Sun!

So...I hear it is going to be sunny pretty much all this next week! Yes! In celebration I am posting a sun I just finished for my sister Deb's twins. For their science project. The art will be ironed on to the girls' t-shirts. I hope they like it.

Happy Saturday night and happy Sunday tomorrow! (Don't you think it should always be sunny on Sundays? It is in the name of the day, obviously!)

Can it come soon?

Spring, that is. Not tonight and tomorrow apparently...with snow in the forecast. But hopefully soon? But KSL is certainly confused this morning... Check out the 140 degrees! Sounds more like Arizona or something. And it is overcast! ; )

And a few minutes later it shows the temp at 86 degrees and still overcast. This is making me laugh. Especially because it is really only about 36 degrees right now. Hey, weather people- wake up over at KSL! Though I am appreciating this and laughing.

I think the dragonflies would appreciate the warm weather that KSL is reporting...

Happy Thursday! I hope it is a good one!

Not a Fan

...of getting my teeth cleaned. Every 6 months, as I am leaving the dentist office, after the dreaded experience of getting my teeth scraped... and scraping myself off of the ceiling from the chills it sends up my spine (Okay, I guess I was never did shoot up to the ceiling but I felt like I wanted to!), I make an oath to myself that I will never let another food particle enter my mouth!

As if that will ever happen. I like food too much. And plus, when I don't eat, my stomach can kick up quite a fuss with the growling noises that cannot be held back.

But I am free of the torture for another 6 months!!! Yessssss!

Happy bday, Jase!

Jason's birthday is today. We miss him a ton. It is a rainy day today (an Eeyore day as I call rainy days)...but it is also appropriate that it is raining on his birthday. We are pretending it is gray and rainy out because Jason is sad he can't be with us...though I think he is near us a lot more than we think. Love you, Bumper! I will always miss you.

Here is Jason's daughter holding the balloons that we attached little birthday notes to for Jason. We, of course, included a birthday balloon into the bunch. I chose the yellow one with white polka dots. I like to send him a happy yellow balloon from me.

And we let those balloons loose into the gray sky. Grab them, Jase!
We miss you. Hope you had a nice birthday. (And I hope you are okay that we ate chicken wings since you always loved them.)

Once every 823 years...

Apparently...July has 5 Fridays 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays this year which only happens once every 823 years.

(Oh fine- Snopes proved me wrong...or at least my source was wrong on the above info...that I chose to believe.)

Enjoy!

And so happy the roads were dry on my commute this morning! Yes!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It is nice to be loved.

Happy birthday x2!

Happy birthday to my cute twin nieces! I can't believe you are 12!

A little Attitude

A handout I made for our YW for my lesson last Sunday.

I laminated it and put a magnet on the back so that it can be put up in a place that will remind them of how they want to come across to their family, friends, and to themselves.

A Going Away Drawing

A lady at work is retiring. So I was asked by her friend and co-worker to do a drawing of her. Here it is.

All folded up...

Love these Marshall Alexander paper creations.

And I sort of feel "folded up" lately...or at least a little worn out. With being busy at work, YW stuff to think about and accomplish, and working late hours doing other service too. I am just a little tired this week. But that's okay...I could not accuse myself of being bored. If in fact I wanted to be accusatory of such a possible state of being.

Happy Friday! I think I will try to get lots of sleep this weekend. I so need it.

The new Beehives have been welcomed!

New Beginnings went well last night, I thought. Again, I did not take photos... probably because the whole night I was making sure everyone was moving from station to station. And I had to speak at the beginning and the end. So just a lot going on.

I hope the new Beehives had a fun time. And I hope they got a good overall idea of the YW program. They are sweet girls. Starting a new phase of their lives.

And...HaPpY bIrThDaY to my cute twin nieces Lana and Lissa! They are 12 today. (New Beehives! but not in my ward.)

A Long Sentence of Frustration...

Driving to work and a car or truck or two splash you and then when your windshield wiper fluid decides to freeze on your windshield and then finally it melts and you decide not to use your windshield wiper fluid because you want to be able to see and so then your windshield gets all dirty and you can't see out of it anyway...and you are driving in the dark over partially snowpacked roads over the Point...NOT FUN.

I guess that is what I get for leaving to go to work at 6am.

And by the way, I did try my windshield wiper fluid when I got to work, and it was fine. Oh fine.

Hmmmm.

The Cruise for New Beginnings

So, our YW Cruise for New Beginnings "Enjoy the Journey" happens this next week. I hope the girls will enjoy it...

Here are the tags we will be wearing. The brand new Beehives will get the tags that say "New" Cruise Member. And the rest of the girls will have Cruise Member on their tags. I found these tiny clothes pins at a craft store yesterday. I thought they were so cute. So every badge has a little clothes pin to stick the badge on themselves.

I will first welcome everyone and we will have the opening prayer, theme etc. Then I will explain how the evening will go...that we will all go to each stop on the cruise and learn about each of the values. Our bishop will say a few words of welcome and then we will be off on the "cruise". We will move from the Cultural Hall to the nursery to the RS room to the kitchen and back to the Cultural Hall.

The first stop is Port Faith. (The Laurel president will talk about the YW motto and theme for the year which is the 13th Article of Faith.)

Here (at Divine Nature Bay) the Miamaid president talks about the purpose of mutual activities and then the Beehive president follows her and talks about the importance of camp. And all of the girls introduce themselves.

Here (at the Individual Worth & Knowledge Pier) our personal progress leader is going to talk about personal progress and all that the girls can get out of it to really shape their lives and be the best they can be.

Here (at the Choice & Accountability Spa) the girls and parents of the girls get to select their refreshments and learn about choices. (I know- the towel looks a bit odd. Hey, it took me about 6 hours to make all these posters and lay up the badges etc. ; )

Here (at the Isle of Good Works) the new Beehive girls will be spotlighted (a poster is being made for each new Beehive from questions asked to them and pictures displayed of them) by some of our YW girls.

Then at the end, the girls will be led back to the cultural hall (Club Integrity & Virtue) where our Captain (Bishop) welcomes them back from their journey/ tour. I also say a few words to them too and then we have the closing prayer.

So there it is. It should be a fun evening. (And I couldn't think of anything for the "club" image though I guess I could have shown someone doing yoga.) Ah well. The images are done. Yes! Now to pull off the evening. I think it should go pretty smoothly. (UPDATE-the evening went great! I think the girls had a great time.)

A review from someone who used my files:

Good Morning Lori,

I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for ALL your hard work! For your beautiful idea of the cruise for New Beginnings, it was such a SUCCESS!!! The workshops, the boarding passes, the overall program ideas ALL came together SO BEAUTIFULLY! To see my Young Women prepare and carry through with hosting their workshops. it was AMAZING! I had our Beehives and a few Laurels cover the work shops, they basically explained that particular value and what they were doing in Personal Progress to either have completed it or what they were working to complete it. Lori, the personal testimonies, experiences they all shared- there was not a dry eye in the house including the young women.

Following your ideas, your outline, it was bittersweet last night, I am waiting to see if anyone got pictures because I would love to send them to you, but the name badges, my goodness my HEART was full of so much GRATITUDE. Thank you for letting me use your idea, because it would not have been successful without your ideas.

I have built such a stronger relationship with my girls, especially my Beehives. As a Beehive advisor, it was just a night to remember. I am humbled to be amongst such a great group of girls I love them. To even get feedback from the parents, YM Leaders, and especially our Bishopbric because my brother serves as 2nd counselor in our Bishopbric and oversees our Youth, both himself and our Bishop, they were both so impressed!!

It was a BEAUTIFUL New Beginnings overall, I can't thank you enough! May the Lord continue to bless your beautiful sweet spirit in all that you do!! Thanks again Lori for ALL your help! I love and appreciate you for all that you have done to make my 1st New Beginnings such a SWEET SUCCESS! 

Have a great day!!

-Jennifer

You can purchase it for $5..I have it on my etsy shop.  Www.etsy.com/shop/buttercupsketches

i also have a fun idea for the YW Values on my Etsy shop. Girls' Camp Packets and also YW Birthday cards and welcome cards and congrats on finishing Personal Progress cards. Everything you need as you serve in YW!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Saturday!

Here is a drawing I did for one the YW in my ward. Happy Birthday, Ariana...in a few days.Now to keep working on my lesson for Sunday and signage for New Beginnings.

Just thinking this weekend about my little nephew Wy. What a funny, sweet, and amazing little boy.

And it came to pass...

So tonight I have the Laurels coming to my house for an activity. I found something on the internet about how you should be living if you were to be the wife of a prophet from the scriptures...I think the article was called "So you want to marry Moroni?" Last month, when the girls were at my home, all they did was talk about dating and boys as they worked on their new year's resolution posters...so, I thought, "Okay, it is Valentine's this month...I might as well appease the whims of teen girls and talk about love and the attributes one might want to attain and also if they hopefully do marry." So...I got giant chocolate bars and made a new wrapper. I made the front illustration kind of look like a book to imitate the gold plates (though thinking about it now, I totally forgot the big tall rings that go in the center. oh fine! So I personalized each one by putting in their names. And another thing I forgot...at the back of the wrapper I totally should have listed the ingredients of what makes a good wife/person...that would have been so cool...but instead it is blank and I have printed out the same color of paper with lines for them to write on it as to what attributes they want to attain to be the best person they can be. And then we will tape that list onto the back of their chocolate bar gold plates. So there you go. Oh, I also made up scriptures on the right side. ; ) "And it came to pass that (if) I had lived in the days of the scriptures, that I was a righteous woman and lived a good and worthy life and grew strong in the gospel.

And it came to pass that I married a prophet of God. And he and I worked together to lift up our people. And it was good." (I used Symphony chocolate bars.)

Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is surviving the cold weather! And for those dealing with huge drifts of snow or ice covered power lines and trees, I hope it all calms down soon! We just have the cold. Of which I am so grateful so as to not have to deal with slick road surfaces.

Just wanted to say a couple of things...

Rabbit, rabbit!

And...Happy Ground Hog's Eve to Holly!