We'll Miss You...

Jonathan came and scooped the children off me, this morning, then mentioned that President Hinkley had died last night. While it is a surprise--he was such a lively guy for so long that you had to stop and think to remember that he turned 97 last year--I'm happy that he has the chance to rest. I remember being devastated when President Benson died, but I was younger, with a less firm testimony, too. And President Hunter, well, nine months isn't long enough for a 15-year-old to get seriously attached to someone you have little personal experience with. President Hinkley, though... I've seen him joke around, I've seen the light of prophecy in his eyes, and I've seen the love he had for all people. I've sung for him twice, both in relation to temples, and always drawn special strength from his talks. I know that he was a prophet of God. I'll miss him, but the Lord has something new for him to do. Plus, he has his Marjorie back, and who couldn't be happy about that?

Can I Just Say "Eww?"

I'm moving before I let my kids remember their home looking like this.

Ups and Downs

I've been meaning to post some stuff, just fun things we've been doing in the last week or so, but by the time I find the free time I'm so moody (grouchy?) that I don't want to talk to people. So, anyway...

Joseph got to go shoe shopping. His boots were getting a bit small and I wanted to see how his feet were growing so we went to Payless, got his feet measured, and looked around at shoes. It' no wonder his shoes are a bit difficult to get on--they're a 4, and Joseph's feet are somewhere between a 4 1/2 and a 5. After trying on bigger shoes, he refused to put his old shoes back on. Payless didn't have any shoes that were quite cute enough even for the $12-15 price tag, so we headed on to Target. They had a bunch of shoes on sale for half off, including a great pair of two-strap velcro sneakers in tan suede with black canvas panels. They look great.

I knit my very first piece of clothing, a bolero style sweater for a friend's baby shower, and it inspired me to make a leap of faith in the knitting world--a sweater for me. I found a pattern I like that suggests recycling yarn from a thrift store sweater (I really wanted wool for a warm sweater, so the other option was to spend $40 for new yarn) so I made a trip to Goodwill. Two trips, actually. The first yielded a moss-green-with-a-turn-toward-yellow chunky yarn that was actually 80% silk (20% nylon), and the second found me a black-with-a-single-strand-of-silver worsted in 100% lambswool (minus the sliver thread, I'm assuming). Both are shapeless, XL turtlenecks. I hate turtlenecks, so I don't feel bad about taking them apart. The green has been unraveled already, but needs to be balled; the black is still in sweater form, until I can find a new pattern for it--I think I like the green better with the cables. Silk won't be as warm, but that's OK.

Elena spent all day, Saturday playing Primary in the living room. I'm not sure if she did any Sharing time lessons, but there were a lot of opening and closing prayers, with singing time in between.

I've visited half of the ladies on my Visiting Teaching route, and we're only half way through the month. I've seen Jeanie and her family at church the last 4 Sundays (her husband's not a member, and they usually only do Easter and Christmas) and Tiffany and I are working on getting rides to church for her kids once Jeanie's soccer league starts in February. We're trying really hard to get the other two before it gets to the last week of the month. I usually give the message, since I'm really lazy and Tiffany make the appointments, and I really like this month's. The first few times I read it, the last bit about motherhood seemed a bit jarring, since the lesson is a bout our purpose on Earth (fall, redemption, Plan of Salvation, all that), but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. As a mom, my job is to see that my kids grow up to be competent, responsible adults. My Heavenly Father's job is exactly the same. Motherhood (or, as Sister Beck put it, "a mothering heart") is about helping people grow and learn and become the best people they can be, and anyone can do it. Everyone should do it, in whatever capacity they can. Anyway, that's my deep thought of the week.

And, very best of all, I got to go shopping with my friend Jess, today. She just started nursing school (one class, but it's 40 hours) and has been so busy it's amazing I caught her at all. Joseph got a Carter's gift card for Christmas, there's a Carter's store up by her, and I hadn't seen her since September, when our buddy Jon got married. Perfect chance to get together for an hour or so. It was so fun!

Well, enjoy!

Primary Pizza Party

Church is bright and early tomorrow, at 9am, and the Primary presidency wanted to be sure all the kids knew their teachers so they threw a pizza party. Here is my proud new Sunbeam, on her way to her very first Primary activity!



Everyone brought a picture of themselves to put on a tag that they then decorated with stickers and markers. They'll be using these throughout the year as they learn about this year's theme, and learn the Articles of Faith. Elena and I have started singing the songs so that she can learn them, too.


This is her teacher, Sister Baird. There are five kids in her class: three came today, two were regulars in Nursery--you can see Mackay off to the side.


After visiting their room, getting to know each other a bit, and talking about what they'll do in Sunbeams each week, we got to eat some yummy Gatti's pizza.

First Night

We were really excited to go to First Night with the kids, downtown. We took the smaller stroller, hopped on the bus, and rode up with several other families from the area. We got to see The Asylum Street Spankers sing from their children's album, including the title song "Mommy Says No!" the first "hard-core punk rock" children's song. It was awesome! I missed "Boogers" because Elena needed to use the bathroom, but I loved "You Only Love Me For My Lunchbox," and "Superfrog" was great too. It was at about this time that we realized that Jonathan had taken the camera out of the diaper bag to show his mom something, earlier in the day, and it hadn't made it back in. Oops... I'm trying to dig up pictures online for you, though. Anyway, after the Spankers, we got to see the giant black-eyed pea, and the huge jackalope. We drew chalk pictures on the pedestrian bridge, cruised the food vendors (no corndogs?!?), watched the parade and counted down to fireworks with the Mayor. It wasn't one of the better displays, I have to admit. We knew it was the smaller of the evening, but still. We had a great time chatting with people on the bus back home, and the kids were in bed well before 10. At midnight, we stepped outside to watch the spectacular display the neighbors (at least 5 families on two different streets) were putting on. You gotta love crazy Mexicans with a ton of small explosives. It totally made up for the weak display at City Hall. All in all, it was fun, clean, and a nice hassle-free evening.

Happy New Year, everyone!!!



(pictures are from the Statesman)