Highlights From a Brain Cloud

I have had a hard time wanting to update lately. My computer broke, so I'm out of business as far as pictures go, and I kind of got run into the ground. Lots of late nights and then a wacky medicine just made things worse and worse. But, I guess here I am forcing myself to do it now, so . . .

I gave a talk in church today on strengthening families. I love how studying the gospel and bearing testimony can really make me feel like my life is completely changed. I found lots of amazing stuff on the topic (from conference and the training that came out a few years ago), but was having a hard time thinking of personal experiences that would be good to share. Mostly because I had a brain cloud, but the brain cloud cleared up yesterday, and I remembered a time when Josh was my baby named Baby Josh. I was holding my tiny baby and was thinking about how I loved him so fiercely I would do anything for him, and would never let anyone hurt him. In that moment, the Spirit asked me, "Do you love him enough to read the Book of Mormon every day?" Ever since I remembered that experience and then shared it in church, I have thought of it a lot. It's not just reading the scriptures, it's doing anything I need to do to fortify myself and my family spiritually. If I love them enough to take a bullet, I should love them enough to bring the Spirit in and keep the bad stuff out. Anyway, so I gave a talk, and it was probably mostly for my benefit, as these things usually are.

Also, I have a new calling - gospel doctrine teacher. I am excited, but feel like I need to try more with family history. Gary got released from primary after two and a half years, and is now the ward choir director. He said, "Good thing I took advantage of not going to choir when I had the chance." He was kidding, and he is excited. He is listening to music for the Christmas program now - I think he'll do a great job. (And he liked going to choir, but stuff keeps happening in our lives that kept him away, so that was a huge joke.)

Mom came to our house this week, and it was fantastic to see her. My kids were soooo pumped, you should have seen them laughing and giggling when she got here. It's always good to be with mom, and she even made me a killer chocolate sheet cake for my birthday. She also fed the kids their dream hot dog lunch while I volunteered for Josh's science club at school. (It's not his exactly, there are 100 kids in it.) On my birthday night we all went to Red Iguana in Salt Lake, which I love, so it was a great day. 

Gary built new shelves in our closet under the stairs. I have been absolutely desperate to feel like I have place to put things, and it's crazy how awesome it is. It's like there's a new room in our house. An extremely small one, but I'll take it. We also put hooks for the shovels, etc. in our garage, and that helps, too. Chipping away . . . 

After we dropped off mom at the airport on Thursday, and visited Gary, of course, I decided to take my kids to the UEA expo, which advertised having an area for kids. I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out awesome. It wasn't crowded, and we found lots to do. Lots of art and science projects kept them busy for a while. One booth had a Harry Potter theme, and let the kids eat jelly beans, plant a plant in herbology class, and start raising their own flobberworm (meal worm) in Care of Magical Creatures class. We saw Word Girl for a brief moment, and also the Cat in the Hat. Andrew was IN AWE of that. My kids got a picture with him, and Andrew kept asking me where Nick and Sally were. He also commented later on how Word Girl and the the Cat in the Hat didn't talk . . . mysterious. My kids' favorite part of the day (well, next to getting a free highlighter from the Utah Educational Savings Plan booth) was the Book a Basket game. The kids got to shoot a Utah Jazz basketball, and when they made a basket, got to choose a free book. They all got the chance to get a basket, and then spent the next day making a library in my room out of their new books. Josh got a Ninjago chapter book, and read it all the way home and didn't want to put it down at night. As I mentioned, I hadn't been feeling well, so it was very awesome to get dressed complete with washed hair, and get out and have a fun day with my kids. We were all beaming, all day.

Okay, well, it's late, so that's all folks. Some day I'll get my picture-life back in action. In previous weeks we got to see the Cougars in action, which was very fun even at the loss, and also chat with the T-fam, so THANK YOU dad for making our BYU life possible!