[7/23/12] Girls Camp. And I ran this morning! :o)

I spent a few days last week with these awesome Young Women and leaders:

In our official camp shirts.

Yes, the shirts were very bright. And almost turned glow-in-the-dark when the lights were turned off.

Girls Camp started on Tuesday, and my friend Stacey (our YW President) and I went up Wednesday morning and stayed until Friday morning when Girls Camp was over.

They were tent camping this year, so I opted to reserve a hotel. I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling both physically and menopausingly (new word?), so I played it safe. Stacey, the good friend that she is, offered to stay in my room with me so I didn't have to be alone. It was hard for her not to stay in a tent (not!), but she sacrificed for me.  :o)

Tuesday night during dinner there was a really bad storm and a few tents collapsed. During a break in the storm the camp leaders told all the leaders and girls to quickly go back to their camps and get everything out of their tents. Then all the girls stayed in the gym for the night. They danced and had a huge slumber party.

I wish I could've been there for that. It sounds like they had a really fun time!

The next morning they moved all the girls into cabins.  The tent camping thing didn't work out very well.

I don't think the girls were very disappointed.

Because it was really, really hot and humid!

When we got to Girls Camp Wednesday morning the girls were working on making small rectangular pillows for babies in the NICU to rest their little arms on when they have an IV. What a smart idea!

The girls also attended a craft class, had a class on finances, and another class on being prepared. I helped my friend Anne with the craft class.

Wednesday night we had kitchen duty, and I was put in charge of putting beans on top of the chips for the nachos. The lady in charge of the kitchen is a caterer, and she was cute. It was really important to her that everything was just so. I guess I'm not a very good bean spreader, because she kept telling me to spread the beans around more on the chips. :o)

After dinner the girls rotated between three games. It was fun to watch them play human foosball.

After the girls got all settled in their air conditioned (yeah!) cabin, Stacey and I headed to the hotel. I had reserved it through hotwire.com, thinking I would get the Hampton Inn. I was wrong.

So wrong.

I got another hotel, and it didn't look too bad. The night clerk was a bit creepy, and reminded us of the scientist guy from Back To The Future.  Our room wasn't too bad, either, although we could tell it was a Smoking room at one time.  But it was okay.

Until I got ready to leave for breakfast the next morning and found these in my bed:

Yes. I had two little bed mates during the night.

I was totally grossed out.

During breakfast I called John and asked him to pretty please book us a room at the Hampton Inn, which he did lickety split.  The hotel manager called me about twenty minutes later, totally apologetic and horrified. She told me that the exterminator had already been to our room and that the bugs were carpet beetles, not bed bugs.

Which was a relief.

But still...

Thursday the girls attended some spiritual classes on prayer, making good choices, and the Temple. They were really good classes! Then Thursday afternoon there were water games. I really think I would've had fun doing this if I hadn't had surgery recently:

This picture does not really show how muddy they were.

I would also have liked to do this:

But not this. The water looked nasty!

These girls obviously decided to play it safe and stay as far away from the nasty water as possible (notice that one of them is my cute daughter!).

Thursday night the Girls Camp Leader and our two Stake Presidency counselors spoke to the girls (our Stake President couldn't make it this year), then we separated into our individual wards for a testimony meeting. The testimony meetings at Girls Camp are always one of my most favorite things. We have some amazing young women in our ward and I love to hear them express their feelings about the Savior and the gospel, and their feelings for each other.

After the testimony meeting and the treat that Bishop and Sister Adams brought to camp for us (ice cream = perfect!), we headed back to the cabin for awards. Anne and Annette, the camp leaders for our ward, came up with a very creative award for every girl and leader. I got an award for bed bugs, which was a can of OFF with a spider and web attached to it. When the girls heard about my bed mates from the night before, they were grossed out. Especially after they saw the picture.

It was funny.

Then Stacey and I headed to the hotel. I felt a huge sense of relief as we drove up to the Hampton Inn.  We have never had a bad experience with a Hampton Inn.  Another leader, Jessica and her 1-year old little boy Braxton, had come to camp earlier that day, and they stayed in our room too. Braxton wasn't too sure about Stacey and me, and pretty much screamed his head off while Jessica took a shower. We tried M&Ms, dancing, singing, and anything else we could think of to try and calm him down.  But it didn't work. He was pretty determined. But he was fine after his mom came and took him.

Friday morning we loaded up the girls and their stuff and headed home.  It was good to be home.

And that first shower after Girls Camp is always one of the best showers of the year.

Seriously.

I'm so thankful I got to spend another year at Girls Camp. I got to be with Kam for two years at Girls Camp, and with Kailen for three years. I love being at Girls Camp with my own girls.

And the girls in our ward are the best! There was no drama, they were kind to each other, included each other, were patient with each other, and had fun. They never complained when it was our turn to help in the kitchen or clean the bathrooms. Not one complaint. 

I hope I can go again next year.

And...

(Drum roll, please!)...

I ran this morning!  For the first time since the middle of April!

And although it was really hard, I did it!

Diane and I did the first stage of my beginning running program and ran 2 minutes, walked 4 minutes, 5 times.

And it was hard. 

Harder than I thought it would be.

You see, usually when I do the beginning running program I'm doing it with a beginning runner. Or after I've taken some time off for an injury.

But running again after this surgery was totally different. And really hard.

But I did it. And we walked for awhile before and after we ran, which was good.

I go to Dr. V (my OBGYN) tomorrow for my annual appointment, and he said he wanted to talk about the pain I'm still dealing with. So I thought it would be a good idea to run today to see how I did so I could talk with him about any problems.

And so far, I haven't noticed that the pain is worse because of running (hooray!). It's still there, but it's not worse.

And it feels so good to be running again. Even if it's only for a few minutes at a time.

Before long, we'll be back to running 45 minutes again.

There's a 5K we're shooting for in October.

And I know we can do it!

:o)