New Beginnings

Wednesday night we had New Beginnings. It's probably the second most time consuming program, after YW in Excellence, maybe tying with hosting Super Saturday, so it's kind of nice to have it over. Of course this time I was smart and didn't assign myself a talk so I seem to be figuring things out as I go along. :) We organized everything around the Olympics since the new YW theme for the year is "Be Strong and of a Good Courage" and the Olympics are going on and the athletes have strength and courage.... but mostly we did it because I got the idea off Sugardoodle. haha. Why reinvent the wheel, right? It was actually really perfect. To start out I had the Olympic theme music playing while the girls walked in wearing the value colors around their shoulders (like Olympians wear their flags when they win) and did a loop around the room, holding up the amazing Maglight/torch I put together. Then they took turns on the "podium" (two ridiculously heavy, splinter laden wooden crates I lugged in) and talked about a heroic church history figure that exemplified the value they represented. They even wrote their own notecards at a previous mutual from material I had found for them to learn about their person. And they didn't even complain when they got to mutual and found I had organized "school work" for them. That was the best part. Then one of the girls gave a talk about how we can be strong and have courage in our daily lives. The next part was my favorite. We called up the girls one by one again to stand on the podium and get their "medal". It was a ring that had "Be Strong and of a Good Courage" engraved around it, and was strung on some ribbon that we hung around their necks. (A big thanks to my mom for paying an arm and a leg to ship them out to me when Deseret Book got behind on their orders!) Then we got to spotlight each girl and talk about their strength and courage. I was surprised at how choked up I got talking about them. I know being in YW is a lot of work and unfortunately I've done my fair share of complaining, but when it really comes down to it, I have learned so much from them. With all they are up against, they really are good examples and are trying hard to do what's right. My testimony has been strengthened so much in this past year and a half from being with them. Bro. Benson finished it off with his talk which really brought the Spirit in the room.

Gotta love my artistic talents!

Here's some of the girls showing off their rings!

In other news.... last week, Collin had some fun playing with friends! The poor child is bored to tears with me and Kidsongs, so it was so nice to get him with other kids. He had a great time paling around with Mckensie and Ivy at Kristie's house.

And then Tasha and Devin came over later in the week to hang out. Collin was loving Devin, but to show his love, he would crawl towards him, mouth open, and just run right into him. Kinda confusing, but I guess we're always kissing on him so maybe that's what he was trying to do to his new friend. (Yes, they're playing with a cord. They love electrical cords and since they can't have the real, plugged in ones, I let him knaw on this one. It's under adult supervision!)

Unfortunately, this week we haven't had any friends over so he gets to play with the trash. I was making dinner and I heard him crawling around and then I heard the can go down and him bonk his head. I waited for the cry, but it didn't come. Finally, I walked over and found him just laying under the trash like this. Totally content to just take a break. I wonder how long he would've stayed like that if I hadn't picked him up. Funny boy.

And finally, I did another post for Cidoa. If you're interested, click here.