Girls Camp!

The week following my trip to Hannibal was girls camp. As the assistant stake camp director, I got to participate and plan all of the fun. Camp this year was a great success. Our theme was "Of one Purpose: Hearts becoming one with Christ." We focused a lot on unity and the importance of unity in our lives (within ourselves, our wards, our young women, our families, etc.) I know that in the past, there has been a lot of drama and fights at girls camp; however, this year there didn't seem to be any. I noticed most of the girls having a great time, getting along, and including everyone. It was really neat to be there. The first night I helped plan and prepare a team building activity that helped build unity. The girls were split into groups and had to put together a puzzle of Christ (each girl had a separate piece to the puzzle). They then had a specific task they needed to accomplish and include each girl. They came back, posted their puzzle and talked about what they learned. We were pleased to hear them realize that there activity went better when everyone was involved, everyone gave their ideas, and when they listened and respected each other. The puzzle had a missing piece which I had. I tied that all into not leaving anyone out and having Christ's atonement as the missing piece - meaning the atonement completes the puzzle. I had a great time participating in lots of activities like canoing and rifling. I had 2 out of my 16 shots not hit the target and 5 of the 16 were bullseye. . We had a great fire building contest which turned out to be rather competitive.
. I even got sparks from my flint and steel. As an emergency preparedness activity, we learned how to cut up and de-bone a whole chicken. It seems like a necessary skill since the price of food is going up so much. . We had a priesthood leader cancel at the last minute, so Bruce even got to fill in for him. Bruce came to girls camp Tuesday, Wednesday, and half of Thursday. It was nice to see him since I was in a different state the entire week before. I always loved girls camp when I was younger, and it was a lot different being in charge of camp. When others ask me how camp was I can only say "Fun!" and "Successful!" It was successful in a lot of different ways, and this girls camp experience is much different than the one I had growing up. The wards have smaller amounts of young women so wards and branches combined in their campsites. We also had women we called as camp cooks who made all but 2 meals for everyone and we all ate together in the dining hall. I know that the girls were touched by the messages we shared and prepared and they felt the spirit. They all felt that they were a part of Christ as a daughter of God who loves them, and I think that is the most important thing. Camp was great! I look forward to next year, we are already making plans and changes for next August!. Camp Drake here I will come!

Mark Twain Conference

Some of you may remember a post about a field trip to Hannibal Missouri I took with my 7th grade reading class. While I was looking into and planning that field trip, I came across a conference for teachers offered by the Mark Twain Museum. This conference focused on why and how we should teach Mark Twain in the classroom. They focused on specific methods and strategies for teaching The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. When I saw this conference, I knew that I wanted to go. I got permission from my school district who paid for the week long conference my hotel, and my drive out there. I went the last week in July. It was fantastic! I had such a great time! I had no idea there was so much to Mark Twain and I left having a deeper respect for him and his writings. The conference was directed by experts on Mark Twain. The curator of the museum grew up in Hannibal, and has worked at the museum studying everything to know about Mark Twain for 30 years. Another professor dedicated her life to studying Mark Twain and she has a passion for his writing. In fact, every room in her house is decorated and dedicated to either a book of his or a character in one of his books. I never thought anyone could have such a passion for anything really. It was evident in everything she did or said. The conference started with a 2 hour life sketch of Mark Twain. So much was said, I can't every sort through all the facts. The great thing about this conference was that it cost $100.00 and all meals, fees, and entrances into the museums and other things were all included. On Monday night, we went on a river boat dinner cruise down the Mississippi. We read passages and excerpts from his book "Life on the Mississippi" and some from his autobiography. The next morning we had a walking tour of Hannibal, had a private tour through all the museums, climbed Cardiff Hill, and walked along the river front while learning about Hannibal during Samuel Clemens' (Mark Twain is a pen name) time. We took a tour of Rockcliffe Mansion, the biggest and most expensive house in Hannibal built in the late 1800's.
Afternoon sessions were reserved for lesson ideas and themes to discuss in the books. The next morning we went on a riding tour of Hannibal (to the cemetery in Tom Sawyer and the cemetery Samuel's family was buried in.) That evening, we had a private tour of Mark Twain's cave. The tour guide was great as he related excerpt from the book Tom Sawyer to us while he also told us historical facts about the cave. We drove to Florida, Missouri (Samuel Clemens birth place) and learned about his early life. We ended the conference with a performance by a Mark Twain look alike (actor who knew about Twain's life), and a buffet dinner. The conference brought back the spirit of Mark Twain and his writing. Of course I took gobs of pictures to show my students about these places and what life was like for people during Mark Twain's time.
The curator of the museum certainly has an interesting job. More interesting than I first though possible for a curator. He gets calls from people all over the world who have random questions about Mark Twain and his life. He has been contacted by Sports Illustrated for a picture of Mark Twain playing Billiards, a cooking magazine wanting a quote from Mark Twain about food, and other various magazines wanting pictures or information. It certainly was entertaining to hear the story of how he was taken to court by a man who thinks he is Mark Twain reincarnated. This guy was selling autographed pictures of Mark Twain on the museum property. Solicitation is not allowed on the property and the curator asked him to leave. Everywhere this guy showed up (always on museum property) he was breaking rules. He went to the point of telling false stories about his life as Mark Twain focusing on his motorcycle trip across the United States. Mark Twain lived during the 1800's they didn't have motorcycles back then. He finally took the curator to court on grounds of harassment and unfair treatment to his business. Of course the case was dismissed once the "reincarnated" Mark Twain represented himself and had no real case. It just goes to show that there are a lot of crazy people out there. Now the museum has posted signs stating the following: "The Mark Twain Museum does not employ or support Mark Twain look alikes." Needless to say, I have an entire folder full of ideas to bring back to my class. We had to complete a lesson plan as part of the conference. You can find my lesson plan posted on the museum website under steamboat jargon. My partners and I did a huge lesson on steamboat jargon to use with either Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. We had so many ideas floating that our 2 days lesson turned into a 3 week lesson. We had to tone it down, so all that is posted is a couple of days teaching vocabulary and all our ideas for extension listed. Because we were doing a lesson plan on river boats, we took lots of pictures of parts of steamboats and river boats (not posted with lesson plan.) My partner got the best deal of all. She somehow convinced the pilot to let her on this boat to get private pictures. She was gone for 2 hours and missed the first lecture of the day. . We have put together a great slide show to show out students for understanding and I'm really excited. Hannibal is a great place to go. There is so much more to see there than just Mark Twain related things. I recommend everyone go. I'm really glad I went, words can't describe how much fun I had and how neat the opportunity was.

New "School" Year Resolution

As many of you know, the school where I teach is in the middle of nowhere. Literally! It takes me about 25-30 minutes to get there depending on what time of the morning I leave. If I leave a little later in the morning, more cars are on high cross road heading to Urbana to work. Once I turn onto Sellers Road, I rarely see any cars. In fact, for most of the drive it is an open road through multiple corn fields. Normally, I don't have a problem following the speed limit, but I have noticed that I do have a problem when I drive to school. I guess when I am the only car and I see a wide open road, my foot tends to get a little heavy on the gas pedal. Most days I pass a cop on Sellers road, but he is traveling in the opposite direction and driving faster than I am. That means that I am pretty safe! However, there is always the issue of the suicidal dog walker. She walks her dog on the road forcing me to drive in the oncoming traffic lane to avoid hitting her. Additionally, I only see this lady walking her dog on the highway during bad weather and heavy fog. Seriously! I rarely see her when it's sunny. When it is snowing, she is wearing a white snow suit. This is why I call her the suicidal dog walker. Needless to say, I set a goal for myself. This school year, I want to drive the speed limit on my way to work. Today was the first day of school, and I was successful. We will have to see how long this trend lasts. It's a good thing I have speed control to keep me a law abiding citizen. :)

Painting!

I found myself being way too ambitious and desired to paint my classroom this summer. I have 6 molding white panels above the 6 windows in my room which I found completely ugly. I tried sticking posters and other things over them, but nothing would stick up there. I tried tape and tacky stuff but to no avail. I decided that I wanted to paint over it so it wasn't so ugly. I got permission from the superintendent who graciously bought all the paint and I got started. I was originally only going to paint those panels above the windows and my ugly white bookcases. (There are 2 although you can't tell because one is at the entry way to my classroom)

I accomplished that. I liked the light blue color so much and I had a lot of paint left over that I decided to do the rest of the walls. That ended up being more of a pain than it was really worth. I had to buy another gallon of paint just to do 2 coats because the texture of the wall was so difficult to paint over. The wall is made of smoothed over cinder blocks, so of course the roller wouldn't get all the rivets and wouldn't fill in the mortar. I had to paint in between those all by hand. Every time I thought I was finished, my principal kept finding more and more things wrong and I had to keep going back to fix it. After nearly four full days of painting, I think it looks great right now - a whole lot better than it did before. I find it kind of irritating that I had to paint it myself just because I wanted it done, but at least I can enjoy the beauty of it all. It's a good thing Bruce helped me otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it at all. This picture might be hard to tell, but the wall above my desk is a beautiful Scandinavian sky color. I love the way it looks now, so I guess it was worth all that hard work.

Massacre of the boxes!

Bruce here! The last couple of years I've had a nice apple box with handles (that almost fit under the bed), a lovely Sketcher shoe box, and a nice bright yellow box. These boxes were excellent for storing all my old school papers, pictures from the newspaper, wedding announcements, back-ups for the pictures I've taken, and other priceless gems. Imagine my horror when I came home and found them scattered all over our second bedroom. I had to rescue a few things from the garbage and put them in a safe undisclosed location. There are a couple of things that I don't know how many times Brittney has thrown them away. My lips are sealed as to what those items are. She did ask permission to throw a few things away, and I graciously consented. Now I can't find anything. Not that I've tried to find anything in those boxes anyway. I have a few treasures in my closet and Brittney promised not to touch anything in my closet no matter how hard it is to resist. At least I still have my cows' teeth collection.

Organized....disorganized

Have you ever noticed that any time you want to really get organized, you must first become disorganized and make a huge mess? Think about it. If you want to clean out and organize the coat closet, you must first take out all the coats and every other random item you may find in there, lay it all out on the floor, and make a huge mess before you can decide what you try to shove back in the closet. The same thing goes if you want to organize your twice removed great aunt's bifocal collection. You must pull everything out, put it in piles according to shape, style, color, or date, then begin to put it back together. The same thing goes for anything you want to organize or clean. I know there are others out there who agree with me to some extent. One of my many goals this summer was to go through the "dreaded" boxes in our closet and organize them according to category. Everyone knows what I am talking about, those boxes that you tend to shove everything in because you don't know what else to do with it. Those boxes that you tend to keep sealed up and move from place to place wherever you go. I know everyone has those kind of boxes. As Bruce may testify, boxes and I don't get along. I can't stand the sight of them. They make me feel like I am....what?....disorganized. I would much rather see things put in a drawer or a shelf - either way they need a specific place. I had 3 large boxes I wanted to go through. The remnants of these boxes varied like your grandmother's leftover fabric. They contained: papers written in high school and college, seminary and institute handouts, report cards, letters from friends and family, certificates, family history documents, pictures (unlabeled of course), wedding announcements from old friends, ticket stubs to concerts and other events, old scout/young women projects, work from elementary school, newspaper clippings, notebooks from college courses, handouts on every dairy subject imaginable, along with plenty of other odds and ends, knick knacks, and un-identifiable things. My task - to get rid of the boxes in any way that I could. I went through every paper and put it in a specific pile depending on what it was. As you can imagine, within a couple of hours, the entire floor of our second bedroom was filled with piles and piles of paper looking up at me and asking what was to become of them next. You couldn't even walk into the place, it was driving me nuts just looking at it, but I couldn't stop there. I had to do something with it because I didn't just want to put it back the way I found it. I worked on a little bit each day, but I wasn't making much progress. Soon after much dismay I just shut the door hoping that someone or something would make it all go away. If only I had a magic wand to zap and have everything perfectly organized. As we all know, it doesn't happen like that. I ended up throwing away the content of 1 1/2 boxes (who needs to keep all this junk anyway?), and put together a couple of binders. I filled a plastic expandable file with letters by category, and put all the family history documents in a binder. Both of those are now on a shelf on my bookcase. I put together all church handouts and 3 hole punched them. As soon as I buy a 3 inch ring binder, they will be put in it and put on a shelf. I put all of our old papers in a pile, 3 hole punched them and plan to do the same as above. I glued all our birthday cards and wedding invitations into my card binder (see rubber cement blog to learn about that), and went through all our pictures tossing aside the doubles. Everything else I put in a folder and set it on top of my desk. Now the floor is clean, but those piles and folders are now scattering the top of my desk. School is starting soon, so those piles will probably sit there until next summer. At least the dreaded boxes are gone - now all I have to worry about is not creating more of those dreaded boxes and somehow finish the organizational task I set my mind to. I still feel completely disorganized, but I have managed to make 10% progress in my 3 summer months off. I wonder if you can truely ever be organized without an unbalanced amount of being disorganized!!!

The moral Dilema of honesty......or dishonesty

Most of us are taught at a young age to be honest in all our dealings with our fellow people; however, is there sometimes an exception to this rule? Is it possible to bend this rule just a little bit for the benefit of helping out a needy friend? Can we bend it to save ourselves from a lengthy explanation that might not even accomplish the desperately needed task? I had such an experience yesterday where this debate played out almost unexpectedly.
My friend Priscilla Vanderbelt (name has been changed to protect the identity of the innocent) accidentally left her purchasing power (aka wallet) on a public transportation device (aka bus) when she was heading to that dreaded occupational location (aka. work). Because she was in a hurry to get there on time, she asked if I would stand at the agonizingly long place where many people waste minutes of their precious time (aka bus stop)and see if the wallet was still on the bus. [Doesn't it feel like you wait for the bus forever, even if it is only a couple of minutes?]
When the bus driver pulled up, I stepped on and asked if he or someone else found a small black wallet. He picked it up and while handing it to me said that someone turned it in.
"Thanks, that's the one!" I said and smiled as I turned to get off the bus.
"Wait! I shouldn't just hand that to you, what is your name?" He responded.
Without hesitating for one minute, I said with as much confidence as I could muster "Priscilla Vanderbelt!"
He handed me the wallet and said to have a good day! I took the wallet, double checked the ID to be sure it was Priscilla's, and meandered my way down the street to return it to its rightful owner.
Some may argue that I should have just said my real name that I was Priscilla's friend and was picking her wallet up for her because she had to get to work. I guess I could have explained the situation, but honestly, would he really have believe such a sob story. Instead, I had to be slightly dishonest so I could accomplish the much needed task. I guess others may argue that I was doing my friend a favor in claiming her name as my own because I saved her the embarrassment (not that it was really that embarrassing) of having to admit to leaving her wallet in free public domain. Is one slight moment of dishonesty worth saving face for my friend - Definitely!