to take risks, to be adventurous.  That’s why we all need both parents to grow up well balanced and happy.  Thanks to Steven’s Daddy influence, we have these children on that path to happiness!

What a big kid Tallen is getting to be.  Sariah and Miranda didn’t really know how to swim either when I married Steven.  So as it turns out Steven has taught ALL of my children to swim and to roller skate (so far, I figure a year or two more for Tallen.)  I taught the girls to ride a two wheeler though…that was  “ B.S.” - “Before Steven”.  Miranda learned the Summer of 2004 in the parking lot behind the bank by the “little white house” we were renting from Lacasa.  I think it was 218 McCarthy Street.  The girls are growing up too.  Though I tell them not to most every day.  These kids just don’t listen to me when it comes to that.  Oh well…step by step. They stand at the edge of the nest and stretch and wave their wings. :o)

Summer Vacation

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for Sariah & Miranda to go hang with Dad (Adam) for 5 VERY long weeks. It's a change in routine and rules and they get nervous...and come home with plenty of stories. Some good, others not so much.

I have to say though...the 5 week block is not nearly as disruptive as the "every other weekend, every Tuesday, alternate Thursdays on the weeks he doesn't have the wkend. And 3 days on/4 days off in the summer" that we did before he moved to GA in 2005. At least this way they don't miss too many activities. We sign up for the reading program at the library before they go and they can earn prizes...and can even do the library program down there. We'll see.

The best indicator of future action is to look at the past actions.

It IS getting more difficult to explain to Tallen where 'the sissies' are. He asks me "woa-woa"? (which stands for BOTH Sariah and Miranda oddly enough) I can safely answer with "She's with her Dad." And then he says - "yeah-dad." He'll get used to it. I may never...

I See SPOTS!

We are making pajama pants/shorts to wear to Girl’s Camp as a Young Women’s group. The girls have a small white polka dot on a black background.  The leaders will have a larger white dot on a black background.  It looks cute and fun and they will match ANYTHING!! I am going to put pink ribbon on the bottom hem at mid-calf level.  We started last Tuesday at my house, when the church building was closed for cleaning.  Four girls came last week to lay out the fabric and cut them out.  Alyssa Pumford and Holly Van Every got theirs cut out, Shauna Mitchell laid hers out and pinned the pattern to the cloth.  Sariah laid hers out and cut it.  She will have to sew hers when she returns from her visit with Adam in GA.  I need to lay my longer (capri length) pants out on the large spots and get them sewn.  I will feel a sense of accomplishment then.  Perhaps I will get that done tomorrow. 

The girls were so funny tonight.  None of them had ever sewn…what happened to Home Economics at school?  Do they not sew anymore?  I LOVED that class in school!  I borrowed a sewing machine from Gayle Down and from Melissa Lynch and of course took mine as well.  I figured we would have 3 going at the same time and get far along this path to jammie pants.  My machine worked and Gayle’s worked…Melissa’s just tangled and didn’t do the bobbin thread properly, so we had 2 machines that worked.  Holly needs only to pin on her pockets and sew the side seams.  Then hem and add the elastic in the back and the tie in the front to gather with. Alyssa sewed the leg seam and the crotch seam.  Out of the 7 seams…she got 2 done.

Cassara Cutler – the Personal Progress leader – cut hers and took all the ties and stuff to just make hers at home.  The other leaders have not even begun their pants.  We’ll see.

Maybe I’ll just send it all home with the girls….hmmmmm, easier for me?  Easier yes, but not more satisfying.  I love to teach the girls these “almost lost arts of the woman.”

UGGGHHH!!

I thought I was kinda smart, apparently I am not...at least I'm not all that. I was all up on everything computer in the 6th grade when Dad was at Simtec in Bloomfield Hills. NOT ANYMORE!! Steven and I have spend untold hours now and mental power trying to upload a single audio book onto a Mp3 player for Steven to listen to while working. First the extra special, snazzy Mp3 player with the screen to READ the books on, and watch movies. Didn't work. So I thought "I know that my Mp3 will accept WMA files!" (the book is one of those) so I broke it out and have spent nearly 3 hours now trying to figure out why on earth IT won't work. Do I need a firmware upgrade? Is there one available? Is it that my player won't accept DMR protected stuff? Is this book one of those? As I said UGGHHH! Someday I will be smart enough to download stuff...I guess I'll have to ask some elementary school student for help!!!!

I can smell smoke!!

This weekend I invited the Young Women from church to come out and have a campout/sleepover. Friday at 5pm they started to arrive…one was here already, my sweet Sariah. :0) Then Chloee Briscoe came in at 5pm, Anna Nicklin arrived soon after.

The other girls didn’t make it this time. There are five going to camp in July, but 15 total girls. We went over the first aid certification first. The answers tell me that they know the information but didn’t want to discuss it.

Me: what would you do in the case of an accident victim?

girl: what KIND of accident?

me: what would you do?

girl: get help…

me: YOU are the help!

girl: get them to the hospital.

And so it went…we’ll cover more as we go along.

Then we got to the fun part! The crafts!!! I decided to make “lanyards” to hold onto our water bottles at camp. Being dehydrated is no fun at all. So I was going to get ribbon to make them and we would paint and get all fun. But I found handy little woven ones with carabineer clips on them. Much more handy. They can clip onto your pants, backpack, etc. I got out Sariah & Miranda’s beads (they never use) and we made the lanyards personalized. Anna went crazy and made her whole name, initials and several other words. Chloee put a ready made word on hers “RUN” – the funny part is that on the reverse side is another word “Trip”!!! Too funny! I did my name and a rainbow. Sariah made her name and other decorations.

Right about the time we were finishing up and getting dinner is when Amy Philburn came. Then shortlly after Jen Douglas and Chelsea Christensen arrived together. We all laughed and worked together and took loads of pictures right before the other leaders left for the night

Chelsea HATES bugs and yet they have called her and she has accepted the position of Assistant Camp Director! She cracks me up!! All night the fluffy seeds from the cottonwood trees was snowing down and she freaked because she thought they were spiders on her. It was funny…until she almost cried. I felt bad for her, and will remember to take extra strong bug repellant for her.

hi ho, hi ho…

Can I just tell you how much home repairs are a royal pain in the butt!  A few months ago the gas dryer wouldn’t turn, it just buzzed.  I have a replacement, but it is electric, not gas.  So the choices are to try to fix this gas dryer, put in a new electric line for the practically brand new electric one down in the garage, or to try to find another gas dryer for affordable prices - $50 or less would be great. We decided to try to fix it.  Steven ended up taking out the part that tells it to stop turning when you open the door.  I think it works most of the time now, I have to reach in and turn it to get it rotating sometimes, but it dries the clothes not hung on the clothes line. 

Speaking of the clothesline…in the fall, we cleared the porch and the yard & garden.  The chairs went down to the “storage garage” downstairs, the toys all came in, the last veggies went to the garage until use, the dead growth went to the compose pile, the laundry pins went to the laundry room, and the laundry line went…..?  WHERE!?!?! You would think it would be in the laundry room with the pins, right? Wrong.  Or in the storage garage with the chairs?  How bout the garage with the “crop”? Nope. None of those.  I got very impatient with myself because I had lost it and NOW I have to replace it!  So replace it I did.  Steven put it up on the deck for me and I hung the laundry out.  All is well.  Then it came time for the garden to go in.  I popped into the storage garage and to grab my gloves, shovel and rake and wouldn’t ya know….there it was.  The laundry line was neatly coiled and placed just inside the door on top of my gloves and garden tools. Grrrrr!

Last week it was the washing machine.  I had just put in a load using my newly made homemade laundry detergent and it started to groan and not agitate.  It took a while to get it unhooked and taken apart but Steven is very handy that way.  He rocks at fixing stuff.  He went downtown and asked the appliance repair dude and got the part he thought he’d need.  He was right, it turned out to be this tiny little part that had cracked.  It was all plastic…as if merely temporary.  The new part is reinforced with a bit of metal in the center.  More sturdy and long lasting.  They just don’t make things to last anymore so they? 

NOOOOOW, the basement.  The girls have had water on their floor a few times over the past year but it wasn’t a big deal.  Once was when I had put something to soak in the laundry tub and forgot to tell Steven and he started a load of wash.  It drained into the tub and the onto the floor.  The water ran all down the hallway toward the dining room and also down through the heater vent into the bathroom below.  What a mess!!  But no harm done.  This is much worse.  We thought it was the water softener but alas it is not that easy.  We are thinking that there is a crack in the pipe from the bathroom out of the house.  Steven spent yesterday digging a HUGE (like 7 ft. deep!) hole beside the foundation looking for the pipe that comes out of the house.  It’s not there.  Our next thinking was that they added the tub to a trunk line of pipe that runs out into the rest of the house. Steven took the pipes under the sink apart and we took the entire HUGE cabinet out of the bathroom.  We had to take the bigger and heavier mirror down first.  It was caulked to the wall! He worked is magic on the pipe – and the story ends well.  He was able to fix it.  Yeah!!  I am going to paint the bathroom - a more calm color of yellow I think – before I put the mirror back up. Like I said – another happy ending! 

Dare I ask the question?  What next????