After our visit to Temple Square on the 28th, Ryan stayed in Utah to work while I drove all the kids up to Idaho. From the moment we arrived at Kara's house, these two girls were being their wild, fun selves. Everywhere we went for the next week, people would assume they were twins.
Miss Ashlyn is such a fun teenager. She has such a good perspective on life, considering she isn't yet 18. The first night we were in town, she invited her boyfriend Edgar over to the house. She told us to interrogate him by asking any question we had. Brevan took this seriously, and immediately asked him, "Have you obeyed the Law of Chastity today?" Brevan doesn't beat around the bush! It was fun to get to know Edgar while we were in town, because he is a very sweet guy who is head over heels in love with my beautiful niece. It was even more fun to have conversations with Ashy where she spoke of her concerns of having a steady boyfriend. Instead of being self-conscious like most teenage girls who would cling onto a respectful guy like Edgar, she doesn't want to be in a serious relationship. She broke things off with him a couple weeks after we left town because she wants to focus on school, sports, friendships and dating lots of different boys during her Senior year. Good girl! I love how much she trusts me with her feelings and texts me often with updates on her life.
On this first evening we were in Idaho, Brevan and Lindsey were wrestling in the family room. I told Brevan to stop swinging Lindsey around because they needed to calm down, so he dropped her. Right on top of Kara's work laptop, making the whole screen shatter. I wasn't a very happy mama. Over the next few days, I figured out a solution that didn't cost as much as purchasing a new laptop. I bought a new screen online and had a local guy install it, bringing the cost down from $500 to $150.
On Monday morning, Bryn and Ash came with me to get Brevan to EFY at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg. I was pretty apprehensive about how his week would go, but was hopeful that he would have some good experiences. I started to get up on the bunkbed to put the sheets on the bed before realizing I was being a helicopter mom. We stayed for a few minutes to make sure he met his roommates and was getting settled in, then took off. Ash loved EFY every year she went, so she kept talking it up to Brevan.
I would get several phone calls or texts from Brevan each day he was at EFY. I even saw him one brief time during the week, when the rest of us were at a waterpark in Rexburg and he called to say he needed some water bottles. I think he had fun, but it was quite a learning experience for him. He was surprised that he didn't "learn" anything, because all the classes were talking about things he "already knows." I tried to help him understand that most of the reason for EFY is to have a good social experience with other members of the church while in an environment where the Spirit can be felt. That was a bit of a disappointment to him, because he thought being on a college campus would be more intellectual! Here are a couple photos I stole off Facebook when he was tagged in them. Notice that Brevan is doing his own move (second from the left) while everyone else is performing the skit. Haha, this kid . . .
One day Brevan called me at Kara's house. Here's how the conversation went:
Brevan: "Hi. I need to speak with a girl."
Me: "OK . . .like any girl? Ashlyn? Brynlie? Or would I do?"
"I need to talk to any girl that has ever cried for apparently no reason and had their feelings hurt easily."
"Well, that sums up every girl alive, so I think I can help you."
He then explained that any time the EFY kids are walking around campus, the boys have to escort the girls by linking arms. It looks pretty silly, but it's a great way for the kids to be forced to converse with people they don't know. Brevan had been hanging out with the same group of people for a while, and I had challenged him to get to know as many people as he could. When a girl he had already escorted named Dezi asked him to escort her again, he told her "no thank you," then turned around and asked a different girl. This obviously hurt Dezi's feelings. She started crying and ran away. Brevan was completely confused, so he just watched her run away. Later on, he tried to talk to her but she was avoiding him. That was when he called me. After we had talked for quite a while, he started to understand why Dezi had been hurt, but didn't know how to fix the situation. He decided to write her a letter, which I thought was a good idea, but I told him to send me a copy of the letter before he gave it to her. He texted me this picture about an hour later:
After reading through the letter while \trying to contain both my giggles and tears, I told him he should take out the part that says, "You seem sweet, honest, loving and friendly, with a little outcast and nerdy in you." I told him maybe he should be more delicate, such as saying "lonely" instead of "outcast and nerdy," because complete honestly isn't always the best thing. He changed that part and gave her the note. I later got a text from him that said, "She cried out of happiness and gave me a hug. For the win!" The lesson he learned this day was worth every penny I spent on EFY.
Some of the other texts I got from him during his week stay at EFY:
"I tried to break out of the nerd category and failed, so I've now just gone with it. Walking everywhere with random girls hooked onto you on both arms is annoying. Day one has been fairly uneventful, but I've been called a gentleman and polite many times, so at least I succeeded there!"
When I asked him the next day if he had gotten used to escorting girls, he texted, "Used to it now. Still hurts my arms."
When he was at the first dance: "I was in the middle of a circle shaking it for a while, being cheered on. Confidence. Booster. I can apparently shake it pretty well freestyle."
"Unfortunately, all the girls are ga-ga for my roommate. Oh well. Can't become cool in a day."
"When it comes to girls, my comfort zone is as foreign as 80's style overalls. Just saying."
"I live for the dance floor. Except that I'm no longer numb and my whole body feels blended." What???
"I just sang 'You are my Sunshine' and was told I'm a terrible singer. I might be high on Oreos and Otter Pops."
He lost his phone - FOUR TIMES. He kept leaving it in auditoriums. One night he had misplaced his lanyard which had his apartment key attached. This is the text he sent me: "I'm a wreck. I left my phone at the auditorium, almost left my phone at a class until a student told me, left my backpack at lunch and now I left my lanyard with my room key in the [now inaccessible] dance room. I. Am. A. Wreck."
"I'll call you in about 20 minutes. I need to talk to someone who knows me. I've learned less in all of EFY than in one hour of Sunday School in Missouri. Not impressed much with EFY. This probably sounds a little lazy, unfaithful, selfish, etc."
"My forehead grew a child {aka ZIT} right before the dance! Also, I left my hoodie on so I'm sweating before I even walk into the dance. I'm pretty tired of EFY. Ready to go home. Vacationed out. Ready to stop being social."
There's never a dull moment with that boy!
While staying in Shelley with the Yancey's, we got snowcones every single day because Ashlyn sells them for a summer job. They were extra delicious!
Other activities from the week in Shelley, Idaho: roasting marshmallows, playing "Night Games" with the neighborhood kids, sleeping outside on the trampoline (until each child came in crying because they were so frozen), playing in the backyard, riding bikes on all the city streets because Shelley is such a safe place to be, seeing "Despicable 2" at the drive-in theater, going to a fun water-park in Rexburg, listening to Austin crank disco music and teach his paper animal friends (haha, this was so fun to watch!), and even taking the kids toilet papering! I had to teach them the art of how to throw a roll of TP high into the tree!
OK, GRANDMA SPRINGER: WHICH GRANDDAUGHTER IS WHICH???
Ashlyn still uses my old dresser from when I was a teenager (which was Kara's before mine, and belonged to a lady in the ward before that). I stayed in Ash's room while in town, so I got to read all the awesome quotes he hangs all over her room.
I love my sister, Kara, and her fun family! Missouri is entirely too far away from Idaho!
1 comment:
A rock wall over a swimming pool? That is so not fair. Love Brevan's EFY adventures.
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