SYTYCD in Concert...

In November Rusty and I got to finally use the tickets he had gotten me for my birthday.  We went to Melting Pot for my official birthday dinner and then drove out to Phoenix for the concert.  It was such a cool experience.  First of all, it was my first time to Melting Pot and it was yummy. 

Then the concert was a blast.  It was in a smaller theatre and the dancers started out the night in the audience so we saw them up close! They did a lot of numbers from the season, but with different partners. And some of the dances they made longer. And one of them the Sand dance, they even added the girls too! It was so so so cool.  There weren't breaks between the numbers, they blended one dance into the next- so awesome.  Of course it is hard to take pictures of stuff like this, so you'll have to take my word that it was amazing.  Definitely want to go again!

A Very Berry EARLY Christmas Dinner...

I am still on the Relief Society committee and we got to plan our big Christmas dinner early this year.  Because of building scheduling we had to have it the second week of November.  Although everyone thought we were crazy, it was nice not to have to have one more thing to go to in December.  I work with a great committee.  I made the invites and posters again.  They were fun.  We were going with a berry theme and we used lots of burlap.

It took 4 suburbans and a few other cars to get everything over to the church that day to set up. We worked from 10 am until 2pm and then we came back at 5 to finish.  After it was over we were there until almost midnight cleaning up, but it was totally worth it.  Plus we got to take home lots of left over pies...

I made the JOY sign and it doubled as a Bunco gift a week later. 

The Commitee (l-r) Rachelle, Erin, Krystal, Jackie, Heidi, Tara, me, Barbara 

We served soup in bread bowls and a berry salad. We had dozens of pies for dessert and ice cream. We played a game (the Left Right game) which I Emceed and talked and laughed. It was a great night. All in all we had about 115 women there and there are only 130 in our ward RS so we had an unbelievable turn out. Can't wait to plan next year!! 

Turning 34...

It wasn't so bad.  Rusty got me tickets to see So You Think You Can Dance when they come in November.

Roses from Rusty. 

Rusty had Kneaders French toast for me when I woke up. 

Gifts from friends. 

The best part was it was Bunco and my sweet friend Kim planned the whole night around me.  The food was my fav, Costa Vida style salads, Red Velvet cupcakes. There were balloons and streamers and all the prizes were "my favorite things".  I even got to pick first, cause heck, it was my birthday!

Kim Carrol and I 

Some of the prizes were a sleep kit (which I picked), chevron bracelets (which Kim picked and gave to me), gift card to Thrive, a Silhouette tool, and gift cards to my fav spots, a frame, Princess Bride DVD and a couple others. Plus the group got me a gift certificate to get a pedi! 

VTU...

8.27.13
I have served on our ward's Relief Society Committee since we became a ward last year.  It is so fun to plan the activities for the "Additional Relief Society Meetings" aka Homemaking aka Enrichment. I work with a great group of women who are very talented.  When we first started planning this activity back in April we were super excited for it.  We wanted to have an activity centered around Visiting Teaching, but not make it boring.  One sister, Rochelle, had had something similar to this in a previous ward and had saved all the papers from it! Win! We worked through the summer getting things prepped and once we got back from all our trips we began putting the final arrangements together.  I didn't get a picture of all of us in our VTU shirts, but they turned out cute.  I made about a dozen for the night.  {And I have to make a note for me, I gave a talk in church two days before this so I had a busy couple of weeks. }

Finally, the day came and we met to set up early.  I left after an hour to deal with my crazy boys. But the transformation was awesome. Here are some pictures of the set up...

 As they came in the foyer there was Registration.  We broke the table up by last name.  The tables were manned by our VT supervisors.  When you checked in they gave you a packet with some essentials for the night; class schedule, pen, ruler handout, VT roster (I will take a picture of it). As well as a current VTing route.

 In the cultural hall we had long tables set up like desks.  We covered them with white butcher paper.

 We used the bell to "change classes"rather than move every few minutes we stayed in the same place the entire time.

 The jars were filled with school supplies, erasers, crayons, glue, pencils, pens etc.  Other than the jars I brought from home, (which Boss broke a lid to, geez that kid!) all the contents were donated.

 This was the refreshments table and  the area where we collected donations.  I really should have taken a picture after because it was filled to the brim with paper, backpacks, crayons and other essentials.  The Young Women in our ward will now put the items into the backpacks and then we will take them to a local charity we work with.

 These might have been my favorite part of the night.  The "refreshments." Heidi ran the bags through the printer to put our logo on.  Inside we had fruit leather, chips, a homemade granola bar and a lunch sack note.

 I mean come on, how cute???

 Here was our PE area, and below was our Teacher's desk.

We had the following class schedule:
Orientation, the Pledge, a cheer by our very own VTU cheerleaders, History, P.E., Statistics, Film, Communications, Study Hall and Choir.  Each class was just a few minutes long and was taught by a member of either the RS committee, RS VT supervisor or someone in the RS presidency.

 Some of our lovely supervisors, Jamie, Margaret, Scarlett (below) Julia, RaeChelle

 Barbara gave the welcome.  She is one of the co-heads of the committee (and you can see the t-shirts I made in this picture)

 Nothing will sadden me more for a while than the fact that I didn't video this cheer.  Brittany wrote it and it was about our ward and how visiting teaching is never done.  Best cheer squad ever (Angela, Brittany, Amanda, Alli, Sarah) Thanks for keeping those cheer skills sharp ladies!

 During Scarlett's PE class we had to stretch and get warmed up for the game we played.

 Scar leading the stretching.  She got roped into teaching this class because she's my friend, hopefully she still is :) She did amazing.

 At the end of the game here were our three winners- their prize? Doing everyone else's VTing.  Ha ha.

 Donna and Marge taught statistics and we even had a pop quiz.  Luckily the answers were in the packet.

 After watching a funny film on how NOT to visit teach, Jamie taught us about the importance of good communications with an old fashion game of telephone.

Great job Jamie. I got to be the Choir Director (I led the songs) and the Ecclesiastic Professor (I said the closing prayer).  It was a fun night, we had an amazing turnout, and now we are ready to plan our Christmas program!

Provident Living...

I have wanted a garden for a while. I was lucky and grew up with parents who always had the most amazing gardens, growing everything from corn to squash to strawberries. We have a wasted space near the fence in our backyard that I thought would be the perfect place for some raised bed gardens.

We had my dad map out three beds, but after putting two of them in we felt like that was enough. I took the boys and my dad to get some plants early one saturday in October. We ended up planting an entire bed of califlower, one of broccoli and one with mostly herbs like cilantro, basil, rosemary and oregano. We also planted rows and rows of carrots, radishes, green onions and butter lettuce. Yes, if you did the math we ended up with three beds.  And now that we are loving it so much we plan to take out a bush in the corner and add two more.  The kids want us to plant pumpkins and corn in the fall!

Here are some pictures of back when we planted...

 My dad and Braden prepping the soil.

They were so small!

And today...

 The bed on the left has Broccoli and green onions and on the right cauliflower and butter lettuce.

 All three beds.

 The herb bed. Cilantro, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, and there are radishes and carrots in this bed too.

 Look at that beautiful lettuce! It is great on tacos and burgers.

This just shows the whole area, the big bush on the right didn't survive the harsh freezes we had, so I will work on cutting it down and hopefully we will be up to five beds by the time we plant our spring garden!