Week In Review

Reading-

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grant Writing-Could that possibly be for work? That would be a 'yes.'

Watching-

I hope there was no new GG this week, because if there was I missed it.

Grey's Anatomy-It was one of those clip episodes, but of course I had to watch it. Does anyone know which episode was the one where Dr. Bailey stopped the elevator with Derek in it so he could pull himself together? It was a great scene, but I don't remember ever seeing it.

In My Neflix Queue-

I pulled out The Muppets Take Manahattan on Friday night. I always get a little teary when they do that last ensemble scene in the church because it marries off Kermit and Piggy (in the movie, anyway) and shows just about all of Jim Henson's muppets together. It turned out to be his last movie and it gets to me. Since my oldest daughter is kind of a mini-me, I couldn't resist telling Natalie all about why I get a little sad at the end. It turns out I wasn't the only one wiping her eyes when the credits rolled. Hee! Hee! I'm mean that way.

Extracurricular Activities-

Keagan's (nephew) Birthday at Andrew's Park-This was Friday after school. The weather was awful, but she had rented an indoor pavilion so we stayed warm and dry. Keagan opened his first present and wasn't interested in opening any more of them. Typical but funny 2 year-old antics. Since this was Tristan's actual birthday, Selena got him a cake too and he got to open his presents from us. I also let him pick out a General Grievous Transformer at Wal-Mart en route to the party. That kept him busy most of the night. Caroline coveted the Pokemon action figures that she picked out as a gift for him and this led to much fighting and drama throughout the evening. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Tristan's Party at the movie theatre-I'm glad I did something indoors because the weather didn't get any better. The party room part was a little rushed because we were waiting on the chicken nugget tray from Chick-Fil-A. Once the presents were opened, Dave took the kids down to watch TMNT (guest review from the kids to come) while I cleaned up and took Elisa back home for some much-needed down time. Tristan claims he didn't like his party, but Dave said he had fun and is just yanking my chain. He lives to yank my chain, so I don't doubt that's true.

Madeline's Party at Pump It Up-This is one of those places that gives you a room full of inflatables and about 1 1/2 hours to play before moving to a party room for cake and presents. We really had fun, and that's saying something. I haven't mentioned this yet, but my sister and Madeline's dad are splitting up. It's a sad situation, but the party was a lot of fun even with both of them in attendance. As I watched she and her soon-to-be ex "jousting" in one of the bouncy castles while I chatted with his mother and sister just as I have since they were married and teased my cousin J because Juliet beat him at the obstacle course, I had one of those epiphany moments where I realize that no matter how dysfunctional or different we are; we are family at the end of the day and I thank God for each and every one of us-flaws and all. The kids had fun, the place was spotlessly clean, and the staff was extremely helpful. This was by far THE party of our weekend (and we had lots of venues to judge from).

Youth Conference-All of a sudden, I have friends at church. When did that happen? First, I had a great time hanging out with Sister O and her kids at the Sonic playground while our daughters did a Valiant girls activity-but we always have fun. Then, I would up chaperoning a youth dance last night during conference and got to know another woman in the branch who was on a "chaperoning" date with her husband. I knew we would be friends when I turned down on of the teenage boys who asked me to dance (I'm hugely paranoid about getting in trouble for "inappropriate behavior" as an advisor, you can blame my aunts for that-and they don't even go to my church. They just like to beat dead horses, but I digress...) and after I was told by one of the ladies in charge that it would have been OK to dance with him; I couldn't find him to apologize. My new friend looked at me with a completely straight face and deadpanned that he was "in the bathroom crying" then laughed at my guilt-stricken face. I think I'm going to like her...Also, I made two of the girls laugh during testimony meeting. I didn't mean to, they were just admiring some goofy boy on the stand and have a whispered argument about which one of them would marry him. I told them that since we were Mormon, it was OK-they both could! They thought that was a lot funnier than I thought they would. Oops! In my defense, my new friend was a couple of rows ahead of me telling one of our Young Men that "real men bear their testimony." And teasing him in every other way to try and get him up there. We're both going to get fired, aren't we? At least we're having fun. And on a more serious note, if acting like a goof-ball, making them laugh, and really embarrassing them when they play "Dancing Queen" is what it takes to earn their trust so that they will really listen to me when I'm trying to teach them something important; I'll do it. (And based on the way they are starting to trust and confide in me, I'd say it's working.)

My Family Speaks in Church-For the first time, our whole family spoke in sacrament meeting. Natalie and Tristan were cute and bore their testimony about how much they loved Family Home Evening. Caroline got up and announced she was going to a birthday party and that she didn't want to talk about FHE because it was "boring." Guess whose talk everyone loved best? I got her back though. I shared the story I heard her telling Elisa the other day that went like this:

"Moses walked on the water to break and bless the bread and fishes and he fed it to everyone in the Ark. Then he parted the water and the ark landed. The end."

She's such a scriptorian. At least Dave's talk was good. And that's our week. Now I'm just hoping to survive the next one...