Update

Hi there in computer land! I am alive and well, I finished my finals and have started summer break. It's so nice staying up late, sleeping in and enjoying the sunshine. I've also been working on catching up on some crafty projects and ideas of mine, so we'll see how much I can get done on my 'someday' list!

Not much going on, which I'm not complaining about. Pretty much just gearing up for camp (I'm so thankful not to have to worry about Pioneer trek this summer!), the usual summer stuff. Hoping I get to make some fun local trips!

Can't wait for the local fairs!

Easter Season

It's been an enjoyable Easter season. I loved having Easter so late in the year- it was a long season for Cadbury eggs!

I did other fun things too.

Like dyeing eggs with my fhe group:

Raelena, Kristin, me, Andrew, Kaitlyn, Tad and Eric

I didn't get into a dye fight like some people but we had a great time!

I got put in charge of obtaining the decorating goods- we used crayons and I had found NEON dye! I taught them how to dye eggs with onion skins, they found it interesting.

Wherever I go I am the art teacher! Ha ha.

We dyed eggs as a family, always a fun tradition.

This year I discovered that if you use crayon on a warm, just boiled egg (as opposed to trying to color ones that have been in the fridge) that the crayon goes on very smoothly and solid.

I was pleased!

This one got dyed yellow:

I did a random floral design and dyed it bright aqua!

Can you tell that I love Nightmare Before Christmas?

 Couldn't resist.

My family loves dyeing eggs, it's a great artistic medium.

Years ago I did pasanky (Ukrainian) eggs, I need to take that up again.

Church on Sunday as very nice. We had 39 people (including a few kids) in attendance, which was great for our little branch! It was so nice seeing friends and everyone looked great in their festive Easter pastels. I even had two YW in attendance, it was great! The spirit was really strong at church today, which was great. Outside it was a gloomy, overcast day, but in our hearts it was sunshine.

The PA tradition seems to be us kids hiding eggs and making Mom and Dad search for them!

One good use for a cluttered house- it's easy to hide eggs...in plain sight!

Mom and Laura were bored and I came home to Easter bunnies everywhere last week!

My dad, the big kid:

After hunting eggs, we had our usual Points and Butts egg game tournament and ate eggs and some homemade corned beef hash, yum! I then settled down for an Easter nap, it was great. I got two naps this weekend, can you believe it? Dinner was yummy ham and cheesy potatoes, always a fave. Anyhow, it was a really nice weekend and nice to spend time with my family. It was a nice opportunity to remember our Savior and what He did for us.

He is not here, for He is risen.

Sunday Will Come

I thought I was already thankful for the blessings of Heavenly Father and His plan for us. I thought I was already thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us.

I was wrong.

Nothing has been happening to me personally, but in a very short span of time there has been a lot of heartache in the lives of those around me.

My friend's father died.
My friend will have a stillborn baby.
My friend's 7 year old son died very suddenly.

On top of all this, there are many who are very sick or needing surgery, including my jr field partner.

Don't even get me started on all the natural disasters that have happened lately. It's heartbreaking.

It's become rather overwhelming, especially when I can't be there to help.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Gavin's funeral, he was 7 years old. Tomorrow would have been his 8th birthday. I didn't know him very well but I went to his funeral because I am friends with his mother and wanted to support the family in this hard time. His family says that it was just his time to go- he suddenly got sick and had cardiac arrest and then was brain dead and had to be taken off of life support. All totally out of the blue.

His funeral was the best and most touching that I've attended. Our stake president spoke very sweetly about the plan of salvation and eternal families. His father (a bishop) gave the eulogy and Gavin was just an amazing kid. He accomplished so much in his short time. He loved learning and going to school. He was an old soul in a young body. He had an amazing testimony. He was so looking forward to being baptized. Instead, he was buried in his baptismal clothes. So many touching and humorous stories.

The Primary children, including his two older brothers, sang "My Life Is A Gift". So sweet and touching. Another tender moment was watching Gavin's little cousin pat the coffin on the way up to the stand to sing.

Gavin was taken to the grave site in an antique firetruck, driven by a friend in the stake. He once got to ride that firetruck in a parade. I thought it was a sweet way to go. They also printed his testimony and put it in Books of Mormon to give out at the funeral to those who are not as familiar with our faith. It was nice to see that a lot were taken. A lot of people from his school came to the funeral, which was very sweet.

Gavin's tragedy gives several people the gift of life through organ donation. It's really a miracle that he could donate because he had cardiac arrest but when they tested his heart it showed no signs of damage. It went to a little girl who was going to die within a week if she did not receive a heart.

They say the only real tragedy is not death, but sin- it's hard for us to understand why Gavin was taken so young but we can rejoice that he was and is clean and perfect, and being a little child, he is without sin. He has been taken home to God.

Gavin did serve a mission- he touched many lives while on this earth and even in death he helped strengthen testimonies and share the gospel. I know that my testimony has been strengthened by attending his sweet funeral. I would not have been surprised if there were angels there in attendance. Gavin, thank you for being a force for good on this earth.

"Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.


But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.


No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."

-Joseph B. Wirthlin




I know that Jesus suffered for our sins so that we can through Him turn our hearts and repent of our sins and return to live with Heavenly Father. I know that Jesus willingly gave up His life and was resurrected so that we too can have the glorious gift of resurrection. His sacrifice makes it possible for us to live together forever as families and I am so thankful for the gift of our Savior and the peace that He brings. Someday Gavin and his family will be reunited in the eternities. Someday I will be reunited with the loved ones that I have lost. I am so thankful for temples and eternal families.

I am so very excited for Easter this year- while I do love chocolate, I am very excited to remember and celebrate what Jesus did for us. We celebrate Christmas because there was an Easter. Gavin's birthday falls on Good Friday this year, and I don't think that is a coincidence.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

WV Conf: Take Me Home, Country Roads

I spent last weekend down in West Virginia for yet another YSA conference. It is starting to get hard to keep them all straight! This year WV opted to hold their conference at Jackson's Mill, a camp with some history. It's part of the WVU campus.

Truth in Advertising!

After months and months of sounding like a broken record  promoting this conference to the other YSAs in our group, it was finally time to go. I had a full car going down- my friend Kaitlyn sat up front with me and we had two guys from our fhe group in the backseat. If I wasn't driving, none of them would have had a way to WV! The trip down took about 5 hours, it took longer because of the rain and traffic and pitstops needed.

But we got there just in time for....stupid Get to Know You Games! Why, they're my favorite! {Sarcasm Sign}

I was forced to play, they had several teams rotate through activities. I am proud to admit that I did well during Musical Chairs- I lost out when four tried to become three. Out of a group of 14! We all have hidden talents. Oh, and I faked needing to do something with my phone so I could escape church-themed charades. How would you portray "Fishers of Men"? I don't know either and didn't want to try.

Once again, Get to Know You Games don't really let you get to know people. Although they let you see who's cool under pressure.

 Some poor girl dumped a ton of water on herself and all over the stage and floor during apple bobbing:

Running around with a kite attached to your hat- how sexy!

Is it now clear why I hate GTKYG? At least they weren't SFGTKYG.

No, I didn't participate in either activity. Though gosh, they looked fun. {Sarcasm Sign}

The real fun that night was the bon fire. Our speaker told the story of his first date with his wife- a bad date story that puts most bad date stories to rest! What an amazing woman to see past all that. It was fun to hang out with my friends and joke around. No photos of the bonfire- kindof hard to take pics in the dark.

Saturday was an early breakfast (7:30 am!) and then classes. First was a class where you covered a small military size Book of Mormon with fabric and doodads using irons and Wonder Under. It even has a magnetic closure. Pretty sweet.

Yup, mine's the aqua one!

Then it was finger-poking fun at woodcarving!
Here's what ours was supposed to look like:

Mine is *not* that far along. At all.

After lunch was Geocaching. I'd never done it before so it was fun to learn how to input coordinates and find stuff. My guy partner (not pictured) was less than desirable but I survived.

Then we got to watch an educational lecture from a raptor bird sanctuary/rescue place. They rehabilitate hurt birds of prey and use the ones that can't go back into the wild in their demos. It was an interesting show, it was neat to see the birds.

We saw a screech owl, "Owlice"

 A broadwing hawk named "Neo"

 ...and a tame red tail hawk named Annie that was probably stolen from the wild and tamed (illegal!).

This bird can really poop. Let me tell ya.

Later came free time and we walked down to the General Store. Saw a Civil War camp reenactment and people in period dress.

Reenactment with guns:

Fed the big koi fish in the pond:

After dinner, there was a speaker, the Mission President of the WV mission. He spoke about the theme and how there is really only one road to God and it's up to us if we're near or far. (Are you thinking about Grover at this point? I was!) It was a good talk and uplifting.

And since we were in WV, you gotta square dance. It's the law. I got roped into square dancing which was fine but I was so mad that I got tricked into having to be partners with a girl. And we were the only same sex couple in the entire room of 6 groups. They needed one more couple to complete a group and had run out of willing boys. At any rate, it was mortifying. And fed several complexes of mine. Probably other people didn't care that it was us girls, but I was mad that I was tricked/forced into it, mad that no guy wanted to be my partner in the first place and just mad. I have not been that mad in some time. Definitely the low point of the conference. Our group kept messing up too on account of our partnership- the guys kept trying to dance with me and would forget that I was "the boy". Or I'd forget that I was not supposed to do the girl part. I was so glad to be done with that! Other people looked like they were having fun, it was fun to watch my friends dance. Some groups did very well.

Then came the real dance, I was glad to groove my anger away. It actually was a pretty good dance and I did get asked to dance once. I did run away from some undesirable men, though. It was too dark to take a pic during the dance but I wanted to show off my new shirt so here you go:

We slept very well that night.

Breakfast again at 7:30 am and then Sacrament meeting. There were some really wonderful testimonies borne.

Sunday best:

Kaitlyn, Mitch and myself

The campgrounds were lovely. Spring has come to WV and it was great to have warm temps (could have done without the humidity), green grass and blooms in the trees. The cabins were really sweet looking and nice inside. Because it is Jackson's Mill, there are millstones everywhere.

Even in stone foundations:

The mess hall was a really cute building:

Our cabin, Marion:

Entryway of our cabin, note the two millstones above the fireplace:

 West Virginia rocks!

Some lows during the conference, but overall a fun weekend!

It was nice to get away and take a break.

Even though this conference served as a big reminder that I am not "young" anymore!

Sigh...

Random

Hmm...what have I been up to these days?

I am glad to report that I have been fine since my kidney stone.

Been keeping busy with school.

And really busy with church stuff.

Last weekend was great, I loved Conference. So uplifting.

The weekend before that was so FULL of church stuff that I was hardly home!

Singles dinner, RS luncheon, YW broadcast, Branch Council mtg, Church and YSA testmony meeting all in two and a half days!

Yikes!

No single guys came to the Single Adult dinner...just six gals including me and also a bunch of married leaders.

Anybody wondering why I'm still single?

Hmmm...in other news...

Dad cleaned out his coat pockets:

We keep getting dustings of snow:

The Jr High kids are doing great with the projects we do with them:

And Laura got another puppy to raise to be a guide dog a couple days ago:

Randy is very flexible! Let's hope he'll be a good puppy. Grant had the nickname "Tasmanian Devil" for a reason.

We don't have babies at the Chaney house. We have puppies!

I did get to be a mom for 30 min this weekend during conference- held a 6 mo old baby so his mommy could use the potty and get their stuff together. He spit up on me too, I got the whole mommy experience! And it was funny how many compliments I got when I was holding the baby in one arm and using the rug sweeper in the other! I can multitask. Sometimes.

His mommy said "Will you take the baby for me?" and I said "I will take any baby I can get!"

And yay I got my student teaching packet turned in! Gotta love paperwork. And paying for clearances. And taking Praxis exams. And gotta love it when your advisor forgot to sign a paper and you have to track him down or pay a $100 late fee!

My semester is over with in about a month!

I hope I have a fun summer!

That is, if Spring ever comes!

Break

I realized that I never did post about what I did on Spring Break. Is it really Spring Break when it comes way before Spring? It would have been more appropriately titled Winter Break.

I did manage to have some fun before I came down with a yucky cold. There are a few Washingtonians in my YSA group, and they had friends from WA come to visit. Laura and I joined with them and we formed The Washingtonians and had some fun in Erie. It's always fun to make instant friends in the gospel. Isn't it amazing when it's like you've always known each other?

We showed the visitors Presque Isle, and by the time we made it out there, the sun was setting and it was really lovely. I think I prefer the scenery there in the winter, it's so serene. I hadn't taken sunset pictures there before, I was glad I had my good camera with me. Lake Erie was very much frozen, and it was neat to see.

Yes, that is frozen Lake Erie behind me:

And it's nice to have Laura be my personal photographer.

I didn't do much else over break, tried (ha!) to clean my room. Got a few projects done or started. Spent time on the couch. Wanted to go to an art museum but didn't cause I felt crummy.

So there you have it. 

Sick and tired...of being sick and tired

More adventures for Ladybuglizzy...on Thursday night I started having incredible abdominal pain on my left side. Tried to go to sleep (and I was tired too) and I couldn't. That's a lot of pain if I can't sleep through it. After talking to my mom, I figured it was a kidney stone, but you never know. There's so much going on in your abdomen! What if it was an intestinal blockage, my appendix (some people have it on the wrong side) or another ovarian cyst?

My good mommy took me to the ER at one in the morning and we didn't get home til 5:30 am. That's love. And keep in mind the local hospital is not that great. Before we left, my dad said a prayer that my pain would be lowered and that I would get good care in the hospital and I'm glad to say that's what happened. Everyone who dealt with me was super nice and helpful, which is not always the case at this hospital. Prayer works.

By the time we got to the hospital, I had pretty much stopped hurting but it was still good to know why I had hurt so bad. It was pretty funny talking to the nurse since my pain scale is not the same as other people's pain scales. I have dealt with a lot of painful stuff throughout my life. Once you live through ear surgery while you're awake, you can handle anything. Someone else's 8 would be like my 5...

They took blood and urine, we waited for those tests. Yep, blood in urine, so off to catscan for my abdomen. Waited for those results. Yep, kidney stone. Waited for the rest of my IV bag to empty and then they let me go. While waiting for my IV to finish, I got some painkillers. I don't remember what they gave me, but it was good stuff. Helped me to sleep, but when I needed to get up and be functional, I was able to do so. I've taken painkillers in the past where I couldn't function, I slurred my words. Blech.

My parents and I were supposed to go on the temple trip on Saturday and didn't. My parents didn't want to be that far away from me for that long in case something happened. I felt bad that none of us went to the temple because of me- and my dad was actually going to go and I don't think he's been to the temple since I got my endowments out in 2002.

Well Mom called our branch president to cancel and news spreads fast in the Corry branch (thank goodness I didn't have something really really embarrassing!)- I got a phone call from my former branch president checking up on me. It was kind of him to call, but also a bit awkward since we don't usually chat on the phone. He had a bad ordeal with a stone awhile ago, I think he hurt for days. Somewhere in the short phone call he said "They say kidney stones hurt worse then having a baby" and I said "Well, I wouldn't know about that, huh?" and he was like "Oh yeah...well you should get working on that in the future." Only he would give me a zinger in the middle of a sympathy call, lol.

I spent the weekend sleeping and resting and taking it easy. Had a smaller recurrence of pain on Sunday. Didn't go to school Monday either. But part of that was the nail in the tire we discovered Sunday night. Overall I'm doing ok, it just stinks having to be functional and upright. I miss my couch today.

This is after having the flu and then a nasty cold. I'm getting pretty tired of being sick and tired. This needs to change! Between being sick and having a few snow days, I am missing too much school! I miss having a functional body.

Spring is coming, hooray! I need a change.



Kidney stones may not break my bones...but they sure hurt like heck.

Why Wait?

One of my sweet friends saw the embroidered dishtowels I had posted on FB recently and said something to the effect of "I'd love something special like that when I get married."

And that comment broke my little heart- why do us single gals put off the joys in life simply because we don't have a special someone?

So I asked her what her desired future kitchen colors were and made her a matching suite of embroidered dishtowels, towels, and a hotpad:

Sometimes the rules of life make me laugh- I'm not allowed to have matching, nice or cute things because I'm single and haven't had a bridal or baby shower? Where did I sign up for that?

Sometimes I swear I'm going to start throwing showers for my single galpals and myself...um, we like nice things too! Do we not matter?

It's all too easy to put off happiness and say "Well I'll have a cute kitchen when I'm married" or "Well I'll be happy when I'm married" or "I'll be happy when I have kids." But what in the meantime? You should allow yourself to be happy now. You are a worthwhile person now. Don't waste your time here on earth just because you're single and/or childless. Life's too short for that. It's easy to focus too much on the future and forget about today.

I don't discriminate- I made a different set of kitchen stuff for my friend who got married. Her desired kitchen colors were red, green, black and tan. She is in her early 30's and just married a great guy in the temple- gotta reward that.

So married or single, have a cute kitchen and seize the day.

Elder Scott

February 18th and 19th was a super duper busy weekend.

For starters, there was Snow Conference for the youth:

 It's a yurt!

I was all set to have one of my girls attend, and then when I went to pick her up she bailed- she was sick. I sat in her driveway- what to do? Should I still go even if I didn't have any youth going? I was pretty tempted not to go- the prospect of sleeping in (and not in a room of chatty teenage girls) was looking really good. Really good.

But I decided to go anyhow. I'd said I was going and didn't really have a way to contact them. Plus I enjoy myself at these things. And my friends would be there. It was pretty mild weather, our snow was melting.

Snow Conference turned out great. It's always nice to be places where you can feel the spirit. The kids had a dance Friday night (one boy asked my 19 yr old YSA friend to dance and was mortified to find out she was a chaperone! What a cougar, lol.). My friend Kaitlyn and I found ourselves talking to another leader I'd never met before. She was my age, married a younger man a couple years ago. She said to us "Oh, does this take you back?" and I was like, "Um, we're YSA- we've never left! We go to dances every other month or so and they aren't much different then this!". It was funny. Yeah most people my age don't go to YSA dances. Ha ha.

After not getting much sleep (chatty girls and 8am breakfast) we had classes on Saturday. We rotated through 6 classes in three spots- the girls cabin, and two yurts. I've seen yurts at home shows before, they're fun. Good classes- anytime you get to watch a clip of the Cosby show for a church lesson, it's great.

Overnight we got snow- and the temp had totally dropped. Good thing I brought my big coat and ice cleats!

I left after lunch and jetted about 3 hours in the snow and wind up to Palmyra because....

...Elder Scott was speaking in person to the YSA!

I found myself changing into dress clothes at the Palmyra McD's. I am getting talented at that.

It was, of course, a great meeting.

Elder Jay Jensen of the Seventy was also there in attendance. The YSA choir was actually really good. And I found it interesting that Elder Scott got up and stood to the side up on the stand so that he could properly watch the choir instead of just staying in his chair like everyone else up there. What a sweet man.

Elder Jensen spoke first and it was a really nice talk. He talked about how we are duel beings with a spirit and body. When God gives us revelation, he sends it to our spirits to direct our bodies. When Satan tries to tempt us, he sends those messages to our bodies in an attempt to enslave our spirits. He said that we surely had lessons before we came to earth- and the most important topics in that "class manual" were 1)The Atonement and 2) the family. He encouraged us to be a covenant Israel.

Then Elder Scott spoke. Would you believe that he has a sense of humor? He was sweet and funny that evening. He said we all needed a sense of humor in life. Would you believe that he wound up in a police station twice while dating his future wife? How funny is that? One time he passed a police car on the wrong side, another time they had car problems and a cop picked them up. And then he said "And she still married me." He was so sweet about his wife, he misses her.

Yes, you can imagine a lot of the evening was about dating and marriage. All good stuff. He talked about hard times- he and his wife lost a little boy due to a heart defect.

He said some words that I needed to hear- I've been worrying lately about what I'm going to do after I graduate- and of course I want it all laid out for me easy peasy. Well, he gave a reminder that that's not how it works, we go one step at a time. We can have a happy life, we have to put our faith in the Lord. I swear he was talking only to me when he said all that.

He also had a question and answer session. Some good questions were asked, some I kindof had to roll my eyes at. It was interesting to hear his responses. One girl asked about the disparity in the number of worthy men vs the number of worthy women in the church- what are us girls to do? It was interesting for a General Authority to come out and say that a lot of the women's opportunities for marriage depends on the choices that the men make- that they need to be making good choices. I don't know if I've heard men get called on the carpet like that before.

I really wanted to ask a question, but didn't have the opportunity. I wanted to ask for advice for those of us who are soon leaving the YSA program due to age. I also wanted to ask what the church is doing for those of us in this age demographic- I can't help but feel shunned or put out to pasture at times.

When he ended the meeting, he invoked several blessings upon the congregation, it was very special to be a part of that and hear such sweet words come out of his mouth. He invoked a blessing that  we would have protection from being manipulated by Satan. He invoked a blessing that we would be able to identify the boundaries in which happiness can be obtained.

And he invoked a special blessing on us sisters in the audience- that we can feel the Savior's love in our lives and have peace and guidance in our lives.

Don't rationalize happiness away.

I drove home in a windstorm and didn't get home til 2 am! And somehow I made it to church the next morning. I was Zombie Liz, but I was there.

I was so glad for a nap.

PA Life

I find myself doing a lot of stuff I never had to back home.

Like lug firewood around. A lot.

We only have a woodstove to heat with now.

It's been a bad winter, we've used most of the wood on our back porch.

Which means...

....taking an entire Saturday to move more wood.

Step 1: Dig a 35 foot trench through 3 feet of hard crusty snow so that you can reach the woodpile:

Step 2: Photograph the snow bridge that defies gravity:

And don't forget to document the "pouf" on top of the log:

Step 3: Dig a trench through the deep snow on either side of the pile so that you can reach the woodpile.

Step 4: Clear the foot and a half of crusty snow off of the pile.

Step 5: Redig your trench.

Step 6: Try to undo frozen knots in rope that holds down the cover on woodpile.

Step 7: Have you and Mom lift off a huge heavy piece of galvanized roofing material to reach the wood. Slice your ring and glove and almost slice your hand with the sharp edge.

 

Step 8: Have Dad jack up the truck and switch regular tires for ones with chains on them:

Step 9: Lug several loads of firewood via wheelbarrow while waiting for Dad to finish with the truck:

Step 10: Photograph the bare ground where the truck had been. Treasure the memory- you haven't seen the ground since Thanksgiving.

Step 11: Shovel out the three feet of hard crusty snow that lies in the bed of the truck:

Step 12: Climb up in the bed of the truck and shovel most of it out.

Step 13: Relay many many logs into said back of truck. Pray truck doesn't get stuck in driveway. Move truck by house.  

Step 14: Relay said many many logs from driveway onto back porch.

Step 15: Have Mom model her fabulous hairdo.

Step 16: Kick her off her 'bench' and fill it up with many many pieces of wood.

Step 17: Hurt so bad the next day that you can't function.


Step 18: Document your pain so that you have plenty of stories to tell the next generation: "When I was your age..."


Oh and did I mention that it rained and snowed on us all day and was freezing cold?