Team Francks

An Evening of Love & Chocolate

Normally I wouldn't post all the details.... for sake of not boring you.. but I've had several ask about it... so I'm posting all the details.  Read at your own risk :)

I have a new gig at Church... and one of my responsibilities is that I get to plan a party with a purpose each month... well that's my take on it. :)

The activity I planned for February was called "An Evening of Love & Chocolate"... it was just a couple of days before Valentine's day... and then we got snowed out.... so while it tied in better to February it ended up being our March activity :)

The purpose our activity was for unity with the sisters in our ward... and getting to know each other better so that we can rely on each other more.  I passed out name tags for each sister, had them write their first and last name and then gave a little spiel on the purpose of the activity. (took my thoughts mostly from this talk.)

For the activity we did "Speed Friend-shipping" (based on the famous Speed Dating).... Each sister got two minutes to ask questions of her partner.  They could be her own questions or I had buckets of questions all over the tables that they could pull from (we also had bowls of chocolate all over the tables as well).  I came up with a big list of questions... if you want them email me (CajunFrancks@aol.com) and I'll email them to you.  When the timer went off after the two minutes was up I yelled "Change Partners".... everybody stayed in the same seats and it was the other partners turn to ask the questions.  After two minutes I yelled "Change Seats".  The women on the right hand side of the table would move down a seat... women on the left stayed in the same seat the whole activity. And then we would start all over again.  We played for 40 min and didn't get through everyone.... but it was SO fun to learn about the women I got to talk with.  Everybody participated really well (I was worried it was going to be too far out there for some of the sisters)... but they had a great attitude and everyone got involved and had a really good time!

After the activity we went back in to the RS room (cozier than the gym) and had a special guest speaker from another ward.  Her daughter is my good friend and I've heard her speak before and she's just so much fun and I knew she would be perfect for our topic.  We had her talk for about 15-20 and the topic that I asked her to speak on was Self Worth, the Love of the Savior for each one of us as an individual and how each one of us is so needed with our individual talents and divine gifts.  The speaker was PERFECT!!  She did such a great job!!!  And it was EXACTLY what the sisters in our ward needed.

After the speaker we went back in to the gym for a big chocolate buffet... i was worried we weren't going to have enough food and we ended up with way too much!  haha.... I'm having a hard time figuring out what amounts work for this ward.  Everything was homemade and sooooooo good!!!  Chocolate Mousse, Truffles, Chocolate Cheesecake, Chocolate PB Bars, Raspberry Truffles, Chocolate Punch bowl cake (toffee, pudding, whip cream, etc).  And then we had milk and a big glass jar of water.

I'm soooooooooo happy it turned out so well.  I stressed out a lot about this one and glad that the women had such a great time. 

If you have any questions let me know.

 

 

A song for the Mormons...

Haha... this is too funny!  I'd like to thank our Jewish friends for this catchy little tune during this wonderful Christmas season.

Oh how I love thee Conan!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Girls Camp Edition

Lots of summer posts coming up... its now or never!  :)

1.  Girls Camp this year was held at Lake of the Arbuckles in Chickasaw National Park in Southern Oklahoma... it was beyond beautiful.  The days were sooooo hot but we had an awesome breeze right off the lake.... so beautiful.

2. We went hiking up rivers... so fun...I love hiking up rivers.

3.  We also hiked to Buffalo Springs which is a natural springs where the buffalo's came to water every spring.

4.  We jumped of waterfalls at Little Niagara.  The water was soooo cold but it was sooooo fun. And even though I'm scared of heights and even more scared of heights and water I did jump off several times. 

 

5.  I did the meals.  You'd be surprised (and hopefully impressed) at my "cooking over the fire" skills.

 

6.  The view from my tent every morning.  Amazing.

7.  We went swimming in the base of another waterfall (Turner Falls)... water much warmer this time.... while half were swimming the other half went horse back riding (hence the jeans in the waterfall pictures)... but I didn't go riding so I don't have pictures of that.

 

 

9.  We went swimming in a natural water hole called the Blue Hole Pools... there was a slide built in to the rocks that had the funnest drop off... another dare devil moment that I feel proud of myself.   There also had a fun diving board and we had diving contests.  This place was sooooooooooooooooooooo fun.  The water was warm, the slide beyond fun...we could have spent another whole day here... hours and hours fun.

 

10.  I had the girls have banana boats (bananas, chocolate chips and marshmallows) for breakfast our last morning.  I'm a fun leader like that.  I sent an extra apple in their lunch to compensate.

 

 

11.  We did star gazing... the girls were very creative in what they saw... they were so fun to listen to... the stars were so bright and it was a nice way to end the day... just laying and talking in the dark.

In addition to lots of fun we had lots of spiritual experiences too... we communed with nature a lot... every day we all went off by ourselves on the banks of the lake and did scripture reading, praying and meditating... it was good for the soul to be able to take a few minutes every day to reflect on all the blessings that we've been given... and where better than in nature, one of God's greatest creations.

This year of camp goes in to my top three best camps ever. Lots and lots and lots of work... but 16 years of girls camp and this turned out to be one of my very favorites.

Its bittersweet to look at these pictures now and know that I don't get to be with these girls anymore... I love them and girls camp so much.  It's been a wonderful four years with them.

Girls Camp

It's here.  Ready or not.

If the stars align the collecting, gathering and packing could go very quickly and smoothly this afternoon... if they don't then its going to be a loooooong night.  I'm praying for the first... won't be surprised if its the second.

Tents, coolers and Ice chest to still collect and pack.  Food is purchased. We did a major Sam's Club run this morning in addition to the all day shopping marathon we did Friday at Walmart... I still have another trip to Walmart this afternoon and possibly a second trip this night to pick up the things I forgot with at the afternoon run. 

My baby has an ear infection (and a trip to the doctor this morning!)... My sister was going to fly in to watch him but then at the last minute we all decided it was better for her to be with my little brother who leaves on his mission next week.  So plan B a dear sweet friend offered to watch him during the day... ear infection and all.

It's been a great group effort and lots and lots of planning and work has gone in to this... I hope the girls have a wonderful time and that its everything we hope it will be for them (and maybe much more).  I hope the weather cooperates and that the girls will be pleasant and kind with each other (they should... we have great girls!)...

And so I'm off early in the morning to the Oklahoma wilderness... wish me luck!

(picture borrowed from a redneck camping blog)

Famous Mormon First ward

To my Mormon peeps (and anybody else who wants to) check out this post about the Famous Mormon First ward... too funny!

P.S. Be sure to read the comments too!

Patriotic Caroling...

In December when we were Christmas Caroling with our youth at the Nursing Home the nurses mentioned that people were better about visiting Nursing homes around Christmas time but then the rest of the year they had almost no visitors... we as leaders talked about how it would be nice to spread the love a little better...

Thus an idea was born.... we talked about doing Christmas in July... and then the concept began to change a bit and turned in to Patriotic Caroling in July.

So last night we gathered some Patriotic Songs and God Bless America flag stickers to put on the residents... we sang our hearts out and I thought it was a fabulous evening. 

We had little wheel chair residents follow us down the halls... so we eventually decided to stop in each hall and sing a couple of songs to each hall of residents before moving to the next hall... instead of just singing as we walked.... worked much better.

I work with the most wonderful woman.... she would walk in to each and every room (quite a few residents were bed bound)... talk to the residents for a minute, give them a sticker and wish them a Happy 4th of July.  That's where my shyness kicks in... that is so totally out of my comfort zone. But she was so great and the people loved her!  I followed her and would go in to some of the rooms with her but I let her do the talking. :)

It was a wonderful evening and I was proud of our girls... they had great attitudes (they always do!) and sang loud and proud.  The best part of was when several residents thanked us for coming and told us how much they enjoyed it.... warm fuzzies.   

So if you're looking for a good youth or family activity to do in July I definitely suggest Patriotic Caroling!  

 

 

 

  

Youth Conference and other ramblings...

This weekend was our yearly Stake Youth Conference... and while I love love love Youth Conference and have been to many many YC's in my day I was dreading this one a little bit... dreading might be too strong of a word... I was not entirely looking forward to YC... not because of the event itself but because it was going to take my whole weekend. Starting Friday afternoon and going through Sunday at 1am when we got home.  I'm very protective of my weekend's... it's the only time the whole week that I have a chance to get anything done.  I work full time plus some and Friday's evenings are my unwind time and Saturday's are my get-it-done day.  So to give up a Friday evening and ALLLL day Saturday is hard for me...... but I went, and had a good time and came away blessed for serving and enriched for participating.

Some of the highlights....

• a huge sleepover in a big empty house with all our girls and the two women that I work with (who I adore beyond all adoration)... we live too far away to go home late Friday night and come back by 7am Saturday morning so they found host homes for us.
• Work crew-  we spent Saturday driving around picking up debris and trees from last weeks storm and taking it to the dump... it was a huge undertaking and I know the local residents were appreciative... other projects included painting houses, laying sod and planting flowers for military families.
• It's good to for me to get outside my comfort zone... I'm shy in new situations so for me to interact with people I don't know is hard for me... but I did it and I'm the better for it.  Plus it always makes me so appreciative of how much I've been blessed with... there were many down-on-their-luck folks that we served this weekend and I'm SOO grateful for the blessing of the Gospel and my membership in this Church.  It gives me direction and purpose in life.
• Being with these kids.  They are absolutely amazing.  We had several leaders from other wards tell us what great, hardworking kids we have.  We know... some of the best I've ever met.
• Square dancing, bon fires, devotionals, testimony meeting, dances, dump loads, new people and service projects... it was a good weekend indeed.

We cleaned and mowed the yard of this little church... I love the "Peaceful Haven" sign and then right next to it  "beware of dog"... it hit my funny bone... come to our church but beware of the dogs that might bite you :)

poison ivy, thorns, weeds and lots of warm fuzzy feelings...

Last night for our combined activity we had the opportunity to clean a little family cemetery that had been neglected for years... the dates on the headstones are from the late 1800's and early early 1900's... the cemetery used to be in a little town but in 1908 the town was destroyed by a tornado and the town  was never rebuilt. 

The cemetery was overgrown and there was lots of poison ivy and lots of thorns but everybody jumped right in, worked hard and didn't complain... and had a good time...  they are such great kids!!  I'm continually impressed with them... at the end of the evening we were blessed with an incredible sunset.

There's so many blessings in serving and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to serve the Montgomery family... whoever they may be :)

The Halloween fun begins...

Last night was our monthly church dance with this kids(us as chaperone's) and the cool costumes that I was planning and plotting for a month just didn't happen for us.... so the last minute default was our Lava Lava's and Lei's from Hawaii... we might not have the coolest costumes but we were probably the most comfortable.

I love the Halloween Dance!!  It's always so fun to see what everybody dresses up as!  My favorites were a guy that came as a kissing booth and another guy who came as a bright idea and somehow rigged a light bulb on top of his head that would turn on and off... good times!

Girl's Camp Recap

I just have to say that in my 13ish years of going to Girls Camp this was one of my favorite years... the year we went River Rafting in W. VA is probably number one but this was a good second... we had so much fun!  We had such a good group of girls... we went to a cool location... and it was just our ward so it was small group and we didn't have to stay on a rigid schedule... the girls worked hard in the morning doing their "chores" and then certification and then the rest of the afternoon we played... lots of time Kayaking and Canoing, Swimming in the Lake, reading, crafts, hiking, playing games... just tons and tons of fun... and it went by way too fast!! 

Highlights:

One afternoon our YW's President surprised us with a "Party Barge"... she rented this huge 20-man Pontoon boat and took us boating on the Lake for several hours... we would boat and then we would stop and let our anchor down and swim for awhile and then we would get back on and explore more of the lake... we had so much fun!!!  I even dived off the boat which is huge for me since I'm scared of dark, murky water but I wore a life jacket and had a ton of fun jumping.

Playing games... I showed them all the joy of playing The Great Dalmuti... one of our favorite games... we even made hats... again so much fun!!  We also played several rounds of spoons, most of which I beat them...

Spending the evenings on the dock talking and enjoying the sunset

Hiking... a wee bit overgrown since we marked out our hiking trail in March... lots of poision Ivy and ants but the girls were good sports... and besides not all of camp can be cush right?

Nights around the campfire... singing campsongs and roasting Marshmellows..

The book Twilight (I need to do a whole post on it)... Its one of my favorite books in the whole world (I owe it all to cute Emily Kate!)... got my girls hooked on it and now the whole YW's is hooked on it... we had several copies floating around during the week... apparently not enough copies as several girls would share the book at the same time... and needless to say both my copies are thrashed and I need to buy me a new copy (this one will not be shared :)

Craft time... I was in charge of it this year and the girls seemed to like the stuff we made... I always love seeing their free spirits and creativity... its a good reminder to me that art should be enjoyable and fun and not always worried that it has to be perfect.

Endless hours in the water swimming and canoing... one afternoon I went out with these two cute girls (who are sisters) and we got WAY out and the waves and the wind were so strong... I thought we were never getting home... my arms are still aching from all the rowing we did... our 30 minute canoe ride turned in to a three hour tour... not really but it fel that way!!  :)

Testimony meeting... always enjoy hearing the girls express their love of the Savior... that is what its all about after all...

Such a great year!!!  Can't wait for next year!!