Catch-up post #3

Part of the reason why I've not been blogging is we have entered into a SUPER busy time of year for stake youth activities.  It seriously amazes me how much we have going on all at once - but it's also wonderful too.  I adore my calling and I'm trying to savor every moment - even when it exhausts me - because I know it won't be mine forever.

Steve, Gary and Meg setting up before the crowds arrived

We have multi-stake activities throughout the year with three other nearby stakes.  Ours is a "Best of EFY." We have two CES speakers come to town and it's an incredible event.  We average around 450-500 youth and we start with a one hour session for the Deacons and Beehives.  Then we take a break and we feed the speakers and other stake leaders a nice lunch.  

The stake YM and YW presidences were talking about the lunch tables and how we should decorate and during our meeting, I mentioned we could get some pansies to use as centerpieces.  Well, the stake YM presidency didn't love the idea of a pansy on the table so the president offered to make a NW themed table for us.  Well, here is what he came up with:

Darling Rebecca helped set the tables and assemble the centerpieces which was a whole lot of fishing gear.  We laughed a lot when we saw what our stake YM president had come up with for the tables but I loved that the women didn't have to come up with the table decor and it really was a great conversation starter.

Our stake YM president is a great cook and he brings his BBQ up to the church and he made the most incredible salmon and roasted red potatoes.  I made Caesar salad and then an awesome dessert that I found online: chocolate chip lava cookies.  The thing I loved about this recipe is that it was quick (one hour max start to finish), easy, delicious, and very guy-friendly.  I highly recommend you make these sometime.

The lovely ladies I serve with:  Meesa, Meg and Christi

After the lunch, the 14-18 year old youth begin to arrive.  They listened to the first speaker and then we fed all 450+ of them a dinner of pizza, veggies and cookies.  After dinner, they listened to the second speaker and then we host a dance.  I was sick all day with a bad cold so everyone let me take it easy and I got to hang out in coat check most of the night.  

We had a great time and we leaders went home exhausted but it was totally worth it.  We were sad to find out that CES will no longer send us speakers so we have to come up with a new activity for next year (our stake has been doing this for years!) I'm sure we'll figure something out but I'm disappointed that the kids around here who can't afford to go to EFY will no longer be able to hear speakers of that caliber without having to travel or pay a lot of money.

Catch-up post #2

We had a fun open house for Dallin who recently left for his mission in South America. We made tons of good food and a nice crowd showed up to wish an exceptional young man well as he ventures off on this exciting new adventure.  As I mentioned before, I adore this boy (and his entire family) and I'm so proud of him.  

After the open house, I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend his setting apart.  Here's a pic of all of us after Dallin's blessing.  His grandma, seated below, was my "mom" at my first ever youth conference - one of those scary wilderness ones.  I've loved her since I was 14 and it's so great that I've been able to become close to her children and grandchildren too.

I love this family!

Greg, Dallin, Aaron (nice blond hair, no?) and Sterling

Including so you can see my crying eyes AND messed up hair. LOL. But look at Dallin's face - pure joy!

Catch-up post #1

I fell off the blogging wagon - and hard.  So since I know you've all been missing me like crazy, I'll catch you up on what exciting things I've been up to.  

First, I went to my niece Makenna's basketball game.  It was SO fun to watch plus I got to hang out with Jax, Rylee and Carsen too.  This is Makenna's first basketball experience and she's doing great.

Kenna loves basketball - and she wears Jordan's!

Carsen and Jax - they kind of love getting their picture taken.

Rylee = adorable

Kenna and her beloved Justice water bottle

I love that I have family close by and I can go to stuff like this. I also love that I get to see them on Sunday's as our wards overlap.  It's good for my soul to walk by a classroom and get a hug and a kiss from one of these sweet kids.  I love being an auntie!

Fun with the Connell's & the swim team

I was a complete idiot yesterday and totally forgot to go to another ward to hear one of my most favorite young men in the world speak before he leaves for his mission next week.  FYI, I rarely forget important things.  I just don't.  I remember the most ridiculous, trivial minutiae and I forget to go listen to Dallin speak before he leaves for South America for two whole years?  The fact that I forgot something so major just kills me.  Seriously.  I'm still dying about it.

This is Dallin - he is amazing.  And forgiving. I taught him Primary the year he got baptized so we go way back.  And my hair is long - wow.

So when I wrote to his mom, my dear friend Lynda, and apologized for being such an idiot, she did what anyone would do in a situation like this and that is, invite the idiot to dinner.  So of course, I said yes and seriously had the time of my life.

I love this family so much.  We were missing Greg who is away at school and Rachel who is on her own mission far far away but we had the best time tonight.  That's Sterling up above helping John and Lynda fix dinner for us and the missionaries.

This is Aaron.  The girls at church love him. He hugs me a lot so the young women all wish they were me.

Dinner was yummy and then we had a super fun activity - we dyed the hair of the high school boys swim team! They are so awesome and are going to State this weekend and they all wanted to dye their hair blond.

This kid is apparently an incredible swimmer and will probably go to the Olympics in four years.

I am the envy of  nearly every young woman in my stake.

Lynda and me - waiting for the boys to get fully blondified.  Yes, that's a real word.

Some rinsed, some not.

These were really great boys and their hair turned out great.  I'd never dyed anyone's hair before so it was very fun to see it actually worked.  I'm kind of wondering why I pay someone to do mine.

Um, no, not really.

Are you ready for some football?

First, the food turned out great.  I should have taken pictures of it but I'm bad about that.  The peanut butter fingers have been renamed "Peanut Butter Chocolatey Goodness" because a. the other name is dumb and b. who cuts cookies into finger shape anyway??? We also loved the jalapeno popper dip. Yum.

Before the game started, we went outside to play catch. We had really nice weather this weekend - crazy that it was 60 degrees in early February!

I think Cindy is showing Ben how her hands are too small to grip the football.  Possibly.

Ben giving me a target to aim for.  Let's just say, it didn't help.  I have terrible aim.

I was better at catching than throwing. Seriously.  Terrible form! But it was my first time throwing a football! Go, me!

I'd rather pose than pass...thanks.

Lonnie came out to show us how it's done. They were kicking it old school and playing football in the street.

I put my camera away so I missed getting any pics of our friends, the Lyons family, who came over and brought even more yummy food.  I also missed getting a picture of most of us with our electronic devices in front of our faces when we should have been watching the game.

I loved the Jerry Seinfeld/Acura commercial the most (Leno!) and thought the halftime show was one of the best ever.  It was a really fun day - hope yours was too.

Game day snacks

I'll just admit it...I'm going to watch the big game today.  Yes, I'm going to church first but after I'm going to the King's to watch the game on their awesome new TV.  In the spirit of being a good blogger, I thought I'd share with you what I'm making for snacks.  I'm bringing carrots, pita chips and hummus but I'm also making the following:

Jalapeno popper dip from Our Best Bites.  My friend Tricia made this at Christmas time and as soon as I tried it, I knew my friends would like it.  I'm still deciding about the optional addition of bacon.  Yes/no? Oh probably yes.  I've got a couple of baguettes plus some wheat thins for dipping. First time making it...hope it works. 

Bacon wrapped cocktail sausages from Our Best Bites.  Sensing a theme there?  I love their site.  I've made these babies for many parties and they are always a hit.  I have two recommendations when making these: one, always double the recipe because everyone will love them and two, make them in one of those throw-away foil pans.  No matter the amount of Pam you spray or the amount of grease (sick) that comes out of them when baking, the brown sugar caramelizes and becomes like glue and leaves a ginormous mess to try and clean up.  Go with a throw-away pan and you will thank me later.

Finally, I knew I had to make some kind of treat because hello, I'm the girl who likes to bake.  I knew I wanted to make something new because I feel like I'm in a baking rut.  One of my coworkers brought in these bar cookies (my favorite thing to make) a few weeks ago so I'm going to give them a try.  They have a weird name:  peanut butter fingers.  But seriously?  They're awesome.  The picture on the link looks yucky.  If you make them, drizzle the peanut butter instead of spreading.

What kind of fun stuff are you snacking on today?

What I LOVED about my week

It's February so what are we all thinking about?  Oh, you know, LOVE.  So if it wasn't 10 days before V-day, I would add in the things I don't love but I'm trying to keep it positive.  And I didn't take a single picture this week.  How sad is that???

I LOVED going to Ben's basketball games (well, except for the fact that he broke his pinky at practice.)  Ooh but I LOVED getting to spoil him with treats because of said broken finger.

I LOVED having dinner with a new friend, Tamra, an equally fabulous singleton from my stake. The fact that we had Mexican food was also something I LOVED.

I LOVED listening to "One and Only" by Adele on repeat this week.  If I could post a video, I would but for some reason they don't work with my new layout (hmmm) but here's a link. Yes her music is ridiculously overplayed but this song is amazing.

I LOVED going to our second youth dance festival practice and seeing people I LOVE.

I LOVED Skyping on Thursday night with a bunch of people I LOVE but especially with Kim.  I'm not sure why it's taken us this long to Skype since she moved to London last summer.  I cried when I saw her.  But I LOVE that we have been so good about keeping in touch since she left.  We email several times a week and talk on the phone whenever we can too.  I LOVE my beautiful friend.

I LOVED taking Cindy to lunch on Friday to celebrate her last day at work.  She needs a job - anyone know of anything?

Okay, I'm going to wrap up this pretty weak post with my quote of the week.  Let's just say there were many contenders but this one was my most favorite of all.

"Jeanelle, you get more hugs than anyone I know."

This was said by one of the guys in the Stake Presidency at dance festival practice after watching, well, a bunch of people hug me.  Sweet...  Hope your week has been filled with LOVE.