MaeLyn's Musings

Every few years, the Young Women in our ward have a Spaghetti Dinner and Auction as a fund raiser for girls camp. People donate things to be auctioned off, and all the money goes to the girls camp. When I heard they were having the auction this year, I decided to make some amigurumi to donate. I crocheted the animals, then took them to the park for a photo shoot, and then made up little cards for them. It was a fun project and kept me busy. The dragons were definitely my favorites!   Here are samples of some of the cards. The auction was held last Saturday. We were seated at a table in the cultural hall, which had been decorated to resemble the Italian restaurant from "Lady and the Tramp". Hannah and the other young women served salad, spaghetti, and rolls for dinner. A silent auction was held on tables on one side of the room. Later, with our bishop serving as auctioneer, more expensive items were auctioned off to the highest...

Tuesday morning, Hannah stuffed her stuff into the back of a car and then climbed in herself and disappeared. She returned Friday morning with blue hands, and said that she had fun. What was she doing all that time? That is the BIG QUESTION! Girls Camp 2014 Me: So, Hannah, what was the first thing you did when you got to girls camp? Hannah: Um, that depends on where you say that girls camp started because we got to the main, like, area place and then we got lost, cuz the place is really big and complicated and stuff. But the first thing we actually did was eat lunch. Wait, no never mind, it was kind of just lay down because we ate lunch in the car, but the other girls didn't, I guess, so we had to lay down and wait for them. Me: So what did you do after lunch? Hannah: We played red rover and then, um- Peter: How do you play red rover? Hannah: So, like, you have two lines of peoples, and they say, "red rover, red rover, send the potatoes all over", and then if ...

Last night for their Mutual activity, the young men and young women in our ward went to the park near our house to go ice blocking. Hannah and John walked down lugging the ice sleds they made in our freezer along with some old towels. Shortly after they left, I received a series of texts from Steven, who had followed them down: The sprinklers are on at the park! They may have to wait a bit... Oops. Nope, kids going down in the sprinklers anyway. First two down the hill - Hannah and John. Sounds like fun. Just a warning, two kids are going to be completely soaked by the time they come home. Do I need to bring down some towels? They can walk home wet. Whether they will be allowed to come inside is a different matter... We could hose them down if they're muddy. Sounds like fun. Are other kids ice blocking in the sprinklers too? Everyone, yeah. You didn't bring the camera did you? Just the camera on the phone. The sprinklers have stopped now. They got home s...

Last night, I had the privilege of attending our ward's New Beginnings , a meeting to teach young women and their families about the Young Women program. The theme for the night was Dr. Seuss, and the decorations, and the refreshments, and the displays were Dr. Seuss-esque. They turned out really cute. (I'm sure the leaders found the idea on Pinterest somewhere.) Hannah and a friend performed the musical number for the evening, a violin/ viola duet of "A Child's Prayer" which I had arranged for them. If I had known they were only going to have about 1 1/2 hours of practice together, I would have made it a lot simpler for them. As it was, they did fine. Most people in the room weren't very musical and might not have been aware of the times they weren't quite in sync, or weren't hitting quite the right pitch. I admire their bravery in being willing to perform and share their talents. At the end of the evening, the Bishop stood up to speak, and to in...

Last night was Hannah's Young Women in Excellence celebration, where the young women got to show off the goals and projects that they have been working on for Personal Progress during the year. Hannah had decided she wanted to perform a viola-piano duet that I arranged over the summer. (see the next-to-last bullet here ). We were almost to the church before she realized that she had forgotten her viola at home! So, I dropped her off, along with the Steven and the boys, who had scouts, and I rushed home for the viola. I returned just in time for us to perform. The performance went well. After all the performances and presentations (we were next to last, so not long after I got there), we watched a slide show of pictures taken during the various activities and camp outs the girls have participated in through the year, and then some awards were handed out. Hannah received a certificate for graduating from Beehives (i.e. turning 14). She also received a large photo of the Denver tem...

Last week, the young women in our ward had their Night of Excellence, a chance for them to show off the projects they have been working on throughout the year. The theme for the evening was lighthouses. Hannah shared the washcloths that she has been working on knitting. Other girls sang, played piano, learned to bake treats, did family history indexing, and submitted applications for college. Earlier that day, Steven and I attended an awards ceremony where Hannah received an award for achieving a 4.0 GPA for her first trimester this school year. Way to go, Hannah!