Saying Goodbye to Young Women

On Sunday, January 3, I was released from my calling as the Young Women 1st Counselor. I wasn't ready for that, and I'm not sure how long it will take not to miss the young women of our ward. The tender mercy in it all (as opposed to being released from the Primary Presidency several years ago via text while I was out of town) was that 1) Sunday was my day to teach the combined lesson 2) I was asked to go with the girls to the temple baptisms a couple of days later, and 3) I was able to complete the birthday gifts for all the girls for the coming year. I saw the gift that these things were. Although I will miss being in the organization with my daughters, I know it's a good thing for daughters to grow with other female role models in their lives. I had that opportunity growing up, and I'm happy that my girls will get to know some great YW leaders during their time in YW.

YW - Roger's Gardens

We took the Young Women to Roger's Gardens tonight to see the lights. The store was beautiful as well with lots of old books around the store. We went from there to the Newport Beach Temple to see the creche, but it was dark when we got there. We parked across the street at the church parking lot to enjoy hot cocoa, cookies and a spiritual message about the Savior's birth. We found out later that one of our Beehives, Camilla, was really excited about the experience and told her mom that she wanted to take their whole family back to see Roger's Gardens. It's nice to know that at least a few of the girls had a great experience.

YW Halloween Party

Jenna and Sarah suggested we do a Holbrook/Peterson style Halloween party for our combined Young Women night. The girls had fun eating donuts on a string, bobbing for apples, learning to make some fun treats (carmel sauce taught by Sister Koch), and playing musical chairs.  Jenna and Heather were the sole survivors during one game and fought to the death over the chair.  We have a few competitive girls as evidenced by two broken patio chairs (they were brittle from the sun). It was fun to share out fun Halloween party traditions with the girls.

Unfortunate Events, Blessings and Amazing Women

 Driving home from Jenna's school today when I heard a thud and knew something was wrong. Luckily I was in the right lane and could pull in the Taco Bell right next to our house. Michelle came to wait with me for the Auto Club to come change the tire, and good thing! She drove me to Home Depot when the AAA guy told me I needed bolt cutters to cut the chain off the spar tire. She was a saint and so amazing to help me out. Kelly arrived shortly after to rescue me (I was walking distance from the house, but I didn't know how badly the tire or truck underbelly was damaged), and he finally got the chain off about the time the 2nd AAA guy showed up. The second guy was much more efficient and got it changed for us. No damage to the truck. The tires were fairly new so we only had to replace the spare, another tender mercy. This was such a bummer, but the hand of the Lord was everywhere today with my friend available to my husband able to leave work.

Later that night at YW, we had a great panel of women come and speak about their careers and schooling necessary to get there. We had nurses, physical therapists, marketing directors, a teacher and even a rocket scientist! These ladies were amazing! And I think the girls gleaned a lot. Jenna wasn't able to get there until the last bit, but that's when our engineer/rocket scientist spoke. So awesome to have a female math whiz talk about her skills. The ladies were all very impressive.

Cake and Pies

Today is my birthday! Tammy bought me this GORGEOUS cake that tasted as good as it looks! Chocolate cake, chocolate raspberry filling and chocolate ganache holding the thin slabs of chocolate to the sites.  Oh heavens it was yummy!

The YW activity for the evening was having Sister King teach us about pie making. And of course there was pie tasting. So fun to be in her home and learn about her passion for pies.

Positive Messages Activity

Our Young Women created positive messages to place on cars at the temple tonight. We got some great feed back from friends of friends who came out and found the notes on their cards. Made a few people very happy. That's what it's all about!

Awesome Youth Activities

We had some great youth activities this month! Our Mia Maid class put together May-Day cones and hung them from neighbors' doors in their individual neighborhoods. This is an old tradition that was fun to share with the girls. All our girls were involved with a pizza making fundraiser in partnership with Sam's Club. We made several pizzas and raised lots of money for the girls' camp accounts. And finally, the Stake did a Color Run for the youth. It was messy, but oh so fun. Heather had to be careful with her heart rate, but she still gave it a shot. The youth love spending time together, and it was a successful activity.

Meaningful Youth Activity

One of the most meaningful Young Women activities happened this evening. With the focus of gratitude, we showed the girls a video interview from years ago of a high school senior who had been born with no arms. The story explained how she had adapted to everyday life with not having arms. Because she was born without them, she never missed them. She had been determined since she was young to do anything and everything she wanted. She was even a cheerleader! The girls watched her do things with her feet such as pull a bowl from a cupboard and pour cereal and milk for herself, eat dinner with a fork, do homework and classwork, put make up on and even put in contacts! After the video, we had some stations set up for the girls so they could experience what it would be like to have no arms. We had them eat brownie bites with a fork, pour cereal in a bowl, write on a white board and then write on a table top.  We had a block tower for them to build and we played a game of catch with our feet. I'm not sure how meaningful it was for the young women, but I will never forget the experience of learning about this girl and how she overcame the challenge she was born with. Oh, and her boyfriend that took her to the senior prom was the cutest!

Heatwave and Temple Trip

The heatwave has FINALLY caused our Plumeria bush to bloom. It only blooms in the heat, and so far the summer hasn't gotten quite balmy enough to cause the bloom. It's nice to see the flowers although I wish they had come in the summertime. We took the Young Women to the temple tonight to do baptisms. Always a great time.

YW Speed Dating Style Questions

Great Young Women activity tonight!  With a newly combined ward, we needed to mingle and get to know one another.  I pulled questions from some different get-to-know you activities on Pinterest, clipped them in to strips, and set up tables and chairs speed-dating style.  We ran a question and answer activity switching every 2 minutes until the girls had had a chance to meet most everyone and talk with them.  Cell phones were put to the side to allow for maximum interaction.  After this activity, we had the girls take turns sitting in the "hot seat" while the other girls wrote positive messages on sticky notes and placed those on the girl's picture right behind her.  The girls got to take the pictures home with all the nice notes on them.  This was a really fun night, and a lot of the girls commented on how much fun they had.

Get Air!

We had a great night at Get Air in Huntington Beach.  The Stake put on a Mutual night for this 5th Wednesday, and it was a huge success!

Personal Progress Night

My first Personal Progress Night as a new leader.  We went with "Polka Dots and Personal Progress" for our theme.  Nothing to the title except we gave a prize if the girls wore anything that started with a P--polka dots, pink, patterns, purple, periwinkle, ponytails, pumps, etc.  The leaders got into it, and some of the girls did too.  Just makes the evening more fun, right?

We did stations, pictured above, with the objective of being able to meet with each of the girls and get them registered for PP on-line as well as providing some fun and bonding for the evening.

1)  Caroline, me and Lucy in our garb
2)  Personal Progress station - lap tops for on-line check-in
3/4)  Personality Profile - the girls answered questions on a survey
5)  Prattle Practice - Sister Koch led the girls in a discussion using the "Would You Rather" game questions
6)  Palatable Pleasures - all treats started with the letter P!
7)  As we enjoyed our treats we also mixed up the personality profiles and let each girl read one off while the group tried to guess who the person was.  The best discovery of the night was that Sister Pierce is expecting!  We found out when she answered "Something nobody knows about me"with that news.  Yay!