Everyone Agrees, Mom Needs a Time Out!

Sometimes life can get pretty busy these days. I welcomed the chance to help at the recent Time Out event hosted by the Deseret Book Company. Even though I volunteered to be on the "team" and had just a few responsibilities, it was all fun and I enjoyed the weekend immensely. I felt like I instantly made friends with 1700 other ladies like me, ladies that needed a "time out." There are a few sisters I met that I will not forget. I hope the event theme of "JOY" will help them face the challenges ahead.

My bucket is refilled and I'm so happy I attended this event. First, I love Hilary Weeks. Her music inspires me. I had a chance to visit with her and tell her how much I appreciate listening to her music as I clean the house, do chores, etc. She has such a beautiful voice and gift for composing. I was also touched by another one of my favorites, Michael McLean. Music has a way of getting to your heart. I met one of my teachers from my Utah days in Carolyn Rasmus. I want to be like her someday. Each speaker made me laugh, lighten up, and at the same time feel optimistic that I can do a little better with tiny paradigm shifts. I just LOVED it!!

Dance-A-Thon

I took on the awesome responsibility of doing the "Fall Fundraiser" for the school this year. Little did I know how much time this would take! We kicked off the fund raiser with a "hippie" themed dance. This is definitely the easiest theme I could think of for me to pull off. We had a great time.

The night before a small group helped decorate the gym. Stacy had a brilliant idea to do this balloon string--loved it. I got in the spirit making a 5 ft. hippie van for the backdrop. A few of us came back to my house to put together fund raiser/cookie dough packets for each student. Stacy went home and painted word signs like "Peace" & "All You Need is Love," etc. We were up until 11:30! I'm so glad they came out to help, or I would've been up all night--yikes!

The dance started at 8am and went until 2:30pm (clean up another hour). Everything worked out perfectly. Tons of parents came to help. There were goodies for the kids, music, and a whole lot of "groovy" attire.

Peace!

Cookies For Soldiers!

Baghdad Slideshow



Our girls have all participated in Girl Scouts over the last several years. When Arianna was five and looking forward to becoming a Girl Scout soon she turned to me thoughtfully and said, "You know Mom, Girl Scouts is about making the world a better place"...pause, thoughtful smile..."and selling Girl Scout cookies."

A really neat opportunity came our way last winter when the girls decided to collect cookies for soldiers. Our family alone donated about 150 boxes of cookies. We have to thank our family from out of state and great friends for supporting this effort. Ashley's GS troop made the connection with a troop serving in Iraq and shipped the cookies to them. They were so happy to get a "taste from home" and sent this powerpoint thank you. I hope we can do this again next year!

Maybe cookies can make the world a better place!

Worldwide LDS General Conference October 4 & 5, 2008

Since we have satellite (yay), we get to stay home and watch conference. General Conference is a time for members of our church to hear from the worldwide leaders. It is so cool to think we are living in a time when we can project a conference clear around the world for millions to hear. Sometimes the accents can be pretty thick, so we put the closed caption on for a few of the talks. I just love modern day conveniences. Over the years we've developed a few traditions. Saturday varies, but on Sunday we usually sleep in (doesn't start until 11am in Texas), have a big breakfast, curl up and enjoy the talks. We always play conference bingo. When the kids hear certain key words in a row, they win a piece of candy. While this may not be recommended by the dentist, our kids pay a lot more attention!

When we sit in our living room watching conference, I always think of the story found in the Book of Mormon when King Benjamin, the prophet, addresses his people. Everyone is so excited to hear his message that the families put up tents with their openings facing him so they can hear. Our family room was our tent this weekend and we sure camped out. I feel a kinship to the people of that ancient story! Probably one of my favorite parts of conference is just being together as a family, learning side by side.

We watched the four general sessions over the weekend and I'm so happy that the kids never complained (except maybe that their sibling had gotten "way more" bingos than them.) I think breaking out the lego helped DJ stay in the room with us! He didn't get too much candy, but he seemed okay with it. We are not the perfect picture of what families do (and look like)over conference weekend, but we are trying!

All That Glitters--Isn't Gold, but Costs Pretty Close to It!

Ashley finally got braces! When she was about three years old we took her to the dentist for her first appointment. After the x-rays and evaluation, the dentist gave her opinion that we start saving, because she would need braces, eventually--someday. We've tried to be proactive all the way along, by having teeth pulled to make room for new ones. Sometimes she would have teeth growing in sideways, but as soon as we'd pull teeth, they'd start to straighten out. She even had a space maintainer for awhile. Well, the baby teeth are gone now and if we don't want her to have a severe crowding issue, we have to go the next step. I'm glad we've had nine years to prepare for it, but it still feels strange to see braces on her. I suppose we'll get used to it over the next two years!

P.S. I feel kind of old to have a kid in braces!