What has been up with us-

Well- lots of hockey.  Duh, right? Last weekend- four games- three losses- and possibly the worst two periods in a game that I have ever seen Middle play. There were even tears involved.  But!!! She rallied and pulled it together and played super tough for the last period and part of the 2nd.  Oldest- meanwhile-had a goal and a great check in his games.

Yesterday, I had my last Activity Day.  We talked about journals and made "Journal Jars" using more of my saved Crystal Light containers ( those things are awesome and so versatile- not to mention *free) and some ideas I found on the internet.  I am being released and given a new calling this Sunday. When the secretary asked if I could meet with the Bishop last Sunday, I said "No, I am wise to him"-  only joking of course.  He set my appointment time for 3:00 (we have 11:00 church now)- but then the Bishop and I were talking in the hall and calling the DR who was on the rough roads home from hockey, and he looked at me and asked if he could visit with me for a minute.  I asked him if this was my 3:00 or for some other purpose.  It was my 3:00-  bonus-  I didn't have to leave to take the patients home and then come back.  Anyway-  the calling I am getting I have had before- and so it is A LOT less intimidating than it would have been.  The Bishop wasn't aware I had ever had it before, it has been 10 years- I was pregnant with Youngest the last time.  Funny- he started out by commenting that I had been in the Primary a long time.  Yeah- I would say that-  Since I turned 18, I have probably spent all but 4-5 years total serving in some capacity in the Primary. I have taught every age but 7- turning 8.  Weird to miss that one.  I have had all the other ages at least twice-

Anyway-  the time had come- as it is really hard for me to do Activity Day in the Winter- I have to squish it in- and usually have girls arriving at my house while I am driving home from the Rink- barely get them out the door in time for a super rushed dinner and getting patients off to Mutual and more hockey.

I will let you know next week what I am going to be up to.

I have also been working out with Bob and Jillian-  and I have to say that the newest DVD I added was the Last Chance Workout- Which I expected to thrash me- but week one workouts haven't been too bad-  a couple of things here and there that I have a harder time with- but on the whole, i am proud of the progress I am making with strength and endurance. 

May 13th will be here before I know it-  I better get cracking on Wedding Details.  I might as well be marrying off a daughter- since we will be having an event in Small Town a couple of weeks later. Off I go.

Activity Day- Tithing

Yesterday, we got back on track with Activity Day. We had only skipped the first day of school- so not too bad. Youngest is in a different group and they haven't done anything in almost two months.

We are down from 19 girls in my group to 11- but most of those are inactive- and we only had two show up. But we talked about tithing, how and why. I used a talk by Elder Holland from 2001- and we discussed his five reasons to pay tithing. Then- I like to have an activity to go with what we talked about so we made Tithing Banks.

I have been collecting the containers that the 2 qt Crystal Light packs come in. When you take off the lable, it is nearly clear and a cute oval shape with a snap on lid. Cutting the hole in the lid was harder than I thought it would be, but it wasn't too bad. Broke the tip off of my x-acto knife :)

I bought scrapbook stickers to decorate them with, and I had been afraid that they wouldn't stick all that well- so I bought clear contact paper- but they stuck great! I let Youngest and Middle both make one since I had plenty of containers.

Sewing Camp- Week Two, Final Day

We started our morning with soccer practice for Oldest at 6:30 am. Then hurried to get ready for the last day of sewing camp and finishing the last of our list of projects. We almost made it, but we had to stop working on Youngest's to get far enough along on Middle's so that we would know what we were doing. I had to make a quick run to get a little more fabric because they didn't allow for the interior pockets in the fabric estimates. They are turning out so darn cute! Middle would make my Grandma F proud with her 4-H sewing- Grandma A would be proud too- but more picky about her sewing perfectly- but either way, they would be thrilled that she can sew so well already. My next chore will be to teach her to use a regular pattern and follow the directions she reads.

Youngest's is the purple/larger print on the left, Middle's is the orange/floral on the right-

We also had a super fun Activity Day. We made hand puppets for the girls' babysitting kits. They had a blast. Middle is the only one with very much sewing experience so that was a little interesting, and I was glad that we had a smaller turnout. I am rather happy to report that I am getting a ton of positive feedback on the activities we have been doing lately. The girls are telling their moms they are having fun, they are going home and making or doing what we made or did at Activity Day. This, of course, is the pay you hope for when serving in callings. And, I am kicking myself because I took absolutely no pictures of the past few activities.

It has been a crazy couple of weeks, and it isn't over yet. We have a soccer tournament out of town this weekend and the temps promise to be rather brutal, for us anyway. I am excited though, because we get to go stay with our good friends and former neighbors in their new house. Drat that they moved!

Too Much Fun!

We had such a fun activity for Activity Day! We are starting to work on learning to be good babysitters. We started out with covering basic good information on what things to know and do. I have handed out questionnaires to several of the young moms in our ward, but since many have not got them back to me yet, we will go over those another time. After we went over some basic rules and ideas, then we had a couple of fun and crazy activities.

I went and bought a package of preemie baby diapers, and gathered up Middle and Youngest's Bitty Baby twins and various diaper changing supplies. I also bought a few bottles of baby food. I was really nice and bought applesauce so it wouldn't be too yucky. We had the girls divide into two teams and pick numbers to see who would be doing what. Two girls each sat down with two of the dolls and then we blindfolded them and they raced to see who could change both babies diapers the best and fastest. It was so funny to watch!

Then came the baby feeding challenge. Two girls wore kitchen towels (not big enough, as it turned out) for bibs and their partners were blindfolded and had to feed them all the food. Lots of laughter and applesauce all over my kitchen. The girls liked it so much, they all wanted a turn, so I had to promise them we would do it again another day. It was funner than I even had hoped it would turn out.