We only had one week of SAH EFY as a team, so we got to start our over night sessions in Logan the next week. The big thing for coordinators each week is check in, and we were expecting a mess. Usually we'd take some time on Saturday night and go through the housing lists and try to head off housing problems before the kids arrived and made it all dramatic and complicated. We were expecting a mess because we didn't get the session info with enough time to do that. We were expecting a lot of upset parents and whiny kids. It didn't happen. It was magic. The only people who had housing requests were people who didn't want to room with their friend. One was really funny. A couple moms came up and asked us if they could move their sons into a different group. You see they were, by chance (really), in the same group as their other friends, which their moms weren't happy about. They wanted them to branch out and meet new people and not spend the whole week with their regular friends. But we couldn't let the boys know that their moms were asking us to move them. So we got to pretend that some other kids needed to change and so they had to switch rooms. It was really fun. I figured it was too easy and so something was going to happen during the week. I was right. It was a pretty special week. We had a crazy girl who (probably) wasn't taking her medications and was freaking out her whole group. We ended up putting her into a group with her sister and having the counselor watch her take her meds each day.
We also had a lot of medical problems. We ended up going to the hospital 4 times that week.
1. Complex migraine- they are commonly mistaken as mini-strokes. That was exciting because her aunt and uncle came and went back in the back with her, so Laruie the HC and I got to sit in the waiting room for some sort of word on what was going on. While we were there we got to meet some really lovely people. A 5-ish year old kid, that I really couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl, wrecked his/her bike and screwed up his/her wrist. The parents had a super adorable baby just learning to walk. There was our more intimate friend who was waiting to get stitches in her hand after she put a hole in it with a nail that was sticking out of an ottoman she was moving. Her husband and kids were at some relative's house, so it was her night to kick back, relax, and read a book... Then there was the amazing elderly gentleman who rolled his car down an embankment in the rain earlier that day, probably a good 5-7 hours before, and had only come to the ER because his wife wanted him just to make sure that his neck was fine. We had a lot of good conversation while we waited till late into the evening. Finally her aunt was able to sign for her and we came back to campus. She got better that night and returned the next day.
2. A girl with diabetes had extremely high blood sugar and couldn't get it down. I didn't actually take this one to the hospital, but from what I hear it was quite a miracle that she wasn't in a more serious situation. It had all the signs of being very bad and leading to a lot of time spent in the hospital, but she was just fine after they finally got her blood sugar down.
3. Thursday morning a girl got out of bed and went to walk and proceeded to fall flat on her face. She had a boot on her left leg because she had popped a tendon in her left ankle. She'd just gotten off crutches and was rejoicing in her freedom. Naturally her other leg was taking quite the beating because it was taking all the stress off the other one. She felt the pain behind her right knee, but Eric couldn't find any problem with it, off to the hospital we go. We had previously gone to the IHC hospital, but we weren't hurrying anywhere, so we went looking for an insta-care cuz we thought there was one at the specialty hospital. There wasn't one, but we went to the specialty hospital anyway. It was so great. They got us in right away. Our nurse, Eli, was great, he got Eric and I juice to drink while we waited. It was pretty fun. It turns out she did the exact same thing to her right leg that she did to her left and had to get a boot and crutches. Yes, she had a boot on both legs. She was a really good sport about it. She had fun getting pushed around in a wheel chair and dancing on crutches.
4. Friday a girl slipped off a curb and sprained her ankle. Eric confirmed that it was only sprained, but her mom wanted us to take her in to get it checked out. So at way to late at night we got to take her to the ER and waited around to find out that it was indeed only a sprain and get her some crutches.
Whew! It was quite the busy week. I don't really have a picture to post from this week. Sorry. It was fun being back to the over night sessions and all the fun that comes along with that (pizza!). Or session director was Bro. Anderson. He was definitely a teacher. He made teacher jokes. He did a "Tangled taking it home" lesson at the end of the week. Tangled really does work quite well as an comparison to our being children of God and our purpose on earth. It's fun to watch that movie trying to see how many gospel analogies you can find. Try it. = )
Monday, July 11, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Logan SAH 1
the SAH stands for Stay-at-Home, so you know.
This was the first week of the summer and it was a good warm up. SAH programs are great because the kids come at 9 am and go home at 9 pm and in between there we can do anything we so desire. There are 9 of us that will work the entire summer together as a team, Braden and I are the coordinators. Katie, Kylie, Britta, Jay, and Colby are Building Counselors (BCs). And Laurie and Eric are our Health Counselors. We all got to stay in Richard's Hall on USU campus, and it was a party. For some unknown reason they decided we needed the rooms the farthest away from either stairwell in the building and put us on the 3rd floor in the middle. We're pretty sure we were the only ones staying there the whole week. It sure got us our exercise though! I'm pretty sure Braden and I didn't do anything but help new counselors figure out their jobs the whole week. Check in was a breeze because we didn't have any housing to mess around with. We didn't have any sick kids because they either just went home or didn't come in the morning. The biggest problems we had were counselors who didn't know they had to do something or things that just come naturally with being somewhere for the first time. It was a dream. The kids were swell, the counselors were good given the situation, and no one died. Good week.
Our session director was Bro. Miller and his wife from somewhere in California. They were really fun to talk to and he was an excellent teacher. He had a lot of stories but they were always applicable. And many of them embarrassed his wife, which was really funny. He was totally clueless that it was something embarrassing until after when she would tell him. In his defense they were usually only mild, but she gets embarrassed easily. But that all just made it more fun for the rest of us. (That sounds mean doesn't it... but it's true) I think one of the best things of being a coordinator is getting to spend so much time with the session director and his wife. It's fun to see how different married couples interact and hear about some of the the lessons they've learned. (and hear all their funny/embarrassing stories = )
One of the best parts of the SAH is that after the kids leave we can all go out and get food. Dinner at EFY is really early. It's even earlier at the SAH sessions, 4:30-5:30... by the time the kids leave we're all starving, so usually we'd get whoever wanted to come and go get something to eat and hang out for a while. You would think that having the kids go home at 9 we would get more sleep. Ha. Wrong. I think I came out of that week just as tired as ever. But that's life at EFY and that's part of why we love it = )
Here is a picture of us eating greasy Mexican food on Thursday
and one of us after cleaning the institute on Friday after the kids went home.
Once we finished cleaning we took advantage of the giant screen and projector and watched How to Train Your Dragon while we ate our nightly meal. Ah, good times. Braden says that if he ever does EFY again he's only doing SAH because they're so easy and fun. It's true.
This was the first week of the summer and it was a good warm up. SAH programs are great because the kids come at 9 am and go home at 9 pm and in between there we can do anything we so desire. There are 9 of us that will work the entire summer together as a team, Braden and I are the coordinators. Katie, Kylie, Britta, Jay, and Colby are Building Counselors (BCs). And Laurie and Eric are our Health Counselors. We all got to stay in Richard's Hall on USU campus, and it was a party. For some unknown reason they decided we needed the rooms the farthest away from either stairwell in the building and put us on the 3rd floor in the middle. We're pretty sure we were the only ones staying there the whole week. It sure got us our exercise though! I'm pretty sure Braden and I didn't do anything but help new counselors figure out their jobs the whole week. Check in was a breeze because we didn't have any housing to mess around with. We didn't have any sick kids because they either just went home or didn't come in the morning. The biggest problems we had were counselors who didn't know they had to do something or things that just come naturally with being somewhere for the first time. It was a dream. The kids were swell, the counselors were good given the situation, and no one died. Good week.
Our session director was Bro. Miller and his wife from somewhere in California. They were really fun to talk to and he was an excellent teacher. He had a lot of stories but they were always applicable. And many of them embarrassed his wife, which was really funny. He was totally clueless that it was something embarrassing until after when she would tell him. In his defense they were usually only mild, but she gets embarrassed easily. But that all just made it more fun for the rest of us. (That sounds mean doesn't it... but it's true) I think one of the best things of being a coordinator is getting to spend so much time with the session director and his wife. It's fun to see how different married couples interact and hear about some of the the lessons they've learned. (and hear all their funny/embarrassing stories = )
One of the best parts of the SAH is that after the kids leave we can all go out and get food. Dinner at EFY is really early. It's even earlier at the SAH sessions, 4:30-5:30... by the time the kids leave we're all starving, so usually we'd get whoever wanted to come and go get something to eat and hang out for a while. You would think that having the kids go home at 9 we would get more sleep. Ha. Wrong. I think I came out of that week just as tired as ever. But that's life at EFY and that's part of why we love it = )
Here is a picture of us eating greasy Mexican food on Thursday
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
EFY-ing
Currently I am sitting outside of my dorm building while the youth prepare their cheer and banner for games night. I was thinking about how exciting EFY is and how I have failed to share any of it with anyone who chooses to actually read my blog from time to time. I probably will only have a few minutes before I have to go set up, so I may not get very far, but I want to explain some of what my job is this summer.
It's been really different being a coordinator. (that's my job) In short my companion, Braden, and I are the top people at our session of EFY each week. We do most of our work on the weekend and Monday. Saturday we get everything ready for the next week. Sunday we do counselor training and conduct the fireside. Monday we deal with all the upset parents because they think their kid isn't getting what they want. The rest of the week we conduct a meeting every other day and do whatever else people need done. The best part of the job is Wednesday at games night we get to be judges for the banner and cheer competition. We get to watch all of the cheers and judge all of them and the banners each group of youth prepare and pick 3 from each age group to do their cheers for everyone, and 3 winning banners from each age group as well. It's fun. Sometimes the cheers are really imaginative and funny. I feel bad sometimes that we can only pick 3 because there are others that are so funny and good. So being a coordinator is very different from any other EFY job I've had before. It's a lot fewer regular duties and a lot less teaching time, and a lot more time trying to find answers to questions I don't actually know the answer to. But it's been pretty good so far. We're working with a lot of new counselors so that's a fun adventure too. On one hand it's harder because they don't already know all the nuances of the job, but it's been really great for the most part. They are un-tainted by years of getting away with things and how it's been done in the past. Now we get to be the ones to mold them into the EFY counselors of our dreams. I hope we're doing an ok job.
Anyway, time to go judge some cheers and banners! More to come about the adventures had here at EFY.
It's been really different being a coordinator. (that's my job) In short my companion, Braden, and I are the top people at our session of EFY each week. We do most of our work on the weekend and Monday. Saturday we get everything ready for the next week. Sunday we do counselor training and conduct the fireside. Monday we deal with all the upset parents because they think their kid isn't getting what they want. The rest of the week we conduct a meeting every other day and do whatever else people need done. The best part of the job is Wednesday at games night we get to be judges for the banner and cheer competition. We get to watch all of the cheers and judge all of them and the banners each group of youth prepare and pick 3 from each age group to do their cheers for everyone, and 3 winning banners from each age group as well. It's fun. Sometimes the cheers are really imaginative and funny. I feel bad sometimes that we can only pick 3 because there are others that are so funny and good. So being a coordinator is very different from any other EFY job I've had before. It's a lot fewer regular duties and a lot less teaching time, and a lot more time trying to find answers to questions I don't actually know the answer to. But it's been pretty good so far. We're working with a lot of new counselors so that's a fun adventure too. On one hand it's harder because they don't already know all the nuances of the job, but it's been really great for the most part. They are un-tainted by years of getting away with things and how it's been done in the past. Now we get to be the ones to mold them into the EFY counselors of our dreams. I hope we're doing an ok job.
Anyway, time to go judge some cheers and banners! More to come about the adventures had here at EFY.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Ah, summer
Wow. What a spring. It was so full of surprises. And rain. It stayed downright chilly here until June. Really, I think June 1 was the first day with decent weather since finals week! I was so disappointed in the weather because it ruined all my plans for the month of May. They were to spend as much time outside doing fun things as possible. To fill my outdoors quota for the next 2 months when I'd be doing EFY. Now, I love EFY. I think it's a great job and I'm excited to get started again tomorrow. However it has a few drawbacks- no shorts, no time for hiking, etc. during the week. “Save it for Saturday” goes for hiking and swimming and many other things at EFY. So my plan was to get my fill of it in May then go happily (and tan-ly) into EFY come June. Well, I'm pretty sure there was still snow on most of the hikes up Logan Canyon until this week. No go. Oh well. I've been enjoying the wonderful weather this week, and I hope it keeps it up! 
It's been especially nice to have the good weather while we've been cleaning the house and moving everything out. Most people think of fun and vacations and such when they think of summer break. I think of work and moving. That sounds really sad. But this year it's been a bit worse than usual. I have to think about work more than in the past since I'm a coordinator, and spent more time moving and cleaning and packing stuff than ever because everyone in the house was moving out. My roommate that owns the house, Becky, got engaged in December and got married to day to a man from Mississippi, Shane. So she's going to rent out the house as a whole and move to Mississippi. We didn't want to do that since 2 of the 3 of us would be gone all week to different camps, so we all just moved out. Kandi moved all her stuff back to her Mom's, and Dana moved in with our friend Alycen. I ended up with a unique situation. I have a friend, Cassie, who is doing EFY in Salt Lake & Orem all summer but was unable to sell her contract which goes through July. So she has offered to let me “apartment sit” since she doesn't have any roommates staying at the house right now. So I loaded all my stuff into the garage and now have somewhere to stay on the odd weekend I'm not housed by EFY. Lovely. It's really weird thinking that I won't be going home to Becky's house tonight. Oh well. Tomorrow I'll move into EFY and then things really get going. Ah, summer...
(All my stuff excepting what I took to EFY stacked in Cassie's garage.)
P.S. This was intended to be published on Saturday, 6/4/11 but I didn't have internet access, so it didn't happen. Rough thing about blogs, you need internet...
Jane knows...
"What are men to rocks and mountains?"
You know, Jane Austen really hit it right on the nose.
I would just add a bit and then it would be perfect:
"What are men to rocks and mountains and warm summer days spent outside with a good book?"
Nothing Jane, nothing.
P.S. The book was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society". Sounds strange, but is an excellent read. Excellent.
P.P.S. This was originally intended to be published on 6/2/11 but in the flurry of moving it didn't happen.
You know, Jane Austen really hit it right on the nose.
I would just add a bit and then it would be perfect:
"What are men to rocks and mountains and warm summer days spent outside with a good book?"
Nothing Jane, nothing.
P.S. The book was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society". Sounds strange, but is an excellent read. Excellent.
P.P.S. This was originally intended to be published on 6/2/11 but in the flurry of moving it didn't happen.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Wishlist
Since my birthday is less than a week away I'm assuming everyone who's going to buy a birthday present already has done so, thus making this wish list a little useless, but I thought I put it up anyway... It's pretty short, but mostly more expensive things that I wish I could buy myself. So maybe it'll just be a general wish list to the universe. Hmm, and I guess since this is now just a general wish list to the universe I can include some things you couldn't really give as a birthday gift... Well, here we go:
Things I would like:
Things I would like:
- Ukulele
- running shoes (new ones, mine are pretty worn out)
- rock climbing stuff (shoes first, than a harness and chalk bag)
- a road bike
- Bike repair/maintenance kit
- a trip to anywhere
- X-country ski poles (mine are too short)
- mp3 player (one has a screen like an ipod)
- gas for my car
- a direction
- a job (yes, I know they're out there, what I'm wishing for here is for one to just fall into my lap all ready to go. Not going to happen, I know... back to my applications)
- fresh yummy corn on the cob, watermelon, and bbq chicken.
- cooking school
- weekend backpack
- overnight backpack
- bike rack for my car
- a map of the world (political boundaries)
- map of the USA
- a case of root beer milk from Gosners = )
- ...
Thursday, April 28, 2011
This is your life!
So- this actually happened earlier today. It was great. Everyone else has little kid stories to tell, I have to do with the strange things that come out of mine and my roommate's mouths = )
In honor of Prince William & Kate Middleton's wedding Dana announced that she wanted to watch "The Prince & Me", just for fun. I remembered and began to recount a conversation I had with a friend of ours named Court at our last FHE. I asked him if he liked car racing (it's a long story) and he said no, but it might be fun to drive race cars. Court works on his family's farm out in Richmond so when he said he might like to drive I had this image of him out on his family's farm racing around, which led me to another thought which I tried to relate to Court. There's a scene in the "Prince & Me" where the main girl's family does lawn mower race with their neighbors. So the conversation went as follows:
"I feel like we need to watch The Prince and Me in honor of William and Kate"
"Ah, the Prince & Me. At FHE I was trying to tell Court about the lawn mower races so I asked him 'Have you ever seen The Prince & Me?' and he said no..."
"Well yeah, he's a dude!"
"Well I don't know, maybe he had a girlfriend once!..."
At which point we busted up laughing. If you don't think it's funny try saying it with a different emphasis or accent... = ) There now, isn't that funny? Ha!
As I was enjoying the funniness of my house I thought about how some people think that when we get to heaven there'll be a big 'life review' where we go over everything that ever happened in our live whether in book or movie form... (ooh, my life flashed before me eyes! 'Twas very boring...) And I desperately hope that when we do that God will be so kind as to include a blooper reel. A collection of all of the awesomely funny things we said or did. I hope they'll be as funny in heaven (of course he'll include only the ones that are truly funny). Just think of a better way to enter heaven than with a review of all of the awesome moments of life. I suppose it should not only include the funny things, but still, they would make a really good contribution.
Anyway, that's kinda a random post, but I felt like saying something cuz I haven't posted in a loooong time, and it truly was very funny. So just think of this next time something great happens in life. Maybe it will be in your "life review" one day.
In honor of Prince William & Kate Middleton's wedding Dana announced that she wanted to watch "The Prince & Me", just for fun. I remembered and began to recount a conversation I had with a friend of ours named Court at our last FHE. I asked him if he liked car racing (it's a long story) and he said no, but it might be fun to drive race cars. Court works on his family's farm out in Richmond so when he said he might like to drive I had this image of him out on his family's farm racing around, which led me to another thought which I tried to relate to Court. There's a scene in the "Prince & Me" where the main girl's family does lawn mower race with their neighbors. So the conversation went as follows:
"I feel like we need to watch The Prince and Me in honor of William and Kate"
"Ah, the Prince & Me. At FHE I was trying to tell Court about the lawn mower races so I asked him 'Have you ever seen The Prince & Me?' and he said no..."
"Well yeah, he's a dude!"
"Well I don't know, maybe he had a girlfriend once!..."
At which point we busted up laughing. If you don't think it's funny try saying it with a different emphasis or accent... = ) There now, isn't that funny? Ha!
As I was enjoying the funniness of my house I thought about how some people think that when we get to heaven there'll be a big 'life review' where we go over everything that ever happened in our live whether in book or movie form... (ooh, my life flashed before me eyes! 'Twas very boring...) And I desperately hope that when we do that God will be so kind as to include a blooper reel. A collection of all of the awesomely funny things we said or did. I hope they'll be as funny in heaven (of course he'll include only the ones that are truly funny). Just think of a better way to enter heaven than with a review of all of the awesome moments of life. I suppose it should not only include the funny things, but still, they would make a really good contribution.
Anyway, that's kinda a random post, but I felt like saying something cuz I haven't posted in a loooong time, and it truly was very funny. So just think of this next time something great happens in life. Maybe it will be in your "life review" one day.
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