There's No Place Like Home

This summer I went to Girls Camp ( July 8-11) and the theme was There's No Place Like Home from the Wizard of Oz. The whole camp was total Wizard of Oz. It was great! I was a YCL 1 this year and I was over Greenfield ward. I didn't really know anyone from Greenfield ward before I went to camp but now I know all of their leaders and the girls! The first day we got there was a Friday, we met at the church and all the YCL 1's sat on the stage and sang a bunch of camp songs. We watched as the 4th years were getting all of their gear and loading it on the bus and we teased them about how they have to go on a backpacking hike and we already did ours so we didn't have too.

The YCL 1's are in charge of giving devotionals to their assigned ward and since our theme was " There's No Place Like Home" all of our devotionals had something to do with the Wizard of Oz. In fact each day at camp had a little theme from The Wizard of Oz. The first day's theme was the Scare Crow or Knowledge. We taught about how the Knowledge we gain in this life we can take with us into the next life. We talked about how unlike the scare crow we know we have a brain and we know how to use it. We talked about the importance of gaining knowledge.

When we got to Camp Lo Mia we unloaded all of our sleeping bags and other things in our cabins. We then went to rotations with the Greenfield ward since we were their YCls. The first rotation was a class on Knowledge given by Sis. Udall who is the Young Women President in the Monticito Ward. She is also an English teacher at the High School we go too. She talked about the different types of Knowledge's we have. School knowledge, homemaking knowledge, scientific knowledge, random knowledge, and spiritual knowledge. The next rotation we went to was archary, then we went to a service project, and then an art project.

Everyday at camp we had something called a Tornado Watch. In The Wizard of Oz they had a tornado that they had to be protected from and like them we have to be watchful for the tornadoes of life. Everyday they had a siren go off sometime in the afternoon and when that went off no matter where we were we had to go back to our wards and study the scriptures. They had a little packet made up for us and the first day we studied knowledge. This was all independent scripture study. It involved us reading a lot of quotes or little stories given by the prophets and apostles. Some quotes were from The Wizard of Oz. They had little questions here and there asking you to recall what you learned. Then to conclude our study time they gave us an assigned chapter to read in the Book of Mormon.

That night we had a special program given by the YCL 2s which involved singing and acting. They had different stories of girls and the different problems we face and how these girls chose to make the right decision that would lead them to their Heavenly home above.

Saturday we woke up and went to give the devotional on courage ( the lion). We talked about how to have the courage to stand up for what we believe in and the courage to do what's right. Our rotations we went to that day was an obstacle course, a dance class ( they taught us some line dances), a shoe making class ( we had red flip flops that we made flowers to go on and we put red sparkles on like the ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz), and a class on Courage. The class was taught by a lady from the Highland ward. We talked about having courage in our lives and that courage doesn't mean your not afraid. Having courage means you do something even if you are afraid. You will be fearful a lot of the time but as long as you still do what's right, then that means you have courage. She then told us the story of Ester.

Later that afternoon we had our tornado watch and we studied about courage.

We then had time to practice our Lip Syncs. We performed our lip syncs, then we prepared for Glitz and Glamour in the Emerald City. We had to bring fancy clothes to wear for this evening. Some people really dressed up in sparkly dresses and skirts and others just put on a boa and did more simple dressing up. I did the more simple kind. That night we had a carnival where they had cotton candy, game booths, juice that were all different colors, hamburgers, face painting, and other carnival type things. It was really fun! After that they had a fear factor show since the theme was courage for the day. After that we had a dance party where they put on a ton of music and we all danced. Line dances and free style dances.

The next day was Sunday and we got up early to give our devotional which was on the pure in heart ( the tin man). We talked about how the pure in heart is how we create Zion, the pure in heart will see God, and you have to have a pure heart to go to the Temple. Then we went to Sacrament meeting and Young Women's. The Young Women lesson was on having a pure heart. We then got to spend time with our home ward. From the time we got to Girls Camp until now we had spent all of our time with the Greenfield ward but on Sunday they let us spend time with our own ward. We had lunch with our wards and when the tornado watch siren went on we went to our own ward's atties and studied on our own about the Pure in Heart. Later that afternoon we had a fireside talk by President Wood. He talked about the ruby red slippers and how all along Dorthy had them. Since the start of the journey down the yellow brick road she had what she needed to get back home and so do we. He compared the ruby red slippers to the white slippers that you wear in the temple. He also talked about how families can be together forever. After that we had dinner and then they did this really special fireside that night. They blind folded us and we went through Christ's life by touching objects, and smelling things, and tasting things. It was mainly by touch though. As we felt the different things they had an audio going telling us about Christ's life. It was also filled with many songs about Christ. When it told of Christ being a baby we held a baby doll. When He was baptized they put our hand in water. They put the cross on our backs when he was lifted on the cross and in short, they took us through Christ's entire life through touch. It was a really neat experience. Afterwords we had a testimony meeting with our own wards and because of the program we had just had, a lot of testimonies were about Christ. Monday morning we woke up, packed our bags, and went home. Overall it was a really great Girls Camp. We went one day less than normal because they wanted to end camp in a spiritual way. Because we went one day less than normal we did all of the certification before Girls Camp. As a YCL 1 I taught certification and my topic was what to do when your lost. I told the story of how my cousin Anthony along with some other boys got lost. We did that way back in March though. We also did our hike before we went to Girls Camp. It was a really neat experience and I can't wait till next year!

Because there is no place like home, how do you get there?

First you have to know how to. You have to know of the Gospel and increase in knowledge. Then you have to have the courage to do what you must do to return home. Last but not least you must be pure in heart.

My Special Friends

Last week I started my summer job: Camp Fiesta! It really is so much fun and gives me something to do in the summer! Its Monday-Thursday for a few hours in the afternoon. The first day I didn't really know what to expect, but it turned out to be great! Camp Fiesta has 130 "campers" or kids. They have them divided up in many different groups: 4 elementary groups, 2 Junior High groups, 2 High School groups, Self Contain ( all ages, these are the really WILD kids; Alyssa worked with this group), and a group that are in wheel chairs. I am in an Elementary group. We have 12 kids in our group. Some of them have a lot of special needs and others seem normal and I don't know what there doing at a Special Ed camp. My little friend, Andrew, loves to open doors and then watch them shut. Everyday when he is done eating lunch, he heads over to the door, opens it, pushes it all the way back, runs back in the room, and jumps excitedly while it shuts. He has a twin that is at Camp Fiesta too, and he does the same thing! ( His twin is in a different elementary group.) My other friend, Tyson, likes to run around and scream. When ever were in Sports and Games instead of playing kickball, or dodge ball, or baseball, or what ever sport were playing, he runs around and screams. Its his way of getting his energy out, and the other kids are running around and playing the game, and he could care less to play the game so he just runs on his own and screams. ( Its an excited scream.) Jameson likes to take his shoes on and off, then he hands his shoe to you and says " shoe on" we try to get him to keep his shoes on in the first place, but he won't listen and just continues his game of taking his shoe off and then you putting it back on for him. He loves to color though, thats one way to get him to keep his shoes on. All you have to do is say, " Jameson, do you want to color?" then he'll look up at you and say, " Color," in a very cute little voice. Coloring will keep him busy for quite a while, the staff members have decided now to always have crayons and paper for him to color with because he loves to color! He always has his hands over his ears and starts to cry and almost panic when other kids are being too noisy. When Tyson runs around and screams, Jameson puts his hands over his ears and starts getting fussy and will scream. When that happens we either take him to the sensory room or take him outside and let him color. Jessica is very cute and very well behaved. When we were swimming on Monday we pretended we were mermaids. Kim is a little quiet and doesn't like to participate in a lot of the activities. She's happy to just sit in the back and watch the others. We try to get her involved but its a little hard. She loves Sara though ( our head staff for our group) and always wants to be by her. But one time when we were in the game room I was playing Ker Plunk with her and it was time to clean up and she said, " Sara can't boss me around." Scott is so very sweet!! He behaves very well! Everyday at lunch he has a gogurt, and some fruit that are in a package that have to be open. Everyday he tries to open them on his own, and I watch him struggle, then he'll say so sweetly, " I need help with this, can you help me?" ( I ask him if he needs help with it too, but I've noticed he likes to try to do it on his own first.) He is so sweet. He stutters when he talks, and he can get everything out, but it takes him a little while. When its time to go home, I'm assigned to take him and some other kids to the bus, and if you spend some one on one time with him he'll talk to you a lot. He talks to me about swim therapy that he does, his family, his 2 golden retrievers, and much more. Its fun to listen to him talk, and talk back with him. Like I said he is so sweet! I love them all, but he is one of my favorites! Every Monday we go swimming and when we were getting out of the pool I walked back with him and he told me that he gets to go swimming twice on Mondays, at Camp Fiesta, and then for swim therapy. He told me that he loves to swim though and that it is a good exercise. He also told me once, "Camp Fiesta is so much fun!" He had a grin on his face as he said it too! Matt is a cutie too, he wears leg braces and likes to sit by me at all our activities. There are more kids in my group, but those are the kids that I've helped out and been with the most! Camp Fiesta is such a wonderful program for these children. Most of them come from Summer School in the morning and as soon as we get them off of the buses we immediately take them to the cafeteria to eat, then after that its different everyday! On Mondays we get them ready to go swimming and then go swimming, and we swim the entire day at Camp Fiesta. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we do different rotations. They have Sports and Games where we play a different sport every time we go. We have cooking where we make something that goes along with what ever the theme is for that week. Today we made cupcakes and decorated them to look like a bug because it is bug week, last week we made flying saucers ( Pancakes) and decorated them with lots of chocolate, sprinkles, whip cream, and strawberries. It was Space week last week. Andrew was putting lots and lots and lots of chocolate, and sweet stuff that made it look so gross, but he was having so much fun with it! I asked him, " Are you going to eat this?" and he said, " no," in a very high and quiet voice. He doesn't really talk a lot but if he wants something he'll say a one word command like, " bathroom, bathroom," in his quiet little high voice, then he'll take your hand and lead you to the bathroom. In science we normally start off with a little game, today there were lots of different bugs on the wall and 2 campers would go up at a time with a fly swatter and try to be the first to hit the bug that the lady called out. Then we do something with science. Today the campers got to look at earth worms and touch them to see what they felt like, look at them through a magnifying glass, and learn some interesting facts about them. Did you know that earth worms can live up to 10 years, and have 1-5 hearts depending on the worm? We have music therapy where we sing a bunch of songs, and the lady hands out a lot of instruments for the kids to play and make music with. Arts and Crafts we make a different craft that has to do with the camp theme. Today we made Caterpillars and a butterfly. The game room is more of a free time room where the kids can do what ever they want ( in that room though.) They have lots of board games to play with, and books to read. The music room is another free time room, they have lots of dress up clothes, and coloring pages to color. ( I don't know why its called the music room.) The ball room looks fun, but we haven't been there yet and all of our kids are begging to go! I've seen it and it has tons of balls that they can throw around and jump in. There is News 2 You, where they learn about the newspaper. I'm not positive, but I heard something about them making a newspaper for Camp Fiesta this year. It would just be a fun newspaper for the kids, and thats what we will be doing at this rotation. The older kids will be writing stuff for the newspaper and I'm not sure what the younger kids will be doing, we've only been to this rotation once so far. I think that that is all of the rotations, I might be forgetting one, but for the most part thats Camp Fiesta!

Reading

In 5th grade I read the best books. Everyday I looked forward to after lunch when my teacher would read to us for about 45 minutes. I loved that time of the day! It was always relaxing. We read a lot of books about pioneers and their journeys out west. We also seemed to read a lot of books involving people learning to survive on their own. Some of the books we read were: The Island of the Blue Dolphins, Hatchet, The Sign of the Beaver, I can't remember the title but it was about a man and his dogs, Bridge to Teribithia, and like I said many pioneer books. A couple of weeks ago we were at the mall and we went into the book store. There was a table that had many books that I read in 5th grade! Some others that I read in 6th grade ( The Giver and Bud Not Buddy.) All of these books were so good, it took me back to 5th grade! On this table they also had the book The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I read the back of it and it seemed really interesting, I'm going to read it. We have it but Alyssa took it up to BYU so I'm going to have to get it from the library. I also want to read the series The Maze Runner. I have the 1st one on hold for me at the library, it might be a little bit of a wait so I should get The Witch of Blackbird Pond first and maybe by the time I'm done with that book The Maze Runner might be ready for me.
Over the Summer ( and the start of the fall) I want to try to read these books:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Maze Runner ( series)
The Gathering ( series)
All of the books I meantined above are really good and should be read if you have not read them. Bud not Buddy is my least favorite out of all of the ones up there, but it is still pretty good.

Summer and School

Well, I haven't blogged in such a long time because it takes way too long, BUT, I have been reading blogs! Latley I have been spending a couple of hours each day reading nienie and Cjane.... literally a couple of hours each day. It is so interesting!! This last semester I was in a Literay Explorations class ( its an English reading class) and it was a class designed to get kids to like reading and to enjoy it. I like reading some novels, especially mysteries, and wizards, and magical stories, and I also like reading blogs. My teacher said some people like reading, even if they think they don't. Some people picutre reading a novel is the only type of reading there is, but reading blogs is too! My teacher said if you like to read blogs, you like to read!
Well...... School is out for SUMMER!!!!! A recap of my year....
Biology ( eh) alright class, not the most interesting ( want to know about the DNA and genes in your body, want to know how Downsyndrome, and other things like that occur?) If so take Biology! ( you get some other stuff along the one, the things I just explained were the most interesting)
Seminary is such a great class! This year we learned about church history and everything Joseph Smith and the early saints went through! This is something my Seminary teacher said a lot, " Whats the purpose of the Plan of Salvation?" answer, " To become like God." Other quotes from Brother Jones, " Don't expect a millon dollar answer from a 10 cent prayer." " Trials aren't ment to stay, think of the famous phrase from the Book of Mormen, and it came to pass. Trials came to pass, not to stay." The 2nd to last day of school my friends and I went to see Brother Nielsen ( our Book of Mormon seminary teacher from last year, he is at the Junior High) he's everyone's favorite seminary teacher. It was great to see him again. I loved Brother Jones too, I will get to see him more often because he will be at Mountain View next year too! I won't have him though because they don't let you have the same Seminary teacher twice.

La Clase de Espanol es muy interesante. Para mi, es muy facil, pero mi papa hable Espanol. Yo soy muy estudiosa en la clase de espanol. Yo estudio todos los dias con mi papa. We had many finals in Spanish class. A speaking ( I got 19 out of 20!!!) a writing ( I also got a 19 out f 20 on that one one too!) and then a mulitple choice.. we didn't get the scores back from that one because we took it the last day of school, but it was SO EASY so I'm pretty sure I did good! It invovled listening, reading short stories and letters in Spanish and answering questions based off of that, and then grammer, conjecting to present tense verbs ( O, as, a amos, ais, an... those are the AR ending verbs!) then there are ER and IR ending verbs too. Next year we will be learing how to conjugate to past tense verbs.... and Spanish has 2 past tenses!! I don't know the difference between the 2 past tenses, but I will learn next year! For me the hardest things in Spanish is when you have 2 different words that mean the same exsact thing in English. For example Ser and Estar both mean to be. If you conjugate them they could mean, is, am, and are. At first it was hard for me to know when to put Ser vs. Estar... after a while I got it down though!
English is split into 2 different class: Princalpals of Enlgish and Literary Explorations. Principals of Enlgish is a writing class ( thats all you do the whole semester.. write a whole bunch of essays) and Literary Explorations is the exsact opposite, you read the whole semster. We read many short stories and 3 novels. 2 indepent novels and 1 as a class. She had a list of books we could read for our indepent novles. The first book I read was The sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, then we read To Kill A Mockingbird ( such a good book!) everyone in the class read that book, but we still read it on our own at home. If you have not read To Kill A Mockingbird, you should! The characters seem so real, its a great book. The only book Harper Lee wrote. Then make sure you watch the movie afterwords! Then the last novel I read was called Night. Also a great book! Its a true story about a 15 year old boy and his journey through the Concentration Camp... very sad, but you should read it! We also had a poetry unit, a dramatic unit, and other things. By far, I loved Literary Explorations more than Principals of English ( who wants to write?!)
Choir was great as always. The last concert was a Rockin' Roll concert. Some choirs put on melodies from Queen, Michal Jackson, and some 80s songs.
Geometry is OVER! It is the most hated math class. Its also the most failed class at Mountain View. I got a solid B out of the class, but I still struggled. It is the hardest class I have ever taken. Sometimes I would dream about shapes, and think are those shapes congruent? They have vertical angles, and corresponging angles, maybe their congrent by the SAS theorem..... oh and do NOT get me started on proofs! Those are horrible. You know your in Geometry when you look at the sidewalk and start to anilize it, you start thinking oh look, vertical angles, those angles are congrent! Or when you look at a table and see perpendicular lines and you know that it is a 90 degree angle. Next year back to the easy stuff: Algebra 2!!! so excited! back to the good old X's and Y's, slope fomula, factoring, foil, Y= MX+B! the easy stuff!

I'm excited for this summer! I'm going to be volunteering at Camp Fiesta!!! Alyssa worked there! I will be working with Special Needs children. We will play games, go swimming, and have a good time! I am also looking forward to Girls Camp! July 8-11! The theme is " There's no place like home" from the Wizard of Oz! I've heard its going to be really great! And like always...... I will go to Idaho! My favorite state, to visit my wonderful Grandma! I should also be finishing Personal Progress this summer! I'm working on my last project, a garen for Faith, and then I have 3 more value experiences! I will also continue the piano! Have a great summer!

Since I've been sick I haven't gone to school these last 2 days. I really enjoy not going to school.... but I HATE all the make up work I'll have to do. I have a quiz in math.... =(. I'm not sure what else I'm missing.

Amy Grant - Grown-Up Christmas List

1st Semester Spanish

iHola! Me llamo Desiree Smith y tengo qunice años. Mi Cumpleans es el veinteyquatro de febro. Me gusta a mi famila. Tambien tengo dos gatos que me encantan. Yo como la pizza todos los dias porque la esceula ofrece comida malla. No me gusta nada Gemetric clase porque you tengo horiable profesor. Yo soy trabajadora en la escuela. No soy artisitca proque no soy talentosa. Mi gusta tocar la piano. Son las tres menos veinteydos de la tarde. Hasta Luego!