I’ve been in the Relief Society Presidency for over a year now. While we don’t have the most exciting activities, we seem to be doing an ok job. We take care of the people who have surgery or babies, and I make sure there is always a lesson on Sunday. But we hadn’t had to take care of a funeral.
Until this week.
We did a funeral luncheon today for a man, who, while technically a member, many of the ward didn’t know. But the people on the street where he lived all knew him, and they were very helpful in pitching in food for the lunch. We got everything ready over at the daughter’s home while they were at the funeral. The daughter is also a member, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her at church. If I hadn’t been her visiting teacher a while back, I wouldn’t know who she was. But the whole family lives on the street, on land that their dad bought originally. I think it was a very nice luncheon spread. There was a TON of food, and really only about 30-35 family members came for lunch. I didn’t stay very long after it had started, because I kind of felt in the way. It wasn’t like at the church when you can sneak back into the kitchen, this was their house, and they didn’t know me and wondered what I was doing there in the kitchen once we started.
The one constant among all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
There is a super go-getter mom on at our school, who has taken on the project of Replacing disposable polystyrene trays with re-usable trays.
I mean, REALLY–Why are we using all of this polystyrene? She’s gotten a grant from Walmart and is now trying to get a $5K grant from Pepsi to support this project. Our project includes purchasing reusable trays, bowls, and flatware for our school cafeteria. By making this switch, our school has estimated an annual savings of $3,000 per year. There would also be a significant reduction in the non-biodegradable waste from our school.
Yuck! This is the amount of trays they used in ONE WEEK.
So, my goal is to help spread the word. To get this grant and help move us toward our goal of REUSABLE trays, we have to WIN this contest. In order to win, we need votes, and lots of them.
Could you take a moment to vote? Pretty please?
It’s easy. Just go HERE and vote for our project. You will have to register once with Pepsi, but once you do that you can come back and vote every day!
Voting ends on June 30th, so we still have lots of time to spread the word. We are currently 68th, and the top 10 ideas will each win $5,000. So that means we have to beat out at least 58 other ideas before the end of the month. Can we do it? Yes we can! But we’ll need ALL of your help to do it.
first –please go and vote
second–could you spread the word? Post this on your blog with a link to this post or to this contest?
third–come back every day and vote again?
Hey! cool! There’s a WIDGET that you can put on the blog! I feel so newfangled. You could put that widget on YOUR blog, too, if you wanted.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
I don’t have great prizes to reward you for voting, but you will get that nice warm and fuzzy feeling of doing something good, right?
Yesterday I decided to get off to a good start and went walking. I didn’t overdo it or anything, just two miles at a moderate pace. Then I spent the day weeding, cleaning, shopping, making lunch, etc. I don’t know WHAT I could have done to tweak my back, but after rehearsal, I sped off to watch Megan’s softball game. It was a bit cold sitting on those bleachers, and I wrapped myself in a blanket. All was fine. When I got up from the bleachers, my lower back was very stiff and hurting.
I walked to the car with Megan, who was limping because her heel hurt. Now if anyone has REASON to be sore, it would be this girl. She had a two hour soccer camp in the morning, played kick ball with the Young Women, and then played a baseball game. We made our way painfully to the car. When we got home, I walked into the house like an old woman, and painfully climbed the stairs. My lovely daughter was making fun of me because I was walking funny from my aching back. Thanks, kid. I went to go and get my wheat bag to heat up, so I could put that like a heating pad on my back.
In my room, I looked for the wheat bag. I thought it might be under the bed, so I used my foot to lift up the bedskirt. My other foot must not have been placed right, because at that moment, my ankle turned and ***WHOMP*** I was on the floor. On my way to the floor, I twisted my ankle, smacked my head on my dresser and my arm hit on a dresser knob. Nothing to do but put my head down on the floor and cry.
My daughter heard the ruckus (but strangely, hubby downstairs didn’t hear it) and came in to see what was going on. Oh, the humiliation of being there on the floor. I said I was ok, picked myself up, and went to bed. My back hurt, my shoulders and neck now hurt, my ankle was throbbing and my arm hurt. My hip also hurt from the hitting the floor.
Ryan came up after Megan told him about my lovely accident, and heated up my wheat bag (hidden somewhere on his side of the room) and asked if I was ok. No, I’m not ok. I’m old and falling apart. Oh, how sorry for myself I felt. All night, I tossed and turned and tried to get comfortable and sleep. And you want to know what bothered me the most? Was it the back? The neck? The ankle? No, it was the ripped toenail that kept snagging on the sheet every time I moved.
This morning, I got up slowly and surveyed the damages. The ankle, while a little tender, is not swollen, nor does it hurt too much. The arm really hurts, but there’s only a tiny bruise (what?), the back of the head has a tiny bump that hurts when I touch it, but nothing major. I clipped the snagged toenail, so hopefully that won’t be a problem, but it was quite hard to even reach my toe. The back still hurts.
I’m walking around like an old man. Or an old woman. I might as well make my reservations at the nursing home.
Sunday, I had the wonderful opportunity to perform with the Bells, the Choir and the Orchestra for the Music and the Spoken Word’s special memorial day program. It was a fantastic program, and I feel so very blessed to have been a small part of it.
Here’s a picture my friend Brittany took of the two of us with the choir behind us.
Sunday night the kids wanted to go and visit their favorite (and most fun) aunt Julene, and when we asked if we could come over, she invited the kids to stay the night.
Cole didn’t go, since he’s still struggling with a nasty cough, but we let him watch Monty Python’s Holy Grail, so it wasn’t all bad.
The fun didn’t stop because on Monday, we picked up the kids and went to the Provo cemetery, where my grandparents are buried. We met up with my parents, my sister and her family, and my Aunt and Uncle and cousins. It was nice to be there with so many family members and to hear stories of my Grandpa and Great Grandpa.
Then we went to Spanish Fork for a family party with Ryan’s family, where we ate and ate and ate WAY too much delicious food. Because that’s how you kick off summer, right? Eating too much corn on the cob and homemade ice cream. The weather, which hasn’t been ultra cooperative around here lately, was beautiful! Not to warm but not cold.
It was a wonderful holiday weekend and wonderful start to summer!
I don’t know who’s happier that school is out for the year–the kids or the parents. Seriously. I’m so relieved that the homework nagging, the assignment finding, the driving the carpools, the band programs, field day, class parties, dance festival, yada–yada–yada are OVER, that I’m ok with the fact that my kids will be hanging around home for the next 2 1/2 months.
But before we move on to summer and the festivities, let’s review some of the fun things we did with the end of the year, shall we?
The kindergarteners did SO WELL on their dance festival dances. I love this picture! Notice how none of the kids are exactly on the same steps at the same time? That’s John in the bright orange jacket.
This was one of my favorite games at John’s field day. The kids had to put on a wig and a shirt, or a girl’s wig and a boa, and kick the soccer ball through the cones, then make a basket at the other end. This is John in the “boy’s” gettup. How cute is that?
Here’s my group on the school sign.
On the day of the dance festival, here’s John and his partner Whitney in costume.
I tried to get pictures of the other girls doing their dances, but since I was sitting with the Kindergarteners (passing out flags, helping them get into their lines, passing out water), I didn’t get any good pictures of them. But Natalie’s somewhere in this group.
here they are after the big festival.
And while we were doing these fun activities, Ryan was here:
in a sea of Japanese. He was in Japan less than a week, which seems like not enough time to even get acclimated, but it was a successful trip.
We’ve gotten a good start on summer, too.
Friday I took the kids swimming after they got out of school. Of course as soon as we got there, it turned cold and overcast and we were FREEZING by the time we got to the car. But it still counts! Friday night the kids got to laze around and watch a movie from Redbox, which is one of our favorite cheap source of entertainment.
Saturday, I decided to ditch the garage sale I was planning and just hauled a truck load of stuff to DI. That left us free to let the kids play with friends, and we went out to our favorite Mexican spot, Los Hermanos. Yum.
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