Women's Retreat-- long post

This week was a crazy busy week.

Monday I picked up my fair stuff.  I got a bunch of second place ribbons and 4 blue ribbons.  Umm… my veggie stems were not all cut to the same ½ length.  Some of my canned foods had too much or too little head room.  I guess I need to be more careful next time.  It is fun to take stuff to the fair and see it there.

Tuesday I revised/rewrote a children’s story for my counselor friend.  She was pleased with it.  That’s always nice.  My client’s book still needed a forward.  She finally got a hold of the guy.  He’d written it 2 weeks ago and sent it off… but no longer had that computer to get the document and resend it.  So I called him on the phone, interviewed him and got what he wanted to say, wrote it up and sent it off to him for his approval, and the client, for hers.  So Wednesday about 4 pm, the approval came back and the book was then ready to go to the printers.  Apparently the printer will make a final copy and send it out to be checked—color, page layout, etc.  Fortunately it will go to the client, not me.

She does want to move onto marketing and fixing her website.  We’ll see how that goes.  And she has another book to finish.

Wednesday I worked on finishing up the format for my Oil in My Lamp program booklet and the programs for the women’s retreat.   The Oil booklet is 27 pages long. But since there’s 4 pages to a sheet of paper (2 on each side) that’s 7 pages total.  I had a really tough time trying to get it printed on both sides here at home.  Finally I printed single sheets and taped them together.

Then I took them to the church and prayed they’d go through the printer properly.  They did and so I had a 2 sided copy.  I needed to print 3 batches of 50 programs for the Women’s Retreat.  I printed a few extras.  We were dividing into classes and each program had an assigned group number.   I wanted 175 of the 7 page booklets, but they seemed to take FOREVER to print.  I kept putting in reams of paper.  And I got to thinking; they couldn’t possibly be using that much paper.  I was printing long after all the activities were done at church.  Finally I shut canceled the remainder of the job.  Turns out I had about 90 printed.

Thursday at 10am I had two sisters come over and help me put together the programs. We folded the exterior scrapbook paper stock, and the interior program.

I had cut both to size at church on their great paper cutter.  Unfortunately as I was lifting up the handle one time, I misjudged and lifted on the blade with my thumb.  Dang!  That think is SHARP!  Got a deep cut and I had to try not to bleed on my stuff.  Fortunately, Pam Pfeifer went and got me a Band-Aid and that helped a lot.  I guess that’s what visiting teachers are for.

So we folded and stapled and then folded in the edges and glued the Saturday programs.  Then we sorted and folded and stapled the 7 page booklets.   It took about 3 hours. I was so grateful I’d asked for help!  As soon as they left, I raced back to church and printed off another 70 booklets.  While they were printing, I grabbed the completed pages and folded and stapled them.  So by the time the printing was done, the booklets were, too.

Then I stopped by the grocery store to get meat for dinner.  We invited the missionaries over and a neighbor couple from down the street.  It was an early dinner because Tom and I both had meetings later.  I fixed fried chicken, baked potatoes, beans, apple salad, green salad, and ice cream for dessert.  It turned out well, but it was a race to get cleaned up and off to our meetings on time…. We didn’t make it on time.

Tom had a meeting for Helping Hands, the charitable organization that owns the van the church uses for temple trips.  I had Relief Society Homemaking meeting.  I stayed long enough to learn how to make ribbon flowers and cloth flowers and grape wreaths.  And to taste the yummy snacks.  They watched Ephraim’s Rescue, but I didn’t stay for it all.  I was tired.

Friday I needed to pack our clothes and pack all of the stuff I’d collected for the women’s event.  I also needed to cook 20 pounds of chicken breasts.  I’d asked at church and collected two Foreman Grills.  Tom found one at a house where the tenant moved out.  So I had three pretty good sized grills.  It only took about an hour to cook them all.

But I also had bread boards and bread knives, platters and decorative napkins, various food items like 7 bottles of red wine vinegar, 3 cups of sugar, 3 quarts of pickled beets, a large basket to collect recipes in, gifts for the three workshop teachers, and various odd and sundry things. All in all it took an ice chest, a laundry basket, five bags and a hanging bag to get us there.

We also stopped by the church to load 6 round tables into the back of the truck.  So we drove the truck to West Plains.  We had time to check into the hotel and have dinner before we met at the church to set up.  I thought 6-8 would be sufficient time.  But, frankly we were figuring it out as we went along, and we actually got done closer to 10pm.  We decorated tables and bulletin boards; we set up tables for displays and organized the programs and booklets.  I made probably 350 oz. of dressing in 29 oz. batches. (Basically triple Mom’s Nicoise Salad dressing recipe.

One helper came with her 12 doz. eggs as yet uncooked, pealed or chilled. Sigh. So my counselor took them home and spent 3 hours (with her kids) doing it.

Saturday we arrived at 8am and started putting the Nicoise salads together. We worked until 9:40, and then turned it over to Tom and some other men to finish up.

The program was called “Pearls of Great Price.”  I conducted the opening exercises… as we realized we needed more chairs in the chapel (my 1^st counselor went to take care of that.)  And we didn’t have a chorister… um... I did that.  But mostly things went very well.  Pres. Roylance spoke about visiting teaching.  We had a great musical number with women of all ages singing, “If the Savior Stood Beside Me.”  We broke into workshops about: 1. The Scriptures are pearls of great price (Finding peace and comfort in the scriptures.). 2. We are pearls of great price (loving, appreciating, and valuing ourselves.) and 3. We are pearls in the community. (Serving in the community and standing up for what is right.)  Each sister got a single pearl necklace to remind her of her value.

Michele, my first counselor is holding the necklaces we gave the sisters and on the chair is a gift we gave each teacher.

We came back to the chapel and I introduced the Oil in My Lamp Program—a goal setting program designed to help the sisters draw closer to the Lord and be more prepared to serve him.  Then we went to lunch.  The tables looked lovely with the salad, dressing, and bread and butter on it. Sisters seemed to enjoy the salads and loved the Nicoise dressing. We had ice cream sundaes for dessert.

A few of my men didn’t show up and so we were short people to clean tables and serve desert.  The men worked like Trojans.  And bless the women’s hearts, many pitched in to help.  They didn’t ask, they just saw a need and did.

We got lots of compliments, so I guess it went well. I was soooo tired.  We spent some time cleaning up.  Again, lots of people pitched in to help.  We estimated 150 people.  I think we had about 140ish.  So the food actually came out pretty well.  We had some leftover tomatoes, green beans and eggs-- and lots of dressing. But we found homes for them all.

Tom and I came home and I mostly collapsed.  Tom went out and mowed the entire yard!

Today I had a branch conference in Ash Flat. So Tom and I were out the door a little after 7am. Good training and branch conference. And we enjoyed a great “Linger Longer” potluck after church.  We celebrated Dorothy Wagner’s 110^th birthday there.  She was in a wheelchair, but alert and engaged.  I think I mentioned earlier that she’d joined the church at 102 years old.  I had a little difficulty with droopy eye syndrome during parts of the service.

Now I’ve blogged and written to missionaries.  Tom is off visiting.  I may take a nap.