My New Blog

My new blog address is:

www.thewyomingwildbunch.blogspot.com

Moving Day

I started setting up James' blog as my own, so I guess we can say that I've officially moved. To find it, click on the "James" link under "My Crazy Friends."

I haven't made a new blog for the twins yet, though. The purpose of theirs is to include photos for their birth family to see. I'm not sure how often they look at it, but they know it is there.

So now I'm signing off. G'night Folks.

Technology Frustrations

My printer is refusing to work again and I am trying to get ready for my Cub Scout Belt Loop Day, which is this coming Thursday! It will complete one of my five Woodbadge goals. Luckily James was miraculously able to hook my old printer up to this computer (it wouldn't let me before because my driver disc was so outdated and the printer is old enough that the internet didn't have an updated driver available. I'm not sure how he did it. He's a technology genius) and I've been able to print things from there, but I need to print a label on the cd's that I've made for the music belt loop!!!

Now, normally I love technology... but not when it doesn't work the way it should!

Why Do These Things Happen All At Once?

Doesn't it seem like when one things goes wrong, pretty soon lots of things go wrong? For instance, we had a 2" screw in our tire after we got home from Rock Creek's pioneer celebration. We were able to travel safely to Utah for our August temple trip, but while I was in Costco, James pulled the screw out and the tire deflated. James and Ian changed to the spare tire. Luckily Les Schwaab (sp?) patched the tire for only $12, and within 45 minutes. That doesn't happen in Lander! Then yesterday our van's sliding door wouldn't open. We don't know what happened and we were discouraged thinking it would cost lots more money to fix. James had been trying to change the oil and the filter that he bought didn't fit, and he couldn't find any in town that were the right one. Luckily today he was able to 1) find the right filter and finish changing the oil, and 2) fix the van's sliding door.

Then this morning my disc printer quit on me, right in the middle of a project that I'm doing for a lady that Mrs. Campbell referred to me. James spent a lot of time trying to fix it, but to no avail. Now, I know I use my printers 100 x's more than they were intended to be used, but seriously, I expect them to work as hard as I do -- not to fall apart! I haven't fallen apart yet (although I sure felt like it this morning when I was so close to being finished with my project and something silly like a broken printer had to throw off my groove!). I checked online and they have discontinued my printer (of course), as well as the newer model that uses the same ink cartridges (of course), so I ordered a refurbished one (I hope I don't regret that!) of my same model. It won't be here until Aug 11 and this couple is going to Alaska for a big reunion with friends (hence the purpose for the movie) on Aug 8th. I prayed about it, and would you believe that later in the afternoon when I turned the printer on it suddenly was working again! I have no idea what "fixed" it, but I was able to print all of the discs that this couple needed. Then when I tried to print the cover, it broke again. I tried sending it to the other computer, but the file was too big for my old computer to handle, and I still haven't figured out how to network my other printer on to this computer (it's even older than my disc printer). Once again I started praying. I turned the printer off and back on a couple times, and miraculously it started printing the page. I was able to print the covers for the dvd cases and I have the project all finished and ready to be picked up. At first when the printer started working again, I thought, "oh no! I wish I hadn't ordered that new printer!" Then when it broke again I realized that Heavenly Father had provided a miracle for me in order to finish this project and that the printer could not be relied upon to work when I needed it to. I will probably keep it on hand for parts for the new printer (as if I would know how to exchange them anyway, but maybe James would).

These things together with my blog suddenly being unuseable for pictures, I've been wondering why these things pile up together? I am scared of what might break next! At least James is able to fix most car-related things. And we were sure blessed to be able to fix our tire in Bountiful rather than in Lander because I'm sure it was much faster & less expensive.

By the way, James did say I could have his blog. I just haven't gotten around to "taking over" yet. I've been working on many other things. I missed writing my happy thoughts this week, and maybe that's why everything is breaking down! :) So I'll put a couple classic quotes from last week here:

Teancum: "I don't know what this stuff is. It's like burping juice or something."

Teancum: "Rebecca, act like puppies!" I had given Lizzie the last package of fruit snacks and T and Rebecca both wanted some. I said they could have some if she decided to share them. Lizzie was being pretty stingy with them, but once Teancum figured out how to turn it in to a game, she was all for feeding her "puppies." :)

We Need a Little Girl Time!

I guess I am doing this backwards, but I am going to write about our Girls' Retreat first! We Call Girls enjoyed our Park City get-away so much last year that we decided to go there again this year, and this time Lindsay was in town too! After the guys left Park City with all the kids, we girls went to the outlet stores in Park City. It was me, my mom, Brittany, Lindsay, and Chalice. We had fun shopping -- even I had fun, and I am not one who enjoys shopping. James is a much bigger shopper than I am! Actually, I did make the comment that James probably would have enjoyed shopping at the outlet stores a lot.

After we had finished all of our shopping (and you can see from the photos that there was a lot of it!) we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. And, as if we weren't stuffed enough, THEN we went to get ice cream at the Chocolate Factory. After that we drove home. What a fun time we had! It will definitely be an annual event. I will write more about the reunion later. I just had to get the extra-important stuff out of the way!

ONE MINUTE!!!

Well, I beat my record by one minute. I ran it in 1:56 this time. Last time I'd been 4th place in my age division, but this time I moved back to 7th place. They had a lot of people enter, and I heard the 1st place girl in my age division saying that this was the first time she had run this race. There were about 300 runners (or maybe it was 300 total, including walkers -- I'm not sure, I just overheard someone saying that).

I stayed with James, a.k.a. Benedict Arnold, for the first two miles. When we reached the 2nd mile I said, "you know, this is faster than we usually run it." He said, "I know," and off he went. He ditched me. I followed him for awhile before finally giving up on catching up to him. Good thing I tried to keep up with him, though, because otherwise I might not have beat my time. Once I decided to just run my own race, I pretty much kept my same pace the rest of the race. I didn't stop at all. At the water stations I would grab a water and take a sip while I ran, then throw the rest of the cup all over me to cool me down, and drop the cup on the street (litter bug!). Once I got to the half-way point, I knew I was home-free because the 2nd half of the race is easier than the first half. When I got to the 8th mile, I wondered how I would do on the rest since we only run 8 miles in the mornings. I was on auto-pilot by then, though, so I was fine.

James finished at 1:45. During the last mile I was speeding up a little and passing a couple girls that I'd spent the whole race passing & being passed by. I did finish before they did, and I thought I was pretty cool, until my brother-in-law Chris zoomed past me, and came in a couple people before I did, finishing at 1:55. I finished at 1:56. Kris came in a minute after me at 1:57, and Therese at 1:58. Caleb came in somewhere between me and Laura, and Laura was at 2:02. I think we all did totally awesome. Laura waited around for a half hour for her friend Amy to finish. Therese waited for Gabby to finish walking. Kris was home and showered and riding her bike to the parade by the time Laura and I walked home.

I'm really glad I ran it, but I'm not sure I can ever run it again because I was seriously running as fast as I could the whole time. I'm not sure I could beat my time again. Maybe if I spent all year training...

We already scared Laura away. They're on their way back to Evanston now, skipping the last part of her class reunion. We are pretty good at scaring people away.

Funny How Things Work Out

Yesterday Cameron accidentally stepped on and broke my white sunglasses (see photo of Lizzie below). I really liked those glasses, so I was not happy, and Cameron felt really bad. Several months ago I lost my expensive prescription sunglasses. I thought Lizzie had thrown them in the garbage and that I'd never see them again. I looked for them for a few weeks and then just gave up. I was a bit grumpy on our trip home from Utah because I need sunglasses when I'm outside.

The play room is one of the jobs that the boys rotate on each week. This morning Jamey took his first turn on the play room. He was up there straightening toys for about 20 minutes. He knew that I'd been unhappy about my sunglasses breaking, so he brought down a pair of sunglasses and asked if I wanted to have them. Guess what! They were my expensive prescription sunglasses that had been missing for several months! I guess someone had taken them up to the play room and they'd been up there all this time, probably mixed in with the dress-ups. Can you even believe the timing? Since I lost them, I've gone through all kinds of Dollar Store or cheap Walmart glasses, and this white pair was the first relatively expensive (I think they were $20) sunglasses that I have purchased, mostly because James hated all of my Dollar Store glasses.

To add to the story, on Thursday I went to renew my driver's license. I didn't pass the eye test. I really tried, but I just could not see those blurry numbers! She said I could drive without my glasses as long as I had mirrors on both sides of the car, so luckily I am not required to wear my glasses when I drive (I do wear my glasses at night, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to see a thing!), so it is such a heaven-sent that my prescription sunglasses have been found! Now you don't have to grab your children & run them in to your house when you see my big white van coming! I will actually be able to see where I'm going! Funny how things work out.

To Run Or Not To Run...

I have been debating running the 1/2 marathon in 6 days. I haven't been training for it because I hadn't planned to be in town on the 4th of July. Casey flies in from his mission to the Philippines on July 1st at 9 p.m. We will be at the airport when he flies in. We had intended to stay in Utah until his homecoming on July 12th. Since that time, lots of things have come up. Cameron & Micah are going to scout camp for all of the week before the homecoming, and James is going with them for 1/2 of that week. All of the kids have sports that they would miss, and most importantly, Jamey and Ian have their final baseball game on July 2nd. So we'll watch Casey fly in, visit with him that evening, and then head back to Lander the next morning. Of course, we'll go back out for his homecoming & our family get-together in Park City.

James and I have lengthened our run to where we might be going 7 1/2 - 8 miles a morning now (we haven't measured it past the 7 mile mark, and we'd gotten used to that so we started adding distance again). I know I'd be fine to run 8 miles, and I'd probably do OK running all 13 miles if I decide to do it. My concerns are that 1) I haven't run a race since Kija was born. I'm not sure if I would have a hard time emotionally with it. Maybe I would be fine. I just don't know. 2) I know I would be concerned about improving on my 1:57 time, and that I will feel bad about myself if I don't run it faster than I did last time. I know that sounds silly, but it would feel like moving backwards to me if I didn't beat my time, even though I had trained for it back then, and I haven't trained this time.

But I love to run. I love to race. When the race starts, my competitive spirit comes out and I just want to run and run and run, and I think "I have to pass that bald guy, I can't let that bald guy beat me. I have to pass that fat guy. I can't let a fat guy beat me," etc. Knowing that the hardest part of the race is the route we run every morning makes me not worry about making it all the way, but who knows what will happen. We have never timed ourselves so I don't know how fast we run it. When I ran the half marathon, my goal was to finish in 2 hours. When we hit the halfway point, I looked at my watch and saw that I was past one hour. So I sped up, and when I saw that I had 15 minutes left of my goal, and still 2 miles to go, I sped up even more, and came in 3 minutes before 2 hours. I'm not sure I could do that now. And I won't know unless I try it... but I'll feel bad about myself if I don't make it... (I don't deal well with failure.)

If I do run it, James is going to run it with me. His sister Laura is going to run it and said that we could all run together, but I'd probably slow her down. Kris & Therese are both running it, but they've been training for a marathon so it will feel like a short run to them. They were about 15 minutes behind me when we ran it last time, but they'll probably be an hour ahead of me now!

So I need to decide by tomorrow because then the cost to enter the race goes up by $10. To run or not to run...

Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run...

See that look on his face? That's how I feel when I run!

Back to Gilwell, Happy Land! I'm Going to Work My Ticket If I Can!

I used to be a Bobwhite, a good old Bobwhite too,

But now I'm finished bobwhiting, I don't know what to do.

I'm growing old and feeble, and I can bobwhite no more,

So I'm going to work my ticket if I can.

Back to Gilwell, happy land,

I'm going to work my ticket if I can!

You all know that I love the scouting program. I knew it was important back when I was growing up and my dad was constantly going on scout campouts, as he was the scoutmaster for what seemed like most of my growing-up years. I enjoyed the high-adventure aspect of it when I helped James run the Entrada Boy Scout High Adventure Base in Moab, but I knew little of how the scouting program, in general, was run. When Cameron became a cub scout, I was given a Wolf book and received very little other information. I learned through experience exactly how the cub scout program worked. When Cameron turned eleven, he had a fabulous scout leader who assisted him in progressing through the ranks very quickly. And when I became the Advancement Chairman over cubs and scouts, I learned even more about the details of the scouting program. I still have a lot to learn.

If any of you feel some excitement about scouting, and especially if you have a scouting position, you should definitely go to Woodbadge. It was an incredible experience! I learned things there that will change my life. I came to value scouting even more than I already had. And I came home excited to get to work!

I left for Woodbadge around 5 p.m. last Sunday, June 7th. I followed the directions off Mapquest and made it easily the 4 hours to the turn-off, then followed the winding dirt road through huge rain puddles that I wasn't sure my car could make it through. I pulled in to camp just as it was getting dark and saw a parking lot full of cars, but not any people. I turned around and parked in front of the ranger's cabin. I knocked on his door and he and his dog eventually answered it. He told me to keep going further down the road to the lodge and check in with the staff there. When I arrived at the lodge there was some excitement because there had just been a grizzly bear spotted in camp 5 minutes earlier (about the same time I was out of my car knocking on the ranger's door). Sandy told me how to find the women's cabin and I ventured over there through the mud in the dark. Two girls were there already - Stephanie and Donnatella. They helped me unload my car and they walked me back from the parking lot so that I wouldn't be eaten by our friendly bear. Then after we made it to the cabin, I realized I had left my sleeping bag in the car. So we all trudged back to the parking lot through the mud in the dark, picked up my sleeping bag, and returned to the cabin. No sooner had we entered the cabin for the second time, that I realized I had a box of breakfast bars with me. I had been given strict instructions not to have any food in the cabin, so as not to tempt Mr. Bear. I think the girls were pretty tired of walking back and forth by that point, because they insisted that we would be fine to keep the box of breakfast bars in our cabin overnight. Kris stopped in for a quick hello. She went to Woodbadge in 2007 and was on staff this time. She told me I was in the BEST patrol, so I immediately knew I was a Bobwhite (she's a Bobwhite too).

The other girls had claimed the 2 small bedrooms, so I chose a bed in the large bedroom out of the 5 beds that were in there. I was closest to the bathroom and the heater. I thought this was a strategic move on my part. Little did I know that I would be spending the majority of my nights on top of my sleeping bag dripping in sweat! I slept very little that night. I never sleep well when I'm not in my own bed. When James and Kris had persuaded me to go to Woodbadge for the past year, I had always reminded them that I'm not very nice after going an entire week without sleep! At one point during the night, I got up to go to the bathroom. A little grey mouse followed me in, ran over my crocs, which were sitting by the door, and behind my bag, which was sitting (zipped up, thank goodness) under the sink. He turned around and looked at me, then quickly ran back out. Donnatella saw him run from my room to the hallway closet early in the morning. He was cute, but I wasn't anxious to spend the night with him. I was grateful that he couldn't climb up on to the bed. Of course, the next morning when I went to breakfast with the other 4 participants (2 women, 2 men) who had also arrived the night before, I told one of the staff about our grey pet mouse. He said that he'd slept in the cabin the night before and that mouse kept climbing onto his sleeping bag and trying to get inside. So much for him not being able to get on the bed! I knew I wouldn't sleep the rest of the week for sure!!! Here is the girls' cabin. Mine is the bed next to the wall. There were 4 other beds in the room, 2 in another room, and 1 in another room. The cabin included 2 bathrooms and 2 showers.This was the first time in the Central Wyoming Council's history that they've had enough participants at Woodbadge to have all 8 patrols. That meant there were Beavers, Bobwhites, Eagles (James is an Eagle), Foxes, Buffalo, Owls, Antelope, and Bears. As the participants started to arrive, we did a variety of activities and were given a tour. Then we were all brought outside to figure out who was in our patrol. Our troop guide's name was Joe. I was in patrol #2, the Bobwhites. In my patrol there was Jason, Scott, David, & Roland. I would later come to realize that I had the four best guys in the whole troop all in my patrol. They were all excited to be there - very enthusiastic and ready to work. They were easy to get along with, even though all of them were used to being the leader. At one point one of the staffers (who I would later come to realize was in my ward in Bountiful when I was growing up) asked how I was getting along with my patrol. He said those who knew all 4 of the guys worried about how things would go. They worried that there might be contention or that one might just take over the whole group. I assured him that things were going fine. At first, I admit, I was not very happy. I hadn't slept much the night before and I was leery of being the only girl in a group with 4 men, thinking that they would consider me the tag-along and not able to do the various scouting activities that we would need to do. I was worried I would be left out of the fun. I was also used to being in charge at home, and was out of my comfort zone and feared I would be run over by these guys who were veterans in scouting. On the contrary, they were very good to include me and listen to my ideas. They taught me how to tie knots (you would think I would know how by now!). James said he was sending me to Woodbadge so that they would "fix me." Well, these guys taught me how to cook outdoors too. James can be glad about that. :)

We spent most of our learning time in this lodge where we listened to speakers and watched power point presentations about leadership. We even watched the movie "October Sky" one night. We also went outside to have separate lessons with our troop guide. Here's Scott and David sitting at our table in the lodge.

We also played lots of games, one called "Win All You Can!" One fun thing about my patrol is that we are all LDS. In fact, most of the Woodbadge participants were LDS (36 participants), as were a few of the staff. At one point during this particular game, we were frustrated about the lack of honesty among other members of the troop (you'd have to play the game to know what I mean) so we stood up and sang "Keep the Commandments," and at another point when we saw how far in the hole we were, we stood up and sang "And should we die before our journey's through..." The next day at Patrol Leader's Council, we were given instructions to clear any songs or skits with the Senior Patrol Leader before singing them. :) I guess we'd gotten a little bit too churchy the night before (but we did get permission to teach the troop "Popcorn Popping" on the day we were the Program Patrol). We sure had fun. It was an eye-opening game and one that came with a powerful lesson. I am pleased to say that we are the only patrol that kept our integrity for the entire game. A scout is trustworthy, loyal...

One of the days we were assigned to build a rocket as a patrol. This is Roland getting our rocket ready for launch. At the bottom of this post are 3 videos of our rocket launch. We didn't exactly win... I think we received the prize for the Shortest Flight. Oh well, it was fun anyway.
Building this rocket together (and I must admit, I didn't get to help much with this. My 4 guys reverted back to their cub scout days and they were pretty determined to build the perfect rocket, and I was glad to let them do so) led up to the beginning of our real project. We needed to plan and build a project that represented scouting, and present it to the troop as a patrol. We built a monkey bridge, and tied knots to it to represent the progression of scouting through a boy's life. We started with the simple knots for cub scouts and progressed to a woggle to represent an adult leader. This is David, Jason, and Scott working on the lashing for our monkey bridge. They did let me help with the lashing of the logs, under careful supervision. :) Here are the knots, starting with Cub Scouts on the left and progressing towards the right. When we presented our project, we each read a section about scouting, starting with me talking about Cub Scouts, Jason about Boy Scouts, David about Varsity, Roland about Venturing, and finally Scott talking about adult leaders and tying it all together. I think the project was a success, other than my terrible handwriting (I had written the speaking parts). Here is Jason working on the bridge.

And Scott and David working on knots. Before we did this project, I didn't even know how to tie a square knot. Now I can do the simple knots without help and some of the more complicated knots while following instructions. I still can't tie my own woggle. I somehow managed to make the one for my neckerchief, but I have no idea how I did it, and I cannot replicate it. I better put that woggle in a safe place!

Here is our completed project with labels on the knots. It may not look like much to you, but it was a very substantial project when compared with the others. We were pretty proud of it.

On Thursday night we were due to camp outside in tents. We set off with our loaded backpacks to our campsite, only to be met by a troop guide from another patrol. He said that Yvonne had found a chewed-off baby elk leg in the camp site, right by where she intended to put our tent. They estimated that the bear had killed it the night before. We walked along the trail looking for signs of bears, and I admit I was pretty scared. I thought a bear was going to come bounding out of the forest and gobble me up at any second. At that point, I had no desire to see a bear. We found some fur along the trail, as well as bear footprints in both the upper and lower trails. As a result, they decided to change our camp site to one much closer to the lodge. I was fine with that!

Here's a bear print next to my hand. The bottom, near my watch, is the pad, then the toes and up by my fingers you can barely see the claw marks.

Here are more bear footprints, next to Jason's chapstick.

Yvonne and I put our tent right in between the guys' tents from each of our patrols. The camp ranger gave her a big buffalo hyde to sleep on, and it was quite comfortable. It kept us warm and I wasn't able to feel any pine cones under the tent. We stayed up very late talking about all kinds of things. We could hear the guys snoring in the tents on either side of us. As soon as we finally went to bed, I fell asleep instantly. That was the first restful sleep I'd had all week! I think it actually helped me to be a little bit cold. I would rather be cool to sleep than hot. That was also the first night that it didn't rain. When we woke up, we both felt very rested. Yvonne is from Worland and I met her at the Woodbadge breakfast in March.

On Friday we did a service project. We redid the individual campsites' fire pits. My partner was a guy from the Penticostal Church (I can't remember where in the state). We carried our barrel & grill back to the campsite that we had cleaned up, and on the way it burned the sleeve of my jacket (they had just barely welded it together). I was lucky I had that jacket tied around my waist or else it would have burned through my pants and probably burnt my leg! After we finished our camp site, we lined part of the roads & trails with rocks. We collected river rocks for the big project. Above is the giant barbecue pit. James said he was at Buffalo Bill when they built this one. Obviously it was in need of some repair. They had 2 bags of cement for the new project, but everyone in the troop donated money and Scott called friends from Cody to deliver 20 more bags of cement so that we could build the new bbq. Actually, I'm not sure what the technical name for it is. They used cement and river rocks to build the sides, after building a frame around it that would be pulled off after the cement dries. I told my boys that since I was one of the people helping line the road with rocks, they could look at the rocks at Buffalo Bill Scout Camp and know that I touched all of them. :) When I said that, James said, "none of those rocks are still going to be there when the boys get there in 3 weeks!"

This was a game we played on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately for my patrol, there were 5 of us (some patrols had only 4) so they had to do this game again so that everyone could participate.

Uh-oh, look! David's head fell off!

Here was our outdoor cooking site. Most of our meals were eaten in the lodge and were cooked by 3 cooks. They were very delicious (even though the kitchen appliances weren't working right) and extremely plentiful. I felt guilty because by the end of the week I was wasting half of all my meals (my most often-quoted line at home is, "we do not waste food in this house!"). I don't remember ever being so full. And there was a dessert with every meal. Plus there was cracker barrel at night. Talk about calories! And absolutely no exercise! We did cook a few meals at our outdoor cooking site. Dinner the night we camped out, breakfast the next morning, then dinner again the next night. These meals turned out to be really delicious.

On Friday evening we went on a short hike. I was hoping to spot a bear in the distance. I didn't want to bump into one face to face, but if he'd been on the other side of the river, I might have been able to take a photo of him. I was disappointed that I never actually saw a bear, although we did see lots of footprints, fur on the trail, and even bones from animals who had met their sad fate at the hands of Mr. Bear. We went on another short walk the next day and still didn't see any bears. Here are 2 of the women from the troop. Since there were 8 women and 8 patrols, each of us were put in to different patrols. This is Nancy and Yvonne.

Here are the guys in my patrol: Scott, Jason, Roland, and David. Scott is from Powell, Jason is from Casper, Roland is the mayor of Cowley (how 'bout that?!), and David is from Basin. All of them have Lander ties in some way or another. A couple of them know the Whiting family personally. Others know people that I know. It was fun trying to figure out people that we knew in common. Scott remembered Liz (used to date my friend Cindy when they were in high school), and Jason remembered Laura from the LDS Dentists trips they all went on. Scott remembered James also. James will see a couple of my guys when he takes our boys to scout camp in a few weeks. James keeps teasing me about this photo. He says, "you make our boys wear scout uniforms to everything, and YOU are not in a scout uniform!" Well, I can promise you that this was one of the very few moments within the whole week that I was wearing "civies," as Nancy called them, and I did so with the permission of my patrol leader (thanks, Scott!).

Here is a totem pole that David and his lone scouts built. That's Scott, Jason, Roland, David, and me. Why are we always standing in that order? We must be more organized than we thought! I had to spend most of the week in this scout uniform. It was mighty smelly by the end of the week (sorry guys!). I was sooooo glad to take it off before I drove home! But that resulted in missing goodbyes from half of my guys. Oh well, I'll see them again later. We have to work on those tickets, after all!

We met here for our religious meeting where a variety of songs were sung, readings, and prayers.

During the course of the week, a rivalry developed between the Bobwhites and the Foxes & Beavers. This was partially due to the fact that Roland had 2 sons in the troop, one in the Beaver patrol, and the other in the Fox patrol. One night when my guys were showering, the Beavers and Foxes ran in to the shower house and threw snowballs at them. My guys were defenseless. The rest of the week this was a joke between the patrols, and our patrol even put on a skit to reenact the event. This finally culminated in our patrol receiving an anonymous gift of this snow cone on our table after one of our outdoor events.

On the final day when we were able to recognize people who meant a lot to us at Woodbadge (we recognized our troop guide, Joe), the Beavers and the Foxes presented our patrol with a miniature Snowman. I guess you had to be there, but we sure got a kick out of the whole snow ball incident and all that it led to!

Roland's Snow Man

Here is Kris being presented a recognition by the patrol she was the troop guide for, the Buffalos.

Here are all the women in the troop:

me, Jamie, Stephanie, Nancy, Cindy, Donnatella, Gloria, and Yvonne.

Here is our patrol. Jason, me, Scott, David, and Roland, and with our patrol flag as well. Bobwhites rule!

Here is our patrol with our troop guide Joe on the far right.

Here is the Wind River District people: Bob, Kris, Dan, Jay, Brett, and me.

Me and Kris -- we didn't get to hang out a whole lot, but she did eat meals with us sometimes.

Here are all of the participants in the troop. The flags were lowered so that they were seen in the photo that the scribe was taking.

Here are all of the women with our flags.

Here are all of the Bobwhites that were there: Kris, me, Jay, Donna,

David, Roland, Scott, and Jason.

All of the staff members shook our hands as we stood in a circle, and then they lined up on the road to say goodbye.

We walked through them as we headed down to the parking lot, where everybody left (except me -- I snuck back up to the women's cabin to change into my civies!).

In order to earn our Woodbadge beads, we need to complete our ticket items. This includes 5 goals that need to be completed by a certain deadline. My goals are as follows:

1) organize, advertize, and put on a Merit Badge Day where boys from my scout troop and the other Lander scout troops (diversity!) can come work on merit badges, rotating between them, and leave with assignments of what to do at home.

2) organize, advertize, and put on a Belt Loop Day for the cub scouts. They will rotate between 3 belt loops and hopefully earn all 3 of them in one day. This will be especially helpful to those cub scouts that don't have a lot of parental involvement at home, and therefore receive very few awards at Pack Meetings.

3) create a collection of advancement ceremonies for cubs (Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, Webelos, and Arrow of Light). Put this collection into a binder and on a disc and make it available to each of the cub leaders, and present it at Roundtable (that last part was Sandy's idea).

4) prepare a pamphlet or brochure for cub parents describing what they can do to help their sons with cub scouts, and give it to these parents when their child receives his new scout book (Wolf, Bear, and Webelos). This was as a result of my experience as a new cub parent. Other parents of new cub scouts have been confused also. Hopefully this will help with the transition.

5) Work to keep my merit badge counselor list updated by contacting all of the merit badge counselors to remind them to either mail in their renewal form or bring it to me to mail in (this was a problem last year when half of them didn't bring me their renewal forms).

These goals have to be measurable, attainable, and can't be dependant on any other person. In other words, I couldn't make my goal be "ensure that all merit badge counselors remain signed up next year" because what other people decide to do would be out of my control. Jay is my ticket counselor so I'll be reporting to her as I progress in my tickets. I am excited to get started and just need to find some free time to get organized and make a list of "to-do's" for my tickets. I listed my deadline as being Dec. 31st for 4 of them, and Jan. 31st for the last one. I want to earn my beads in time to receive them at the March Woodbadge breakfast, so that the whole family can come to the breakfast and then we can all stay in Casper for the Eagle Recognition Luncheon, since Cameron & Micah will have both earned their Eagles by then. I am pretty motivated and excited about it.

Each of us were given the assignment of being the Patrol Leader. We also held the positions of Assistant Patrol Leader, Scribe, Chaplain, and patrol member. It was a learning experience to see how each patrol member led in a different way. People from all backgrounds can be leaders. And there is no one right way to be a leader. The day I was patrol leader, we were also Service Patrol for the day, which meant that we had to clean up after everybody (the lodge, bathrooms, outhouses, etc.). I admit I was mighty stressed. But everything I asked my guys to do, they did it quickly and without complaining. They were willing to let me be the leader. I told you, I had the 4 best guys in the troop all in my patrol.

I was busy enough that I didn't have a lot of time to think about how things were going at home. I was tempted to call home (some of the participants did, using the Buffalo Bill kitchen phone), but I knew that would make me too homesick. I was glad everyone was protected at home. Jamey fell out of a tree at a party for James' boss in the public defender's office. Lucky for us our bishop is a chiropractor! The next night at the ward party he popped popcorn in Jamey's neck and back, and he's good as new now. James missed one court appointment, but luckily it wasn't my fault -- it was a public defender case, and it turned out to be fine. James' other secretary and I have now finally figured out how to communicate about his court dates. Both of us are pretty set in our ways and not very willing to change, but I think our new system will work. Ian got hit in the stomach with a baseball when he was up to bat. We'll see if he still dares to stand in the box tomorrow night at his baseball game. (Micah got hit with a baseball and that's why he doesn't play anymore.) No one went to the hospital. Nothing in the house got broken (that I have noticed yet). We had only one doctor visit, and that was James having his eye looked at because of problems he'd been having since Cub Day Camp the weekend before. My mom set a high standard for me to follow, having all the kids finished with their charts by 10 a.m. (Did I mention what an awesome mother I have?).

It is always good to have a break. It is always especially good to be back home. I sure do love my James and my 8 sweet kiddos. I'm grateful to them and to my mom for making it possible for me to have this very important and inspirational training. What a fabulous week it was!

Here are the videos of our rocket launch. They might be somewhat painful to watch.

And here is a video of one of the games we played on Friday.

Bobwhites rule!

For They Shall Be Comforted

http://deseretbook.com/authors/author-info/19880

http://www.covenant-lds.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=120_22&products_id=2402

All right, I guess there have been enough questions now that I should probably start answering them. But first, indulge me because, after all, it is Flashback Friday.

When I was a little girl, I used to write stories all the time. I loved writing. My aunt Jill would read all of my stories and praise me like crazy, thus making me want to write more stories. The above photo is of me after the Reflections Contest for a short story I wrote in 6th grade. When I was in 9th grade, my English teacher Mrs. Bean suggested I enter the BYU-sponsored High School short story contest. I won 2nd place all four years -- never could seem to grasp that first place slot -- but I got a $30 check each time and got to attend a banquet with my parents at BYU each year. That was pretty fun. At that point in my life, I really considered myself to be a writer. If you were to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up (besides a mother, of course, which has always been my greatest desire!), I would probably have told you that I wanted to write... something... short stories? children's books? I don't know what -- I just loved to write.

I won an essay contest in high school or college (I can't remember exactly when) and then after I got married, I didn't write much anymore. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it anymore -- I just got busy with other things and life started racing away (as many people told me it would). I wrote a cute children's book about Cameron & Legos, but when I wrote to LEGO to ask for their permission to send it to a publisher, they said I couldn't. I wrote another children's book, this time about Micah, and sent it to a few children's book publishers and one wrote back saying they wanted to publish it, but I would have to pay $4,000 of the publishing costs, which would be reimbursed after the 5,000th book sold. That sounded like quite a gamble to me! So I let writing sit for awhile. I wrote for fun, of course, and in my kids' journals all the time, but frankly, it's pretty hard to sit down and write something of substance when you have eight kids swirling around you. Some people call it Writer's Block. I call it eight kids.

After we lost Kija, James suggested I write a book about the subject of grieving after the loss of a baby. I knew a book was needed because there are so few on that specific topic. I didn't know that it would really make an impact on people, though, until one day when my friend Kandice called me. She explained that she'd lost twins in a similar situation to Kija's. We talked for a while and, even though our situations did not change as a result of our conversation, we both needed each other so that we would feel normal, and to feel like we were not alone.

After that I spent several months thinking about what I might write in a book. Then one day I just sat down and wrote it. That night I asked James to read it. He told me to send it to a publisher. This was about 2 years ago.

Ironically, I felt prompted to send it to Covenant Communications. I resisted, however, because Deseret Book is always the first place you're supposed to send LDS books, right? So I sent it to Deseret Book. They sent it back to me, saying they were already working on a similar project. My next move would have been to send it to Covenant, which I still felt prompted to do, but this happened to be soon after I learned that Deseret Book had taken over Covenant Communications & Seagull, and I assumed that Covenant would not take on any projects that Deseret Book wouldn't also publish. So I sent it to Horizon Publishers. They sent it back, saying they weren't interested.

I still felt prompted to send it to Covenant, so I decided I didn't have anything to lose - and I sent it to them. A few months later they asked me for an electronic version of the book. A few months after that they asked me if I would be interested in re-writing the book, following guidelines by 3 of their outside reviewers. Of course, I told them yes. They sent me 3 reviews of my book. Two were positive. One was pretty negative. They contradicted each other, so I asked my editor which of the reviews I should follow when re-writing. I didn't hear back from her before I sat down that weekend and rewrote the whole book (I locked myself in my bedroom with James' laptop and he took care of the kids all day). They wanted it longer, and I lengthened it by about 1/3rd, including a lot more details than I had included in the original version. Initially, I didn't want the book to be too long because I didn't want it to overwhelm the reader, especially an exhausted grieving mother. I tried to keep it short and simple, something she could sit down and read in an afternoon, and then re-read the next afternoon, for as long as she needed it. But the reviewers wanted more details - lots more details.

I ended up following the advice in the two positive reviews. The negative review was very helpful too, though, because it helped me realize that I had put way too much responsibility on the reader, expecting them to automatically know and understand how I was feeling or what I was thinking as I went through the experiences I described. It also reiterated to me the need for a book on this subject. People need to get inside the head of a grieving person. Otherwise there is just no way they can begin to understand what they are going through.

I sent the book back to Covenant and a few months later (March 2008) I received an email saying that they had decided to publish it. The rest of the process took a lot longer than I imagined it would. It took almost a year for the editing process before the book was finally finished. I was surprised that my editor let the book remain my own -- she would make suggestions for rewording or adding or taking things out, but she let me do the writing, so I can feel like it is truly my book... except for the title. The title I had chosen was "Grieving for my Little Ones." I like that title. Covenant chose the title "For They Shall Be Comforted." I would have argued with them about the title, except for something pretty important that I realized when I saw the title they had chosen.

When I was fifteen years old, I received my patriarchal blessing. There are many, many things in it that I didn't understand at the time, and some that I still don't understand. Now that time has passed, I realize that my blessing talks specifically about us adopting the twins. It talks about the loss of Ammon & Kija. There is also an entire paragraph that is fulfilled with the publishing of this book. I will not quote it on here because it is very personal, of course, but that paragraph confirmed to me that Covenant Communications had chosen the right title for this book.

I also love the cover they picked out. Del Parson is my favorite artist, not only because he paints beautiful paintings, but also because he's the one who donated the pioneer painting for Becky after we made the PBS documentary. I think he's a generous person and an amazing artist. I think the cover is perfect for what is contained in the book.

The audio book is read by Joy Lyn Shaw and I think she did a fabulous job. Her voice is very soothing and comforting. I realized, though, that I didn't include my own name in the pronunciation guide that I made for her. She pronounces my name a little differently than I do, but that is all right.

I haven't told anyone (except James) about the book throughout this whole process, for several reasons. One is that I would have been very embarrassed if people knew about it and it didn't really come to pass. I was hoping that before I told anyone about it, I would have an actual book in my hands, but James started telling people the day after the book was released, so the word has spread. Another reason for my secrecy is that I didn't want people to contribute thoughts about my experiences, both my childhood and adult experiences, -- I felt that it would be most beneficial to grieving mothers to hear completely from my point of view, so everything written in the book is from my perspective and memory. Some of you may remember details that I don't remember, but I figure that there's a reason I remember things the way I do, and I didn't want to change the integrity of my perspective in any way. Also, the book is extremely personal. I almost hope that no one in Lander reads it because if people I see all the time have read this very personal book, I think I'll feel like I'm walking around naked all the time. I was completely open and honest in all aspects, and that is what was needed. Grieving mothers don't need a sugar-coated book -- they need something real, something honest. And lastly, I didn't tell people because I felt sort of silly about it -- I mean, it's really not that big of a deal, especially if you consider the fact that my friend Shawni's book came out only a month before mine and hers shot straight up to Deseret Book's best sellers list. Mine will never sit on Deseret Book's best seller list. It's just not that type of book.

Yet, I know my book is going to help a lot of people. I know that I was meant to write a book on this subject. I know that Ammon and Kija would have wanted me to write this book, and I almost feel as if they helped me write it. I see how this piece fits into the puzzle now. It makes me wonder what on earth all the rest of my patriarchal blessing means! I don't know that we can say that I've grown up and become a writer, but I sure am grateful to say that I grew up and became a mother. That's where the real rewards are.

Scripture Reading Poem

Two weeks ago, Brother Bills came over and asked me to speak in church on Sunday. Happily, I told him that I'd be on my Moab trip so wouldn't be able to speak. I gladly volunteered James to speak instead, thinking I'd get out of it. (I also volunteered James to substitute in primary when a teacher called and asked me to do it). James did end up speaking. And Brother Bills asked me to speak the following Sunday, which was today. You know how I hate speaking in front of people. But I survived.

I thought about my topic, family scripture reading, quite a bit, but waited until Friday night to write my talk because I know how I obsess about talks and I knew I wouldn't sleep starting when I wrote the talk because I'd be thinking about it over and over and over again. Waiting until Friday meant that I only had to lose two nights of sleep.

I wanted to end my talk with a poem. I did an internet search for Book of Mormon or scripture reading poems. I found a couple cute poems, but not ones that would have fit in right in my talk. So I wrote one that would fit in with the rest of my talk. I included it below.

MY FAVORITE FRIEND

Today I spent the day with you,
my favorite little friend
I fixed your meals, I did your wash,
your clothing I did mend.

I tied your shoes and we found the park,
we played and laughed for hours
We took a walk, hand in hand,
and smelled the beautiful flowers.

I took you to your ballet class
and watched you dance with pride
You helped me pick out groceries,
each moment by my side.

You skinned your knee and I was there
to kiss your tears away
Then smiling, laughing, skipping,
you ran off to play.

I fed you dinner, then gave you a bath,
and gently combed your hair,
We talked about the day we'd had,
all the happy moments shared.

Then just before we kissed goodnight,
there was one thing left to do.
Beside your pillow the scriptures lay,
I opened and read them to you.

This day I met your every need,
for you are my favorite friend
But reading the scriptures together,
makes the most difference in the end.

My Moab Adventure, Part One

Natalie and I had planned our Moab Adventure quite a while ago. We had the hotel reservations. I was making arrangements for my kids. The only problem was... the weather! We had a very bad storm forecast, and I wasn't sure if they would close the roads. I had ABC pre-school at my house in the morning, visiting teaching appointments scheduled right afterwards, Rebecca's afternoon pre-school, work, and volunteering in Teancum's classroom. I was planning to leave right after school, but so much snow had already fallen in Lander that James was worried they might close South Pass. So he talked me in to leaving right after my visiting teaching appointments and missing the rest of my scheduled events. The roads were fine except for some fog and rain. I did see a semi truck on its side, though, but I was a very careful driver.

I brought the girls with me and they stayed with my parents & also spent some time at Chris & Brittany's house. Their cousins Zoey and Skylar were there too, so they had a fun sleep-over and great play-time with them. We arrived in Bountiful in record time, even after a stop at Costco for needed supplies.

In the morning, I left the girls with my mom and my sister-in-law Natalie picked me up. We were sooooo excited to go to Moab that we missed the turn-off. :) It was fate, though, because then we ended up taking the "long way" to Moab and stopping in Capitol Reef and Goblin Valley. I had never been to either one and I had been really wanting to go to Goblin Valley especially, so I was pretty excited. These photos are from our time at Capitol Reef National Park:

If you look very closely, you can see me standing underneath the arch. I believe this arch was called Hickman Bridge. We went on a little hike to reach it. There were very few people there. It was nice and quiet.

Here is Natalie next to the arch.

This is Natalie standing above a small set of arches that we found along the trail. I was down inside them.

And here is me standing on top of them.

If you look very closely, you can see petroglyphs. Start at the bottom in the middle and follow them up to the right.