LDS MUTUAL

With my new phone, I have been taking more photos. They are horrible in quality, but it is fun to have the option to record little moments that would normally get skipped over. For example, the Wednesday night activities with the Young Men and Young Women in our ward.

Little C trying to figure out how to be a pirate.

 A few weeks ago we did improv for our combined activity. It is definitely NOT my thing, but some the kids (that normally don't get the limelight) really loved it and just shined. It was a great change of pace.

Wallyball!

Tonight we went and played wallyball at the Snow Activity Center. (Volleyball in a racquetball court) with all the Young Women. It was really fun and there was lots of cheering, laughing and fun.

Bump! Set! Spike!

We really found out quickly, who was a volleyball player, who was competitive, and who is really afraid of the ball. It really was a blast!

HASTENING THE WORK IN THE WARD

We have a new Ward Mission Leader in our ward. He came to our Young Women a few weeks ago and gave a plug for the missionary work in our ward and I loved it! It was amazing and I truly hope and pray the Young Women of our ward will make it a part of their life.

My version

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO CHANGE A TIRE?

My Laurels actually wanted an activity to learn how to change a tire on a car. I had Big C teach it since some of the other dads were involved in other activities that night. He did a great job and I know the girls loved learning it. It had been snowing that day, so Big C lit a fire in the stove in his garage so we could do it in there and be warm and out of the mud and wet. It turned out perfect!

Big C was great to have the girls do everything. He taught them how to look everything up in their owner's manuals because every car is different. Then we went into my house and ate chocolate muffins and milk. A successful activity!

NEW BEGINNINGS VS. THE SUPER BOWL

We had our New Beginnings last night- yes, on Super Bowl Sunday. I know, I got a lot of grief from the men of the ward (and even some of the women). It truly was an accident. But, when it came down to the wire, we had lots show up (so many we had to add two more rows of chairs.) I was proud of them for making the hard choice. Believe me, I will never create that kind of controversy again!

Our theme color was pink to go with the season of February.

We got together for one of the combined YW activities and made the fan pinwheels out of tissue paper and the buntings out of left over scrapbook paper. 

The gifts the girls got to take home.

We had a bunch of left over frames from a craft and I repainted them and distressed them for one of my Personal Progress projects. (I am now done with Faith and Good Works- only took me a year). I ordered the posters off of Etsy and printed them at a place here in town. (I bought the value ones too! I just love them!)

Some of our pink treats.

Princess P came with me to help me decorate last night. She loves it even though she is only ten. She's such a girly girl- I love it!!

Princess P eats pink treats!

For the program, we had 6 girls (one from each age group) share experiences with their Personal Progress that helped them Come Unto Christ (the 2014 mutual theme). We also sang the new theme song 'Come Unto Christ' and the Bishop spoke as well. We showed a photo slide show of 2013 in review as well. It was a fun night!

Some of my friends and me (in gray).

YOUNG WOMEN HANDOUTS

When I was in Young Women growing up, I always loved to get handouts. I had a box where I kept all of them and put the newest out on my desk to display. My love of handouts has never died. Now I make them. I have no idea if the girls in my class keep them or chuck them as soon as they get home, but I know that I tried, right?

This week I am teaching a lesson called 'Why is it Important to Gain an Education and Develop Skills?' I made this handout (above) to give the girls a place to record their goals. Hopefully they will keep it since it's cute?

Napolean has some sweet skills!

Whenever I hear the word 'SKILLS', it reminds me of the movie Napolean Dynamite when he's talking about how girls only like guys that have sweet skills (bow staff skills, nunchuck skills, etc...). It cracks me up every time and I just had to make a handout about it. I am going to print it out, laminate it, and put a magnet on the back so they can hang it in their locker or something. Maybe I'm the only one who'll think it's funny, but I am amused by it.

CONCERTS & CLOWNS

Last night Little C had his first band concert for this year. He is now in percussion instead of clarinet and it makes it very difficult to take photos.  He's always at the very back and the lighting is always really bad.

There he is, barely above the band's heads.

He did a great job and is really enjoying percussion. He has private lessons on the drum set once a week too. He is following in big brother, D's footsteps. He played the bass drum, symbols and a variety of other instruments- one of the advantages of being in percussion.

Here he is with his drum sticks.

We hurried over to the church right after the concert for Young Men/Young Women- or Mutual. The Young Women did a combined activity. It was a Mommy/Daughter Dinner and we all had a great time eating soup and salad and cookies. 

Some of my good friends in the photo booth.

Princess P had Activity Days, so I didn't get to bring a daughter with me, but after they ate we took goofy photos of them in the Mommy/Daughter photo booth. They turned out pretty awesome!

The crazy Beehive class.

I work with a bunch of clowns!

MESSENGER BAG MADNESS

I thought it would be fun for my Young Women in church to learn how to sew something useful, so we set aside two weeks to make some messenger bags. Unfortunately the girls weren't as excited as I was to make them. Only one girl finished hers. Sad. I thought they were really fun and made a few.

Princess P decided she needed to learn to sew too, so we took a few hours yesterday and sewed. She really liked the way her bag turned out and I do too. It is SO cute and she did such a good job! She sewed every stitch herself, I just told her what to do. This is the tutorial we followed. SUPER simple, even if you don't sew that well. Watch out though, it is addicting.

Princess P and her peace bag.

LAST WEEK OF SUMMER

Our last week of freedom! Little C went to Colorado with his cousins and when we were dropping him off, Big C decided to kayak the Spanish Fork River. 

Big C surfs a wave.

It is only a Class 2, but he had fun and at least there was some water to boat in. He wasn't complaining.

Big C hikes his boat out of the ravine.

Yesterday, I was in charge of the combined activity for the Young Women and Young Men in our ward. We did a BBQ and Super Slide. It was really fun and the kids all enjoyed it.

Top of the slide.

The custodian for the Elementary school is in our ward and set us up with a hose and some tables. It worked out perfectly for us! 

A supermans it down the slide.

 My kids are good at the slide since they do it every year at our Gordon Reunion. Some of the kids in the ward had a hard time getting any momentum. It was an awesome hill for it though. Perfect!

Princess P shows us how to do it right!

YOUNG WOMEN UNITY PUZZLE

One of the things that the Young Women in our ward struggle with at bit is Unity. I was browsing Pinterest one day and came across this idea for a Young Women activity and ran with it. I bought two 25-piece, wooden puzzles from the dollar store.

Finished puzzle.

 Each girl took a piece of the puzzle, decorated it and labeled it with her name. We then decorated the remaining pieces for each of the girls in our ward and also one for each leader. When I was home the next day I labeled the rest of the girls' names on a piece and put the puzzle together. {*NOTE- If you are going to do this, I would suggest having the girls decorate the back side of the puzzle so that you can get it together again. It took me almost all day to fit them back together again because of all the paint, paper and modge podge on the edges of the pieces.}

Missing pieces.

Yesterday, I took the puzzle to church with me, and right before we separated for classes I talked with the girls about the puzzle and how it represented our Young Women. Each of us are different and an individual, but we fit together as a whole in Young Women. However, there are pieces missing. Those girls who are less active are gone from the puzzle and we cannot be complete until the puzzle is whole. I then talked with them about fellowshipping and member missionary work. I told them I am going to display the puzzle every week and that as these missing girls start coming to activities and church, we will add their piece to our incomplete puzzle. I hope it will be a good reminder for them of their responsibility to reach out to 'the one.'

YOUTH CONFERENCE AT TEMPLE SQUARE

We went up to Temple Square (click for link) for our Youth Conference this year and I could not have been more happy. We chose the 1 day option and had a very carefree, interesting, spiritual day.  There weren't as many of the kids that could attend as I would have liked, but the ones that came had a great time!

Our group. More girls than boys...

 Our schedule included a quick tour of the Assembly Hall and get-to-know-you activities with the sister missionaries. We had a speaker come talk to us and then went over to the Plaza for a yummy box lunch. 

The lunches were good and there was plenty to eat.

 While we were sitting there eating, a couple came by in their wedding finery for photos. The young women were enthralled by the white dress, the complete joy on the faces of the couple and the ring, of course. It was actually a great experience for all the kids.

I love O's face!

After lunch we went over the the Church History Museum, Family History Center, had cooking lessons from one of the chefs at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, toured the Conference Center, and did a scavenger hunt in Deseret Book. We went everywhere!

Desert Book flagship store.

We then, went back over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for dinner and testimony meeting. We shared that with a few other wards and then called it a day. Over all, it was such a wonderful day and I would definitely recommend it to everyone. There's just such a great spirit in Temple Square. You can't beat that.

VIRTUOUS GIRLS CAMP

I went to Girls Camp on a ward level for the first time in about 22 years. I was actually kind of dreading it, but I had SO MUCH FUN! We have such great girls in our ward and such great Camp Leaders that it was a blast!! We played and laughed and enjoyed the great outdoors!

Here I am doing team building activities.

Our ward's value was virtue this year so our color was gold. Love my glittery headband whydoncha!

I really was expecting to have to mend hurt feelings and smooth crushed egos the entire time, but our girls were really good to each other. I was SO relieved. It made everything so much better!

Some of the 4th ward girls.

I am sad I don't have a good photo of our camp 'outfits'. We had brown shirts that said 'Modest is Hottest' on the back with sparkly gold lettering. We also had gold tutus, gold headbands and beads. We were glam!

Our amazing Stake Leaders in their hero costumes.

The Stake theme was courage this year and all the wards chose a woman hero that emulated our assigned value. Our ward's heroine was Mary, the mother of Christ. She was an amazing example of virtue and I was impressed that our girls chose her.

The bishop leading our girls on a hike.

Our bishop is quite the botanist and we learned a lot of interesting things about the plants and flowers on our hike.

Me with the gorgeous view as a result of our hike.

Thanks to one of my cute Laurels for taking these last two photos of me.

Lunch with the Bishop, Me and E the photographer.

AN EXCELLENT NEW BEGINNING

When I was put in as Young Women President in our ward, the Stake YW Pres. told me I could combine Young Women in Excellence and New Beginnings if I wanted to. I chose to do it since there were only one or two of us that had ever even been in YW. It was a good choice to wait. We are starting to get it figured out and had a very successful evening last night.

The invites I made.

We chose to decorate in black and white and it was stunning! The girls couldn't get over it! They LOVED it! It was very elegant and pretty simple to do. We got inspiration from here.

The podium and the banner.

A little black and white scrapbook paper, a Cricut, some tape and string make some cute banners! Another sister also had her husband help her mount and spray paint some branches black. We tied tulle on them and hung skeleton keys on ribbons from the branches. 

The pretty food table and the favors and display tables in the background.

We had all sorts of black and white treats that went over well with the girls too. For the favors we ordered small chinese takeout boxes and black and white swirl suckers from Oriental Trading. They are for weddings, so you can personalize them. The theme scripture (D&C 87:8) was printed on the boxes and "An Excellent New Beginning- February 2013" was printed on the suckers.

Some of the Young Women and leaders in our ward.

The girls dressed in black and white as well and we sang "Stand In Holy Places" by Jenny Phillips for the closing song. It was a lovely evening and now we can 'rest' for a few months until the next big thing comes along!

YOUNG WOMEN, HERE I COME

I have a new calling in our new ward. I am now the Young Women's President and although I can't say I am 'excited', I'm not feeling the trepidation I was at first. In the last 6 years I have served as Primary President, Relief Society President and now Young Women's President. I am not sure what I'm not learning, but I sure hope I get it this time! 

I don't know many of the Young Women and don't really even know my counselors and the advisors real well, but I think that is one of the reasons we change callings so often in our church. We not only learn new skills and discover new talents, but we gain friends that will last a lifetime. I have become very close to some of the most amazing women through callings I have held and have been so thankful to serve with them. I know this calling and these women won't be any different. 

So, off I go on my new adventure-- Young Women, here I come!

BAPTIST DRAW/LOWER CHUTE CANYON REVISITED

We FINALLY got our 4th year hike/high adventure activity out of the way. We have had to cancel 4 times since June because of weather, but we finally got our perfect day.

This hike always starts out so deceptively innocent- hiking through the warm, dry desert...

...but pretty quickly you are into the cool, skinny slots- diving under log jams and 'choke stones.' It is an AMAZING place to be.

Next up are a couple of rappels. The first one is about 15 feet. Here I am (left) with two other YW leaders (J and J) awaiting our turn to go down.

Second rappel is much longer at round 75-80 feet. (See the little, tiny person at the top)?

Here I am at the bottom, holding the rope, pretending to do something important.

Here are our guides/sherpas. My honey, Big C, and J-- You guys are the best!

Here it is- the piece de resistance- HELL Hole. There is just no other way to describe it. It is the foulest, coldest, most disgusting water I have ever been in. I came through first and it was SCARY! I had my camera in my pack over my head and the water was so deep I literally had to swim! J came next with a rope to help everyone else through. Wish I'd been smart enough to wait! It is long too, you just can't see past the choke stone.

Then they all started coming through. Here are S and S...

... and here are the amazing Young Women that were with us! They did such a great job! No whining or complaining, just lots of enthusiasm. We briefly discussed the similarities between the rope and the iron rod...

Afterwards, we hurried through the slots until we found some sunshine so we could warm and dry a bit and put on our shoes.

Little did we know we still had MORE water! Chute canyon was basically a water/mud hole!

Look at this! And be glad you can't smell! We REEKED! A nice concoction somewhere between the essences of dairy farm, dead carcasses, and old slime.

Even as muddy, cold and smelly as we were, however, you just had to be amazed at the beauty around you.

I have never seen sights like these except here. You just have to take the bad with the good.