The Circle of Life...Interrupted

Recently I've been keeping track of our own little "Joanny Saggy" hanging outside our window. Today it came out of its chrysalis and was a beautiful monarch butterfly. Yesterday I noticed there was a praying mantis also and I thought, "How wonderful, I don't see those very often." But then it went away. Today I saw it again hanging around the butterfly and I started to wonder if it was planning on eating my butterfly that I've been waiting to see. So I did some research and sure enough, praying mantises eat butterflies! I made Tom get a cup and take away the praying mantis! I know you are not supposed to help a butterfly out of its chrysalis because that is how it gets strength and if you help it, then it will die because it will not be strong enough to fight off predators or fly away. I hope I didn't make it weaker by taking away its first predator! But I just couldn't see all my hard work waiting around for it being wasted on that praying mantis!

The praying mantis "preying" on my wonderful butterfly!

It had to happen "Sooner" or later...

The first big upset of the season: No. 20 BYU over No. 3 Oklahoma. Need I say more?

Just in case you missed it, check out the highlights here. And for all you Cougar fans out there, I embedded the Cougar Fight Song below, so you can rise and shout one more time and salute the Cougars for the amazing game they played tonight!

Helmet stickers go to Max Hall for playing like the veteran quarterback he is, the young offensive line for handling a fierce OU D-line, and the BYU defense for their aggressive play against a brutal running game and a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, keeping both in check most of the night.

**UPDATE**
BYU is ranked number 9 in the week 1 AP rankings and number 12 in the USA Today rankings!!

GIRL'S CAMP!!

The thing I love most about my job is I can do whatever I want during the summer! One of the highlights of my summer is getting to go to Girl's Camp. Part of my Stake YW Presidency responsibilities is being the Girl's Camp Liaison which means I get to help plan girls camp! This year I got to plan it with 3 women who I completely love and admire! They are amazing in every way, shape and form and each brings specific talents that really help Girl's Camp be the success it is each year.
So this post is going to be really long. But, if you are a camp director or ever will become one, there are a lot of good ideas here so I highly recommend reading all about our adventures. (Those of you in the Champaign stake, we are looking for a new stake camp director so pay attention!)

The theme for Girl's Camp this year was "Partakers of the Gift". I thought it was such a wonderful theme that really helped bring everyone together.

We camp at Camp Drake, which is a boy scout camp, so we have a dining hall, a pool, archery and shooting and toilets. There are cabins there, but our girls sleep in tents and they do have to cook some of their meals in the campsites. But thank goodness they do not have to dig their own latrines!

Monday: Arrived and quickly set up camp. Then off to a service project. The Young Women were clearing trails and cutting down trees and hauling wood. It was a wonderful sight to see them all working so hard. Then we had fire building with a little competition thrown in there. Each campsite had to build, start, and sustain a fire long enough to burn through some rope. One of the young women in my ward was so intense about getting her fire roaring she almost suffered burned hair and shoulders as she knelt down to blow air into the fire. After dinner, taco salad, we had this awesome activity called the Amazing Race where each campsite had to go to seven different stations and choose between a mental or a physical challenge. Then they had to work together as a group to get through that challenge. At the station I manned they had to choose between collecting enough kindling to build a 1 foot high pile or they could create a monthly budget. It was awesome to see the groups that chose the budget really start thinking about all the things they will have to spend their money on once they graduate high school. Then we had our traditional Monday night party. This year we decided on a birthday party theme to go along with gifts. We had a pinata and a pin-the-nose-on-the-clown. There was also music and dancing and a wonderful birthday cake for dessert. There was also a limbo contest. Good, clean fun!

Forging the trail!

Me doing service

The fire building competition!

Our leader skit involved us searching for and finding our hidden talents. I found I was smart! ("S-M-R-T")

Pinata at our party!








Tuesday: The goal was to cook all day in the campsites. After I gave a devotional about the gift of repentance everyone went back to their campsites and made omelets in a bag and bacon for breakfast, but a mighty rain storm came in and made it pretty impossible for them to cook lunch in their sites. So all the young women came to the dining hall and we had a great scripture study and then we had first aid certification. After lunch, sub sandwiches, they had their stake craft, which is my anti-gift, so I did not do. But they made cute gift boxes reminding them of things they have received as gifts in their lives. After the craft we saw sun and everyone had free time. I had an awesome nap! The girls were able to cook in their sites for dinner and made foil dinners. The food at camp is so good! After dinner we joined together at the arena for our opening ceremonies. For certification this year we had an Olympic theme with some competitions. Each campsite had to come up with a flag and cheer/jingle. So we had the parade of flags and presentation of the campsites. Then for the Opening Ceremonies entertainment we had an awesome girl band called "Out of Sync" comprised of the stake camp directors and myself. We lip-synced and danced to three songs. The best: "Dancing Queen"; our prop: shovels. We completely lived up to our name and the girls had a fantastic time. Then off to the dining hall for bedtime snacks and secret sisters. I got an awesome bag full of goodies such as glow sticks, a relaxing CD and lip gloss. The bag was an awesome green and my secret sister somehow knew that I love lip stuff! Even though we don't really know who our secret sisters are until we get to camp, it was amazing just how much this sister had me pegged.

OUT OF SYNC!
(Living up to our name)

Wednesday: Woke up to a beautiful morning and ready for a hike. We split up into years. I joined my friend Aubrey and Bro. Springer and we led a small group of young women on a hike around Camp Drake. Bro. Springer showed the girls edible and poisonous plants. For the first time in my life I feel confident in pointing out poison ivy! It was so awesome though because a lot of the girls would excitedly ask Bro. Springer about everything. We constantly heard, "Bro. Springer, what is this?", "Bro. Springer, look at this!", and "Bro. Springer, what about this?" It was so cool! At one point in the hike the trail was about 8-inches wide and right on a drop off to the creek about 10 feet below. At another point the trail looked like it just stopped with a huge tree with lots of fat branches blocking the way and completely overgrown past it. But that was the trail so we had these girls climbing in and out of the tree and trudging through knee-high brush. And another point the girls approached a spider building its web right across the trail and were very respectful of the spider and made it a rule that everyone had to duck under it and let it be. Even Bro. Springer played along and bless his heart ducked down pretty low to make it under. My fat back pack barely made it, but we let that spider be. I think the hike was my favorite part of camp this year! Afterward we had another great scripture reading time about gifts of the restoration at the chapel they have there . Then they made pizzas at their campsites, so good! And then we had the first-aid relay-not my favorite part of camp. By this time the girls were not in the mood to follow the rules and have to carry pretend hurt girls all over camp drake and there was only me left to carry one of them! I was not excited about that and was mad that the girls would not play along. I thought it was such a good idea but the girls were not that excited about it. Our team came in dead last, with me being very frustrated. But Brittney did a wonderful job in planning it and the leaders were very good at being picky with the girls and their abilities of bandaging and wrapping fake injuries. After that free time then dutch oven dinners in the campsites with potatoes and pork chops, so good! And the campsite I ate at didn't make their cobblers the day before so we had apple cobbler for dessert. After dinner was skit night. This year we randomly split up the groups and gave each group an 80's song title that was to be the theme of their skit. It wasn't supposed to be a music video. The girls came up with some really great skits and I think skits are a lot easier if given a theme, not necessarily a bunch of props. So I think we will do that again. My favorite was "Footloose". The girls had a hospital clinic. The first girl came in with her hand shaking all over and the doctors pronounced, "Hand Loose" as her ailment. Then a couple more and then one of the leaders came in saying all kinds of gibberish and the doctors pronounced, "a few screws loose!" And then another leader came out shaking her bottom all over the place and the doctors pronounced, "A Loose Caboose!" The final one came out with "Foot Loose." Pretty funny stuff. And then there was an encore presentation from Out of Sync. This time we turned all the lights out at the arena and put glow sticks all over our body and danced to "Larger than Life" by the Backstreet Boys. I love the Backstreet Boys. Anyway, that was a hit and then we did our much rehearsed Emmy award winning Shovel Dance to Dancing Queen. We were a hit! Then back to the dining hall for cookies and ice cream and secret sisters. This time I got a cute bright colors knitted looking bag with some foot scrub and body wash. How did she know I still have all my mission callouses?

On the overgrown trail

Scripture reading at the chapel

Thursday: Breakfast: french toast, my favorite. Then we had our scripture reading about the gift of the Atonement. Wonderful. Then we went canoeing. The girls got to play for a while and then we had a canoe race. Our team came in third. Crossing the bridge is always a little scary, but everyone makes it safe. Then we had cheeseburgers for lunch. Afterward we had a little certification left and then off to water games. Aubrey and I were in charge of water baseball with a huge slip 'n' slide. I kind of did a slip 'n' slide but really just scooted myself a long a little. The girls had great fun with that. They also had water relays. Everyone got wet. Then it was off to free time. Thursday is always Priesthood night so the ward Priesthood leaders came out and gave short messages to their girls. And then we had Hawaiian haystacks, love them, for our Priesthood feast. After dinner is testimony meeting. I was really impressed with one young woman's testimony about how she has been praying for the last few years for help in becoming less shy and while she knows she isn't perfect at that gift, she recognizes she is getting help in improving. I was so touched! It was awesome to hear several of the young women say their favorite part of camp was the scripture reading. That has been our camp director's goal and it sure was a payoff to hear that many comment on it! After the wonderful testimony meeting we headed to the dining hall for our night time snack and secret sisters. This time I received a brown and pink bag with some post-its, note cards, and pens in it. How did my secret sister know I use post-it notes and pens as a teacher?
Crossing the bridge to Poncho Pond. Quite a scary experience!

The Canoe race at Poncho Pond

This spider was huge! You can compare it to the doorstop to get the idea. I didn't use that bathroom ever again after seeing this!

Friday: Camp clean-up. After cleaning up we gave out certification awards. We also found out who our secret sisters were. I found out that mine was a good friend of mine and she had been trying so hard all week not to tell me she was my secret sister! She said the best joy of the week was seeing my reaction to the gifts she gave me! And she also told me that while she was shopping for secret sister gifts she felt very inspired to buy certain things. She had never spent that much time looking for gifts and these were not gifts that she would normally buy. But she followed promptings she received and had a lot of fun seeing how following those promptings paid off. She was just about as excited to give me those gifts as I was to receive them!

My Secret Sister Susan (on left) and my good friend Patty! They make camp truly fun!

One thing that Denise, our fearless leader, started this year was a giving tree. We set up a Christmas tree and then laid out paper ornaments that the young women could write on telling the kind things or wonderful gifts they observed in other young women. By the end of the second day the tree was full and it was a wonderful sight to see.
What a wonderful week I got to spend with our stake young women. And my best lady friends of the stake! It was such a rewarding experience. I hope that I will continue to be able to return every year!

If you made it to the end of this post you deserve a cookie. You should go find one right now! Oh and leave a comment letting me know you made it through!

Does Tom like my singing?

A lot of you are wondering whatever happened with my audition. Well, he called one night and said that he would allow me to sing even though he hadn't heard me still and he scheduled me for July 12. Last Sunday I sang "Guide Me to Thee" from the Sabbath Song II book. I was so nervous. I don't have a natural vibrato, but I'm sure some people thought I might because I was shaking so much. I definitely thought I could do better, but it was a lot better than it would have been if I hadn't had voice lessons this last year. Anyway, people said I did well, so I guess I did ok. I always wonder though if they are just being nice. I mean, I didn't hear anything from the ward music chairman!

Bryson (my voice teacher) left this last week to move to Provo and get married. I am really sad. I was really liking taking voice lessons. At our last lesson we sang through a lot of the songs that I have sung this last year. It was awesome to end the lesson on the song I first learned and realize just how much I have improved. I really didn't notice how much my singing has improved, I mean, I definitely feel more confident in singing, especially some of the higher notes, but when I sang that song, it was so easy! I remember how much I struggled with getting all the notes and now I just belted them all out. Of course there was still room for improvement, oh but it was so fun to feel so confident in it! I will definitely miss my lessons. I am really glad I did this for me and I hope I am at least a little closer to Tom liking my singing!

Update: The music chairman came up to me this Sunday and thanked me for my musical number.

Savings win!

This post is the conclusion to the Anderson Washer and Dryer Saga of 2009. Part 1 and Part 2 were posted previously if you haven't read them already.

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After being told by the salesman at Lowe's that the best they could do was essentially to match Home Depot's price I noticed that US Appliance had renewed their $100 off coupon code for GE Appliances, which was convenient since we had our eye on a GE washer/dryer pair.

We had pretty much decided to go with US Appliance, but I figured I had come this far in asking for good deals, so why stop now? I called Home Depot, without much hope, and explained that I had found a MUCH lower price online and asked if they would they be willing to match it. The "Appliances" manager didn't even hesitate to say "Yes." With the caveat that Home Depot would charge tax where US Appliance does not. But Home Depot has free installation, unlike US Appliance. The 2 pretty much offset, and we ended up getting the washer and dryer we wanted for $113 less than the Home Depot sale price which was already 10% off their regular price! I definitely smiled because I was saving even more!

When I went to Home Depot I was preparing for them to look at me like I was some sort of criminal for ripping them off so badly, but both the Appliances manager and the employee who completed my purchase were very friendly and did not make me feel awkward at all! Home Depot customer service WIN! The washer and dryer were delivered today. Needless to say, we are very excited about our new acquisitions, even if it means we don't have to get to go to the "Launderette" anymore!


Meet "Launderette" and "Gus!"

Our laundry room doesn't look like much, but we're pretty excited to actually be able to do laundry again! (this might be the only time in my life I'm excited to do laundry!) As I mentioned earlier they are made by GE. "Launderette" is a 4.0 cubic foot capacity washer and "Gus" is a 7.0 cubic foot capacity gas dryer.¹ They were rated very highly by Consumer Reports for washing efficiency, energy efficiency and water efficiency. The only downside is the washer shakes the floor pretty badly during the spin cycle (which was the one mark against the washer at Consumer Reports). I think we can live with that. Hopefully they'll save us $$ on our energy bills!

 

¹ Sometimes when we stay up way too late we end up watching "According to Jim" on Fox, not really because we like it, but because it is on. Last night on the episode Jim created a doll that flatulates that he called "Gassy Gus". How timely!

Savings fail?

We are big fans of Dave Ramsey and the Total Money Makeover approach to financial management. During our first year of marriage we started our "makeover" and we are now out of debt (except the house and my small student loan) and we use cash/debit for our purchases.

Dave Ramsey is really big on paying cash for things, and he often talks about getting a better deal on things when paying cash since the store gets the cash up front, doesn't pay overhead to credit card companies, etc.

So we are shopping for a new washer and dryer and I thought it would be a good time to try Dave's approach. We have shopped very carefully using Consumer Reports, comparing store prices to those online, etc.

Yesterday we withdrew a substantial amount of cash from the ATM (no Bank of America branch here) and went into Lowe's to get our selected washer and dryer. We informed the salesman of our intent and showed him a price we had found online at US Appliance and asked whether they could match it. The answer was no. The manager quoted us the bottom line price, which was still $123 more than US Appliance. So we left. (Don't get me wrong, the Lowe's price was still a decent deal.)

This morning I awoke to discover that the US Appliance deal had expired, so I went to Lowe's and approached the manager. I told him I had the cash to buy our selected washer and dryer (patting the fat envelope on the counter) and asked if he could knock a little more off the price quoted the night before. He replied, "I'm not going to give you a discount just because you're paying cash." He seemed amused/annoyed that I was even asking. I said, "Even though you will have to pay 3%-5% if I pay with my credit card?" He said, "I don't care about that." I said, "OK" and walked out of the store while he apologized. He can let the money walk out the door - it's not my problem (turns out the US Appliance deal is back on again anyway, so we'll likely do that).

In essence, this is what I heard from the manager, "I know that you are going to save me money by paying with cash, but I am not willing to pass any of those savings on to you." OK, well that's fine but I'm still going to buy the appliances at the cheaper place. I definitely wasn't expecting him to say, "Oh, sure I'll cut 10% off the price." But even a small discount for me would be awesome and would go a long way toward me being a repeat customer, and I would tell everyone how awesome Lowe's is. But now I'm instead telling you how much I dislike them. Oh well.

As I've thought about it, I've come to see it two ways.

Reasons he should offer a slight discount to me:

1. He's saving 3%-5%
2. The company immediately gets the cash assets, as opposed to a monthly payment
3. Better for me to spend my money there than elsewhere

However, there are some good reasons why he didn't give me the deal

1. He's the manager, and my purchase doesn't affect his paycheck.
2. Most people who shop for washers and dryers NEED them - it's not often a whimsical purchase. So he knows there's a good chance I'll be back to pay his reasonable price.
3. "The establishment" makes it difficult for them to make "exceptions" for individual customers.
4. In the case of a washer and dryer, he knew that no one else in town had a lower price on those models (Home Depot was the same price). If it were a custom job, like counter tops or carpet, he isn't as confident that he's the lowest in town and may be more likely to give me a better price.

So what do you think? Is it crazy to think I might get a discount on a large purchase just for paying cash? Is the Lowe's manager dumb to turn me away? Or is this a case of "Dave Ramsey fail?" Or is it just not the right situation to apply Dave's cash tactic? Should the system reward financing purchases while offering no advantage to those willing to pay cash?

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Side note: The large ATM withdrawal prompted a freeze on our debit card, email notification of suspicious activity, and multiple phone calls from Bank of America (within hours of the withdrawal). Score one for them for customer protection!! The irony is, I went and deposited the money back in our local bank account. Too funny.

 

Why doesn't my hair look as voluminous in pictures as I think it does in the mirror?

I just finished my last two weeks of ICLCS! It was a frustrating but very rewarding program. I came out of it feeling confident in my teaching skills. It was a wonderful experience because I got a lot of free tools, made a ton of new friends, gained a better understanding of chemistry and left feeling like I have so much more to learn! So I signed up for an organic chemistry class being taught to us teachers for this next year! I'm very excited for that because now I might actually be able to understand what Tom is talking about!

"Have we told you how much we don't like you Dave?" Of course we are only joking. Me with Dave and my ICLCS BFF Garilyn at our poster session!

I made a poster! And it was good!

Saturday is a special day...

They say Saturday is a special day, the day you get ready for Sunday, which is all well and good until your washer breaks, thus ruining your Sabbath preparations. Yes, that's right, our washing machine broke DURING a rinse cycle, so our washer was full of water and wet clothes with no way to drain it. We had 5 more loads to do, it's Saturday night, and we're totally exhausted from ICLCS, youth conference, being in the lab all night, etc. To top it all off, we had no clean clothes for Sunday. Here's the play by play of our adventure:

10:00 PM. We pack all the laundry in the car (including the sopping wet ones!) and drive all over Champaign-Urbana looking for a laundromat that was actually open. We find several (thanks, Jenna and Rob for the tip!), but they wouldn't let us start laundry that late

11:15 PM. We end up in campustown, on Green Street, searching for "Skylight Launderette." No really, that's what it's called. (FYI, Green St. is pretty much the center of all undergrad partying. You could literally smell the ethanol in the air, and the attire of those around us left much to be desired - particularly the women's)

11:16 PM. Becca suggests we name our daughter "Launderette."

11:17 PM. Bad idea. Side note - Don't read too much into this - there is no imminent "biological" reason for this conversation.

11:20 PM. Sadly, Skylight Launderette has been renamed "Skylight Laundry." How boring. The hours of Skylight Laundry are posted as 8 AM to midnight. We ask the attendant if we can do laundry. She replies, "No! Can't you see I'm mopping?" How rude.

11:30 PM. We haven't had dinner, so we drive around looking for a place to get quarters and food. We go to County Market to get a roll of quarters but they don't have one to give us. Becca buys a box of eclairs for the Father's Day smorgasbord to be held during Priesthood. We get a $10 bill to use for laundry on Sunday morning (church isn't until 1 PM).

12:00 AM. Before getting back in the car, I realize that our wet laundry is beginning to drip all over the car. So I stand in the street outside County Market, wringing out a basket of wet laundry!! We felt like bums who live out of our car! And of course we didn't have the camera with us.

12:15 AM. We go to the IHOP on Green Street. While in the IHOP, 4 police cars show up outside IHOP and officers begin questioning people in 3 different vehicles. And of course we have a front row view from our booth. The IHOP employees are all standing outside watching the whole thing go down. But they aren't that impressed. They say it's a pretty tame night by their standards.

1:00 AM. We finish dinner and pay with our IHOP gift card (thanks Mom and Dad Adams!). The manager brings us the receipt and we head home.

1:03 AM. We return to the IHOP hoping they can give us a roll of quarters. The manager asks if I had just eaten dinner there (I'm thinking, "Did you honestly forget me - ME OF ALL PEOPLE, A 6'3" ALBINO - in the 3 minutes since we left your restaurant?"). He gives me the quarters.

1:04 AM. Lots of yelling by undergrads from the balconies of the high rise apartment across the street from IHOP. I think they were surprised to see a 6'3" albino. Call me crazy, but alcohol and balconies don't seem like a good combination.

1:05 AM. We get in the car to head home. There are still 2 cop cars with lights flashing in the IHOP parking lot.

1:30 AM. Snuggle into bed, exhausted as usual.

7:30 AM. Alarm goes off.

7:38 AM. Snooze.

7:46 AM. Snooze.

7:54 AM. Get up and dress in our last remaining clean outfits. Head to the laundromat. (Judge us! But don't be too harsh - Becca wore a skirt, and I wore a BYU shirt)

8:20 AM. Laundromat is now open, and we load the clothes in 3 double capacity washers. We decide that when we have our big house, we need 3 washers and 3 dryers.

8:30 AM. Becca overhears the following.

Man #1: Don't look too excited about being here.
Man #2: I hate doing laundry.
Man #1: I tried to get married so I didn't have to do this anymore.
                  Then I decided it wasn't worth the trouble.
Man #2: (laughs)

This conversation was, needless to say, highly offensive.

8:35 AM. Man #1 might actually be a bum who lives out of his car. Either that or his wife was being too much trouble. I overhear him talking on the phone about how he slept in his truck, and it was too humid to sleep.

9:30 AM. Laundry is finished. I am moving the laundry to the car, per Becca's instruction. Man #1 looks at me and says, "Boy, she's got you trained, doesn't she?" I laugh. Heartily.

9:35 AM. I realize that what I SHOULD have said to Man #1 was, "Yeah, but she makes it worth my while." ☺

10:10 AM. Back at home, laundry all over the living room. Time to get ready for Church. Thankfully, my presidency meeting was canceled for Father's Day. Honestly, I'm not feeling as bad as I thought I might about being a Sabbath-breaker.

11:00 PM. Blog the whole experience. Laugh out loud with Becca all over again. Wish we had had a camera at the laundromat to surreptitiously take a picture of Man #1. I love that our marriage is full of these little moments of laughter!

A little present

This last week I've been attending the Institute for Chemical Literacy through Computational Science (ICLCS). It's a pretty intensive program which goes for two weeks and lasts from 8 am to 8 pm everyday. I also was in charge of the food for our Stake Youth Conference which happened this last weekend as well. So on Thursday night I went to ICLCS and then I went straight to chaperon the youth dance. You can imagine that I was getting home pretty late that night and that I was extremely tired. I had to make several trips to unload the car of all the leftover food we had and as I stepped out of my house I stepped on something that was plump and soft, but also crunched under my foot. When I looked back to see what that weird thing was I had stepped on I realized I stepped on A DEAD BIRD! That was gross!

The next morning I hurried out of the house to go to my institute and I just barely missed THE DEAD BIRD! This time it was covered in flies and I probably would have smelled bad if I actually had stepped on it! Thank goodness Tom took care of it before I got home that day! It's kind of amusing that we got such a present even though we don't have a pet to bring us one.

Just another thought. I always think that the word "chaperon" needs to have an "e" at the end. I hate that I always misspell it.

I'm Auditioning!

Some of you may know that I have been taking voice lessons for the last year. My ultimate goal was to learn how to sing so Tom would like my singing, but Bryson, my teacher, has convinced me that I'm doing it for me as well! Anyway, I decided to use it for one of my Personal Progress projects. Bryson really wants me to sing in church so I figured that would be a good culminating end for my project. Well, we just got moved to the Champaign Ward and we have a new ward music chairman. I asked him if I could sign up for a musical number and he sat me down in the foyer and proceeded to ask me about my musical background, whether I had sung in choirs, how many solos I have sung, and so forth. And then he said that he was hesitant to let me sing in sacrament meeting without hearing me first. Not really knowing how I sing, he wanted to make sure that I didn't "need a few more weeks of practice!" So now I have to audition for a musical number in church! That's fantastic. As if I wasn't nervous enough as it was. Now I'm more nervous because what will I do if he says I need some more practice?