"Y" Does B"Y"U Run Our Lives?

As usual--last week we had what is usually a weekly activity: a BYU basketball game. Before the Gonzaga game we met up with Randy and Susan Bambrough at La Jolla Groves for dinner. (Sorry, no picture of them.)

We had eaten at the one in Salt Lake City on Valentine's Day with Glen's nephew and his wife, Clint and Michelle. It was my first La Jolla Groves experience and Glen's second time there.

I was impressed with the beautiful restaurant and the beautiful presentation of the food.

It is now my new favorite restaurant! The one in Provo had an exceptionally beautiful scene for us outside its doors. (This picture would be so much more romantic if Glen didn't have a big "Y" plastered across his chest.)

During the starting line-up announcements, there was another big "Y" we saw which was quite impressive. The students are all wearing white except for the few strategically placed ones who were wearing blue. Awesome!!!

We saw Craig and Kathy Beals at the game (Craig works with Glen) and shockingly enough, out of the half million seats in the Marriott Center--their seats were on the row exactly right in front of us!

Here we are looking so happy to be there. We know Glen's genuine, total and utter glee and excitement at being at every game. My happy face was genuine during halftime.

No, it wasn't because of the cheerleaders or the Cougarettes doing their stuff. It was because Cosmo and his Cosmoettes (or whatever they were called) brought trampolines out and were doing all sorts of fancy acrobatic tricks dunking basketballs. It was very entertaining.

Lucky us. We had another basketball game Saturday night. Two games in one week. We all know one of us was ecstatic over this fact. The other of us was just a super good sport.

Quotes of the Week

"Learning without thinking is labor lost; thinking without learning is dangerous."
-- Chinese Proverb

"If your parents ever measured you as a child, they had you stand against a wall, and made a little pencil mark on the wall to show your growth. They did not measure you against your brother, or the neighbor's kids, or kids on TV. When you measure your growth, make sure to only measure your today self by your past self. If you compare your relationships, your success, or your anything against anyone else, you are not being fair to you. Everyone has a different path, a different pace, and different challenges to face along the way."
-- Doe Zantamata

"It is not good enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."
-- Rene Descartes

Decorate Your Cake and Eat It, Too

It was the Young Women's turn to plan the combined activity with the Young Men this month. Decision made--cake decorating! We had the cake stations all set up with the supply table at the far end.

The youth were able to use any of the food items or small toys that were on the table. The army guys were very popular as well as the clown heads.

Then it was up to them to get their creative juices flowing.

We tried to pair them up one boy and one girl per cake. It was fun to see what each group came up with.

Spencer Brewster decided to work with Brother Karl Badger (the ones at the end of the long table) and came up with a camouflage cake.

Julia Jacobson and Joseph Young put the marshmallows to good use.

 Haley Nielsen and Harrison Young designed an island scene with ships passing by.

Lexi Boyer worked down on the far end of the table with Riley Collins and they depicted a scene from history...

...the Bay of Pigs.

Rachel Cole (one of my Mia Maids) and Dylan Cozzens (the middle pair) made a RIP cake of one of our YW leaders--Karlyn Busdicker.

Gabby Todd (another Mia Maid) and Alex Pope (front pair at the table) made this scene of bloody carnage. The soldiers are shooting the teddy bears.

 At the far end of this table we have Kylee Jensen and Daniel Pope.

They made this Spongebob Squarepants creation. I have never watched the show so I don't even know about it. I thought it was a lighthouse.

Carly Cluff (at the front of the long table) and her partner Grayden Bailey (at the supply table) were having a very hard time frosting their cake. After several tries and a lot of stress, they finally made their circus-themed cake come to life.

In the middle of the table we had Taylor Collins and Kelsey Mills. They did not even bother frosting their cake and just used the brown as their backdrop to their cake scene.

Looks like there was a plane crash and people died because you can see their mutilated bodies all around.

This was a group of three working together--Tanaya George, Tyler Brewster and Thomas Baskin.

They had an Olympic theme going on and by the looks of the colored strips of paper in the second picture, it was one of the more popular cakes.

Each person was given three strips of paper and they could vote which cake they liked the best by putting a strip of paper by the cake to cast their vote--red for first, blue for second and yellow for third choice.

The sunshine cake evolved from this...

...to this. The creator was Kelson Lee. Both he and his brother wanted to work individually.

Marissa Brewster and Lauren Short (Mia Maid) arrived late and got paired together and made a lovely rainbow decoration.

Thomas Baskin and Lauren Cunningham made a snowflake cake.

 I am not exactly sure who made this lovely creation.

 Kyden Lee was very pleased with his very own clown-with-boombox work of art.

Taylor was having a birthday that night, so we sang to him. He was so proud of his cake creation he wanted to take it home with him and not eat it there.

The cakes were supposed to be the refreshments for the evening, but surprisingly enough, most of the cakes were taken home uneaten, and most of the people taking the cakes home were the boys. They were very proud of what they had made.

This is the winning cake. I am happy to report it was created by a partnership including one of my Mia Maids.

It was a super fun activity. Both the boys and the girls had a great time.

At first the men leaders were giving Jamie Jensen, our YW President, a hard time about the cake decorating idea. Jamie told them it was their payback for them making us play dodge ball one month. By the end of the evening, even the men leaders were admitting it was a great activity. Hooray!! Success!!

Never a Dull Moment

There is never a dull moment when in the Young Women presidency. Remember the "U" problem we had with no stamp to match the other letters?

Well I was able to make a stencil from a letter I enlarged on the computer and by dabbing a tissue on the stamp pad and then dabbing on the stencil, I was able to make a passable "U" to complete our "Come Unto Christ" banners.

It was a lot of work, but when we saw pictures of the banners hanging in the girls' bedrooms, it made it all worth the effort.

After the Young Men and Young Women worked so hard last month to put together a talent show for each other, we took our show on the road--to the Waikoloa assisted living care center. The residents seemed to enjoy all the acts.

Here are the Mia Maids putting on their midget act. We enlisted the help of one of the Beehives (in the blue shirt) to help us out when one of our Mia Maids couldn't make it that night.

Look! It's that same little Beehive who decided to photo bomb me, Sarah and Rebecca when we took the YW to see the production of  "Aida" at the high school. Cute Carly Cluff.

The rest of the Beehives wanted in on the photo bombing--Tanaya George, Carly, Marissa Brewster and Kelsey Mills.

I thought I didn't have any of my Mia Maids going, so I invited my daughters to go to the play with me. Then one of my Mia Maids decided to go, but she went with her friend and so I was left alone just as I suspected and I was glad I had company.

This is a picture of everything I was hauling up to the church for our combined Young Men/Young Women activity this week. We planned to do cake decorating. I made 6 boxes of cake mixes totalling 12 cakes. Another woman brought 4 cakes for a grand total of 16 cakes.

More about the actual activity coming up...