EPIC!!!

In a few short weeks we will be moving into our own new house. Just me and kids. New! It will be epic! *New Year's News coming up soon.

WII

Yesterday my sister-in-law (Shelly) and her children came over and we had a game day. We love to play games! All games! We also love to win games! When you are playing with the right people, it's also fun to lose. Awesome! Shelly wins almost everything. The goal sometimes isn't to win, but to beat Shelly. Anyway, my daughter took it upon herself to record me and Shelly fencing. It wasn't pretty, however hilarious. She videotaped us from the back! RUDE! Her and Wyatt (the cousin) were laughing so hard that I'm not sure which is funnier, them laughing or us playing. Let's just say that as soon as I find her and her phone separated I will be deleting some things. haha! The good news is that the only way she can share this priceless video is with people who can actually see her phone. There is no way for her to download it or text it. phew! Some of our favorite games: Quiddler, Skip-bo, Hand and Foot, Ziggity, Rack-o, any WII game, Zilch, Yatzee, Phase 10, Apples to Apples...the list goes on and on and we love to learn new ones all the time.

Job

I need a job! I really, really do. (Not a snowman job. ha) So, I have applied for many positions. Yesterday I applied for 9 jobs. I have heard back about 5 of them. No one is hiring until the first of the year so I guess I have to be patient. One of my very worst qualities. When something needs to be done I have to do it. How long do you wait to know if you have been patient?

Conference Talks

I just finished reading all of the Conference Talks. Wow! I love reading them. My poor Ensign though. It's marked up so much. Oh well, I can go back and find the good parts. Here are some of them that touched me. They are so relevant to what's going on in my life right now. It seems that the topic this year was keeping families together. It wasn't my choice not to keep my family together. As a matter of fact is has been a VERY big shock. That's another story for another day. President Eyring: "...He has offered us the family as an example of an ideal setting in which we can learn how to love as He loves...the greatest joys and the greatest sorrows we experience are in family relationships. And the sorry comes primarily from selfishness, which is the absence of love...A man and a woman are to make sacred covenants that they will put the welfare and happiness of the other at the center of their lives....whether the family will be together depends on the choices each family member makes...God nor she (the lady from the story) can compel another to choose happiness..." "Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion's joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion..." Elder Scott is one of my favorite apostles. His talk touched me as well . "...The inspiring influence of the Holy Ghost can be overcome or masked by strong emotions, such as anger, hate, passion, fear, or pride. When such influences are present, it is like trying to savor the delicate flavor of a grape while eating a jalapeno pepper. Both flavors are present, but one completely overpowers the other. In like manner, strong emotions overcome the delicate promptings of the Holy Spirit." Elder Jorge F. Zaballos, of the Seventy: "The Lord does not expect that we do what we cannot achieve...He knows us; He knows of our capabilities and our limitations." President Monson: "...is it possible to feel the Spirit of our Heavenly Father when we are angry? I know of no instance where such would be the case." Another recurring theme I saw was free agency and how other people use theirs can/will affect those around that person. Elder Oaks: "He will bless us to endure the consequences of others' choices, but He will not prevent those choices." And of course Elder Bednars' reminder of the many, many of my family home evenings growing up. (I have 4 brothers and 3 sisters.) I loved this talk! "He's touching me!" "Make him stop looking at me!" "Mom, he's breathing my air!"

Reading

I love to read! I love to read! There are several problems with this relaxing activity. 1) I don't have time. I am lucky to get a sentence in. Reading one whole paragraph at one time is a highlight of my day! I did a speed reading book thing once. I found that I can read quickly with excellent comprehension, but only if I don't blink. I blink twice as much as the average person. It's a real problem when reading or during a staring contest. I went in for Lasik and they said I didn't qualify because I have such dry eyes. 2) I have a hard time finding books I like. I have several favorite authors, but once you have read all of their books you have to wait until they write another one. I really like mysteries and historical fiction, but just like love stories (which I don't like) they get old. The pattern is so much the same. I almost always know how it will end. The book I'm writing breaks several of the "you know what's going to happen" rules. I need someone to tell about it and see if it would be good. I think it would be better as a movie because of the songs that I have in my head while writing it. Write a novel. Write a movie. These are hard things to decide. I'm sure that both are sooo easy! Why doesn't everyone do it? haha 3) I can't always find the books I like at the library. Looking in the library for a book is enjoyable. However I usually don't have time to look at each jacket cover. You can never be rushed into finding a book to read. Usually I come home with a huge stack and only find one out of all of them that isn't boring and doesn't have bad language in it. I was reading a perfectly good book last week. I was several chapters into it and completely interested. Then out of nowhere there was nudity! Can you believe it? In a book! That's a new one for me. Needless to say, I didn't continue reading it and thus I didn't have another book to read for a while. 4) Series. Need I say more? When a great book comes out and you know it will be a series why in the world would you ever read the first one only to wait another year to read the next one? The only problem waiting for an entire series to come out is that people talk about it. In that case you just have to walk away or start yelling la la la out loud until they get the picture. Or the other problem is that sometimes a movie comes out about the first book before the book/story is even finished! That is ridiculous in my opinion. Then you really have to avoid hearing anything, or watching the preview, or looking at the posters...you get the idea. Having said that. I love it when I find a series that has been out for a while and all of the books are already done. That is the best kind to read. No one is talking about them and you can get all of them at one time! When you are lucky enough to find that you will have a good few weeks of not having to find something else. Having said that. I found a series once that was 9 books long. I thought I was in heaven. After reading the first 5 books I started to get very bored and even though I wanted to know the final outcome of the characters I couldn't even bring myself to keep reading. Not finishing book is like not having dessert to me. Even if I have to eat the bad stuff, it's worth it for the dessert. There have only been 2 books I haven't finished (not including those books with bad stuff). Because I got so bored by the "almost" end I couldn't read another word. And, can you believe it? They made a movie out of it! Blaugh. I couldn't even watch the movie. 4) I can't afford to buy the books I want. And most books, ok almost all books, are boring to me after the first reading. This can be bypassed however. One of the things I like to do is go to the bookstores and wonder around and make a list of books I want to see if the library has. One of the problems with that is when I go to put the book on hold, it usually is a new release and I can end up number 258 in line to get it. I have decided that it's only worth it to spend money on religious books that can be read over and over and used as a reference and that I can write in. Is it worth it you may ask? It is worth it to go through all of these hoops just for one book? YES!!!

My Own Business

I have these ideas. No, not fanatical ideas! How dare you even think that? LOL! They have been in my mind for years and when I talk to my friends about them, they all say they are great ideas. Now, it should be known that I have amazing friends. They are completely honest with me. Sometimes I wish they weren't. Like when they tell me I'm goofy looking and they don't want to be seen with me. Anyway, these ideas are things I could do from home to make my living, would be fun to do, and would be loved by other people due to the shear creativeness. The things I want to do are not being done in Utah, at least that I can tell. I have found places in other states and even in other countries where you can find this, but not in Utah. I know I have the skills. I know they are ideas that would defiantly make money. I know it's possible. The only problem is money. Why is everything about money? I've done the research and this could change my life for sure. At least I would finally be doing something I enjoy. My current situation doesn’t allow me to pursue these ideas and it drives me crazy. Here it is, another year and I haven't done anything about them. I do have fabulous friends, but unfortunately none of them have any money either. If we got paid for how much we laugh together we would all be rich and never want for another material thing. What to do? I'll figure it out when it's time I guess. In the mean time, I just have to keep on keeping on. I might have to write more about this later.

Primary

Of course...last night I have two girls coughing so badly I had to check and make sure they were breathing when it got quiet. I have been thinking about what I'm going to do for primary singing time all week and still haven't come up with anything. The junior chorister calls this morning and asks if I can do junior and senior because she is sick. (Of course I don't mind at all. She took over for me for over a month when I had surgery in October. And she is a total sweetheart.) So, sadly, but gladly, I'm home with the little girls for the first half of church. They are both vegging on the couch and I'm waiting for my singing time stuff to print. We are going to do "Singing Bee". I'll have them sing a song and then stop at some point. Each "team"** will have one guess. If they get it right they get to put an X or O on our Tick-Tac-Know game board. Last time we played Tick-Tac-Know one of the younger girls put the X in the wrong place leaving it open for anyone to win. The kids were going crazy! So, at the very end I had the Primary President choose an X or O from the bag and put it up. The kids watched with anticipation. Then there was an explosion of screaming (yep, in church) when an X was pulled out of the bag. They are all excited! They didn't care which letter was pulled out. They were just happy to see the end result. It was awesome! I realize it was loud. But singing time is at the end of the church block. So after the round of screaming they somehow got quite enough for the prayer. It's a very good day when the kids are all having fun and learning at the same time. Teaching singing time is like putting on a little skit each week. Sometimes it is a hit, sometimes it is a disaster. Like last week. But, it is a great calling and I enjoy it. It's better than, let's say, being Bishop or RS Pres or teaching or being a counselor... you get it. I love teaching music in primary. This year has been sad in a way though. I taught the 11 year old girls and boys from the time they were 8 until they were just turning 11. They are awesome kids! All 14 of them. Now, I'm watching as they each leave Primary to advance to YM/YW. It's sad. I'll miss them in Primary. They are my great singers in the back. When I can get them to look at me and they stop laughing at me. They are also the ones who always make fun of me when I cry. Crying is a real problem for me. I can cry at the drop of a hat. Literally. Depending on whose hat, how far it's falling, what it's falling on, and if it has to be worn again. haha! Seriously, they love to make fun of me and I love it too. We always have a good laugh together. I always cry while singing during Christmas or during the program or the Sunday after the program or when we sing "Give Said the Little Stream". That is my favorite song and they learned it just for me. It wasn't even on the list of songs for this year. What a great Primary we have! All 250 of them! At least I'm not giving a talk! ooooppppsss Be careful what you say!

**There is not supposed to be any competition in Primary. So instead of having an X team and an O team, each player who gets the question right gets to choose a letter from a bag. If there are 3 X's drawn then X obviously wins. It is a fun twist and all of the kids feel like they have won. Kinda like BYU and Utah. You can choose who you want to win or you can go for who wins right? haha!

*****

Update: The Senior Primary kids loved singing! They had a hard time filling in the blankes, but really enjoyed trying to figure it out. The games was awesome too! No one won, but there was just as much excitement as before.

The Junior Primary kids are so hard to entertain. You would think with them be younger they would be easier. But NO! They are harder than the big kids. They did enjoy choose songs from the "Music Machine" and then helping to lead it or some other fun activity, like "Once There Was a Snowman" became:

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman.

Once there was a snowman WIDE WIDE WIDE.

In the sun he GOT SMALL, GOT SMALL, GOT SMALL

In the sun he GOT SMALL.

It was a good day!

Test

My daughter said, "strike a pose mom" and this is what she got. We were taking pictures of all of the girls with Frosty before putting the Christmas stuff away.

Yep, it's true. I have a thing for snowmen. Pictures of them, statues of them, cuddly ones, skinny ones, tall ones, even movies about them. I collect them and my collection is getting bigger each year. If there is any question about what to get me for Christmas a snowman will always do the trick.

Don't get confused though. As much as I love them, I don't like making them. Sadly, I live in Utah and it snows like crazy here sometimes. Driving by them and seeing how creative people are with them is great. But me and cold don't mix very well. Watching from a window is fine. As long as I have a heating blanket, a cup of hot chocolate (with marshmallows), and the right to criticize the outcome, I’m there!

I am an expert in case you were wondering. When I was a kid we lived in Gaithersburg, Maryland. One year it snowed over 4 feet in just a few days. We dug tunnels all around our back yard. It was awesome! And my brothers built a snowman so big they had to stand on the shed to put on the head. Thus watching in amazement while my brothers created the biggest snowman I have ever seen created a monstor. They had no idea what they were doing to me when they put that 9th ball on top of the snowman and then a scarf, eyes (from real coal), a carrot nose (which seemed incredibly small), and little tiny sticks for arms with mittens (my mittens by the way).

Oh well, add snowmen to the list of things I love. Another secret reveled. Believe me there are lots more where they came from.