Personal Progress Marathon

So, my laptop at work has been acting for the past 2 months.  It kept popping up these messages saying I needed to back up the hard drive.  I tried, but when I was into my 6th CD of the backup, I gave up b/c it was taking way too long.  Well, for the past 2 months I’d be working away & all of a sudden my computer would freeze up & I couldn’t do anything.  I would try everything & would finally just have to hold down the power button for 10 seconds to make it shut off.  Then I’d wait & restart it.  It was a pain to do, b/c I would have at the very least 9 Excel spreadsheets open that I would have to restore & do the whole “read/write” thing.  Anyways, it’s been happening more & more frequently (as in I had to shut it down 4 times yesterday).  Today, it completely died on me & wouldn’t restart when I turned it back on.  So, this is the sad & lonely corner of my desk where it used to sit.  My boss took it into his computer/tech guy to see if they could fix it.  Luckily I had my personal laptop w/ me, so that’s what I used for the rest of the afternoon.

I’m glad that most of my work is done online, or on files that I backed up to the external hard drive or Dropbox.  It’s scary how dependent we are on technology these days.  I am in constant awe & appreciation of all that technology does to make our lives easier.  However, when it doesn’t work it really stinks!!!

Since we have a 5th Wednesday this month, we did a combined Young Women’s activity about Personal Progress.  Sis. Lee has been wanting to do a Marathon themed PProgress activity, and tonight was finally the night.  She started out by reading a letter she had written 7 years ago about how training for her 1st marathon was a lot like personal progress.  Then she explained the 4 stations we had set up around the room.

They were Preparation, Progress, Training & Start.

At the Preparation station (LOL) she had a little bottle of water for the girls to take.  The leader assigned to that station had 2 iPads w/ internet capability, where she showed the girls how to log in online & showed them how to navigate around the Personal Progress website.

At the Progress station she had a protein bar for the girls.  The leader assigned to that station went over their progress w/ the girls.  They charted out what they have completed & got a visual of what they still need to accomplish.

At the Training Station, she had a form (see pic above) for each of them w/ their name on it, to fill out.  Basically they were breaking down all they had left to do into smaller chunks to help them reach their ultimate goal.

At the Start Station she had a “race bib” for each of the girls.  At this station she had a list of a value experiences they could pass off tonight to help get them started on their journey.  We split the girls up into groups & had them rotate around to each station every 10 minutes.  I LOVE these race bibs!!!

I also love how she had some of her own real running shirts, shoes & race bibs on the wall as decoration.  She talked about how important the “gear” you use is as part of the training & preparation.  She tied that in to how important your attitude is when doing personal progress.  Some value experiences & projects are going to be hard & push you, but that’s a good thing.  There were just so many tie-ins that we were able to come up with.

I had gone early to help her set up, and we were talking about personal progress.  I was saying how I like to switch the words around & focus on the progress that I’m making as a person.  That’s really what this is all about … it’s not supposed to be a thing of dread or drudgery.  It’s meant to help us progress personally towards becoming more like our Savior & having a closer relationship w/ Him and others around us.  It was a great activity & hopefully one that will get the girls motivated to progress on their journey towards becoming the person Heavenly Father wants them to be.

Happy Administrative Professionals Day & A Relaxation & Rejuvenation YW Activity

Today my boss, Ralph, came in w/ this beautiful plant for me.  He said it was for Administrative Professional’s Day!  What an incredibly kind & thoughtful surprise.  I didn’t even know it as APD!  I was going to take it home w/ me, but decided to leave it on my desk where I can enjoy it more b/c I’m rarely at home.

We had dinner (chicken wanton salad) at Mom & Dad’s & had fun chatting w/ Aunt Sandy.  She’s staying at Mom & Dad’s for a few days to use Mom’s quilting machine.  I had to rush off to Young Women’s to get ready for our activity.  The Laurel’s class presidency decided they wanted to serve the Mia Maids & Beehives, so we had a night of Relaxation & Rejuvenation.  I started off by giving this little spiritual thought.  Then we had them split up into 4 groups & each group was assigned a station.  They would stay at that station for 10 – 15 minutes (depending on how much time we had to fill), and then I would have everyone rotate to the next station.

One station was “Nail Nurturing” where they could soak their hands in some warm soapy water & then have their nails painted.

Another station was the “Relaxation Room.”  It was just a little classroom next door and we had beach towels, pillows, & soft music playing.  I told the girls that when they rotated to that room that they couldn’t talk or use cell phones.  Only 1 of the 4 groups followed those rules.  I sat in that room just to make sure they didn’t leave & weren’t being crazy.  It was kind of sad to see how they couldn’t relax.  They couldn’t leave their cell phones alone for even 5 minutes.

The next station was “Marvelous Massages.”  We had head massagers and back massagers.  We also had the option for just hand massages w/ good smelling lotion in case any of the girls felt uncomfortable having their backs massaged.

The 4th station was the “Chatting Corner.”  Sis. Lee had brought some bowls of candy & chocolate & we had a few Laurels at that station who talked to the girls, offered advice, etc.  This seemed to be the favorite station.

After the last rotation, I went to gather up the pillows & beach towels in the Relaxation Room & started laughing so hard when I saw that 2 of the Deacons had snuck in there to take naps.  LOL!  They crack me up.

Here’s the lovely ladies showing off their beautiful nails.  It was a fun activity & I’m glad it came together as well as it did.

Missionary MTC Olympics

Tonight before I went to Young Women’s, I had to snap a picture of my Chia Person.  The grass/hair has grown so much this week!  It’s taller than a bottle of hand soap from B&BW.  I wonder if I need to trim it, or just leave it alone?

Tonight for our activity, we had our 1st ever Mini MTC (Missionary Training Center) Olympics.  All the youth split up into groups and went around to these 6 different stations.

#1: Pack A Suitcase
They were timed on how fast they could fold a bunch of clothes nicely, pack them into a suitcase, and zip it up.

#2: Tie A Tie
The kids were taught how to tie a tie (if they didn’t know how already), and then they were timed on how fast they could put one on and tie it.  I’m glad they had the girls do that too, b/c we can tie ties for our husbands or brothers or sons if we need to.

#3: Sew A Button
They were timed on how fast they could sew a button onto a piece of fabric, b/c it’s a good skill to know how to mend clothes.  Wearing the same clothes all the time puts a lot of wear & tear on them.

#4: I’m Eating What?
We had them try a small taste of different foreign foods, and then they had to guess which country the food came from.  There were all these ways to say “thank you” in different languages and they had to guess which language it was.

#5: Where Will You Go?
They each had to make a paper airplane and then stand behind a line and try to land their paper airplane on the red X on the map on the floor.  The red X was moved to a different location for each group.

#6: And Now We’ll Hear From Our Missionaries…
This was the group I got to help out with.  I told them on my mission that there were times where we only had 10 people in a sacrament meeting, and if the speakers ended early, we would have 10 minutes to kill.  So, the Branch President would get up and say, “and now we’ll hear from the missionaries…” and we would have to come up w/ something quick to talk about.  We had the kids pick a subject out of a bowl and then they had to teach all of us about it for 1 minute.  They did a great job!

#7: Dress Warmly
We had a race where 2 kids would compete against each other to see who was the fastest at putting on a pair of gloves, ear muffs, scarf, coat, and open their umbrella.

For the companionships that had the fastest times in the timed stations, they handed out these medals made from a package of Ramen noodles, b/c missionaries are usually so poor by the end of the month that all they eat is Ramen.  Plus, it’s easy to make.  Such a cute idea for the medals!  It was a great activity and I think the youth that participated had a good time.

Young Women’s ~ New Beginnings

Tonight at Young Women’s we had our New Beginnings Meeting.  The theme was keys to help us open doors to letting the Savior into our lives.  I really liked this big paper key they had up on the board.  I was asked to talk about the new Come, Follow Me curriculum.  I was proud of myself for not bursting into tears, b/c that’s usually what I do when I feel the Spirit.  I kept it together and was able to say what I needed to.  Although when I sat down, I thought of a lot of things I meant to say but forgot.  Oh, well…I guess the Spirit didn’t want me to say them since I didn’t remember them.

It was a very nice program and we were done by 8:00.  They got a group picture of all the girls, but I didn’t get my camera out in time and was able to snap this picture from the side.  We really do have a great group of Young Women & I’m excited for the new Beehives we’ll have coming in this year.

For dessert they had the fabulous Oreo & cream cheese truffles (the mint ones were delectable), chocolate covered strawberries, and these cute sugar cookies in the shape of a key.  Each of the girls got an old fashioned key w/ a string in the color of the value they’ll be focusing on for Young Women In Excellence this year.

I stayed to help clean up and when I got home, this is what I found.  I’m so thankful that Mom brings Autumn home and puts her to bed for me on Wednesday nights so that Autumn gets enough sleep and isn’t a grouchy girl in the morning.

Mission Memories & Minute To Win It Games

My friend Alyn sent me a message on Facebook and asked me if I could make a little 3-5 minute video about my mission.  He is a seminary teacher and the lessons this week were about missionary work.  I talked about some of the miracles I got to witness like the Book of Mormon coming out in Slovene while I was there, and how this group of Saints went to SLC to record some important church stuff in Slovene.  It was so neat to talk about my mission again and remember all the great things I learned.  He also asked that I share one of my favorite scriptures in the language so his seminary kids could hear what it sounded like.  It made me so homesick for Slovenija & the people & the food & the country & just everything.  I need to plan a trip back there in the near future!

This week is Spirit Week at Autumn’s school and today was cultural day.  We don’t have any American Indian clothes for her to wear, so we went w/ what we did have…a Polynesian girl.  When I picked her up from school today, I asked her how it went and she said she only wore the outfit for a few minutes b/c no one else in her class was dressed up.  Oh, well…at least we got a cute picture of her!

After dinner, I went to Young Women’s and we had a combined activity w/ the Young Men.  For the activity, we did a bunch of Minute To Win It Games and the youth rotated around to 7 different stations.  They had the following games:

Face The Cookie (using only the face, move a cookie from the forehead to the mouth)
Ka-Broom (flip some marshmallows from a paper plate into the air by hitting the edge of the plate w/ a broom and catch the flying marshmallows in a cup)
Yank Me (Build a tower w/ plastic cups and put an index card between each cup, and then yank the card out w/out making the tower fall over)
Rapid Fire (build a pyramid w/ 6 plastic cups and knock them over by shooting rubber bands at them)
Breakfast Scramble (unscramble & reassemble squares cut from a cereal box)
Baby Blockin’ (put a paper plate on your head and stack 5 children’s building blocks on top of each other and hold it for 3 seconds)

I got to oversee this station, and I think the youth were surprised w/ how much harder it was than it looked.  At the end of the night, I wanted to try it and see how hard it was.  I was able to stack 10 dice on my popsicle stick and hold it for 3 seconds!  GO ME!!!  It was a really fun activity and the youth really seemed to enjoy it.

I had to stop by WalMart on the way home to get a few groceries, and I couldn’t figure out why the parking lot was so packed, b/c it’s usually pretty empty on a Wednesday night.  But then I walked in and saw this empty Valentine’s themed table and remembered that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and people were out getting last minute gifts.  LOL!

Young Women’s Wednesday

Tonight on the way home from work/school Autumn & I stopped at Subway for dinner.  We grabbed a sandwich, rushed home, and scarfed it down.  Then we got ready for the Young Women to come over.  I was making real whipped cream and Autumn got my phone and took this picture.

The Laurel’s wanted to have a relaxing night for our activity, and since the church is being used for the crèche this weekend, we met at my house.  I was super productive last night after I got Autumn in bed and actually changed my fireplace mantle, which has been the same since we moved in over a year ago.  We made pretzel Hershey hug candies and work pajamas and just relaxed and talked.  I made THIS hot chocolate by the Pioneer Woman and it got RAVE reviews.  It is incredibly good, and I’m glad I doubled the recipe.  It was a fun night and I just love these girls so much!

Pioneer Woman’s DELICIOUS Hot Chocolate

• 2 cups Milk
• 2 cups Half-and-half
• 1 cup Good Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
  (I used milk chocolate chips instead)
  
  Combine milk with half-and-half in a small saucepan. Warm over medium-low heat, then stir in chocolate chips. Stir until melted (though there will still be lovely particles of chocolate throughout.) If it's too chocolatey for you, splash in a little more milk. If it's not quite sweet enough for you, add 1 teaspoon sugar. Serve in mugs with whipped cream.

Young Women In Excellence

The Laurels were in charge of YWIE and they came up w/ the idea to have a table for each value and then the parents & other people who came would rotate to each table.  They would spend 5 minutes at each table talking to the girls at that table about the value they worked on, and then at the end of the 5 minutes Sis. Lee blew a conch shell and everyone would rotate.  I think it went really well and the feedback we got was good.

Here’s our group of Young Women that were there that night.  We have such incredible Young Women in our ward, and we missed the ones that weren’t there.

We wanted to get a pic of the girls w/ the leaders, and we thought it would be fun for the girls to hold Sis. Lee.  She’s such a good sport!

The whole premise for the night was that the Young Women values add color to our lives.  This is the gift that the YW Presidency gave to all the girls.  Sis. Lee talked about what it takes to make a rainbow.  It’s just a simple drop of water, but when the light shines through it you get a rainbow.  She compared that to the girls and how they can use the values to light their lives and be a shining example to those around them.  It was really cool

In sticking w/ that theme, we decorated in black & white w/ pops of color here & there.  I LOVED these napkins Sis. Lee found at Ikea.

We also had a little kids table so they would have something to do and not be bored.  I made a free word find online, I also did a matching game of the value to the scripture it goes with and a picture w/ all the values for the kids to color.  I think the whole night was a great success.  So many people stayed to help & clean up, which was so nice.  Like Mom always says, “Many hands make light work.”  Autumn was asleep by the time I got home so we just spent the night at Mom & Dad’s.

Happy 33rd Birthday To Me

I accidentally left my phone at Mom & Dad’s last night, so Dad brought it to me this morning after seminary.  He also brought Autumn & I some doughnuts from our favorite place.  The rest of the morning was business as usual w/ getting ready, taking Autumn to school, and going to work.  I had a normal work morning and then went and met Mom & Aunt Jeri for lunch.  Mom got me a ring & pair of earrings that are SOOOOOOOOO me.  I love these ladies so much and am glad I got to spend time w/ them.

I went back to the office and got back to work.  About 30 minutes later, I looked up from my computer and saw Mom & Aunt Jeri walking into my office w/ a cake!  They sang “Happy Birthday” b/c they wanted everyone to know it was my birthday.  I had told them at lunch that we don’t really do anything for birthdays in our office, plus how do you tell everyone it’s your birthday w/out sounding vain or like you’re fishing for a compliment?  Anyways, that was super nice of them to do.  Mom even got some red gel to write “Happy Birthday Lisa” on it.

Usually we get to pick what we want for our birthday dinner, but Mom & I decided to have my birthday dinner tomorrow since Mom has Scouts tonight & I have Young Women’s.  So, Autumn & I made some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and then I had to rush off.  This was the GORGEOUS sunset that I got to enjoy.  Everyone sang to me during opening exercises, and I totally blushed.  The Beehives were in charge and they had a fun activity.  It was a game w/ the 13 Articles of Faith.  For every clue you unscrambled, you got a topping for your ice cream.  Then they had ice cream sundaes for dessert.

I didn’t have one b/c I met Liz for dessert.  She came to the church to surprise me right as I was leaving to go pick her up.  LOL!  We just met up at Braum’s.  She got me the funniest card that sings.  I feel like such a bad friend b/c I haven’t seen her in so long.  But, we just talked and laughed and had a good ol’ time.  I’m so glad I got to spend time w/ her on my birthday.

2 hours later, we finally said good bye and went our separate ways.  I walked in and was so excited to see that my usual dumping spot on the island in the kitchen had been cleared off!!!  I thought Nick had done that as a birthday present to me.

Then I turned the corner and saw this!  LOL!  I had to take a picture of it b/c this is real life, folks.  I spent the next 30 minutes clearing this off and putting things away where they go.  It felt so good to get that done.  Then I finished off my birthday by editing pictures and blogging while watching the Queen Latifah version of Steel Magnolias.

What a great 33rd birthday.  I hope this year will have lots of great things in store for me.  I got SO MANY birthday messages and wishes on Facebook, too.  I feel so loved and lucky to have such great family and friends.  I’m especially thankful to my Mom for my BIRTH day.  I really should be celebrating HER today.  I’m thankful Heavenly Father sent me to my family.  I won the jackpot on that one!

Fun Fall Fest

I knew I had Young Women’s tonight and that we were going to do a fun activity and that Mom & Dad are out of town.  So, rather than making Aunt Jeri watch Autumn for me, I decided to take her to Young Women’s with me.  I knew we didn’t have time to go home and try to make a meal and eat it before we had to leave.  So, I let Autumn pick if she wanted to go to Subway and share a foot long sandwich or go to Chipotle and share a barbacoa bowl.  As you can see from her sassy diva pose, she chose Chipotle and she wanted to eat outside on the patio.  It was fun to sit back and relax and talk while we ate.  Once we finished, she chased a bird around trying to feed it our leftover shady meat.

We got to the church a little early so I practiced playing the piano until people started showing up.  I am so rusty & really need to practice more often!  For tonight’s activity it was combined w/ all the young men & young women.  I guess they do this thing called “Fall Fest” every year.  Each group is in charge of an activity and they keep score and whichever group wins the most activities gets the coveted trophy.  The Priests were up first and they had 2 people from each group hula hoop.  It could have gone on all night, but after 1 minute they made everyone jump every 10 seconds.  Whoever kept their hula hoop up the longest won.

For our activity, we did a pie eating contest.  But, the trick was that the person eating the pie couldn’t touch it.  Someone had to sit behind them and feed it to them.  It was so funny to watch how some people (mostly the girls) tried to be nice about feeding the pie to their partner and some people (mostly the boys) were stinkers and spread it all over the mouth of their partner.  I was impressed w/ Rachel (the girl in the hot pink shirt) for winning the contest.  She looked like she was going to throw up when she was done, but she rocked it like a champ!

For their activity, the teachers had these tennis balls in the bottom of some nylon stockings and the contestants had to put them on their heads and see how many times they could knock over the water bottle in front of them.  It was so funny to see everyone swinging their heads around.  The funniest part was when two nylons would get wrapped around each other.

For their activity, the Mia Maids had these launchers and water balloons.  Each group got 3 water balloons and it was a contest to see who could shoot theirs the farthest.  By the final group, they finally got the hang of how to get them to go far.  The first few groups’ water balloons would just disintegrate before they could get too far.

For their activity, the Deacons gave 4 people on each team a plastic spoon.  They had 2 line up on one side of the parking lot and 2 line up on the other side of the parking lot.  Each group got one ping pong ball and had to carry it on the spoon over to their partner on the other side in a relay race.  They weren’t allowed to touch the ping pong ball or drop it.  It was funny to see them try to pass the ping pong ball off to their partner.

For the final activity, the Beehives did a 3 legged race.  The string they used to tie people’s legs together didn’t work very well b/c most people broke apart after just a few seconds of running.

All in all, it was a super fun activity and for refreshments we had root beer floats.  The Laurels won and get bragging rights for the whole year b/c we dominated 4 out of the 6 activities.  It was good to see some of the kids sitting around and socializing after the activity.  Autumn had fun watching all the crazy antics of the older kids.  We left at 8:30 so I could get her home to bed.

Project Runway: Toilet Paper Style

Tonight when I got Autumn after school she said she had something for me.  I guess they tried some different foods at school and talked about the different types of tastes like sweet, sour, etc.  She handed me a little piece of chocolate, and I popped it in my mouth.  I started chewing it and felt like throwing up.  I guess it was 100% baker’s chocolate.  It was disgusting!  Autumn was laughing her head off and thought it was the funniest thing ever.  She said she had a few Oreos left over from her snack at school, that she said she would share w/ me to get the nasty taste out of my mouth.  We were stopped at a stop sign and she said to turn around b/c she had something to show me.  She gave me this nasty Oreo smile.  We were laughing so hard.  I just love her so much!

Mimi was gone when we got to her house, b/c she has been called to be the Wolf Den Leader.  We were all SHOCKED that she accepted that calling.  Tonight was her first meeting w/ the boys and she looked spiffy in her new Scout shirt.  Go, Mimi!

I had to scarf down some dinner and then head off to Young Women’s.  It was a combined activity and we were in charge.  We had our own “Project Runway: TP (toilet paper) Style!”  We split all the girls up into 3 teams.  We gave them 15 minutes for each of the 3 categories (casual, formal, wedding).  In between each category we had the models come to the front to show off their creations and we also had them walk the runway.  We told them that all of their outfits had to modest, how important modesty is, and that modest clothes can still be fashionable.

This is the group for the first category of casual wear.  We gave them toilet paper and 1 roll of black crepe paper and 1 roll of hot pink.

This is the category of formal wear.  The girls were so creative.

Hannah was dressed as a guy in a tuxedo, and they even gave her a moustache!  I was at a bad angle so it looks like one end of it is in her eye.  But I still had to post it b/c it was so creative and we were all laughing so hard.

This is the round for the wedding dresses.  The two dresses on both ends were incredibly creative and actually really pretty.  The one in the middle made us laugh so much b/c she had so many streamers in her face that were supposed to look like her veil.  She reminded me of the bad octopus type guy on Pirates Of The Caribbean.  We ended up voting that the team on the far left won.

This is the wedding ring that the middle team came up with, which we loved.  This activity was a HUGE success.  It was great to mix up the groups and have some Beehives (12-13 year old girls), Mia Maids (14-15), and Laurels (16-17) girls in each group.  They interacted so well.  The girls that usually sit in the back and have a chip on their shoulders were so involved and were having a blast.  It was fun to see how creative the girls were.

For refreshments we had some pumpkin cookies b/c it’s officially fall now (even though it was still 94 degrees today).  After the activity, I thought of a cute idea for modesty refreshments.  We could have made sugar cookies and used a gingerbread man cookie cuter.  Then the girls could have used frosting and embellishments to create modest clothes for their sugar cookie doll.  Then we could of had little prizes for things like most modest, most fashionable, most creative, most colorful, etc.  We wouldn’t have had enough time for that tonight, so maybe we can do that for an activity some other time.  It was a fun night and the best part was seeing the girls interact w/ each other and how much fun they were having.