The AMAZING Race ! Girls Camp 2008

I just got back from spending 3 1/2 days at Camp LoMia with my Amazing Adobe Ward Young Women! What an Amazing experience it was! We had so much fun and learned so many things! The girls were wonderful! Our camp theme was "The Amazing Race - Decisions Determine Destiny." We had great classes on personal worth, being a friend, motherhood and how and why we're here and where we are going! We laughed and cried and had great opportunities to feel the spirit. I hope the girls had as good a time as I had! I feel spiritually buoyed up and ready to start this "earthly race" again! I love girls camp! And I love these sweet girls. I love the women I got to go to camp with! They are the best! Here's a few pictures that I thought were cute!

Most of our cute girls at flag ceremony! We won cutest flag.

Cyndi Taylor - My cabin mom buddy!

Our other two cabin mom's - Krista and Caroline!
These three women are the best! I just love them!

below- Me and my two daughters Heidi and Holli! It's so fun to be at camp with them!

Our Ever Changing Life!

CHANGE. It's kind of a funny sounding word! I like the kind of CHANGE that comes when you hand the cashier more money than she actually needs! But that's not the kind of CHANGE that I'm gonna blog about.

On June 17th we received a phone call from the Stake Executive Secretary asking Vaughan and I to come that evening for a meeting with the Stake President. Fortunately, we only had 5 1/2 hours to sweat it out before the meeting! Some of you may have already guessed the reason for the meeting. I did. I have to say I have "known" since April when our 1st counselor in our ward's bishopric told me his family was moving out of our ward. I just had a feeling...

Anyway, we went to the meeting with President Evans and he extended a release to Vaughan from being Elders Quarom President and called him to be the new 1st counselor in the bishopric. Poor Vaughan looked like he'd been hit by a truck! (I can't say I blamed him!)

On Sunday, June 22nd Vaughan was sustained in our ward as the new 1st Counselor. He was also ordained a High Priest by his father. It was a very special day.

That brings me back to the word CHANGE. Although, I knew there would be CHANGES, I didn't really anticipate the feelings I would feel the first Sunday he took the stand and I realized he wouldn't be sitting next to me for... awhile. That's probably been the hardest thing, but then I've been out of town for most of the time since he's been called! I know while I was gone he was basically gone every night doing some sort of bishopric business!

When President Cowan set him apart there were some beautiful promises made. It was very special! These are the words that keep going through my head and are helping me be the kind of wife that supports Vaughan in the way he needs! I am excited for this CHANGE in our life! I know Vaughan is going to do great! He is ready and worthy for this amazing opportunity! I am excited for him and for the growth our family will go through!

And besides, guess who has to wear a Suit to church now! Dang, he's good looking in a suit! I'll post a picture next week!

Keep us in your prayers!

Happy Birthday America!

Although I'm over a week late with my birthday wishes, I just couldn't forget to wish this beautiful land I live in a Happy Birthday! We celebrated the Fourth up north! We were able to see the firework display in Heber, Arizona. What a beautiful display it was. On Sunday we attended sacrament meeting at the LDS church in Heber. For the opening song we sang the "Star Spangled Banner". What a beautiful hymn! My eyes filled with tears as I read the words and sang along. If you haven't paid attention to the 2nd and 3rd verse look below and check them out! I recently read that the democratic presidential nominee didn't feel like the "Star Spangled Banner" should be our national anthem because it talked of war and other negative things. He feels that a song like "I Want to Teach the World to Sing" would be a better anthem! Now, I enjoy that song, but I do have to say it doesn't invoke the feelings and emotion that the "Star Spangled Banner" does! What an inspired song! I'm so grateful for our founding father's and for their insight in creating our constitution. We are so blessed! Here are the words to this beautiful song! Thank you Frances Scott Key. I need to remember our Motto more often: In God May We Trust!

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream: 'T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause. it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

FYI:

History: In 1814, about a week after the city of Washington had been badly burned, British troops moved up to the primary port at Baltimore Harbor in Maryland. Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in the Harbor on September 13th to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes who had been captured during the Washington raid. The two were detained on the ship so as not to warn the Americans while the Royal Navy attempted to bombard Fort McHenry. At dawn on the 14th, Key noted that the huge American flag, which now hangs in the Smithsonian's American History Museum, was still waving and had not been removed in defeat. The sight inspired him to write a poem entitled Defense of Fort McHenry; later the poem was set to music that had been previously composed for another song by a Mr. Smith. The end result was the inspiring song now considered the national anthem of the United States of America. It was accepted as such by public demand for the next century or so, but became even more accepted as the national anthem during the World Series of Baseball in 1917 when it was sung in honor of the brave armed forces fighting in the Great War. The World Series performance moved everyone in attendance, and after that it was repeated for every game. Finally, on March 3, 1931, the American Congress proclaimed it as the national anthem, 116 years after it was first written.