Metro West OV/GOR

Ahhhhhh!!!! I cannot express how excited I am for it to finally be the season of Official Visits and Grand Officer Receptions. Some people talk about the difficult scheduling of the Official Visits and Grand Officer Receptions separately but sometimes I really wish that was the way it still was because I love these events so much and I just can't get enough of them so I want more of them to be happening. Having the Willamette Valley West District OV/GOR in the fall was such a great teaser of what I'm sure are the amazing things to come. Enough rambling lets get down to business (to defeat the huns!) This Official Visit and Grand Officer Reception was an Around the World in 80 Days theme. It was adorable. You walk in the room and one of the first things that you see is these two rainbow colored Hot Air Balloon decorations. I should of predicted that they would expect me to drive one of those things. That is okay though, they gave me goggles and a scarf so I felt like Snoopy from the Red Baron video.

When I was in said Hot Air Balloon flying not exactly in a straight line (because come on, where is the fun in that) I got to visit all of these cool countries represented by Rainbow Girls which was awesome (is that a positive adjective I haven't used yet? I know I am bound to repeat some of them). After all of that fun, I still got presents. I swear these girls spoil me. Each assembly gave a wonderfully generous donation to my service project (The Shriners Hospital Recreation Therapy and Movement Arts Program) and together the assemblies got me two gifts. The first was a Office Max paper box!!! I mean there was an adorable fuzzy pillow pet inside it too. Its a baby blue dolphin, he has been hanging out with me at school. During a late night flash of inspiration I decided to name him Max. They also got me a beautiful crystal bowl. I can't wait to use it in my adult life (wow, that sounds a little scary). After the Official Visit it was time for the Grand Officer Reception and I love honoring our gorgeous Soaring Sunflowers. They all work so hard and it has been so great to see them traveling and just representing Rainbow so well. I am especially glad that this year I have taken the time to write each of them a personal letter so I can take more time to tell them the things that I think everyone should hear, like how appreciated they are. It is so important to me to make the most of this year and make as many personal connections as possible.

My version of January

January to me means that its installation season which is super exciting. It is really amazing to see all of the new officers take their positions. The themes are also really fun because they really represent the creativity that each Worthy Advisor or Assembly has. Of course I really love hearing the Assembly's goals for the ensuing term because I really want to help with them in any way that I possibly can. I feel especially privileged after this January because I was invited to participate in so many of the installations and I was able to. It was a special treat to be Morgan Welch's installing officer for the 2nd time and to present her with an inflatable tooth because I don't know when in my life I would have ever given someone an inflatable tooth but that was what she really wanted. Morgan's installation was also the event where I got to take 2 pies in the face. I'm waiting for the videos and pictures to come out because I'm sure I made some cute facial expressions during that process. Overall, I think this Installation Season was an amazing success and I look forward to all of the wonderful things that each Assembly will be doing in the upcoming term.

The Pledge OV aka my favorite event

I love the Pledge OV. It is my favorite. I look forward to this event every year. It is such a great day full of fun and laughter and excitement and so much energy. The ceremony was so beautiful those little girls did so well on their ritual work, I was so proud of them. They almost made me cry, and I try to be the type of person who doesn't cry at just anything. I also felt extremely honored to be part of the pledge Majority Ceremony. I think it is a great honor to receive your majority from pledge because then you can be welcomed into Rainbow with open arms. I also want to thank Faith for their generous donation to my service project and Hope for the shirt. I am so excited about it, I love the shirt so much and I have been showing it off to all of my Delta Gamma friends who love anchors like me. The pledge OV is one of my happiest memories and I know I will treasure it for years and years and years. I am unbelievably excited about the opportunity to see these pledge girls grow up to be great rainbow girls and maybe someday even be Grand Officers. My heart is full of pride and love for every single one of them. I know this is a short post but I feel like if I continued I would just be repeating myself over and over about how much I love them and how amazing they are and what a wonderful and fun day it was. I hope everyone has taken the chance to color in their coloring books.

Willamette Valley West OV & GOR

This was such a good day. First lets start off with the theme, "Camp Rainbow" what an awesome cute idea. Plus I was an outdoor school counselor during high school which I absolutely loved. It added so much to the effect that they had a campfire and sleeping bags in the middle of the floor. Mrs. Noah's first concern was that they might try to make us get in the sleeping bags as part of the addendum. I don't know if that would have been better or worse than what they actually made us do. For the addendum we had to run back and forth AND try to pop balloons AND color things. It would have been totally fine (actually it was fine and it was lots of fun) but the new GWA crown adjusts based on the size of your head but doesn't stay in place very well, and the more I ran back and forth the more loose it got. I want to thank so much the girls from St. Mary's who held the crown when I realized that I needed to take it off. I do love the chicken dance so it was kind of fun to end it that way. The gift is adorable and hanging up in my room and I think its super awesome that it is chalkboard paint, and I would love to draw on it but I don't want to erase all of the girls name. The mad libs for the Grand Officers and Choir members was awesome too. It was such a wonderful day and I can't wait to see what all of the other Official Visits and Grand Officer receptions will have in store.

GWAA Reception & Grand Initiation

I know it has been almost 2 months since the actual event but it is still very important to me to include it in the blog. Part of the reason I'm keeping this is to tell others about the events that we have, but another part is for me to be able to keep it is a memory when this year is over. Emma's reception was pretty awesome. She got her own cooking show, which was really cool. I was really proud of the Grand Officers for being so on the ball with our impromptu addendum. I didn't realize that we were supposed to have one planned and so I scribbled quickly the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies (the only thing i know the ingredients for off the top of my head) and split them in the groups. It actually went off really nicely which makes me happy. I love initiations, I know a lot of people who know me know that because I say it all the time, and so it is no surprise that I was extremely excited for this initiation. I was also really nervous, I just wanted so badly to do well on my ritual work because it is such a beautiful ceremony. At the end of the night it all turned out really well and I am so proud of everyone.

Catching Up & Fall Visits

I have just been so caught up with everything going on that I haven't had time to blog I feel so bad. So I am going to take my small window of free time (thank goodness for winter break) to catch up on all the blogging that I have missed. This first one will be on all of the visits that I made this fall. I had so much fun on all of these visits and I just can't wait to go back in the spring. It is so interesting to see the things that vary from assembly to assembly. I was most excited to meet and talk to the girls that I haven't had much of a chance to talk to before. I started my visits with Beaverton (and Forest Grove) and those ladies had some great goals, and it was especially interesting for me to hear those interested in holding line officers give their letters before they held elections. At Martha Washington I was really excited to be at Jennifer Chipman's first meeting as Worthy Advisor and she did a great job. My visit at Eugene was especially fun because as a practice they escorted every person who was in attendance at that meeting, it started to get kind of silly towards the end, but we had lots of fun. Visiting Cherry Assembly was especially interesting because they had to kick me out part way through the meeting so that they could discuss their plans for the Official Visit. The week after Grand Initiation was quite busy for me, I made four visits that week. I started the week with Hillsboro's meeting which was so much fun, I got to dress up as a duck and we had a special bunny visitor. Then it was off to Eastern Oregon where I first visited Union, I surprised Casi at her Volleyball game (She did awesome) and then attended their meeting and afterward we all enjoyed lots and lots of Emma's mom's carmel dipping sauce, I have to get that recipe from her. Then Wednesday I was off to Joseph for their meeting. Before their meeting they had a time for pumpkin carving and they even let me carve one. The really special thing about this is that the pumpkins they had for us to carve were kind with instructions to turn them into pie which I did when I got home. My final visit of the week was to St. Marys assembly in Corvallis. There I got to visit with the pledge girls and the rainbow girls and at St. Mary's they have special system this term where they alternate which office the girls hold so that they get practice with all of the ritual parts. I visited Mt. Scott on my second to last meeting and got to see all of their girls rock their ritual parts and I was especially proud of their younger girls for doing so well and being so dedicated to their assembly. My last visit will be to my home assembly during their Christmas Party which should be a blast.

Grand Worthy Advisor Reception

Wow, I mean it has been days and I am still saying "Wow!" that is how amazing the whole experience was. I cannot believe that room was so full and that we had to bring in so many chairs. I'm trying to think of where to start but even the beginning doesn't seem quite right. When we arrived it was already a mad house, there were so many people there it was crazy in the best sort of way. The auction looked amazing, there were so many wonderful items to bid on, I can't believe I didn't have more time to look or bid for myself. Then there was the dinner which was put on by the State Miss Service team. Not only was it delicious, but there were so many people. They did an amazing job and I am so thankful to them for taking on that responsibility and doing such a fabulous job at it. Now moving on to the actual reception. It is hard to know what to say. I feel so blessed and honored that so many people were there. It was completely overwhelming in the best sort of way to walk into that room. I am so proud of Stephannie and all of the hard work that she put into introductions because I know how difficult they can be and she did an absolutely fabulous job. Then there was HeadBand, they were so amazing but there were moments when I imagined that this is what the Beatles in Shea Stadium must have been like because of all of the excited screaming girls. The addenda were so much fun, although I was a little disappointed when the ball shooter gun wouldn't work but then I got to pop balloons and money came out which was pretty awesome. The Grand Officers had me looking so silly with my sun screen, floaties and my crazy hat but they know that I would do anything for them so it all works out well. Giving my speech was probably one of the most exciting/scary/nerve-racking things that I have ever done. The entire week leading up to it I was bound and determined to re-write my speech because I was so afraid of singing in public. The day of I spent the entire ride to and from Vancouver telling my mom "I'm not gonna do it, I can't do it, I can't sing, I have to re write it, I'll make it up on the spot" some variation of those sentences over and over and over again. In the end though I did it, I was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane but I did it and I am so glad that I did because I really meant what I said that it is so important to face your fears because most of the time there is no reason to be afraid of them. I am especially glad that I can shout from the rooftops now that BRYANNA IS MY PAGE! It has been so hard to keep this surprise from her because she had already been acting like my page and has been so wonderful. I was humbled by all of the dignitaries and I could spend all day typing all sorts of wonderful things about them but instead I will just say that I appreciate them all so much. I want to thank everyone so much for being there and for all of their donations to my service project. I can't wait to see everyone again at Emma's reception!