A photo update

I think 2011 is the year of bad blogging.  I'm giving up on being a good blogger again this year - maybe I'll be better next year...

Here are some things I've been doing since I posted last (not including my super fun Idaho trip...that's a blog post all in itself.)  Here's a list - not necessarily in chronological order.  Remember, I'm bad at blogging this year.  Bad bloggers don't do anything in order.

I got released from my calling and put back into the stake YW presidency as 1st counselor.  I will miss serving with these fabulous women more than I can even say.

I'm very excited about the new ladies I'm working with.  They are incredible, smart and talented and I have much to learn from them.  I'll be over YW Camp in my new role and that makes me happier than I can even say.  Oh and one more bonus?  I don't have to take notes at meetings anymore.  Hallelujah.  I loathe taking notes for anyone other than myself.

I spoke at the baptism of my adorable and amazing friend Leah.

I love that I was the first person Leah texted to tell that her dad had finally given her permission to get baptized after years of waiting.  She called me a few days later to ask me to give the Holy Ghost talk and of course I said yes.  Leah and I bonded at camp last year and I love her so much.  Apparently, I embarrassed her during my talk because apparently I mentioned a boy that she may or may not think is cute.  Apparently.  But whatevs.  She'll get over it...someday, right, Leah?

I said goodbye to some of my most favorite girls in the world...

Emily, Kristina and Sarah left for school and I miss them TONS already.  Since I'm no longer their camp leader, I gave them permission to start calling me by my first name and some of them have taken me up on it. 

I said goodbye to Bridget too...sniff, sniff. (she was the funniest about the first name thing - she called me Jeanelle like 20 times in about a three minute span of time.)  

I'm glad these girls are growing up and having fun new adventures...I just wish their fun new adventures weren't so dang far away.  Sigh.

Our stake does a day of service in honor of 9/11.  I worked with some good friends for a few hours ripping out blackberries near a river in my town.  I got totally scratched up but it was a wonderful day. Here's me and my cute friend Cody.

We had a stake dance last night.  I don't necessarily always want to spend one of my oh so busy Saturday nights at a youth dance but the kids I know and love never fail to make it fun and memorable for me.  Last night's was no exception.  Nikki and Cindy came to visit and brought me a slurpee - yum.  They are both too old to go to the dances now but I love that they come to hang out with me.

Darling Leah (see above) asked for my keys when I first got there and I handed them over without a thought.  Silly me.  She, Abbie and Emily are kind of the queens of the heart attack and look what they did to my car:

I didn't get a picture of the inside but they filled it with balloons too.  We're missing Emily but here's a pic of me with Leah and Abbie.  Love, love, love these cute girls!

Okay, and finally...the planking.  Have you heard about planking??? It was also depicted hilariously on The Office this week.  If you don't know what it is, basically, you lie face down wherever you are and voila, you're planking.

So last night at the dance, we (the adults) were waiting for all of the kids to get picked up (don't get me started on this topic just please promise me you'll pick your kids up on time from dances okay??)  and I came outside to check how many kids were still left waiting and saw this.

That's Leah, Abbie, Emily plus two cute boys, Brooks and Eric planking on my car! The boys' mom is in the presidency with me so they are stuck there until we can leave so they were looking for ways to entertain themselves while they waited. It was so hilarious.  I made them freeze long enough to get a photo because maybe I'm a better blogger than I thought...

Later this week...my Idaho trip recap!  

I'm not really a supermodel...

My sister Jaylene gave me a photo shoot with her friend (and mine) Andrea for my birthday. 

I waited to schedule it until this past Friday because I wanted to be done with Trek and Camp and I was hoping to have a little bit of a tan too. (Yeah, yeah...I'm vain.)

I'll get the official photos next week but go to Andrea's blog to get a preview (she's so dang fast!)  Andrea is so fun to work with because she totally puts you at ease, is completely confident in what she's doing and she is so good at getting the perfect shot.

We traipsed through a big ol' stinging-nettles-filled field to get the best light.

Jaylene took some behind the scenes pics

and of course...photo-bombed too (she does that SO well.)

Thanks, Jaylene for the great b-day gift and thank you Andrea for making me feel like a model for an hour.  It was so fun! 

Camp 2011

I'm so behind...gah. 

Young Women Camp was amazing, as it always is.  It was an interesting experience this year in that I wasn't the leader over the 2nd year Youth Camp Leaders but instead, I'm in the Stake YW presidency.

Stake YW Presidency: Mel, Lisa, and Karla

I was also the pseudo-camp secretary because the previous one got a new calling a few months ago.  So in addition to doing my stake stuff, I also did stuff like collecting receipts, getting the camp booklets printed, took the headcount each night AND I had to be the camp photographer.

YW camp director, Meesa

Can I share something with you?

I almost despised being camp photographer.  Why? 

Ohhhh, lots of reasons.  (Tell me SOMEONE said that like Savannah in "Savannah Smiles." Please?)

Reason number one:  I prefer to take pictures when I want to, not because I have to. 

Anytime I was in the middle of doing a million other things, someone would call me on the walkie talkie and say, "Jeanelle, come get a photo of this!" Then I'd have to drop everything and run to take a picture of the sun coming through the trees and then try to remember what I was doing before I got pulled away. My brain just doesn't work like a real photographer's.  And that's okay...

Not a terrible nature shot - go figure.

Reason number two: I'm kind of a crummy photographer.  Case in point: this photo of one of the levels.  Notice my friend Lisa off to the right?  Yeah, I probably shouldn't have had her in the photo since she wasn't in that level.  Especially since this is the picture that each girl and leader in that level got to take home with them to help them remember their wonderful year at camp.  Instead they are probably saying, "Why is Sister Clement in our ding dang picture?"

2nd level campers with an extra.  So embarrassing.

Reason number three:  I like taking pictures of people I know and love or of people whose parents I know and love.  It's actually hard to take pictures of people you don't know well or don't know at all.  You think "did I get a picture of her already?"  Or you feel guilty for taking the millionth picture of the Robinsons because you know and love them so much.

My other family: Becca, Steve & Emily

But want to know what I loved about camp this year?

1. I loved meeting this girl.



BFFs

 Sharon was our craft lady and besides having a PhD in crafts, she was super fun and we clicked right away.  Love.  Her.  (even though I'm old enough to be her, ugh, MOTHER.) We also established the first ever gum wall at camp (uh, YEAH we did!)  It was a hit.  (Hopefully some of you have seen the Seattle gum wall...)
 

Oh and I have to post this blurry photo because it makes me laugh every time...Sharon and I were going to pose like this, belly to belly, in our stake photo but chickened out. Oh how I loved laughing with her, Melanie, Lisa and everyone else in the stake level that week.  Camp completely fills my bucket every year.

2. I loved being a Stake person instead of being in charge of a level. 

Mel, Mindy, Elizabeth and Quinae - we all shot guns!

Don't get me wrong - the last four years were the best ever and I would go back to doing that job in a heartbeat but this year was a nice change.  I loved that I had time to actually talk to people. 

darling Leah

I loved that I had time to get to know girls in all of the levels.  I loved that I had a TON less stress. I also loved being able to just LOVE the 2nd YCLs instead of telling them what to do all the time. So nice!

Lindsey, Jenn & Paige

I also REALLY loved wearing wings (we were fairy godmothers.) And seriously? I think I'd like to incorporate this particular hairstyle a bit more in my every day life. 

the stake board on our way to the polar bear dip

3. I loved doing something that pulled me out of my comfort zone.  I can't go into details about it because it's kind of a secret thing and I know there are camp girls who read my blog...but I was grateful to be asked to do something that was difficult for me.  I had an amazing spiritual experience because of it and I will be forever grateful for that "stretch."

4. I loved bonding with this simply beautiful girl. 

Lovely Lilly

I mentioned her here in my trek blog but Lilly and I made a soul-to-soul connection at camp.  We frequently would look at each other and just start crying.  I know with everything that I am that she and I were supposed to meet on trek and we were supposed to be at camp together. I'm so grateful she came to camp - she had such a great experience being a 2nd YCL and she was so good for the younger girls.  I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father for putting special girls like Lilly in my life.  I love getting that taste of being a mom during that week at camp...I'm so blessed.

A quickie photo recap

So guess what?  I leave for camp on Monday.  I wish I was brave enough to take a photo of my living room where there is not even a path to walk through currently.  It's bad, people.  I've also been having some fun since I got home from trek.  Here's a quick little picture recap for the 12 of you who are still reading my blog...

I had a sleepover at the Allens. Love this family!!



Cindy and I went to the beach on one of the few sunny days we had.  Then a kid threw sand on us and we met Cindy's family for dinner at Red Robin and then saw Super 8 (good movie.) 



I said goodbye to another dear friend.  Alberta moved about 40 minutes away, which isn't London but still, sad.

I got a pic with my four favorite boys at the open house for Alberta and her family.  Am I a lucky girl or what?

I went to Cindy's mutual activity and got this funny pic of her and Sarah having fun

My darling girls Nikki & Bridget at yet another 2YCL party.  Triple love them!



Cindy and I hang out a lot, obviously (ha.)  Here she is with my two nieces Makenna and Rylee. Shortly thereafter, I was "hit on" by my mom's neighbor who I found out, after talking to him again today, is twice divorced with seven children.  And that's all I have to say about that.



Susan, her daughter Emily, Cindy and I went to see Harry Potter (loved it!)  Emily drew scars on our foreheads.  We are so dang cool.

I had FHE with the Ekins and Taggarts this week.  I love that we've been pretty consistently getting together this year.

Here's my wonderful home teacher/Stake Pres and his amazing wife

My friends the I's came to visit from Chicago and we took our typical family shot with B's wife behind the camera.  Cute family, no?

AND...Cindy and I saw a deer.  I was excited so had to take a pic.

Stuff I don't want to forget - Trek edition

It's so hard to try and capture everything that happened last week on our stake's pioneer trek.  It was my first time ever participating in one and my experience was different than that of the ma's and pa's in that I didn't have kids assigned to me. But I had an awesome stake family (all of the behind-the scenes staff) and I miss being with them as much as the kids miss their trek families.  This is going to be a long entry but here are some random things I don't want to forget...oh and if you ever get asked to go on a trek, you'd better go.  Seriously.  Go.

1. I want to always remember the visual of the kids arriving all excited and happy and shiny and clean in their darling trek outfits.  We had 154 youth on our trek.  One of the greatest ideas someone had was to have them turn their gear in on the Saturday before trek.  Everyone was locked in and showed up on Wednesday so we didn't have to quickly reshuffle families before they left. 

2. I want to remember that dust kills digital cameras.  Mine lasted one day - and I ordered a new one today after blowing air through it and trying to fix it.  Dang.

3. I want to always remember how great it was to have the kids I'm closest to coming to find me throughout the trek for a hug or a chat or whatever.  I so love these youth!

Emily, me, Cindy & Carly

4. I want to remember that teenagers eat way more than you think they are going to eat.  Alberta and I had to drive 45 minutes into town to get more snacks plus fruit, eggs, milk and cheese at Costco and WalMart in Kennewick.  IN OUR TREK CLOTHES!  Oh the pain.  I could have changed but that would have left Alberta alone in her darling bloomers and I love her too much to do that to her.  We took off our aprons and bonnets and braved WalMart.  We got a lot of double takes.  I taught Alberta to not make eye contact with anyone because then you wouldn't see them look at you like you're a nutjob.  We saw missionaries at WalMart which was nice.  Then Costco was a trip.  Thankfully the carts are big and hid us, mostly.  Alberta had to go get a second cart (yes we filled a flatbed AND a cart) and she came back saying "we can't ever be alone in here" because the two of us together blended better, apparently.  I came out to the parking lot and Alberta was at the car, calling to me, "sister wife, oh sister wife."  So funny.

Alberta and me with pained looks on our faces after dealing with the gawkers at Costco & WalMart.

5.  I want to remember how hard the wind blew the first two days (thus the death of my camera.)  It was 35 MPH gusts and they were a killer.  Alison, Melanie, Lisa and I shared a big 8-man tent and seriously, it was a-rockin' that first night.  The side of the tent kept hitting me the whole night.  I woke up at one point to see one of the poles flailing about.  I remember praying off and on that the winds would calm.  It was a painful night of no sleep.  I woke up at 4:45 AM and promptly laughed hysterically about nothing until I cried because I was so tired.  I changed into my red pioneer outfit and had to add my dark blue hoodie because it was still so cold and windy.  I felt very patriotic as I looked outside at the amber waves of grain and had to sing "America the Beautiful" for everyone.  Alison and I went from handcart to handcart singing that and "Scatter Sunshine."  It was very entertaining (for me, at least.)

Paige and me

6. I also want to remember how much we all laughed every night and every morning. We stayed up past midnight every night and were the first ones awake, at least an hour before the morning bugle.  The stake leadership tents were all sort of close together the second night and we got comments from our stake president after he listened to our conversations about how he'd be calling us all in for personal interviews after we got back. So funny.  One of the families who was camped at least 10 handcarts away from us commented about how they heard us laughing all night and hoped we'd sleep by them the next night. We also got "so, um, where are you guys going to sleep tonight?" comments (meaning, we will sleep as far away from you as possible.)  Alberta called me "her happy alarm clock."  Who doesn't love hysterical laughter??

Alberta and me (another one of my friends who is moving away.  sob.)

7.  I want to remember how incredibly hard the women's pull was.  Since I wasn't assigned to a family, I asked different families if they needed any help but didn't get any takers until I came upon my good friend Lynda and her group of 4 girls, one of whom was one of my darling YCLs from camp last year, Nikki.  I happily agreed to help them pull their handcart up the 3/4 mile, super steep hill.  Oh and the wind had completely subsided so it was really hot, besides being super challenging.  I stood next to Nikki and we made up words to Primary songs with the other girls and talked about cute boys to take our mind off the heat and the pain.  We stopped a lot but made it to the top and I couldn't make eye contact with the young men who flanked either side of the path with their hats off in respect for what we just accomplished (many of whom were crying at the sight of us working so hard and knowing they could only step in to help if we asked - none of the girls asked.)  Lynda called me her family's angel - she didn't know how they were going to make it until I came along.  I'm so grateful I was able to participate in this special event and with people I love so much.

8. I want to remember how well our activities went...from the angry mobs, to the mountain men, to the evening vignettes and the carnival at Zion...it went perfectly. I loved working with Lisa - she did most of the work and I just happily did what she told me to do.

9. I want to remember that fasting and prayer works.  We fasted and prayed about the Ma's and Pa's and they were all just wonderful.  We fasted and prayed about the big brothers/big sisters assigned to each family and they were so perfect.  They all did such a great job and were always where they were supposed to be and were wonderful leaders.  We fasted and prayed to place youth in their families and every single young man and young woman who bore their testimonies this weekend all said they were in the perfect family.  It was such hard work but so totally worth it in the end.  Heavenly Father is so amazing and good.

10. I want to remember both the fantastic testimony meeting on the last day of trek and the wonderful one in my ward on Sunday after we got home.  Our Sunday meeting went over by more than 30 minutes (a bonus for being the 1 PM block.)  I loved hearing testimonies by so many youth who have never gotten up to share their thoughts and feelings in front of people before.

11. I want to remember the super fun drive home with Alison.  I worried for months about that drive home, knowing we'd be exhausted.  But we stopped and got a drink and a candy bar at a mini mart and then just yakked and yakked the whole way home.  It was so fun getting to know her better. I also want to remember that when we were paying for our drinks, I told Alison I needed to use the restroom. As I was using the bathroom, I remembered that I didn't give her the keys so she could go get in the car and I just started laughing at the thought of her not blending in at all in that mini mart.  Some of the Ma's and Pa's rode together in a large van and when they stopped on the drive home, someone asked if they were filming a movie.  Funny.

The boys starting the hard rope pull (pulling the carts up a big, steep hill)

12. I want to remember feeling impressed to tell a young woman I barely knew that I wished she would come to YW camp with us.  Her YW president had told me earlier in the day that this darling girl wasn't going, that she didn't like it, etc.  I found her after the testimony meeting and challenged her to fast and pray on Fast Sunday about camp (she'd been 1-2 times before and this year would be her last opportunity to go before she graduates.)  We became facebook friends yesterday and she told me she'd gotten the paperwork and was going for sure.  I'm so happy!

 My bishop falling into the gear while we were sorting it.  Ha!

13.  And finally, I want to remember the Facebook flurry after we got home from trek.  I have 25 new friends since Saturday night.  So many kids talked about how much they missed their trek families and shared their feelings with the world about what they'd experienced the previous four days.  I love the safe place that Facebook can be for our youth and that they proudly share their religious experiences with everyone they are friends with.


This is the super cute service missionary, Elder Poe.  LOVE HIM.

There is so much more to mention like being dirtier than I've ever been before, tons of mosquito bites, an awesome farmer's tan, riding in a golf cart around Zion with Alison and Melanie just to feel the cool breeze, taking my stake president and his wife four wheeling in one of the guy's Dodge Durango's, writing letters to some of the youth I'm closest to for the pony express mail delivery (our stake president riding in on a horse - awesome visual), one of the angry mobbers (Kim, it was Gale O.) saying like 5 times how it had been a week since he shot someone (so funny that he kept saying it over and over!), washing kids' hair at the Zion carnival on Friday night, seeing kids smile I'd never seen smile before while they were dancing the Virginia reel, my friend Lisa pretending to be an angry mobber with a toy machine gun (laughing about that even as I type), Cindy telling the angry mobbers that they weren't hugged enough as children, and on and on.  Treks rock.  Seriously.