Girl's Camp Fundraiser

So this year for the fundraiser the girls decided on doing a mexican fiesta dinner and a silent auction (well the leaders kind of decided and the girls ok'd it!) We started in January by promoting it and passing around sign up sheets for donations for the auction. Our ward was so incredibly generous! We had over 50 items and about 20 desserts for the live auction. I was also very fortunate that my Uncle is VERY generous and donated a ton of Xbox and Wii games and accessories for the auction. I asked him if he had anything lying around his office and I really thought he would just send one game....well he sent a HUGE box of stuff, all brand new!!
The girls were very involved and helped out a ton with their fundraiser! They made up the auction sheets, made reminder calls, made the flyers, donated services, wrote the thank you notes, set up, etc! For dinner we had sweet pork, chipolte chicken, and ground beef with lettuce, tomato, fresh made salsa, homemade refried and black beans, homemade lime rice, chips, and yummy tortillas. I think people were impressed that it was 'authentic'. Everything was made from scratch! The decorations were beautiful! The girls made the tissue flower centerpieces and all of the table cloths and runners were donated from a wedding the week before the auction! One of the YW was the emcee and Matt was our auctioneer for the desserts! He is good at that kind of thing haha.  Oh yeah and we also had a talent show that night! Busy busy night packed with FUN! We had a lot of help from everyone in the ward and we are so so grateful for it. In the end the girls raised enough money to cover girl's camp (including the leaders)!


Getting ready and writing Thank you notes to all the donators!

Silent Auction tables

 

 

 

 

We had so many great items and some of them went for a ton of money! Ward members donated Suns tickets, crafts, services, gift certificates for hair cuts, laser treatements, craft classes, and professional teeth whitening! The only thing I forgot to auction off was a bounce house rental...I'm still upset I forgot! Thanks anyways Poiette!!

 

The lemonade was even homemade!

 

 

Matt made this golf cake for the live auction! He is the domestic one in this relationship! So talented.  

Sensitive

This is what I needed to hear today.

Infertility is so much more than not having a baby in your arms.

Adieu, Adieu, To You And You And You

This year has been an eventful and exciting one thus far. We've said good-bye to familiar faces and hello to new opportunities. The most notable (and really only good-bye) was said to Hyatt two weeks ago. That was a hard one. I will passionately miss the free hotel nights. I may never go to Hawaii again because I cannot bear to stay in another hotel.

So we want to stay in Arizona and we figured that Matt needed to look around for an Arizona company. He applied to many places and finally received a call for an interview (I guess I shouldn't say finally since it was only a few weeks later!) His interview lasted 2 1/2 hours. It was really hard for him to leave Hyatt because it was his first job out of college and he's made some great friendships there. However, he really likes his new job! His new title is Facilities Operations Senior Manager with Banner Thunderbird Hospital.

We are really missing some of the Hyatt benefits....free nights (Matt says I shouldn't miss them yet, not until we go on vacation and realize we can't stay at the Hyatt but have to PAY to stay at the Best Western), free cafeteria food (now Matt has to make his lunch each night), uniforms (yep had to spend a ton of money on new shirts and pants and Matt has to remember to iron them each night. He doesn't let me iron because I never do a good job. I have no patience for the iron).

It is a really good move for us (and Matt!) We are happy to stay here in Phoenix. We love our ward and the friends we have made. We may not have a lot of family nearby but our friends have become family.

So that's the big change we are still getting used to. I also took on another job. My business is doing well and I'm keeping pretty busy but I have some time so I decided to look for some more work. I applied for a per-diem job with a home care agency and because of my Greenwich Woods days I was hired! I am a Medical Social Worker. Basically I just go into the homes of the elderly and help connect them to community resources. Works great with my schedule!

So that's the big news of 2012 so far. Hoping to have more big news in the future.

Subway Art-My New Obsession

Yes I am obsessed with subway art and yes I figured out how to make my own using Picnik. I know Picknik is closing down in a month so I am frantically making everything I can possibly think of! If you have a baby/get married/have a birthday/etc then you may get subway art from me haha. So here are a couple of posters I've created in the last week. I got these ideas from some posters online. I figured I could make my own and it was OK to copy ideas! Hope so!

 

So this poster is a list of all of my family members birthdays. The highlighted date is the day my mom and dad got married!

 

These dates are our birthdays and the date of our first date and our marriage date! I am finally getting around to decorating our bedroom so these are the colors I am doing it in.

I also made this poster for our girl's camp fundraiser. This one took me awhile because it was my first and I couldn't figure out how to resize it to fit on a 16x20 poster. I finally figured it out (by chance) but only after I pulled some of my hair out!

MOTAB

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed in Arizona for the state's centennial celebration on February 10th & 11th. The choir has not been to Arizona in forty-six years! Can you believe that?! They have been selling tickets for over a year in our wards and I knew I wanted to see them but I was holding out for some free tickets from Hyatt! Hyatt has a suite at the US Airways Center and they often give extra tickets to their employees. Matt put in a request 3 months ago and we were lucky enough to get 6 tickets to the Friday show. We invited my Aunt and Uncle and had the suite all to ourselves! The choir was spectacular as always! They sang my favorite song of theirs which is the African American spiritual, Rock-a-My Soul. Loved it. Matt and I were able to go to a few of the choir's concerts in SLC while we were at BYU. I've always loved listening to the choir and feeling the spirit.

Back to the Future

as in we need to travel back 46 days to Christmas so I can tell you all about our day! Matt and I spent Christmas in Phoenix again this year. We started off the morning with a yummy breakfast with Rhodes cinnamon rolls. Then we opened presents and guess what Matt got me?! An Ipad...I'm super spoiled. Guess what Matt got?! A scope...he is also super spoiled. This is why our wallets have remained closed the past 46 days. We were both very surprised. So then we went to church and then to my Aunt and Uncle's house for dinner. It was a nice Christmas. I loved going to church on Christmas Day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gussie thinks she is the best present we could ever get...I suppose she is right.

Target Clearance Rocks

I love Target Clearance, especially seasonal clearance. I always hit up the store the day after a holiday and this year I was eyeing these beauties all December long! Oh what fun we had for $5.