Mormon Prom 2012

Mormon Prom 2012.  This is the second year in a row that Kenedee has attended Mormon Prom.  Last year she had a blind date and swore she would never do that again.  This year her boyfriend David took her, but first there was drama!  Kenedee had been planning for this special night for a few months.  She special ordered her dress from China and then when it arrived we had to have it altered to fit her very petite body.  48-hours before prom, David learned that he had to participate in a 2-mile run for track to see if he qualified for districts.    7 PM on Saturday night, no less.  OH MY GOODNESS!  The world came crashing down on Kenedee.  She wasn't mad at him, just the situation and the fact that he didn't know about this run until right before prom.  She was crying all day.  She tried to find some back-up guy friends, but everyone already had plans.  Ryan and I felt so bad for her.  We were both a bit surprised that David wasn't in a position to turn down this run.  Oh well. 

 The prom was in the same location as last year.  The Issaquah community center.  13-stakes were invited.  For 2-years in a row, a family in our stake The Quinton's (whom I don't know) have a mansion in the Highlands and have hosted a lovely dinner for all the youth in our stake prior to prom.  What I didn't know until Saturday night, that this was only the 2nd year they've hosted a dinner, so even if Tessa would have went to Mormon Prom this wasn't offered then.  This beautiful mansion is located off of the Puget Sound with a gaited security.  We've had the priviledge for the last couple of years, to provide a shuttle service in our luxurious 15-passenger van (lol) from the stake center to the Quinton's.  

The Quinton's became quite wealthy when Bro. Quinton founded Quinton's medical supplies.  Since then have been millionairs.  Lucky for these youth that we have such a generous couple in our stake willing to put on such a lovely dinner with photography and music for about 1.5 hours prior to leaving for prom.  They do this so that all the youth with or without a date can enjoy a true "Prom Experience" without having to pay money.  The stake leaders are the servers.  I guess it's just an amazing home (mansion).  What a neat opportunity for the youth. 

At about 12:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, Kenedee received a call from David saying that they moved his run to 3:00 which meant he could be dressed and ready by 4:45.  Kenedee was thrilled.  We made arrangements to pick him up at his home and I took him to the Milstead's where they wanted to do photo's under the cherry tree.  (Don't mind the cars in the background)  When I picked up David, I was able to meet his mother and noticed that David had a wrist corsage for Kenedee.  I knew she would be upset because she didn't have one for David since she didn't think he would be going.  David said he planned to give it to her even if he couldn't have attended.  Yes, I think Kenedee was a bit embarrassed since she didn't have a boutonniere for him, but she got over it real quick.   

Julie and I both noticed that Kenedee and David kissed right in front of everyone.  I was speechless and didn't know what to say.  Kinda caught me off guard.  I've seen her kiss him before, but I wasn't expecting that right in front of everyone including Julie. 

In this picture is Shanna Gregory, Kenedee of course, Nichole Milstead and her older sister Jessica Milstead.  The girls all got ready at Shanna's then Jessica drove them to her house for pictures.  David and I arrived to the Milstead's before the carload of girls even arrived. 

In this photo also the dates of the others.  Parker went with Shanna.  A childhood friend of Kenedee's.  Bryce took Jessica.  Don't know him, but recognize him from our Ireland trip and Kenedee and David and then Nichole who was going to go as Kenedee's date until David came through.

Ryan spent a couple of hours really making the van look nice by washing it and vacuuming it out, little details but we wanted to transport these couples in something that was at least clean and free of debris.  Ended up that we only transported one other couple besides David and Kenedee to prom.  Almost could have got by with just the Venza and saved a ton of gas and time on Saturday.  Oh well.  During prom Ryan and I enjoyed a nice dinner as we did last year at Jak's.  Best borboun pork chops ever! 

My Baking Creations 2012

So just a little reminder, I love to bake, in case you couldn't tell. You would think I'd be burnt out about now with all the baking I've done over the holiday's. Nope, bring it on! With all the the fundraising I did, I kinda built up a little cliental of people very interested in my baked goods. Oh, there are some things I can't do or at least need more practice at. For one, I haven't mastered candy making. Mainly because with making candy you can't multi-task. You have to sit there and stir till your arm falls off with a thermometer attached to your pan and if you leave it for 1 second, you can ruin your candy. That's not for me! I have to be able to multi-task in everything I do.

My first picture here is my famous Blackberry Pie. This is Kyle's favorite. I've already had a returning customer now whom I've baked a blackberry pie for twice already. Once for their Christmas Eve dinner and again for her son's birthday in January. 

Next is my mother load carrot cake. Full of carrots, pineapple, coconut and raisins. I don't put nuts in my cakes. Not a fan of them in my baked goods. I do garnish the homemade cream cheese frosting with a handful of chopped walnuts for looks, but do hold off if requested. My carrot cake was sold at our PTSA boosters auction in February and went for $240!

Next is my Banana Cream Pie made with a cooked custard. Oh so delicious. Needs several hours to chill in the fridge so I need lots of notice for that one. Also a booster auction item. Not certain what it went for.

Oh the eye catching "Fresh Fruit Torte" made with a vanilla custard and a citrus glaze. So pretty and yet a very light dessert since it's all fruit. Have made several of these recently. Great summer dessert!

Chocolate-Raspberry Cake with my "Own Fudge Created Frosting". On of my daycare mom's ordered a chocolate cake from me just last week. After playing the 20-questions game on how she wanted me to customize this cake, we ended up with this. Dark Chocolate with a raspberry filling lathered with fudge frosting, fresh raspberries and chocolate shavings. By the time I was done playing with the frosting, I had filled my entire Bosch mixer with frosting eating it as fast as I was making it. Decided to send out an email to friends letting them know if they were interested in chocolate-raspberry cupcakes could have them ready in a few hours. So because of the frosting, I ended up selling about 6 dozen cupcakes as well. Some mini size some regular. They were a huge hit. 

The famous assorted cookie platter.  Holds 6-dozen 3-inch cookies.  Great for parties and way better tasting then those from the grocery store.  Usually my assortments consists of White-Chocolate Macadamia Nut, Oatmeal M&M, Double Dark Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Snickerdoodles and my secret ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I've sold several of these trays recently.  I need at least 3-4 days notice with this one as it takes time to bake up 6 different types of cookies. 

As I continue to get special orders, my portfolio will increase.  Some of the other items I've done were posted on my past blogs.   This last one was my Valentine fundraiser.  I did red velvet cupcakes, frosted sugar cookies, sugar cookie kits and personalized sugar cookies.  Very successful 2 days worth of baking!

Personal Fundraiser - Holiday Cookies Platters 2011

So after I came to my senses and realized how many families were enjoying my baked goods, I decided to do my own personal fundraising. Instead of baking and giving all my holiday cookies away, which I usually do every year at Christmas time, I was going to sell them instead. Perfect timing since it was for the holiday season, but at the same time hoping to get support for our fundraising efforts. Included on my flyer was also peanut or cashew brittle as well as fudge. I put together 9-inch containers (great for personal consumption or gift giving) then I offered 12-inch and 16-inch platters as well. I also offered sugar cookie kits complete with homemade buttercream frosting and embellishments. Who knew that I was going to start something that kept me baking the entire holiday season? 

I made almost $2400 in cookie platters from Thanksgiving to Christmas. All those monies went directly to Kenedee and Kyle's account. Of course there were costs involved to make the products, but I always look at the big picture. It was all a learning curve for me. I was told by everyone that I could have charged a much higher price for everything but once my prices were posted I didn't feel I could go back and make changes. Friends were responding to me email/flyer within 5 minutes of posting it. WOW!

Anyways, I hope Ryan will allow me to do it again this year because people are already asking. I've already decided on what I would do differently and what cookies took too long to make so I won't repeat those one. Yes, this personal fundraiser was hard on the family life I will admit. My family never saw me as I stayed down stairs as much as I could to keep the mess from my upstairs. (Sure would have been nice to have had a TV installed in my daycare kitchen while all this baking took place!)

The family helped me out as much as they could, they were awesome. Ryan chauffeured the kids everywhere when I couldn't. He also would do Costco or Sam's club trips for me when I would run out of ingredients in the middle of a batch of something. He also helped keep the house picked up and did the laundry for me. I had Kenedee and Kyle weighing, measuring and packaging embellishments for the sugar and gingerbread kits, which BTW is very time consuming. All things said and done, we survived the holiday's and yet look forward to doing it again.

 

The beginning of the BAKE SALES - 2011

Okay so this is how it all started.... June 2011, I became an active parent in the DublinDollars Group. This group was formed of parents who wanted to get involved with fundraising idea's to help raise money for our March 2012 Ireland Trip. Shorecrest High School Marching Band including the bagpiper's and Highland Dancers were invited to participate in the Dublin St. Patrick's Day Parade. Our high school has been invited back every 4-years since the early 90's. It's quite an honor to be invited by the Lord Mayor himself. A 12-day trip to Ireland was scheduled from March 14-25th, 2012, and both Kenedee and Kyle were amongst those students to participate in this parade.

Kenedee, a senior in highschool and her 4th year of Highland Dancing, has just completed her 2nd year of co-captain for the year. Kyle, a freshman this year dropped marching band and took up the bagpipes. Kenedee say's she talked him into it, Kyle begs to differ. They really needed piper's so Kyle committed to play for the next 4-years. By the time Shorecrest returns to Ireland, Kyle will have just graduated. This was a once in a life time opportunity and I wanted to make sure they were able to attend. At the time this whole process began, Ryan granted me permission to go as a chaperone so there were 3 in our family traveling to Europe for the first time. (Will post about that trip later)

As a parent wanting to get involved yet still working my full-time daycare job I decided the one thing that I could do while working from home was to be the head chair person for the bake sales. I can bake while kids are napping and feel like I'm still accomplishing something. My goal was to sell more then they did 4-years ago. The total then was almost $350. I don't know how many bake sales it took to sell $350, but I set the personal goal to sell at least $1000 worth during the course of this fundraising season. Who knew what the next 9-months would be like. Here's my story....

July 2nd, first fundraiser for this trip. Carwash in Richmond Beach. They wanted a bake sale to go with it. Okay, no sweat, right? I sent around sign-up's (which I'm very experienced at doing thanks to RS) and asked for any volunteer's to help provide baked items. I guess I figured everyone knew how to bake, so I thought. I wanted everything in portion control sizes, individually wrapped and everything delivered to my home the day before so I could organize and make adjustments if need be. UGH...I WAS MORDIFIED by what showed up for that first bake sale. Apparently everyone that has never baked before were the one's who signed up. It was a disaster. I had people bringing me everything under the sun and not to mention, hardly anyone showed up with product the day before like I requested. They showed up at the carwash with their hot pans of brownies right from the oven, too warm to even cut. (BTW, that day was about 85 degrees outside as well. Thank goodness we had a tent to protect us from the heat) There were so many different items it was so overwhelming for those who were shopping. Some items couldn't even be sold, they were that bad. Maybe my standards are a set a little high, but seriously, I didn't feel right about putting some of these items out for sell. Thankfully we had several "Coffee Event" fundraisers coming up at the rest stops where they needed more baked goods. Since those items were set out for donation only and "NOT FOR SALE", anything left over from the car wash was used at those events. First bake sale of the season brought in $400. I was pleased with already selling more at this one event then 4-years ago.

After this first car wash, I decided to take matters into my own hands and change how the bake sales were going to happen.  With the exception of 2-3 other people whom I hand selected for certain items, I decided to do all the baking myself for any future bake sales.  I had no idea at that time how many more were going to be planned or asked of me, but I was fine with it.  Baking is my passion so it was all fun and at times a new challenge for me.  By the time the summer was over, I had baked for 5-6 carwashes, a farmer's market and a rummage sale.  Each opportunity to sell baked goods, I would try and change things up a bit to add variety for those many returning customers.  My name was getting out there in our community and people were requesting certain items and placing personal orders.  I discovered a couple of websites that become my best friend.  On-line companies that I could purchase packaging materials from.  I wanted everything to look like it just came from a bakery.  Another parents was printing up labels to for me so that I could inform customers if products and nuts or not.  I quickly learned that I wasn't charging enough for my baked goods.  One parent in particular would come to my bake sales and buy just about every frosted sugar cookie I would make.  (His wife was the one making my labels) 

Then it became Fall.  We had several more events and concerts lined up where my baked goods were requested.  I challenged myself once again.  Almost every time, I would sell out.  So I started thinking, man I'm spending a ton of money on ingredients and in the big scheme of things, I could have just wrote checks out for my own kids' WCE account and they would have benefited even more.  By me providing bake sales, the monies went into a general pot which all the students who earned hours could tap into.  (Once again will explain that later)  I then sent out an email to parents requesting donation's for basic baking ingredients and gave out my wish list.  Parents were eager to donate as long as they didn't have to bake themselves.  FINE BY ME!

Even after the holiday's we continue'd with a couple more events ending with the Big Band Swing Dance.  By the time all my baking fundraiser's were over, I personally helped bring in about $3500 in baked goods for the DublinDollars Group.  That's a lot of product when most items went for $1-2 each.  It varied by the event.  I met my personal goal in more ways then one, and for that I'm thrilled. The picture's I posted on this story were for the LFP Farmer's Market July 16th and 17th.  I was actually at my family reunion in Utah and couldn't attend it, but delivered all my products the night before I flew out.  The Farmer's Market was a huge success but there were a few others that helped provide items.  I couldn't do it all this time since I had already planned this trip.  I was okay with delegating, but thought about the event the whole time I was gone.   

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.