I hate having to "filter" my thoughts or feel like I have to hide certain things from mysterious readers.
In fact, I have no idea who reads this blog, but thanks for reading!
So I will start a SECOND blog. Private. Approved readers only.
And I will pour my heart out about WHATEVER I WANT.
And still post fun, random things in this one.
Who's with me?!
PLEASE COMMENT or send an e-mail if you want to have access to my ultimate "BREE UNPLUGGED" blog of dating thoughts, embarrassing moments, heart-felt experiences, and so on. I'm excited.
This Girls Camp post is about a month behind, but I have to document my amazing Girls Camp experience as a LEADER. Girls Camp always brought mixed feelings, with changes taking place every year. In California I was pretty shy and didn't have a lot of church friends. So it was a blessing to always have my parents and sisters at camp with me! I loved all the activities and especially my camp and youth leaders. I think the people I met at camp have been more influential than anyone else in my life. I have a huge testimony of GIRLS CAMP. :) Once I reached the age of a "YCL" (youth camp leader) I had emerged out of my shell a little and was more confident and outgoing. My best year at camp was my 5th year (last camp year in CA) and I got to be a leader to all the little 1st year campers. They were adorable and I felt important and loved. I made so many friends that year and got the "Most Spirited Camper" award, which was a huge accomplishment for me. :) When I moved to PA I went to one more year of camp and had a blast with all my new friends. Overall, I loved it and always looked forward to that crazy week of fun.
Then 12 years went by and suddenly so many of my friends were serving in Young Women in their wards, which meant they got to go to Girls Camp. I was still running my summer camps for work and wished so much I could just go to Girls Camp. This year it was finally my turn! As 2nd counselor in our Stake Young Women, it was certain that I'd be a part of camp this year. YAY!
Early on in the year I told the camp director(s) I would love to help with music. And that's how I became the camp music lady. :) I also had the responsibilities of flag ceremonies, astronomy certification, and 4th year adviser. I loved it all! I loved being involved and knowing all the nitty gritty details behind the scenes. Our camp director (Kathy) and assistant director (Jen) were absolutely AMAZING and I loved laughing and joking with them. Basically... I was 100% happy all week long! No joke. I had so much fun getting to know the girls in the wards, acting crazy, laughing, singing & playing the guitar, doing heel-clicks, canoeing, competing, pranking, late-night talking, etc. It was all just perfect and so good. There were many spiritual aspects included that strengthened my testimony as well and I came away from camp so uplifted and rejuvenated. Not only did I make a whole new world of teenage friends (I seem to be good at that), I also made real grown-up friends too! :) It was a great opportunity for me to familiarize myself with so many other leaders in the ward and stake levels, and now I feel much more comfortable and confident in my calling.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from Girls Camp. (The whole collection is on Facebook)
Fabulous Camp Directors! (Kath-left, and Jen-right)
Talented Camp Cooks! (Liisa Roden-left, and Terri Hatch-right)
Some of my new grown-up friends! :) (Sarah-left, and Kelly-right)
Crazy, fun girls in another ward. :)
Happy to be with girls from my own ward.
I feel like these ladies are my other Moms! Kathy & Marchele (Stake YW President)
3rd Ward Awesome-ness before canoeing.
Yeah. I tried to "wash" my hair with baking soda that morning. Then it got wet.
So.... this was the incredibly fabulous result! Everyone loved it.
Having fun with the crazy hair.
Jen (Asst. Director) was absolutely adorable ALL the time!
Me and my buddy Gentry playing with face paint.
Face paint gone bad!
Me and Emma, a super hilarious 6th year camper.
The YCL's were so proud of themselves after hiding our pillows. :)
Camp Mia Shalom
The Stake Leaders & YCL's slept in the cabin above the pavilion.
Incredigirl: I loved this camp theme! :)
Gentry came up from behind and smashed cake in my face.
Her mom wiped most of it off for me.
I tried to get her back but didn't have any success...
More happy face paint with Alyssa.
Emma & Gentry being themselves at flag ceremony. Super funny all the time. :)
My little groupies! Love these girls.
Doing fun service on the last day of camp.
LAST DAY... exhausted and ready to leave! But kind of wanting to stay longer. :)
Some new friends! So fun.
Gentry & Emma on skit night. So much fun.
Stake Leaders doing their "roll call" song.
Me at the very end of our skit. :)
One of the most memorable things about camp was singing the "theme song" I wrote, along with the guitar. I finished it about a week before camp and was just going to perform it the first night of camp. But after that first night Kathy wanted me to TEACH it to everyone so we could sing it all together on the last night of camp when all the bishops and ward leaders came up for the evening. I taught the YCL's one night and the Spirit was strong. I loved it. I taught it to the rest of the camp the next night and we sang it several times. It was amazing to hear 100+ people singing a song I WROTE! What an awesome experience. Here is the little video I made for it the night before camp. It's called "I Am a Hero."
This is a video of when we were practicing the song at camp.
Most of the girls were off to the right of the camera.
The song seemed to stick in the hearts and minds of everyone at camp. Kathy told me she kept hearing girls singing or humming it during craft time or just randomly around camp. I love that! It was such a privilege to be at camp for 6 days, surrounded by nature and new, warm friendships. I can't wait 'til next year!
p.s. We can't forget about the camp pranks. Some of the ward leaders stole all the pillows of the stake leaders, bagged them up, and sent them out in a canoe in the middle of the lake. At flag ceremony we were given a tiny note that read: "Dear Stake Leaders, I'm sorry you lost your pillows. Love, the Lonely Canoe." We laughed and thought, "Oh crap... our pillows are in a canoe on the lake." Sure enough... way off in the distance, during the evening program, we see this lonely canoe slowly floating out in the lake. It was sooo funny. Once it hit the side of the bank, a truck came by that thought it was garbage, so they were in the process of loading their truck. Luckily, one of the leaders who was guilty of the prank took off sprinting towards the lake so those men wouldn't throw away our pillows. Jen ran off with her and they successfully retrieved our pillows. :) I love pranks... they make me laugh. Yay!
p.p.s. At camp, we challenged the girls and leaders to each do 100 acts of service by December 2013. This is the blog I created to share experiences and encourage everyone to complete the goal! :)
Okay, so I've supervised many teen dances in my career with the YMCA and Boys & Girls Club. Sometimes they are outrageous and I see way to many inappropriate situations that I have to break up. They can be stressful and frustrating... or disappointing seeing this crazy generation and their crazy habits.
But guess what?! Tonight I was a chaperon for a multi-stake dance at the church and it was FABULOUS. :) I honestly enjoyed myself the whole time and loved being there. I'm in the stake Young Women so it was a good opportunity for me to fulfill a snippet of my calling and be there to support. Our stake is in charge of the big dance in October so Marchele (the President) and I wanted to go and see how they organized their dance, etc. Like secret spies. :) Marchele brought her hilarious daughter, Cassidy (age 21) and I brought my roommate, Cassity, who is also known to be funny... so the 4 of us had a blast. :) We basically hung out in the pavilion (outdoor dance) most of the night and we were in charge of making sure kids didn't sneak off beyond the grass-line.
At one point we saw 2 boys racing across the field and hid back behind a shed. I enjoyed watching from the bench as the other 3 ladies set off like cops-- flashlight and all-- and busted those kids. Bahahaha. It was so funny. I love the way Cassidy shined her light like a champ and told them they needed to get back to the dance. Scared the crap out of them. Other than that... it was smooth sailing.
Girls Camp was about a month ago so this was the first time I saw many of my new little youth friends since that week. I was just sitting there on the table and one after another, girls would come up and say "Breeee!" and greet me with a hug. It was precious. Some girls brought their friends up to introduce them to me. Made me feel special or something.
One of my little buddies, Gentry, is Marchele's daughter and such a funny kid. She's tough and sporty but such a sweet, kind-hearted girl. I loved watching her because she was all over the place-- dancing, making new friends, socializing, etc. But any time I went out on the "dance floor" and she saw me, she'd peace out and go the other way. Like I was her mom embarrassing her or something! I thought to myself, "Sheesh... I'm not THAT bad, am I?" So I danced for a minute with some other girls... long enough to sing out the "rap" part of a Justin Bieber song that I learned a while back. Felt good about myself and then wandered back to my chaperon station. :)
I loved talking to the girls, encouraging them to ask boys to dance, and to remind them to just say "Yes" if a nice boy asked them to dance. You can't be a jerk at church dances... just dance with whoever and have fun! I even told one girl she was only allowed to sit by me for 5 minutes at a time, and then she had to go back out on the dance floor. She sat the 5 minutes... left to go meet up with her friends, and ended up dancing the whole time! Good for her. :) I sometimes felt like a "proud parent" when I saw the girls I knew slow-dancing with boys and what not. Awwww. Cute.
What a fun night. So much more enjoyable and relaxing than the other teen dances I've supervised. The church standards bring a little magic to that. October will be crazy. I'll be supervising a teen dance at the Club on Friday, and the very next night is the multi-stake church dance our stake is in charge of. Yee haw! Just can't get enough. I'll need to think up a good costume... dun dun dun...
Just so you know, these are all the things I've done instead of doing my homework right now:
Check e-mail
Log on to Facebook
Eat snacks
Play with dog
Send a few text messages
Check e-mail
Look at homework reading assignment
Check back on Facebook
More text messages
Write in journal for 2 seconds
Look up a new blog
Send an e-mail sharing that blog with family
Look at my blog
Change the whole look of my blog
Create this post
It's been a couple hours now and still no homework done. It's just simple reading-- really not that big of a deal. But MAN. I'm really good at not doing my homework. I have tons to update on my blog too. Dying to share my Girls Camp experience but that will REALLY eat up the rest of my time tonight. At least I have the self-discipline to say no to that.
