Father's Day...

Dad: if you actually read this blog, just hold off on reading this for a couple of days...:) Love you!!!

To All Else: Here is your official reminder that Father's Day is Sunday:

FATHER'S DAY IS SUNDAY, JUNE 21ST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are still trying to come up with a unique gift for your father and you really feel obligated to purchase something, may I suggest the following website:

www.perpetualkid.com

Seriously, check it out. I was minding my own business, taking a 5 minute break from the mountain of filing that was before me yesterday (I conquered it today, thank you very much!), was on google product search (GREAT way to waste a few minutes of your time, it has a list of things people are searching for below, and if none of them interest you, just refresh the page, you get a whole new list...awesomeness...) and clicked on 'ice trays' and then clicked on a cool looking ice tray that led me to the website above. They have a section just for 'father's day gifts'. That is where I got my Dad the best gift (pretty sure he doesn't read this...) :



Those of you who know my Dad...yeah, I know, awesome gift, right?

Those of you who don't know my Dad...he has a 3 car garage full of 'toys' that all involve cutting wood...which toys often spill over into the house amazingly enough...AND he is the official family pizza maker...he makes the BEST pizza dough EVER...seriously, I used to work for a pizza place, and I have had my fair share of pizza from all sorts of walks, including New York...none of it comes close...

So yeah. Don't forget your Daddy's...they are important too...I hope and pray that each of you at least has a good father figure in your life, or had one at one point. Fathers are SOOOOOOO important. More important than I think most people realize...

AWESOME!!!

Someone who attended Girls Camp has committed to being baptized!!! BEST NEWS EVER!!!

Oh, and I lost 2 pounds over the course of the week. This is awesome too, but the news above is even BETTER!!

K, back to your regular programming...

Things I Learned At/From Girls Camp

1. I can survive on 3 hours sleep every night for a whole week
2. I can sleep in the back of my car with a little extra padding
3. My car can handle a little off-roading
4. Teenage girls will love you forever if you give them candy, glowsticks, water balloons and whoopee cushions.
5. All girls must wear braids at girls camp, no matter how long or short your hair is.
6. There are a lot of versions of the camp songs I knew from when I was at girls camp.
7. There are advantages to tents that cabins w/o AC don't come close to.
8. The stake leaders, even though they get the rooms with the AC, stay up just as late if not later than the rest of the girls talking and laughing very loudly.
9. How wonderful my GPS is.
10. It is useful to have a Walmart nearby the camp.
11. My bed is the most comfortable bed on the planet (at least, for the last 1 1/2 days it has been...)
12. There is a Girls Camp smell...which I can't describe. You have to experience it to know it.
13. How inspired Sister Ripley was to call her two counselors to this presidency...we all have very different talents, and they all come together quite brilliantly.
14. Next year, they need to emphasize that the girls need to wear long pants on the hikes (lots of girls got poison oak on the hikes).

There are a number of other things I learned, but these are what came to mind...I survived. 9 mosquito bites, barely anything of a sunburn, feet that were throbbing from standing/walking ALL DAY LONG. Saturday morning most of the muscles in my legs seized up on me at least once. Thankfully, the girls and their leaders cleaned up the camp pretty well, so we were able to leave by 9:00am Saturday morning! There were a lot of small miracles that occurred during the week, including the weather and how flexible the other stake was with the schedule and more importantly the kitchen. It worked out quite well!

Got about 13 hours of sleep yesterday, and already had a 3 1/2 hour nap today...getting caught up. I feel much better today though. Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up refreshed...I have a weeks worth of work waiting oh so patiently for me at the office...oh the joy! :)

Cheers!

Girl's Camp

The next post you will get from me (unless I am struck by something at Church today...I can't believe it is past midnight already...) will be after this lovely thing called Girl's Camp. It will be a lot of fun. I am coming prepared (bug spray, citronella bracelets, topical antihistamine, oral antihistamine, small waterproof first aid kit, sunscreen, water balloons, etc.).

I plan on getting very little sleep, so I am hoping that the moment I get home Saturday afternoon I will crash until I have to get up for Church the next morning...

It will be a lot of fun. It will also be a lot of stress...we discovered a few days ago that there was a scheduling error, so we are having to share the camp now. From what I understand, this is the best group we could've asked for this mistake to happen with, so I am grateful. Hopefully all will still go well...

Dogs...

First of all, I am much better. Broke the fever the following day officially (it went down, went back up, and then went down again...now getting over the leftovers...)

Now...I have decided something. I have had cats most of my youthful years. I really do love cats. I have thought once or twice about getting one again, but being rather poor I decided against it. I have always thought that I would own a cat or two in the future...

I never truly hated dogs, or were scared of them. I wasn't 100% comfortable around them when I was younger, though. My sister was very afraid of dogs though. When I was a baby, my parents had one, but I have no recollection of him. My Dad always wanted another dog, but my Mom put down the law...not unless he builds an area in the yard just for the dog and he (Dad) would be the one taking care of it, including feeding, cleaning, walking and whatever else-ing it. Hasn't happened yet. :)


I lived with a lady here in Tuscaloosa for a couple of months who owned these girls...and I warmed up to the idea of having a dog. They didn't yip in the middle of the night at a squirrel (at least, I didn't hear them...), they were always happy to see anyone who came through the door, we went on walks and the dogs just made the walk that much more fun to go on...

All of my fellow front office coworkers own dogs and talk about them all the time. I saw a girl jogging in my neighborhood who had the most beautiful Cocker Spaniel (I think that is what it was) I had ever seen.

I imagined doing that with a beautiful Cocker Spaniel, and liked the idea A LOT. If I am not going to come home to someone, at least I can come home to something. And something that I can care about and that will love me back.

I am going to get a dog.

Now to move on with my life so that I can actually get one. :)

Miserable Day...

Fever of 100.1, BAD aches and pains all over, sore throat, ears plugged, BAD sinus headache, no appetite, very little sleep.

I had to work today. I am taking all of next week off for Girl's Camp. I am taking another week off in July to go home.

...must get better before Monday!!!

Bending...

I LOVE our Stake Young Women's President. We were just informed of some drastic news which is going to be so tough to work through concerning our Stake's Girl's Camp...which begins next week. Somehow we will, but my word this is going to be a doozy...

The words at the beginning of her email:

I feel in life that we must be willing to bend. Sometimes we are asked to bend at the last minute. This is one of those times.

I love how calm her email began. This is going to be a learning experience for all of us...

We have a lot of 'bending' to do in just 5 days...we may all need some oxygen before the end of it.