Girl's Camp & Goals

For nine years straight, I have attended a camp for young women as a leader. I have experienced many aspects of camp, but I have to admit that the job I have done for the past two years have been my favorite. Only because of the drama. When you work as leader at camp with lots of teenage girls, there is lots of drama. In the kitchen, which is where I worked this year and last, it is pure physical labor... like 6:00 am to 11:00 pm labor. But it is a labor of love and done with lots of laughs. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

All the kitchen staff had their own sleeping quarters that included a separate lodge. During the day, our rooms were closed and would get very hot. At the end of every long day, the cooks would meet in the lodge to have a devotional and chit chat. Because I sleep so poorly in the heat, on the way to each devotional, I would leave my room door open to let the air circulate. One night, as we were returning to the rooms, a fellow cook noticed a scurrying coming from my room. Out popped a raccoon! That fat thing scampered off to our screams then turned around and hissed at us!!! It was a very cruel raccoon. Would you like to know why? Because it passed up the candy I had on my night stand and favored my roomie's! The reason why that action was cruel is because I am trying very hard to lose weight. Oh, the irony. I did end up giving my candy to the poor cook that lost her candy to a hungry raccoon. But it would have been awfully nice to skip the step of even having candy in my hands!

While we're on the weight loss subject, I would like to share some of the journey I am taking. In the last week of January, I made the decision to work more diligently on taking care of my body. It is a gift from God and I have been treating it very poorly. Very, very poorly. With the mix of many small factors, I have found a balance that is bringing success. I am excited to share that I am 3 pounds short of losing 40 pounds!!! Isn't that just the bee's knees?! My goal is 100 pounds and then some. There have been many little things that happen to bring squeals (or even tears) of delight. I cried in the dressing room at Gap when I actually fit back into the clothes there. I have been happily wearing clothes that are nearly a decade old- with new accessories, of course...

Also, something funny happened to me. Before I got married, my income was such that I might buy myself many nice things. Of those nice things, I would purchase fine jewelry. Of that fine jewelry, there was a fabulous ring with 12 sapphires and six diamonds set in platinum. Jimmy and I were in matrimonial bliss for maybe five years when I could no longer wear said ring. It devastated me, but not enough to keep from shoving that ring to the back of my jewelry drawer. Well, one day I decided I was going to don that ring once more, darn it! Before a relief society activity, I attempted to push it onto my chubby sausage of a finger. It would not fit! So, I did anything a normal person would not do- I pushed even harder. So hard, in fact, that the ring just barely squeaked onto my finger. And stayed. The ring stayed for the whole relief society meeting and steadily created a purple bulge above the joint on which the ring sat. It was only after multiple urges from concerned women that I finally relented to attend the emergency room. The doctor refused to cut the ring off (much to my dismay and Jimmy's glee- it was a very expensive ring). Instead of cutting the ring, the doctor used thick fishing line to screw the ring off. It hurt like the dickens, but my jewelry remained intact. That sapphire, diamond and platinum piece was pushed back again to the far corner of my jewelry drawer. Well, last night, my current setting (I've been through 7- I like bling) was too big and was annoyingly turning circles around my finger. So, I daringly, gasp!, tried on my sapphire ring. Good news folks- no trip to the ER! It fits! Things like that experience are what brings me joy: fitting differently on the Disneyland rides, jeans falling off, etc.

Because of my success in weight loss, I have been attempting more difficult goals. My newest goal?! Running a 10K! I am excited, only because I have experienced one day of training. But I am optimistic. There is ample time to prepare. The date is November 17th of this year and I am running it with Jimmy and some friends. Oh my stars and garters, I cannot wait!

I'm a responsible adult

My sister-in-law Ashley is just the age to have all her teenage friends over for fun game nights. My responsibility for these game nights is to have fun with the kids and chaperon. We do fun (in a loving way, of course) pranks, play loud obnoxious rhythm games and laugh and eat pizza and shoot soda out our noses when we laugh... you know, all the good stuff. One prank in particular was my very favorite. Wait, before I tell you about the prank, I need to share with you who the recipients usually are: the kids that declined the invite to game night. So, they are all kids we like- hence the 'loving way' part of the prank.
On to my favorite mischeivery of all time.
It was at the beginning of the year and we drove to taco bell brainstorming the plan for that night. Driving through the neighborhoods, we realized that people had left their Christmas trees out at the curb for pick up the following morning. It was some one's ingenious idea to put all the trees we could find on the lawn and front porch of the kid missing from the pack that night. We drove within and one mile radius around the kid's house finding all the lone Christmas trees. The best part was having kids holding on to the tree through the window and dragging it as we drove very slow and stealth like. No less than 15 Christmas trees were collected and we plopped them all over the front lawn. It looked like a winter wonderland! The hardest part of these pranks is, of course, to keep quiet through it all and to prevent the shooting soda from ruining some one's lawn...
 

Lost in Translation

When my sister chose to get married in the Mesa temple, she also chose to have a reception site very close to make it easier on out of town guests. I commend her for that. We however, did two things that made the easy trip from the temple to reception site a tad bit difficult. We a) did not print out directions before our trip and b) did not bring the invitation with the address. Fortunately for us, the natives are kind and gave us directions. This is how the afternoon went:

My brother, Tommy, gave us great directions to get to the Regency when we were standing outside of the temple in 110 degree heat. Now, I think I can blame the next part on the heat...
We followed the directions and could not find the venue. We went down the very short street a few times and could not find the building. We did not know the street number, just the name of the venue, "The Regency". We headed further down a cross street to ask for directions. There was a sweet old lady walking on the street that was happy to oblige. Her directions consisted of passing many fast food establishments. In fact, by the many establishments listed, we should have known at that point that we might have been going in the wrong direction. She was so confident that we trusted her. Well, I will tell you this- the woman on the street was correct. Jimmy and I followed her directions exactly and ended up at a hole-in-the-wall-pay-by-the-hour kind of motel. It was the Regency, alright. The Regency INN. What we had intended to go to was The Regency GARDEN. After realizing our error, I called Tommy and asked him for better directions. The first point of reference for finding the place? Oh, just find the place with bars on the windows. What?!?!?!

Upon arrival, I noticed they were not bars but wrought iron decorative grates that were actually quite stunning. We may have gotten to the reception a little late, but we came armed with a great ice breaking story.

The Regency GARDEN

The Regency INN

Short and sweet update

It's pretty sad that the blogger format has changed since I last updated my blog. It's not that we haven't been doing anything- just the opposite! Just a few quick bullet points:

• A surprise 30th birthday party- my family and friends surprised me so much that that very morning I had spent some time crying to friend about everyone forgetting my birthday. Fortunately, Jimmy did not tell Kate about the party because she made me egg whites to make me feel better rather than spilling the beans. It was an amazing day that started with a drive up Napa Valley to all my favorite spots in a new convertible!
• Jimmy finished school (but isn't walking until September) I am sooo proud of him! That boy has worked so hard. Now onto the job hunt! May he be fruitful!
• Kate joined the newspaper club at school and has been writing non-stop. We go through paper like termites!
• We went to Las Vegas- not such a huge fan of Sin City, but a very huge fan of Cirque Du Soleil, shopping, the hotel and not having to pay for any of it because it was a business trip. Three Cheers for an expense account!
• Disneyland on the way to Beth's wedding. Oh goodness, do I love that place. A lot. Too much, probably. We enjoyed a full day of rides excluding the Tower of Terror :( My very favorite ride... we waited in line for 2 1/2 hours, the park closed and we were booted from the line in order to get into the Disneyland side before it closed.
• Beth's Wedding!!! My sister looked radiant on her special day! Jimmy and I had a blast dancing the night away. My family and I rented a fancy HUGE house (with a pool!). It was so fun to wake up to my sweet nieces and nephews. It was the first time all the siblings were together in over 10 years! I laughed and laughed and loved the trip despite the 110 degree weather.