josh & gossip at camp

lets start with josh ... let me introduce you

is he not such a doll? so josh is one of saylor's friends. he has SB too. they are about 1.5 years apart, he is younger. he just moved here and we have enjoyed every morsel of opportunity to spend time with this darling boy. he is so affectionate and loving and i cant hug him enough. its good for them both to have each other ... they both love to swim and josh has a pool so what better place for them to play? this was last monday.




GOSSIP AT GIRLS CAMP - sorry no pics of this ...

so some of you know that earlier this week spent a little time at girls camp. no i am not serving in the YW i am still in the good old RS. however i was representin and was asked to speak to the YW on any inspired topic of my choice. Nate also went with me, they needed his trailor, truck, muscles, and priesthood. this was not quiet the getaway that i anticipated when i found out the night before we left that we could not sleep in the same location ... anyhow ... so the topic of my picking ... GOSSIP. i know i am asking for it, seriously such a hard topic to talk to teenage girls about. but when given inspiration you must follow, that is you want to be obedient. of course it did not go as well as i had planned, i suppose my expectations of the girls to share in discussion about this sensitive subject where to high. if only one girl came away with a different perspective or spirit then of course it was all worth it, i doubt i will ever know but i will just pretend that surely at least one did.

some interesting resources i came across while preparing my talk ...
1. the new york times - article about an all girl jewish high school trying to rid themselves of the terrible habit of GOSSIP that was destroying most of the self worth inside souls. they challenge themselves at the conclusion of morning announcements to not speak ill or gossip about anyone for at least 60 minutes. the participation and change in the girls was astounding. i to challenged the YW in my ward to participate in this challenge while at camp and gave them a reminder "shmirat halashon" means guarded speech.
2. the strongest weapon known to man is the toungue
3. comparison of the butterfly effect (sensitive dependence on initial conditions) to gossip - perhaps the reverbatation in heaven of words
4. Jules Feifer - except i feminized it.
“Ever since I was a kid, I did not want to be me. I wanted to be sarah, and sara didn’t like me. so I tried walking & talking like sara, I tired participating and excelling in all the things that sara did. Then sara began to hang around megan. Then I got all sort of messed up. I began to walk & talk like sara walking and talking like megan. Then I realized that megan walked and talked like Kristin and Kristin walked and talked like Natalie. So here I am walking and talking like sara’s imitation of megans version of Kristin walking and talking like Natalie. and who is Natalie trying to imitate of all people? Carrie – the annoying girl who trys to walk and talk like me!

tomorrow morning early is saylor's VCMG then clinic then a renal ultrasound and hopefully a surgical decision and schedule.