Calgary Temple Celebration

A couple weeks back Mark and I got to help in the Calgary Temple Celebration. I'd been going to practices every Wednesday night and a couple Saturdays, too, for about two months previous to the performance. I was working with some of the youth (boys and girls ages 12 to about 18). Mark worked with six youth from our stake who were our hockey team (the green team) and they played six youth from another stake (the yellow team). 

It was performed at the Stampede Corral where they have lots of different events, but it's most famous for the Calgary Stampede which is the largest rodeo in North America.

In all, there were over 1,000 youth (1300-1400ish? I can't remember the exact number) that were performing. Somehow it all came together after all that hard work! Those youth are so amazing! It was such a great experience to work with them and see them perform and hear them sing.

Mark's younger sisters, Tanessa and Mercedez got to perform in it. The scenes that they were in and I was helping with were the Calgary Stampede, the line dancing, and the hockey game.

You can watch the whole thing here if you want, but it's okay if you skip around too.

39:48-Calgary Stampede scene

48:02-line dance scene

1:20:05-hockey scene

30:46-one of my fave scenes, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounty Police)

Five Not So Quick Takes

Kind of a catch up blog post. Here it goes:

1. While I was reading this hilarious blog I found a link to this white noise website and found a free download for thunderstorm noise. This is awesome! It totally relaxes you and helps in falling asleep. It's also great when you have young kids. My sister in law has a white noise machine for putting her son down for his nap.

2. We went to visit the new LDS temple in Calgary. It's up in the north (we live in the south). It's really beautiful. We brought the two nephews who were really reverent the whole time we were inside. I think I heard that Rocky (2yearold) asked grandma "where's Jesus?". Too cute!

 Rocky (aka: spiderman)

 Family shot

 For some reason I thought the whole building was going to be in the picture since my mother in law said, "I'm trying to get angel Moroni (the statue on top) in the picture." I guess he didn't fit.

 These windows on the outside were so beautiful. They're images of wheat (reflective of the building being in the province of Alberta...I guess there's lots of wheat in Alberta.) It kind of reminded me of peacocks though, which are also beautiful and which remind me of home.

Crew and Rocky partaking of cookies and water in fancy schmancy chairs.

3. Canadian Thanksgiving has come and gone! What? No! "That's weird!" says all the Americans reading this. 

Canadian Thanksgiving fell on Monday 8 October this year. I think it's usually around the second Monday in October. My mother in law said it's because the fall season happens sooner here (and is over sooner too). They have all the same foods as American Thanksgiving. It's not as huge I've heard. Prob because they don't make a four to seven day weekend of it. We actually ate on Sunday instead. On Monday it was raining so we couldn't go do much. We did go see The Amazing Spiderman at the $5 theatRE*.

(*Canadian lesson: they spell some words slightly different than the states. They switch the "er" to "re" in words like centre, theatre, litre. I've also noticed they like to add "u's" in words where Americans got lazy and took them out of like colour, harbour, labour. Here's a  big old list of these differences.)

 Not the best pic of our dinner, but I had to document before everyone stuffed their faces. Missing are the sweet potatoes which were just coming out of the oven with the marshmallows getting huge on top.

I tried an autumn dessert recipe found on pinterest. It's called Pumpkin Better Than Anything Cake. I made a slight mistake. I was supposed to mix pumpkin puree and just the cake mix together, not the other stuff for the cake (eggs, oil, water), but it still came out okay. I think I would've liked a little more pumpkin flavor happening though which may come from doing the recipe the right way. There was also some helpfulness from this other blog about the recipe.

4. Since I made the above recipe there was still some pumpkin puree left over in the can so I decided to make some pumpkin cookies. This recipe comes from Barbara Terrill from Monrovia, CA. I grew up eating these cookies every year. They are delicious and pretty easy to make. You just mix everything up and throw 'em in the oven. So easy!

I got about four and half dozen out of the recipe and they were gone in a day. Soooo...they taste pretty good.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup shortening

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix together - drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 to 375 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes.

I cooked at 350 for 10 minutes and they came out perfect!

Here's some pics to show you how perfect and yummy!

5. It was my birthday yesterday. I hate getting older, but I love my birthday. It was a bit/really hard to have a birthday where I couldn't have friends and family call me because they don't have out of country long distance (except for my mom and stepdad - my mom did call). But my in laws did get me pizza for dinner (love) and an ice cream cake (looove) and got me some presents. 

Oh, and Canada got me the first snow to stick for the season! Whaaaat? Don't like that gift Canada! Take it back! Exchange, please!

Moments That Matter

A week and a half ago at church we had a lesson in Relief Society on the General Conference talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf called "Of Things That Matter Most". This is probably one of my fave talks of all time! I especially love the way it was summed up in a Mormon Message called "Moments That Matter Most".

If you have any extra time I would highly, hiiiiighly recommend going and reading the talk. Or if you just have a couple minutes then watch the vid down below. Either one leaves you feeling like you can take on life with better perspective.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the stresses of life and the busyness and the stuff that we don't take time for what really matters. Take time everyday to enjoy life in some way or other: seeing something beautiful, hearing a great song, eating some really good food, accomplishing something, laughing. Whatever it is helps you feel happier. It brings more peace and meaning to life. Who doesn't want that?

My favorite quotes from the talk are:

"There is a beauty and clarity that comes from simplicity that we sometimes do not appreciate in our thirst for intricate solutions."

"We would do well to slow down a little...focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." (this was also in the video)

If I could quote the entire talk I would. It's so good!

From the video I liked these quotes that were used:

"Moments are the molecules that make up eternity."

-Elder Neal A. Maxwell

"It is not so much the major events as the small day-to-day decisions that map the course of our living."


Now go out and enjoy that life you live!

Church Time

In my ward I'm a primary teacher, so I don't get to have a Sunday School lesson or go to Relief Society. Although there are some great things to be learned in Primary and not to mention singing time, there are some Sundays when I'd really like to go hear some of those other lessons for adults. So Sacrament Meeting is my time where I try to get my substance at church. Today we had a speaker from the Stake high council and he asked Margaret Finlay from Duarte Ward to come speak with him. She actually spoke in our ward a month or so ago, but she's a great speaker and always has some great thoughts. 

She was speaking about trying to filter things in your life so that your life can be cleaner (relating it to taking care of a pool). There are a lot of things that you can easily point out that are good or bad, that can help or hinder you. But she wanted to point out that there are some things that can be kind of a grey area like gossip. Some people might justify it by saying that they're "being informative" or they're "just talking about a person, but it's not anything bad". Sister Finlay said something she used to say to her kids was, "If you can't say something in front of someone, you shouldn't say it behind their back." 

I really liked that she said that and that she talked about this issue because I think everyone needs reminders that talking about others can be hurtful and in some cases ruins people's reputations. 

I guess the best thing to do is try to think of kind things to think and say about others and think the best of them and of situations. I know this can be difficult at times, but that's why it's important to go to church each week and look for the substance, even if it's just one little thing out of one little talk or lesson. Every little bit helps, right? Right!