Successful Relief Sociey Meetings

October 2010 I was called to be the 2nd counselor in our Relief Society. I served in this same calling back in 2002-2003 under the direction of Sis. Diana Mcquay. Now I'm serving under Julie Milstead. Guess they figured they'd give me a 2nd chance to do better. JK

One of the concerns our ward has had, is that our RS monthly meetings were not well attended. When I accepted this calling, I made it my personal goal to make these meetings interesting for the sisters and change things up a bit with the advertising to see if that would help. I also decided to have monthly committee meetings here at the house and serve the sisters breakfast while we planned our next meeting. Funny how food gets people here. I am very organized and take this calling very seriously. I made binders for each committee member and am constintly in contact with them. I want them to know that we work together and that their calling is very important if we want to have successful RS meeting. I do depend on them and have no problem delegating things I need done. So when my committee and I sit down and discuss what we'd like our evening to focus on, I immediately begin delegating assignments to keep my committee involved.

All the RS sisters emails have been entered into my contact list. For each evening we plan, I send out a eye-catching invitation through punchbowl. Punchbowl is a site that offers a variety of invitations for FREE. I opted to pay to be a premium members which gives me more options and choices in invitations. I send one out to all our sisters about 2-weeks prior to our RS meeting. It has an place for the sisters to RSVP. It also automatically sends out a reminder to them 2-days in advance. We also have food at every RS meeting which is a given if we want our sisters to show up. Food always gets them there. But...I make a very detailed sign-up sheet on exactly what types of foodm the amount and how I want it delivered. i.e. sliced, cubed, shredded, whatever it is that we are serving. I also have one of my committee members make advertising posters for every meeting then on Sunday's I go around and give each auxiliary a personal invite to keep them in the loop and make sure they know that we haven't forgot our primary or YW leaders. We frequently invite our YW to join us as well. By doing this our goal is to help the YW transition into RS easier when the time comes. This also helps get their moms there as well. I also have an on-time drawing/prize as well. Anyone who arrives before 7 PM gets there name in on the drawing. Then a winner is drawn. This also gets us started on time instead of typical Mormon standard time. So far, it's really working.

We don't have them every month since I try to put a lot of work into each one to make it extra special evening. We're averaging about every other month. So my first one was in November. We had a Tahitian Night. The YW came and performed their recently learned Tahitian dance and then they taught us RS sisters some simple dance moves. The YW all wore the lava skirts, and did an amazing job. Made me want to cry. We began our evening with a Luau. Sis. Geddes had a credit from a catering company from her son's wedding, so she let us use her credit and had pulled pork over rice donated for our special evening. I had a sign-up list going around for salads, sides and desserts that went along with our theme. I decorated the tables with floating hibiscus and sea shells. It looked very festive. We also encouraged our sisters to wear Hawaiian clothing if they had any. Since the YW attended, we had 77 in attendance. It was huge!

Because of the holidays and the fact that our family was in Florida though the first of the year, we skipped a couple of months since I wasn't here to plan. Our next one was in March. We disguised our VT conference with an evening called "Getting To Know You". We figured if we told the sisters it was our VT conference they wouldn't come. So we made sure we titled it something different and went about it in a different approach. We spent about 6-weeks photographing all the sisters before hand and had them tell us one thing that we didn't know about them. Then we put it all together for a slide show presentation. We began our evening with a really nice "create your own salad bar" dinner. Following dinner we presented the slide show. Following the slide show, Julie our RS President and the Bishop had closing remarks. We ended the evenng with birthday cake for dessert since the timing of this evening was around the RS birthday. We had 64 in attendance.

Then in May, we had a "Gardening" night. I had arranged for guest speakers to come in and talk to us about gardening and becoming more self-reliant. We had Charlas Milstead talk about Hydroponics and raising chickens, John Barnes talk about growing tomotoes and composting, Peggy Mariger talked about growing strawberries and flowers and Bruce Pyper talked about container gardening. For refreshments we chose to do a variety of fresh fruits with different types of dips and then I also made "dirt cups" with a quote from Pres. Kimball about gardening. That night was also very well attended with a total of 32 sisters.

Our most recent RS meeting was this past week on July 5th. I was worried about it falling the day after the holiday as well as summer. Our evening was titled "Pie and Ice Cream Basics". We broke up the evening into 3 sections. I first did a demonstration on making canned apple pie filling, then I did a demo on how to make pie crusts and some important tips on making pies. We then had one of the YW demo making homemade ice cream. The sisters signed up to bring homemade pie and homemade ice cream for dessert. We then had he Bishopric participate in a pie judging contest. Afterwards, we all enjoyed pie and ice cream together. Considering the time of year, I was amazed that we had 39 sisters in attendance including the Stake RS Presidency.

So far, our attendance has been wonderful. It went from being anywhere from 8-10 sisters about 8 months ago, to anywhere from 30-70. I love to throw parties and for me, this is just an excuse to have an enjoyable evening with sisters in the gospel and help bring the sisters closer together. Our next one is planned on August 2, which is our annual RS picnic. I'm relying on my committee since I fly home from Las Vegas the night before, ugh!

I've Recommitted to Blogging Again!

Just returned from Pocatello, Idaho last night. Aunt Sheila was in charge of the Shurtliff family reunion this year. We had a blast of course. It was held at Ross Aquatic Park. We started out at the open field next door to the water park for a wonderful lunch that consisted of sub sandwiches, salads, chips and drinks. After lunch we played cards, munched on tons of cookies and just visited with everyone. Managed to play 5 crowns for about 2+ hours. Too much visiting while playing, causing distractions and a lengthly card game. Always a delight to see family and catch up though.

After several hours at the park, we moved the reunion to the church building where we played the paper bag game and enjoyed a lovely dinner that was catered. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, rolls and later on, birthday cake to represent all the July birthday's. After dessert we played the guessing game of listing 1 thing that no one knows about you. Man our team didn't do so well. Guess when you live far away from family you just don't stay in the loop. It was a lot of fun and we learned alot of information about extended family. Aunt Sheila and her children put a lot of time in to this reunion and we very much enjoyed our time wth them.

It was a very quick trip though. Left our home at 9 PM Thursday night, and returned at 8 PM Sunday night. For a total of 71 hours away from home. Here's the break down...28.5 hours of road travel, 21 hours of sleep, 13 hours of reunion, 8.5 hours of misc. like showers, shopping at Walmart, eating and packing up to check out of hotel. That pretty much sums it up. It was worth it though. Aunt Julene is in charge of the 2013 reunion and has already told us it will be a 2-day reunion and probably in Utah. Regardless, the time with the family was well spent and would do it again in a heart beat. I love getting reaquainted and I promised extended family I would try to blog more, so here I am. I don't have much of an exciting life, but will try to find things to blog about.

Grandpa Larry Passes Away

We knew grandpa's time was getting close. My grandfather would have been celebrating his 90th birthday 1-month later. His birthday party was already planned and family members were flying in to celebrate, but he didn't quite make it.

Last summer we all drove to Utah to enjoy our family reunion. During that time, we said our good-bye's not knowing if his health would allow us to see him again. His leukemia took over very quickly as his body just couldn't fit it any longer. My father being the youngest of grandpa's 2 children, flew into Utah and arrived just in time to give him a blessing and ask for him to pass peacefully.

I was only 8-years old when my grandma Edith passed away. Being the oldest grandchild on the Lassen side, I was about the only grandchild to remember her. Grandpa remarried to Rhoda and passed away 13-years ago from Leukemia. Grandpa remarried a third time and this time she outlived him. We're going to miss grandpa very much, but we know he's in a much better place.

My New Found Love!

So here is the reason why I haven't had time to blog. I've been busy making quilts for my children. I have discovered how much I love sewing quilts and decided that each of my children needed one. As you can tell, they are very similar but have a few differences. I was inspired to make them when the remodel was completed and the kids each got their own bedrooms. Kenedee's bedroom walls are bright orange. She has accented with pinks, greens and yellows. Her quilt is quite busy but turned out really well. The backing is a tye-dye print.

Tessa's room is turquoise blue with pink and green. Hers turned out a bit smaller as I planned for hers to be a wall hanging to help decorate her room. It's permanent place is on the floor! She doesn't even appreciate the work involved.

Kyle's new room is decorated with all different sports. His quilt has different sports prints. Kyle uses his every night on his bed, and LOVES it.

Even if the kids don't fully understand the work put into the making of a quilt, I had a blast making them. I found someone in Everett that has a 16-ft. long arm that quilts them for me. My machine can't handle the size of quilts I've been making, let alone my lack of experience. I have about 5 more planned or in the works. Too much sewing to do, so little time:(

Family Cruise - Christmas 2008

So I am extremely long over due for updating my blog, but here goes...

Ryan and I celebrated our 20-year anniversary last year and decided to take our family on a Mexican Cruise. We visited Peurta Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucus. We left 2-days after Thanksgiving and spent the following week enjoying a very relaxing vacation. It was a great experience for all of us, however Kenedee started off with a little motion sickness. We figured that would happen to her. She even gets car sick. The weather was beautiful but no one got sunburned. Lying on the deck in December just isn't right if you ask me. The ship was all decorated for Christmas. The food was amazing and the entertainment was incredible. The kids shared a room and that made for cozy quarters all week, but Ryan and I had our own room across the hall from the kids with our own private deck. We were on the top deck so it was very private. No one could see us, but we could see everyone below us. The top deck is the only way to go. If asked would we go again....yes we would, but not every year. Maybe every 3-years. Our favorite vacation spot is still Cancun:)

Football Season Begins!

This is Kyle's first year playing football for a city team. I had always thought he was too little to play, but was told otherwise. We signed him up to play through the Richmond Beach Jr. League Football. He had an amazing season. Played several positions throughout the season, but his team played the whole season without losing a game. They even won the championship game. He loved playing and can't wait for next year.

September 2008 - Canning Season Begins!

This is just the beginning of a full month of canning. I had offered to teach family and friends how to home preserves. This is one of my all-time favorite things to do. I love canning season. Peaches, pears, applesauce, apple-pie filling, tomatoes, jam's, jellies, syrups... I do it all. I usually reserve the church kitchen and invite several friends and family to join me and that's where the party begins. I've been canning my entire life. Something my parents used to do every year on my birthday weekend. Never failed. As a young child, that's how I knew it was time for school to start. It's a lost art. Not many people do it anymore. Not necessarily cost effective for some (for me it is) but the fruit is delicious and loved by everyone.