Grandmas like messes

I am really glad Grandmas have learned over their many years of child rearing wisdom that sugar cookie messes aren't the end of the world. Especially at a high stress time like Christmas Eve.

It was about all I could take to actually make the cookies the night before! EVERYONE had to be right under foot to help. Including my furry child who never leaves my side. {Note to self: if you don't want puppies - or children for that matter - to form a freakishly strong attachment to you, don't feed them} I drew the line at frosting and decorating... luckily bedtime gave me a perfect excuse to avoid that part. But Jeff's mom is a much better sport about this kind of thing. And I'm glad she started the tradition of decorating cookies for Santa for my kids, even if it comes with a huge mess!

The cookies worked. Santa found us!

Deuce

Oh if you aren't familiar with the hilarity of Juanito Bandito from Pickleville Playhouse, you are missing out. Seriously missing out. Like missing out on pee your pants funny!

I convinced "the girls" (current and former coworkers of Jeff's) to go to Christmas with Juanito Bandito for our Girls Night Out in December. I've tried for the last couple of years but it never worked out. The show traveled to Salt Lake for a week and I was not missing out again.

Pearl was very jealous I opted to take Jeff on my date instead of her. Even the kids know how funny the shows are. And she was really jealous when I came home wearing a new mustache scarf from #themustachestore. Boom.

My favorite parts of the show were the song "I don't like Christmas" and the finale number "Thrift Store Shopping." Awesome. Oh how I wish you could have been there with me. 

After the show, I waited in line to get my picture with Juanito himself. I actually know Juanito. We went to high school together and his lovely wife was a star volleyball player at USU and in some of my health education classes. So it makes the show even that much more fun for me. Jeff said we needed to line up in order of tallest to shortest. And then something about throwing a deuce for the picture (apparently I missed the memo on looking tough and Juanito Bandito-ish) which quickly erupted into a miscommunication by Juanito.... dropping a deuce instead. 

Oh the hilarity! Best date night/GNO in a looong time!

Sweet Reminder

Our Young Women group was assigned to go to our neighborhood assisted care facility and put on a Family Home Evening program.

Telling a bunch of teenagers that we're going to visit the "old" and disabled people was, as you can imagine, met with moans of enthusiasm.

I'll admit, it is a bit uncomfortable going there. Unless you interact with individuals who have, sometimes severe mental and physical disabilities, you just aren't sure how to talk to some of the residents. But as I sat there and watched our Young Women play Christmas songs on the piano, read a Christmas story, and sing carols, I was truly touched. There was a sweet spirit in the room.

When the assigned member of the Stake who is over the center got up and asked a few of us to share a favorite Christmas memory, I nearly lost it. Today, December 17th, would have been my Grandma Jewkes' 80th birthday. She passed away unexpectedly on December 20th... 10 years ago this year. I knew the day was coming and I'd been kind of emotional all week thinking about her. Christmas was really hard that year. Growing up all of my Christmas memories revolved around my Grandma Jewkes. Even though we lived 10 minutes away, we spent all of Christmas break at my Grandparent's house. We had the same breakfast casserole on Christmas morning, the same Christmas dinner with "little chickens" (aka, Cornish game hens), fun, laughter, games, a ridiculous spoiling with presents, stockings handmade by my Grandma, and an entire table dedicated to nothing but Christmas treats and sweets. 

I miss her a lot. 

I couldn't help but stare at this beautiful lady. She was just smiling at us. And she had a fashion magazine with her! I loved it... such spunk that must be in her 93-year-old body to bring her fashionista reading with her to FHE!

I went up to her after we were finished and told her how beautiful I thought she was and how much she reminded me of my Grandma Great. She told me how much she loved hearing the piano because she couldn't play it anymore and that she had been a piano teacher. Her mother was an incredible musician and she remembered her mom playing and teaching her how to play the piano as a child. I had to hold back the tears as I sat with her, especially after reminiscing about my Grandma and other loved ones who aren't here with me anymore. It was a privilege to meet her. This image means a lot to me. 

I may not know who this lady is, but my Heavenly Father does. He loves her. 

And He loves me too.

Cheer Clinic Bad Luck

Pearl looks forward to the USU Cheer Clinic every year.

And every year she gets sick. {Same with my niece Ruby... whom we pay give the clinic to her for her birthday every year}

Last year, when I went to wake her up to go, the room smelled funny. When I looked at her closer, I could see barf in her hair and on her pajamas. Sweet. But that little pipsqueak cried and begged us to take her. So we did. She made it through the clinic, had a nap, and then performed at the game. Granted she didn't feel too good but nothing was going to stop her.

This year was a little different. She woke up and said she was ok to go. Just before we left she said her stomach hurt again but she wanted to try and make it. About 45 minutes into the clinic I walked over to check on her and she said she wanted to go home. That's when I knew something was wrong. She's a pretty tough cookie. I took her to the nearest Instacare thinking that maybe she had a bladder infection. It may be TMI but I used to get bladder infections a lot when I was her age and her symptoms were just how I remembered them.

Luckily we were the only ones in the Instacare so we didn't have to wait long. They ruled out strep throat and a bladder infection. But the way she was wincing when the doctor poked her stomach made them worry she might have appendicitis. She had a lot of the same symptoms. So they said they needed to do a blood test.

That did NOT go down well with Pearl. She is terrified and I mean TERRIFIED of needles. It didn't help that I had told her she wouldn't need a shot either. When that poor phlebotomist came in and Pearl saw her box of supplies she FREAKED out! Screaming and crying! The nurse who was helping figured I was one of those moms who was going to be as upset as her child. Nope. I'm heartless. And a new favorite of that nurse. I practically laid on top of Pearl and told the phlebotomist to just "stick her." I'm not sure Pearl will ever forgive me but that nurse told me after, "I like you... you're kinda mean like me." With a wink.

A pink bandage and Popsicle later and Pearl had stopped crying. The blood tests showed she had a high white blood cell count so something was bugging her. With those results, the doctor told us to go up to the hospital and have an ultrasound to rule out her appendix. Not the diagnosis I wanted to hear. Jeff met us at the hospital and we checked in. And waited. And waited. And waited. For three hours. To say Jeff was less than pleased would be an understatement.

And the diagnosis after that wait (and bill)? Nada. Nothing. Healthy appendix.

Apparently Pearl is fairly healthy. The nasty viruses going around haven't taken full effect on her like most of the other kids the doctors have seen. It's just going to be a slow, long drawn out off and on again sick.

Which means what? We were at the game. Cole could have cared less about how his sister was feeling. He was so pumped to be in the Spectrum, doing the Scotsman, and finding Grandpa to sucker some popcorn out of. 

He was pretty happy Uncle Kurtis was there too. They make for good company.

Pearl did a great job dancing, especially since she didn't know any of the routine. She's standing in the middle of the "U state." 

Hopefully next year, we avoid the sickies. Otherwise Pearl's cheer leading career is over.

Paint Your World in Personal Progress

"Many ordinary, individual brushstrokes work together to create a
captivating and beautiful painting."
Elder David A. Bednar 

 

My role in our Young Women presidency - besides being the crier in my Sunday lessons - is to come up with the ideas for the "big" events each year like YW in Excellence and New Beginnings. We'd been chastised a bit from the Stake for not being better examples of doing Personal Progress. And I'd been trying to encourage my other leaders to plan at least one activity each month that directly tied to a value activity the girls are supposed to do. But sometimes my ideas don't get executed the way I'd envisioned. Hmmm... that seems in all aspects of my life.

So in my searching for some inspiration, I stumbled across this blog post. Thank heavens for naturally creative women in this world! Because they sure help out us women whose motto is "steal, steal, steal and give credit where credit is due!" I thought her decorations were so cute!  I had a grander vision for the decorations {even a little painting project that night} but after a crazy work schedule, kids, dog, and a hungry husband, I just couldn't do it. I event took the entire day off to get everything ready for the evening. Oh well. Throw a bunch of paint brushes, paint packs, paint cans, and paint chips around and the girls got the idea.

I also found an article called, "Five Reasons to Love Personal Progress" by Jan Pinborough. I really liked the article so I decided to mush the two ideas together. Each of the leaders divided out the five reasons and shared with the girls what they were and if we had any personal insight to add to the article. The girls sang a song we'd been practicing for weeks. And our Secretary put together a slideshow of pictures from all of our activities from the year. It made me tear up... I love the Young Women's program!

Check out these super cute programs! You pulled on the paintbrush to see the program. Loved them!

Each of the girls had a display in our art gallery. It was really amazing to see all of their talents! And I think they were pretty excited to FINALLY see the pictures I took of them during one of my lessons months ago. {The lesson was on using good language and I was supposed to emphasize not taking the name of the Lord in vain and using clean, good language. But I just kept thinking that the girls already know that...they needed to be reminded that if they aren't speaking kind, clean, and good words about themselves, it doesn't really matter what actually comes out of their mouths. So I spent the entire lesson, having each girl stand with her back to the chalkboard while the rest of us wrote something we loved or admired about her on the chalkboard. Then they turned around and read what their friends, peers, and leaders had written about them. It was pretty amazing to see their smiles!}

Miss Hannah. She is very artistic. She takes her favorite song lyrics and transposes them onto canvas. Love this idea!

Ashlee. I had a few of these girls in Primary - including Ashlee - and to see how much they've grown up and accomplished is just super awesome! Ashlee was so incredibly shy, she would cry in class when I asked her to read a scripture or do anything. And now she's playing her violin in front of everyone and bearing her testimony in sacrament meeting. She is a beautiful girl.

Love Kristen. I think she is just stunning. 

Sassy Brittany. This girl! She is such a good girl, but has a definite streak of sass in her.

Sam. She reminds me of another ridiculously studious teenager... myself. I keep telling her to remember to have some fun in between studying.

Miss Sarah who is always so observant of everyone around her and makes sure to compliment you. She makes me feel like I might not be hopelessly frumpy... yet. And she sewed that cute sock monkey!

And Jade. Jade isn't LDS and has an incredibly difficult home life. She's technically not in YW anymore because she is 19 but we keep dragging her back because she is just awesome! Plus, she will take home all of our leftover treats which saves me on the calories. 

Teenagers are pretty amazing {and they keep this old lady young}, really!

And then the highlight! Dessert! The girls were so impressed by my ability to poke sticks into pre-made Rice Krispie treats and then dip them in candy coating. Our girls aren't big treats fans so we went kind of light, with Rice Krispie paint brushes, fresh fruit, and water. It was simple and delicious. A perfect end to a fun, exhausting, humbling evening. I hope I never get sent back to Relief Society!

For a little gift to remember the evening, the girls got to take home their framed chalkboard art, a pack of paints, and then this super cool swirly image to paint in the value colors.

This swirl was the inspiration I found and begged our Secretary to re-create.

Huge shout out to our Secretary, Sariah over at motherhoodtrade.com, and her mad graphic design skills for making my vision of the girls' chalkboard art, programs, and swirly value paintings amazing!