Bridal Shower...

Saturday morning (November 21st) I attended the bridal shower for Holly Walker soon to be Mrs. Seth Kravetz. I was very impressed with all the work that Seth's mom and 2 sisters did to make this a wonderful shower for Holly. The shower was held in the Relief Society room at Church. One of his sisters, Marissa, is a photographer. She had all the sepia toned pictures of Seth and Holly strung on a wire across the room and placed on the tables. They had white table cloths on round tables with white table toppers on them. Each table had a bouquet of flowers tied with a ribbon in the center. Seth's other sister, Chelsea, decorates cakes. She'll actually make and decorate their wedding cake. She made a beautiful chocolate cake and decorated it for our dessert. We played a game to begin. One the wall was an 11 x 17 picture of Seth. You were given a sticker that was like someone had blotted their lipstick on clear paper. You were blindfolded and were to try and plant a kiss on Seth. Everyone who wanted to participate took a turn and Holly got to go last. Then we were served a wonderful lunch. I had not eaten breakfast and was really expecting a punch and cookie thing for refreshments. I was very pleasantly surprised to find we were served lunch. We had tossed salads and soup in bread bowls. You had a choice of Italian Wedding Soup or Loaded Potato Soup. I picked the Loaded Potato Soup. We played another game where they had Holly sit in the front. Each of the attendees were given a sheet of paper. Chelsea had a basket with different kinds of candy. Holly would pick a candy out of the basket and think of a sentence about Seth using the name of the candy. While Holly did this we each thought up a sentence about Holly using the name of the candy and wrote it on our paper. They were going to make a book with these sentences for Holly and Seth. After this game we were each given a balloon full of air. We tossed them around so they were all mixed up. Then we each got a balloon and sat on it to pop it. If the paper inside the balloon was a picture of Seth and Holly you got to pick one of the candy's as your prize. The last game was to see if Holly actually knew Seth well enough to marry him. Marissa had 17 questions they had previously asked Seth the answers to and recorded them on their lap top computer. Holly was asked a question and had to guess what Seth's answer would be. After Holly gave her answer we watched and listened to Seth give his answer on the computer. If Holly was wrong in what she guessed Seth would say, she has to put a HUGE piece of bubble gum in her mouth and chew it. If she was right, she didn't have to put another piece of gum in her mouth. Holly did really well and answered many of the questions correctly. But she answered enough wrong till she was chewing one big wad of gum by the end of the game. Then we ate cake while Holly opened presents. Each guest was given a little bottle of Purell like lotion before eating the cake. Each guest was also given a quart jar with hot chocolate mix in it and some marshmallows and some mints. The theme for the shower was 'Around the Clock'. Your invitation came with a time in it. Your gift for the shower was to be something Holly and Seth could use during that time of the day. My invitation had 12 Noon on it. I printed all my salad recipes on fun paper and put them in plastic sleeves. Then I bought a notebook with colored circles decorating it and I purchased dividers that matched the notebook cover. I have all my recipes in 3 big binders and I thought this might be a fun beginning for Holly's recipe collection. Then I got a large clear bowl that you could make a salad in and 4 clear glass bowls you could use to eat your salad in. So my gift was salads for lunch. It was a very nice shower and I truly appreciated the love and care and effort Seth's mother and sisters put into this shower.

A Sense of Community...

Since I'm doing this a 2:00am I must say 'yesterday' was Sunday. After stake conference Claude and I hurried out to Sadieville. Our little town was putting up Christmas lights. Several of the people on the Friends of Sadieville Renaissance were there and we had a great time decorating the old railroad depot which is our City Hall, the caboose and the pavilion. Claude and I had putting lights in the tree duty. Last week he purchased a really cool tool that helps reach high to put lights on things without having to use a ladder. It is a pole that you can telescope out to different lengths. I has a gripper claw like thing on one end and a handle on the other. You set the pole for the length you need to reach the height on the gutter or tree or whatever your reaching for. Then you grip the string of lights with the gripper part and reach up and get the lights where you want them and let go of handle and 'voila' the lights are in place. We put the strings of lights on 4 of the trees by the pavilion. Then it was time to put the lights on the gutter on the front of City Hall. Now the versatility of this little lighting kit things really comes in handy. You attach clips to the strings of icicle lights. The clips have a little circle with has grooves in it. You take the claw off the end of the stick and it has a plastic end that has grooves like a screw. These fit into the clip circles and you twist a bit and they stick screws into the clip circles. Then you can reach up with that stick and push the clip onto the gutter. When it is set, you unscrew the stick from the clip and there you have it. We found it still helped to have someone on a ladder to get the string of lights to turn so Claude could screw the stick to the clip circle. In a matter of about 3 hours we had all the garland, lights, and bows our little town could possible need. The little train is out in front on the railing at the depot (City Hall). There are wreaths in all the right places and candles in the windows of City Hall. We won't officially turn on the lights until December 1st. As the process was winding down I wandered over by my hubby and told him, "If just feel so good to be part of a little community and do community things." It was a totally positive experience and was great to share it with those who live in our little town of Sadieville.

TGIF...

Today was my final day of substitute teaching early morning seminary.What a fun experience it has been. Years ago Claude gave me a gift. It was a small picnic basket. It was the kind where you have two handles that come up over the lid. The lid was not wood though. It was a cloth top with a gingerbread recipe on it and it was filled with polyfill and has a lace edging. The basket is just a really cute way to serve cookies and things. Today was scripture mastery day in seminary. The kids teach the class and the teacher just brings the goodies for the end of the week. I baked one of my favorite recipes. It's called "Old Fruit Cake". I got the recipe many years ago when we lived in Denver. It makes enough batter that you can cook it in a dripper pan. It stays moist forever. The purpose of the recipe is to use up those quart bottles of fruit you canned and didn't eat. The fruit is still good but it is getting old enough to start to change to a darker color. You just blend the fruit up and use it as a base for making the cake. Then you don't lose that good fruit you bottled. I didn't have a quart jar of fruit to use but I do have gallon bags of apples I froze for pies that I haven't used. So I thawed one of them out, blended up the apples and it makes a quart of fruit. Then I make the cake using those apples. For today's purposes I made 24 little mini-muffins for the seminary class and 3 little round cakes for giving to others. I took my little picnic basket to put the mini-muffins in to serve to the kids. They were totally enjoying the mini-muffins. One of the young women looked at my basket and said, "That looks like Little Red Riding Hood's basket." Speaking faster that I should I said, "That would make my hubby the Big Bad Wolf!!" We got a good chuckle out of that. Today Papa is at an elementary school in Georgetown with Jake's big sombrero on his head singing 'El Gato' with Debra Kumar. She volunteered to do this for a music appreciation day at the school. Debra will be dressed in full Spanish regalia. She will perform this little number several times throughout the day. She asked Papa because she knows he just loves little kids so much and thought he might enjoy this experience. She and Papa have been practicing him playing the guitar while Debra sings and tells the kids the story about this cat. I would love to be a fly on the wall while this is going on. I'm just so happy that he was included in Debra's little sharing music with the kids. That was so sweet of her to think of him. He has enjoyed the experience of practicing. I can't wait to hear how the actual performance has gone. Last night, Claude, Lisa, Barbara and I all met at the Louisville Temple for a session. It was just so nice to be there and enjoy the peacefulness of the temple. I marveled again as we were driving home that in my 40 years of going to the temple and as many times as I have gone I still learn something new each time. I am grateful for that opportunity to put life on hold and enjoy the sweet peace that you feel in that Holy Place. Now I'm off to get some of my handwork done for Christmas. Tonight Claude and I must catch up on TV. Andie alerted me to 2 shows on Public Television night before last about Alzheimer's and I taped them. Yes, we do not yet have DVR so I put in an old VHS tape and taped those shows. Last night while we were at the temple Claude taped a CSI and The Mentalist. Tonight we should have a Numbers to watch on TV as well. So I'll be doing lots of needlework and TV watching come this evening. For right now, Claude is out cutting the grass one final time for the year (has to get it even he says) and I'm going to work on my 'to do' list for Thanksgiving, Christmas and our trip. Here is the cake recipe in case you might like to try it: OLD FRUIT CAKE:

4 cups sifted flour

2 teas. cinnamon

2 cups sugar

1 teas. nutmeg

1 teas. salt

1/8 teas. cloves

1 quart old fruit. Blend in blender. Add 1 cup Wesson oil and 4 teas. soda. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add nuts and bake in dripper pan for 1 hour at 375 degrees.

Bambi's Friend Flower...

This morning I pulled up into my spot at the school parking lot. It is on the back side of the 9th grade building. The cafeteria is there. I thought I saw something moving besides the janitor collecting trash from the cans outside the building. I looked again and sure enough there was a skunk. But it didn't look quite right to me. Then I realized the entire top of the skunk was white from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. His little feet and belly appeared to be black everything else was solid white. I always thought skunks were black with white racing strips down their body. This little fella waddled up the bit of a hill in front of my car and across the little road to the trailers. He went under the walkway for the trailers like he was trying to get under the trailer. This trailer is right next to the one I teach seminary in. I had a minute before going inside to set up for my class so I pulled out my lesson plan and reviewed it. Then I closed up things in my car and got out to go inside. I realized that the male teacher from the trailer under which the skunk had journeyed was out of his trailer and walking toward the direction of my car. I got my stuff gathered from my car and asked him if he saw the skunk. He assured me that was why he came out of his trailer and was following it. I following him across part of the parking lot and sure enough, back alongside the 9th grade building was the little skunk trying to find something. This teacher and I determined we didn't want to be in it's path as it came back our way so we both headed to our respective trailers. When I entered Ms. Rice's classroom, I told her about my skunk siting. She told me that some time back a skunk got under the trailers next to hers and sprayed everything. They were weeks getting the smell out of the building and actually had to move the class into the main building for a time. As my kids left seminary I warned them all to watch out for Flower!!

Relief Society & Mimi...

Every year our Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has 2 general conferences. They are held in April and October. They each have 5 sessions. There is a Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening Priesthood session, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon session. Many wonderful talks are given at each session. Then the following month (May & November) these talks are printed in the Ensign (Church magazine for the adults). Our ward Relief Society (women's organization) issues a challenge each May and November to each of the ladies in our ward to read all the conference talks. When we are finished we report that we have accomplished this goal and for our efforts we receive a BIG chocolate candy bar. Today I finished reading my conference issue of the Ensign and sent an eMail to the 2nd counselor in our ward Relief Society to let her know I did this. I also included this little note to Amber about my experience today with my mom as I finished my reading: Hi Amber, I just wanted you to know I finished reading my conference issue of the Ensign today. I had a sweet experience I thought I might share with you. After teaching seminary this morning, I visited my father to practice music for us to sing Wednesday at the nursing home. Then I went to the nursing home to sit with my mom. Today she was very unresponsive. I’m between crocheting projects which I usually do while visiting with her. She loves watching my fingers fly and will usually talk a bit. I had my Ensign in the bag I carry to the nursing home so I pulled out the Ensign. I had Sis. Thompson’s talk and Pres. Eyring’s talk left to read. I turned to Barbara Thompson’s talk and put my arm around my mom and started to quietly read her words about ‘minding the gap’. When I finished I said, “Mom, wasn’t that a great talk?” She simply said, “Yes!” like she understood every word. Then she bowed her head to take a bit of a nap. I call this one of the tender mercies of the Lord. A clear word or thought is just a blessing. I turned to Pres. Eyring’s talk and started to quietly read it to her about the legacy of Relief Society. I can’t explain the energy passing between us. If you were on the outside looking in you would have thought mom was asleep and I was reading quietly out loud. But from my chair the words were clear and powerful. I pulled out my pen and as I read I underlined thoughts that spoke to me like: …when speaking of the Relief Society sisters in the beginning Pres. Eyring said, “Their feelings of charity come for Him through His Atonement.” …when speaking of dealing with adversity in the early days of the Church he said, “Their determination born of faith to serve the Lord and others seemed to take them not around the storms of life but directly into them.” …when speaking of the Saints in 4th Nephi he quoted, “there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.” …and at the end of Pres. Eyring’s talk he spoke of the legacy of Relief Society being passed on with these words, “Just remember that the legacy is passed from heart to heart.” I sat there with my arm around my mom who served as a ward and stake Relief Society president and we just spoke heart to heart. It was tender and memory making for me. I’ll cherish those few minutes and when times are rough with and for my mom, I’ll remember reading that conference talk and us speaking heart to heart in a way we cannot speak now with our voices. Thanks for challenging us again to read this Ensign. I would have done it even without the challenge but I’m grateful for Relief Society sisters that challenge us with powerful, testimony building opportunities. Thank you! Sandi Christensen I love a life filled with good moments and experiences.