VIP Eclipse Party!

I was the lucky winner of a VIP package to a pre-screening of Eclipse (Thank you, Nordstrom!!), so I invited some of my besties & we had a much-needed girls night out!!  We watched New Moon first ... can I just say the theatre was like a zoo during this movie.  Hooting, howling, people constanting up & down, talking, cell phones, etc, but we did lots of laughing, giggling & had a great time making fun of the movie!

Eclipse was a different story ... the theatre was quiet ... except for when Jacob stated the obvious to Edward, "I'm hotter than you" and when Victoria's head got lopped off ... SO funny!  We had security in the theatre from Summit so I think that kept people in line a bit better.

The movies get better as they go, so Breaking Dawn better continue the trend!

Thanks for a great night out!!

Camp Devotionals & Young Women Handouts

This is a 12x12 page with a few different handouts.  The pink candle handout was very popular among the girls.  We just attached a birthday cake candle to the handout, but I think the girls really liked the poem.  For the "absorb the prophets teachings" handout, I just attached a sample-size of lotion.  And then the circle handout was attached to some inexpensive nail files.

*Please print with a lustre or matte finish!!  The words get difficult to read with a glossy finish.

Superhero Camp Devotional or Young Women Handout: Service

Here is a handout that can be used for a Young Women handout or Girls Camp Devotional on service.  My stake's theme for girls camp was something that had to do with superheros so each ward picked a superhero.  When I came across those poem, I knew we had to use it!

Party City has superhero pencils that you could attach horizontally across the bottom of the handout.  *I recommend that you print this handout somewhere like Costco with a matte/lustre finish.  This handout is 5x7", but you could crop some of the bottom off if you'd like to make it 4x6".

VIP PASS to Eclipse

I sold the 3 tickets I had listed on my blog and now I have something a little bit different ....

I am selling 8 (or possibly more) VIP Passes to New Moon & Eclipse.  The showing of these two movies will be on June 29 @ 6:30pm @ the Harkins Theatre inside Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall.  VIP Pass holders will have their own theatre & will get to participate in fun events like photos ops, cosmetic touch-ups, etc.

Please feel free to contact me for more info.  I'm not sure how much $$ I'd like for the tickets, so feel free to make me an offer on all or some if this is something that interests you.

Thanks!

*FREE* Tickets: Summer Movie Fun

I have some free movie tickets available for the Harkins Summer Movie Fun program.  My tickets are good for the Chandler Crossroads 12 location (near Gilbert & Germann Rds, just south of the San Tan-202) for Tuesdays.  Doors open at 9:00 am and the movie starts at 9:45 am.

I am not able to use my tickets for the Tues, July 6th showing of Astro Boy.  The movie is rated PG & I have 5 tickets for the show.

Let me know if you want some tickets!

P.S.  Ladies ... I know you wanna see Eclipse.  Make me an offer ... any offer for my 3 tickets to Nordstrom's exclusive pre-showing!  I just posted on ad on Craigslist this morning.  Theses tickets are selling (not asking price) for $20-60 per seat on ebay & craigslist.  I won't be offended by lowball offers, too!

Twilight Fan? Want Eclipse Tickets?

Sorry ... these tickets are sold!

Do you wanna see Eclipse from the
Twilight saga before everyone else?

I am selling THREE tickets to a pre-showing of ECLIPSE!!!

Details:

Tuesday, June 29th @ 9:30 pm

(see it the night before & still get home at a decent hour!)

Harkins Theatres Fashion Square
(inside Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall)

7014 East Camelback Rd., Scottsdale, AZ

**Tickets for this show are not available to the public!  This is a BP Nordstrom exclusive event!!  I am selling 3 lanyards which is required for admission.  Admission is only good for the day, time, & location specified.  There are no refunds or exchanges available from me or Nordstrom stores.

Nordstrom recommends that you arrive early & with your entire party.  Seating will begin at 8:00pm on a first-come, first-served basis.  They expect every seat to be filled!  There will also be fun pre-show events like photos ops & complimentary cosmetics touch-ups. 

Don't miss out!! I am selling 3 tickets together (I prefer to sell all 3 seats to one person rather than splitting them up) for $60.00 total OBO.  If you are interested, please respond quickly!!!  Give me your best offer! Please respond by sending me a text (no calls, plz!), an email, or by leaving me a comment, but make sure if you leave a comment, I have a way to respond to your comment.  :)

And just to get you all jazzed up ...

Young Women Lesson #23 Fasting Brings Blessings

Yesterday I taught YW lesson #23 in manual 2: Fasting Brings Blessings.

I made this handout:

Don't "Blow It" when it comes to

practicing the law of the fast!

You can attach blow-pops like I did (16 Blow Pops for under $2 @ Wal-Mart) or Kleenex could work as well.  If I were to make a new handout for this lesson, I'd stick with a bubble letter font, but make the font smaller so that the tags turn out smaller.

The lesson starts out with 11 scriptures that finish the phrase "Fasting is ....".  You could make a worksheet and have the girls do a fill-in-the-blank type thing.  I decided I wanted to make it a group effort so I printed the scriptures and the end of the phrases on seperate strips of paper. (strips of paper with be different sizes) Before YW began, I used magnets to put all the strips of paper on the black board (mixed-up, of course) & then the girls had a little friendly competition to see who could match up the scriptures with the correct phrases the fastest.  I used a font with a neck-ties since it was Father's Day, but I could easily change.

I had my kids color the neckties for a little project. :)

Interested in Online Schooling?

Come learn about K-12's online school program and see Toy Story 3 for only $2 per person!

Are you interested? Go here.

This is for AZ residents or people visiting AZ on June 28th, but similar events may be available in other states.

Night Owl Coupon

If you are up late like me & would like to make a food run, try this coupon.

Lost Wisdom

Tuesday afternoon ... a very dreaded day in my book.  I've been putting off having my wisdom teeth removed for 10-12 years.  I've always had a good excuse ... couldn't afford the procedure, nursing a baby, concerts, just adopted a baby, etc.  This time I had no good excuse or way out.

The first several hours after surgery are a blur.  I kinda remember getting into a wheelchair and getting lots of ahhh's as I went past the front desk.  (Hubby must've forgotten my request to exit out the back door by the dumpster.)  I remember sleeping on my mom's couch for a while and then trying to eat something around 8pm.  Everything made me want to puke.

I've had some improvement the past few days, but my brain still feels really foggy, all I wanna do is sleep and I had to stop taking those horse pills that are supposed to be pain killers.  All they did was make me jittery, sleepy, nauseous, dizzy, etc.  Some people have told me I'm crazy cause I don't want to take all I can of those pills ... I guess I'm just a control freak cause I'd rather feel the pain and be in more control of my body.  I got the puffy cheeks ... much more on one side, but they definitely aren't cute chipmunk cheeks ... just sagging & swollen face & neck.  I'll spare you the photos .....

Hair Books

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about the book, The Colors of Us by Karen Katz.  I looked online a bit to find this book and ended up ordering it through Amazon.  Amazon is a dangerous place because they show you other similar books when you are getting ready to place your order.  I succombed to the pressure and ordered a couple other books for Peacock.

Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron

I Love My Hair by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley

Great books for little girls who might wear their hair in rows & beads!

Adventures in San Diego

{our hotel}

I experienced lots of new adventures this past weekend. For the first time in over seven years, Hubby & I went on a little trip with NO kiddies! I've never left my kids before and I was very apprehensive, but I decided to be brave and leave my kids with my parents. My husband’s company had a convention type thing in San Diego and spouses were invited to attend this all-expense paid event. I am so glad I succumbed to the pressure and tagged along!

{interior of hotel ... wish I would've gotten this shot at night

because the fabric hanging from the ceiling turned turquoise}

Our trip started out a bit rocky …. When we arrived at the gate to get on our flight, we found-out that our flight was delayed over 2 hours. I was less than thrilled to spend an extra 2 hours in a stinky airport, but we found some other dentists and their wives and quickly made some new friends which helped the time to fly by. After we landed in San Diego, Hubby & I had to deal with another mess concerning a rental car we were supposed to get and finally after an hour and a half, we called a taxi to come get us. Because we are usually traveling with our kids, we have always gotten rental cars in the past, so this was my first taxi ride ... a somewhat scary ride. By the time we got to our hotel, it was about 11:30pm. We were freezing cold, very hungry, tired & I was not in the best of moods. There was a Fox Sports Grill still open in the hotel, so we headed down to grab some dinner. The restaurant portion was closed, so we ate our dinner at the bar ... another first for me.  Hubby was smart and let me order dinner … mushroom pizza, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and banana bread pudding.

{view from our room}

Saturday morning we were up bright & early for the start of the convention. We had breakfast & then we all went into a huge room with a movie screen two or three times the size of a Harkins screen. Our morning was filled with motivational speakers, a live band, other entertainment, food, food, and more food. I have no idea how many people were in attendance, but I would guess a couple thousand.

{view from front door of hotel}

We were given an afternoon break, so I *dragged* Hubby on a 3 mile walk to Extraordinary Desserts. I had heard rave reviews about their desserts & I kept seeing people at the hotel with little white boxes from there, so I was desperate to go try it for myself. I chose the Dame Chocolat with this description: “This cake is the Grande Dame of chocolate tortes. Dark and intense chocolate mousse sits atop a light layer of flourless chocolate cake creating a richly irresistible chocolate experience.” I figure each bite of this cake cost me about $0.50, but it was to die for!! My new quest in life is to try to duplicate this baby.

On our way back to the hotel, we met up with our new friends, Ryan & Heidi at the mall and chatted a bit.  We found out that Heidi goes running every morning with one of our friends from Pittsburgh, Angie Berni.  Small world.

{heidi & ryan}

Saturday evening, we dressed up in our fancies and attended an awards ceremony which was followed by a nice dinner … the waiters came around and put napkins on our laps for us … nice. We spent most of the day hanging out with our good friends from Pittsburgh, Rob & Ashley. When we moved to Pittsburgh, Rob & Ashley were some of the first people we met. They showed up at our house to help us unload our moving truck and since we lived pretty close to each other, Ashley and I got together to scrapbook a few times. I think Ashley was also my visiting teaching partner for about three years and she was always there for me when I had adoption issues & other problems to complain about.

{ashley, rob, hubby & me}

After dinner, we went up to the “hospitality suite” and we girls did what we do best … sat & talked for hours. :)

Sunday morning I was up before 6am (I have my kids to thank for that!) and I couldn’t fall back asleep, so Hubby & I went for a walk on the boardwalk while we waited for our friends to get up & ready for the day.

We all (Rob, Ashley, Ryan, Heidi, Hubby & me) met for breakfast. The buffet was good, but the best part was just being able to sit there for two hours, casually eat our food, enjoy the view, and socialize with good friends … with no interruptions.

We all shared cabs back to the airport and then 4-5 dental couples took over the rear of the plane & had more fun on the ride home. I hope we can all get together again sometime soon to share good times & complain some more about dentistry!

Girls Camp Recipes Part II

More fun camping recipes:

Banana Boats

You need: Bananas (1 per person), chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, nuts, toffee, peanut butter, &/or other goodies & toppings.

Break the banana top & peel only one section down.  Do NOT remove the banana from the peel.  Starting at the top of the banana and coming down, scoop out some of the banana with a spoon to make it look like a boat.  Put your toppings into the banana boat & then close the banana back up.  Wrap banana in foil & place in coals.  Cook for about 10 minutes or until chocolate & marchmallows are melted.  Unwrap & eat. :)

Soft/Hard Boiled Eggs (no pot)

Get a sheet of newspaper thoroughly damp.  Place an egg on the paper and roll it up.  Place newspaper/egg bundle in the coals.  Cook for the same amount of time as you would for a boiled egg.  5min=soft, 10 min=hard boiled.  Remove bundle & unwrap.  Crack egg and gently break open to eat.

Girls Camp Cooking

Because of fire restrictions, we Arizonians have to do some of our camp cooking requirements before we actually leave for camp.  Our ward made a few fun recipes that I thought all campers might enjoy.

Dutch Oven Breakfast - Breakfast Casserole

8 slices of bread
2 lbs. sausage, cooked
16 oz. grated cheese
12 eggs
4 C milk
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt

*Line your dutch oven with foil and spray lightly with oil.  Crumble the bread into the oven then top with crumbled, cooked sausage.  Cover with cheese.  In a bowl, mix eggs, mustard, and salt.  Pour egg mix onto the bread, sausage, & cheese. Cover & bake for about 35 minutes.

Breakfast Muffins in an Orange Cup

Muffin Mix - any flavor (we used cranberry)
Oranges

*Mix the muffin mix according to package directions.  Cut about 1/3 of the orange off, rind & all.  Using a spoon, scoop out the insides of the orange into a Ziploc bag, leaving a clean orange cup.  Spoon muffin mix into orange cup, filling about 1/2 full.  Put orange "lid" back on.  Wrap orange in foil.  Place in coals and cook for about 15 minutes.  While you wait, you can eat your orange from the baggie.  Test muffin for doneness by inserting a toothpick; when it comes out clean, your muffin is done!

The Ugly Duckling - Girls Camp Devotional or Young Women Handout

Another one of my laurels also wanted to do a devotional with the self-worth theme, but she wasn't as excited about the Sneetches.  She is going to read the book, The Ugly Duckling  and attach mini rubber duckies ($0.50 each at Party City) to this handout:

To print, I just put 4 of the ads on a page & then printed on cardstock.

The Sneetches - Girls Camp Devotional or Young Women Handout

I am in charge of helping my laurels come up with some devotionals & handouts for girls camp.  Both my laurels are YCL's (Youth Camp Leaders) this year so they get to help the younger girls have fun while at camp.  They are each responsible for coming to camp with 2 prepared devotionals and at each devotional, they'll be teaching about 20 other girls & leaders.

One idea I came up with (with the help of my momma) was a lesson or devotional about self-worth.  Our idea is to read the book, The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss and then give each of the girls STAR-burst candy with this handout:

This is a 12x12 scrapbook page that can be printed somewhere like Costco and then you get 9 handouts per page.  When you get a handout printed, they always turn-out much nicer & easier to read with a lustre or matte finish.

Last night I took my laurels shopping to Wal-Mart & Party City to get a few supplies.  You can get a bag of individually wrapped Starburst candies (I think about 80 candies came in a bag) for about $2.00. 

Registration is Open!

We live in a society where much is fleeting, and gratification is often instantaneaous.  As a result, fewer families are making long-term commitments to activities that require true focus and perseverance. There has been enormous success with the East Valley Mormon Chorale Organization & this is an organization that can offer an eternally rewarding experience to children, youth & adults.   

For the 2010-2011 season, singers will be taught in the areas of music history, theory, rhythm, sight singing, music notation, vocal skills, and performance skills.

To register for this program, please go to http://www.evmco.org/

June 8-30: Early Bird Registration for Fall Quarter, 10% discount

July 1-Sept 2: Normal Registration, standard tuition

Sept 2-13: Late Registration, additional $20 per registrant

Sept 2: First rehearsal

Dec 4: Christmas Concert at Mesa Arts Center

There are FOUR choirs for kids ... ages 4 through 12th grade are welcome.

Adult choir & symphony auditions are in August.  Rehearsals also begin in August because we will be participating in a Rob Gardner performance.  If you'd like to audition, go to http://www.evmco.org/ to set-up an appointment.  If you want audition info (what's required) for the symphony, let me know ... I have all that in an email that I can forward to you.

The Colors of Us

On a recent trip to the library, we checked out the book The Colors of Us by Karen Katz.  The first page of the book reads, "My name is Lena, and I am seven. Mom says I am the color of cinnamon.  Mom says she could eat me up."  How cute is that?  Peacock has decided that she is chocolate brown like birthday cupcakes! I recommend this book for all kids, but particularly for kids who are adopted and might not be the same color as the rest of their family.  It's a great way to help kids learn that all colors are beautiful in their own, special way.  I think we'll be adding this book to our family library!!

Road Trips

Yesterday we went up "North" again to take another looksie around where Hubby is thinking about working.  It's the third time we've been up there in a week plus our trip to New Mexico means I haven't been home much recently.  I like to be home.  I like my own potty!

Right now I'm feeling a bit confused or stressed.  On one hand, we need a real, full-time job & I want Hubby to just hurry up and pick something.  Hubby will be lucky to work 1 1/2 days this week.  Can't live off less than part-time income!  On the other hand, I feel like I wanna keep waiting around for some perfect opportunity to fall into my lap, but I'm not really sure what perfect is.  Maybe perfect has fallen into my lap and I just don't know it yet.  Going up "North" means a lot of sacrafices for me.  Hubby says I need to focus more on the positives, but lately the negatives seem to be out-weighing the positives ... but I'm trying.  I'm trying hard to figure out how we can make this work for not only Hubby but the whole family.

I don't know what I'm allowed to tell people about the job, location, etc cause we signed paperwork saying we wouldn't share certain information.  It will be nice when everything is signed, sealed & delivered and I can share more about what we've been up to recently.  And I'll work on a house with a guest room so you can come visit me sometime!  :)

On our way back to the valley a few days ago, we stopped in Santa Fe for a few hours and wandered the downtown area.  They had lots of fun little restaurants & cafes, but I just wasn't hungry.  Go to Santa Fe when you're hungry!

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent our Memorial Day Weekend in

northern New Mexico ...

we found a beautiful, relaxing little spot!

{Turkey's new buddy ... Alex}

{backyard of the house we stayed at ...
right on a golf course & so relaxing}

What a Turkey!

I got a little side-tracked this morning and I thought Turkey was with his daddy.  Turkey obviously thought he needed some lotion ....