What am I good at?

Gasp! This post for day 7 is happening a day late! Sorry, this is what I get for thinking I can maintain a blog while in the process of moving my butt back home. I'll get these up when I can, just be patient :) PS - I apologize for the weird formatting going on here... I didn't have internet when I wrote this in the car so I had to copy and paste which always makes for a hassle with formatting.

Before I entered singles ward I really enjoyed planning little get togethers with my friends. In my grade 12 year I planned an “End of Semester No More Exams Mafia Party” and invited some friends over for games (Mafia, particularly) and food. I loved party games, therefore I loved planning parties to play these games at.

When I started going to singles ward I was called to be a Family Home Evening (FHE) Ma, where together with my assigned Pa, we would plan an activity for a small group of people one Monday out of the month. I loved this calling and I eventually was called to be an the FHE Superma or coordinator where I was in charge of dividing the ward into families and planning 2 activities a month for the entire ward to enjoy. Having an even larger group of people to plan for put my party planning skills to good use. I really did love this calling. Of the many activities that I planned I think my favourite was my Johnny Lingo night. It was also the biggest activity I pulled off where I provided Polynesian food along with Otai, the drink of the gods, for over 70 people. While we ate we watched Johnny Lingo and after that I had some good friends of mine come in and show the boys how to do the Haka and the girls how to dance to Pearly Shells.

Like I said, I had my FHE calling for three years and I loved it, I really did. But after doing it for three years, the magic started to wear off, especially in the last 4 months I was there -- though that may have had more to do with the fact that I was engaged and trying to plan my freaking wedding! Ever since I’ve left the FHE calling behind, I’ve had trouble finding the spark I used to have for planning parties with my friends. I have done it, but I’ve only been able to do it once a year.

Every year on the anniversary of the day when Joe and I became an official couple, I’ve held a bonfire with all our friends where we can roast weinies, tell stories and play games. I haven’t played a good party game in a long while, but I’ve been getting a hankering to do it again. And I’ve been coming up with some awesome ideas for new games to play, so I think the flame is starting to come back to life…

Kiss Me and Smile For Me

Well aren't you a lucky bunch? Today you are getting 3 posts-in-one from yours truly. Why the excessive blogging, you ask? I shall tell you.

1. Today is Wednesday. That means another installment of the Wonderful Words of Wednesday.

b) Today is also the last day of March. That means you get a recap of my month.

iii. Today is also the day I leave. For Australia that is! So of course I must say goodbye to you lovelies.

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First thing's first. Dub^3!

For those of you who are new, Dub^3 is short for WWW which is short for the Wonderful Words Wednesday. This is the segment where I talk about words that I like and you smile and nod and pretend to be interested. (Yes, I can see you smiling and nodding through the computer)

On friday, I learned a new phrase: Kitty Corner. I've heard it before and I know what context to use it in, but I've never been entirely sure of what it means to be "kitty corner" from something. When giving directions, if the place you are referring to is diagonally across from another place of reference it is said to be kitty corner from it. For example, "My house is easy to find. It's just kitty corner from the school over there."

But seriously, kitty corner? I hate cats, why do we have to bring their offspring into this? It turns out, the original word that was used used to be "catercorner", but people had trouble remembering "cater" so over time it got replaced with "catty" and it has now become the "kitty" that we hear today.

reference!

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H'okay, moving on...

It's time to recap my resolutions for March.

1. Write a journal entry once a week.
It's fairly obvious to see that I'm doing well with this one. I've recently bought a new notebook to serve as my journal. It is red and I love it.

2. Find a job.
Found one. Still have it. I watch Tim's kids.

3. Get my license
Boo yah! I got it. I can't remember what I did back in the days when I didn't have it.

4. Work out 2-3 times a week.
Just when you thought I'd given up, I surprise you. I've surprised myself. I've been running and biking all month. I love getting my endorphins in the morning. Toby tells me that only two props are returning to the Pronghorns this year, so if I can get my fitness levels up and my knee up to snuff, I will have a spot on the team come fall!

5. Stop gossiping.
Oh goodness, every month I hide my face in shame when I come to this goal. This is the only one that I've made no progress on :( but maybe now that I've gotten the other ones out of the way, I can focus on this. (yeah right...) I should make a T shirt that says "No gossip zone" . . . =O OMG! That's a good idea!

So as you can see, March was my month of progress. I can cross my license goal off my list entirely and my workout goal has now taken effect. Rugby has made its way back into my life this month, I got some vaccinations, Elder Bednar came to Lethrbidge and gave an awesome firside, I made a buttload of shirts, I created a weekly blog-segment, I babysat a lot, I hung out with Plausible, I told Pirate Steve (and you) about Plausible, I played in the Kiwanis with my orchestra, I donated blood, Selina came to Lethbridge on Saturday (we've been together every day since she's been here) and I finally got to play Beatles Rockband - it was everything I imagined and more. Oh, also - this Monday for FHE we had a scripture study night. I was so pleased with how it turned out! People actually showed up with scriptures in hand, ready to participate. I am so grateful it was a good night, I think we should have another one before the end of the year.

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Ack! I can't believe it! I'm leaving for Australia soon! Depending on when you're reading this I could be on my way right now. Please don't miss me too much, friends. I will be home soon. I am going to try my hardest not to miss you so that I can enjoy every moment. I still have no idea what the computer/internet situation will be like down there, but I do know that I won't be bringing my lap top. As I promised, I will try to take a picture everyday specifically for this blog. I can't say I'll be able to upload everyday (if at all), but you will see them eventually.

If you happened to notice what time I'm posting this, you are quite the observant person. It's so late/early because I've been up packing all night. My friend, Star was pestering me over a week ago to start packing and I just laughed. Sorry pal, that's not how I roll. With every single trip I've been on, I have never started packing more than 2 days before I leave. I don't put anything in my suitcase until the night before. I've been using this system for years and I don't plan on changing it :P

Anyways, enjoy the next month without me! I hope I'll be able to give you at least a couple updates to share the fun I'll be having. I also hope to find me a hot Tongan to bring home. Fingers crossed.

Aloha and Mahalo!

Family Home Evening last night was a success! I may even be so bold as to say it was a huge success. I am so grateful for the people that were willing to help with set-up and cooking and cleaning. I don't know how many of them will read this, but if they do: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I could not have done it without you. I will also be sure to extend my gratitude beyond the spheres of the internet and actually thank these folks in person. I also loved it when people came up to me afterward and told me that they had a lot of fun. It feels good to be appreciated!

I guess I should share what we did last night for those who don't go to Vic Park. We had a luau! I've been wanting to do one ever since I got called to be an FHE Ma, and I finally did it! I (along with some wonderful helping hands) cooked a ton of polynesian food and everyone ate while they watched Johnny Lingo. Then when everyone was done eating, I had some old friends of the family come out and do a couple dances. The girls were taught how to do Pearly Shells and the guys learned the world-famous Haka. It was so much fun. And everyone actually helped to clean up too! (Hooray! Less work for me!)

Today was a good day. I had to go over to Tim's house this morning at 6:30 so I could get the kids up and get them to school. Even though it's super early, I don't mind it; I love mornings. My visiting teachers also came to visit me before institute and we had a good ol' chat; I love them :) My favorite part of the day was when I walked home from Tim's house rather than get a ride. I live on the far north part of town and they live on the south side. We're about 15 blocks apart and I walked it in 35 minutes! I mapped out my route on google maps and they said it would take 38 minutes. I can beat google!

Ooh, and something else that made my day: I was listening to CKUA and they reunited me with a song that I haven't heard in ages! It was on a Zellers commercial some years ago, and I always loved it but never found out the name of it. Now I know. Yay!

Screening Madness!

I was in charge of Family Home Evening last night and I decided to have everyone make Vic Park t-shirts. It was so crazy! But it was a good night. There were some awesome shirts made. Most people used the Vic Park designs, but some people made their own. One guy made a cookie monster shirt! It was awesome, but alas, I didn't get a picture of it (note to self: start bringing a camera to FHE).

Elder Funk made a Vic Park shirt with a twist. He made the front look like an envelope with his home address in the corner and Victoria Park written in the middle and stamp painted in the other corner. He wanted to decorate the back but didn't have time, so I offered to finish it for him. I'm quite pleased with the result:



I got some glow in the dark paint for my last birthday and haven't had a chance to use it... until today!

Oh and one more thing: My friend made her engagement official!! I don't have to worry about spilling the beans anymore! In case you were wondering, it's Cora. Her boyfriend, Steve just got off his mission last month and now they're getting married! Ack! We're growing up!