Young At Heart

This past Saturday our Stake had a Relief Society Meeting and luncheon.  For funsies, the Stake Relief Society asked each ward to put together a lip synch for the entertainment at the luncheon.  And let me tell you, it was pretty entertaining! 

It was so fun to see each of the wards (and the Stake Relief Society Presidency as well) put together a song.  The songs ranged from straight lip synch (for example the Stake Relief Society's version of "We're All in This Together" from High School Musical) to changing the words and singing over an instrumental version (such as the ward that did "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid sung as if they were Young Women pining away to be "part of our world" in Relief Society.)  The costumes the groups put together were funny, and overall it was quite hilarious to watch everyone perform.  It definitely was fun entertainment for the luncheon!

I had volunteered to be part of our ward's entry.  After brainstorming for over an hour one evening, we finally came up with what we thought was a fun idea for "Young At Heart". 

You want to watch it, don't you?  I could make it easy for you, and upload it here...except my computer is not making it easy for me to upload it here!  (I tried for probably an hour yesterday to do it, and it just wasn't happening.)  But, I did get it uploaded here (Young at Heart), so feel free to take a peek at it!

(PS--If you're wondering, at the very end, we're chugging prune juice!)

Is this legal?

The other day I was randomly perusing blogs (see, up at the top of the page where it says "Next blog >"?  Click that and it will take you to some random blog) and I found one that totally made me laugh out loud.   I spent quite a bit of time reading through many days of it, laughing here and there, and then reading it out loud to Melanie so she wouldn't be wondering why I've just busted up laughing again.  And now...I'm hooked.  I want to keep reading about them. 

So, I'm putting this blog...of this family I've never met...over in my blog list. 

Is that legal?  Am I a blog stalker?

Well, hopefully it's not too big of a no-no...

'Cause I'm doing it anyway.

Love that girl!

This is my adorable daughter and me.  I love her, and I'm glad she came home for the weekend and we got to spend some quality time together!  :-)

A Bucket Filling Night

Ok, for a little background before I get into this post, I'll let you in on a couple of things you may or may not know about me. 

First of all, I love music.  L.O.V.E., love it!  I love singing, I wish I could play piano better (I just really plunk at the piano...took organ lessons when I was little and basically learned right hand and chords), I wish I could play the guitar, I love singing loudly and proudly with Melanie when we drive in the car together, and I sometimes cry because music isn't a bigger part of my life (I think if I could have one wish I'd wish that my family was more musical and we'd spend lots of time singing and playing music together.)

Second, I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the fullness that can be found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It's true, and it can bring peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.

Third, (this may be the one that many don't know), deep down inside I am a redneck country girl.  My mom's family is from the south, and I grew up going to Arkansas each summer and attending vacation bible school at my Nanny's Baptist Church.  If I spend too long in the south, I can very easily slip into that southern twang, it's just in my blood.

So...now that you know that...on to my post!

Last night I attended a totally awesome concert by the Nashville Tribute Band.  I have loved this band for a few years, ever since my friend Julie played their CD for me on the way home from Women's Conference.  (Julie introduces me to quite a few wonderful things...thanks Julie!)  They have put out two CDs, one called "Joseph: A Nashville Tribute to the Prophet", and "Trek: A Nashville Tribute to the Pioneers", both of which I highly recommend.  Those CDs will move you to tears, and will strenghten your testimony and understanding of the early Saints.  They also have a CD they are about to put out called "The Work: A Nashville Tribute to the Missionaries", which, based on the sneak preview we got at the concert last night will be another incredibly moving CD.

I went to the concert with my friend Jessica, who walks with me in the mornings.  We left early and went out to dinner at Wingers, then went to the concert.  It was at a beatiful outdoor ampitheater and because it was a cool, overcast and breezy night it was so enjoyable to just sit there and relax.  Our tickets were on the front row of the upper section of the ampitheater so we had a railing right in front of us and I just propped my feet up and relaxed the evening away!

 

 This was definitely one of the best concerts I have been to because of all the things I listed above about me.  First, I loved the fun music, and I loved to watch the guys on stage perform.  You could tell they were having a blast!  It made me want to jump up there and perform too!

 

Secondly, it was a great concert because the whole night was basically a musical testimony meeting.  They bore testimony of the gospel, not only through the songs they sang, but the chatting they did between songs.  These guys know the gospel is true, and they are not afraid to open their mouths and proclaim it!  To a certain degree it reminds me of General Conference, where you come away feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the world because you know you have God on your side!  This is His work, and He is in charge!

Jason Deere and Me

And third, it was a great concert for me because it connected to my inner country girl!  Jason Deere, who writes all the music, calls it "redneck Mormon songs", and between that and all the commentary Jason made about his Oklahoma upbringing and his mom being a Baptist before she joined the church, it totally made me homesick for summers at Nanny's and my southern roots. 

All in all, it was really a great night, because it connected to so many things that are precious to me.  I loved the company (thanks for going with me Jessica!), and definitely felt like my bucket got filled.  Yeehaw! :-)

Busy doing sew and sew

With just two months to spare, Bradley is finally getting down to serious business on the Eagle Project.  Hooray!  Although it looks like it is (well, it is) down to the wire, to a certain degree I am somewhat understanding about that.  Way back when he was just a wee little scout he was all excited to go and get his Eagle.  He had a project he was excited about (refurbishing and resetting a Welcome to our city sign), but when he went to the city to get the project signed off the guy there pretty much smooshed his little scout heart.  He told Bradley that he could do that if he wanted, but pretty soon they would be developing the place where the sign went, and when that happened they'd just tear his sign down.  That bummed him out enough that he couldn't muster enough energy to think of another project until now.

Bradley has decided to do a project making quilts for Shriners Hospital.  Shriners Hospitals are wonderful hospital throughout the United States that provide, completely free of charge (regardless of economic status), orthopedic care for children age 18 years and younger.  Some of the Shriners Hospitals also do burn care as well.  (For more info on Shriners, you can check here: http://www.shrinershq.org/Hospitals/Main )

When Jacob was 4 years old he had surgery at Shriners on his club foot, so we know what a wonderful place it is.  Jacob received a donated blanket there, and he loved it.  It had yellow flannel on the back, so he called it (in his cute 4 year old speak) his "Lello blankie".  For many nights after his surgery when we would do our gratitude journal, Jacob would say he was thankful for his yellow blankie. (Totally tender mommy moment: I just went and looked back at that old gratitude journal and found that for many nights he would say he was thankful for Mommy and his yellow blanket.  Awww--I didn't remember him being so thankful for me, too.)

Anyway, Bradley has been working on getting quilt stuff together around here.  Some of the ladies in the neighborhood have donated fabric, and I have been working with some of that fabric to add a little variety to the quilts.  I have been working on a rag quilt (and have a second one planned to do but as of yet undone), as well as piecing together a quilt top.  It's been kind of fun to see these little projects I've been working on come together for Bradley's Eagle project, and I've been pleased with how they've turned out. 

Here are two of the things I've been working on:

The rag quilt

I still have about half of it to put together, as well as clip all the seams and wash it up...it's taking a long time, but I really like it.

The pieced quilt top

Looks like I'm kind of into that checker-boardy pattern right now, eh? 

This one went together MUCH faster than the rag one.  The black fabric with the pink roses was donated to us, and I thought on its own it wasn't a terribly "child-like" fabric, but I think putting it together with the brighter pink and white squares cheers it up. 

I hope that these quilts (as well as the dozen others we have fabric for) will help bring joy and comfort to a child being treated at Shriners, just like Jacob's "lello blankie" did for him.  Good luck getting all the quilts done Bradley, I'm proud of you for working on getting your Eagle.  After all, better late than never!