Photo a Day: How You Feel Today

Today, I feel tired...

...just like my cat.

It's been a fairly busy few days.

I cut, packaged, and froze 80 pounds of chicken.

I had an eye appointment, and my doctor said everything is looking good from my surgery.

I sight-read some piano music for a musical number in our ward on Sunday. A few girls that were planning to sing couldn't make it, so the pianist had to step in to sing. She brought the music to my house 15 minutes before church started, I played through it once, and then played in sacrament meeting.

I also taught the gospel doctrine lesson (that's my current calling; I teach once a month), and had helped Jakob prepare his talk in primary as well.

I cleaned at my dad's office.

I had a short piano recital for some of my students. Jakob did great, I messed up a little (but I hadn't practiced all that much-I decided last minute to play at the recital). I decided to take May off of teaching, which is probably a good thing, because Pete just started working Wednesday through Saturday for 12-hour days. 48 hours of work, plus 8 hours of commuting time. He's a good man, that one.

I did my visiting teaching. Yay!

I went grocery shopping.

I'm totally caught up on laundry.

Pete and I watched "First Knight". "The law will judge YUH!"

I made cornbread for our ward's chili cook-off, which won a little award. Here's the recipe, from my kids' preschool teacher, Miss Karla:

Cornbread

1 cup butter melted

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup cornmeal

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

Mix butter, sugar, and eggs. Add buttermilk and stir.

Stir dry ingredients together and add to liquids. Stir just until moistened.

Pour into greased 9"x13" pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

And, I fed the missionaries last night. They ate SOOOO much food! I don't know what I'm going to do when my boys are that age, and eating me out of house and home. Note to self: quantity, not quality.

Today, I've done pretty much nothing. Even moms need days off every once in a while, right?

Roadshow Rocks!

Well, it's over.  You know, the thing that's been at the front of my mind, on the tip of my tongue, and the thing that has given me some sleepless nights for the last few months.

Our roadshow.

Sweat, tears, time, energy, effort, heart, and soul went into this show.  It was hard.  It was fun.  It was entertaining.  It was faith-building (for me, anyway).  It was challenging.  It was rewarding.

We loosely retold the story of Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah from The Book of Mormon.  We used the parts found in Mosiah 27-28, and Alma 17-19.  Basically, Alma and the sons of Mosiah are tearing down the church and spreading lies.  An angel comes, and the guys repent, and then they all go on missions in their enemy's territory (the Lamanites).  We also told the story of Ammon's mission: he becomes a servant to King Lamoni, and saves Lamoni's sheep from some other Lamanites by chopping off their arms.  Then Lamoni and a lot of his kingdom become converted.

It's a very cool story.

While studying this story again, I came across a really cool scripture.  It's Alma 26: 12-Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I just love that scripture.

I honestly don't think I can pick a favorite part of our roadshow.  We called it CSI: Zarahemla.  We had these CSI guys investigate the crimes that the brothers were doing, including chopping off the arms.  Just, every little bit was awesome, and funny, and amazing. 

Our CSI guys were perfect (and imitated David Caruso in CSI: Miami).  Our brothers each had their own style of picking on the citizens.  The brothers each had a great style and were so awesome in their own way.  Our citizens actually looked like they got hurt by the brothers.  The dancing was amazing.  My set boys were crazy fast at taking off our sets.  Our Alma the Elder rapped!  Our angel wore stilts.  Our Lamoni wore a glittery crown with pride.  We had cute little kids be our sheep.  Our bad Lamanites parodied "The Three Amigos", and sang and danced to My Little Buttercup with fake arms that got cut off by a light saber.  They even threw their fake arms (as they were being cut off) at the stake president who was sitting on the front row.  Awesome.

Everyone in our show did an amazing job.  I was so impressed, and grateful.

Well, right now I don't have a copy of our show, so pictures in a fabulous slide show will have to suffice.  I tried to put them in show order, but I don't know if the slide show thingy cooperated with that idea.  And someday I'll get a copy, but who knows if I'll be able to load it onto a blog-it might break blogger because of its size (25-ish minutes).  Or because of its awesomeness.

Post-roadshow: my body decided to shut down.  Feeling sick, and SUPER tired, and achy.  I've been sleeping a lot, and have been to the chiropractor a few times (my back has been out a long time).  I have much to catch up on, and much to do still.  The end of school is ramping up, with so many things to do and accomplish.  I'm excited for summer and the laziness it (somewhat) promises.  I do promise to blog all about the past, present, and future!

Memory Monday: Roadshow

Sorry I've been hit-and-miss on Memory Monday lately.  I'll try to do better.  However, one of the reasons I've been so sporadic with posting at all (and, in turn, reading and/or commenting on others' blogs) is because of my current church assignment-our ward's roadshow.  It's a lot more time consuming than I originally thought it would be.

But more about that later.  This is MEMORY Monday.  So I'm going to write about one of the roadshows I was in when in Young Women's.

The year: 1996.  Me: in high school drama, thinking that I knew everything there was to know about acting, and writing a script, and all that jazz.

Somehow, the Laurel class got put in charge of writing our ward's roadshow this time.  For whoever doesn't know what a roadshow is, it's essentially a play that a group of people perform in different locations, like three different church buildings. We had roadshows in our stake every other year, so this one was my third.  Anyway, because I thought I was all that and a bag of chips, I kind of took over writing the roadshow.

Our theme had to do with time lines, or something, and it was our stake's 50th...anniversary?  It had been 50 years since its creation, so whatever that would be called.  So we chose doing a Back to the Future theme.  The main plot was that Biff (guy in the middle in the picture, who I dated for a while, actually) went back in time and ruined some roadshows, so Marty (guy on the right) and Doc (that was me, if you couldn't tell from the costume) had to go and fix them.  We went to the 50s, and the 70s, and...is that all?  That's all I'm remembering.  Our youth group was really big, and we had them do some dance/singing numbers with the words changed to songs that were from the different eras.

Yes, it was cute.  But, I was really selfish with it, and because I was so full of my drama self, I thought that my ideas were the best, so I kind of ended up writing it myself.  Also, the lady that they chose as director wanted the guy on the right to be Doc.  But because the script was my baby I wanted to be Doc.  So I kind of forced her hand.  Which, now, if a youth were to try to do that to me, I'd be like, step down, punk.  I don't know why she didn't do that to me, but oh well.
So, very fun.  Well, I had fun, anyway; I have no idea if anyone else had as much fun.  But the other roadshows we did as youth were fun for me as well.
Fast forward to January of this year.  Our 1st counselor pulled me and Pete aside and asked if we would be in charge of our roadshow.  And we gladly accepted.  We wrote our script in about a week, and we've been full steam ahead ever since. 

We've had a couple of dance practices with the youth, which has been fun, and it looks so great.  Of course, we have a lady in our ward who does choreography at a dance studio all the time, so she's made it look great. 

The biggest obstacle we've come across right now has been music.  We picked some different songs, and some of them don't have instrumental versions available.  So I've been trying to write in some accompaniment to one of the songs on the piano, and then I'm going to have to figure out how to record it.  (My piano can record, but for some reason I can't find the cords that connect it to a computer to get it off the piano.  Neat, huh?)  But it's worth it for this specific song.

I want to write more about our show, but I don't want to give anything away (in case there are roadshow spies out there that may come across my blog and steal our ideas or something).  I can tell you that each ward got an assigned time period (ours is Book of Mormon) and a theme (ours is missionary work).

There is still SO much to do, and SO much to think about.  And the show is at the end of April, so YIKES!  BIKES!  Hopefully it just all comes together, and ends up being as cute and as funny as I am envisioning.  I mean, just because I think it's funny, doesn't mean it necessarily is funny, you know?

So, that's my current time-sucker.  Like I said, way more time-consuming than I thought it was going to be.  But it's been fun.  And I'm sure you'll hear all about it in a couple of months!  In the meantime, I'll try to keep up with my blog.  For real, yo.

Unfinished Thoughts

I've been a little frustrated all week.  I think it's because I taught a lesson on self-mastery to my cute Young Women on Sunday.  And I'm probably the last person that should be teaching that.  Because I'm the ultimate non-master of myself. 

We were talking about bad habits, and I told the girls that sometimes I end up leaving my dishes unwashed, so that they're lining my counter, and have dried food on them and I hate that that's become one of my habits.  Now, it's not every day, but still, it happens way more often than I'd like.  I was explaining this, and one of the girls got this "how gross" look on her face.  And I was like, I know, right?  Totally gross. 

But really, it's not just dirty dishes.  It's laundry that piles up taller than Troy (I measured today).  It's unmopped floors and stinky bathrooms.  It's the unfinished projects sitting by my computer.  It's the oh-crap-we're-almost-out-of-milk-better-finally-make-a-list-and-run-to-the-store.

It's procrastination.

And I hate it about myself.  It's even hitting the snooze button-I'm procrastinating getting up out of bed.

I wish I could be one of those tackle everything immediately kinds of people.  And I can be like that about some things.  But I end up procrastinating a lot more often than I'd like.

Let's be honest.  Most of the things that I procrastinate are the things that I hate doing.  Chores, if you will.  And it boils down to being part of my "job" as a homemaker.  If I had a performance review right now of how I was doing, I'd probably get fired.  I'm surprised my kids haven't fired me yet.

So, what to do about it?

I only had a few minutes to prepare my lesson.  (Not because of procrastination, luckily, but just a miscommunication.)  So here are a few more thoughts that I wish I could have brought up.  I'm writing them here, just for myself.

In the lesson I brought up the ending of the poem Invictus.  The last two lines read "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."  I wish I had had a copy of the whole poem, and had given it as a handout.  We talked about it briefly.  Basically, we are in charge of our own destiny.  If we don't like the direction we are heading in, we need to change it. 

I wish I had known beforehand that the author of that poem, William Ernest Henley,  had to have his leg amputated at 25 (which is about when he wrote the poem), and he died at 53 after leading a very active life.

We also read a scripture: Mosiah 4:27-...it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.  And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize...  I wish I would have had a minute to think about that scripture.  Because right now, it's not realistic to expect my house to be spotless-I have four little kids running around making messes right and left!  But again, I can't blame them for it all.  I need to be diligent, that I "might win the prize". 

I was thinking about some of our girls that play sports, especially the track girls.  Every person has their different strengths; not everyone is made to sprint; not everyone is made for long distance, either.  But everyone has their own race to run, at their own pace.  What one person can accomplish in a day is not the same as another person.  And it can ebb and flow in our own lives-there are times when we can conquer a lot, get a lot done, and feel great.  There are other times when it's all we can do to get everyone fed for the day, never mind do the dishes on top of that.  But you can't win a race if you don't even get on the track to start the race to begin with.

The gist of the lesson was thoughts lead to actions, which lead to habits, which lead to your character, and finally to your destiny.  So to change a habit, we need to change our thoughts and our actions, which will lead to a different destiny.

So this is my step 1: I'm trying to change my thoughts.  I've realized that no one is going to do the laundry for me.  No one is going to push me out of bed.  Not that this is a new epiphany for me, but I'm the only one to blame for having a laundry pile the size of a small mountain.

My step 2: my actions.  Yesterday I "caught up" on dishes.  Today I "caught up" on laundry.  My goal to change my habit of procrastination is to do two loads of laundry every day, and to do my dishes every day, no matter how late. 

And, this should lead to my step 3: my habits getting changed.  There are so many other things that am tired of procrastinating on, like painting my downstairs living room, or making new bedspreads for my boys.  But if I can conquer the mundane everyday tasks, then I can move on to bigger and better, and conquer those things, too.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

I challenged my girls to pick just one bad habit, and work to change it.  And that is what I am going to do.  Because I AM the master of my fate.  I AM the captain of my soul!

New to Me

I got some new Sunday clothes for my kids. Some of their stuff was really craptastic. Now they look so very dapper!


I earned my Young Women medallion. And it has a new design, FYI. Cool, huh?

Saturday I accidentally washed Pete's wallet. Good times with that. Hey, at least it wasn't his phone, too. So he's going to need a new one of those.

I tried a new recipe last night for dinner. I think it turned out pretty good. And it's super easy. Here it is:


CREAMY CHICKEN BROCCOLI SKILLET

½ cup Miracle Whip
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
2 cups water
1 16-oz. package frozen broccoli florets, thawed and drained
½ pound Velveeta cheese spread, cubed
2 cups Minute rice, uncooked

Cook chicken in Miracle Whip in skillet, about 8 minutes, until done. Add water, broccoli, and Velveeta. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice; cover. Remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes.


I am in love with this new song, by The Script, called Breakeven. It's one of those songs that I could listen to over and over and over right now. Truth be told, I think it came out a long time ago, but I've just barely heard it on the radio this last week.


And finally, a new site, that I think is so awesome, and I wish I'd thought of it first. But I could never write the commentary like she does. Sadly, I think my uterus was the body organ that held my sense of humor, and when that got taken out my amazing wit left with it. I used to be so funny. (Well, to me, anyway. But I am my own best audience.) The site is called Promtacular! ; I've been a long-time blog stalker of the personal blog of the chick that put it together. Hi-larious. I think we all have doozies of prom/dance pictures; she has endless material to work with.

Also, I decided I need to re-new my zeal for projects. I keep looking at all these things that I'd like to do "someday", and go "eh" about 'em. I'd like to do them, but right now I keep not having time. I don't think my life is going to settle down any time soon, though, so I need to integrate them (somehow) into my life. Now.

So, since I've been gone a while, what's new with you?

The Little Things

I'm sick. Oh, how I'm sick. Chills, aches, and sore throat, mostly. But I've been wanting to blog about this.

One of the Personal Progress experiences talks about writing down the service that family members do for each other for two weeks. (Seriously, how awesome is the Personal Progress program?) I figured since it was close to Valentine's day, that I would work on this one with my whole family. So for Family Home Evening, I made this poster that's now hanging on our back door. This is where we can write down what we love about each other, and the good things that we do for one another.


It's made me realize that our lives are not necessarily made up of the big events that happen. It's actually made up of all the little things that happen and that we do for one another. Mother Teresa said, "In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love."

My small "things" have done many small things; writing them down has really opened my eyes to how much love they give, and to how much I love them.

For instance, Ivy shared her fruit snacks with Troy. And she said "please" when she wanted a bite of my sandwich.


Troy made the broom stand up by itself. And he brought a blanket over to me last night when I was feeling so achy and yucky. He also cuddled with me and played with my hair, which is one of my favorite things.



Before I got sick, I took Jake out to get his haircut (for free, which rocks). We got some Wendy's, and he bought a new Bakugan with his allowance money. It was really fun to spend some one-on-one time with my little man. He has also opened up the door for me when I had my hands full, and did his homework really fast one day without complaint.


(As a completely random side note: I hit the Payless Buy One Get One 1/2 Off sale when Jake and I were out and about; these shoes ended up being $3.50!)


Brock was watching "Muppets from Space" the other day. Gonzo says, "I don't know where I came from". And Brock said back, "I know what you mean, Gonzo." It was so funny! Brock cleaned up the toys all by himself (no small feat), and made his bed without being asked.

And not to leave Pete out: last night he made dinner and got the kids ready for bed while I slept.

It's been so wonderful to see my little kids give so much to each other and to me.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

-Napoleon Hill

Can You Smell What's Cookin'?

I am about to proudly present my project that I've finally finished. And because I'm counting it toward one of my Young Women projects, you get to hear all the nitty gritty details. Lucky you!

Behold:


Yes, that would be my super organized, super amazing recipe book. Isn't it pretty? But wait, there's more!

Here's the before shot:


At one point I was trying to hand-write all my recipes and keep them in a box. But my writing sucked on some of them, my pen sucked on others (where it smeared or bled all over), and the contact/lamination paper also was not helping things. I also had other recipe books and recipes from Relief Society, etc. I decided I wanted all of my most-used recipes in one spot. So I started typing. I even typed up the recipes that I don't have a written recipe for. That way, someday when my boys start to cook, they can't pull a "I don't know how" excuse on me. (Also someday, when everything I do is electronic, my recipes will already be on my computer.)

After I typed everything up, I categorized them all, but I kept it simple: dinners, breakfasts, desserts/pies/cookies, and sides/salads. I decided to put all my dinners together, but then arrange them so that they are chronological instead of like chicken all together and burger stuff all together. That way, in one week, we'll have a chicken meal, then something with rice, then a pasta meal, then another chicken meal, then a beef meal, etc. (Does that make sense at all?)



I was really surprised when I ended up with about 6 1/2 weeks' worth of dinners that I like and are easy to make. Sure, some things are similar (like burgers and cube steaks), but those things I also spread out as best as I could. I stretched the meal schedule out to 7 weeks, inserting a night here and there where I try out new recipes or we go out to eat somewhere.

I also threw in easy side dishes that can go with that dinner. For example, next to chicken noodle soup, I put "bread", which could mean rolls, or scones, or French bread, or muffins, etc. And not that it's set in stone, but just as suggestions.


After I got all that done, I decided to make a grocery list for each week. I wrote down all the things I need for each meal. Where things repeated I just added them all together (if I need 2 cans of tomato sauce for one meal and one for another, I put down "tomato sauce x 3" for that week). Then I made it all nice and neat, where I mentally walked through the grocery store; so I listed all the meats together, and all the canned goods together, and all the produce together, etc.

Also on my grocery list, I wrote down things to check on. For instance, I might need bread crumbs for one meal, but I don't need to buy a container of bread crumbs every time I go to the store. But I do need to make sure that if I'm getting low, I need to pick it up when I go shopping.

After that, I wrote down things to prepare. Someday, I will get to the point of having a lot of freezer meals added in to this fabulous little system of mine. (Also someday, maybe I'll get breakfasts and lunches rotating and going in here, too.) But until then, it would be nice to at least have a few things done ahead of time, mostly cooking the meat that needs to be cooked. I have a bunch of meals that call for cooked, chunked chicken. If it's already cooked and chunked, then I don't have to spend the time that night doing it; I can just scoop it up and stick it in, or pull a pre-measured bag out of the freezer. Badda bing.

Even though I've still been putting this together this week, I started following my first week's meal plan. I loved not having to think about what I wanted to make/eat for the week. I loved having it all right there. I love the idea of eating something only about 7 times in the whole year. I love that I won't get in a cooking rut. I will love having things pre-cooked, so there's not a rush to get things in the oven or whatever else. And I love that there's still some flexibility with trying new meals, because some of my favorite recipes have been new ones.

Doing this has also helped me realize that I have a lot of really yummy dessert recipes, so I decided that either Sunday night or Monday for Family Home Evening I'm going to make a dessert of some sort.

D&C 109:8-Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.

And because I've rediscovered some fabulous recipes, here are a couple that I'd like to share:

WILD RICE SOUP2 Tbl. Butter

1 cup celery, sliced (2 stalks)

1 cup carrots, chopped

½ onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

3 Tbl. Flour

¼ tsp. pepper

3 cups cooked wild rice

1 cup water

1 can condensed chicken broth

1 cup half-and-half

1/3 cup slivered almonds, if desired

1 Tbl. Parsley

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook celery, carrot, onion, and green pepper in the butter about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Stir in flour and pepper, wild rice, water, and broth. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in half-and-half, almonds, and parsley. Heat just until hot. (Do not boil or soup may curdle.) May also stir in 2 cups cooked chicken with the half-and-half.

Mmmm, so yummy, and so easy!

TEXAS BROWNIE SHEET CAKECombine 2 cups flour and 2 cups sugar in a bowl.

Boil: ½ cup butter, 3 Tbl. Cocoa, 1 cup water. Stir into sugar and flour while warm. Add ½ cup buttermilk, 2 eggs, 1 tsp. baking soda, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour mix into cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

For frosting: Combine ½ cup butter, 3 Tbl. Cocoa, 6 Tbl. Milk.Bring to a boil. Add 3 ½ cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1 cup chopped nuts (if desired). Spread on cake while frosting is still hot.

Oh, how I love you, Texas sheet cake.

And one more, for good measure:

LIME JELLO COTTAGE CHEESE SALAD1 6-oz. package lime jello (or other flavor, if preferred)

1 20-oz. can pineapple tidbits, drained (or other fruit, if preferred)

1 24-oz. carton cottage cheese

1 12-oz. Cool Whip

Mix dry jello into drained fruit. Add cottage cheese and fold in Cool Whip; chill. Add 2 cups of marshmallows, if desired.

This week I made this cottage cheese salad with strawberry jello instead of lime, and I put in fresh cut-up strawberries instead of pineapple. I also did not add the marshmallows. Oh, it was SOOOO good! Yum.

So there you have it. The thing that's been keeping me away from the internet. But aren't you so glad that I shared my tidbits of wisdom and yummy goodies with you?

To Do

I'm having surgery Wednesday morning. Also, YW in Excellence is tomorrow.

I have SO much to do, yet I'm sitting here, checking people's blogs, and generally doing nothing much.

To do:
- Clean the entire house. This includes the absolutely disgusting bathrooms, which I hate hate hate to do. This last week two of my piano students had to use the bathroom; they are both girls. And, um, we have no toilet paper in that bathroom, because a) I have boys that only have to wipe every once in a while and use Kandoo wipes to do it, and b) when the roll is on the holder, my kids (usually Ivy, now) unroll the WHOLE thing onto the floor. Both girls were like, Uh, you have no toilet paper. I was like, use the kleenex? Yeah, it was embarrassing.
- Make these yummy applesauce bars, kind of like carrot cake, with a yummy cream cheese frosting on top. Mmmmm....
- The Neverending Laun-n-dreeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! (I wish I had a house elf, just for doing laundry.)
- Sew some scripture bags that we're giving to the young women for tomorrow night. Easy peasy, but first I need to clean my kitchen and mop my floor so I have somewhere to put my sewing machine.
- Pay some bills, which is why I originally sat down at the computer, but decided I would check blogs/email first.

*sigh*

What are you procrastinating doing right now?

Miss Integrity, with her CTR ring, in the chapel!

On Tuesday our Young Women had New Beginnings. For those of you that may not know, New Beginnings is where we highlight the girls that came in the last year, and kind of go over Personal Progress and the values. And because I'm totally awesome, I brought my camera that night, but failed to take pictures.

Anyway, it was super cute. Our Laurels and Mia Maid and the YW Prez were the ones that planned it. They did a Clue theme, where during the night we had to guess the value girl, and the "weapon", and what room. The guests had clues in an envelope, and had to say if they could disprove the accusation. Each of our girls had a little spiel on the values. And I was Miss Choice and Accountability. Which means...

...I got to wear a sweet orange outfit, not unlike the one below. I found it at D.I. for $6. It was polyester bell bottomed pants with a shirt that had cute little flowers on it. When I showed it to Pete, he laughed, then said, "Well, now you have paint clothes."


They had decked the gym out with question marks, and had a dead person outline on the floor. They even found Clue candy to hand out with the invites! The culprit ended up being our Miss Faith, decided because she was the only one that came in last year, so they took the chance to highlight her at the time of accusation.


All in all, VERY cute, and VERY fun!

Where Being INfamous Pays Off

So, you know how I'm practically famous because I know people that are famous? (I like to pretend sometimes.)

Anyway, it totally worked in my favor last night! I asked the current Miss Idaho, Elise Davis, to come and speak to our Young Women. She did an AMAZING job. She talked about the pageant, and the reality show leading up to that. She went through the Young Women values and talked about how each one helped her in her experiences at Miss America.

She told us how Clinton Kelly, from TLC's What Not to Wear, came up to her after the evening gown competition, and told her she looked like Grace Kelly! (Now I'm only two degrees away from Clinton Kelly!) She talked about how when you're modest, people see you, not what you shouldn't be showing. Elise mentioned how faith and divine nature helped her realize that she was enough, and that it didn't matter what the judges thought about her, but what she thought about herself.

Elise did such an awesome job, and the girls and I loved having her for the night. She sang her competition piece for us, she answered the craziest questions, and she even let us wear her crown and take pictures.


Thanks a million billion, Elise!

Because the Oscars are Actually About the Votes...

...I'm going to talk about my Young Women's Night of Excellence in tally form.



First, Oscar night should be filled with mishaps, great food, and surprises.

I bought some wooden stars and some spray glitter to decorate the display and refreshment table. I thought it was going to spray silver with glitter in it. Instead, it was just glitter. Minus 1.


But my mom came to the rescue; on her way to my house to babysit (thanks a million, Mom!), she stopped by a craft store and bought some silver paint. We painted the stars, and then she sprayed them with the glitter stuff afterwards. Plus 1 for the paint, plus 1 for the amazing mom.

The surprise: I found three lip balms in my purse, when I thought I didn't have any. Plus 1 for luscious lips! (Not that this goes with the night; it just so happened to happen on the same night.)


The good food: A ham and cheese sandwich with bacon for dinner. (I know, that's like saying ham with ham. But I love me some bacon on a sandwich. No, scratch that-I love me some crisp bacon on a sandwich.) Plus 1 for food, minus 1 for the disgusting picture (it tasted way better than it looks).


Next, you have to have the behind-the-scenes people:

Here's Jessica, mixing the raspberry punch. Plus 1 for raspberry punch, plus 1 for awesome Jessica, and plus 1 for cheesecake (the actual good food of the night).


Janae, showing off her pregnant glory, who made these awards for the previous Young Women's presidency. She also made the awards for the young women, which turned out way better than an actual Oscar. Plus 1 for amazing Janae, plus 1 for her ultra talent. And plus 1 for the balloons she got for our night.

The plaques Janae made for the girls. Gorgeous, huh?

Our MC, and ultra president, Jodi. Plus 1 for being so put together!

Jozet, the gift giver. She got each of the girls boas, tiaras, and earrings. Plus 1 for her grace and thoughtfulness.

And me, the one who borrowed stuff from Kar. Her ward ended up thinking of the same Oscar theme for their Young Women's in Excellence, and held it a couple of weeks ago. So I got to borrow her stuff. And I got to borrow my mom's stuff to help decorate. Plus 1 for borrowed decorations. And that dress I'm wearing? I don't wear it often, but I got it pre-kids. Plus 1 for still being able to fit in it! But minus 1 for my crazy hair. I was trying to go all fancy-schmancy, but it turned out a little...spastic. And it started to fall out mid-program. Minus 1 for not enough bobby pins and hairspray.

And what would the night be without technical difficulties? We hung these stars up, and a few of them fell during the night. Minus 1 for falling stars. (Real falling stars are cool; I'm talking about fake stars clunking to the ground.)


Also, our girls were going to sing the song for this year's theme along to the CD. Turns out we had a DVD instead (minus 1), so I got to do a little sight-reading accompaniment for them on the piano. Plus 1 for the girls being so flexible, minus 1 for me only having played through the song once before.

Another unrelated event-though a technical difficulty- that happened last night: Pete's car wouldn't start for him on his way home from work. Minus 1. But thanks to a co-worker and Kar, he got jumped and got home. Plus 1.

And our night wouldn't be complete without our real shining stars. I'm thinking about asking some of them for their autographs because they are so extremely talented and beautiful and will definitely be going places. Plus 7, because there are seven of them, and 7 is the perfect number, and they are so practically perfect in every way! Also, check out some of their poses on our "red carpet", taken by our paparazzi (me and Jodi).

McKaye, who played the guitar and sang:


Alyssa, who played the violin:


Natalie, who played the clarinet:





Katie, who changed a tire:


Megan, who made visual aids for the primary chorister:



Caliece, who played the piano:



Jenny, who did a drama monologue:



Yep, destined for fame.


So, if my tally is correct, we're at plus 15 overall. A win for all involved! I'd like to thank... (Dang, I just got played off the stage!)

Uh-Oh

Sunday I got a new calling. When they first told me what it was, I think I gave this look:

I'm the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's presidency. I think part of me instantly felt like a Beehive again, which isn't necessarily the most pleasant of memories. And here's why:

Notice the sweet braces, feathered bangs, perma-scab/zit on my chin, the glasses as big as my head, the perm... Ah, those were the awkward days! Luckily I was pretty on the inside...or something. Ahem.

But now I'm way excited. We have 7 girls, and they are all so stinking cute! I can't wait to get to know my new babysitters-uh, I mean, the girls I will mold and teach and plant little seeds of righteousness in!

Anyway, last night I had my first Mutual activity since I was in as a Young Woman. We did stupid human tricks. These girls had crazy moves-weird toe/double jointed things, and stilt walking and yoga moves...

And of course I forgot my camera.

But, I totally found a clip of the trick that I did! (Yeah, this won't freak the girls out about their new leader!)

By the way, I totally disagree about them being "losers". Although they do attend BYU-I... (KIDDING!!)

Anyway, I hope everything goes well for me and my new calling. But we have an amazing President, Jodi. And Jozet is 1st counselor, and Janae is secretary, so I'm not so worried, because I can coast on their amazing coattails for a while and hopefully not scar the girls for life. I'm sure their parents will appreciate that.