eavesdropping....

Tonight while riding the monorail into downtown disney I was observing a fellow LDS family riding next to us. You may ask how I know they were LDS? The Utah t-shirts and over the knee denim shorts were a dead give away( I'm still not sure where you can buy those shorts and who manufactures them, to call them a fashion crime is a mild commentary). If I was unsure with those two tip off's the conversation clenched it, as follows. "My friend Carrie's brother went to New York City and she said he wore a funny t-shirt and the only people who laughed at it or made any comments were other tourists, New Yorker's didn't even take the time to notice it. They just aren't very friendly or open people", then a general murmur of agreement then I hear what I think is the mother "Jeffery, we've got to get you on an airplane before your mission. I'd hate to have you say that was your first time on an airplane. Or do you think that would be a good thing and you'll be blessed for that?". Is it any wonder that to the outside world Mormon's seem odd? As soon as I overheard the NYC comments my mind flashed back to my last trip to NYC. Keil and I went for our anniversary a year and a half ago it was magical. Keil worked the first two days so I just took 2 days to explore the city. I'd been there before but I wanted to spend some time checking out some new places. I found a local's bagel bakery, decked out in full hanukkah decoration's (it's called essa bagel) and ate my breakfast, 3 days in a row. On the third morning in the guy behind the counter said to me "come over here" and waved me to his end of the glass case, "I've got something for you" he handed me a black and white cookie "You are beautiful, have a cookie on me!"How sweet, and of course the cookie was one of my favorite's. Then I thought about the trip to Lord and Taylor's for my anniversary gift I fell in love with a fur hat and I tried to talk myself out of it several times I mean it seemed very frivolous for a girl who lives in the hottest city in America! But I came back later in the day I just wanted it, silly as it seemed and Keil was happy to buy me something I really wanted. The woman who helped us at the counter said she had worked there for thirty years, when I told her we were celebrating our anniversary and this was my present she told me that the hat was on sale today, just for me! I'm sure after thirty years she had some leverage or maybe her family owned the store all I know was how sweet she was and Keil really appreciated the gesture and I scored the hat 50% off! Yeah, I love a bargain! That trip to NY I really felt loved by that city, as we walked back from watching the NYC Ballet perform the nutcracker suite the snow just began to lightly drift down. I told Keil "I could live here, I just love it here"! Maybe looking for the good and not the differences is what made my experience so nice. I'm not really sure but it's easy to find fault I'm sure it's always there but I'd rather not look too hard. As for Jeffery, not that your asking my opinion but I'd say yes take that airplane ride all the way to NYC and get a salt bagel with cream cheese you'll never forget it!

Girls Camp, really?

Is it camping when you sleep in a cabin, and eat in a lodge? I just returned from the annual camp kick off with my three teen daughters one and and half hours of kumbaya! This years theme is "walking on sunshine", as opposed to last year "project runway". Both really cute theme's and I don't want to disrespect all the hard work that goes into girls camp, I was camp director for three years myself. I guess my issue really is why not teach the girls some real life survival skills. My husband is the 1st counselor in young men's, this means lots and lots of camping! Like 12 camp outs a year minimum including snow camping! Yuck, are you kidding me? But I do get it, great skills to have if you needed it right. I mean isn't that why we are here as youth leaders, to get these kids prepped for anything life may throw at them. It got me reflecting on the sad story a few years back The Kim family from San Francisco, he was a host of C-Net. He and his wife and two daughters got lost on a snowy back road in Oregon...long story short he died trying to find help for his family. The wife and kids survived, so sad. I've never forgotten that story, and when Keil mentioned "oh yeah we're going on a snow camp" the thought of that family crossed my mind. Good skills, learning how to survive in the worst conditions. Here's my issue with girl's camp, why not kick it up a notch? I know they pass off the basic skills, but really it's a right of passage for LDS girls. It's feel good, faith promoting weekend. I'm all for those experiences like EFY, but why not put some emphasis on real world survival skills. When I was a teenager I loved the terminator movies (yeah I watched "R" rated movies, blame my parents they loved Arnold as much as I did. I even had a picture of him on my dressing mirror, weird!), one thing about the movies that I really loved was the mom "Sarah Connor". She rocked, and to a 12 year old girl, she was my hero. I'm not suggesting teaching them, fight to the death skills or ATM hacking. It just seems silly to me to not utilize all the amazing knowledge and resources that the church has in place for the boys. Aren't we really as parents and leaders providing an education for the youth, with all the emphasis on the young men's programs and scouting sometimes I think the girls get overlooked. I'm not proposing to do away with the traditional girls camp. We all look forward to singing the 21 verses of "Father Abraham", and the silly skits, the great testimonies that are born. It's wonderful, but let's not pretend it's "Camping"! Oh I know some of you stake's out there are in tents, I've done that too! So why not just kick in a few real camping experiences during the years as well, nothing crazy just one or two real roughing it, hands on "this is what you do if you are in the middle of nowhere and your car breaks down, or you get lost, or heaven forbid kidnapped and left in the middle of heck's half acre" type of experiences. Can we just slow down and evaluate the inequality of real skills and knowledge that is being passed down to the boys verses the girls? Let's empower our young women too, with some serious survival skills, as well as the crafts and skits in a bag!