Repost

This is something that I posted on an alternate blog while mine was broken. I just thought you all would like to know how my talk went and all that jazz.

I gave my talk on Sunday and I did a smashing job if I do say so myself (and I don't because I got a lot of comments). I think that blogging actually helped me out because for the first time I was able to write one out that sounded like I was speaking instead of reading. I also did not end up babbling and editing mid sentence. I purposely left it shorter than my alloted time because I knew that the person after me was talking about her pioneer ancestors (a little know fact is that tomorrow is Pioneer day, a day celebrated in Utah only) and they tend to ramble on a bit. We went over time so I knew that I was right in my decision. A crazy thing was that this time around I was not even that nervous. I was able to read slowly and distinctly instead of rushing and spitting into the microphone.

Evan and Harry both wanted to come up and sit with me on the stand. It was cute seeing them pointing at me excitedly when I was talking. When my husband gave his talk months ago (maybe even years ago) I know that I spent it outside with Evan and didn't get to hear a word. I was pleased that everyone stayed in the chapel the whole time even though I could hear both boys at times. If you are curious I will email anyone that asks a copy of my talk.

When I got home I ate lunch and then disappeared in to the bedroom for a Harry Potter reading frenzy. My husband took sole care of the children while I gorged myself on reading. I finished the book in eight hours (the same time that I finished the last book in) which included a dinner break. I am so glad that the book ended the way I wanted it to!

Tags: Harry Potter, church, children

Yikes!

I got a phone call this morning. I thought it was the physical therapist telling me that she was running late. Sadly I was mistaken. It was a member of the bishopric asking me to give a talk this Sunday. It has been over four years since I have given one, so I guess I was due. Luckily I am the first adult speaker so I can rush through my talk (like I normally do) and leave a lot of time for the poor sap *cough* I mean the lovely speaker that will be following me.

My topic is Home As a Refuge From The World. If anyone has any great stories, scriptures or quotes from the General Authorities please feel free to tell me about them (please I am begging). I have a feeling that I will not get as much research time as I did last time I spoke which was before I had kiddos.

Tags: public speaking, church

The Embarrassing Moment That Did Not Happen

There is a gal that used to live in my ward with her mother. She left for a mission, came back for awhile and then got married and moved. She comes back now and then with her "interesting" husband to visit her mother.

Last Christmas I saw her again after not having seen her for quite some time. She had gained quite a bit of weight, especially in the stomach area. I thought she looked at least five or six months pregnant. I was excited for her but did not get a chance to approach her and congratulate her. I also did not get much of a chance to talk to her mother to congratulate her either.

It turns out this was a very fortuitous happening. I saw her again today sitting with her mother at church just as chubby as she had been at Christmas. There was no baby in sight. I am so very utterly thankful that I was able to avoid the whole "No, I am not pregnant I am just fat" conversation with her. I am equally glad that I was able to also avoid that same conversation with her mother. The only people that know that I thought she was pregnant are you and I know you can keep it secret.............. right?

Tags: embarrassment, pregnancy, church

Sunday Stuff

If Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, why do I end up so exhausted at the end of the day?

In any given LDS nursery you are bound to find an extremely odd assortment of toys. I can tell that my ward's toy cabinets have not been cleaned out in forever. There was a Battle Cat aka Cringer action figure in the random collection which was a nice blast from the past toy. My sister E was a huge He Man fan so we watched the show a lot. I got to play She-ra and she was always He Man. I also found some ancient Fisher Price Little People from before they looked like giant headed real people.

I know all this because I got the chance between chasing kids to do a bit of spring cleaning. The Other Ward was not keeping very good track of their toys, not locking them up or anything so they all had migrated over to our cabinets spilling over to the top. The guy in our ward that is in charge of keeping the building safe and to code put his foot down about the mess. Anything that The Other Ward did not claim was going to end up at the Young Women yard sale later this month. We were both also hindered by the fact that random things kept showing up in the nursery room thanks to well meaning ward members. Toys for infants were just placed in the room, never mind that the youngest kids that could be in nursery were 18 months old. A lovely collection of Di*sney movies appeared one Sunday. That would have been nice except no videos of any kind are shown during nursery. We are a bit more wholesome than that, preferring to focus the Sabbath on religious things.

I have a new nursery assistant which is really nice. The old one was nice enough but she didn't speak much English so I often would spend two hours in a room with only one really verbal child (hint it was not Evan). The boys were too busy crashing cars into each other to talk leaving this lovely little girl to boss me around while we were playing pretend. The new assistant brings her also very verbal daughter in with her (the daughter was rather reluctant to go to nursery with out her mother) which helps even out the boy/girl dynamic a bit. She is also a person that I have not been able to spend much time with so it is fun getting to know her.

I put her in charge of the lessons since that has been something that I have struggled a bit with. It is hard to teach to kids ranging in age from 18 months to three years. There is still a lot of development going on at that age. I just do much better at those ages doing one on one teaching.

I do really love this calling despite the fact that I spend all my time with that age group in my own home. A couple of weeks ago the cute and very verbal little girl was a bit upset about something. She came up to me and told me she needed a hug. I picked her up and hugged her. She then told me that she needed a song too and asked me to sing "Twinkle Little Star". It is moments like that which make my calling the best one in the church.

Happy Easter!

I hope that every one is enjoying a wonderful Easter day.

One of the downfalls of being a member of a church that relies on volunteers for the vast majority of it's workings is that sometimes things like church choirs fall by the wayside. My current ward does not have the interested people or someone with the know how to direct a choir. We are blessed with a lot of people that play the piano and could accompany so I guess that is something. I really miss singing with a group of trained singers. While I know there is a place for congregational singing I enjoy singing in a choir where everyone knows how to read music and knows their parts. I seem to feel the spirit more when singing with he choir than at other times.

My first time singing in a choir was in my college singles ward. I signed up because a guy I liked was also in it. Plus we were promised a lovely Christmas party since the director not only loved to direct music but she also was a gourmet cook. I found once I started going to rehearsals that I really enjoyed performing with a big group of people. I am no solo singer but I do have the ability to blend my own voice with others to produce something much better than what I would have done on my own.

My best ward choir experience was when we were living in San Diego. I was in a new city, my husband was going to be gone for three whole months and I didn't know anyone. Once I joined the choir I started feeling like I belonged. It was a wonderful group with a lot of powerful singers. We preformed something every week and learned very complicated pieces. The main event of the year was the Christmas Cantata. We spent months learning the songs and had a special performance day since it was a long performance and not suitable for Sacrament meeting. I was sad to leave.

Whee

I have had the best Sunday ever! Well maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but it was pretty dang good. After an entire year of going to church when my kids should be napping the change to the 9-12 schedule was very welcome.

The biggest drawback to the new schedule presented it's self when I got up in the morning. My husband after a long discussion of our wake up time in the morning had not actually set his alarm. Luckily the kids got up early enough that we were not running around like madmen trying to get to church on time. Actually, not having to be up at a specific time is something that I see as a perk of being a stay at home mother. It is a bit annoying to have to be up every week at the same time. Waa I am such a whiner, I know.

Evan was thrown off by the new order to the meetings. He is used to coming in and going straight to nursery for two hours of playing. He started crying when we went right to the chapel for Sacrament meeting. He was inconsolable until I pulled the yogurt raisins from the diaper bag. We continued to stuff the kids with snacks and actually were able to sit through the entire meeting with minimal disturbances. Even did let out a loud "uh oh" right before the sacrament prayer. It was all I could do to not laugh out loud. I could see the people in front of us trying to hold in laughter too.

Nursery was lovely! I did not have to clean up after the ward that met before us since we are first now. I also did not have to worry as much about sobbing cranky toddlers. Towards the end the kids were getting tired but it was not the normal over tiredness that I had been dealing with in the past.

The best part was coming home at a decent time. We were able to have a nice lunch and then everyone (except for my non nap taker husband) took a lovely Sunday afternoon nap. We are now all happily playing and relaxing before the start of dinner. I think next year we will just start going to the other ward when they have our lovely morning church time because I love it that much.

Better and better

A few weeks before Evan's surgery and several weeks after we missed church. We had to keep Evan from the icky germs. I was not all that upset because Sacrament meeting had become awful. Most of the time both of us were out with a cranky kid so it was pretty much a wash out.

In the weeks that we have been gone Harry has matured enough that he is now able to stay in the chapel for the majority of the time. Evan also is seeming to be more willing to stay in when Harry stays in. Of course all this happens a mere two months before the time change in January. I am so ready for the nine to noon time slot. Get up go to church, get home and have lunch.

There is a bit of irony however. Today was fast Sunday (we skip two meals and then during the main meeting we have people from the congregation come up and speak briefly about their testimonies) and sometimes people get off track (well actually it is more like people frequently get off track). We had one nice lady go wandering in a big way. The worst part of it was that she did not speak much English so we had to hear her speak and then the translation. That was when I would have been happy to have the distraction of having a fussy child.

Some fun photos

We have had a pretty busy weekend. Saturday was the temple, which took all day. Evan ended up tripping while we were gone and getting a nice shiner. I told people at church that asked about it today that he got into a fight.

Speaking of church, we actually managed to make it through all three hours today. This has been a hard thing to do this year because our time changed from going at 9am to 12:30 in the afternoon. This happens to be right at Evan's nap time. He is pretty good for the first two hours which he is in nursery for. There he gets to run around and play with toys. During Sacrament meeting he is confined to a single pew and he is excessively tired from all the running around. Usually a melt down ensues shortly into the meeting. Today we managed to jolly him along with fruit snacks and dried cherries.

After we got home we had a little fun in our kiddy pool. Well we had fun in it until I discovered some mosquito larva in the pool. I hastily drained it and will have to come up with a way to cover it. I do not wish to have my back yard turn into a breeding ground for blood sucking pests. Pool time turned into marker time. I think that Evan wants to become a tattoo artist when he gets older. He even decorated Mommy's legs. Luckily Mommy is smart and has the new washable Crayola markers so the decorations washed off in the tub.

Are we there yet?

I am feeling so blah. I need to start packing but I just can't make myself start. The kids have been super whiny all day, with Harry being especially whiny this afternoon. Evan was pretty much running away from the physical therapist for the entire appointment this morning. I can tell that he needs a break as much as I do. I don't know what Harry's deal is but I suspect it is tooth number two popping up. My deal is undetermined at his moment. I just feel so blargh and nothing has been able to change that not even chocolate.

I am supposed to be at a church activity tonight but I don't want to go. We supposedly planned it at the marathon meeting on Sunday but there has been no follow up so it makes me even wonder why I tortured myself by even going. I think the whole Young Women's organization is in a big rut and we need something to shake us up. I think a lot of us are too busy thinking about summer right now. I know that I am just counting down the days to vacation. More later, Harry is pitching a fit.

later



After getting Harry into bed I crashed and now despite what the time stamp says it is the next day. I woke up at 4 am and I know I am going to be screwed sleep wise. At least I don't have anywhere I have to be today which is a nice change.