Saturday, June 5, 2010

efy week #1 –Provo!

Man! What an amazing week! Oh where to start?
Well… I guess we need to go back to last weekend.

Saturday May 29th:
Alex and I ended up going to Logan on Saturday. We met up with Trevor in Ogden and went to Zeppies-and got gelato… YUMMY! Wish I had a picture…dang it! I forgot to take a picture! I guess I was too distracted by the attractiveness of the two young men that I was with…or the amazingness of the delicious gelato that we were eating…either way I didn’t take a picture- sorry I guess I will just have to go back with them again! And I have NO QUALMS with that!
Trevor and Alex went off to dinner in Ogden and I headed up to Logan to meet up with sister Branch! YAY BRANNY! Love her! It was nice to hang out with her!
Alex came up to Logan and we stayed at his parents’ house for the night.

Sunday May 30th:
The next morning I got a phone call from my mom as we were getting ready to go to church.
My mom’s parents were in a car accident over the weekend and my grandma was not doing well. The accident broke my grandma’s neck. My mom and dad had gone up to Idaho and they were having a family meeting to decide what to do. And family were all gathering at the hospital to come and say last goodbye’s to grandma Goodwin. I had to decide if I wanted to drive up to Idaho or not. When I had heard of how serious the accident was I had the thought that it was probably her time to go. She has been struggling with diabetes and has had to get dialysis every week and she didn’t want to do that anymore. And now she was no longer going to be able to breath on her own.
I sat in the guest room at the Norr house and Alex sat there and talked to me. He said – I will show you what I do in times like these. And he grabbed a Book of Mormon and opened to a random page and read a verse to himself. I asked what he had found, and he said “actually its pretty interesting – here read, more the last part of the verse than the first”

Alma 24:14 was the verse
“And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us beforehand, because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations.”

I read it and I started to cry. (I had been fine till that point!)
I AM very grateful that Heavenly Father has made the plan of salvation known to us! And he had done so because he does love us- just like this verse of scripture says!
I decided it would be best to head back down to Provo with Alex-

Alex doesn't know what to do around people who are crying...haha...and there I was. (He is a very green personality and not much blue...lol if that means anything to you) anyway this was the conversation I had with him:
K: "Alex, someday you will be married and your wife will start
crying...and when she does you need to ask her if she wants a hug, and
she will tell you if she does or not...she might say no- but most the
time it will be yes. and then you need to hug her"
A: "oh. okay...duly noted"
K: ...i just looked at him...then said... "okay now... lets practice!"
A: "oh...um....do you want a hug?"
K: "yes please!"

Then he gave me a hug. which is all I really needed. Ha! Silly boy! I love him and I am grateful for him.

Back in Provo...I went to the session director fireside for efy. And met my co-counselor for the week Dave Albee. Dave is from Orem! I actually was on the OHS lacrosse team with his 2 older sisters! We planned out the week and then went our ways to get ready and got a call saying that we were adding another group of girls to our company. So we met back together and Mandi was now the 3rd counselor in our group. Cute girl! We re-planned (really quick) and then went off.

I went with Alex to make door tags for our kidlets. And that is where I met Jordan. Jordan is Alex’s roommate for the week. It is his fists week of efy – he came into the room like a lost little puppy wishing someone would give him a hug and directions.
Luckily I am really good at giving hugs and Alex has a fancy pants iPhone- so Jordan wandered into JUST the right place!
Haha- we talked and made our door tags and got ourselves ready for the week –

Monday – Thursday
I wish that I could remember more specific details to tell you about certain days throughout the week
But I do know some points that are a MUST to be shared!

here is my company:

great group of kids! love them!

Basement bash:
So….sometimes counselors need a little break- the chillins were all in their classes and so we took the party downstairs.
I played the Ukulele and Alex and I made some videos to send to Miriam. I will have to get the videos from Alex to share them!





Brandon even came to visit.



Good times!

I got to help with musical Program this week! What a great experience! Musical Program is one of the best things at efy! We had a great group of participants who were a part of this awesome experience this week! We had a lot of fun together during practices...I was in charge of the soloists and got to conduct some of the numbers.


doing a breathing exercise during practice.


practice on the performance day.

And can we please appreciate this!...

Yes! this boy is playing the left handed guitar and his strumming arm is gone from just below the elbow down! Crazy cool eh!? he was pretty good too!

Oh! and Johnny-boy and I were on the same team here in Provo! YAY!

this is us at games night!


Monday May 31st
My Grandma passed away…
The funeral was on Friday June 4th. I had 2 co counselors this week so it worked out well that Mandi was able to take care of my girls for the day and I left early Friday morning to drive up to Idaho. Made good timing and went straight to the funeral.
Family was gathering in the Relief Society Room for the last goodbye’s and family prayer. My aunt Kathy came up to me and my mom and said that they were going through grandmas temple bag. And she showed us a ziplock bag that contained items that they found in Grandmas temple bag. Including: 4 “grandma” pens, a tube of some kind of cream, a box of crayons, a mini flashlight, and a deck of face cards. Not sure why these random things were in grandmas temple bag…my mom said,”I have a deck of cards in my temple bag too.” I said, “you do?!” and she replied, “yes…flag ones.” Then we busted up laughing. There we were standing in front of my grandmas casket, crying and laughing at the same time. It was a special moment.
All of the grandkids sang at the funeral. Well….correction…I couldn’t sing – instead I went up with all of my cousins and cried while everyone else sang! I struggled! I couldn’t stop the tears…but that’s okay. I think crying is a good and necessary thing sometimes.
Here are some pictures from the gravesite…


Uncle Randy and Uncle Ed and 3 of my cousins: Jason Bobby, Jeffery...

look at these attractive military men that I have in my family!

It started to rain and get really windy- but only for the time that we were at the cemetery. I think its cause grandma wanted up to hurry back to the church so we could get some food.
More pictures…
back at the church during the luncheon





This is a picture of my moms family. Grandpa with 11 of 12 kids.


This is how you become an "official friend"...all you need to do is Lick someone...and it is "official"...you are friends!


Chandra wanted to be Official friends with everyone!






But she had a hard time getting Brian to be "official friends"


I think that he wanted to be bosom buddies instead so he smashed her face into his chest...


and when she insisted that they be "official friends" and not just bosom buddies...well....


I think Brian won that battle.

Ha! Good times!
I am SO GLAD that I came up for the funeral! It was where I needed to be! With family!

I drove back down to provo after the funeral festivities were all over. I made it back just after the dance. I had said goodbye to my efy kidlets on Thursday night just in case I couldn't make it back on Friday after the funeral. but I was there for the taking it home fireside with brother Lasron and then for our company devotional.

I missed "picture time" earlier in the day so we got a few pictures as we were saying our goodbyes after company devotional...

me with the boys


and all of the girls


Good Week!...different than others...but really good! I am grateful for the experiences that I had! There is much to be grateful for!

1 comment:

  1. Haha, I love the part about the green personality and offering a hug.

    ReplyDelete