Holiday Ball

Jared's work has an option where every paycheck, he gives up a little bit of money to participate in a group as part of his work that host fun activities throughout the year for little to no money. Every year, they have a holiday ball and the option to stay at the hotel for a discount. It's how we did the cruise two years ago.

Anyways, after last years ball, there was a lot of discussion about how disappointed people were with the photographer at the event. We had offered to do it but were turned down. Well, this year, they took our offer seriously and we agreed to take the job.

The original plan was that we would do the whole thing for $1000 and give each patron a photo print of choice. Right before the event, we got mixed signals and realized, we weren't going to be paid the original amount and that we were expected to sell a la cart. We were ticked off because we do not have a merchant account so we decided to go into it hoping for the best and worked it that we would hand out business cards there and let them choose what they want and order online.

We had troubles finding a babysitter for the night. No one could watch the kids and all of a sudden, Jared's parents rearranged to be able to at their own desire. I also had the brilliant idea that I was going to wear my new red blouse to the party, but needed a formal black skirt to go with it. I decided in a crazy psychotic moment that I wouldn't find the right one in time so I decided a couple days prior to make my own skirt from a pattern I liked.

I picked up the fabric and the day before, I started to cut, mark and sew my skirt. To make a long story short, I stayed up until midnight to complete the bulk of it and then the night of the ball, finished hemming it an hour prior. I was so proud of myself and loved the look and feel of it. All of you and the ward could probably tell since I wore it several weeks in a row to church ;0)

I had a lot of fun taking pictures and eating the good food that night. I was super tired and kind of ticked off that we decided to leave before getting a chance to slow dance with my hubby, but it was a fantastic date night for the both of us to do what we like to do and have fun together.

P.S. We only made just under $300 in sales for the night and it was depressing. We definitely learned a lot from the gig and would do things a lot differently and demand payment if we ever did it again.

This is me posing while testing lighting and background

Scouting For Food Mess

Upfront, I just want to state that I am fine organizing things and putting events together, but when a wrench gets caught in my plans, I tend to have a kanipchen that leads to ulcers, stress or something else in my mind.

Every November, the scouts do Scouting for Food and different packs and troops claim areas of the city and deliver and pick up bags of donated food to deliver to Smith's for the food drive. I was already concentrating on doing the recharter before deadline and the scouts decided to put this in the middle of it as well.

I had things all figured out until the Sunday before Wednesday when we had planned on distributing the bags in our area. That Sunday, I received a phone call from the counselor of the primary over me in our church and she informed me that since there was a primary activity on Wednesday and next week is Thanksgiving, we should cancel the den meetings for both weeks. I immediately spazzed out and informed her that we were planning on doing our scouting for food drop off that night. She asked if we could move it so I had to start making A LOT of phone calls to see who of the boys as well as the leaders, could make this change in schedule to help out. I had the boys meet at my house since I had my kids and no husband until a little later. I managed to have 4 leaders and a parent around to help with our boys. The parent took his own boy and covered their neighborhood and the other two groups split up to cover the rest of the neighborhoods assigned. They met back at my house for pick up and brownies.

Among all that, my kids were cranking due to poor naps and hadn't eaten yet because of my lack of preparation to feed my kids among the chaos. I had Jared bring Little Ceasers home for us since I couldn't come up with a solution. All in all, I survived Tuesday night with part of my sanity in tact. On Saturday, during lunch, we scheduled to pick up all the bags left out by the doorsteps. I was kind of concerned since I hadn't heard from a leader or two whether they could help or not so I kept hoping everything would turn out fine since leaders were calling and saying they couldn't help out any more.

I had the boys meet next door at one of the leaders house's and after waiting a little with only three leaders, I was in a bind because Scouts requires two deep leadership with boys so we didn't have the numbers to split into two groups. I ended up asking if they one wife would join his husband and she agreed and I felt relieved. Everything worked out in the end and it made me happy, but YEESH people. No more surprises!

Christmas Enrichment

For those of you who don't know, our church does a thing called Enrichment (now called Relief Society classes or nights) once every 3 months or so. It's where members of the relief society, or women in our ward, get together and learn or do something. It being Christmas, we ended up rotating houses for our activities. The first house was appetizers and mingling. The second house, we learned how to make soda candy and peppermint bark which was awesome and then the third house, we had a service project, crafts and desserts. I made a lemon meringue pie but ended up bringing the whole thing home for one of two reasons that I can gather. The first being that there was no knife to cut pieces so there for, no one took any, or it just looked that hideous and gross, that no one dared to try it. Oh well. More for me.

I ended up signing up for two crafts and decided to just bring them home to finish since it was getting so late anyways. I made a tile quote that said, "Christ is the center of our home, a guest at every meal, and a silent listener to every conversation. " and a plate that said "Santa, I can explain!" on it. I look forward to having these fun new additions to my house and decor for holidays or not.

I also helped with the service project by coloring some pages for books about stories in our scriptures. That was fun to do as well.

Pack Meeting Chaos

December's Pack Meeting turned out to be real chaos. I had been asked by the Relief Society president of our ward, to move the night we had it so that all women involved in cub scouts be it a calling or a child's mom, could participate in their Christmas Enrichment night festivities. I decided to be flexible and so I moved nights to the night before instead at the same time, but at a mom's home. Everything seemed fine until I started getting emails and calls saying that leaders wouldn't be able to make it. Then I started spa-zing but pulled it together because I knew I at least had two leaders and a cub master coming. A little before the meeting took place, I found out that the cub master couldn't get off work along with a den leader not being able to come. This left me with the task of planning and MC-ing the whole night. On top of that, I had all three kids with me because Jared was at a meeting.

I had planned to arrive early to set up and stuff, but we didn't make it all out the door fed and ready to go until about 5 minutes til. There goes my early set up. When we got there, my two older kids immediately started running around, exploring their new surroundings and yelling. I was busy trying to get things ready so I didn't stop them right away. I tend to get stressed out in these situations. The other two moms there tried to help me set up and get ready what I had brought with me as I kept finding things missing and activities needing to be crossed out due to lack of time and materials. Hadley kept trying to play with all of the musical instruments around the house and not very gently, I might interject. I at least tried to keep her from doing any damage to those amongst the hustle and bustle. Both my kids also attempted to let the family dogs back in the house as well.

We didn't start until like 20-30 minutes passed start and when we did, Addison was screaming and my kids wouldn't sit still. So...I tried to conduct things around their active movements. I welcomed the newest wolf in to the Pack and we made self-portraits of ourselves for people to guess out of watercolors. We played find the christmas decorations around the room that each had a point given to them to see without knowing, who collected the most points. We handed out achievements and we had a skit and we decorated/ate cookies. All in all, I think the boys had fun despite the chaos which was important and even though it was a nightmare for me and I didn't get things all done as planned, the important thing is that I survived to plan another day. PHEW!

Black Friday Success

I forced my sister to help me out while she was visiting. I had a couple things I was aiming to get this Black Friday and needed her help if I was going to be successful in a short amount of time.

We left our house at 5 in the morning and headed over to Joann Fabrics so I could get snuggle flannel for $1.50 a yard and fleece for $2.99 a yard. While waiting in line, I decided I had time to do a run into Babies R'Uz real quick. I had my sister stand in line while I went in and got wet wipe boxes for $5 a piece (usually they have diapers for $10 too but not this year :0( oh well). On my way to the checkout, I passed the clearance racks for clothes and read a nifty sign that said and additional 50% off already marked prices. I was hooked. I quickly scanned through and took cute items that were $4 and under originally and a couple $8 and $10 items. I made a steal, I feel.

I brought that stuff to the car and joined my sister back in line. The doors opened and we decided to forgo a cart since it slows you down and went straight to flannel. I pulled a couple cute things and gave them to my sister and told her to go pull a number and if it's called by the time I get back with fleece, to start getting so many yards of the top 3. I made it back in time and then we ended up getting an earlier number from a husband whose wife wasn't ready to cut yet. Score for us! Once we were done, we headed over to Old Navy to get my kids winter coats for $15 a piece. By 7:30, we were out the door and driving home. I was so impressed with myself for getting everything done in 2 1/2 hours. I couldn't have done it without my sister. I owe her big time!

Gobble Til You Wobble!

I love Thanksgiving and all of it's glorious food. In the past, we have gone up to Jared's grandparents for the holidays, but last year we had it at Jared's family's house.

This year, I wanted my sister to come down again and with her, I thought it'd be fun to invite my brothers from another mother over as well. It was looking pretty grim that the brothers could make it due to old plans already set. I got a call though the week before saying that things have changed and they would love to come join us for Thanksgiving along with a significant other for one of them. I was so excited because I thought it'd be a lot of fun seeing everyone and hanging out. I didn't want to intrude on Jared's mom with all of those extra bodies so I decided to have a home Thanksgiving this year.

To maintain my sanity, I made a list of all of the food I was planning on cooking and just kept checking things off my list as I went. I made a pumpkin and lemon merangue pie the night before. Thanksgiving morning, I put the turkey in and made a chocolate mousse pie (Thanks Keyonna, it was amazing!). I then went through the rest of the steps. One of my "brothers," Jason, told me he was amazed at how calm I was acting. I told him it was because of my list.

The turkey ended up being awesome. It practically "fell" off the turkey in whole breast chunks which made Jared's job of carving it pretty easy. I was a bit disappointed in my brothers though. I thought for sure between them, my husband and his cousin, that we wouldn't end up with a whole lot left for left-overs. Boy was I wrong.

Other food involved was raspberry jello, salad, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade stuffing, Rhodes rolls and rice. I was so stuffed! I had so much fun though and the kids loved the extra love and attention. My other "brother," Brent, and his "friend" helped out with clearing and loading dishes which was greatly appreciated. It was so good to see them again and I had fun eating, talking and playing games with them.

Brent and Jenny

Recharter Shuffle

For Cub Scouts, once a year, the chair person is in charge of rechartering for their group. Our recharter deadline was coming up and I found the process pretty easy. I tried to get as many people as possible to be done their training so we could receive the discount again this next year. The only snag was that I found out that the boys leaving cubs to the troop level and their leaders, weren't included on the recharter for the troop. Feeling bad, I decided to make my life busier by collecting the applications with signatures needed to give to the troop so the boys and their leaders wouldn't get lost. It was a huge headache, but I was glad everything got worked out alright. I now feel very comfortable with the whole process and know what to look out for the coming years.

Leader Specific...Check

Since I started being involved with the Cub Scouts as Chairperson for my calling in church, I have gotten a little busier. The position like all other scout positions, requires training. I finished all of my online training pretty quick, but I still had to go to a physical class for leader specific that was 3 hours long. A last minute training session came up and I decided to take advantage of it. It went from 6-9 at night and I am so glad I got it done and over with. Now, I just have to go to the second hour and a half if I ever change my position to something else. Phew! Now I can get a patch in the mail that says TRAINED on it to put on my uniform.

250 lbs of Wheat!

Since the price of bulk wheat had gone down at the bishop's storehouse, I decided to take advantage of it. I occasionally went down there and picked up bulk bags of red and white wheat for the passed couple months. I finally found out that a ward member was going to have the stake sealer and canner at her house and I got excited to finally get to mylar bagging it all. WIth her help, I went over one day and bagged all 250 lbs. of our wheat for storage thanks to her help. I feel so much better and look forward to next time as well. Thanks Michelle!

Groceries & Menus

We had a class for Relief Society last month called Groceries and Menus. I was asked to talk about my methods for running my groceries and meal plans in my house along with three other women in the ward. I showed everybody my first version pre-picking kid planning. I had a whole lot more variety and a bigger plan set up. Here is a picture of it.

After my kids got pickier on what they eat, I had to revamp my thinking and it resulted in this. I call it "Mom's Menu 2.0."

I made this little beauty recently. I took a sheet of metal and put electrical tape around the edges so I wouldn't hurt myself. I might make it cute with ribbon one of these days. Then, I made labels for days and weeks with scrapbook paper and laminated them. I also made magnetic color coded meals to put on and arrange however, for my 3 or 4 week meal plan for the upcoming month or so.

I am so happy with it. It has been my piece of mind and makes my life a whole lot more simpler. Of course, almost all meals on said version are what I know my kids have eaten or will eat for the most part. Less of a headache for my husband and I at dinner time :0)

I remember my father-in-law seeing my first version and telling me I should sell this method to other women out there. I sure you can make money off of it some how. I'm happy to inform people that my husband is working on an application for this very purpose on the IPhone that blends in your recipes as well as an editable shopping list to cross check with your pantry. It'll be fabulous and we hope to have it done in the months to come.

I told everyone I planned out my meals as follows. Once a week, I make bread for our family. I make a batch of 4 loaves, but use one loaf of dough for a dinner such as pizza, calzones, chicken pillows or navajo tacos. Every Tuesday night is "Taco Tuesday." I got this idea from my mother-in-law. We always have some form of Mexican that night. The rest, I rotate between chicken, pork, steak, beef and miscellaneous meats and meals. This way, I can rotate through my meat source and have enough variety to not get bored or sick of one thing or the other. There were handouts for the night as well and I even learned some new things. Let me know if anyone wants the handouts and I can email them to you. Happy planning!

Trunk-or-Treat or Trick-or-Treat

We carved pumpkins on Halloween which turned out to be fun. Daddy did his own pumpkin, Hayden drew this face for his and Hadley drew marker on hers. I finally carved one of my artificial pumpkins as well. I thought it turned out pretty cute. Here is a picture of them a day or two after Halloween since I wasn't on top of taking pictures day of. Jared's pumpkin's mouth had WWWW across it. Kinda funny.

We had the trunk-or-treat and I think we planned things out pretty good. I fed the kids in advance so we wouldn't have to try and feed them there. It was a good thing too because it was freezing cold out. We got a parking spot in the lot and then went around trunk-or-treating with the kids. Hayden was Anakin Skywalker and Hadley was Snow White. Addison was a Pumpkin, but her hat didn't fit her. Hayden didn't want to be Anakin Skywalker. He was upset because he wanted to be Luke Skywalker. I told him this was the one he pointed to and so this is what he was going to be. To make him happy, we gave him a Darth Vader beanie to wear and glove and then he finally thought it was a cool costume. The sad thing is that the costume I made Hadley, I didn't hem enough and so by the end of the night, Hadley's dress on the bottom was black. You can see in the picture. Very sad.

I promise to take better pictures of them in their costumes and post those after the fact obviously.

Anakin and Snow White (unaltered dress)

My little pumpkin!

GORILLA!

The school had a fundraiser and the principal said that if the kids reached their goal for sales, he would dress up in a gorilla suit and stay on top of the school throughout the day.

Apparently, it was a good enough incentive because here is their reward the day of their Halloween parties. Each class took a turn throughout the day, visiting the gorilla outside. He read them stories and handed out bananas. I was there taking pictures for the yearbook. I originally thought, he was going to be throwing the bananas down to the kids from the roof. Instead, there was a box on the ground that the kids picked out of. Oh well. It was still pretty fun to witness.

The only downside to this whole experience was that when I got to my car to leave and bring Addison to her doctor's appointment, I was rolling out of the parking lot and heard a thumping sound. I pulled into a spot before leaving the parking lot entirely and saw that my right back tire was flat all the way down to the rim. Bummer!

I called Jared after I found where I had left my phone and he told me to pump it up and bring it home so I could take Addison to her appointment with his car and get a friend to bring Hayden home from school. All I can say is that I am grateful for having a pump in my car. I am also grateful for all that people did to help out, especially my husband. I love you! It turns out that the tire had a screw stuck in it and the front right also had a tear in it as well. New tire on the back and a patch in the front for me.