I held down the fort while my mom was gone for two weeks in CA. She went to attend the funeral with my father, and visited her own family as well. I was glad she was able to see my dad and spend some time with him. It took two tries to get Mom from the airport- she was delayed in Detroit overnight due to fog in Erie, and I spent all day in Erie for nothing trying to pick her up and having to make the drive the next day to finally get her. It felt like quite the accomplishment when the two of us were both home!
A week after my grandmother's passing, I attended the YSA conference in West Virginia. I already had things lined up to go, and there was no sense in not going. Laura wound up staying home alone over the weekend to take care of her dogs since Mom was away in CA. Not to mention, I had somehow been volunteered to be in charge of carpooling and ticket purchases and I didn't want all my hair-pulling work to be for nothing!
We met at the church building and smushed 10 people into two cars- gas is expensive and it's a four hour drive! I succeeded in not having to drive, that was a real accomplishment! I had to fight for that. My car ride down was cramped but fine, and we ate at Outback- good thing cause I didn't want the pizza provided. Friday night was the usual horrifying get to know you games- I politely played Two Truths and a Lie with a group before ducking out. Later that evening we had a bonfire and listened to Jack Rose speak to us- it was very good. He talked about how you have to have courage to have faith. His words were very timely for me.
Saturday brought classes- I attended one about art appreciation, car maintenance, creating your own title of liberty (with fabric and sticks and everything!) and also one on dating etiquette. They were all really good, better than a lot of conference classes.
Here's the art appreciation class, held in a sweet little chapel on the camp.
We rock!
We played Ninja!
We got ready for the dance!
The dance was a lot of fun, I got asked to dance a lot (don't get your hopes up, none of that's gonna pan out!) and I even asked a guy to dance when it was Ladies Choice- can you believe it? I was proud of myself for not being a wallflower. I tried not to take it too personally when said guy didn't want to talk to me anymore after I danced with him. Sigh.
Also on Saturday we got to hear more from Jack Rose, and again he was good.
Sunday was Sacrament Meeting and it was nice to hear from the speakers and testimonies. Overall the weekend was really great and uplifting, I felt very comforted. It was hard to say bye to my friends that don't live near me. I'm really glad that I went to the conference, I really needed the pick me up.
Since the conference, I:
Played with sidewalk chalk with the YSA
Observed a foggy day at Presque Isle while unsuccessfully getting Mom from the airport
Saw this cute aqua bike decor...wish it could come home with me!
I helped clear brush at camp and figure out where stuff will go.
And I played Nerf Wars with the YSA!
We played in the dark with two teams- each side had a different color of glow necklaces to wear- really fun!
When Mom came home, she brought home a few things that belonged to my grandmother. Not really important or sentimental things, but some things that my dad and grandfather thought we could use and no one else was really gonna care about. I got a couple of long sleeve Ts, brand new. Also this skirt, still had tags on it. Mom also brought home some RS magazines from like the 60s and some plastic dust covers for clothes.
It didn't bother me a lot to see these things, but it did give me a little pang in my heart that she wasn't ever going to use these things and also that I was never going to get a care package from her again- she often sent us boxes of various goodies. Sigh.
And that's the news from Elizabeth, stay tuned for more.
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