Search This Blog

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Box Social

As some of you might know I am co-chair of the Family Home Evening Committee in my ward. This means that I get to plan and carry out activities every Monday evening for anywhere from 15-50 people. When I first received the calling in August, I decided that my co-chair and I should meet and try to plan three months in advance instead of trying to pull together ideas each week. Andrew and I met and planned out activities until Halloween. While we were planning, my roommate mentioned that her ward in Idaho once did a box social. My only experience with a box social is watching Oklahoma, where Laurey’s basket of food is bid on my Curly and Judd, the two rivals for her affections. Curley even sells his saddle and horse in order to win the basket and date with Laurey.

The point of a lunch box social in the past has always been to raise money. Women would make a meal and place it in a decorated basket or box. Men would then bid on the boxes. The top bidder would then share the meal with the maker of the basket of food. In order to simplify the process we decided that it would be a dessert box social instead of a lunch box social. Also, we decided that people would bet with skittles instead of money since we were more interested in the social aspect of the situation.

We had a hard time publicizing it because of Stake and Ward conference but we did the best we could, including sending a Facebook invitation to those ward members that use Facebook and an e-mail to the entire ward. We planned to do it at church but found out the night before that it wouldn’t be available. We planned on having it outside but it rained. Despite these two bumps in the road, it ended up to be a good experience. We ended up with 28 people, which is actually pretty good for an activity that hasn’t been attempted in our ward before. 15 girls and 2 guys brought boxes. 11 other guys showed up so we were almost evenly matched. It was so fun to see how each of the boxes were decorated. Some people just used a simple gift bag but some really went all out. For example, Marne made one that looked like a box right out of a Mario game. One girl did leopard print and another used green duct tape.

My co-chair, Andrew, was the auctioneer and he did a great job. My box, with two pieces of cake from Gloria’s Little Italy, was bought by Tyson, who is friend of mine. All the couples sat down and enjoyed their desserts (although a few had three in their group since girls outnumbered guys.) People who had never really spent much time together got a chance to talk and get to know each other. All in all I think it was a pretty good activity. I totally give props to R, my roommate, for the idea.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Excellent pasta and company

Have you ever wanted to be in two places at once? I did on Friday night. I wanted to have fun with Jordan, Alison, Isaac, and Aaron and I wanted to be taking pictures of it. While I did have fun, I did not take one single, solitary picture of any of us. I probably made the right choice.
Earlier in the week I received an e-mail from my youngest brother informing me that he had a few days off and he and his family wanted to come down to see me. It was decided that Friday was the best day. He and Alison decided to cook dinner and I offered to buy some ingredients for the occasion. Jordan told me what to buy, which I did that very night. At work on Friday I could scarcely think of my work as I was preparing to see my family. I originally wanted to leave work at 4:30pm but didn't get away until almost 5pm (darn that busy boss of mine; I couldn't abandon him in his time of need though.) I stopped by Gloria's to pick up dessert and then raced home. On my way there I spoke to Jordan and discovered that they were running late due to rush hour traffic. They arrived at my house just a minute or two ahead of me. The whole family got the grand tour and the dinner preparations began. All in all we ended up with amazing mushroom pasta, salad, garlic bread, broccoli, and cake for dessert.
After dinner, which was excellent, Alison went shopping while Jordan and I took the boys on a walk through the park to the library. We walked around looking at books, movies, and the various pieces of art. We also ran up and down a small hill and checked a statue's ears to see if they were dirty or. (They were. Isaac told a reference librarian who promised to clean them with a Q-Tip.) We didn't leave until almost 8:30pm, which is past the bedtime of at least one little boy. The boys were changed into pajamas once we returned to my house and began jumping on couch cushions. They were then whisked away by their parents, much to the dismay and sadness of their Aunt Jess.
It is times like these that I hold precious. My one regret living down here is that I don't get to see my nieces and nephews as much as I would like. The closest one is 40 miles away. While 40 miles is nothing to someone who lives several states away from their family, I think it a very long distance. Despite the time and effort, I think I am going to make more of an effort to visit all my nieces and nephews. What a great night.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Not quite what I wanted.....

Months ago I decided to make a gift for each of my nieces and nephews. My last gift, until the next baby is born, is for Ava. A week ago I painted a bowel for her. I picked it up today but was disappointed with how it turned out.

The yellow and brown both turned out the wrong shade. I am currently deciding whether to give it to her and her parents or make a new one. I don't know; what does everyone think?

This week

It's been another busy week. On Monday, for FHE, I helped two women from the ward move. Afterwards, I provided Popsicles for everyone. (Before you think I'm naturally generous, let it be known that it was my job.) It was a long day on Tuesday at work, as I was trying to prepare for my boss' trip to San Francisco and Seattle. After work, I went and ate sushi with my roommate and a friend of hers. Wednesday started out slow. Since my boss was gone I was able to catch up on a lot of work that I had gotten behind on.
On Wednesday afternoon I found out that I had to book a new trip to New York and book a different flight for my boss. I then found out that I had to switch the flight of another person. The other Exec Assistant, NJ, had to switch the flight of her boss as well. We finally got all the flights, hotels, and rental cars sorted out by 6:50pm. By that time I had missed my dinner plans with friends, so I joined some of them for a movie. I went to the theater, 5 minutes after the previews had started, and bought candy and soda to eat for dinner. I then watched My Sister's Keeper. By the end I was sobbing. The scenes in the hospital and the funeral reminded me of Caleb. I went home with the sniffles and a stomach ache.
On Saturday I volunteered at the Timp Storytelling Festival. Before everyone gets too excited, let it be known that I spent the entire time in the parking lot directing cars and telling people where they could and could not park. It was a long, sweaty volunteer shift. I didn't end up going to the festival because I was too tired. Luckily, the tickets didn't go to waste. They ended up with a coworker of mine. After I went shopping, I showered and fell into bed.
Yesterday was another excellent day at church: 3 hours of spiritual uplift and then break-the-fast with the ward. I ended up making banana muffins. Today I am home from work, although there was a slight emergency that I had to take care of. (There's nothing like receiving a IM, e-mail, and phone call from work within a few minutes of each other.) I had to arrange a hotel and car for a visitor from the UK. This week should be just as crazy as the last. We have less than two weeks until my work hosts a conference in Provo. On top of that, my boss' wife is expecting a child in a week and a half. I'm excited for them but we have a lot to accomplish before he takes time off for the birth.
Well, it's time to clean the house and then run some errand. I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day.