2011 Ward Conferences

It's that time of year again when ward conferences start up again and I become less active in my own ward. Sunday was the first of the ward conferences (4th ward).

As a Stake Young Women presidency, we give the young women lesson during these Sundays. We split up the time and give a 5 to 7 minute part, leaving about 5 to 10 minutes for the member of the stake presidency to give some comments at the end. This time we decided to give our lesson based on President Monson's talk "The Three R's of Choice". He gave this talk during the Priesthood session of the October 2010 conference. The three R's are the right of choice, the responsibility of choice, and the results of choice. My part is the responsibility of choice.

As I was thinking about and writing my part of the lesson, I kept thinking about the law of chastity and I knew I had to step WAY OUT of my comfort zone and talk about that sacred law. In our Auxiliary training meeting last October, we made sure to emphasize to NOT skip or skirt around the chastity lessons because the young women are getting their fill of it from the opposite view and they need the lessons from Heavenly Father's perspective. Face the lessons head on! It's amazing how many leaders don't give the lessons because it's just too uncomfortable, so these beehives don't know the difference between chastity and charity (true story!).

I knew it was my time to step up (even though I am still very naive about the whole thing). As I was typing my talk, I was shaking and sweating and my heart was POUNDING! I was completely NERVOUS! We wanted to go through the lesson during our last presidency meeting before the first ward conference. My part wasn't completely done, but the majority of it was there. I said what I had so fast I had to repeat some stuff. But the rest of the presidency told me I didn't cross any lines and I said what needed to be said.

During the next two weeks, I refined and rearranged the words some more. Finally, I did all I could with my 6 minute part. And this last Sunday we gave our lesson for the first time. I thought it went really well!!!

Eloise Clawson started us out with the Right of Choice. Then I gave my part, the Responsibility of Choice. I prayed I would give it with confidence and I felt I did. Next, Debbie Burden talked about the Results of Choice. Pam Smith tied it all together and then talked about the responsibility of dating. She quoted Elder Bednar, "A strong dating relationship is built on the foundation of men honoring their priesthood and women reverencing their womanhood." President Haws took the rest of the time with some comments. He said if the young women would always live the word of wisdom and the law of chastity, they will be happy and have peace. The lesson was well received and the young women seemed to really be listening. Everyone of them made eye contact with us!

Now I can take a deep sigh of relief! I've gotten over one hurdle and I know I can step out of my comfort zone for all the other ward conferences with no problems.

One down and seven more to go! 1st ward is next.


If you are interested, here is my part:

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Next, with the right of choice comes the responsibility of choice. We are on an eternal journey and there are limitless choices ahead of us. We CANNOT be neutral; there is no middle ground.

Who knows the story of Alice in Wonderland? At one point in the story, Alice comes to a crossroads with two paths before her, each in opposite directions? She is then confronted by the Cheshire cat, and she asks, “Which path shall I follow?” The cat answers, “That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which path you take.”

Unlike Alice, we all know where we want to go, and it does matter which way we go, for by choosing our path, we choose our destination.

But it is not always easy is it? On our path we may see many attractively painted road signs that may distract us. Have you seen them? They may be very enticing and alluring! They may read like this:

• “Just this once won’t matter.”
• “Don’t worry; no one will know.”
• “You can stop smoking or drinking or taking drugs any time you want.”
• “Everybody’s doing it, so it can’t be that bad.”

Let’s see if you can find Lucifer’s Road Sign in this true story. One of my best’s friends recently shared an email with me. It is from her dad who is the executive secretary at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT. He wrote this email out of concern for his children as they raise their children in this increasingly wicked world. It is about problems facing missionaries and potential missionaries, especially when it comes to the law chastity and how many try to rationalize away their behavior. He tells his children that every missionary sent home for transgression were because of sexual sin. During one confession, one elder said, “I have done every sexual thing you can do, without breaking the law of chastity.”

Did you hear it? This is the pretty big road sign Lucifer wants you to believe is true. You can’t do “every sexual thing” and not break the law of chastity! You can’t even do one sexual thing and not break the law of chastity! Satan has managed to distort this missionary’s understanding of this sacred law. If it can happen to a missionary, it can happen to anyone. So let’s look at the For the Strength of Youth book to find out how our church leaders have defined Sexual Purity.

Before marriage, do not do anything to arouse the powerful emotions that must be expressed only in marriage. Do not participate in passionate kissing, lie on top of another person, or touch the private, sacred parts of another person’s body, with or without clothing. Do not allow anyone to do that with you. Do not arouse those emotions in your own body.

If you are tempted to commit sexual transgressions, seek help from your parents, your bishop, and friends you can trust. Pray to the Lord, who will help you resist temptation and overcome inappropriate thoughts and feelings.

Just like I used the For the Strength of Youth Book for guidance, Heavenly Father has given us multiple sources we can turn to when we have questions; we have prayer, scriptures, prophets, priesthoods leaders, parents, young women leaders, etc. He also has his own beautiful road signs. Here are some of them.

• “Stand of Truth and Righteousness”
• “Choose the Right”
• “Be grateful, be smart, be clean, be true, be humble, and be prayerful.”
• “I love to see the temple. I’ll go inside someday.”
• “I am a child of God.”

Our Heavenly Father did not launch us on our eternal journey without providing means of help. We are not alone and we never will be.

Decisions are constantly before us. To make them wisely, courage is needed—the courage to say no, the courage to say yes. Decisions do determine destiny.

I close my part with the pleading of President Monson. He says:

I plead with you to make a determination right here, right now, not to deviate from the path which will lead to our goal: eternal life with our Father in Heaven.

I echo this plea and say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Wicked and Truly Evil

WICKED!!! We saw it in London and immediately we wanted to see it again. It is such a great musical...very family friendly, fun, engaging, uplifting, and inspiring. Last August, I happened to see that it was coming to Tucson, so I convinced Kelli and my mom (it wasn't very hard!) to buy season tickets to Broadway in Tucson so we would be SURE to have tickets to this AWESOME musical! We also saw Beauty and the Beast last Thanksgiving weekend. We missed the first musical though (The Color Purple), because we were either sick or didn't really want to go. We'll see Burn the Floor in April. Not sure what that is, but I'm excited.

But back to WICKED! Our tickets were for January 8 at 2PM. So we left Sierra Vista at 11:45 and headed to University of Arizona's Centennial Hall. We made good time and arrived at the parking garage about an hour before the show was about to start. That is when we got the first text message.

From my sister, Jessica:

"Hey Erin, Congresswoman Giffords was just shot here in Tucson about an hour ago. I don't know how this will affect your plans. Plan for traffic."

I read that and my jaw dropped open. I read it to Kelli and my mom and we were shocked to the core. Then Jesse wrote again.

"It was in NW Tucson. She was shot in the head, but it's unclear whether she died or survived. Others were shot too."

Wow! Jessica sent us texts as she found out more information from the Internet. I also wrote my friend Danny to find out more information. He told us Congresswoman Giffords was in surgery at University Medical Center. And that the nut job was out to kill. He said the news was very confusing. No one knew what was going on, but they did catch the guy who shot her.

It didn't seem like a lot of people at the theater knew what had happened. People around us were talking about this and that, but not about the shooting. Then doors opened and we were able to find our seats. I got a little more information from Danny, but not a lot. Still, there were very few people in the theater who seemed to be talking about the event.

While we waited for the show to begin, we took a picture of ourselves in our seats.



Then the orchestra started and the lights dimmed. The show must go on!

And what a show to see during such a confusing and sad time! Like I said before, it is a really uplifting and engaging show, so I could really transport myself to Oz and be there instead of in Tucson. I was right with Elphaba and Galinda as they attended Dear Old Shiz and as they transitioned from loathing each other to helping each other to becoming best friends. I sang along with Galinda as she taught Elphaba how to be popular, with Elphaba as she defied gravity, with both Glinda and Elphaba as they realized that knowing each other has changed each one for good.

Of course, there was the intermission where we had to come back to reality. And it seemed everyone around us knew about the shooting now. We sat and listened as one group of people said CNN reported Gabby Giffords died, but they had to retract the story. Other groups talked about how the shooting happened at an event at a Safeway. I texted Danny again to see if he knew anything new. He said a 9-year old girl had died. She was the first death we knew about. Later we found out five others had died at the scene. She was the sixth death. Danny also said that Gabby came out of surgery and she was showing signs of progress. The doctors are hopeful, but of course since she was shot in the head, they have to monitor brain swelling. Yikes!

We were able to have one more reprieve from reality by watching Act II. I have to say the actors in this performance were better than the actors in London. Their voices were clearer and their annunciation were much better (but that may be because of the UK accents. Haha!). And we had the backup Elphaba perform for our matinee show. But she was just as good as the original Broadway star! Awesome, awesome voice!! So good!! It gives me chills just thinking about it now!! I was a little worried when Glinda came out in her bubble in the opening scene and sang her high notes off pitch, but she recovered and sang very well the rest of the play. I can't give enough good compliments about this play and it's actors! Brilliant!

I am glad we saw this play again. It is just unfortunate it happened to be at the same time as the truly evil event that happened in Tucson. But I would jump at the chance to see this play again. Anytime, anywhere!

New Year's Day Tradition

For the past three years, my mom and sisters have made a New Year's Day tradition of going hiking to a Ghost Town. We live in Southern Arizona....aka The Wild West. The town of Tombstone is only 15 minutes from my house. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of old and deserted towns in this area that are fun to explore, and most you have to hike to. It's been a fun tradition so far. The first year we went to the Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate. Last year we went to Fort Bowie (I guess I didn't blog about that. I will have to do a FLASHBACK to tell you about that trip).

This year, we decided to go back to Fort Bowie since Kelli didn't get to go with us. She just bought a new camera and there are a lot of great photo opportunities on this hike. There is a lot of history in those mountains too....a lot dealing with the conflict between the American military and the Apache Indians. It's pretty fascinating stuff, but I'll let you research it.

Side note...on Wednesday (December 29, 2010) Southern Arizona got a pretty big winter storm. Sierra Vista got some snow, but nothing really stuck. There is snow on the Huachuca Mountains though.

When we left for our day of hiking, we didn't really think anything of the storm that had blown through here. I guess we should have thought about it a bit more, especially since we were traveling up to some mountains.

So there we were, we had just drove the hour and a half to the turn off to Fort Bowie. This eight mile dirt road was just a little wet when we turned onto it, but as we traveled onward, and got about four miles into it, it became pretty scary without a 4-wheel drive truck. My CR-V kept fishtailing and sliding over the mud and ice and snow. We passed a sign that said "Fort Bowie in 4 miles". I didn't think my car (or my nerves) could take another 4 miles of this, so I found a semi-dry place and we turned around. We made it off the dirt road and decided to try the Chiricahuas. We used to hike around these beautiful rock formations when we were kids and we were only about 15 miles away from it.

When we arrived, I went into the visitors center to pay for the pass. However, the ranger said the roads were all closed because of the snow. The trail starting at the visitors center is about 7 miles one way to the rock formations. It was already 2PM, so there was no way to hike in the snow over there and back before it got dark. But the ranger suggested we hike up the road to the first rock formations (The Organ Pipes). They are not the biggest formations, but they are her favorites. The road was closed to cars, but we could hike it. She just warned us to move out of the way of the plows and other vehicles cleaning the roads if we should see them.

So that is what we did. It was about a mile and a half round trip to the Organ Pipes. And there was a lot of snow. Even with all the disappointment of the day, we still had a fun time hiking in the snow and seeing the beautiful sites that Heavenly Father has created for us to enjoy on this earth! It ended up being a very enjoyable day!

Here are some pictures of our adventure:


See...it does snow in Southern Arizona! It's a Winter Wonderland!!

Notice the animal tracks in the snow. We think it's deer tracks.

Some fun rock formations. Can you find Winnie the Pooh?

Where did 2010 go?!

Where did the year go? Why was I so lazy and let the year slip by me? Why did I procrastinate so many things? Why was it so hard for me to blog and finish UK trip in a more timely manner? (BTW...I am doing a huge SIGH for finishing those finally!) Those blogs were hard for me to write since they were so long and took a lot of time to type and to find the pictures. They were probably hard for you all to read as well....especially since they were LO-ONG!! I probably lost a lot of readers (if I had "a lot" to begin with anyway) because of those novel-length posts. Nobody commented, so I am not sure how many people even read them.

I apologize for those journal entries of my trip. I wanted to type all that out so I could convert it into one of those books, but maybe I went about it the wrong way. I promise this year I will be better at posting normal size posts and more of the day-to-day things I do this year.

And I'll have to do some FLASHBACK posts to catch up on some things I missed from last year, like Girl's Camp, Family Reunions, and my Sedona trip.

Happy Birthday Kelli!!!

It's Kelli's Birthday! Shout Horray!

In honor of this special day, enjoy some pictures of Kelli and I in Ireland.

The Joys of Being a Government Contractor

I interrupt my UK vacation posts to tell you about my current employment situation and the joys of being a government contractor.

Let me back up a few months...

We all knew the current contract was going to end on 28 September 2010, but a lot of tasks under the contract were going to roll over into the extension contract. However, there were quite of few tasks that were ending completely, though (thanks to President Obama's new "insourcing" mandate for government work. Less contractors, more government employees...and those of us without government preference points (who's never been in the military or had not worked for the government in the past or are not disabled veterans) find it next to impossible to become a government employee, even though we have the experience and are the most qualified to do that job...can you tell I'm bitter?).

My task was safe. It was funded and my company even had the money in hand. Everything was set. My team would stay in tact and we would continue through til June when the contract would be up for re-compete. No worries.

Or so we thought...

Then the carpet was pulled out from under us. On August 31, I was notified that my task was pulled. Upon further inquiry, I discovered a higher-up that really doesn't know what goes on below him and who is in a disagreement with another higher-up pulled our task for whatever political maneuver. My company had to give the money back. There was no saving us, though our task is pretty vital for the Army (we sustain the process behind logging people into government computers using common access cards...pretty important, right?). The only good news they gave us was we were promised we would all still have jobs. I think the exact words were: "You are losing your jobs, but not your employment." They said they would find positions on other tasks for us and place us there after the contract ends.

And to top it all off, I learned of the demise of my task the day before I was to leave for three days to attend my grandmother's funeral. What a kick in the gut!

I left for those three days with a lot on my mind. Should I look for a new job? Should I ride it out and see where they would place me? Should I just leave it all and find a job oversees? In Kuwait? In Iraq? Or should I play it safer and go to Germany? But I didn't like the three year commitment for Germany. I started leaning more towards one year in the Middle East. But I also wanted to ride it out and see where my company would place me. If I didn't like it, I could always get another job. My mind has been spinning non-stop for a month!

Nothing happened for nearly two weeks after I returned from Utah. Then finally last week, the other three members of my team were placed on other tasks and a new charge code was uploaded to their online time cards in preparation for them to move to those teams.

For me...I caused a bit of a problem. They penciled me in for a team, but I did not feel comfortable working with the person they had as team lead. I've witnessed a few things, and I was afraid if I worked with him, there might be sexual harassment issues. I let my company know of my concerns, so they discussed where else they could place me.

A few more days go by without any word.

Then I talked with a friend who suggested I ask to be put on the team that shares the same office where I sit (Retina/REM). I've seen a lot what they do; I already have a professional relationship with them; I already do similar things so there would not be a huge learning curve; I already know and work well with the government team lead; etc. Plus, I wouldn't have to move my desk!! I thought that was a great idea, so I presented it to my company.

The next day, my NCI supervisor, David, called the team lead on the Retina/REM team, Adam. David told Adam they wanted to move him to another team and backfill his position with me. When Adam got off the phone, he jokingly said, "Erin, you just stole my job!". Then over the next few hours, Adam and Tony (one of my team members) went back and forth about how you have to watch out for the quiet ones, how I have the ear of NCI and can get any position, how I backstab (Et tu, Erin? was said at one point), how Tony shouldn't be too excited about his new position, or I would turn around and take it from him. Of course, all this was said in jest and we had a really good laugh. My stomach was hurting from laughing so much.

Later that day, David called Adam back and said his new position could allow him to stay with the Retina/REM team for a while. That started another bit of laughter and jokes about how Adam checkmated me and thwarted my attempts at taking over his job. It was a pretty funny day.

But all the while, I never received a phone call or an email from David telling me the plans. I just went off the conversations and information from Adam. Finally, on Friday the 24th (remember, my job was ending on Tuesday the 28th) I emailed David. He told me to be patient. Actually, his exact words were: "The dominos have not started to fall. [The contracting officer] needs to tell us if Adam is moving. If he does, then you take his position.... I will tell you Monday".

So I patiently waited until Monday. Still no word.

Tuesday the 28th came. Still no word. I emailed David to ask what's happening. He said he had a meeting at 10am with the contracting officer and he will let me know after that. I waited. Luckily, we had a team farewell potluck during that time, so my mind was on other things.

By 4pm, I still hadn't heard. So I emailed again. David said he needed to email my resume to the contracting officer so I can be promoted into the System Engineering Senior slot (no monetary promotion...job title only). I sent him my updated resume. And went home.

Wednesday, I woke up with a bad headache and a stomach ache. When I wake up like this, I usually go to work anyway, because it will pass sometime or another, but that morning, I didn't feel like fighting through the aches and pains just to sit at my desk and wonder what team I would be on. So I called in sick!

I vegged all day and I am glad I did! It was fun to take some ME time. I hardly ever do that!

Today, I came to work hoping for an email to let me know where I would be. I should know how things work (or don't work) by now....no email.

Today is the last day of the pay period, so I needed to sign my time card. I didn't know what code to charge to so I had to call the NCI office. For nearly ten minutes, they went through list after list trying to find where I finally ended up. They could not find my name. I felt like I slipped through the cracks. I just sat on the phone and waited for her to find out what's going on with my position. She kept finding old lists with the first position I turned down, or the other one they were thinking about placing me on. But she couldn't find the current list. I just kept thinking, I'm glad I took a personal day yesterday!

Finally, they found the current list, which said I was team lead of the Retina/REM team, but it still didn't sound official. But she did upload the charge code of that team to my time card so I could get that signed and finalized.

So now, I *think* I will be on the Retina/REM team. All signs point that way, but being around government work for over a decade, I know things can change quickly. But fingers crossed, I will keep this position and I can keep my desk as is, without having to move!

Just to give my company credit....they did have to place nearly 100 people into different positions with all the contract changes and tasks not rolling over into the extension contract. They were super dooper busy, but they were able to keep everyone affected by these changes. No one was let go! NCI is a great company to work for! They really do have your back and try everything in their power to keep their employees. They are usually very good at getting information to their people, but this was a special circumstance. They had trouble getting information from the government, so of course they could not give out information they did not have.

It's been chaotic, hectic, stressful, and the worst contract change over I've experienced in my 11 years in the business, but I am still employed and am still under the same government team lead, who I really like working with. So, I feel blessed in the long run. Now, let's see if I like the work. Maybe Kuwait still sounds appealing!

Getting back to it

This summer has just flown by and I don't think I am caught up to it yet. I can't believe it's already September...I think my mind is still in June or July. Oh well... Now I have to try to catch up with everything, including this blog. I have so much to blog about. I just hope I can remember it all. :o)

Here is a sneak peek at some upcoming blog entries:

• Day to Day info about my trip to the UK
• Young Women Summer Camp
• Callahan Family Reunion
• Walton Reunion and my grandmother's funeral
• Exciting new changes in my life that I have the opportunity to make :o)

Check back soon!!