Retraction

Ok - so I am about to retract my outrage {see previous post} about not having a Super Saturday to attend.
Before I do, let me give you a little background.
I love Super Saturday {or Fabulous Friday, or Terrific Tuesday, or whatever your neck of the woods wants to call it}.
I have organized a handful of them, I have taught classes at several, I have overseen a couple of them, and I have attended one every year for the past eleven years.
{I take that back. I missed one due to a wedding, and one due to giving birth - but I had still prepared, and helped prepare craft classes those years that had to be lead by someone else}. And while it's true, that I never, ever have finished every project that I signed up to do in the alotted time, I have always loved it!
There's just something about being with a group of sisters, creating, learning and eating that is extremely uplifting to me. I may come home with a few unfinished projects - but I always come home rejuvenated, ready to be a better wife, mom, visiting teacher, and friend.
In fact, I felt that President Uchtdorf's talk Happiness, Your Heritage at the General Women's Conference in October 2008 cemented the understanding of the need for women to create, in the hearts of all who heard it. It's a beautiful address. Inspiring. Uplifting. Validating.
That is why it's disappointing to me, that with the new changes in the Relief Society "Meetings", that some people would conclude that such trivial things like crafting and cooking don't make the grade anymore.
I adore and support Sis. Julie Beck, president of the General R.S. I know when she announced the name change from Enrichment to Meeting, she also said that the purpose of Relief Society is to prepare women for the blessings of eternal life by helping them increase their faith and personal righteousness, strengthen their families and homes, and serve the Lord and His children.
I get it. Those things are absolutely the goal, and are of utmost importance. I understand how some might have a difficult time meshing modgepodging and bread kneading into the category of "preparing women for the blessings of eternal life". But for me as a mom of young children - who sometimes simply needs to be away for a few hours, surrounded by good, faithful women, who are going through or have gone through what I am now, that big gap from making homemade Christmas ornaments to preparing for eternal life - is non-existant. It's one in the same.
I am without a doubt, a better person for taking the opportunity to create by attending and being involved in Enrichment activities like Super Saturday. And isn't bettering yourself a part of preparing for exaltation? I would like to declare a huge, resounding "Yes it is!"
However, I am no longer outraged. I apologize for sounding that way in my last post.
I truly understand the decision, I just don't love the decision. I suppose though, that this is just one more thing that doesn't need to be church sanctioned. Just like book club - we don't need it to be on the Relief Society calendar to be able to get together and create away.
It just makes me wonder though - why do we still have Church basketball, and volleyball and dances and pancake breakfasts, etc.? Do these things have more correlation to our preparedness for the after-life than Super Saturday? Or is it only Relief Society, to which we as sisters over the age of 18 automatically belong to, who are held to this higher standard of spirituality in our activities? Just curious.
I wonder what President Uchtdorf would think...

Withdrawals

My new ward is NOT doing a Super Saturday this year.
What is Relief Society if you don't have that?
Unbelievable. That's what it is. Unbelievable.
I might just have to throw one myself.
In my garage.
Anyone want to join me?

Emmett's First

Can you believe that this sweet little baby is now my laughing, dancing, squealing, into everything one year old?
I love this boy. Happy Birthday Emmett!

Project Cutie Pie Basement - Step 1

Our basement is currently home to all the leftovers.
Leftover furniture, pillows and toys - and nothing on the walls except the TV.
It's just a big, fun place for kids to play. That part, I love.
The thrown together - we used to have this in a different room in our old house - but it's ended up here now look, not so much.

So, I'm beginning what I'm sure will be a slow process of trying to cutsie-pie this place up!

The first area I'm tackling is the toy corner. Where all of our neighbors house their beautiful, well stocked wet-bars, we have a mish-mash of toys. While we certainly have much more need for a toy area than a wet-bar, it definitely needs a pick me up! I want it to look bright, fun and put together.

Step one in this process: refinishing a kitchen set in the new bold colors I want to use throughout the basement.

Here's the BEFORE:

And Here's the AFTER:

I kind of love it.
Hopefully, this is just the beginning of LOTS of Basement Before & Afters!

New Spice

Love the Old Spice commercials with the man in the shower, then on a yacht, then riding away on a horse?
And you love BYU as well?
Then you'll love this.
{thanks Rachie for sharing it.}

Soaring Sacrament

In all of my years of attending church every Sunday, I don't believe I have ever witnessed a Sacrament tray go down...that is, of course, until yesterday. Azure was walking the tray full of bread down the row to me {we were sitting on the very back row, so it was full to the brim}. I'm sure you can figure out the rest.
It seemed to happen in slow motion though. Azure held out the tray just beyond my reach, turned her head to look at something, and let go. I was holding Emmett, or I'm certain I would have leapt from my chair, diving heroically to save the blessed bread. Alas, that's not how this story ends.
The tray crashed to the ground, spilling the sacrament all over the gym floor, the boy in front of us, and in my church bag. The little deacon whisked up the empty tray and was off. I gathered up the bread and wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I'm sure I should have thrown it out, but didn't see a trash can nearby, and since Emmett was squealing for me to give him some, and he hadn't really eaten lunch before we came, and I didn't feel like fighting him since I was there with the kids by myself...my sweet little baby got an extra helping {or rather, 30 extra helpings} of spirituality.

Party in the USA!

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love the music. I love the food. I love the warm weather, and I love the low stress. Because it fell on a Sunday this year, we celebrated ALL weekend long!

FRIDAY

Dan started the day of with a dirtbike ride, I went to lunch with some girls I used to work with, then we came home, gathered the kids, and headed out to Manitou Springs. We hit the new Rudy's BBQ with the Lovejoys {the meats and banana pudding are great - but steer clear of all of the bland sides}.

After dinner, we headed to the outdoor penny arcade. {not exactly sure why they call it a 'penny' arcarde} but it was so much fun!
SATURDAY

Our ward threw a GREAT Family Fourth party. I think the Primary leaders planned most of it, and they did a fabulous job! There was a pancake breakfast complete with fresh fruit & cool whip toppings, followed by the Kids' Parade, waterslide, outdoor games & races, and a big fat waterfight that Dan ended up in the middle of {of course!}.

Later, Dan went shooting with Peter L., then came home to join us for some pool time. We met up with some new neighbor friends there, and just had a nice evening getting to know them. The girls are instant friends.

McKenna, Bella, Azure, Kyla

SUNDAY

We went to church decked out in red, white & blue, went to Grammy's house for the classic roast & potatoes dinner {delish!} and then headed up north with Dan's family to get a good view of both the Flying Horse and AFA fireworks shows.

MONDAY
The celebrating continued, since everyone had the day off work.

Woo-hoo! We had Grammy & Grandpa, Megan & Carter, Emily, Kacey & kids, and the Lovejoy family over for a BBQ, games, and s'mores. Oh my lands. We had such a good time! Everyone brought lots of food, we played badminton, ladder ball, and bocce ball, while the kids jumped on the trampoline, played on the swingset, and got completely muddy in the dirt pile behind our house. Funny how with all of the fun things we had set up to do, the kids' favorite thing was playing in the dirt. Go figure!

Who doesn't love a good s'more? Apparently Carter. He's NEVER had one. Not ever. We tried, but couldn't convince him to attempt it tonight - but we all had at least 2 or 3 - and enjoyed every ooey-gooey bite!

Thank Heavens for the Fourth of July, For our Freedom, For our Blessings, and for this BEAUTIFUL Country We Live In! God Bless America!