The Date has been set for Thursday July 19th! We will start that evening with dinner and anyone who would like to can sleepover.  The following day, the 20th, we will go until we want to end, sometime after lunch. 

Our Theme this year is "O BE WISE"

 

OWLS will be our logo

 

We will be doing a get to know you gift exchange like last retreat.  Don't go over $10.00.   The gift should represent something that has made you wise or something that tells us WHOOO you are. 

 

This year our ancestor is going to be Sylvia Bernetta Bloomfield Bond- our Paternal Grandmother -

make sure you bring your black notebook and water bottles from last time.

 

So far this is what we are thinking:

 

Leslie and Piper: Exercise class

Lani, Bri and Shaylee: Lunch on the 20th. 

Melanie: Spiritual class on theme about being wise.  

Jillian, Keri, and Brittany:  Craft

Nana & helpers: Dinner 

Deana & helpers: Breakfast

Marli & Lisa:  Sylvia History

 

Please contact us if you want to help or if you have been assigned something and won't be available. We will be contacting those that are doing the classes with more info and to check to see if you have questions.

 

We are so excited to plan this and make memories together.  We have lots of fun ideas planned. :)

Oh Be Wise!

Marli, Brittany and I have decided that we NEED to do another retreat.  Is there anyone else out there that would be interested in joining with us?  If so we would like you to give us feed back ASAP.
This time age 12 and up girls are invited. 
1) Would you be willing to come a day before the Lambson Reuinon on Thursday June 28th? 
Or post a date that would work better for you and we will see what dates we have from ya'll and then go from there.
2) We would just do a day thing, with the history of Grandmother Sylvia Bond, a craft, dinner/lunch, service, workshop, etc got any ideas?  Our theme is Oh Be Wise!
3) Would you like to exchange $5-10 gifts again?  Did you enjoy that or should we ditch that idea?
4) Would you be willing to help with a workshop, meal or craft that would go along with the theme? 
5) Would you be willing to pay a small amount for craft, meal, paper for making copies and pictures of Sylvia etc?
We can have it at my house and then if ya want to stay over night you can or go camping at the Lambson site because the Lambson Reuinon would start the next day.
The time is fast aproaching, so if you want to do it let us know.  Thank you.

The Retreat

Well, the 1st Annual Bond Women's Retreat has come and gone.  We sure had a fun time planning it and we are glad that you had a fun time coming to it.  Here is a look back on some of the behind the scenes and also some of the fun that was had.  Thanks to everyone that helped and everyone that came. 

We made and ate yummy stuff.  Including cake balls, Grandma Lucille's Chocolate Cake, fudge and date candy. 

Pretty as a picture.  These look like State Fair cupcakes.  Great Job mom!  No wonder everyone loved Lucille's cake. :)

Thanks for making your mom's fudge recipe Nana. It was yummy. And thanks Dana and Lanny for making our cute fudge paddles.

The decorations were super cute with Butterflies all around. Grandma Lucille's ironing board made the perfect display for all her pictures and her crotched items.

Lots of fun handouts.  The butterfly charm was from my mom's class on Butterflies.  The little buckets were from Brittany's class on "Filling your Bucket".  The Butterfly bookmarks were from Nana's class about Grandma Lucille.  The tile was from my class on "Joy in the Journey".  The bath salts and washcloths were from our facial class and the survival kits Jillian made as our take home gift.  Thanks to all the teachers preparation and the great handouts everyone made.

Our awesome service project:  Making a baby blanket.  Thanks for helping everybody.  It was fun to watch all your helping hands.  Even though some of you didn't love it some little baby is going to really appreciate it.

 

Great Location!

Fun times together.

It was so wonderful to learn more about this amazing lady.  I feel like I know her so much better now.  Like Nana said she was one to be proud of and I will keep trying to make her proud.  

The Retreat has come and gone

Melanie, thank you for posting. It is nice to know that all our hard work and efforts were felt. We had fun planning, doing and serving. I learned alot of things I would never have taken the time to learn had we not done this. Like making butterflies for the cupcakes, and typing out Gramma Lucilles history and finding pictures to go with it. Gathering all of her treasures to display. Making hanging puff flowers to hang. Reading and learning so much about butterflies. I have always liked them but now I will always think of the retreat when I see a butterfly.
I will always think: to become a butterfly you must want to fly so much that you give up being a caterpillar. We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. I hope we all become better. Like Pres. Hinckley said,"You can be excellent in everyway, You can be first class There is no need for you to be a scrub....
I finished the baby blanket, I hope you all had fun crocheting your block, maybe Marli will post us some pictures on here so everyone can see the fun we had. And maybe just once you could try and make the fudge or the cake from Gramma Lucilles recipes. :)

Remember Your eternal place depends on what you do in this life Find Joy in YOUR journey.

If you have a pulse you have a purpose!!!

I love you all, Lisa

Thank You!!

The women's retreat was amazing. Thank you Romine Ladies for a wonderful weekend! We could tell you spent so much time preparing to make it the best experience possible. I was amazed by how much thought and preparation was put into all of the classes, handouts, food and decorations. It was really so fun and the messages were inspiring. And it was great to hear Nana recount the life of her mother. The stories and experiences were so memorable and moving. I had a great time with all you wonderful Bond women. I'm glad I married into such a great family!! Thanks again Lisa, Marli and Brittany. You girls are awesome!

Grandmother Sylvia Bernetta Bond

Well, I guess it's just you and me Marli. Doesn't feel like anyone else reads this....But, I wanted to also share Grandmother Sylvia's favorite song. I found out this was her favorite song at church one day a couple of years back, when we sang it in church and Idelle Nicoll told me it was Sylvia's favorite song. Another reason it is special to me is that Daddy told me he had a dream one night that he was in heaven and he could hear this choir of angels singing and they were singing "Sweet Hour of Prayer". He said it was the most beautiful music that he had ever heard; better than the Tabernacle Choir could ever do. It was later that we found out it was his mother's favorite song.

SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER
Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer! That calls me from a world of care
And bids me at my Father's throne Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief, My sould has often found relief.
And oft escaped the tempter's snare By thy return Sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer! Thy wings shall my petition bear
To him whose truth and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless
And since he bids me seek his face Believe his word, and trust his grace.
I"ll cast on him my every care, And wait for thee, Sweet hour of Prayer!

When I read these words and think of her. I think that these words must have brought her comfort. She knew she was leaving her family, her little babies, how sad and heavy her heart must have been. I know that prayer can soothe the soul and heal the broken heart. I would think that as a Grandmother she would give us these words of advise if she where here. To always turn to our Heavenly Father in prayer and seek him always. Believe his words and trust his grace. To escape the tempter's snare and feel my Savior's love in times of need is a great blessing. I am very thankful that I found out this was Grandmother Sylvia's favorite song I think it gives great insight to the kind of person she was.

Pray always, and remember you come from good people.

Grandmother Lucille Lambson

I have been learning alot about our Grandmother Lucille and just today I talked to her best friend, Flora Clawson, and she told me alot of stuff; but the one thing I will share today is her favorite song. The rest of the story...you will have to come to the retreat to learn about her. She loved this song, if you can, look it up on the internet and listen to it.

Anything Your Heart Desires by Billy Walker here are the lyrics:
Anything your heart desires I would give to you my love.
All the world I'd like to give and hand to you the stars above.
I don't own the world or the stars in the blue
and all I can give is my love to you.
Anything your heart desires I would give to you my love {Piano}
I don't own the world....
I really liked the song and thought that these words have a message about the kind of person she was. Everyone I have talked to about her said she was a good woman, kind, sweet and loving. She was always giving and doing for others. So I am going to take these words to my heart and think that if she knew me she would love me too. Love to all, Lisa

Happy Birthday to our April Girls

It's been a hard month.... Marli and I wanted to spotlight each of you on your birthday.... But Martin's Dad passed away on the 8th and it has been hard for us... to get things done.

Anyway to keep our bonds strong we want to send a shout out to acknowledge "Miss Thing" Chloe Pillar had a birthday on the 11th. We had brownies and Ice Cream at my house. Alyssa had a birthday on the 21st. I know Alyssa is feeling overwhelmed about turning 30 and I totally remember how I felt. But looking back I will say I wish I was 30 now. Just enjoy the journey and remember that age it just a number really. Have fun with it girl. Lani is having hers on the 27th so call her :) Anyway Happy Birthday to you all. Maybe if you know something fun about them or they want to they could share something about themselves for us all to know them better.
Hope you are all getting excited about the retreat in August it is going to be fun -mark it on your calendars 6th and 7th. It will be worth the effort I promise. Love to all. Lisa

Do you KNOW her?

I am still learning how to do this. I thought it might be fun to see how well you know Mom, Nana GG (aka Billie to outsiders.) What did she use to curl her hair with? What did she use to play with as a child since she had no toys? What animal was she most afraid of as a child? What sound does she hate to hear because it makes her feel so sad and lonely? What age was she when her mother passed on to heaven? What chore did she hate the most? Where was she born? Do you know the date and year? Name her siblings. Do you know her middle name, do you know her parents names? No cheating by asking someone you have to answer on your own. If you don't know we will ask her to tell you on a post in the next few days. Ok if this made you think, don't you agree it will be fun to get to know each other alittle better? I do. These are things all her daughters will know but for the rest of you I think it will be fun to find out the answers. Let's enjoy finding out about each other. Ask us questions about yourself and see if we can answer them! Let's have fun with this blog. Love to all.

Blogger Helps

I know some of you don't have a blog and don't really know anything about them.  So I thought I would give you some quick tips because you don't need to become a contributor or anything like that (only if you want to.)  You can just get on and check out the pictures and make a comment.
1.)  Comments: If you have a comment about someone's post you can click on the little text "comment" at the bottom of their post and leave them a comment. You don't have to do a whole new post you can just leave a comment.
*I have also selected an option that emails us when someone has made a comment. If you are not getting those comments or you don't want to get those comments let me know. :)  I just barely set that up so that's why Lani's original comment didn't get sent.  (It doesn't email new posts just new comments.)

2.). Sidebar: I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that can do the sidebar so I have uploaded pictures of families.  If you don't like the picture or have a more recent one just send it to me. :)

3.)  If you want easy access to the blog you could add it to your favorites or add it to your desktop.  Someone might want to help Nana to do that so that she can check it out and comment if she wants.  To add it to your desktop all you need to do is pull up the site and right click anywhere on the page. A menu will appear. Click on "create shortcut". A popup box will appear asking if you want to send the shortcut to your desktop. When you click yes a little orange icon will appear on your desktop.

Let me know if anyone else has any questions or problems.  I'm not that great at it but I can try to help you for sure. :)

Any thoughts?

Thanks for visiting the blog. We are glad that you guys checked it out. We are feeling kind of bummed that no one made a comment though. Do you have any thoughts on our idea? If there is no intrest we don't have to do one. Please let us know what you are thinking so we can plan it or bag it. :)

Women's Retreat

Hello Ladies,
We would like to start a new tradition in our family. For the past 8 years I have been attending the “Dunford Women’s Retreat”. This is a retreat with all the women (14 and older and nursing babies of course) in Tyler’s mom’s family. Each year I can’t help but wish it was my mom, sisters, nana, etc. that I was having such fun with. So Lisa's girls decided that we wanted to start holding our own girls retreat.

We are hoping to do it this summer. We were thinking July or August might be the best time since kids would be out of school. The retreat would be held at Lisa’s house and it would go from 5:00 p.m. on a Friday to around 1:00 on Saturday (yes it’s a sleepover). The retreat will consist of motivating classes, a fun craft, a service project, learning more about an ancestor and really just having fun together strengthening our bonds.

This letter is also to inform you that we have set up a new family blog. http://thestrongbonds.blogspot.com/. We would like for each of you to get on and tell us what would work best for you for the retreat. We think this blog can be a fun way for us to keep in touch. We will be sending each of you an invite to be a contributor on the blog. This will allow you to post pictures and info on what’s going on in your family.

There will be more info to come on the retreat once we hear back from all of you.

Love
Lisa, Marli, Brittany and Jillian

P.S. Let us know if you have any trouble getting on the blog.