Monday, July 26, 2010

Baptism By Fire...

About a month ago, I was released as the Young Women's Laurel Advisor. This also meant that I would not be attending Girls Camp this summer as had been planned.

Today, the girls met at the church from all over the stake to have their personal items loaded into a U-Haul to be taken to camp. Several groups of girls were following the U-Haul to camp in a bus, one day early, in order to complete a 6 mile hike.

They were traveling north and near Castle Rock, WA, when Brother Crebar (the U-Haul driver) "smelled something funny". Then he lost his brakes as smoke started coming into the cab at his feet. He tried to get safely to the shoulder, but then flames started shooting into the cab at his feet. He opened the door and stood on the side rail trying to steer while standing outside the cab, but then lost the ability to steer. The truck headed toward the cement median and he bailed out onto some grass and watched the truck as it continued on, until scraping along the median to a stop. He is so lucky to not be hurt more, let alone be alive.


The firefighters had to put out the flames with the flame retardant powder, since there is so much oil involved in a vehicle fire. I am told that a lot of stuff was thrown into a garbage trailer on scene and deemed completely unsalvageable.

While I was at the church, girls were allowed onto the parking lot 15 at a time to watch an adult, wearing gloves, go through their chemical covered belongings to decide what can be professionally cleaned and what is garbage. Some girls couldn't find any of their stuff, meaning it had been trashed on scene.

Scriptures, journals and pictures were the most treasured things lost. Everything else was mostly toiletries, etc. The stake presidency said to throw away EVERYTHING that goes in the mouth or on the skin. This leaves a lot of girls without prescription medications, retainers, and other imperative items.

The other big loss was all the food. One whole weeks' worth of food for the entire stake was lost. Thankfully, whomever picked up the U-Haul this morning felt impressed to purchase the additional insurance package and every last damaged/lost item WILL be replaced.

The girls are set to leave again in the morning at 9:30. I am praying that this will be a great testimony building experience. That this will teach them to show the adversary that all cannot be lost when faith comes into play. He is playing on these Young Women's emotions right now and my hope is that they will all persevere.

When I initially arrived, I expected things to "look" much worse. And I expected a horrible smell. Things didn't "look" or smell bad, but everything that was anywhere inside the van had to be completely sprayed with the retardant and should not be touched by bare hands.

Some items that had to be thrown away were brand new and never been used; including sleeping bags, cots, blankets, etc. It was really sad to see water logged sets of scriptures and journals be thrown away.

Several of the girls were very disturbed by seeing the head of "Annie" (the CPR dummy) all charred to bits...

Sunday, July 25, 2010

BIG trouble

I know I'm in trouble when I still have 10 weeks to go and none of my maternity clothes will fit... :(

For the last few Sundays, I've had to try on several different dresses to find one to fit. I don't "feel" bigger than my other pregnancies, but I feel different. I've actually gained less poundage thus far than the other 5 pregnancies, but I guess I am carrying this one differently and everything is SO tight around my tummy.

These were taken last Sunday. That was the last time I could squeeze myself into one of my favorite maternity dresses. I got this dress when I was pregnant with Asia in summer of 2004 for Ross and Lindsay's wedding. It's such a comfortable dress (when it fits right, LOL!).

I'm getting kind of sad that this is my last one. At times, I am so miserable and uncomfortable that I KNOW I never want to be pregnant again. Still...it's hard to let go.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Seaside

The girls have been begging us to take them back to Seaside, OR since we went over this past spring break (I know, I haven't posted about that, yet, but I'm trying to get caught up..PROMISE! I will get the pics uploaded to the journaling SOON).
Anyway, I looked at the weather and saw that it was supposed to be nice, so we went! First, we rented one of those Surrey bike things for an hour. We had wanted to do it last time, but ran out of time.

Too bad they don't offer 1/2 hour rentals because we only last 35 minutes!! LOL! Those 5 kids, plus ourselves, were HEAVY to pedal around! It was so much fun, though, and we all had a blast!



The Whole Fam Damily!!




At a stop light

On the Move!



We stopped for a Pronto Pup and ate on the ride. After Will and I were completely DEAD, we returned the bike and headed to Carousel Mall to look around. The girls drooled over all the cool toys in the shops. Then we got a couple of Elephant Ears at the corner shop. (SOOO SO GOOD!)



After we finished that, the sun had finally burned all the clouds off and it was warm enough to hit the sand.



After they dipped their toes in the water and I beached myself like a whale on the sand (that bike ride about killed me!), we cleaned up and went to The Candyman Store. It's turning into a tradition to hit that shop on the way out of town. We all got our fill on "samples" of salt water taffy and picked our assortment's and then stopped in the attached ice cream shoppe. I got my favorite!! 2 scoops; 1 pumpkin and 1 "haupia" (coconut). MMMMM!

They didn't have any non-dairy options for poor Roxelle, but she tried... She stood below the glass counter case shouting "I. WAN. CHOCKET!!!" at the guy taking our order. She wasn't crying or mad, but was insisting that he get her chocolate ice cream. POOR THING! That KILLS me when she has to sit and watch us eat something she can't have. I packed cookies and candy treats for her to have in situations like this and she was satisfied with a Dum Dum sucker.

We stopped in Rainier at Grandma E's coming and going. It's a great 1/2 way pit stop for potty breaks. We had invited her to come along since we have 8 seats in our "new" van, but she is on doctor's orders to stay in because of a bad kidney infection.

Monday, July 12, 2010

First Day of School?

Mariah had her first day of "Summer School" today. She was so nervous last night that she kept saying her tummy hurt and that she didn't want to go. She was so afraid that she wouldn't know anyone and that it would be boring. We tried to tell her that she would know lots of people and that it wouldn't be boring, that they would play fun games and stuff.

It's a 3 week program that runs 4 days a week (M-Th) from 9:15 to 1:30. It's free and they provide both breakfast and lunch.

As I dropped her off, we saw lots of familiar faces and I think that helped ease her nerves.

When I picked her up, she couldn't stop talking about all the fun stuff they did. She said that her good friend, Kimberly, from her 4th grade class was also in her summer class. After being home for a couple hours, she announced that she was "SO bored" and couldn't wait to go to school tomorrow! LOL

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Lake Merwin

The girls popped their fireworks on Sat. night. They had so much fun and are still talking about the very first one we lit. We had decided to do them in the back yard since the sun was still up and very hot in front. They had gotten this bumble bee one and we thought it would spin and crawl on the porch. After Will lit it, we all back up and were staring at it until it suddenly took off into the sky about 2x higher than the house and come down in the neighbors yard. We all busted up! We decided to move back out front.

Sunday, we had a very fulfilling and spiritual sabbath. Our testimony meeting was the best one in a VERY long time. And, the girls were all VERY good. It's been a while since we had an uneventful 1st hour, especially when I'm alone (Will had to work). Roxelle even went to nursery without crying! I kinda felt like I was in the twilight zone...

On our way home from church at noon, I talked to Will and he said he was about to leave work, that they let him go early!!! I was so stoked! Especially since I was dreading packing up and driving fpr an hour to the lake by myself.

We spent the night up at Lake Merwin with Will's family. It was a crazy good time. We were a tiny bit ill-prepared, but it was a total trial run. The girls LOVED it up there! We were trying to stay again last night, but Will had to work today and wasn't able to switch shifts with anyone. We were going to stay through FHE and dinner, but after I took a nap yesterday, I started "spotting". I wasn't having contractions and the baby was moving periodically, but I didn't want to chance it, so we packed up early and came home. Grandma E said she's keep Mariah and Brinlee for one more night and bring them home today.

I called the Dr. on our way home, since we don't get cell service up there, and she said to get home, take a warm bath, lay down and drink a lot of water. She said if I started contracting or the spotting didn't stop to go into the labor/deliver at Southwest. After I showered, I realized that I had gotten a small tear and that was what was bleeding, not from the pregnancy. I was so relieved! Will and Bryan had given me a very nice blessing before leaving and I knew everything would be fine!

As we were leaving, I realized that I hadn't taken a single picture. Luckily, Brinlee had taken her little digital camera up there and here are the only 4 shots we got.

Brinlee and the view of the lake from the porch


Another picture from the porch


Daddy inside the RV


Tatum in the RV