I feel like I never blog my thoughts anymore and it's just a recap of our recent vacation.
Although I do have a list of trips I need to blog about, I have thoughts I want to share.
The past few weeks Shaun and I have gone through some things that have made us look at the bigger picture. What's really important and the right path for us. As we've been contemplating those things, I have been reminded of an eternal perspective. A Heavenly Father as well as many family members beyond the veil watching over us. I was telling my class on Sunday about my knowledge and testimony of eternal life. About how the knowledge of being a child of God has gotten me through THICK & thin.
I told them how I didn't always know that...
How I'm sure many of them didn't/don't know that either right now..but that they can.
It's been three years since Shaun's best friend lost his father to Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS). On my Facebook it reminded me of this song that Shaun made for the funeral. The mother had made a few poems about her husband. Shaun made the lyrics into a song to play at the funeral for the family. I know that we have people on the other side. I know that we have a Heavenly Father on the other side. I'm striving to return to Him and be with MY family for eternity. What a perfect picture in this (sometimes) not-so-perfect world.
1.11.2017
"A new year, a new you!"
(I actually hate that saying because I love me!)
However I do enjoy making new goals.
This new years eve SJ & I were packing and going to bed early to catch a 5:15am flight the next day. However, my mother in-law got one of those paper lanterns that you can light & float into the sky (cue the Tangled music). We wrote our resolutions on the lantern before lighting it.
This picture is from the Floating Lantern Festival that travels around the states.
I already signed up for a reminder email to tell me when it is coming to Tampa in 2017.
I'm so going!
I believe in writing your goals down so there is a level of accountability and it serves as a reminder.
So without further ado, here are some 2017 goals!
N i c o l e :
.Graduate.
.Magnify my calling.
."Light the World" all year long(see future blog post).
.Grow photography biz.
.Continue to prepare for parenthood.
.Read patriarchal blessing often.
.Get back to a competing level of piano.
.Have better feelings about birds.
.Better myself physically & spiritually.
.Strengthen family ties.
S h a u n :
.Finish writing my screenplay.
.Invest $$$ wisely.
.Push improv boundaries.
.Pay more generous fast offerings.
.Be Nicole's most favorite guy.
.Better scripture study.
.Have a highly successful start at the new company.
Now that I'm home from Christmas break, I think that is a perfect time to quickly throw Girls Camp 2016 up on the blog (seriously so behind).
We all know that the release from YW hit me way harder then it should have. So I felt so ecstatic when they asked me to still help with girls camp. Somehow I tricked SJ into going to high adventure camp with us. It's where the 14-15 year olds of the stake get to go (real) camping a few days before the actual stake girls camp. I say "real camping" because florida camping means air conditioned cabins. My YW camp director, Doris Wilding, would be appalled. However, it is pretty dangerous to make 12 girls go camping in Florida in the middle of the summer. It definitely was a bonding experience. Shaun even said he enjoyed it (once he was home and showered)
I was a camp leader with my favorite Laura Anderson & Amy Bellamy. We packed up the car and headed down to the Keys where our campsite was. On the way there I taught Shaun some of the YW girls camp songs. This was his favorite...
Took us longer than it should have to set up the tents but once we conquered those bad boys, we headed for the water.
We had some visitors including a pair of raccoons that got into our pots and pans in the middle of the night. We sent Laura out just in case it was a bear (like last year, right Jenny?!).
One of the best parts of camp was the view outside our tent. It was so easy to ponder on God's earthly creations. We all had such thankful hearts for the world we live in.
SJ & I were put in charge of nightly devotionals. We absolutely loved it. Feeling inspired to change topics on the way down to camp after you had fully prepared is a great experience!
(no sarcasm.. I'm grateful for the promptings of the Holy Ghost)
Service Project in our swim suits
We got to go on a snorkeling trip before we headed back up north to join the stake. I was so proud of some of the YW who faced some major fears and got in the water. Girls camp is good like that :)
One more shout-out to my best friend for taking 3 days off work to listen to sweaty girls whine and cry (fact). I absolutely loved having him at camp with us and so did the girlies. We missed him when he went home. They tried playing Werewolf without him and it just didn't work out as well. See? Irreplaceable. haha
We loved reuniting with our Bonita Springs ward girlies even for just a few hours of ward time.
Braids 24.7
This girl made everyone's girls camp. She just recently got baptized. She didn't speak any english and was very shy. Two YW in her ward translated for her all week until the last day and a half. Once her friends left, I stuck by her side with my english-to-spanish app (great idea SJ). We loved learning each other's words for different things. She had the brightest light about her along with the most beautiful singing voice. The last night when testimony meeting came, she went up there with a translator. It was the way testimonies should be. Simple yet powerful. She told us to be nice to each other. To trust Jesus Christ. Believe that God answers our prayers. She prayed for years that her mother would let her go to church and she finally did this past year and she was able to be baptized.
All these pictures are starting to look the same so I'll conclude. It was one of my favorite Girls Camps (do I say that every year?). Full of stressful situations that make you bond, stronger appreciation for The Creation & deeper testimony of our Savior. Along with a lot of laughter, candy, & a whole lot of sleep deprivation.
