Young Women Theme

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him.
We will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things,
and in all places" (
Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live
the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity and
Virtue.
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Trunk of Treat



Here are a few pictures of our ward Trunk or Treat this year. Our beloved Bishop as " Dracula". We love our Bishop. Next time you see him, tell him you appreciate his service. He does alot for our ward and especially the youth. And these cute Laurels ( some who were my 11 yr. old primary class) being " Nerds".

There were so many people there and some very cool costumes. But where were my Mia Maids? I saw a few dressed up but never got a picture of them. If you have one girls, email me and I will post. A good time was had by all. Happy Halloween. You are boo-ti-ful. xoxo

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Official Church Response to Petition from Human Rights Campaign

Girls...I thought this was importnat for you to read so you know how to respond if anyone asks you.


Official Church Response to Petition from Human Rights Campaign

OCTOBER 12, 2010

MR says: This is a must read. The Church reconfirms our stance against discrimination and bullying of homosexuals. Very loving, direct, and clearly stated.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement through a spokesman following the delivery of a petition by the Human Rights Campaign:

My name is Michael Otterson. I am here representing the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to address the matter of the petition presented today by the Human Rights Campaign.


While we disagree with the Human Rights Campaign on many fundamentals, we also share some common ground. This past week we have all witnessed tragic deaths across the country as a result of bullying or intimidation of gay young men. We join our voice with others in unreserved condemnation of acts of cruelty or attempts to belittle or mock any group or individual that is different – whether those differences arise from race, religion, mental challenges, social status, sexual orientation or for any other reason. Such actions simply have no place in our society.

This Church has felt the bitter sting of persecution and marginalization early in our history, when we were too few in numbers to adequately protect ourselves and when society’s leaders often seemed disinclined to help. Our parents, young adults, teens and children should therefore, of all people, be especially sensitive to the vulnerable in society and be willing to speak out against bullying or intimidation whenever it occurs, including unkindness toward those who are attracted to others of the same sex. This is particularly so in our own Latter-day Saint congregations. Each Latter-day Saint family and individual should carefully consider whether their attitudes and actions toward others properly reflect Jesus Christ’s second great commandment – to love one another.


Halloween Shortbread Cookies A great FHE Treat!


recipe

Sarabeth Levine's Shortbread Cookies

by Elizabeth Semrai

Sarabeth Levine says this is a perfect cookie because you can decorate it any way you like and for any holiday. “Shortbread cookies traditionally have just a few ingredients, so the buttery flavor really comes through,” Levine says. “My cookies get a little extra crunch from the sugar sprinkled over the hot baked cookies as they come out of the oven.”

For Halloween, use your imagination with cookie cutters, orange and black sprinkles and sugars, and other candies. “You can cut out any size or shape you like, but I prefer my shortbread cookies on the dainty side. Shapes with rounded edges bake best, because sharp points (on stars, for example) tend to get too brown. These caveats aside, shortbread is really quite easy to make.”

With the forthcoming holiday season, make this dough now and freeze in shapes. Once November and December roll around, pull out and bake. You’ll be ahead of the game and sure to enjoy the season stress-free. Read Levine’s baking tips here.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup superfine sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Grated zest of half a lemon
1 2/3 cups (8 ounces) unbleached flour
4 teaspoons granulated sugar, for sprinkling

1. In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with the paddle blade, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest on medium speed until lemony-yellow in color and a fluffy texture for about 2 minutes. With the machine on very low speed, gradually add the flour, mixing until the dough is soft and pliable. Do not overmix. Gather the dough into a ball.

2. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and sprinkle the top with flour. Roll into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Place on a large sheet of plastic wrap. Fold the plastic wrap loosely over the dough to enclose it, keeping the edges of the wrap at the right angles. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to fill the corners of the wrap. (This will give you a nice rectangle that will be easy to roll out after chilling.) Transfer to a baking sheet and refrigerate until the dough is chilled and firm, but not rock hard, about 1 hour.

3. Position the racks in the corner and top-third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

4. Rap the four edges of the dough rectangle a few times on the work surface. Unwrap the dough and place on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour. Roll out the dough into a 1/4-inch thick rectangle. (If the dough cracks, it is too cold; let stand at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes and try again.)

5. Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter dipped inflour, cut out the shortbread, cutting them out very closely to reduce the number of scraps. Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1/2-inch space between the cookies. Gather up the dough, rewrap in plastic, roll into another 1/4-inch thick rectangle, chill for about 10 minutes, and cut out more cookies. Repeat chilling and cutting until all the dough is cut out.

6. Bake, switching the position of the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking, until the shortbread is very lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle the cookies with the granulated sugar (the sugar will not stick if the cookies aren’t hot). Cool the cookies completely on the baking sheets.

Yield: Makes about 3 dozen cookies.



Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Mummy Mini Pizzas: Make these for your family dinner!

Try this ghoulishly tasty mummy pizza recipe, all your little spooks will love them!

Servings: 8

Skills: Beginning
Prep Time: 15 min (not including thaw time)
Bake Time: 12 min

Ingredients

8 Rhodes™ Dinner Rolls, thawed to room temperature
1/3 cup pizza sauce
8 string cheese
sliced olives

Instructions

Spray counter lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Flatten each roll into a 3-4-inch circle. Place on a sprayed baking sheet. Top each one with about 2 teaspoons pizza sauce. Poke each one several times with a fork to prevent bubbles from forming. Bake at 350°F 8-10 minutes. While pizzas are baking tear 1 string cheese for each pizza into thin strips. Remove pizzas from oven and place 2 olive slices on each for eyes. Layer cheese strips in random fashion to resemble mummy bandages. Trim any strips that are too long. Return to oven and bake an additional 1-2 minutes to melt cheese slightly.


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Halloween Pumpkin Faces


Create a ghoulish Halloween candy face with a variety of candy, but be sure to warn children not to eat the candy on the face.

Tools and Materials
Good & Plenty
Miniature marshmallows
Twizzler licorice bites (Black)
Gummy teeth
Licorice wheels
Candy corn
Neapolitan licorice
Ball pins
Glass canisters
Scissors
Small pumpkin

Halloween-Candy Face How-To
1. Secure the candy to the pumpkin with ball pins that match the color of the treats so they aren't too noticeable. Tip: Chewy candy is easier to bend and snip.

2. Place pumpkin on glass canisters or reuse large glass jars for candy.

Resources
The glass canisters we used in this segment can be found at
the Container Store.

Read more at Marthastewart.com:
Pumpkin Candy Faces - Martha Stewart Crafts

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Wisdom!


"One of the greatest challenges for all of us is to learn how to live in the world without participating in all that it offers. Worldly standards will always be in a state of flux. The only true and unchanging standards are those set by the Savior and His teachings of the restored gospel."

Friday, October 8, 2010

Beautiful Bags for Beautiful Girls!























Our last class activity was making bags for the girls to carry their special notebooks and their scriptures and maybe a blanket ( in the winter). They all turned out so cute.Brooke Hoffman , Stacey Nehring and I made one up ahead of time to mae sure we knew how to do it. Stacey put all the girls names on their bags with her fancy embroidery machine. We appreciate all her work.
We asked several ladies fron the ward to come help. and bring their machines. They got a candy bar with a thank you label :) and a heart full of good warm thoughts for helping these cute girls. The best part is that Brooke found the material for $1 a yard. A purse store on Cary street was going out of business and the Holy Ghost led her there :)

We only hope the girls had fun learning how to sew and make something with their own hands. And that they will bring them to church every week. Or they may get the evil eye.

A lot of effort was made by alot of people and we appreciate all the service so much.

Traditions: The Romans Recipes




We had a lesson on righteous traditions in YW. These 2 recipes have been traditions in the Romans family since Greg and I got married. I added a few pictures for fun. Hope you enjoy making and eating them.

Suzie Roman’s Super-Duper Banana Bread



2 cups sugar

3/4 cup oil

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 1/8 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups mashed banana

1 cup chopped pecans (opt)


Cream oil,sugar, eggs. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk

( buttermilk can be made with reg. milk and part vinegar )

Add in vanilla and bananas and nuts. Bake in 4 small or

2 big loaf pans...at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until

brown.Let sit in oven for a few minutes after turning off oven.

Wrap in saran wrap while still warm ..it keeps it moist.

You can freeze if you like. Bread will pull loose from sides

of pan when done. Serve warm with butter and a glass of cold

milk. Enjoy!


Sourdough Pancakes by Greg Romans


STARTER:

1 cup of warm milk

1 pkg of yeast (small package like the size that a couple of Excedrin come in)

Pour milk in bowl, mix in yeast, cover with paper towel or dishcloth (will be yeastier faster if you use dirty sweat socks or any article of clothing warn for at least a week). Let sit over night (at the least—would be better if it sat for a day or two).

Mix in non-metal container the starter, one cup of flour and one cup of water. Let set uncovered over night (keep the socks and/or clothing away). Starter should be pourable but not runny.


If you are in a real hurry you can try combining both steps above the night before making the sourdoughs. It would be better to take the two days.


SOURDOUGH PANCAKES: *In non-metal bowl *


2 cups of flour

1 cup of powdered milk (this could probably be skipped considering that you are adding milk later, but I have not tried it without—

sometimes though with less)

1-1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder (this makes it rise)


Mix thoroughly


Add 80-90 percent of the starter above (always keep a small amount in your starter container—never washout the starter container—just scrape the discolored starter back into the rest of the starter (makes you tough and kills germs)


Add:

One egg (with out the egg shell—this is a compromise to modern tastes)

2 tablespoons of sugar (makes the medicine go down). If this is too sweet or not sweet enough then alter the amount next time.

Milk—enough so that you have a pourable consistency


Ladle the batter onto a hot griddle (stay away from hot girdles). I use a 1/3 or ½ measuring cup to keep the size consistent.


NOTE: This recipe is for 3-4 people. Increase the above amounts (no change in starter) proportionately to the size of the group to be fed. Left over sourdoughs can be heated in a plastic bag in the microwave and will taste almost as good as fresh for four or five days)


STARTER Rejuvenation:


Refill your starter container with one cup of flour, one cup of water. Mix well, should stir easily and not be too thick. Let sit out for 24 hours. Cover and place in refrigerator. Starter should be fed if not used for over four weeks, at least to start with. I never feed my starter, but if this became known to the culinary cops it would certainly be curtains. Feed by dumping out a small amount of the starter and adding an equal amount of water and flour. Let sit out for 24 hours.


I would recommend a quart jar for the starter—and I cover it in the refrigerator with a sandwich bag held in place by a rubber band. Not too pretty—but it works for me. Just remember, remember my son (Helaman 5) --- do not use metal for any of the containers.


When you are ready to cook sourdoughs again take your starter out of the refrigerator several hours before you use it. Speak nicely to it—it likes Buffalo Springfield or Emmylou Harris on the CD player ( we always used to listen to this on Saturday morning,


Sunday, October 3, 2010

We love conference.


It is so awesome that we can hear from a prophet of God and his other servants twice a year.

The messages are timely and powerful.

There are so many good ones.

What a blessing in our lives to have modern revelation.

And the music is so beautiful by the Mormon Tabernacle choir.

If you didn't have a chance to listen, go to lds.org and re-read ot listen.

My favorite is usually Jeffrey Holland.

I loved his message this time.

It was short but powerful and thougth provoking.

He is special to me because I met him once in Alabama when he came to do a training.
He was very kind to me.

And then he came to Richmond and spoke a few years back. It was amazing.

Who is your favorite?

There were some great messages . See if you can apply then to your own life.

Post your favorite and tell us why?

Friday, October 1, 2010

CATE the GREAT: OUR SUNBEAM


Congratulations to Cate Sorensen ( of the Gayton Mia Maids)...she won as SCA president today at Pocahontas Middle school.. She worked hard and will be a great president. We are all happy and excited for her. She is our SUNBEAM because she always so happy and smiling all the time.

We know she will be a good example and do her best.

Way to go Cate....you rock!

Combined YM/YW Talent Show: Paper Bag Lip Sync's

Last night at Mutual the Mia Maids were in charge of the YM/YW combined activity.
It was a talent show. We didn't have anybody sign up fro real talents so we did paper bag lip sync's. You get assigned a group and are given few prop's in a bag...you have to get up on stage and dance and lip sync to a song that is played for you with only 5 minutes preparation. It was fun to see how creative everyone was in the very few minutes they had to plan...and improvise on the spot.

Unfortunately for me ( Sister Romans), I was the lead singer for my group with back up dancers. But the real lead singer was a guy plus I didn't know one word of the song. You can definitely see a generation gap. Ouch! But my cane came in handy as a microphone. I can barely walk , let alone dance these days ...so what a challenge. Hopefully next year when I have my new knee, I wil get another chance to show off my great dance moves :) To a song I know...like ARETHA or THE BEACH BOYS.

Some of the other groups were awesome and had some great moves withe the kids and the leaders. It was fun to see them in action. Especially Derric Nance doing gymnastics. And Jeremy Moore and Chase Bleyl doing some female moves.

We gave out prizes to the groups from the judges and a good time was had by all.

Here are a few pictures of the night: