Toasters, Blenders, and Lemon Zesters

As much as I would enjoy writing a post about The Hobbit, this is actually my annual post on my experiences at the Illinois Teen Institute just a couple of weeks ago. While many who read this blog are surely familiar with it, I am going to assume that there are at least a few visitors who may not know. So before I get into ITI 2011, let me give a brief recap:

The Illinois Teen Institute is a week-long leadership camp during the summer, sponsored by the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association (it has taken me many years, but I think I've finally gotten the name down pat). ITI was started in 1974 and has been going strong ever since, making it the longest-running Teen Institute in the nation.

As a Teen Institute, it is aimed at, well, teens. Students are able to attend as participants from the summer before their freshmen year of high school until the summer after they graduate. As a participant, teens are placed into two groups: First is a small discussion group of 8-12 teens and two staff members (depending on attendance numbers). The members of the discussion groups generally do not know one another before hand, and the purpose of the groups is to discuss the general sessions and workshops offered each day. The second group is a Community Action Team, and it is the heart and soul of the Illinois Teen Institute. Teens from the same area/school/community/etc work together to come up with a plan to improve their community, utilising the skills and information they have gained at the Institute. The CAT plan is conceived, planned, and carried out by teens, with adult sponsors or volunteer staff members present as resources. (As an aside, Operation Snowball, Inc. was the result of a community action plan from 1978, or thereabouts, that has become an international drug prevention program.)

As a leadership camp, ITI focuses on helping teens become better leaders in the schools, their communities, and in the state. It is also a "prevention first" program, meaning that students learn about ways to prevent risky behaviours, most notably alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) abuse, unhealthy relationships, bullying, etc. It is not a treatment, rehabilitation, or recovery program. The entire week is focused on the teens. The speakers and workshops are selected to provide meaningful information and useful skills.

I first attended ITI in 1999 as a participant. In 2000 and 2001 I was back again as a member of the Administrative Team (A-Team), which allowed me to attend free of charge as a teen staff member. As a member of the A-Team I did not have a discussion group, although I did participate with my Community Action Team. From 2002-2004 I was absent due to serving a mission in California, but I returned in 2005 as a member of the volunteer staff, working as a co-facilitator. This placed me with a discussion group and a CAT. I did this for two years before being selected as a PALS 1 Coordinator in 2007.

The PALS 1 program is designed for Peers with Advanced Leadership Skills who are coming back a second or third year to really focus on specific leadership skills. The program has changed somewhat over the years, but the main focus has always been to help those teens who are in positions of leadership be more effective leaders and to train to be leaders at ITI. (The PALS 2 program has been renamed Youth Staff and is just that: teens who have been through the program and are ready to practice what they've learned. They work with a volunteer staff member in leading discussion groups, working with action teams, and making sure the participants feel welcome and have a great week.)

I applied to be a PALS 1 Coordinator in 2008 but, due to a mix-up in contact information, I didn't learn that I had been selected until the Friday evening after staff training had started. Gretch and I had just gotten married about 3-4 weeks earlier and I was scheduled to work that entire week. Whoops. I was disappointed, but it was probably for the best, since we were still trying to get settled and all.

After bringing Gretch to my high school's Operation Snowball weekend in 2008 and 2009, I encouraged her to come to ITI, despite her complete lack of experience with the program. She applied as a volunteer staff member and was accepted as a co-facilitator. I returned as a PALS 1 Advisor (new name, same job) and we had a wonderful week together. We came back in 2010, volunteering for the same roles. During the 2010 camp, Gretch and I helped the girls in Headquarters (formerly known as the A-Team) with scheduling of workshops and other things, and I was encouraged to volunteer for HQ staff for the following year, which I did.

Which finally brings us up to ITI 2011. Due to Gretch's work schedule, she was not able to attend ITI this year. So I went alone. This marked the longest period of time we have been separated since we started dating on 16 August 2007. However, frequent telephone calls during free time and occasional chats on Google helped us make it through the week. Besides, many of our ITI friends are married and also spend the week apart. So we knew we'd be okay. Everyone asked how Gretch was doing and where she was. It was great to know that so many people care.

In fact, this is the very reason that I find myself going there and back again year after year. I love the community of caring that exists at the Illinois Teen Institute. My first CAT advisor was Brian Weidner. He had been going to school at Bradley University in Peoria back in 1999. Today he and his wife live and work in Minnesota, but he comes back each year as a workshop presenter, and we also catch up. I consider my friends at ITI to be like a family, and I hope that they think the same of me (and Gretch). Two experiences from this year really capture this sense of family.

The first was a girl who was attending as a first-year participant. She arrived with her mom, but nobody else. She was alone, and she was scared. She wanted to leave. A few of us helped her through the first few hours and encouraged her to stay, sharing our own experiences. After listening to our first speaker, the Amazing Tei Street, she decided to stick around. I later learned that she called her mom that night and said how glad she was to be there. I saw her off and on during the week, and each time she had a big smile and was laughing with her peers. She came alone; she left with a network of friends and supporters.

The other is also about a girl, here for the first time. She came from another state. She is kind of quiet and seems the kind who keeps to herself. I don't think anyone would look at her and think of her as someone who would be popular, or even someone who would hang out with the popular kids. On Tuesday evening, the teens participated in a talent show. This girl walked onto the stage and, without saying a word, put on her guitar and began to play the opening chords to Stairway to Heaven. When she finished, 300 people rose to their feet, cheering, clapping, and calling for an encore. Later on, she and one of the teen staff members, a young man who is a semi-professional musician, were jamming in a lounge area.

That, my friends, is why I keep coming back. It is because the world is not as bad as we are led to believe. There are good people doing good things. They say that the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. The young men and women and the Illinois Teen Institute prove that wrong. The youth of today are the leaders of today. I am blessed to work with them and I know that I am a better person because of it.

The other day I was talking on Facebook about my hilarious adventures in looking for part-time summer work, most notably the fake job interview I went to in the morning. I guess it would be more accurate to describe it as a non-existent interview for a most-likely fake job, but whatever. In the course of the discussion, a dear family friend suggested I go into business for myself doing cleaning.

I apparently never told her or her husband about the cleaning business that Gretch and I had owned for a year, run for about six months longer than that, and worked for for the course of three years total. I explained that, having been there and done that, I was never going to do it again.

My father-in-law was surprised by my determination to never again own a cleaning business, particularly since I had seemingly enjoyed it when I did.

Here's the thing: I did enjoy being a small business owner. I did enjoy having a cleaning business. Despite the headaches, the heartaches, the stress, and the frequent desire to just fire all but three employees, I liked what I was doing and I was doing what I liked as a business owner.

But I also knew that being an entrepreneur was not my passion. That has been, and always will be, education. It is what I want to do more than anything else, and it is what I am doing now. I may not have a full-time job as an educator, but I am an educator nonetheless.

There are many things in my life that I have enjoyed doing, but that doesn't mean I want to do them for the rest of my life, nor even that I want to do them again. And since I am currently biding my time waiting for job interviews and there are only so many new jobs for which I can apply in any given day, I thought I'd make a list of some things that fall under this category of "it was enjoyable but never again."

• School. I'm not talking about school in general. I am talking about each progressive element. Kindergarten was awesome when I was a kindergartner, but I certainly have no desire to be in kindergarten again. This is true for high school in general, as well.
• Being a paper carrier. I loved doing this. I learned much about the early morning sky, the peace and calm before the sun rises, the beauty of when the sun crests the horizon. I loved being alone with my thoughts. I loved being able to interact with my customers. But to be an early morning paper carrier again? No, thank you!
• Serving a full-time mission. These two years were incredibly enjoyable years of my life. I learned so much, I developed in so many ways, and I came to better understand my own beliefs as well as the beliefs of others. It was a great experience that I would never exchange for anything. I enjoyed being with the crazy desert folk of southern California, of working with men and women devoted to the gospel of Christ, and of just being somewhere different from Illinois. I loved my mission. But I also knew when I was done. I would like to serve a mission with Gretch when we are old and retired, but it won't be the same thing that I did when I was a young single adult. I know people who have said they'd love to do it again. I am not one of those people.
• Having long curly hair. I love my curls as they are now. I loved them when they were insanely long, It was so fun to have shoulder-length hair that was super curly. I enjoyed the stares of others, the desire of old ladies to touch my hair, and the attention they brought me. But I also knew that I would get my hair cut and, when I did, I probably would not return to the length I had before. Maybe I will some day, but I really, really doubt that.
• Student teaching. What a wonderful experience! Working with an experienced educator, learning from her (I didn't have any male cooperating teachers), and getting to know new schools, new people, new systems. I wish I had kept a better log of my experiences as a student teacher. I have reflective journal entries that I wrote for classes, but I don't think they are as open as I would have liked them to be. But now that I am a certified teacher, I have put those experiences behind me.
• Substitute teaching. This is something I still do, and something that I enjoy immensely. Even though there have been rough days, I have loved every moment of my job. If I were to work as a substitute teacher for the rest of my professional life, I would find joy in it every day. That being said, I am anxious to have a classroom of my own. I want the experiences of being in the same place every day, working with the same people, seeing the same students grow and then move on year after year after year. Subbing is something I enjoy now, will enjoy in the future but once that phase of my life is past, I will be ready to move on.

Last night (Friday), Gretch and I went to one of our local County Market grocery stores with two other couples with whom we are good friends to attend a seminar on couponing. Now, to some of the older readers of our blog, this probably sounds like a silly thing to do on a Friday night. After all, what is there to learn about coupons?

I remember a time in my life when my sister and I would sit with our mum on the living room floor, each armed with a pair of scissors, and spent an hour or so clipping coupons. This was a labour-intensive task because, with several paper carriers in the family, we had access to many newspapers every day, including the coupon-laden Sunday edition. So clipping coupons was a big deal. And yet, I really don't have many recollections of seeing Mum use the coupons when we went shopping (and we did go shopping with her quite often). It may have been because we seemed to do a large bulk of our grocery shopping at either Sam's Club or Aldi, neither of which are particularly coupon-friendly establishments.

Still, we went to the seminar because we are all trying to be more savvy with our shopping, especially when it comes to groceries. When Gretch and I first married, we spent roughly $80-100 a month on groceries. Our bishop was shocked when we told him this, but, at the same time, our diet consisted of cereal and milk for breakfast, Gretch didn't eat lunch and I just had peanut butter & jam sandwiches, and dinner was often some variation of pasta with sauce. Over the past few months, though, we have made a concerted effort to increase the healthfulness of our eating habits. So this means more variety, fresh fruits and veggies, etc. And so our grocery bills have gone up considerably.

Which is why we are trying to find ways to save money and still eat nutritious food. Hence the reason we attended a seminar on wisely using coupons. It was interesting. I don't know that any of the content was new to me, but having it all presented together definitely helped it all make sense. Part of the process, though, is knowing what things cost in the first place. To this end, Gretch decided we needed to make a massive database of all the consumables that we regularly purchase of the course of the year. In order to find the best prices, we are going to be comparing the costs for all of these many items at County Market, Aldi, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart, Meijer, Schnuck's, Target, and even Kroger (even though we don't have one close to us. Yes, we are going to spend a lot of time there when we are in Washington one of these days. But Kroget is last on the list.)

Taking advantage of Google Documents, we are going to be sharing this database with our friends so that we can all know what to expect. We spent a couple of hours at County Market today wandering the aisles, finding the best prices, and recording them. After I got home this evening, I put them into the document. There are still many items we need to locate. It was fun. I may do more on my own on Monday, now that I am officially a non-working bum until I find a summer job. We are also going to be trying to snag coupons from Gretch's parents, since they reportedly don't use them often. Otherwise we'll have to subscribe to the Sunday paper.

Oh, and we also bought a few grocery items, using some coupons we had received last night. Nothing spectacular, but we did save about 35% by finding items on sale and using them. Noah and Cherry reported saved a little over 50% today. I haven't talked to Dan and Kristie to see what their results were. Feel free to let us know of any secrets you use to help save money by clipping coupons and finding deals!

I posted this on my substituting blog today, but I wanted to share it with my family and friends who do not regularly visit Adventures in Substituting:

Today is Memorial Day here in the United States of America, and so it is that all government buildings are shut down, including the schools. It is a day to reflect upon the great sacrifices made by men and women throughout history in the defense of our nation. I tend to avoid any overt religious commentary on this blog, for the simple fact that I wish to focus on my work as an educator, more specifically so as a substitute teacher, but I thought I'd make an exception today. I figure that if we truly believe that we are "one nation under God" then it is totally okay for me to bring up my own faith every now and then.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--a church commonly known to many as "the Mormon Church" because of our belief in the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon as an additional book of scripture, similar in purpose to the Holy Bible. I give this introduction because, on this Memorial Day, I have been thinking of one of my great military heroes. There are some, even within my faith community, who do not value him for what he represents, but I am not one of those. This man was named Moroni, and he was the chief captain of the military forces of a group of people known as the Nephites. As the chief captain, he had to lead his people in war against those who sought to take away their freedoms.

There is an account in the Book of Mormon that tells of him rallying the people together under what was known as the Title of Liberty. This was a flag or banner made from his own coat that had written upon it these words: "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children." It was with this that he raised an army and conquered his people's enemies.

But what I love most about Captain Moroni is that he did not glory in battle. He understood that his purpose was not to conquer, but to protect, and he trusted always in his God. As the Book of Mormon says about him,

 11And Moroni was a ^astrong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect ^bunderstanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery;

12Yea, a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the ^awelfare and safety of his people.

13Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had ^asworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood.

14Now the Nephites were taught to defend themselves against their enemies, even to the shedding of blood if it were necessary; yea, and they were also taught ^anever to give an offense, yea, and never to raise the sword except it were against an enemy, except it were to preserve their lives.

15And this was their ^afaith, that by so doing God would ^bprosperthem in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land; yea, warn them to flee, or to prepare for war, according to their danger;

16And also, that God would make it known unto them ^awhitherthey should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them; and this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it; ^bnot in the shedding of blood but in doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity.

17Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto ^aMoroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the ^bdevilwould never have power over the hearts of the children of men.

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, and our ward had a Sacrament meeting devoted to music and messages about the events leading up to and following the Saviour's death and resurrection. Gretch and I are in the ward choir, so we were a part of the music. And last week I was asked to be one of the speakers. I know that we use the word "talk" in the LDS church to describe sermons, but I like to think of my talk as my Easter sermon. The topic I was given was... actually, no; I'm not going to say what my topic was. It annoys me when people do it in their talks, so it would be silly to do it now. For those who continue reading, I'll let you decide what my message was.

Do illegals pay social security? Millions of dollars are sent back to Mexico to their families. And their are jobs besides farm jobs that that citizens haven’t done because wages have been depressed by importing them at a cheaper rate. A condition of higher unemployment means that any race, Irish etal takes opportunities from those who first deserve them. Eventually, the citizen would take any job to survive if they hadn’t already been taken by then. If no citizen needed that job, then I wouldn’t care about that aspect of it. But their is a coverup of statistics on unemployment and crime because the corrupt portion of the Republican party(and big bussiness) and the Democratic party to foster the socialist vote. These traitors exploit illegals of any race to undercut the citizen. But the illegal has better than he had and the citizen worse. We speak as though the issue is of employment alone but the illegal garners medical and other social benefits of welfare supported on the backs of the citizen. Stolen identities along with voting privileges make a an illegal vote for more socialist programs. More negatives than the social security they’ve been touted to bolster. I can’t speak for Indiana but what I see here makes those statistic seem to be a sham. But when you look at the Banks and bussiness that support and encourage them and you see how they tabulate the unemployment stats you realize it’s all biased reporting or a whitewash. It’s not that certain conditions never existed for immigration but this aint one of them and if it were it would only be right if it were legal immigration which checks a multitude of problems. The H2a visas are a way that already exist to rightfully moderate this but for the church to approve of a breach of federal law in the form of a state law contravenes it’s own rule of honoring and sustaining the the law. Are You ready to retire pretty soon so that the illegals would be paying your social security or are you young ? If you are young would you mind having your wage reduced or your job replaced by an illegal knowing that ,even though you were out of work, your social security payments would be there some day? Even if you couldn’t get hired? Well, if your young and you think that you are totally deceived if not self deceived. Our country is so negatively funded that you think immigration will fill a blackhole. The world is filled with disinformation about the true dire status of the economy. Forget about all this trash on racism. The principle is that ANY race outside that impairs the conditions of the citizen (which could themselves be any race) they should obey. But the really bad people who are traitors support them.