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Two weeks ago I gave a talk in church (probably my first talk in like 2 years.) I actually never feel like I get asked to speak all that much in church, so this was actually a surprise, especially because Allison and I are leaving our current ward in like 2 weeks (ohmygosh and it's SO scary how close that is...)  One thing that always irritates me in Church is when somebody is given a pretty unique and interesting topic, and then they give a totally uninspiring, uninteresting talk, or it's evident that they didn't give the talk much thought. And of course then I'm thinking to myself: "When I get a topic like that that has so many angles and ideas, I'm just going to BLOW it out of the water!" And yet somehow, whenever I first get a topic either for a lesson or a talk, I just originally feel totally uninspired. I don't know why, it just happens that way. Unfortunately, at least at first, the given topic for this talk was the same way. It focuses aroun...

Youth Conference started off pretty rocky. Wasn't organized, capture the flag was a mess, way too much free time, but it all ended on the high note. To be fair, our family was pretty solid. With almost half being from Chelsea, I did get to know the youth of our ward better, while still making connections to other parts of the stake. Low point of our family had to be Clayton. To start off, we had a get-to-know you game of Loaded Questions. The craziest thing Clayton had ever done was jump off a bridge, with no water underneath, resulting in his broken arm. On his own he was sullen, hot, dehydrated and quiet, but whenever he got into a big group of people, he became the screaming, rude, arrow-shooting maniac we knew him as most of the time. It was a small blessing that he did not try to be in our skit. He was literally like a two-year-old, and had to be babysat most of the trip. Other than that though, the first day went great. Despite having tons of free time, I was able to find...

Dear Reader, Youth conference happened this past Thursday through Saturday. We didn't know it but it was supposed to replace Trek for the youth this year as the stake youth committee did not want to do Trek.  Glo thought that was a good idea but I was not as enthusiastic.  I do think the way it was done was cool.  Since it was a Trek substitute, they patterned it after the life and times of Lehi and Nephi who took a Trek over land and over sea.  So basically it was Trek cleverly disguised.  However, as an unknowing participant, I just thought it was youth conference camping style.  Camping, something Lehi and Nephi also did a lot of, so basically it was...Trek. Lehi the prophet was told to take a journey.  We were visited by Lehi multiple times along the way and he would tell us what needed to happen next.  Go here or go there.  We would go as a group and a different activity would happen.  When I think of all the different ways it...

I have no idea how to write about the last three days of my life.  They were exhausting, and frustrating, and amazing, and fulfilling, and spiritual, and unbelievable, and disorganized.  Do I need to go into all the details?  I don't know.  Let's see where this goes. First off, I was incredibly excited to go.  I like new adventures, and I like to learn new things.  I never went to youth conference as a youth, and I've never attended one as an adult, so I felt the same excitement that I think a child feels about going to Disneyland, or Grandma's house.  In that excitement, I also forgot to take any pictures.  I kid you not--me, the "Chronicler", forgot. Let's start with some of the "trials", shall we? The Young Women's president is a self-proclaimed disorganized person, and to her credit, she fulfills that role well.  Things were terribly disorganized, and at times, it was extremely frustrating not knowing where to go, or what was happen...

For all the misery I recorded when we lived in State College, I feel like I need to record all the happiness we feel living here I Michigan now.  After all, I don't want the future generations to think I was a "glass half-empty" kind of girl.  Next week will mark our one-year anniversary of buying our house and officially changing our voter registration, so I thought I would share some more things that make me happy about our new residence.  This isn't an all-inclusive list--just one that involves cats and birds. I'm currently sitting outside on our deck, overlooking our backyard.  On a cooler morning (I'm talking any morning when it's not already 80 degrees with 90% humidity), I love to sit out here, under the fan, eating my breakfast and taking care of computer business (which just so happens to be writing this blog post this morning).  I don't know if there's some kind of protective force field here, but I never see a mosquito (although the wa...

The other day, we were talking to Ethan and Rebecca, and Rebecca expressed that the 4th of July is her second favorite holiday!  I could hardly believe it.  When I think of favorite holidays, I think of Christmas, and Thanksgiving (setting up the tree, Michigan football), Easter (celebration of the egg), and St. Patrick's day (just remembering our trips to Ireland alone makes me happy).  Of course at the top of John's list would be Halloween.  But the 4th of July?  Really? This is seriously the last picture I have of celebrating the 4th. Glo has braces.... It got me to thinking why I don't really think about the holiday at all, and I quickly realized that I haven't had any opportunities to celebrate it for many years.  For the past eight years, I've been at Interlochen for every 4th, and with the exception of the one year that it fell on a Sunday and Jung-Ho decided to play a patriotic WYSO concert, it's just another day at camp.  Classes continu...