A Dedication to my Father ....

My Dad is an awesome dad. We haven't always gotten along or seen eye to but I love him so much! I am so blessed to have him and to get to be his daughter. He loves me without condition or limit. He has helped me in so many ways I couldn't count them. Even with all I put him though - he has never disowned me! I know if I ever need anything He will help me figure it out!

Here are just some of my memories for my Dad, some great .... some not enjoyed by all parties :)

Remember:

-- renovating the farm house - my love of design & building things comes from you - thank you

-- early morning chores - as much I dispised them then - I am now  morning person - thank you

-- weeding and nuturing the garden - I now have a thriving herb box garden on balcony- thank you

-- my love of cooking come from watching you, & teaching me how to budget -- I never could have taken on the High Priest Dinner and feeling confident in my abilities without you - thank you

-- in the garage - trying to teach me about cars, changing oil, a tire, checking the fluids - niether one of us having any fun - guess what! I still learned it! I know how to check fluids and change tires and I've done it! So Thank you!!!

-- the tractor fiasco?? I learned about listening and cluches, well how NOT to use them! What a harrowing experience that was!

-- when I walked home from the field -- I think my love of walking started that day!

-- my Eighteenth birthday at Trevi's -- That is one of my favortite birthday's!!

-- If I ever play the lottery and win -- it all goes to you -- I owe you so much!!!

--  the day I went through the temple - I remember coming through the veil and seeing you - I was so grateful we finally got there!!

Thank you for teaching me, loving me, being such a great example for me and wanting so much for me! I could never express how much you've taught me and how important you are to me!!! I have a hard time saying -- which I think I also got from you :) so ... Here it is -- I LOVE YOU!

~ Sherrilyn

Father's Day OR another busy Sunday!!!

So yesterday was Father's Day, the day was ridiculous .... in a good way! I was so happy to have had a great sleep - Heavenly Father really came through!!! I needed it after the Dinner and Party! So the Young Women sang in sacrament  - "I Walk By Faith" - They were Awesome!!! They really such amazing girls and so willing to do whatever I ask them to do!

Church was great, as expected - really good talks by Trina Talbot and Justin Dick, as well as Bro. Chris Haynes. Trina spoke about the importance Father's who are around us in place of our own and all the potential fathers. It was a really great talk. Justin spoke mainly to the guys about the responsibility of being a father, being the teacher and the priesthood holder in the home. Bro. Haynes spoke about being a father and what an amazing blessing  and responsibly it is. The rest of the meetings were great also. After all the church, I went home for a few hours, called Dad and left him a message -- he was out - hopefully having all kinds of fun!

At around 6:00 pm, we then headed out to Trina's for Diner's Club. Mariya brought steaks for everyone and I brought all the leftovers from the H. P. Dinner - there was so much ham leftover. We had a great, filling dinner and great conversation. A great group: Trina, Mariya, Dan, Robert Cheatham, Scott Katchke, Kenrick Carrera, Ryan Muir, Travis Morgan, & me! Leslie Ragland was supposed to come but stayed home with a fever instead - poor girl -- she ran herself ragged this last week ;(

After we finished eating and conversating, we left and went to the other Diner's Club at Chris and Victor's place. More great company there and even better conversating. I have such great friends and I'm so grateful for them, I really am blessed! Got home about 11:30pm.

This morning I feel blessed and happy!

~ Rylinn

Weekends are rough .... sometimes!

So here is the rundown of my crazy busy week/ weekend ....

In our stake, they hold an annual dinner for all the High Priests and the Sisters over 55 yrs of age. About a month ago, I was asked to be in charge of the menu and making the dinner.

I, of course, said absolutley -- would love to!!

Now this dinner usually has about 120 attendees each year and they have served pan lasanga from Smart and Final for the last 5/6 years except last year, when it was catered by a guy in our ward's resturant. Last year, they had so many issues that they wanted a new person to take over and they called me. So I immediatley started planning and thinking about what I could make easily and cost efficiently,

as my first budget was only $ 500.00. 

I wanted to really treat them to a great tasting dinner which was still easy to execute.

Here's what I came up with:

Apple and Mandarin Salad

Honey Baked Ham (from the shop)

Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugared Pecans

Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Garlic and Grilled Onions

Mixed Vegetables with Citrus and Garlic Vinagrete

Dessert:

Brownies with Apple Carmel Drizzle

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Vanilla Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Cheesecake with Mixed Berry Couliee

Now, the desserts were volunteered out, we bought and the Honey Baked Ham and the cheesecake but the rest of it -- I, Maryia and Victor Vaile Made from scratch.

As I started to do cost comparisions from available stores I quickly ran out of money, feeding 130 people with $500.00 is why they were consistantly getting lasanga. So my Stake advocate, Dan Fife, went back to the Stake Presidentcy with the menu and got me $700.00 for food and $150.00 for supplies. As they renovated our kitchen last year, they also donated all the supplies from the kitchen including all the plates, glasses, silverware, salt & pepper shakers and everything else I would need to achieve this feat!

So I was very happy when I got news about my funds being increased :}

Any way, I bought a costco card and started shopping, grateful for amazing friends and a great roommate! After several trips to the store and the church, cleaning, dropping off groceries,

Saturday morning finally came.

Here is the days rundown:

Christi Synder and I went to the Flower Mart at 6:30 am - we bought the flowers for the centerpieces,

went to the church at 7:15am and cut and arranged the flowers,

Chris, Joe & Dan showed up around 9:00 am to set up tables,

We had an Enrichment Activity that morning to With Leslie Ragland (see previous post),

so we arragned the table for that - luckily the formation worked for the dinner to, just a few adjustments,

I think my friend Matt took pictures for everything so I'll try to get them and post them here!

Enrichement started at 10:00 am ish - we ended up sending home Mariya to get my computer for Leslie's presentation as her notebook wasn't equipped to attach to the projector! So around 10:20am we actually started enrichment, much to Leslie dismay - she is an on-timer like me but it all worked out.

Speaking of which, she did work us out -- it was great and I'm still feeling it :) in a great way!!!!

So at 1:00pm Victor showed up and our team got to work - what a great team, we worked together so well it was steamless, I so grateful for them and all the talents, skills and overall greatness!!!

There was also a Football game that day, so after that Dan, Jen & Justin came back to finish set up. Jen helped me create a stage vignette with lattice from the garden, drapery I bought and furiture from the Stake Office Foyer (I think Matt toke pictures of this - I didn't --- my bad!!!!)

At 3:30, Mariya & I went home to shower and change in something nicer than a sweats

and did it in record time - 30 minutes total -- we were back at 4:00 including driving time, picking up McDonald's for us and Victor ..... and yes we broke the speeding laws - absolutely!!!

The servers started showing up around 5:00pm -- They all amazing and helpful with the last minute things,

they plated, stirred, drained, tossed and made my life so much easier!!!

I just delagated and ran the show, It went off without a hitch and I mean NOTHING went WRONG!!!!!

I know Heavenly Father was there and amking it happen! and I am so grateful - he really is amazing.

Before we started serving, I had Chris say a prayer and ask for the extra help,

even though I don't think we needed to -- I know it helped. It was such a great success - nothing but complements - no compliants at all! The server did thier jobs flawlessly and took direction so well.

It was just a wonderful experience for everyone involved

and if they asked me to do it next year - I probably would!

After all this, we went to a birthday party for our friends - Vic Davis & Charity Rawlings - I only lasted 20 minutes but I made my appearence - they understood and appreciated the effort!

I Wish I'd taken more pictures ....

... but I was too busy!!!!

Here's just a sample of the High Priest Dinner ...... 

This is just some of the supplies for the dinner!!

Here is Mariya doing some chopping ....

Here are the Flowers for the table ....

This is the refreshments for the Enrichment Activity from earlier that day!

This is Leslie Ragland teaching the Relief Society about Health & Fitness 

and the Word of Wisdom ...

I'll write more later. I'm really quite exhausted!!!!!

So I feel much Better....

I changed my hours to 10am - 2pm so in case I can't sleep until 4am,  I can still get so sleep!

So the dinner is going to be AWESOME!!!! I did a schedule for the setup, the kitchen and the dinner service!! I feel so much better about this. Wanna see what I did today?

Working Papers

Cost Comparision

EVOO & Honey

Garlic Prepped

Garlic Honey Dipped

Garlic Oiled Up

GORGEOUS!!!

Now for the Grilled Onions

Holy Cow!! That's A Lot Of Onions!!!

Sweatin' Out the Water

Grillin' & Done!

This house smells SO good right now! I love it and I feel so productive : }

I 'm a Happy Girl!!!

Anxiety ... Win or Lose? Is it worth it??

I am so tired it's just isn't funny anymore!

I was put in charge of the food and decoration for an annual dinner our stake holds for the High Priests and senior sisters. Not a small undertaking but still doable for me. However, I can't stop thinking about all the details before I try to retire each night for the last 2 weeks! My brain keeps coming up with new ways of doing things, even tough the last idea was awesome! Now I appreciate that I have this talent of seeing things in my head as they shold appear in reality, don't get me wrong. I just wish I could stop the process right before bed! I have a hard enough time getting to sleep as it is. Granted these ideas are fantastic and achieveable, they come in waves and don't stop until 4:00 in the morning and when you need to get up for work at 6:00am, that's not alot of sleep! I plan to take pictures so there is evidence of my sleepness nights and their worth. I've got a great team of helpers: Kitchen: Victor Vaile & Mariya Ivanushkina (Roommate) and for decor and set up: Christ Snyder and a team of Mid-Singles from the Stake, so the day of should be a breeze, it's just the Prep work that's killing my sleep patterns.

This experience proves to me I should be an event planner, I must say God gave me a talent that I very rarely get to use because I don't show it off!

Can I boast for a minute??
Favorite Talents:
1. Singing and Performing
2. Organization and Planning and Execution
3. Cooking and Baking, Altering and Customizing as well!
4. Humilty!!!!
5. I must also include my craftiness -- in all it's definitions!!

Just kidding about that last one, but only a little. I think part of the reason no one knows of my other talents is becasue I don't speak up or defend myself . This will go one my resume as volunteer work, I think ~ ) Remember when we plaaned and executed that fashion show?? We were awesome, why didn't we take that and make it a career?? They say to find someting you love and make it a career, well here we are at 37 1/2 years old, still doing working a job that is not only not fun, but is something we don't reaaly like!!! We need to choose us and not settle -- quit settling!!

Enough ranting :)


On another subject: I have been going to Physical Therapy for my shoulders, neck and upper back ...  finally! It's basically massage and bone adjustment but it's working. I'm not in as much pain and it's quite relaxing, which is nice!

Breakfast .... who knew!!!

So this morning I woke up from a toss 'n turn night. Finally got to sleep around 12:30pm. I know not that late, except for me. I'm usually in bed and asleep by 10:30pm, so the additional 2 hours of turning and 'trying' to get comfortable made me extra tired this morning. So I was a little late dragging my butt out of bed, 6:45pm instead of 5:30am. Shorten my routine quite a bit. Anyway, I decided I would skip breakfast, because I didn't want to be late for work this morning too! So by 9:15 I was almost sleeping on my desk, not good or productive! I thought to myself maybe eating would get me some energy and I'll wake up a bit more. Yeah I know -- I'm brilliant!! So I went down to the cafe/deli & ordered some French toast and Sausage to get a few food groups at once -- eggs, bread, milk and meat.

Well -- I feel so much better that I had to write it down so I don't forget next time. I mean when you really think about it of course breakfast is important!! We haven't eaten since usually 6pm if we're good and 8pm if we're not. That's like 10 - 12 hours without eating!!! That's crazy!! Granted sleeping - not really burning that much energy, but still our bodies are working, repairing, and regenerating. Have you ever weighed yourself before bed and then in the moring when you wake within the same 12 hours?? I have and I've weighed 4 pounds more at night then in the morning!! Which means I worked off 4 pounds sleeping! Totally nuts!!

Any way, enough ranting. Long story short -- EAT BREAKFAST!!!!