Fun in the sun, and a little bit of drama!

We got a fun new water toy this week since it's been so hot. It's this giant beach ball that you hook up to a hose and it sprays out water. The kids have had so much fun with it! It has been so nice to just let them play while I relax on a lawn chair and put my feet up and enjoy being outside. As you can see, Aaron thinks it's a giant drinking fountain. I am so happy that they play together now and can entertain eachother for a while. I've been longing for this day!

As for other news, not too much going on. My cell phone was on the fritz for about two weeks and I felt so disconnected from the world! Well, my family anyway. So, I took it back into a Verizon store and they replaced it for free, but I wasn't able to get all my information or pictures off of it, so that was kind of a bummer. Hopefully Rachel still has her pictures of McKayla on hers to send me again so I can put her up as my screensaver! (got that Rach? *wink* )

Youth Conference was this week and my oh my...there was sooooo much drama! I couldn't believe it. Unfortunately it seems most of the drama was from our ward. One of our girls was caught making out with a boy in one of the classrooms during the dance...one of our girls wore an immodest shirt that didn't cover her belly and had to wear a big heavy lettermans jacket to cover up which really stunk for her when the air conditioning broke down in the building and the gym turned into a furnace....one of our girls wore sweats and a T-shirt with a swear word on it to the formal dance...a Beehive (yes, one of mine) showed up at the dance because she has a crush on one of the boys there and she was promptly taken home by our Y.W. President who needless to say was NOT very happy about it...the big bowls of candy (about $20 worth) were stolen from the refreshment table (I saw two ghetto boys dump them down their shirts and then they ran off...thankfully they were not from our ward)... one of our girls broke her foot at the service project....it poured through half of the service project which of course was outside (at Brazos Bend state park! Alligators, poisonous snakes and youth with shovels!).... lots of fire ant attacks... and as expected LOTS of boy drama (Blah). Then, last night was the testimony meeting and it made it alllll worth it! The spirit was so strong and I felt so much better afterwards. Then, all the youth got up and sang the EFY theme song...the one where the Young Men sing "The Army of Helaman" and the Young Women sing "As Sisters in Zion" together. About half way through when the Young Men started singing, they all stood up and sang, and then everyone else stood up and joined them in song and I just lost it! I was bawling my eyes out because it was so wonderful and spiritual and beautiful to hear our youth sing that song together. It was a neat experience and I was so glad to be there for it! We really do have amazing youth, and I'm learning quickly that I can't own their problems. I can be there to help them through them...but I can't own them. I'm learning that the more I see them struggle the more I love them because I've been there, too. I'm learning that you can't trust gossip from the girls....and I'm learning that more than anything, they need a leader who will love them no matter what, and will always be there with open arms and a kleenex for them to remind them that they are a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves them, and that they CAN make it through it...drama and all!