Proud mamma of an Eagle Scout!

This past Sunday we finally held Jordan's Eagle Court of Honor.  He had earned his Eagle award a couple of months ago, but as usual time slipped by with summer activities, Girls camp, Scout camp, vacations, work, life, etc. You know how it is!

I think the hardest part was setting a date, once that was done I was able to get to work on preparing for the event ......well, more like work really hard the couple of days prior, I do best under pressure :)

I had a great trip down memory lane going through old photos to create a slide show for the event. 

Where did all the time go?  It does not seem that it was that long ago that I was one of his den leaders in Cub Scouts. Yes he looks all sweet and innocent, but I remember him being quite a terror whenever it was my turn to be in charge of the pack meetings activity. 

I had so much fun with the food and was also able to complete some "pinspired" projects.
Gotta love it when you put those inspirations into action.

 Campfire cake

My version: Cake from Costco, Pirouline wafer sticks from Dollar Tree for logs,
Fruit roll-ups for flames (plastic knife sandwiched between 2 fruit roll-ups and cut in flame shape)
(inspiration found via sixinthesuburbsblog, originally posted by Anam Cara)

Water bottle label wrappers inspired by Need to Create - Recipes

  On Pinterest I saw lots of beautifully decorated cupcakes iced in the form of merit badges, which was way out of my league, as well as would take waaaaay more time than I had. 

My solution - I photocopied Jordan's merit badge sash, and cut out the merit badges. Glued 2 merit badges together, sandwiching a tooth-pick in the middle.  I thought it was a fun way to display the merit badges he had earned. 

I am so proud of his great accomplishment!

Read More

I ran 10 miles!

You may have noticed I have been running a lot lately.  After my recent 5K I was browsing the internet for other potential events and came across the Over the Narrows 10 mile run.  It looked like a lot of fun to run over a big bridge and back, plus it cost only $23.  It was a last minute decision, and I signed up just days before the event.  I had recently completed a 8 mile run and felt this would be a great next step in my training if I want to complete a half marathon in the near future.  I was a little nervous as I have not run a competitive long distance run since Cross Country in High school.  The night before I found out my friend Amy (#632) was also running the event and invited me to carpool drive her and her friends to the event.  They are all avid runners, but were running for fun and treating it as training run so we ended up running as a group.

Running with a group definitely made this a very positive experience and I learned some important things.

(Over the bridge the first time - mile 4 "feeling good")

#1 -  Practice drinking and running.  At the first water station I grabbed my cup and kept running just like everyone else.  After nearly choking to death I learned a very important tip of how to drink and run by pinching the top of the cup so the water is not forced down your throat. 

(Back over the bridge - mile 6  "Still smiling")

#2 - Have Fun! - How can you not have anything but fun when running with someone like this.  It was great conversing with others, it really helped keep me relaxed and my mind distracted, making the miles go by much quicker.

(Finished the run "Still standing")

3.  Support each other - Running with others provided me with a personal cheer-leading squad, giving me the needed motivation to keep going even if my legs felt like jello (notice I am not attempting any jumps in the above pictures).  The encouraging words of others really made this a great experience, helping me to perform well and meet my goal of completing this run in 1 1/2 hrs.

Read More

Run for Virtue

Virtue Run August 25, 2012

As you may have noticed I have taken a recent interest in running.  I have always been active in sports, but  I have not ran on a regular basis in years.  Back in May we challenged the Young Women in our Stake to participate in a “Run for Virtue” to prove that they can do hard things both physically and spiritually.  Their Young Women leaders and mothers were also invited participate, and I being both a leader and a mother of one of the participants had no excuses.

Each participant was given 2 training plans, one to prepare them physically, and the other to prepare them spiritually. 

The spiritual plan was adapted from Elaine Dalton’s book “Return to Virtue” where she invites the readers to do four things daily that will strengthen ones faith and power to obey.

The PROS spiritual training plan requires daily participation in;

P - Prayers

R - Reading the Book of Mormon at least 5 minutes a day

O - Obeying the standards as taught in the For Strength of Youth pamphlet

S - Smile 

Sister Dalton goes on to say that “these four things will strengthen you and enable you to run your race of life successfully!”

I really have enjoyed the opportunity to train for the runs with my daughter.  She does not share my same passion for sports and on many of the earlier runs she would tell me how much she hated running, but she stuck with it and didn't give up, what an example she has been to me.  Now the event is over we have continued running and although I know she won't admit it I think she is finding that it is not so bad after all.

This event was a huge success and as you can see from the picture they definitely have the 4^th step down, smiling :)

Photos by Jennifer Jackson

Read More