Amazing Beginnings

Even though we had OVs yesterday, if I don't talk about the Science Museum I will lose my mind. Last Saturday I attended the OVs at Speedway and Plainfield. Brittany Winebar let me ride with her and her Bethel #34 girls- Carolyn and Sophie. After the OV at Plainfield, we headed down to the Louisville Science Center for an overnight. Unfortunately because of the Official Visits we didn't get there until the classes downstairs were almost over. There was a great turnout with over 100 participants. I was really happy to see Bethels take advantage of the great opportunity. After a group snack, we split up to do the scavenger hunt.

Dispute my overly competitive nature, we didn't develop a great system for the scavenger hunt until later in the game. We did, however, develop a group call so we no longer needed to stick together. When one of us found the answer to a question we yelled out, "ka-kaw." We were judged for it, but I believe those judgments stemmed from jealousy. After the scavenger hunt- which we did not win- but was won by Bethels from Louisville and Jeffersonville, we watched an IMAX movie. I feel like they may have had the upperhand and potentially practiced before we arrived. One day it will come time to play Disney Scene-It and that is a battle you will lose. You lose that battle 9 times out of 10. Back to the Museum...

The Best Part of the Night. After the movie, everyone got their bags, pillows and blankets and picked a part of the museum to sleep in. You can literally sleep anywhere, which I thought was really cool. Brittany, Carolyn, and Sophie brought me to our sleeping location that they had found earlier, the Amazing Beginnings Room. Imagine with me. The room was enclosed with windows on the left. The image of a baby was blown up on the window. On the other side of the room were tubules with replications of developing fetuses. One of the tubes was empty though so that does raise the question of Alien Abduction. There was a light illuminating the tubules that changed color periodically. And while I have captured the room through images, there is no documentation that can truly describe the noise in the room. Over the sound system, we listened to what a baby listens to all night- some classical music, their heartbeat and their parents talking indistinctly.

The next morning we all shared a quick breakfast then left to head back to Indianapolis. It was a great event and I'm glad so many people were able to attend. Thank you to Julie Cox for organizing the event.

Once more you open the door

Last night was the long awaited DeMolay Sweetheart Dance. It was extremely well attended. There were people that I looked for all night and couldn't find until the end of the night because of the crowd. The music was good and everyone seemed to have a good time. I personally was a fan of the 90's at 9.

The best part of the evening was the drawing for the King and Queen of the night. James Gordan won king (shock!). Morgan Fisher won Queen and the two shared an adorable dance. I'm proud to have been present for the song selection, suggested by Libbie Sutherland. And our hearts all went on last night.

Brittany Winebar, Tara Disbrow and I started working on our dance moves last night. I have a theory that if we can bank about 30 awesome dance moves that's all we'll ever need to know. We can use rearrange them and pull them out when necessary. So far we're at like 6 moves. I'm really counting on Dance Central to teach me what I need to know to get by in social situations.

Today has been a good day. I spent quite a bit of the day with Brittany working on things for Session. I hope everyone had a good time and you are all getting ready for the term to start up.

Super Duper

YAY PACKERS!

Ritual Revision Survey

On the edge of an Arabian desert, centuries ago there lived a man named Job. He was a good man who loved God and turned away from evil. God, in His goodness, blessed Job with great wealth. With his wife, seven sons and three daughters, he lived in a valley in peace, happiness and plenty. His vast estates stretched in all directions, providing pasture for his camels,oxen and sheep. Scattered in the valley and shaded by giant palms, were the homes of his sons.

At the close of each day it was the custom of Job's children to gather together to feast at one of their homes. Job, not wishing to impose upon the festivities, remained at his own home in peace. Because they were so wealthy, Job feared that his children, might forget or turn away from God. By regular worship he taught his family to share in his faith.

In heaven, God praised Job for his piety. The Adversary, whose task was to test the
faith of the people of the earth, accused Job of being devoted to God only because He made Job wealthy. The Adversary declared that if God took away Job's riches, his love for God would turn to hate. God permitted the Adversary to test Job's faith by taking away his possessions, but he forbid the Adversary to harm Job. So the Adversary set forth on his mission.

Job live Desert. Job good, hate bad. Job have family be happy. Job's children eat. Job stay home. Job have money fear for family. Job love God. God like Job. Adversary want God test Job. God permits.

Please don't forget to check out the proposed changes, even if you only focus on opening or initiation. Say something if you have an opinion. The revisions are at www.iojd.org

The comment period ends November 1

Leadership Conference and Soups Cook-off

Grand Bethel's Leadership Conference was Saturday October 9th at Freemason's Hall in downtown Indianapolis. Rather than having a traditional leadership conference, we tried to do something a little different this year. In the morning session, we had a self-esteem seminar for the girls. The girls were divided into two groups by age. The adults went over the adult proficiency test- a test over the ritual and constitution and bylaws. We got a lot accomplished and I think we'll have several adults turn in the test this year. We had a baked potato bar for lunch while Raquel spoke to the group about healthy eating options.

After lunch we had a self defense instructor from IU speak to the group and provide some basic lessons.
We learned some basic strikes, kicks, blocks and some situational defense. Everyone got an opportunity to kick full force on a pad and practice kicking someone's shin and escaping. Then we drew for door prizes and awarded certificates for completion of the 2010 Leadership Conference.

The next morning was Statewide Go to Church Sunday followed by the Grand Bethel Soups cook-off and Bazaar. We had a great turn-out for the event. I know some of you may have heard the rumor that there was a contest for whoever sold the most tickets for the event.
Unfortunately, so many of the Grand Bethel Exec sold out of their tickets that we had to call it a draw. Too bad because I had an awesome present but I guess we'll just have to wait until we sell tickets for another event. There were some great items for sale at the Bethel's booths.

Thank you to everyone who entered soups and thank you to Tara Disbrow for coordinating the event.

GB Getaway- so legit you have to admit

Grand Bethel had their getaway the first weekend of October at the DeMolay Chateau in Bloomington. We had a pretty good turnout with about 25 people total. Exec went on Friday night. Saturday everyone joined us for lunch. It was rainy outside and we were worried the weather wouldn't clear up. Right after we ate, we traversed to the covered basketball court at the back of the Chateau grounds. We continued our annual dodgeball competition.
We played girls against adults for awhile but as that was one-sided (and I say that because my team kept winning and winning, we switched teams up. It was pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie. Then we got out the sidewalk chalk and played four square. It was shocking how few people had played four square as children. So we relived our childhood then played some outside games. As our theme was Christmas, we played some Holiday games. One of the games was like hot potato but with a Christmas package. Whenever the music stopped, whoever was holding the package had to unwrap one layer then act out the task that was written in that layer. If you completed the task you got the present that was with the task.

We also learned some awesome moves from Darren's Dance Grooves. I hope all the attendees from getaway will be practicing the dance for Corn Ball and Shrine Youth. We still have a little work for Bye Bye Bye. We made Hobo meals for dinner (each person makes their own meal out of potatoes, meat, corn, green beans, mushrooms, etc.). They were really good and filling. We watched the House Bunny that night and went to bed. The next morning we had breakfast together then tore down and went home. I hope everyone had a great time, I know I did.


After getaway I got to spend a couple of days in Bloomington, catching up on my favorite restaurants...and catching up with friends. It was a nice birthday present to myself.

Beech Grove’s Fall Festival- We came, we saw, we left.

I went to Beech Grove’s Fall Festival today. We had a booth outside the temple with the Silent Auction baskets. We had promotional items and sold silly bands. The Masons had a breakfast in the morning then we served a hot dog lunch for $4 with chips and a drink. There wasn’t a great crowd this year so that was disappointing. Carolyn Winebar came and we learned a lot together. We learned about a politician running for congress, Jeff Spoonamore. He’s running against Andre, if you didn’t know. We didn’t know who he was so we had to ask. We also got our faces painted and were the envy of all the little children waiting in line behind us to get their faces painted.
They had some awesome gift cards and baskets for the silent auction…I brought two of them. Thank you Noblesville Panera for your generous donations! We got to have our council meeting after the festival so my Monday night is now free, which I’m very excited about.

I went home last night to Yorktown, IN. My cat Peppi, who lives at my parent’s house, is really sick and they think she might have cancer in her right hip and a tumor in her mouth. They biopsied one of her teeth and her hip and they’ll get the results back in a week. I wanted to go home and see her just in case she takes a turn for the worst. It was a good weekend at home and I was glad to see my parents. Now I’m just getting everything ready for the Exec meeting I have tomorrow. For those of you who don’t know, the executive members of Grand Bethel (5 Line, Advisors, Recorder, Treasurer, 3 committee members and the Jr. Past GBHQ who serves on committee for the year following her term as GBHQ) meet to discuss the business of Grand Bethel about once a month. Tomorrow will be our 3rd meeting for the year. I hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys this nice weather.