Altrusim Aside

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After all, there was more to the birthday celebration than sweet gift requests.
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Like the food, of course. Carmen asked for french toast for breakfast, which Jaclyn was thrilled with (I don't make it often), and Steven opted out of (the reason I don't make it often). For lunch Carmen wanted poutine. She'd had a single fry from a friend once, but how that was enough to know that it was what she wanted for her birthday lunch, I don't know. This escalated the birthday lunch request to a new level, because it meant I bought fast food and brought it to the school, which I haven't ever done before. I felt like a real hero walking through the hall of the school with the other 5th graders calling to me and remarking on how lucky Carmen was. At dinner time Carmen wanted to go out for sushi, and when you like attention on your birthday there is no better place to go than Kinjo. The owner has a big personality which makes any dinner there an *event*, but with the 3 song serenade, free dragon sushi, fruit art, and Pocky sticks you know you had a birthday.
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Carmen had me make Aunt Kelly's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake recipe. It was beautiful and delicious and way too much dessert for our family, so she is taking the rest of it to her class today. Wait, what's that I see glinting on Carmen's ear? Do I detect an earring?
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Oh, yes. A privilege that comes with age 11 in our house.
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And one that couldn't possibly wait until Carmen was 11 years and a day. So we headed to the mall after school with Chloe and our carpool friend, Tristen.
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Nervous, but not nervous enough to call it off. Claire Bear (sitting on Carmen's lap) has her ears pierced - how bad can it be?

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Beautiful! Chloe couldn't get over the change. She kept saying, "You look so different!" And then when we were in line to pay she told Carmen, "You could be a model now!"

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Tristen's dad met us at the mall just after we were done, and in the blink of an eye Tristen convinced her dad that she could get her own ears pierced that day, so we stayed for Tristen's big moment as well. I got some sweet pictures of her dad pouring over the earring choices, but they're not for me to share over the web. I might give copies to his scouts though - hee!

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I dropped my girls home, and made it to the last quarter of Steven's divisional play-off's basketball game. Like I said, the earrings couldn't wait a day. Especially not for basketball.

If it's Carmen's birthday,

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then who is this?

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I'd like you to meet Estefanie.

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Carmen asked Ken and I to help her sponsor a child as her birthday present this year. So from Jaclyn she got a hair dryer, from Steven she got a book and a DVD, from Chloe she got a DS game, and from Ken and I she gets to help this sweet 7-year-old from Mozambique.
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This is very Carmen. In 3rd grade, when her class collected blankets for an animal shelter, it was Carmen who was chosen to be interviewed by the newspaper for her passion for the project. This year she is a founding member of the Reach Out Club at school and this time got her picture in the newspaper for their fundraising efforts to aid Haiti. Remember the Take a Stand lemonade stand where she raised money for the Humane Society? And she is all set to take over the Ronald MacDonald House pull-tab support project at the school next year now that Steven has completed his hours for his Chief Scout.
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At the high school Jaclyn is a member of the Social Justice Club, but she likes to joke about how good it will look on her college applications, whereas Jaclyn points out that someday Carmen will join this club out of complete sincerity.
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Happy Birthday, you loving, caring girl.

More Flowers

Sunday night while Ken was at youth meetings I played a little:
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I made these flowers from leftover softie blanket material (non-fraying) with the method from this tutorial.
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Now Chloe figures she needs a yellow skirt or dress so that she has something for church that they match. She reminds me of my grandma who told me once that if you find a great pair of shoes, just get them. You can always buy an outfit to go with them afterwards.

Closing time - every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.
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We had New Beginnings on Tuesday this week. Our theme was "Strengthen Home and Family" which is topic I've felt strongly about ever since I read this article by Sister Beck. ,

The night was super fun. We decorated the room with giant murals of families from the 1800's, 1950's, (I tried but failed to make one for the) 1970's, and (so I made two representing) recent years. I used a fantastic-like-a-fox (just saw that movie) mural generator you can check out here. I'm not giving you the name of the site, because it sounds kind of dirty but it isn't. For centerpieces we had bird houses, or rather: homes.
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The YW had previously (last week) filmed skits about strengthening families throughout different eras, and then my first counsellor, with the magic of iMovie, produced hilarious shorts which we revealed that night:
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"Wall of China" - In sepia, pioneer women sacrificing their dishes to build the Kirtland Temple. The smashing of the china was very dramatic. The idea was that our families are strengthened as we sacrifice to go to the temple.
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"Relief Society Knows Best" - A 1950's t.v. show starring the R.S. president's daughter as the R.S. president. The movie was supposed to show how R.S. strengthens families and teaches skills (an effort at transitioning ideas here) but mostly it was just funny.
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"Basketball Baptisms" - A 1970's skit in technicolor with awesome costumes about a failed effort to friendship some boys into the church en mass. The point of this one was that we need to have personal mission plans.
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"The Progress" - A modern situational comedy (music provided by The Office) of a mother and daughter attending the YW broadcast (hardly anyone was at the stake center, so true, so true) and their decision to work on personal progress together.
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After the films we presented personal progress books to the mothers along with a gold flower on a hairpin for them to wear to church after they have completed the virtue value experiences and project. Did you know that mothers can now earn the YW Recognition Award and receive a medallion? We also presented the Bishop with a gold tie and a virtue booklet with the same idea in mind.
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We recognized two young women, Jaclyn being one of them, for receiving their Young Womanhood Recognition Award (they both received their medallions last Sunday). The girls were each presented with a pair of 8 lb. weights to represent our theme of strengthening home and family and also to recognize them as our first young women to complete 8 values to earn the award. I'm so glad that Jaclyn finished her YW Recognition Award while I was in YW's with her. She is an exemplary young person to everyone - me included.

So I'm getting released today, which is a little sad, but New Beginnings was a great way to go out.
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Olympic Dreams

Chloe: Carmen, maybe you could snowboard in the Olympics.



Carmen: Maybe. Or maybe ski.
Chloe: Yeah.
Carmen: Alpine.



(Though with that hair, I'm thinking Moguls.)

Happy Valentine's Day

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We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Cooking is fun again!

(In my new apron.)

Ba-mi-nn

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In December, when Jaclyn took a tour of BYU, the tour guide (Rhett) provided some information about intramural sports. He asked Jaclyn what sports she liked to play and she said, "Badminton." He asked her if she really enunciated that 't' and teased her a little about her accent. Or so I hear, I wasn't there.

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Rhett says it "Ba-mi-nn".

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Last week I told Jaclyn I was glad she had decided to try out for the high school badminton team because I like saying that sport Rhett's way now. (She may have rolled her eyes at me.)

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Anyhow, today the coaches pulled her aside and told her that she didn't need to come to the rest of the try-outs next week. She's on the team! They want the for sure players out of the way while they evaluate the rest of the potential players. And suddenly I realize that, personally, I need to enunciate my consonants. I can't go a whole season without using my d's or t's. Badminton it is.

Dress-up

We had *dress as a book character* day for the elementary students last week. Carmen and Chloe took it in their own hands completely - I must have given them the "I'm busy" and "As long as we don't have to spend any money on it" brush-off.
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First, Carmen striped her pajamas with masking tape.
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Then she stuck her peacock feather into a green toque of Chloe's. She chose this costume for I would say 3 reasons:

1. She could wear her pajamas to school. (This is her own stated reason.)
2. She could use her peacock feather. (Which she loves.)
3. No-one would be able to guess who she was. (Which is the real reason she won't admit to.)

I'm sure you can't guess, either. Even if you've read the book, it is a very minor character from The Quiltmaker's Gift:
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The striped pajama soldier, of course.

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Chloe wasn't quite so subtle, but maybe equally difficult for her classmates to guess:

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She also made use of the masking-tape-on-fabric treatment:

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Her crest.

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But the beauty of this costume was in the details, like the star stickers on her father's childhood leather belt.

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And the safety pins on her shoulders.

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So the cape wasn't red - the attitude was pure Junie B!

Creations

Today while Steven was away helping his team create their greatest victory to date (they won by 60 points) we girls did a little creating of our own.
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I had planned on creating this apron for myself, but instead I made Valentines/Chineese New Year tokens for my Young Women:

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Chloe made Valentines of her own. I'm not gonna say no to her taking the lead and making them herself.

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Meanwhile, Carmen and I worked on her birthday party invitations. She cut sheets of craft foam in half length-wise:

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Then we printed out the information on vellum:
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And rolled them together to look like yoga mats:
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(Best use for craft foam ever.)

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After that I remembered that my YW secretary has been away caring for her mother, and that she missed our last couple of presidency meetings so I'd better make the New Beginnings invitations myself:

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(Every YW task I complete these days feels like a nail in the coffin of my calling.)

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And lastly I created dessert for tomorrow wearing my old apron because I didn't get any sewing done today.

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(Ken's creation for today: friendships with basketball parents)

(Jaclyn's: a biology research report)

Scrabble Necklaces

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(10 points plus and an extra 50 for a word 7 letters or longer)

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The craft-fest continues as Ken and Steven travel for basketball tournaments. Things have been really girly around here on Friday nights!

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When we visited Kelly over Christmas Brynlee had the cutest Scrabble tile pendants that Kelly had made at Relief Society. I wanted some! It turns out the hardest part of this craft is tracking down the materials, and it really wasn't doable in the short time we were in Arizona, but Kelly at least found a good tutorial for me and then when I got home I collected the supplies.

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I found the silver aankraku bails on eBay with free shipping to Canada (that never happens!!!) from this seller. I found a Scrabble game at Value Village (score!!!) and funny enough, I already had glaze from another craft I never followed through on. You can buy digital images intended for Scrabble tiles on etsy, but my color printer wasn't cooperating, which stretched our creativity a bit - a good thing.

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Jaclyn and Chloe each chose to leave their first initial facing forwards, which only required the glaze. For the rest we used scrapbook paper, origami paper, images from ripped books, as well as a duplicate music book. The turquoise one is from a car advertisement in a magazine.

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My favorite so far belongs to Carmen. She did a pendant from a visitors map to Moab (collected on our Christmas road trip). It has the dot labeled MOAB and several highways branching off from there. (No photo - she's asleep right now and I don't know where she's put it.) My favorite of Chloe's is a cross-section of an orange (taken from a magazine) which turned out very cool and abstract. And I love Jaclyn's music one (above). I thought 45 Scrabble tiles was tons, but I was so wrong, because variety is the essence of this craft. I could wear a different necklace every day.

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Though for the next couple of weeks I think I'll stick with this one.

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Hail to the Chief

Steven received the Chief Scout's Award at our annual Baden Powell Dinner tonight!
It is the highest award that can be achieved at the Scout level in Scouts Canada. Good work, Steve. I'm so proud of you.
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Steven: Pathfinder Scout, holder of the Chief Scout's Award

Winter morning

Jaclyn was off school for the past couple of weeks during final exams.



One morning she went outside to take pictures of the frost on the trees.

Then later, I went out to take pictures of her footprints in the frost on the deck.