Greg found a job!

My husband graduated in May this year as a mechanical engineer. I've been wondering, more seriously as time passed, where in the world he would find a job and where we would live, if there would be a university nearby for me to finish school, and if we would be at all close to our families. As the summer passed and Greg didn't get any serious offers, we decided we would have to move back to Gig Harbor and stay with Greg's parents until we found a job. We cried as we thought of leaving Pullman and our friends, and felt excited when we thought of the time we could spend with our families after being far away for the last 3-4 years. We found a replacement to take our place as manager at the storage facility, and reserved a U-haul so we could move at the end of this month.

Then! At the very last minute possible, Greg got a call from Decagon Devices: a local company where many of our friends work in Pullman. They wanted him to come in for an interview! The interview went great and Greg got the job! (Of course, we didn't know if he would get the job for about two weeks, so that whole time I was just wondering at the possibilities and trying to think of what to do. The date for us to move was coming upon us quickly!)

So now, we are still packing up and moving, but we're moving down the street instead of across the state. I'm so happy Greg can work for a good company with a fabulous work environment, and that we can stay in Pullman. Of course, it took a little adjusting when we realized that suddenly all our plans with family were not going to happen, and we were sad for the loss of time we would have spent with our families. The job doesn't start for a few weeks though, so we'll have time to go visit before we have to start real life again.

Here is a short video about Decagon. The company was actually founded by the Campbell family in our ward at church. Tamsin is their oldest daughter, and she is currently the president of the company.



Greg is excited about the job he will be doing. He is going to work with SolidWorks--the program he's been using for several years now for school and personal projects.

Everything has come together so well for us. Haha, I kept telling my friends at church that I knew God had a plan for us and we would be taken care of, but I just wished that He would tell me what that plan was! Maybe He was trying my patience and faith, and I finally passed the test. Hooray!

Young Women Recognition

This is actually what I earned last year in December, but the lady who was putting this together was having difficulty (those pendants wouldn't stick to the black background no matter what kind of glue she used). Various other life situations prevented her from finishing it until a few weeks ago. She gave this to me at the end of Girl's Camp. It's so pretty, and I love having all the pendants and the old medallion to display. (You may recall that they made a new medallion when I was about 17,

and then just last year they changed it a little again.)



I'm excited to have this pretty display--it's like a tribute to the Young Women's Program. If I have a girl I will hang it in her room. I hope my daughters love Young Women's and Personal Progress as much as I do!

Multi-Stake Youth Conference!

After Girl's Camp I got a little breather and then got ready for the Multi-Stake Youth Conference. President Monson first met with some of the stake presidents in the area and told them his idea for this big youth conference. They said, "Great, I think we can pull something together for 2012." And he said that wasn't good enough--it needed to be this year, so they put this event together in 6 months. There were about 2,000 people who attended, 300 of which were adult leaders and the rest were youth. 11 stakes participated from the surrounding areas. They said that everybody was within a 2-hour radius of the Spokane Stake Center. I was surprised that there were so many LDS youth! And these were just the kids that were able to come. (Less than half of our kids were able to go.)

The first day (Friday) was mostly a fun day of playing games, get-to-know-you activities, and a dance and more games in the evening. They played a number of field games that were directed by a man with a mic and he stood on a lift so everybody could see him. I was amazed that he could entertain 1,700 kids for a few hours! He did a great job and had watching/joining the games too.




After the field games we went to dinner, and then straight into the dance. There were three large rooms in the conference center that we used. The one was for the dance with a regular DJ and music.


The next was a game room with lots of little odd games like:
Put the lamp shade on your head with the fishing pole while your blind-folded. I think that was more fun to watch than to do.


Stack 3 golf balls, flick the raisin boxes out from under the water bottles, and much more!


The second day was a little more serious. We met at a different conference center and had a presentation about some of the soldiers serving our country. There were a few soldiers of various rank who told their own stories, and then others who told the stories of fallen soldiers they knew. The mother of one soldier in particular came to tell us the story of her son who had died in combat, and it was very moving. At the end of the presentation we made Christmas and Thanksgiving cards to give to the Red Cross for the soldiers serving abroad.




We had lunch at the park and then headed back to the auditorium for the closing ceremonies. In the months leading up to this conference we all learned some songs so we could sing them here to each other. Every two stakes combined and sang a song, and then the entire conference learned a second song that we all sang together. It was neat to hear so many voices combining and singing those beautiful songs about Christ and being strong and pure.




I'm excited for future events like this. One of the stake presidents told me he thought they would probably be doing this about every other year now. It was a great success and I know the kids had a lot of good experiences. I hope I still get to serve with the youth when we move!

Girl's Camp!

Turtle on a Stick! Turtle on a Stick!


We're having oranges! We never used to....until Katelyn, came to our camp!

The orange letter "T" stands for the Terre View Family! We're Pullman! Ya ya ya, Pullman Girls! Ya ya ya, Girls Camp! We have three cabins--try all three!

This is just a small sample of the things you might hear if you spent a little time at girl's camp with me. We had a really good group of girls this year: Great YCL's that led their girls and great girls that had fun doing what they were supposed to. I also had fun being with our ward's leaders and sharing the cabin with the another leader who is one of my good friends. We all got along so well! (Sorry--the picture didn't focus right.)


That's Brother Dangerfield being dubbed a turtle for Girl's Camp. The theme was, "Inside Out" and our mascot was a turtle, so the men all had to wear turtle costumes. That consisted of a large basket that was worn like a backpack with straps, and a green circle of fabric over their necks. Every morning and evening our Sunshine Lady would bring out Turtle on a Stick and we would cheer for our mascot.



Camp is fun because you can have people do your hair and everybody wears flowers or bandannas and fun things in their hair. My friend, Heather, did my hair almost everyday as well as several others in our ward. I love the French twist! I just can't figure out how to do it on my own hair.



For part of certification, the girls have to demonstrate that they can do first aide for different kinds of injuries. The leaders got to put on make-up and pretend to have certain problems like heat stroke, broken bones, snake bites, etc. That was really fun. The girls all did a good job and they even carried me across the field with the new hold they learned.





Here's a few camp skit pictures. The skit by the stake leaders was really funny. And the poor men who were there as Priesthood leaders put up with a lot. They were so cute wearing their turtle costumes and going along with all the silliness of Girl's Camp.



(Kim is such a funny girl. She's actually pretty girly, but for this skit she dressed up like a guy and it was so hilarious. We all laughed so much when she made her entrance.)



Here's a few pictures from the big activity. The girls were blindfolded and then led through this obstacle course that was designed to make them feel like they were crawling through caves and caverns and on the edge of a cliff...etc. It was fun to be a part of as a leader and get to watch them all working together to get through it. At the very end, they were led to a cabin with soft music and pictures of Christ, and there was a quote on a large poster on the wall, "I once was blind, but now I see." When everybody got there, they had a devotional about Christ. It was a neat activity.






This is from our hike. The teenage girl is one of my old Mia Maids that moved up to the next class. It was fun walking and talking with her on the hike--she reminds me so much of my old friend Whitney. I kept forgetting that I'm not 16 anymore when I was hanging out with her and her friends.


These pictures are from the "Spiritual Spa." We all sat on blankets on the grass and did "spa things" (like special scrubs for our hands and feet, and a face mask) while a lady with a soft voice talked about our inner and outer beauty, using quotes from scriptures and prophets. It was so relaxing and nice. The soft music in the background was nice but not so loud that we couldn't still hear the birds chirping in the trees around us.





I loved being at Camp Wooten. It was so pretty, and I had a good time with my girls. In fact, I think this was my best year of camp so far! I'm really going to miss my girls and the leaders when we move away from Pullman!

California Trip (Day 8)

Saturday was our last day in California. We were going to have a big party at Grandma's to celebrate Lizzy's birthday with all the family and good number of friends too. (I took that picture just as Dan looked up. I was trying to get candid action pictures.)


In the morning we took our rental car back and got some party supplies. Greg's uncle had a large blow-up slide delivered to Grandma's back yard for the kids to play on. It was a water slide with small sprays of water at the top to keep the slide wet. I think the kids had a lot of fun playing on that. There was a little pool of water at the bottom of the slide to help cushion their landing.



Grandma was hard at work, decorating Lizzy's cake. I thought it was so cute to see all the little girls gathered around her while she was working. She was explaining how to do those fancy things on the cake while they watched.


I think the cake turned out really cute.





Lizzy liked her cake too.



They made the regular birthday cake for the adults to have and then they made cupcakes for all the kids to have. The kids all got to decorate their own cupcakes. They seemed to be having fun, and I thought it was a good idea too.


Through out the party I was torn between spending time with the family and trying to get packed up to go. We had to leave for the airport around 5pm. We said our goodbyes and then Carol drove us to the airport. We got home around 2:30am on Sunday. Greg and I both had lessons to teach at church, but it was ok because our church starts in the afternoon. After church I unpacked my things and then started packing again for Girl's Camp on Monday!

California Trip (Day 6 and 7)

The Beach!


This is the day we planned to go to the beach all day, and several of Greg's relatives met up with us there. We went to Corona del Mar. It was so crowded! (That picture does not accurately represent the millions of people that were there. I think I took it later in the day when everybody was migrating away from the beach for dinner.) I have decided that California beaches are very different from Ocean Shores--our Washington beach.


There were big waves that crashed close to shore, and everybody thought it was fun to swim around and jump in the waves. There was also a ton of seaweed. It was icky gross seaweed. If you stood at the edge of the water, you had lots of seaweed strings that washed up around your ankles and between your toes (Ahhh! Not between my toes!) and it was impossible to avoid because there was so much of it. If you stood out farther where the strings don't seem to be, you would get huge masses of fat seaweed wrapping around your legs and getting tangled up around you feet. That grossed me out a little, but it also was kind of scary to not be able to walk or take a step when I wanted to, because that was right where the waves broke and the water really pushed you around. (Yeah, I probably sound like a wimp. Oh well.)


So, overall, I didn't have a lot of fun in the water because it was so strange and new to me. I pushed myself and spent some time getting used to it, and I can imagine if I had more time or if I had grown up playing at those beaches I could have learned to enjoy it more. Greg had a really good time playing in the water. He just ran right out to the water and dove into the waves.


I liked sitting at the water's edge and playing in the sand. It's been years since I've done that. Greg bought me a bucket and a shovel for a surprise on the way to the beach. I used it to dig a big deep hole that filled with water. Even though there were lots of people running around and kids screaming in the water, it was kind of peaceful to just sit in the wet sand and watch Greg play in the waves. I think he was a fish in another life.


We went to the beach the next day with just the two of us and Greg's Aunt Carol. It was nice to spend more time with her because she had been out of town for the first part of the week. She's fun and nice, and just like Greg she always cracks me up.


Before we met up with Carol, we went to the tide pools nearby. It's like a separate little beach with lots of rock where you can find little sea creatures in the shallow water.




That was one of my favorite parts of the beach--it reminded me of playing at Lion's Field in Bremerton.





Yes, advertising is even at the beach. There were two or three different messages that floated through the sky at the beach that day.


In the evening we met up with Grandma again at Chrissy's karate lesson. She was practicing with her tufas.



After Karate, we all headed back to Grandma's to play cards and make s'mores in the backyard. I love playing cards with Greg's family!




PS. This is my souvenir from the beach. The sand was so hot that I burned/blistered my feet by taking about 3 steps off my towel, so I kept my sandals on the whole time.