I really should be cleaning the kitchen right now, but I think I'll write a quick note instead.
It has been SUCH a busy weekend. Saturday I spent literally all day from 8:30 AM until 9:30 PM at the church, minus about 2 hours in the late afternoon. Saturday morning was the Young Women camp certification. I'm not a camp leader but sort of got roped into helping since I have some dutch oven experience. It actually turned out to be a VERY good thing that I was there because of the 3 women in charge, one had to leave halfway through for a class, and the other was only there for about 2 hours due to really bad morning sickness. So it was me and the other girl for the rest of the time. It was definitely an adventure. First of all, when we got there no one had the key to the camp shed so we had to wait almost an HOUR before the bishop got there with the key. We had the girls start to cut up vegetables and stuff so it was ok but we were really nervous about the time since dutch oven food takes a while to cook. Then we had been told there were 13 dutch ovens in the shed, and we planned on using all of them (80 girls plus leaders, for a stew, corn bread, and cobbler lunch). Turns out there were only 6. Aaack!! I had brought mine, thank goodness, and one of the other girls ran out to Walmart and bought another so we ended up with 8 total. We decided to just do the stew and cobbler in the dutch ovens and luckily there were two really big foil baking pans in the church kitchen so we used those for the corn bread. And THEN, we had been told there were some chimney lighters to get our charcoal lit. Nope, there were none. So we laid out a bunch of foil, poured out piles of charcoal, tucked in bits of twisted up newspaper, doused it all in lighter fluid (requiring yet another trip to walmart for more lighter fluid), and finally, FINALLY got enough lit to start the stew cooking. And then it started raining. So we dashed out there again and managed to drag over some big rocks and draped foil over all of it (thank goodness we had lots of foil), anchored by the rocks, and it all seemed to be ok. Amazingly, through the grace of God, really, it all ended up cooked and ready at the same time, at the RIGHT time! And there was just enough food. It all got mostly eaten up, just a tiny bit of stew left, really. But I think everyone ended up with enough food since we did have enough for those who wanted seconds on cornbread and cobbler to have seconds. I was really worried about the cornbread. You know those giant foil baking dishes that you use to cook turkeys in and stuff? I used those for the cornbread and it was filled way up high. After baking for 45 minutes, I checked on them and they were golden brown on top and looked perfect until I tried to pull the oven rack out to take them out. Then I saw that the whole thing was still LIQUID inside! Oh no! So I turned down the oven a bit so the top and sides wouldn't burn, and let it bake for probably another 30 minutes, and it turned out just perfect. Perfectly done and not a bit burned. And the girls LOVED it. We did a recipe with 2 or 3 jiffy cornbread boxes to 1 box of yellow cake mix and it was really good.
Anyway, the other adventure at camp certification was the lost 2 year old. One of the stake leaders had brought along her 2 year old. She had been following her mom around all morning. At around 11:30 or so Nikki (the mom) came in the kitchen and asked if we had seen Maya (the little girl). Nope, we hadn't. About 15 minutes later, she came back, this time a little panicked, saying she still couldn't find her daughter and was asking all the girls to search the church and the parking lot, etc. You can imagine the scene that followed, with dozens of girls and leaders going from room to room, searching cars in the parking lot, checking the canal on the other side of the road. It was really scary. The first time Nikki had come by asking about Maya, one of the other leaders asked if she had checked the nursery and Nikki said she had, and she wasn't there. And then when the big search party started, I followed some girls into the nursery, they looked around, and she wasn't there, still. I was about to leave when something just told me to look again. This time I got down on my hands and knees and looked all the way under the train table they have in there. From a standing position, you can see most of the way under the train table, and it was clear. But when I got down on my knees, I saw 2 little feet. I stood up and ran around, and there she was. She had fallen asleep in just exactly a position where she couldn't easily be seen unless down on your hands and knees. I scooped her up and ran out calling to everyone that I found her. It took me a couple of minutes to find Nikki, but I finally found her out in the north parking lot. It was really something to see the look on her face when she saw Maya in my arms. Thank goodness it all ended up that way. I know Nikki felt just awful. Later I asked her if she really got to the point of panic. She said at first she was just sure that she would be found in the *next* room, but room after room, and she wasn't there. She said she knew how it must feel for a parent to lose a child without a trace. There one minute, gone the next, with no reason, no explanation. I know she felt like a bad mother, but the thing was, Maya really *was* in exactly the first place her mother thought, doing exactly the first thing her mother thought-- sleeping in the nursery. It is just that no one could find her in the nursery. Anyway, that was definitely a little more excitement than any of us were looking for.
After I got back home (cleanup took nearly 2 hours after certification was over), Ben, the boys, and the Curtises went to a park to shoot off a rocket the Curtises have. I decided to stay home and clean a little bit before dashing off to the church again for stake choir rehearsal and then the stake adult session. So I didn't get back until almost 10:00, completely exhausted.
This morning I was back at the church at 9:30 for more choir rehearsal and then for stake conference from 10:00-12:00. The conference itself was broadcast from Salt Lake. I guess all the southestern states had their stake conferences this weekend so we all watched the broadcast at the same time. Sister Tanner, Sister Hales, Elder Hales, Elder Faust, and another man and woman (can't remember the names) spoke. They were good talks, although I wasn't really able to tease out what the theme of the conference was, if there was any.
This afternoon the boys and I rode our bikes to the park, played a while, and then rode back. It is more than a half mile to the park, so a pretty long bike ride for the boys (Mosey was on my bike), but they did pretty well. A little complaining on the way back, and then a few minutes of frustration when one boy wouldn't stop and wait for us and the other boy wouldn't go and catch up with his brother. What do you do? I was yelling for Brigham to stop and wait, but he couldn't hear me (those big wheels are loud), and Joseph just stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and refused to go any further. I yelled at him for a minute and then just said, "Ok, fine, I'm going to catch up with Brigham. See you later!" And after I got going for a few seconds, I heard him madly pedalling behind me to catch up. And we all ended up at home in one piece, thank goodness!
One funny thing from Brigham and then I have to close. Ben was wrestling with him and trying to hold him in the rocking chair and said to Brigham, "You are MY boy!" Brigham says back to him, "No I'm not, I belong to MOM!" Hee hee, that made me smile.
Ok, I hope you all have a great Monday. Love ya!