Second Hour Special Activity

This year our church had a strong initiative to 

focus on Jesus Christ not just at Christmas, but throughout the year,

all the way to Easter.

I am on the activities committee in our ward.

I say committee loosely, as their are only 2 of us!

We had the task of planning the ward Easter activity.

We wanted it to be Christ focused, and a little more special

than the usual to help bring home this initiative!

Our general plan seemed to be a go!

Luckily before we put too many things into motion did we realize

that a boy in our ward was having his wedding reception 

the same night as the activity! 

The general consensus of the ward council was to move the activity so ward

members could support that family.

There were zero other possible times to move the activity to.

Luckily being married to the bishop means you get

to brainstorm and have your own mini meetings 

on the spot!

We pitched a plan, and it took.

We would have our Easter activity on Palm Sunday,
durning the 2nd hour of church.

The activity would also need to change drastically to make

 it Sunday appropriate. But I also wanted it to be fun and unique,

and not like a combined 5th Sunday lesson. 

Jenny and I mulled around ideas and felt like we had

figured something out!

Not going to lie, I was worried about the logistics of it all.

So many moving parts involved.

It was out of the normal church "routine" and I needed tons of help

from the auxiliary leaders...

Who were kind of confused on how it would all go since they

weren't involved in the planning.

Setting up alone would have to take magic as we are the 2nd ward in

our building, and could not do it the night before.

I prayed and felt guided and peace on how to get this thing to work.

There are literal angels in our ward, willing and ready to step in and help

with whatever needed to happen to pull this off.
Without them, it would have been a complete mess!

First things first, decoration prepping.

I was on instagram and saw 2 girls who crafted

a garden tomb out of basically trash.

Cardboard boxes, spray foam and paint!

It was absolutely amazing!

I must have already been being blessed by prayers 

because I am NOT a DIY person!

I thought to myself, how hard could that be?
I committed myself to make this as our focal point 

in the cultural hall.

Off I went to the trash can, lol!
Spoiler alert, I had lots of help from the aisles of Home Depot:)

It was going great.

Until I got deathly sick with that terrible stomach virus.

It sat like this for a week until I absolutely had no more time left

to tackle it to be done in time.

I was also starting to question my decision to make this beast, wondering 

if it would resemble anything like a tomb!! 

The big day was here!

Go time!!

We closed off the back cultural hall from people sitting there so

we could quietly prep what we could during Sacrament meeting.

It was almost like a staging room with things ready to go in different directions

the second church let out.

After Sacrament meeting, all of primary would head to the primary room

for a special lesson geared towards their age about Holy Week.

Same for the youth.

The adults also met together.

I left it up to the presidencies to decided who would teach and what they taught.

They would be mini lessons.

The last half of the 2nd hour we would gather all together in the cultural hall.

While everyone was in their lessons, we were crazy mad people

running around turning the church building into Jerusalem the best we could!

Our building is a giant circle, which helped the flow of things.

We dismissed the adults first.

On purpose:)

They were given directions to go down the hall and through the Triumphal entry.

We had giant palm fronds against the wall and a speaker with Hosanna being shouted as they

waited in line to get in the Passover room (relief society room). 

The pictures DO NOT show how cool it looked in person.

It was breathtaking and turned out better than I could have even imagined!

In the Passover room were tables chalk full of charcuterie foods.

 

After getting their plates they would walk down another hall leading to the cultural hall

where they would visit until the other 2 groups had been dismissed.

There were tables on the floor for kids to sit at.

We gathered all of the little tables to act like cocktail tables for the adults.

Right when you walked in we wanted them to see the tomb and a picture of Christ on the projector.

The garden tomb.
Not as cute as the one on instagram, but it did the job!

And it will be the one and only tomb I ever make!

The first group was done and getting food!

I was drenched in sweat.

But the smiles on everyones faces was making it worth the effort!

But then I saw the Stake Presidency had shown up and I was sweating all over again!

In about 10 minutes we were all gathered together!

We watched a quick video from the First Presidency on the projector.

Jenny shared a few thoughts about Sunday during Holy Week.

I shared some thoughts about Christ being the light in the darkness. 

How he brought light from Gethsemane to the tomb and to each of us

each day through His resurrection. 

His light is eternal!

I had a candle activity for anyone who wanted to make one and light on Easter morning.

Just like that, the hour flew by and it was time to end!

It went so smoothy and better than I could have imagined.

I truly feel like our original plans not working out was a blessing.
Even though I wanted to crawl in a hole at times!

This is what our ward needed.

The comments and feedback were so positive.

In fact, many declared this should be a new tradition!

I didn't need these words for my own validation or praise.

But I am always humbled and grateful when I can be apart of something

that has uplifted and helped others. 

The spirit of Holy Week was felt.

I pray that this can spark interest,

and continue in the homes of each family for years to come.

It was also gentle reminder that He is always in the details, even for ward parties!

April- Daily Life Stuff

I really only need 1 word to summarize our month... BASEBALL.

Boy did it eat us alive!

We really do love this time of the year.

I love watching the boys play.

 

 Having one on the JV team, and the other on Varsity nearly

did us in!

Casey and I never saw each other it seemed.

 One of us was at the away

game, while the other was at home.

Thankfully this situation will never happen to us again.

My stomach had a pit as each game made it one less for Lane, as

this chapter in his life was coming to a close.

But towards the end I was starting to count down as I was 

exhausted by the scheduling of it all along with the girls calendar! 

The senior pictures posted proudly.

 

Rusty in the dugout.

He has a serious love for this game.

He was catcher most of the season.

The cheering section!

I stubbed my toe and it was an ouchy!

Good thing it was flip flop season.

On top of baseball, it was also dance competition season!

I did very subtle Easter decorations this year.

I wish I could grow flowers like my neighbor.

Loved that she shared her blossoms with me!

I have many friends with children getting married.
Which means lots of helping at receptions!

I love how we all chip in, so

when it's your turn you get to reap the benefits!

Mallory Blau has always been such a sweet ward girl,

hard to believe she is married now!

They had a darling trailer to order drinks from.

I think it was such a hit because they had the cutest boy working the counter:)

I love that they showed up matching, unplanned.

These boys poured, mixed and served sodas for 2.5 hours straight!

I kept watching the line and it never let up!

I see a soda shop in their future!

I got to manage the charcuterie boards all night with my friends.

 

Sometimes I don't ask questions...

It was 10pm when Lane came walking in with Sawyer and Mia, poster board and

markers in hand.

He was asking Sadie to prom.

I read "chick" and assumed he was using a stuffed chick from the Easter

selections at Walmart.

Nope!

He said, did you know Pets Mart doesn't sell baby chicks?

Yep, sort of did.

Plan B, go borrow a full grown chicken from Sawyers cousin.

And his cousin begged Lane to be good to it as it was his favorite one!

The boys laughed and said it was a SPED chicken, so he would never

know if it got dropped (oh boy). 

We were hit with a literal stomach plague.

Never have we ever had so much barfing in our home at once!

It started with Della.

I was up ALLLL night with her on the toilet while holding

the barf bowl.

She was in SO much pain!

I kept thinking she would eventually get it all out and go lay down.

Just as she would stand up to head to the couch, more would come out.

I thought she was going to start pooping organs, she had nothing left to give!!

I contemplated the ER as I had never experienced a sickness like this.

In fact, I had gone to grab her shoes to load her up in the car to take her

in, when for some reason I decided to text Marcie.

We had a play date lined out that morning and I was telling her we

needed to cancel.

She said I was about to text you the same thing!

Landon was up all night throwing up.

We had Sunday dinner the night before together.

A few texts later, more confirmed barfing by others.

We all had caught a nasty bug!

The next day Rusty and Lindi were down.

Usually we are fine a couple of days later.

This lasted ALL week!!

I even started throwing up.

Which NEVER happens to me!

It truly sucked the life out of me.

It was HORRIBLE!!!

To add to the chaos, we remodeled our master bathroom!

It is crazy how fast time flies.

Casey said we just remodeled it, how is it so bad already?

We calculated 10 years since our original remodel.

That is the most used space in our whole house.

All of the kids shower in there.

It was worn and growing things in the shower we could not get rid of.

It is a smaller space, so just redoing the shower snowballed into 

ripping out the whole thing!

Before:

After:

I LOVE how it turned out!!

It is so bright, fresh, and clean!

I feel like I am in a fancy resort every time I take a shower!

Lanes Mission Call!

While Casey and I were in CA for his birthday, Lane text saying

that his call had come!

I honestly thought it wouldn't get here until the following week,

so I was surprised!!

It was tricky as it was Spring Break.

He wanted to open it with as many family and friends as possible.

So he waited a whole week to open it!!

I would not have had that much strength to not peek!

He was adamant about waiting, and not opening it up with just our 

family first.

He wanted to be surprised along with everyone else.

This is his thing.

His sacrifice, his decision to serve.

I respected whatever he wanted to do!

It was tricky trying to coordinate a time,

as many of his friends were opening theirs as well.

We didn't want to take away from them.
One of them being his best friend, Sawyer!

We were able to split the night with Sawyer.

He would open his first at his home, then an hour

later Lane would.

Talk about the best kind of time tetris!

We got everything set up so it was ready to go!

 

We headed over to the Perkins where Sawyer
opened his call to Xalapa, Mexcico!

He had already opened his with his family.

So he already knew where he was going.

Then the crowds starting shifting over to our house!

The map filling up with all of the guesses.

Then it was time!!

My heart was pounding at this point!

I was pretty zoned out while he was reading the opening part of his call,

there were so many people and I was trying to video.

Then he paused and read where he will be serving!

He didn't really know how to pronounce it...

all I heard was Calappa, Mexico.

To be honest I was trying to process Mexico.
That was one place I was hesitant to send one of my children!

I was also thinking what are the chances of both of them going to Mexico?!

Then he read he would report July 28th.

I could hear chattering, and then some yelling...

WAIT, THAT'S THE SAME MISSION AS SAWYER!!!

I think Lane wasn't registering it as well.

Sawyer came up to look at it.
He pronounced it wrong because, hello, Spanish names are hard to say correctly.

IT WAS!! 

Xalapa, Mexico!!

He butchered the "X", lol. 

The exact mission, reporting on the exact same day!!

Everyone erupted with screams and excitement!!

I love these progression pictures of the whole moment.

 This picture of me, my face says it all.

I was in complete SHOCK!!!

What are the chances of this happening?!

I have no doubt Heavenly Father is in the details on this.
How can we deny this is exactly where he needs to serve!

My worries about sending him to Mexico quickly diminished.

It was such a happy evening with so many hugs going around !!

Elder Goodman has a nice ring to it!

Of course Lane is blurry in the one family picture
I tried to snap once the last person left.

Lane said he was extra grateful he hadn't read his call beforehand.

Because when he went to Sawyers opening he would have had

to try to hold in that they got the same call!

It really did make Lanes opening that more special and exciting. 

He was inspired!

All I know is that Mexico is getting 2 of the very best!

Hoorah for Israel!!