Hello everyone,
It seems like it has been a year since I last wrote! So much has happened in such a short amount of time. Not much that’s newsworthy, but still so much. The month of June was a very fast one for me; I guess that’s part of why it’s taken me so long to get this out. I finished my school work for now. I won’t begin classes until the 24th of September. I’m glad for the break. I am happy to report that I got straight A’s and am currently on the President’s list. Last quarter I was on the Dean’s list which didn’t mean much I guess, but then I didn’t even know I was on it until after I knew about being on the President’s list this term. I don’t care too much as long as it means that I’ll be able to get some scholarships-that would be so nice. I have just gotten a couple of books to read; I found out early that one of the courses I will take in January requires reading seven novels and the person who decides them has given me some of the titles. I’m glad for that because it means that I can read at a more leisurely pace if I want to. I’ve never heard of any of the books, so I hope they are good.
Towards the end of the month was Relay for Life. There was a lot of business in preparing for that. The branch has their own team and I have served as team captain the last two years with Marta Young helping me. She is an amazing partner to work with and I’m not sure that I could do it without her. We plan on doing it again next year. We think we have it figured out now. Last year was somewhat a disaster because we didn’t get the chance to do any fund-raising before Relay and didn’t have any ideas of what to do at Relay so very little money was raised. This year we did a little fundraising before Relay, but for whatever reason we didn’t make much money at that attempt. We think we know why so we’ll try to correct that for next year. At Relay itself we sold elephant ears. This went EXTREMELY well. We made over $800 after costs. We also sold quite a few luminary bags. I’m really happy about the money we raised. I think the total came to over $900 when all was said and done. Andrew figured it out for me but I don’t remember the number he gave me. We had lots of help from the Branch this year and that made a big difference as well. Next year will be even more organized and hopefully it won’t take such a toll on my family and the Young’s. As it was Andrew spent from around 8am on Friday until 6pm on Saturday doing Relay with only about a 2-hour break in the middle of the early morning hours of Saturday. I would have been there too, but I had girl’s camp the next week and knew I couldn’t go into camp being exhausted. I’m so grateful to have such a wonderful husband. Megan (my daughter) wants to be a co-captain next year. She feels like she is already doing all this work for Relay and I guess she thinks there is some kind of glory in the being co-captain. I told her fine. I don’t think she realizes what she is saying though.
The last week of June was girl’s camp. We left on Monday at 7:30am and got back around 9:30pm on Thursday. Again, there was a lot of busy work involved in getting ready for this. I actually had to do laundry after Relay so that I could wear clothes to camp. I had the privilege of working with Denise Whitt and Sydney Coulson; both are wonderful women in the stake. I had such a great time getting to know them. On Monday I woke up with pink eye and so I spent three of the four days wearing some old glasses. That was really hard for me because I couldn’t judge depth AT ALL the first day. I finally got used to it by Wednesday and then on Thursday I had to readjust to my contacts, though that only took a few hours. I got no restful sleep while there, which is just part of the way it goes and thankfully I knew that going in so I didn’t expect it. I think I got about 5 hours each night, but I woke up quite often to turn and move around and wonder where I was and all of that. I was helping with the first year girls. They were sweet, but several of them got homesick and then no matter what we did they weren’t feeling well and kept asking to see the nurse. It got really annoying towards the end, but such is life I guess. We did some cute crafts with the girls as well. They got to go kayaking or canoeing (I’m not sure because I was busy elsewhere) and they went on a hike all together around the camp and had a very spiritual experience as they talked about laying their burdens of sin at the Savior’s feet. We also had a testimony meeting, listened to Brother Drought from the CES (Church Education System) for our area and several other things to build their testimonies. Overall I think camp was a huge success and I can’t wait to go back again next year. I hope that I’m able to and will be healthier when it comes around. I sure got tired of wearing tennis shoes (I hate wearing shoes altogether and felt like my feet were suffocating in there), so I was glad to get back home to bare feet and flip flops. I do miss the silliness of camp though. There is nothing like girl’s camp that I have ever found and I’m so grateful I had the chance to go.
We had a quiet 4th of July. We watched some shows on Netflix about the creation of the country and those who helped to form it. We went down to the parade which is always funny to watch as we hope that nobody gets seriously injured going around the fountain circle. There are just so many people, wagons, bikes, and pets on the street that I find myself cringing several times at near-misses. We ending up getting a Little Caesar’s pizza because they were only $4 and ate that for lunch and dinner. Not the best, but it was little work so we enjoyed it anyway.
The past few days I have been just enjoying not having to be everywhere and doing everything and as a result have gotten very little done. Today I think I’m back on track. Andrew will be starting a basic welding class on the 18th I believe to learn basic welding after which he plans to get a job welding. There are lots of them here and has been told by someone who occasionally attends church at our branch that he would hire Andrew if he learned that basic skill. It doesn’t look like the other offer that he was pursuing is going to work out after all. The program is one where you work at your own pace, so if he works at it really hard he can get through the basics in just 2-3 weeks. I hope so. We are past 7 months of unemployment and I don’t think I can take it anymore. I’m so thankful for the Lord sustaining us during that time, we have been incredibly blessed, but I am ready to stand on my own two feet (so-to-speak) again.
