Monday, November 14, 2016

YW in Excellence Night!

For the past several weeks, preparing for our Ward Young Women in Excellence has been my every other thought. Our president, Kelli, calls me the Event Coordinator of YW and, for that, I am thankful!Assignments were made and I'd already started buying and making things for the decor and for the girls weeks ago, but the actual talk that I would give did not really fall into place until a personal experience really touched my hear recently. Instantly, I knew what needed to be said!

I love how the Spirit works that way!  We never know why we don't get the answers we are praying for when we are praying for them.  Then, when we do, we totally understand that "this had to happen for that to happen...."  I call that a tender mercy, a reminder that Heavenly Father was "lining things up" for me all along!  Thankfully, that happens a lot in my life!  I think that's part of my life lesson on patience that, hopefully, by the time I'm dead, I will have learned!  (Wink-wink!)

Anywaaaaaay.....

The evening went so well.  Our attendance was a little disappointing, as we had a few girls with legitimate excuses for not being there, but, I was hoping for them all to come and share in the experience!

Anyway, here are a few pix of the night.

I picked up the fun pinwheels in SLC on my last "playdate" with friend Marilyn.  I'm so happy that we found them!


Here's me, trying to take a picture and touching the wrong button.  I take so many ugly photos of myself while trying take photos of something cool!  ha!


Blogspot uploaded them backwards, but I'm just going to leave them in this order.  

Ann and I spent half the day on Saturday in the Bluebird Candy Factory, where she works.  We dipped chocolate for hours!  These were the Oreos.  Thins and Double-stuffed.  White chocolate dipped Oreos and Milk Chocolate dipped Vanilla Oreos.


White powdered donuts were an obvious choice!


The white balls in the brown paper cups were Oreo Truffles made by Meghan, our advisor/Personal Progress Advisor.


On the opposite side of the Relief Society Room, we set up three long banquet tables for the girls to display their items that represent their personal progress projects for the year.  Each girl took a moment to share a bit about themselves.  It turned out so nice!  We had one girl play "Taps" on her Melaphone, at the bishop's impromptu request.  Another played scales on her clarinet.  There was art, canning, sports equipment, scriptures... It was all awesome!  Each girl is so diverse and unique, which was the purpose of our evening!  It was really fun to "get to know" the girls a bit more by seeing them share things that excite them.

Our program was quite simple.  I gave a ten-minute talk to introduce the evening and the vision that we had for the night.  Each of the girls, then, shared their talents.  The Bishop spoke for about ten minutes and then we had a chocolate fest.  Short and sweet!

 (BTW, a special note to Marilyn... guess who's paintings on are on the wall!?)


All of the quotes had to do with how awesome life is and how unique it is to BE YOU!


 More quotes... all simple black and white!


Doug used to refer to the Relief Society monthly weekday Homemaking activity as "Homewrecking" because I would take apart half the house and haul it to the church for decorating.  Nowadays, it's for YW, but he hasn't come up with a clever name yet.  Give him time.  It will come. ;)




 Here's our awesome presidency and advisor.  Left to right, Val is our fun secretary. She's also the sister of my sister-in-law, Alene.  I've loved getting to know her better in YW! Ann, the other awesome counselor that has fast become my sweet friend and cohort!  She loves a Sonic Run as much as I do, so it's become a must before any weekday activity.  Kelli, our beautiful president, who has to have the sweetest spirit and kindest heart I've ever known!  Not to mention, she's a Barbie Doll in fashion and style.  LOVE her!  I'm the Second Counselor.  Meghan is our enthusiastic Personal Progress leader and advisor.  

Ann and I dipped pretzels as well as Oreos.  Aren't they beautiful!  Oh my word, they were delish!  I have decided that I now LOVE white chocolate even more than milk... well, at least on pretzels!


Water was the only option for beverage.  With all that chocolate, even I didn't want a diet coke!  ;)


The podium chalkboard sign was unique talents and interests.  The message on the large chalkboard was the message we wanted to send to each of the girls!


 Ann made these gorgeous cake balls in the three-tiered tray.  You'd think that she dips chocolate for a living! Wait, she does! They were so beautiful and soooooo good!  The long platter is a treat that I will be getting the recipe for from Kelli... it's sort of a cross between Rice Krispy Treats and Puppy Chow.  OH MY!!!!


Here's a close-up of both of my girls "Cameo" silhouettes that we made.  Meghan took p
This was probably my most favorite thing that we've done in the YW yet.  I miss being in Relief Society and working on big projects, but this is such a busy calling with all of the activities, events, meetings and lessons.  One thing that I did realize this past week, between the veterans dinner and then last night... our girls don't know a lot about entertaining and setting tables and such.  It sounds like a project to pursue! 

 I think that this YW calling is really helping me grow. I joke a lot about being too southern and too old for this calling, but it's really and truly helping me grow and learn. We are never too old for that! I love it!  I especially love working with these great women and getting to know the girls.  I met with our Kelli for a bit this afternoon to discuss some upcoming things.  As I drove away from her home, I was reminded that I am blessed to be in this position to serve these girls.  It feels great!  One thing is for certain in the LDS Church, we will have opportunities for service and growth!  I love that!

Life is good!  

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