MiniTown - 3rd Year

The weekend of February 18th through 20th, I had the privilege of attending the Aprende Mini Town in Prescott, AZ. The adult advisers and teenage counselors arrived at the AnyTown campsite on Thursday night the 17th. There is a long story about how I was lost for about an hour and how my group was the last to arrive that evening in the dark. I will fill you in later. The leadership group was able to get acquainted, go over programming and prepare for the students' arrival the next morning.

This is the AnyTown Mess Hall. This is what it looked like after 18 hours of snow. Here is the majority of our students, counselors and advisers. I'm under the red umbrella. It was snowing when we took the picture. Many of the students had never been in snow before so this was a real treat for them.

The buses were right on time Friday morning. The weather was brisk but bearable. I hate being cold so I am wearing a big NAU sweatshirt, a black alpaca hat and a CamelPack filled with water. The leadership team swarmed the buses to welcome the "delegates" to camp. Before the delegates could go to their cabins, we did an orientation under the Ramada. The leadership staff introduced themselves. I'm at the very end on the right wearing my alpaca hat. I, of course, am cheering loudly for everyone. It's so much fun to be out of the classroom and get to act a little crazy and energetic for a while!!!

Before every meal, we gather in a circle in front of the Mess Hall. Whichever cabin is in charge at the meal, gets to lead a song or an activity before we go in. Since it is sprinkling, I am wearing my red windbreaker/rain coat. I get to run around the circle while singing a song, stop in front of someone, dance crazy moves, they have to repeat the moves, and then we switch positions and he/she gets to go around the circle. So much fun!

This is my discussion group. We are in a heated conversation about what our skit should look like. [If you think I look disgusting, its okay, I know I do. The showering facilities at this camp are disgusting! I refused to shower the entire time I was there! So by the time Sunday came around, my hair was a little greasey and not that great to look at.]

After our group performed, the audience had to guess what emotion management strategy the star of our skit showed.

Another activity our discussion group did was create "minitown" out of toothpicks and gum drops. It was quite yummy. From left to right is Angie (black hair), me, Maggie (blue sweatshirt), Tessa (purple hat), Savannah (multi-colored hat and scarf and the counselor of our group), Grant (our token boy - not my Grant though), Melissa (in the very back - she was sick), Hannah (in the black sweatshirt), and Myah (in the maroon sweatshirt). We had a fantastic time together.

The last night before we left camp, we had a dance party. We roasted marshmallows, played music, and danced. Here is the cabin I stayed in. This is what the ground looked like after 6 hours of snow. The cabin had an incredible heater and we stayed very warm each night.

Trying to leave Sunday morning was a bit of a challenge. There is about 8 inches of snow on the ground and my van is frozen shut. Thankfully, other members of our staff who had more snow experience than I, helped me clear the snow from my windshield and get my van off the incline and on to the makeshift road. The only time I have driven in snow is when I was with Brent in Utah. It was nerve-wracking to drive in the snow alone. Even though the main highway was plowed, it was still slick and I slid around from time to time. The road signs were also covered in snow and I couldn't read them to know where to turn. I was so glad to finally get out of Prescott and into Dewey where it wasn't snowing.

It was a great trip and I'm glad I was able to be a part of it for the third year in a row!

What a SAVE!

For our family, church starts at 9am. However, Brent and Grant have to be a church 30 minutes early to set up chairs. This means I get to meander in right at 9am and claim my seat next to them.

Today I strolled in as the Bishop was announcing the opening hymn. I sat down between Brent and Grant on the pew and arranged my things as the opening hymn was sung. Once the prayer was said, I opened the meeting program to see who was speaking in Sacrament Meeting. To my surprise the program listed Grant Ward. I nudged Grant, pointed to his name in the program and asked him if he knew he was speaking in church today. His head promptly fell into his hands as horror swept across his face. I turned to Brent and asked him if he knew about this. He said that Brother Harmon had asked him, in passing, if he could ask Grant to speak, but Brent claimed to not know when that assignment would be. I asked Grant what his topic was that he was to speak on and he could not remember.

I found this to be rather humorous. Grant tries to get away with doing the least amount of work possible. He deliberately doesn't tell me about homework assignments so that I don't hound him to do it. I thought it was funny that he was going to have to confront, head on, his procrastination/forgetfulness problem in front of the congregation.

Grant asked what he was supposed to do. The meeting had started, an empty seat on the stand next to Brother Harmon beckoned him. I gave him two options. Option 1, go up and just bear your testimony. Option 2, go up and tell Brother Harmon that you forgot and see what he suggests for you to do.

Grant was scheduled to be the first speaker after the sacrament had been passed. As the sacrament hymn was sung, Grant made his way up to the stand and sat next to Brother Harmon. Brother Harmon started laughing as Grant must have told him his dilemma. I couldn't see Grant from the angle I was sitting at, but he remained on the stand. I assumed that he was going to stay on the stand and just bear his testimony.

As the sacrament was finished being passed, the bishop stood and announced the program for the meeting. He said Grant would be the first speaker. No mention was made that Grant had forgotten or that he was just going to bear his testimony.

Grant got up and told the congregation that he just remembered his speaking assignment as he sat in the meeting. Then Grant said his talk was about honesty. He read from "The Strength of Youth Pamphlet" about the meaning and importance of honesty. Then he read a scripture (from Brother Harmon's scriptures) about honesty. Next he read a quote from President Kimball about honesty. In closing, he bore his testimony about the importance of honesty.

I was so impressed that he pulled off a complete talk in a matter of minutes. I am so grateful to Brother Harmon and Bishop McCook who reminded him of his speaking topic and gave him information to present. No one in the audience would have known that Grant came to church completely unprepared to speak if Grant hadn't told them.

When the meeting was over and I was able to talk to Grant, he said that was the most stressful experience of his life. Great job Grant! I'm sure he will never "accidentally" forget a speaking assignment again!

You Know You are Loved When...

You know you are loved when your teenage son tells his friend how lucky he is to be invited over for dinner when his mom made Pork Roast. He said the Pork Roast tastes like heaven.

Insight Bowl

On Tuesday, December 28th, we went to the Insight Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium. One of the parents at the school I work at purchased 75 tickets for the game. I was the lucky recipient of four of the tickets. Mitchell had to work Tuesday night so Grant, Brent and I attended the game. The game was between Missouri and Iowa. We cheered for Iowa since they were the underdog and because Brent was born in Iowa.

Our 4th ticket went to Grant's friend, Abram. Abram is a great kid and spent the day with Grant distracting him from the fact that his braces hurt. Abram and Grant cheered for Missouri.

Our seats were in section 14. This is located on the lower level in the corner. So when the action was on our end of the field, we had a great view.

In this picture, Iowa is preparing to kick for an extra point....they made it!

With college football games, comes the marching bands. The Missouri marching band was seated in section 12 (very close by). So we heard great music throughout the game and were able to watch their field coordination as they performed during halftime.

The Insight Bowl was an exciting game to watch. Iowa ended up winning the game. It would be fun to be able to go to the game again next year!

BAD Braces!

My sweet Grant got braces on Monday morning. Here is his sweet smile before the agony of having the braces installed.

For the last two years, Grant has been getting ready for braces. He has had a spacer put in his mouth to save the space between teeth as his baby teeth came out and his permanent teeth came in. Getting braces for Grant was for more than just fixing some of the crowding in his mouth but they are also for correcting a 100% overbite. I had no idea that his bottom teeth were scraping behind his upper teeth and damaging his gums. So not only did Grant get braces, he also received an extra special plate at the top of his mouth so his bottom teeth won't be able to damage his gums anymore while the overbite is getting fixed.

Grant with braces.

As you know, Grant is a dramatic kid. He has been really milking it this week with how miserable he is. I know that braces hurt when they are put on. Because he has the plate in his mouth, he now has a speech problem. The orthodontist said that the more he talks, the quicker he will be able to minimize the lisp. Grant's diet this week has been yogurt, milk shakes, and scrambled eggs. Yesterday, I picked him up some Ensure so he can put on some healthier calories while his mouth adjusts.

So for now, Grant is enjoying the lazy life of tv, video games, liquid diet, and a few friends coming over. In a month or so, he will be back to normal and won't even notice that he has the braces on.

Merry Christmas!

We had another exciting Christmas morning at our house. When Mitchell and Grant were younger, they would try to sleep next to the Christmas tree to catch Santa Clause (they were never successful). They would wake up as early as possible to explore the gifts under the tree and then drag me out of bed so they could start opening them up. Now that Mitchell is 17 and Grant is 13, the tables have turned. I am the first one up. I have breakfast made as well as dessert for our Christmas dinner. And I have to go to their rooms and drag them out of bed so our fun can begin.
Grant loves to play challening games. He is very good at games that require him to use his spacial abilities to solve them. So he was excited to receive the Rubics Slide for Christmas. He ended up playing this game all the way up to Kingman and back and has officially aced the "easy" setting. I'm still waiting for him to teach me how to play it. Mitchell received an IHome. The party is in Mitchell's room now!

This is not a Christmas gift. It just happened to be opened on Christmas morning. The jacket Mitchell is wearing is Uncle Scott's. He had it made when he was in Korea when he served in the Navy. Uncle Scott wrote Mitchell an amazing letter and gave him this jacket to help Mitchell pursue his dreams. Very cool!

Grant opened our family gift from Joe & Kami. The dart set is very heavy. We still need to hang it up but we are a little hesitant because the darts are real darts. When you have teenage boys, real darts, the sharp ones that penetrate skin and flesh, make a Mom nervous. :)

This is Grant's favorite gift. It is a remote control vehicle that has a camera on it. The remote controller has a video screen so it can see what the car is seeing. This is used to spy on others. Grant has had a blast with it driving it around the house to see what others are doing plus he records his voice on it so the car can talk to you.

Brent received some crash gear for when he goes motorcycle riding again with the boys. Its great peace of mind to know that he will come home in one piece.

We had a wonderful ham dinner with Aunt Brenda, Chad, Brandon, Kimberly and Brandon's boys. After dinner we drove up to Kingman to spend the 26th with Mom and Dad. We love spending Christmas with family and are looking forward to the BIG Robles family Christmas next year. The party will be at our house!

Family Photos

Time for some new family photos. It was an overcast sky which made it a perfect time to take pictures without fighting the sun.

My boys are growing up!

My sweetheart and I.

All my handsome men.

My high school senior.

My 8th grader.