Back to the Basics

A couple weeks ago, our relief society hosted a small retreat to Midway to celebrate the birthday of relief society. I must say, we have some amazing women in our ward who planned the best retreat ever!

(Liz, sorry I stole your work off the ward blog. Thanks!)

We started out with a great dinner and some games, then we all sat down for some spiritual time. Preface: as my presidency and I prepared for 2009, we all felt inspired that the sisters in our ward need to better understand the basics of relief society. So, as we worked with the Enrichment Committee, we planned the retreat around the 6 purposes of relief society as outline in the RS Handbook. The girls were all very receptive and the spirit was very strong.

Over the last several months, the most prominent lesson I have learned is that the Lord has designed his church just the way it should be. There are many things that we think will help improve the camaraderie or the attendance, when in reality all that's needed are the basic which are outline for us. I have been impressed with how much has changed as our relief society has eliminated the unnecessary fluff and added musical moments or training meetings. It may not always sound the most appealing, but somehow it just works! I look forward to the continued changes that we will see, but even more for the lessons I am learning. I can see myself being sculpted by the Master's hands. I am grateful He trusts me enough to care for 76 of his beautiful sisters. I pray that I will not let Him down!

As I said to my mom when I was called 6 months ago, "The Lord prepares you for your callings, but they will still stretch you and you'll have to grow."

Bless your little Irish heart and every other Irish part

Hope you all had a fantastic St. Patty's Day! I know I did. Wanna see?

Great friends and food at the Cannon's crazy St. Patty's Day Party


Followed by a bit o' Irish dancing!





And to top off the night, Nat and I cruised over to Keys on Main, a local dueling piano bar, for some mean karaoke with some other friends! It was a great night!

PS-I failed at Lent

I confess. I logged in to Facebook after only 4 days of Lent. Good thing I'm not Catholic, right?

Reasons to Purge your Closet... Regularly

I spent all day Saturday playing the role of Stacy London from TLC's What Not To Wear. It was a very successful day!

Reason #1 to purge your closet on a regular basis... to avoid collecting bubble gum pink ribbon candy jackets... :)

Lent

Tuesday, March 24 was Mardi Gras! I almost forgot about it but randomly remembered while I was at work. As I was discussing the purpose of Mardi Gras, and ultimately Ash Wednesday/Lent with my friends at work, we all decided to participate in Lent this year. (Don't know what Lent is? Click here) While I don't believe all the religious practices involved with Lent, I do believe that it can be a time of reflection. A time for you to look at your life and decide what it taking up more time than it possibly should, or what is causing more grief than necessary, or even just what habit you can kick. Similar to New Years Resolutions, I guess. But here is the difference. Lent is 40 days, a new years resolution is supposed to be a permanent change... I choose Lent! ;)

As my co-workers and I continued our Lent conversations, one girl jokingly suggested I give up Facebook for Lent and I instantly laughed away the idea. How on earth could I survive without the ever-increasing, time consuming, love affair that I had formed with Facebook? I honestly didn't think that was possible. I know that sounds completely absurd so let me give you a little history lesson regarding my relationship with Facebook.

I joined Facebook 4 years ago, when it was only open to college students. At that time, you were REQUIRED to have a university email address that had to be verified before you could create your profile. This is not the case today, and essentially half the world is probably part of Facebook. Nevertheless, I continue to spend time with Facebook regardless of how trendy it has become. Facebook has become my social tool... I use it to to throw parties and invite people, I use it to find out what events and parties are happening so I can continue to be social in my never-ending singledom, I use it to keep in touch with the sisters in my ward and to know what is happening in their lives, I used it this last summer to find people from high school which saved me hours of research and awkward phone calls in preparation for our 5 year reunion, I use it to network my wedding business, I use it to communicate with friends and acquaintances, and of course I use it for the picture logging capabilities. Essentially, it has become a necessity by which I stay in contact with everyone I know! So of course I laughed when the suggestion was made to give up Facebook for Lent!

The next few hours of work passed and I continued to stew over this concept. Instead of thinking how ridiculous that suggestion was, I was realizing how ridiculous it was that I didn't think I could give up Facebook! Why should I let some technological feature control MY life? And that was it. I decided to take back my life!

Today is the 4th day of Lent and I have thus far been faithful to my decision. I admit it has been hard. I didn't realize until last Tuesday just how attached I had become. But I believe this change is healthy. I have much more determination to have verbal communication with those I actually care about. I can see how it will improve my life. And my analytical brain is forming theories left and right about my generation and our abilities to communicate. I will of course share them when my "Facebook fast" ends I have time to clarify what I've theorized.

To all, happy Lent!

Freshies

I thank Channa for posting the amazing pictures from our days at the Events Management Team at BYU. What a wonderful time in my life!

The tag is to post the 6th picture found in the 6th folder. Here is my blast from the past!

These are my fantastic freshman roommates, Alison, Kerry, Katie, me, and Sara. The very first week in our apartment, we were all excited to get to know each other and become friends, so we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill! We laughed so hard that night! Now, all four of them are happily married and living in various states, and some even have their own children! I love them very much.
I tag.... Sara H, Kerry K, Elizabeth O, and Liz D

Give it Away!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me, Rachel. My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make .
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done by the end of March.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may scrapbook something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. A friend of mine, Heather, did this on her blog and I can't wait to see what I might get as a goodie! The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did it will then win a Fabulous homemade gift made by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!
GO!!!

PS- Happy Valentine's Day!