Done for Now

Well I wasn't expecting this day to come so soon but I was released as YW president about three weeks ago. I was only Pres for about a year and a few months but my husband was called to be 2nd counselor in the Bishopric so that meant I had to give up my calling for him to serve. I have been in YW's as long as I have been in my current ward (3 years +) so I felt like it was his time to serve. He's had other callings of course but none that really challenged him or gave him many opportunities to grow. I am excited for him and know he's going to do a fabulous job. Now it's his turn to go to meetings and be gone in the evenings.

  I finally got my next calling this last Sunday, I am now on the Enrichment committee, I am SO excited about this one. Planning parties for a calling, what could be better (besides being in YW's)? So now I'll have to add a new tab to my tool bar for enrichment activities. We don't have anything in the works or on the calendar until July so it may be a while before I actually get something up here. Although because I have such a lull in my time I've decided to throw a Favorite Things Party so I'll put those detail here for fun.

 Thank you all for your great comments on all things YW's. Now on to the next. : )

Progressive dinner

We had our progressive dinner this weekend and had such a good time. We wanted to bring a little sunshine back into our program and so we had the dinner to help the girls see how they can help.

Our invite, to which I attached a yellow sucker.

We started at one of my counselors home with appetizers she made spinich dip with baguettes and wrapped asparagus, both were SO yummy. The activity we did at her home was each girl pinned a piece of paper to her back that said "I'm fabulous because. . . . " and everyone wrote something fabulous about her on it.

after they had eaten their appetizer and finished writing we watched a short Mormon message about loving one another. 

Then on to the next home. Here we had a wonderful salad and bread sticks. My secretary was in charge of this course and she had taped all the forks to dowels, well as it turns out you can't feed yourself with something that long and so we had to feed each other. The lesson being we need to look outside ourselves and find opportunities to serve those around us. 

When preparing for this dinner we wanted to have a theme to work with and my first counselor found THIS fabulous article about scattering sunshine. So our theme was being rays of sunshine, hence the yellow. Anyway in that article they listed ways to scatter sunshine and one of the ways was to sing a happy song. So we split the girls up and had one group sing You are my sunshine in a country accent and the other sing Scatter Sunshine in a British accent. Everyone was a great sport and it was hilarious to hear. 

They also watched anther Mormon Message at this home. (I left early because my house was next so I didn't see which one it was)

Sorry I didn't get pictures at the other homes, my arms and hands were busy with a baby in them.

We then headed off to my home for the main course. We served pork loin, garlic mashed red potatoes, and green beans along with a yummy yellow punch. 

We put place cards on the table so that we could mix the girls up from sitting next to their usual crowd. On the inside of the place cards I put a question that everyone at the table then answered. It made for some fun conversation. After dinner we watched a short video on Christ like attributes. 

From here we headed to the last home for dessert. My counselor had made mini cheesecakes which were so good. At her home we showed Sister Dalton's video about letting your light shine and my fabulous beehive advisor wrote three skits. Two were for the girls to do and one for us as leaders to do for the girls. They were so fun and everyone had a great time preforming.

We also sent the girls home with a little thank you treat.

It was a wonderful evening and it was wonderful to spend some time with the girls.

New Beginnings ~D.O.T.S.

Our theme for New Beginnings this year was D.O.T.S. Depend On The Savior (which we found all over Pinterest. We presented the class presidents with four choices for themes and this was the one they decided on. They helped in planning the program and making assignments, making the decorations, and deciding on refreshments.

We went with a pink and gold color scheme and I love how it all came together.

We also had an amazing program. The girls each took care of the values as well as the other parts we're to cover in the PP book. (theme, motto, logo, class symbols, etc.) But for the value presentations we had them read the little exert from the Come Follow Me through PP article . That was a little something we did differently. Some thing else that the girls decided to do was instead of having a speaker we had a parent stand and tell us how they see their daughter depending on the Savior. It was a great program and was amazing to hear these parents praise their daughter for living the gospel. I think it was important for the girls to hear and to realize their efforts are noticed.

Here are a few pictures of our night.


First is our invitation. we punched out the gold and pink dots to add to the CD sleeve envelope.

AAAHHH this one is upside down, sorry.

Like I said the girls cut out all the circles to hang

And made the tissue poms for the walls

And glittered the vases for the flowers

For their take home treat we made sugar cookie bars from THIS recipe and put them in some mini pizza style boxes we made. HERE is the tutorial on how we made the boxes.

 It was a wonderful evening and I'm so thankful for all the girls and leaders and their hard work. 

I'm Back!

Wow! So much has happened in the last few months. First I've had my baby and she is perfect and such a sweet addition to our family. That in its self was an adventure I wasn't prepared for. Long story short, I had to have an emergency hysterectomy due to a large loss of blood and other complications. Needless to say I am now an adamant blood doaner after needing 7 bags myself. This was a close call on my life and I am so very thankful for Doctors who are close to the Spirit and follow it's promptings. I spent three days in the ICU following all this fun and have since made a full recovery.

   It has taken three months to feel like I'm finally back up to speed and able to handle life. Baby is doing really well and now not requiring quite so much constant attention so that I can do other things.

I've been feeling as I've come back into things that things are kinda blah. YW's is just YW's, there's no spark or excitement in being there from us as leaders and from the girls. SO I decided to make a few changes to get things rolling and bring that spark back.

First is we have been really bad about our opening Hymn. The girls would only do the first verse. So I addressed that this Sunday and let them know how important our opening Hymn is in bringing the Spirit to our classes and read them a great quote from Pres. Kimball.

Second our spiritual thoughts were just a scripture being read for the most part. I do have to say I do have a few girls who would put a little thought into it but for the most part it was read where my scriptures open to. SO now the spiritual thought is given out the week before with some hints on how to prepare (find a quote or story to go with the scripture provided, bear you testimony on the principle of the scripture, etc.) The scriptures provided are from the Come Follow Me lessons for that month.

Third we are now doing a newsletter as well as our weekly emails. We'll put the newsletter out the last Sunday of the month. Our hope is that both the girls and the parents will benefit from seeing the calendar and hearing about upcoming events.

And lastly, we are planning to do a progressive dinner for the girls with a little silly/light teaching. I'll post how that goes, it's still in the planning stages.

So for now this will have to do. I will try to get our New Beginnings posted soon, it turned out so cute!

I'd love to know what the rest of you do when things seem to get too comfortable in your program.