I can’t do it but I try to do it constantly…but I can’t

Sorry for the song on my profile. I’ve been playing around with trying to play music but I don’t know how to get my music through a url or whatever it’s called. I don’t know things about technology. At least I figured out how to insert music in general, even though it was just some example music this one help site gave me. If anyone does know, please let me know so that I do not look foolish once again.

Job-A-Rama was a good time. The Grand Bethel “Cockroaches” had the middle cabin which is the nurses cabin. For those of you who weren’t there, every cabin was given a bug. Grand Bethel picked cockroaches because like cockroaches, when the world ends we’ll still be here. We shared our cabin with Courtney, the Supreme Bethel Honored Queen. It was nice talking with her and getting to know more about her. We all talked/laughed over the ritual revisions. Leslie, Brittany and I made a bond to watch Mean Girls together every night we sleep in the same room. I hope we are true to our word.

The skits were really great. Bloomington’s Harry Potter dance out was very cute. I liked Bethel #5’s sorting hat. I liked the Pokemon skit too. I almost named my cat Onyx. My friend who gave me my cat takes in kittens, tames them, then finds homes for them. She names all of them after Pokemon. She said there isn’t an animal that you can’t name after a Pokemon. GB’s skit was really fun, even when the wipers on the bus went” wipe, wipe, wipe.”

Grand Bethel’s Sweet Shop was very successful. Thank you to everyone who donated, including Carol Titus, Susan McKendry, Vicki Loughmiller, and Erin Carrico.
I would like to thank everyone who donated blood or attempted to donate at the Blood Drive at Masonic Home Day last Sunday. The Indiana Blood Center was grateful for the donations. We had 31 donations and 6 donors who were turned away during the process. We turned away more donors at the door because of lack of ID. Thank you to everyone who helped or donated sweets, especially Bonita Ramirez, Ed Armantrout, Susan McKendry and Anita Snyder.

An elephant never forgets, but in case you do...

Job-A-Rama and the Masonic Home Festival are coming up this weekend. This is just a reminder to everyone that Grand Bethel is having a blood drive on Sunday at the Masonic Home in Franklin, IN. You must be 17 or 16 with a parental consent form. Please visit www.indianablood.org for consent forms, requirements, and other information. The Blood Mobile will be parked in the circle of the Masonic Home near the tents. There are appointments available between 9 and 2. If you are interested in making an appointment you can email me at Eli1312@hotmail.com or my dad is who is in charge on the day of the Blood Drive, Ed Armantrout at smokeyone@prodigy.net or call him at 765-759-6954.

For those of you going to Job-A-Rama, look for Grand Bethel's sweet shop and Ways and Means Table. We will also be selling Penguin Pops, which are suckers with notecards attached that girls can order to have delivered in our assemblies Saturday morning and night. There will also be shirts, flip-flops, window clings and chapstick. If you missed out on our ways and means items at session, now is your opportunity to get them.

Job's is like a ship- when everyone works together the ship gets home safely.

As many of you know, we have started OVs for the first term. The first day of OVs was 8/21. Brittany and I traveled up north for the OV of Bethel #8/27. There was a good turnout for the Majority Ceremony of Leah Heller, Katherine Piercy, Allie Slater and Becca Cooper. The girls did a really nice job on the ceremony and I'm sure that the girls receving their majority were proud. I awarded a daughter from each Bethel the "You're Totally Legit Award," my version of the daughter of the meeting award. It is based solely on ritual work at the official visit. Lydia Heller and Brooke Pace received the award at the OV. Congratulations to both of them and the girls of both Bethels for their hard work!

The next OV of #115/25 was at Daleville. Lindsey Noland and Emmalee Jones did a great job presiding over the meeting and Obligation Ceremony. I was very proud of Bethel #25 and their work on the ceremony. Katie Fears and Hannah Hawk received the You're Totally Legit Award for their great ritual work.

On August 28, we started the morning off at Clinton for the initiation of Mikayla Cooper and Stefani Nasser, both for Bethel #2. It was another well attended event especially by the Grand Officers. Then we went to Knightsville for the OV of Bethels #121/110. We dedicated Megan Carter's baby Hailey at our first baby dedication. They did the Obligation Ceremony which was very nice. The Bethels had an awesome meal afterward which was great because Kathy Cooper and I had to wait for Lynn to get out of his Exec meeting. Luckily we had some company while we waited, two girls from Fort Wayne and Lila and Genesis Jones. Then we headed home from the long day.

Grand Bethel Girls- we're unforgetable!

The weekend following Supreme (August 13-15) was the Grand Bethel Executive Retreat to Michigan City, IN. Unfortunately not all of Exec was able to attend but we did have a good turnout. We drove up in 2 cars- one group of people who could leave early and another who left later. I left in the early car with Brittany and Lindsey. Tara, Becca, Raquel, and Brettney met at Fishers to head up north together.

So Brittany, Lindsey and I start off in my car. We decided not to take 465 since we'd have to go through 5 p.m. traffic and construction. We ended up taking Meridian north. We were about to make our turn and Brittany commented that we were only a couple of minutes away from her house. Suddenly, my oil light comes on and the car locks up. I pulled to the side of the road by the turn and coasted to a stop.

We called her dad to come get us and waited. It amused us that no one stopped to help us, or ask if we needed help. People even stopped back so they wouldn't be beside us or pulled up close to the car in front of them to avoid us. So we sat baking in the car with the windows down and no breeze. Then we see the flashing lights behind us. La policia. They checked on us and even followed us back to Brittany's. So we regrouped at Brittany's and started back on the journey. We checked in to the hotel at waited for the other car. We all went to dinner at Holly's restaurant which literally had every kind of food known to man. We went back to the hotel and played catch phrase.

The next morning we had breakfast and got dressed for the dunes. It was raining so we decided to hit the outlet mall first. It wasn't even cloudy by the time we got to the mall so we didn't stay there long. We picked up Subway, even cut across 4 lanes of traffic to get to it and took them to the beach with us. And Brittany had judged me for always carrying a cooler in the trunk of the car. Who was judging when we enjoyed cold sandwiches on the beach? We changed to our suits and found a nice place on the beach. We got into the water which was really cold but felt good since it was so hot. We laid out and tanned. Lindsey, Becca and I climbed a sand dune and slid down. Then Lindsey and I climbed the tallest dune, which was a victory. At the top I saw a lizard and got attacked by a dragonfly. The dragonfly, Schmegal,(not the creature on the Lord of the Rings) followed both of us down the hill and into the water. We joined the rest of our group in the lake but Schmegal followed us. We had to go underwater and splash to keep him away. After he finally left we stayed low to the water so there was less body above water for him to land on.

We left the dunes, showered and got dressed for dinner. We went to Shoreline Brewery and had an amazing dinner. We went back to the hotel room and played Whoonu- a cranium game. The next morning we woke up early and headed home. Brittany, Lindsey and I played catch phrase on the way home. I took my car in the next day to get it checked but everything came back fine.

It was a great trip and we had a good time. Here are some pics:

Jesus is the sheriff of this town

Yesterday was the Miss International Pageant and Rustie did a wonderful job representing Indiana. She looked beautiful on the stage and we were all very proud of her. Miss Brazil won Miss International which is amazing as she is the first Miss her country has had. She was very sincere and I think she will be a great asset to Job's Daughters.

I'm sure everyone by now has heard about Indiana's Supreme Bethel Officers, but...Rustie Mills got SBJP, Mahaley Orme got SB Rep to South Dakota and Lindsey Noland got SB Rep to Ohio. Tonight was the Supreme Bethel Installation. Indiana is excited for these Daughters in their new offices.

Today I spent the day with Becca, Lindsey and Mahaley. Kathy Cooper drove us to Garbanzo, an amazing Mediterranean Grill. Then she dropped us back in the Garden of the Gods. We walked from the Trading Post across the grass to the hills. We climbed and climbed. Unfortunately for Becca and I, Lindsey and Mahaley still have young lungs so they ran ahead of us. However, with age comes wisdom so we knew the negative consequences of falling down a hill and spent significant time testing and retesting our steps and path options. It was so much fun and the view was amazing. And at the end of the day, we can all say that we climbed a mountain.

Left is death

This morning Kathy, Trilla, Lindsey, Becca and I drove to the Garden of the Gods for a little adventure. The rocks were awesome. Lindsey, Becca and I went rock climbing and got to the top of a lot of the formations. We took tons of pictures along the way. Now here's where the story takes a turn. Left.
"You can never go wrong with left," Lindsey says.
Disagreed. So, as we're driving around the Garden of the Gods looking for sheep and the mythical roadrunner, we come to a fork. We headed left. We drive and drive and drive. Nobody told us that when you go left you leave the park and enter Pike National Forest. So we drove up and up until we reached the top of the mountain. It was crazy- we were literally parallel from Pike's Peak, not that high up but close. We ended up in Woodland Park, a town about 20 miles from Colorado Springs. Here's the thing, when you travel on top of mountains, it takes at least 2 hours to go that distance. We all survived and we all had a really good time.

We got back just in time for the All Job's Daughter Luncheon which was really good. They did ritual awards and Mahaley got 3rd place in 4th Messenger. Everyone was very proud. With no plans for the afternoon, Becca and I hit the pool for a few hours. We finally got some good sun before the reguarly scheduled afternoon storm hit.

I went to the Royalty get-together for Grand Bethel Honored Queens and Princesses before the Formal Banquet. It was nice to meet the other GBHQs and was actually fun. After the Formal Banquet was Formal opening. Madison and Mahaley did a great job carrying the Indiana and Bethel flags.

Tomorrow morning we have Supreme Bethel early early, Royalty luncheon, then Pageant.

-E

I hate to go N'Sync on you but...

So yesterday was awesome. We went white water rafting way early. We had to meet in the lobby at 6:45 for the buses. So we meet and waited and waited. Finally around 8 they let us know that there was not going to be enough transportation for everyone. So Mike and Trilla Noland drove Lindsey, Rustie, and Lyrray. Since Mommie Eli and Auntie Becca were chaperoning Mahaley, we all had to stick together. We caught a ride with a family from Oregon. They were nice and their daughters, Sarah and Cassie, ended up on our raft at Echo Canyon along with this guy Mike from...somewhere that Becca will have to tell me.

The rafting was amazing and we were amazing. We dominated. And contrary to the stories Rustie tells, Mahaley feel off the boat. Rustie wasn't even on the boat. I had to watch in sheer horror as Mahaley struggled to return to the safety of the boat. Mike, being the hero that he is, grabbed both her and Cassie and pulled them to safety. He had some difficulty pulling Mahaley back because she had unbuckled her top strap on her life jacket to conveniently remove the camera before tumbling into the level 4 waters. I anchored Mike, thus saving both of their lives. And while I hate to call myself a hero...

We got back to the hotel and grabbed some food. Then Becca and I laid out by the pool. Success! It got really cloudy and we knew that people were probably judging us because we would be judging someone laying out in an impending storm. (My mom's 2 cents: "Though I think you were laying out in an actual storm...I heard the thunder.") Either way, we kept checking and as long as you can see a shadow over your skin when you hold your hand between it and the sky...you're getting light. And we did. I figured with a 50% cloud cover, we're still 1 mile closer to the sun so it's like 30% more sun than we'd have in the same conditions in Indiana. Can't fight science. I fell asleep early last night and woke up early this morning for ritual contest.

I've spent the entire day as a ritual judge for 3rd Messengers, Senior Princesses and Novices. We just got finished and now I would be looking forward to laying out but it's thundering and cloudy. But if there's a shadow...