Transitioning...(not me personally)

This is a request to all my Relief Society friends. I have been thinking about girls transitioning into the Relief Society phase of their life. This Sunday, me and some other sisters in my ward get to meet with the Stake RS Presidency to discuss this topic. Being in a singles ward, they felt that our ward might have some insight into why so many girls leave the church between the ages of 18 and 20, those hard years where we leave home and go out on our own. So I need some feedback.

What kept you going to church when you moved from Young Women's to Relief Society?
What made you hesitate participating in Relief Society?
Have you seen anything that you think helps make the transition better and lasting?

When I moved away, I was at BYU, and almost 100% went. There were some that didn't, but peer pressure can be a motivator for good when you aren't doing it on your own. Is it just something that happens, everyone needs to find their own way back to Relief Society, or is there something that can be done from the organizations side to help encourage church and participation in Relief Society?

Any ideas?

Christmas trimmings

I'm so late in getting posts up. I took pictures of our house at Christmas time and some things I like to do. Every year, my mom makes tons of this bread. So I am trying to do this myself. This year, I bought a kitchen aid. I went to an outlet store and bought a refurbished kitchen aid for way cheaper than it would have been new. So I got to make about 20 loaves of this bread this year. I could do about 4 loaves a night after work.





And we put up the decorations



As much work as the bread was, it was fun to make. I turned on music or watched Christmas movies with my roommates and it was a nice feeling for the Christmas season.

How the Roomies celebrate

Yes, we did have our own little Christmas here in SD before we all left. Martinelli's, fake trees and fun gifts. These girls are fun!

Is it seriously Christmas 2009 again?

I can't believe another year has come and gone. I feel like this year was so full and busy. I felt like I was able to make a bigger difference at my work and take on more responsibility. I somehow got voted to run the social committee at work, did more filing on my own, more scheduling for court events, more quality control projects and helped do a little more streamlining of processes. It was a productive year for me at work.

I turned 30! crazy how fast time has gone by. Hopefully, I've gained a little wisdom. While I miss days gone by, I feel pretty good about where I've ended up. I still don't think I'm 30 and probably still try to act like I'm way younger, but one of these days, I'll figure out what 30 means:)

Church has kept me busy. It's been a great year and I've learned a lot. It's pushed me to find out things about myself I didn't know I could do and taught me, hopefully, how to be a better person. I've learned that things work out so much better if you rely on Heavenly Father through everything, and try to do all you know to be right. And I've learned how the gospel shows the Saviors compassion. I'm still working at the temple on Saturdays, which teaches me a lot and I've met some great people through being there.

I've loved the adventures I've been on this year with my friends and family. My brother got married to a great girl! My sister got married to a great guy. Both are expecting little bundles of joy this year 2010, so the family just keeps growing! Celia is off at school, Brigitte, Tyler and Logan are in a new house, Shelley and Steve added Jack to play with the extremely fun Mariah, all great stuff. Celia and I were able to travel to Nashville to visit the Grandparents. My friends and I were able attend other friends weddings in Utah, travel to Boston and have fun in San Diego. I went home for Christmas this year and it was great. I hadn't been home since June for Brittany's wedding, and my Nor Cal tank was on empty. Funny though, the pics I have from Christmas are of when my parents came down to LA the first week of December. Kiel and Melissa showed us The Grove outdoor mall, all trimmed for Christmas. I forgot to take photos up in Concord.

End of the Social Committee!!!

So this last year at work I was on the social committee. It was a group that planned fundraisers, did quarterly birthday parties, provide condolence plants and cards for employees who have lost family members, help plan baby showers, wedding showers all that good stuff. So one of the purposes of this committee was to raise money for the Holiday Party that the three district court agencies have together. So six of us spent the year raising as much money as possible by doing appreciation grams, breakfast carts, opportunity drawings of Padres and Chargers ticket baskets. It turned out that we did alright, because here is the result...
moving all the chairs from the jury lounge...took us all afternoon the day before


the room after decorating..


our tree..


after setting up...


and the chef, my friend Jen, in action...


The party turned out really great. We had almost 200 people including clerks office, court staff, probation and pretrial staff come. We had a live band. A guy in my office is in a band and they played for cheap for us. And we had a DJ from another agency. The food turned out great and everything was good. We got everything set back up that same night and didn't have come back to clean up the room another day. And, even better, the new Social Committee for 2010 was announced!!! No more social committee planning. All in all, a good year for the social committee.