Stake Conference

On  way to church this morning (Stake Conference) we overheard Ben ask "Are you going to learn anything today?"
"Nope!" replied Jacob. "We aren't even going to our classes today at all."

I concede they didn't have kid class, but there were 2 hours of speakers they could have gleaned just the tiniest bit from...even a cute kid who spoke to the congregation broadcast across three buildings.

After church I asked for an update from Jacob, "Did you learn anything at church today?"

Shaking his head he said, "Not really."

Sunday at Our House

This morning we did awesome! It was Sunday. Everyone was up when we expected them to be. I even MADE breakfast instead of the kids getting their own cereal. I made French toast. Just as I was ready to eat one I realized it was Fast Sunday. So I fed the little people and skipped breakfast.

With an average amount of consternation and frustration we got everyone dressed with shoes and then loaded in the car with seatbelts. As we headed toward the freeway Ben casually mentioned, "I thought we started church two hours later this week." DOH!! Brian turned us around and we went back home to hang out for two more hours until it was time to leave for real.

At church we are in that awful place where it's time to teach Ashlyn that she has to stay with us in the pew for the WHOLE meeting and not be catered to and taken in and out for snacks and wiggles.

Frankly the entire chapel was LOUD today. The kids in the congregation were so loud that I honestly couldn't hear the speakers a fair amount of the time (maybe the microphone was too soft). I was getting incredibly frustrated and wanted to tell a couple very old kids in benches nearby to zip it. First - listen, don't talk. Second - if you have to talk then whisper, don't have full volume long discussions about the games you are both playing on ipads during services. And then the thought occurred to me that the tables would be turned VERY soon.

As I try to teach Ashlyn to be quiet we are making a distraction as well, but we are moving from a congregation of 300ish people and 80 primary aged kids to a congregation of 50 total people with 9 kids (4 will be ours). WE will be the noisy rotten family everyone else wants to leave the room very soon. Hopefully that will help me be patient next time I'm fed up with the noise.

On a more funny note today I was telling full volume Ashlyn to "Shhhh" but getting no response. It was reminiscent of another time about eight years ago. Ben was having the same noise trouble during sacrament meeting. After a few weeks of frustration I realized that the poor kid didn't know what "shhhh" even meant. Neither does Ashlyn. I had to tutor Ben midweek and I guess we will have to tutor Ashlyn just the same. I don't recall having to teach Madison or Jacob about it.

Since shhhh wasn't working I tried demonstrating a whisper. I would show her a fish in the book and whisper fish in her ear then ask her to say fish. She would mimic my quiet whisper. But it was a mistake to tell her what that was. As soon as I told her to whisper, trying to make the connection in her head, she would light up with a huge smile and WHISTLE. "NO!! Shhhh!" was all I could say but she didn't understand shhhh as I mentioned so it was all lost on her. She was just a happy, go lucky whistler in the middle of the chapel. I guess I've got some work to do.

Tonight she also learned a new phrase and has used it a lot. "More candy."

I was trying to type this blog post tonight and family scripture time came along. Not wanting to have yet another post left in draft mode, I cheated. I tried to quietly type while they read on the couches. When Brian announced it was prayer time Ashlyn scolded me, "Prayer Mommy!" and folded her arms to show me what to do.

Drive In General Conference

Madison started vomiting this morning at 4:30 am. That means our regular Sunday plan of going to church was axed for the day. The boys went and the girls stayed home this time. We watched some general conference videos and I repaired Ashlyn's pop up car with duct tape. When it was done the girls changed regular conference watching into a drive in movie. Everyone was much happier then. 

General Conference Conversations

Today on the drive home from church I made the announcement that we would have lunch, for those not fasting, then an hour to play. After the play time we'd start listening to the first session of LDS General Conference because we will be at the Pinewood Derby during the time we normally should be listening. I was blown away when Ben and Maddie both gave an energetic "Okay!" I was so taken back, I asked Ben why he was so happy. His reply surprised me, "I'm trying to have a better attitude about stuff." Awesome!!

Then silly mom fell asleep and slept almost three long, wonderful hours so our schedule was shifted a bit (thank you baby Ashlyn and her teething for the exhaustion). We ended up eating dinner and while we waited for the computer to reboot I asked Maddie, the musical talent in the group, if some day she would like to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. She asked if they always get to wear purple. Brian and I told her sometimes they wear white clothes, sometimes red clothes, sometimes black clothes whereon everyone chimed in with colors they may all wear. Jacob said, "And sometimes they wear see-thru clothes." I heard it but didn't process his comment until Brian got my attenttion and asked if I had heard him. Hilarious!

Time is a Relative Concept

I attended a church meeting tonight which was supposed to start at 5:00. I arrived just in time for the meeting and found only about four people in attendance. About 15 minutes later several more people arrived. Around 5:30 we had a good number of people and the meeting finally began. As with all church meetings, we started with a song (which we had to start over after the first verse because of technical difficulties with the music). So now we are well into the second half of the hour. Next came the prayer. I couldn't help but chuckle a little when I heard the following as part of the prayer: "Bless those who are not here so that they may arrive on time." I guess "on time" is a relative concept.

If You Could Extend a Calling to Mickey Mouse, What Would You Ask Him to Do?

After the lip sync on Saturday night, President Weber asked Brian if he could take our family picture all dressed up and oh yeah, after that can he please have a chat with us. Uh oh. Brian came to find me cleaning up our room from the carnival games and tell me they wanted me to do something for girls camp this summer. I was confused. A chat with the boss man means you're in charge. I can't be in charge. You'd just have to understand how the hierarchy of camp goes. It entails long term commitments over four years, etc, etc. I already more or less told them it wouldn't work for me. Don't get me wrong. I told them I wanna go. I just can't be in charge. I have been actively involved and willing to help with about anything. Even certification. Yuck. Certification. After a while we had all our gear loaded in the car and went to find out what was our upcoming camp adventure. We do a fabulous photo shoot in the lobby and then head off to have our chat about 9pm with kids in arms. We have all three kids. We're in full costume as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The kids all have balloons. Jacob's is on a three foot long stick. They are wired and cranky at the same time. Jacob displayed his newly mastered skill of walking and babbling loudly while we chat. He has his balloon on a stick and was whacking Pres Weber on the head almost the entire time we talked. Ben and Maddie Mae were crawling up and down on the other chairs and asking questions. President Weber then asks Brian to serve on the High Counsel. To my credit, I didn't laugh. I have a bad habit of laughing at times like that (Bishop Bradley asking me to be YW Pres and Pres Nelson asking Brian to serve in the Bishopric). Not for lack of faith in my sweetheart. It's just that old people do that job, right? Right? Old people. I thought one of the requirements to be on the high counsel was to have white hair. Anyway, who asks Mickey Mouse to have a leadership role in a church. He'll do a great job and will LOVE working with a spanish congregation again. He hasn't been able to use his spanish much at all here like in Houston. Down in Texas half our friends were from latin american countries and we spoke spanish all the time in our home. During our time in Virginia he has only been able to translate stake conference every six months. Not exactly immersed anymore. Anyway, it's my turn to support him in his busy calling so he can enjoy the blessings of service. He'll be awesome!

Holy Terror

Today at church, Jacob would not play quietly and would not close his little mouth. He babbled, jabbered, then fussed and finally cried. The whole time he was moving like a crazy person. Wiggly squiggly so much that I could barely handle him. I imagine it to be much like trying to catch a greased up pig in the county fair. Finally, I took him out of sacrament meeting to feed him. I was back in time for the prayer on the sacrament. He was still a bit wiggly so I put him on my knee and bounced him a bit to keep him busy. He leaned forward and grabbed the top of the bench in front of us and was happy for a minute or two until he got too loud. I lifted him in a multi-tasking sort of way to attempt to reposition him, check his diaper and quiet him down. None of those goals were accomplished. Without me realizing it, he had grabbed the shelf that holds the hymnals. As I lifted him up, he pulled the entire shelf up with him and the screws came out of the bench, crashing the entire shelf and the two hymn books it held to the floor. The two screws rolled onto the ground. Now I tried, I really did, but it was darn funny. In that quiet moment of introspection that people were trying to have, I was about to lose it. I had to cover my mouth to keep myself under control as did the Helmick girls across the aisle from me. Sad thing is, the Helmicks were across the aisle when Maddie did the same thing a few years ago. If I didn't know they love us, I'd be mortified for them to have seen my kids destroy the pews, not once, but twice. Finally, I decided it was just best to leave. I took my greased up little pig with his motor mouth out to the lobby where I finished the sacrament. Of course, then I was able to check his diaper, which proved to be messy. After the sacrament, I snuck back into the chapel to nab a diaper and wipes from the bag. I sheepishly ducked back out, again, fearing I was becoming to appear to the other congregants the circus act that I certainly felt like. One clean diaper later, I settled into the chairs in the lobby to listen to the remainder of the service. Once I gave up on sitting with my family, I quite enjoyed the speakers. They reminded us that if family is the most important thing in our lives, we ought to probably quit putting off spending time with them for dumb things that don't really matter. Gotta do better at that. At least I had some quality time chasing our little holy terror, I mean Jacob in the lobby today. Does that count?

Wise Children

Conversation in the car today: Ben: "Mom, what are those big numbers for?" pointing to a sign advertising something. Mom: "It tells us how much something in that store costs." Ben: "Oh. I guess we don't need that thing though, right Mom?" Mom: "No. We probably don't really need whatever they are trying to sell us. All we really need in our family is food, a house and love. Right guys?" Maddie (yelling): "AND WE NEED CHEESE!" Ben (in a sweet and humble voice): "I think we need Jesus too." Mom: "Thanks Ben. I think you're right, we do need Jesus. We need food, a house, love and Jesus." Maddie: "And we need CHEESE!" Mom: "Yes, Maddie. We definately need cheese."

It's Gonna Be A Long Haul

Today Ben was sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch when out of the blue he said, "I'm tired of learning about forgiveness!" He had a rotten scowl on his face and laid his head down on the table as if in exhaustion. When I asked him what he meant, he told me, "That's all we ever learn about--at church, at preschool, even at MOPS today they talked about forgiveness." His lesson today at MOPS was about the Prodigal Son in the Bible and how the father forgave his son. I hate to tell him that for the rest of his life he will hear the same Bible stories over and over. The scriptures don't change.

Cakes and Virtue

Today I had to speak to the young women in Annandale ward on the topic of "Virtue." I found a cool object lesson that I decided to try out on them to make a point. It involved making and decorating a fancy looking cake. It was my first cake that didn't involve cute little pretend characters like Elmo so it was a bit intimidating. I made all the pink flowers, added the yellow middles and dried them in the flower forms. When they had hardened enough to be handled, I put them on the cake and stored it in the Tupperware thing to protect it from little fingers that always seem to find every cake I ever make. When I took the top off the Tupperware at the church the next morning to put it up on the front table where I would be speaking, I was so sad. By closing up the container, the moisture stayed in and had essentially melted all the flowers. Instead of being nicely formed cherry blossoms, they had melted into slightly flower shaped pink lumps with yellow accent dots. Oh well. Another lesson learned. When using Royal Icing you must leave it open to the air. Back to the lesson. I told them I had brought a treat for them to eat while I was teaching and asked Taylor to pass out a piece to all the girls. She came up and asked if I had a knife. I told her to just grab it and give everyone some. She picked up the whole cake and headed to the kitchen to get a knife. I grabbed the cake back, set it on the table and said, "No, I mean just grab it and give everyone some." Then I stuck my fingers in the cake and grabbed a big messy chunk and handed it to her. She was surprised as were the other girls. Then Taylor decided this was really cool. She took the cake in her hand and handed it to Jaime, who didn't quite know what to do with a hand full of cake and frosting. Taylor was excited now and I had to put the breaks on the lesson to keep us from all getting messy. I handed out baby wipes and cleaned my hands off while we talked about the difference in the cake before I stuck my hand in it and after. The cake began pretty, delicate, fancy, good, clean and appealing. After it had been damaged, it was in a sense ruined, ugly, no longer desirable. We talked about how if we maintain a virtuous life it is beautiful, delicate, pretty and we are happy. Once we have allowed something or someone to strip us of our virtue we have become less desirable, damaged and will be unhappy. Just as only someone skilled at cake decorating can repair the cake and make it beautiful again, only Jesus can help us repair ourselves. Of course, the best way is to hold onto our virtue in the first place. We talked about places the world is stripping natural virtue from society and how it is happening "by degrees" so that people aren't even noticing the slippery slope (degrading media, language, immodest clothing, cheating, general lack of honesty, etc). Then how do we keep the virtue we have? The church published this week the new Personal Progress requirements on their website and they are perfect. If we can understand the things taught in each goal we will live with virtue. They are: maintain sexual purity, invite and be worthy for the holy spirit to be with you always, prepare for marriage in the temple and to be worthy to enter the temple, understand repentance, seek to know God by studying the scriptures. What awesome goals! I'm excited about the new value "virtue" being added to the Young Women Theme.

Thanks Sister Gillespie!

On the drive home from Buffalo, I finally got out of Ben who told him that Parker’s house was close to the Sacred Grove. His fantastic primary teacher, Sister Gillespie. Thanks, Heather! Your lesson couldn’t have been better timed for our trip this week. We totally enjoyed walking through the grove with him and talking about God and Joseph Smith.

Simple Testimony

“Hey mom, did you know the place I found out God was real was in Daniel and the Lions Den? God didn’t want him to get gone in the lion’s tummy so he saved him.”

I asked him if he knew that what he had was a testimony and explained a testimony is when we know something in our heart is true. He started wobbling his head up and down without saying a word. After a minute he said, “I’m shaking my head up and down like in the Wii game to say yes. The one with the train game.”

"Secret" Grove

After primary Ben came directly to me, tapped on my shoulder and said, “Mom, when we go to Buffalo to visit Parker can we go to the Secret Grove where God did a visit to Joseph Smith?” I immediately smiled noticing he called it the Secret Grove, not the Sacred Grove. I don’t know who put that together for him, but I’m really glad that they did. He is so excited about visiting Palmyra and being where Jesus was in the Sacred Grove.

Two Brown Specks in a Sea of Grey

Anyone raised in our church will appreciate this for what it's worth. For anyone not, the quick easy background is that we have an unpaid ministry in our church. It typically falls to the more mature gentlemen, say 40 plus, to be the congregation leaders. It's not a rule, just the way the cookie crumbles. That's a stage in life when you don't have newborn babies or toddlers to chase in the church hallways or juggling of that sort of thing so it works better. You are more available for the more time intensive jobs, meetings and leadership. Sometimes, though, there is a need and younger men are asked to serve in those leadership callings. This was the situation in Houston. Brian was called to be a counselor to our bishop while we lived in Houston and was a invaluable help and advocate for the Spanish speaking members of our fun congregation. He was able to translate endless meetings and liaison the needs and concerns of the members and he loved the opportunity to serve them and help the leadership there. Once you have served in one of those leadership positions, you are forever, well, inducted into the "High Priest Group." This means the rest of your life, you get to go to what I have always referred to as "old man class" instead of with the younger group of guys when we split up after sacrament meeting each week. It really isn't a big deal usually, but sometimes it changes things for us. When the younger group, the "Elders" plan their BBQs and social fun, we often get overlooked from the invite list because our family no longer shows up on their printed roles. We usually find out anyway since our main social group all goes and we crash their parties. Kids are always welcome at these parties because everyone has little people still. Last Friday night the Stake High Priests had their annual dinner social. We decided to get a babysitter and go to dinner. We'd never been the last 3 years because of the inconvenience of getting a babysitter. No one there has little kids, they all have grown-up kids in college or at least high school. We also had a new young family move in that is in our same situation, so we carpooled with them. It was fun to walk in and recognize so many people and we enjoyed the dinner and the company. The after dinner entertainment was several amazing musical performances by some regionally well known musical talent in the area that attend some of our stake congregations. We sat in the back of the chapel and as I looked around the audience, I realized our heads were almost the only two specks of brown in a vast sea of grey and white. It was neat and humbling in a way to realize what amazing company we were in. Past bishops, stake presidents, patriarchs and other time tested leaders. What a great place to be. If I wanted to pick the cream of the crop, they filled that room. And we were privileged to be there in their company.