Last Week Picture Dump

Basically Girls Camp summed up in a bunch of pictures, that don't even cover a fraction of what happened at Camp. But from them, you can get the general idea of what we do. Which is basically be crazy awesome.

This is how we do.

Service Project swag

Journaling! Holla!

Let's go crazy

My ward is pretty awesome

THE WHOLE CAMP! We're all just silly

The granny's be rappin'

The gorgeous granny's

Polynesian dancing lessons!

All of the girls and leaders

These are our leaders. They're kind of crazy.

See? Everyone loves girls camp!

I have no clever comment for this one. It just is.

Our bones are aching!

Handing out t-shirts

Lots of love and hugs

What happens at girls camp, stays at girls camp

In the pictures you can see what camp is like. We play volleyball, we dress up weird, we laugh, we journal, we have meetings, we take silly pictures...

This year we had different themed days; Hick day, princess day, superhero day, nerd day, and dr. Seuss day. So that's why I'm wearing my prom dress from two years ago. Because it was princess day! And I pulled out all the stops for that one.

The most amazing part of camp (in my opinion) was the service project this year. Normally we do pretty cool things for service projects, but this year was especially awesome. Throughout the summer, the Relief Society of our stake has been sewing feminine pads out of flannel, for girls in Africa. This week all of the girls had the opportunity to sew a bag, and pack it with the supplies. Plus a note from us, and a picture with us holding the bag. In the fall, our Young Womens leader will be traveling to Uganda with her daughter to hand out these bags to the girls in poverty there, where she will take a picture of a girl holding our bag and she'll send it back to us! How amazing is that? These bags and supplies allow girls to stay in school, where they would usually have to skip school for the week when they had their periods. By staying in school they can keep up on their education, instead of dropping out, and make a huge difference in their community. For more information on the project, watch the following video (it always gives me chills), and click this link to the website it mentions.

Ps - if the video isn't working on the blog, click this link for the one on youtube.

Tornado Warnings and Summer Storms

If anyone out there ever watches the news, you might have caught sight of the weather broadcastings. Then again maybe not. But if you did, you may have seen a very angry looking red covering the midwest region? Yeah. That's me. *waves hello*

Today was uneventful until after work, with the sun occasionally peaking out at us through the clouds. Unfortunately said clouds were not happy pretty summer clouds that are white and fluffy and make funny shapes that may or may not be construed as different animals, these were dark black surly clouds that threaten with their ominous presence.

It got worse as mom and I began to make dinner, thunder rumbled and the occasional lightning strike lit up the blackened sky, but this had happened before. Just a storm. No big deal.

So I went off to pick my grandma up from the nail salon, and on my way out of the parking lot my mom calls me sounding a little frantic, which is very strange for to be - she's normally this really cool, level headed person and very in control. So that worried me off the bat. She said that the tornado sirens by our house had just gone off and she wanted us to stay in the store for a little while - weeeelll too late for that. But I was only about 10 minutes away from home with the commuters traffic so I could just hurry home right? Let me tell you I have never been so scared for my life as I was driving home. It wasn't even really the other cars, it was the pelting rain. It hit the car like bullets - with the occasional golf ball sized hail thrown in the mix. I was literally leaning with my chin over the steering wheel trying to see through the rain and onto the road. 

You know how sometimes you see lightning and then a huge clap of thunder follows a little while later? Yeah no. That didn't happen. The thunder and lightning came at the same time - one illuminating the sky and causing momentary blindness, the other making the car, and therefore my whole body, shake and rumble with it. It was the scariest thing of my life. I just kept on praying, "Heavenly Father please let me get home in one peace, please don't let lightning hit this car, please please pleeeaaaaaaase."

Thank heavens it worked.

And then, finally, the rain calmed and the lightning moved and the thunder wasn't so shocking anymore. Also thankfully, none of my family was killed in the making of that storm.

It's going to be pink.

Guess who broke her wrist today!!?

oh, me. 

blehck.

I have never broken a bone in my body, and suddenly I brake my wrist. I'd like to say I broke it doing something graceful and elegant, like... actually I don't think it's possible to fall while looking graceful and elegant. 

Trust me I've tried.

the story:

We were going on a church activity, ice skating! There were 6 boys, and 6 girls (including myself). We left around 12:30 for the city - and everything was great. The sun was shinning, it was a perfect cool outside, and everyone was in happy spirits. 

Once we arrived at the ice rink, we all took several minutes finding the right sized skates (we all know how it is. One size is too big, the other too small, do you want big skates or little ones? blah blabla blabla). Once we all had our skates on, it was a new adventure - getting ourselves to the rink while maintaining our balance. 

Oh crap.

Soon we had all made it safely to the ice. Or so we thought? No, we definitely made it safely.

No sooner had we stepped onto the ice, when Jackson stole someones hat and a malicious game of keep away ensued (ok, malicious is a bit of a stretch). We were all skating amuck, stealing hats left and right! Oh the cruelty! No shame!

We all had some lessons on staying balanced (gravity schooled me more than once. I have the bruises to prove it). And I even learned how to skate backwards!... sort of...

Then came the fatal moment.

I had taken my camera out to take some pictures, when Nathaniel asked "whats the best way to stop quickly?"

Being the pro I am, I began to show him how to come to a side stop. Same basic move as skiing. The ice was thick with grooves from previous skaters - as I pulled my skates around to stop myself, the edge of my right skate caught on a groove and stuck.

No thoughts, just silence in my brain as my feet tried to regain balance. But what balance could I regain with the slick ice underneath two scanty blades strapped to my feet? The answer: none. My feet flew up and down as I tried to stand, my hands splayed behind me as I fell backwards, my left hand came down hard on the ice and the pain was real. The real kind of pain that bites you at first, then you almost forget about it as you fall, but comes back like a snake up your arm when you sit up. My head on the ground, I saw my camera slide around and land a foot away from me on the ice. And then I remembered the pain. Holycrapithurtsobad. 

I sat up and clutched my arm as my friends began to huddle around me saying comforting things like, "are you all right?" "does it hurt really bad?" "can you get up?" "do you need help?"

"No. no. I'm fine, just gimme a minute to compose myself. I just need a minute."

I'm not gonna cry. I'm not gonna cry. It doesn't hurt that bad. It'll be fine. Pain will go away. I can get up. Just gimme a sec.

Oh crap, it's not going away. It still hurts. I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry. I am not a wimp. I am not a wimp. I am not a wimp. 

I found the strength to stand up on my own. No one was gonna treat me like the poor little injured girl. But standing up hurt my wrist more than it should have.

We went into the building and the guy at the counter gave me an ice pack. I sat on one of the benches, my jeans were wet and sticking to my skin.

I will not cry, I will not cry.

No matter how I tried to stop it, hot tears dropped onto my glasses as I bent over to hide my face.

I always thought people described tears as "hot" in books because it sounded cooler - but my face was so cold my tears actually felt hot.

Kristen sat down next to me and I leaned on her shoulder. That's what best friends are for.

Then people started saying, "we'll take you home" "it's ok, you're gonna go home."

Wait what? no no no no no, I'm fine, I can still skate. It just hurts, I'll be fine. But there was no way to avoid it, I was huddled into a car, my wrist hurt with every step. Gravity pulled it down in a painful way. Oh yeah, it was broken.

We got home and my mom sped to the after hours clinic, we missed the X-ray by 5 minutes - but the doctor looked at it and said with certainty that it was probably most likely broken. (confusing signals much?)

But we have to wait for the X-ray on monday to confirm it. If it is broken, my cast is going to be pink. No matter what. Its going to be pink.

xoxo

Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone... sigh. 

And my blessings have filled my cup so that I can barely receive all of them! (scripture mastery anyone?)

So what am I thankful for? 

What are my blessings?

Here are the top 10!

1. My silly little sister

2. Being able to persevere through homework and schoolwork, despite being overwhelmed by outside influences.

3. Cars

4. Indoor plumbing

5. Funny little brothers

6. Hard classes and nice teachers that challenge me to do and be my best

7. My church youth leaders 

8. My friends

9. My parents

10. tv shows that I'm addicted to.. sometimes sitting down with some hot cocoa and a good show is just what I need. {insert Gossip Girl, White Collar, Burn Notice, Warehouse 13, Covert Affairs, Community, The Office, New Girl, Psych.. etc...etc..etc..}