Getting to Know Carissa O

My name is: Carissa Ostrom

My favorite dinner is: oven baked Mac and cheese

My favorite dessert is: Ben and Jerry's ice cream

My favorite flower is: pink roses

My favorite hobby is: martial arts

My favorite restaurant is: Red Robbin

A game I like to play is: Halo with my husband

The music I listen to most is: Pop/Hip Hop

My favorite thing to buy is: clothes

A book I highly recommend is: Ender’s Game

A movie I watch over and over is: Tangled

A smell that makes me pause is: nature

The city I would most like to visit is: New York City

My favorite thing to do on a date is: something active

The best vacation I ever had was: Bahamas with my hubby

If you could learn to do anything, what would it be? Sew

What chore do you absolutely hate doing? Dishes

When you have 30 minutes of free-time, how do you pass the time? If I had any I would probably relax.

What do you think is your very best feature or characteristic? Love doing service

What is the "thing" you are most grateful for? Our wonderful car. 

What is your dream vacation? Going to Europe 

What's the coolest thing you've ever done? I sparred someone from Spain and one first place at an international karate tournament.

How did you meet your husband? How did he propose? Met in high school. Proposed by giving me new scriptures that said Carissa Ostrom with the ring attached. Most unique proposal ever.

The best thing about being married is: Spending time with my best friend doing things that we love.

What do you and your husband like to do together? Play video games lol

What would be your perfect day? Not having to go to work or deal with school things and just relaxing at home with no worries to worry about.

What was the best advice you got/would give on marriage? Make sure you have open communication. We have personal relationship inventory every Sunday so we can talk about the good things we do and what we need to work on.

What story does your family always tell about you? How I would get "married" to every boy I made friends with when I was younger. We would always dress up and put on fake weddings in the front yard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lesson Recap: Bringing Up Children in Light and Truth

 

Today in Relief Society we had a wonderful lesson by Bonnie Cox from the manual, Chapter 22: Bringing Up Children in Light and Truth. Here are some highlights from the message she prepared and our discussion:

• The best place for children to learn is the home.
• The best way we can teach our children is by our own example.
• It’s so important we spend time with our children, because these are precious moments we won’t get back.
• Ways that we can teach our children include controlling the media (movies, TV, music, etc) that enter our home and encouraging good habits (such as reading good books).
• Family Home Evening is an important way for us to teach our children the truths of the gospel. Some suggestions for making FHE more meaningful include planning it out and lovingly encouraging our husbands to participate and preside.

Getting to Know Morgan M

My name is: Morgan Mickle

My favorite dinner is: Steak and potatoes and a big salad with fresh veggies!

My favorite dessert is: Chocolate Chip Cookies or Ice Cream from the Creamery or Bonnie Brae in Denver!

My favorite flower is: Rose or peonies

My favorite hobby is: Reading!

My favorite restaurant is: Hmm, that is hard probably Ted Montana's Grill or Chipotle!

A game I like to play is: Clue or any card game.  I am not a big game person, but Ryan has helped me like them more because he loves games!

The music I listen to most is: Classical or whatever new music my sister or Ryan give me.

My favorite thing to buy is: Food and books.

A book I highly recommend is: Heaven is Here-It is really inspirational!

A movie I watch over and over is: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, & Pride and Prejudice.

A smell that makes me pause is: Rain or freshly baked bread.

The city I would most like to visit is: Paris!

My favorite thing to do on a date is: Go out to eat or watch a movie!

The best vacation I ever had was: Going to Norway with my family or on my honey moon to St. Thomas!

If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose? Hermione! I know everyone says it, but that would be so amazing! I used to dream of going to Hogwarts!

If you could learn to do anything, what would it be? To speak Italian or to be more artistic.

What chore do you absolutely hate doing? Cleaning the bathroom!! Thankfully Ryan does it for me!

When you have 30 minutes of free-time, how do you pass the time? Read or call my family.

What do you think is your very best feature or characteristic? I get along with a lot of people.

What is the "thing" you are most grateful for? My family!

What is your dream vacation? I would love to go to Paris with my husband and see all of the beautiful architecture and art and eat all of the amazing food.

What's the coolest thing you've ever done? I studied abroad in Florence and lived with such a nice Italian family that cooked me a gourmet Italian dinner every night!

How did you meet your husband? How did he propose? We officially met in high school at cross country practice. He proposed by leaving a rose and a riddle at my apartment. The riddle led me to one of our favorite spots in high school that overlooks Denver and the foothills. He made me a CD with our favorite songs on it to listen to as I drove there. There were roses with pictures and memories from our past all the way up the hill that led me to him. He handed me the last rose and proposed. It was pretty romantic!

The best thing about being married is: Having your best friend with you! I love being married!

What do you and your husband like to do together? We like to go on walks and go to dinner and watch movies together.

What would be your perfect day? To wake up and cook breakfast and then go on a bike ride to lunch. Eat a great lunch at a good restaurant and then to either go on a drive through the mountains or read at the pool or the lake. Then to go to dinner and a movie with my husband! That would be a great day!

What was the best advice you got/would give on marriage? To always say sorry and I love you and to laugh!

What story does your family always tell about you? They tell Lauren(my twin sister) and I about the funny things we used to do together as kids.

Women Who Know

 

We had a wonderful Sister’s Conference! Our theme was based on the talk “Mothers Who Know” by Julie B. Beck but we applied it to us as our role as women. Thanks to all who participated and shared their knowledge and testimonies!

Finance – Kristi G

• Work Together as a couple – don’t just have the spouse that is really good at finances do it all. It is important that both of you know what is going on.
• Get Organized – use mint.com, funcheaporfree.com

Temple – McKenna R

• True love is when Eternity isn’t long enough.
• Indexing is a wonderful work that enables people to more easily find their ancestors for temple work. It’s fun and easy!
• The blessings of the temple are eternal.

Do Less – Morgan H

• Permit less that draws you away from eternal things.
• You may be so distracted that you are sinning because you aren’t doing the things you should be.
• Live on less so that you can spend more time with family.
• What do you gain if you have the world but lose your soul?

Scriptures – Jessica R

• Raising Up a Family to the Lord – Gene R. Cook
• Scriptures create heroes for young children.
• Show your children how important the scriptures are by how you study them.
• Our Stake President has encouraged us to study 5-15 minutes in the morning to get the armor of God for our day.

Not Judging – Allison W

• Don’t judge others because their sins are different than yours.
• You don’t know what is going on in other people’s lives.
• If attitudes, deeds, and spiritual inclinations were reflected in physical features, would the countenance of the woman who complained be as lovely as that of the woman she criticized? – Thomas S. Monson “Charity Never Faileth”
• Stop judging ourselves and comparing ourselves to others
• Our families need us, not someone else, so stop wishing you were more like someone else.
• Another beautiful woman doesn’t mean there is less beauty for you.

Time Management – Meggie H

• Steven R. Covey’s Management Matrix

Prayer – Cami R

• Communication is the most important in every relationship including our relationship with Heavenly Father.
• Be specific in your prayers

Pinata Making – Yessenia O

• Instructions: http://provo8reliefsociety.blogspot.com/2012/11/diy-pinata.html

Laugh – Ellen L

• Humor can improve our perspective
• We can’t change what we look at but we can change what we see.
• Humor can strengthen relationships
• Humor can help us cope
• Don’t use hurtful humor
• Don’t say “just kidding” – that means you are using hurtful humor
• Use humor to build and uplift
• You can develop a sense of humor – keep a journal of funny experiences or jokes you hear.

DIY Pinata

 

Things you will need

• punch balloons or regular balloons

• scissors

• tissue paper

• masking tape

• newspaper

• flour

• water

• a pot (to boil the water)

• candies

Instructions

Depending on the size you wish to make your piñata, the amount of water and flour you use will vary. I used 3 cups of water and 1 ½ cups of flour for my 9 inch and about 22 cm balloon. The mixture turns into a paste that will help adhere the newspaper to the balloon.

1. Boil water and flour. Make sure to stir constantly with a whisk to avoid flour lumps.

2. Blow up your balloon to the desired size.

3. Lay your newspaper on a flat surface and apply your cooled paste with a spatula to the entire surface of the newspaper.

4. Apply the newspaper to your balloon making sure there are no air bubbles.

5. After applying the amount of layers you want, let it dry over night. If you want your piñata to be strong, the more layers you apply the better. This also means it will take longer to dry and you might want to apply more layers after your first layers have dried. Make sure you allow enough time for drying. You might want to start your piñata many days before the event.

6.You will need many pieces of tissue paper. Fold your tissue paper in an accordion style and cut both sides where it folds. Then start cutting fringes on one side.

7. Wrap masking tape around your piñata from the top all the way around the bottom until you meet at the top again. Then do it again one more time but this time on the side that does not have tape. (if you are looking down at the piñata from the top, it should look like an X) With the excess tape on the top make a loop, this is where you will hang it from.

8. Apply some of the same paste you made earlier to the bottom of your piñata.

9. Starting from the bottom and moving up, apply the fringes.

10. Cut a slit at the top of your piñata (under the fringes) big enough that candy will be able to fit through. The fringes will cover the whole.

This is just an example of the basic steps to making a piñata. If you want to add more dimension like cones or putting together a cartoon character, you need to apply the extra parts to your piñata before step 8. Cones, arms, legs, etc. can me made out of poster board or even cereal box carton. Use different size balloons to make a torso and a head. Look at other piñatas to get ideas, the possibilities are endless!