YCL Retreat on Barnaby Island

Yesterday, I packed up all the stuff I would need for an overnight camping trip and set off to Sister Mckinney's house so she could take me up to Chewelah and then on to our camping place. We picked up Natalie on the way.

At the Chewelah Church, we met with five other girls and Sister Romero. I rode with Sis. Romero, her brother-in-law, his eight year old son, Chase, and two other girls up to where we would be staying. Near Inchelium, we crossed a ferry, which was interesting. Then we drove to a camping spot near Barnaby Island.

Sister Johnson met us there and showed us the way to where we would be camping. We had to hike, carrying all of our things, 3/4 of a mile across the sandbar and onto the island.

(A picture of the long hike to the island. Usually, the sandbar is covered in water, and the island would actually look like an island. For now, though, you can hike to it.) -->

Once on the island, we met with the four girls who had come earlier, along with Sis. Johnson's eight year old daughter, Zarahemla (or Zarah for short).

<--(Sis. Romero and Sis. McKinney planning)

I helped build the fire while some other girls built the latrine far away from camp.

<--(The campfire)

We did a few wood runs, and found roasting sticks, and then sat down for dinner, which was hot dogs, potato salad, grapes, and potato chips.

(The view from camp was beautiful.)-->

After dinner, we gathered around the camp fire to have a devotional of sorts. We decided who would get which level. I got the level 2 girls, along with Kaitlyn and Kati.Next, Sister Johnson showed us three types of plants: Yarrow, Mullein, and Lupine, and then Sister Romero told some stories.

<--(Hanging around the camp fire)

Afterward, we made smores and Kaitlyn decided to try and make some herbal tea from the Mullein leaves, which made her tired.

(Carly watches on as Kaitlyn sits on Micky)-->

Sister Johnson showed us all how to make ash cakes and we all made some.

(Our ash cakes cooking)-->

 Her mix was flour, a little bit or corn meal, ground flaxseed, salt, and baking soda. We mixed that powder with some water and then placed them directly on the hot coals to cook. They tasted surprisingly good, considering that they were cooked in ash. It's too bad we didn't have cinnamon and sugar though, that would've tasted great. At the same time, Sis. Romero's brother-in-law brought up some fish he had caught with Zara and Chase and cooked them over the fire.

<--(The fish cooking)

After that, mostly everyone headed off to bed, except the leaders and four of us girls. We talked for a while, and I didn't head back to my tent until probably around 11:30 PM.

(Zarah playing in the light)-->

I didn't sleep very well, waking up every so often. I eventually got up at around 7:00 and we had a small breakfast of granola, yogurt, oranges, and, of course, smores.

After breakfast, a few of us gathered flowers that we were going to press and then make bookmarks out of for our girls.

<--(A lot of flowers)

There were a lot of extras.

(Lupine flowers) -->

Soon after, we packed up camp before sitting down around the fire again.

<--(Packing up)

Sis. Mckinney taught us how to tie a couple kinds of knots, and then we gathered our stuff and left the campsite.

(Around the campfire again)-->

<--(Looking back from the halfway point back to the cars from the island)

The 3/4 of a mile hike back was worse than the hike there, since we were all tired when we started.

(Waiting for everyone to reach the cars)-->

We crossed the ferry again, and headed home.

<--(On the ferry)

<--(Barnaby Island beach)

Teeter-Totter

Today, we fit most of the Stott Grandchildren sixteen years and younger, plus two aunts and an uncle all on two teeter-totters. It was very exciting. There were a lot of pictures taken and I’m sure they will be plastered all over facebook.

Since it is super late right now, this is all this post is and I’m going to bed.

Stott Family Reunion: Day One

Today, we got up at 5:30 in the morning, piled into the rental car which dad got last night, and then drove to Choteau, Montana. We stopped in Rathdrum for breakfast at McDonald's and picked up an easy cache. In the cache was a necklace that I liked, so I traded some change from buying the food for the necklace. Then, we were on our way again. We stopped again for Subway sandwiches in Missoula and arrived at the hotel at 1:45.

Mom called Aunt Dorothy and she cut both mine and Lydia's hair before we came back to the hotel and got ready. At 4:00, we met everyone at the church and took pictures with Grandma and Grandpa. We ate dinner, which was soup and sandwiches, and then I read while we waited for the actual reception to start.

At the reception, Grandma and Grandpa cut the cake, and then each family did a small presentation type thing. There were musical numbers, a poem, a dancing lesson, slideshows, and even a magic trick. Our family prepared a geocache in Grandma and Grandpa's honor. After the presentations, all the guests left, leaving the family for a dance. However, we left to hide the cache near Grandma's house and now I'm back in the hotel room, writing this blog.

That's it for today.

Grandparents

I don't have time for a long blog post today, because I am way too busy trying to pack for the family reunion. This family reunion is to celebrate my grandparent's fiftieth wedding anniversary.

As to keep with the theme, I am going to say that I really look up to my grandparents, one reason of why is that they managed to keep their marriage going for fifty years, unlike so many relationships happening today.

Now, I need to finish packing and working on my talk for Sunday.

Dentist

I had a dentist appointment today, and now I'm in pain. The appointment lasted 1 1/2 hours and I came out feeling numb as anything, but the numbness has worn off now and the pain has gotten to me.

Other than the dentist appointment, not much has happened today. I didn't even write anything. What a boring day.......

It's Not All Fun And Games

I've had sort of a hard day today. I was been in a bad mood this morning and so was picking fights with mom and Lydia. I was finally feeling somewhat back to normal this afternoon, but then I found out that my research essay got a C. I worked super hard on that essay. My mood is more than dismal right now. I don't even feel like writing. 


I'm already stressing out about my talk on Sunday, and then my YCL leader decides to choose me to write a short skit for us YCL's to put on to introduce the theme at Camp Kick Off. Yeah, great. One more thing to worry about, not that I can say no. It's an obligation.


Also, I've been feeling nauseous lately, but never enough to actually consider myself sick. I can't stand to eat anything that's greasy or very flavored, so I've been sticking mostly to Yogurt and fruit for now.


Mom and Dad want to go geocaching this evening, but I'm thinking I'm going to stay home instead and attempt to write, or else read. 


Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Lights

Today's post includes some pictures of lights, because what do people look up to more than light?

Daily posts are getting hard, without making them repetitive, and it's only the third day!

Let's see. I added another chapter of The Brotherhood today. Yeah...

Hmm, what else? I had yogurt for breakfast this morning. Strawberry banana. It was pink.

You know that flower pen I was talking about yesterday? Yeah, it's in my hair now, holding up a bun.

It's really windy outside right now. I hope it doesn't get too much worse so we can still go geocaching tonight, or at least so the power doesn't go out. That would stink because then I couldn't write.

I have a P.E. class connect. You know, I've never been to a P.E. class connect today. I've been to all of my other classes' class connects, but not P.E. What would you do at them? Talk about what exercise you did that week? I can imagine it would be boring, and it's not like I need extra credit for P.E.

Yeah, so that's about all I have to say, really.

I'm thinking about just making this the world's lamest blog post and ending it right here. It's long enough, right?




Oh, and enjoy the light pictures, okay?

The Sky

Since the theme of this month's NaBloPoMo is 'Look Up' I figured I'd post a few pictures of the sky that I took. The sky is the most 'up' thing you can look at, right? They're nothing great, just some pictures of the sky.

Anyway, on with the post. In church today, I was asked to give a talk on the Importance of Education on May 23rd in Sacrament meeting. That means I have two talks in one month. Seriously, that's kind of annoying.

The lesson in Young Women's today was on journalism, and I decided to try to set a goal to start writing in a journal at least twice a week. It'll be another thing added to this whole blogging thing, except that blogging and keeping a journal are mostly different things. Oh, and we got special flower pens that we're supposed to use to write in our journals, so how could I pass up using that pen?

On another note, last night I finally started working on my Haley Potter fanfic. Yes, I know what you're thinking, 'another writing project?' but I've been working on this one for a couple years now and it still isn't going anywhere at all, yet I have it all planned out. Now, it's near the top of my list, just under The Brotherhood. Sadly, it even beats Involuntary Notion.

On a more random thought, I had the strangest dream a couple nights ago. It does somewhat relate to my talk I have to give. You see, in the dream, I stood up and started giving the talk, but then I didn't stop. I just kept going and went fifteen minutes into the next meeting. I didn't even seem to realize that I was going WAY over my five minute limit, so I kept talking. Finally, someone in the congregation stood up and shouted "Shut up and sit down! I want to go home and your talk isn't even that interesting!" I nearly died of embarrassment and then I woke up. It was one of the more strange dreams I've had, even though I know exactly where it is coming from this time.

Anyway, I guess I'm done for today.

NaBloPoMo

So what does NaBloPoMo stand for? National Blog Posting Month! I've decided to do this since my blogging is very irregular, and it is writing, in a form, and it is for May, and all other months too.

On to my blog post. I am writing way too much, not that it is even possible, right now. I'm working on three fanfictions, (how did that happen?) The Brotherhood, Everlasting Pain, and Insanity. For originals, I'm editing Involuntary Notions; writing an unnamed story; and I just finished Scriptfrenzy yesterday. I won, by the way.

Oh, and Lydia wants to me to write another fanfic, a Warrior's one, so she can make a comic out of it.

On another note, I have gone to two YCL meetings since I last blogged, and those are a lot of fun. Mostly, we've just been designing the T-shirts, which, let me say, are going to be awesome. The theme for camp this year is going to be superheroes, and we are changing a lot of things. No more mock disaster and singing trees, we're doing other things instead. And, instead of having a ton of YCL's, there is going to be a High Adventure, so there are only twelve YCL's right now. 

The dentist said that I have to stop drinking juice and soda, so until my dentist appointment next week sometime, I have pretty much been not drinking anything, since I don't like water or milk and I always used to drink juice. 

I found a possible place to put the geocache that I got for Christmas, so now I just have set it all up there and post it. It should be up soon.

I've decided to attempt another writing contest. There are three next summer. The June one is called WriDaNoJu, which I am not going to put the full form up because it isn't that great. However, this is the one I'll probably be doing, despite being during finals. The July one is JulNoWriMo, and it stands for July Novel Writing Month. Since girl's camp and a family reunion at the end of the month are both in July, it might be troublesome to try and accomplish, but it would make a nice challenge. August is AugNoWriMo, which I'm sure you can guess is August Novel Writing Month. That one would be interesting, since at the end of the month I'm not even going to be home. That and it is too close to November, so it might ruin my writing vibes for NaNoWriMo. Also, it is too far away. I can't wait another three months! I don't know what one to do, but I might attempt all three and see what happens. Or maybe, I could write a massive 150,000 word novel during all three months. That would be cool, but unlikely to happen. 

I have a talk next Sunday, on Mother's Day. Here's the catch though. I'm not even giving it in my ward. I'm giving it in my grandma's Ward, in front of a whole bunch of relatives and strangers. That should be fun (Can you hear the sarcasm?) but I couldn't say no. Anyone have any good ideas on what to talk about for a Mother's Day talk? I'm kind of lost on the topic.

I think I'm somewhat getting over my shyness, maybe a little. A couple weeks ago, I had to present some slides things in front of a whole bunch of students for an ASB assembly in WAVA. It was frightening, but things like that keep happening lately. I'm getting used to it. I'm going to have to participate in a Key Club assembly coming up soon. Except, I haven't even completed my 50 hours of service I was supposed to do this year. Whoops. It's strange, though. The one year I don't do a whole bunch of service projects is the year that I end up in Key Club.

I guess that's it for today.