Youth Conference

Megan and I went to youth conference this weekend.  It was awesome!  I was really hoping Megan and the other girls would have fun and they did!  Shannon and I had a blast too.  It was so fun watching the girls interact with the boys at the dances.  We also had some really funny experiences that provided for some fun memories.  I think we'll be laughing about these for a long time.  The weekend was full of ice breaker activites, devotionals, classes, free time, dances, a talent show, a Q&A session with the stake president, President Thomas, and a testimony meeting.  We also spent quite a bit of time practicing The Cup Song, which Michaela taught us. We practiced when we were waiting for lunch or dinner.  We even practiced at the hotel after breakfast.  We decided to stay at a hotel this year, and the amount of girls who wanted to go went from 2 to 7!  Some of our girls are really shy and we knew they would feel more comfortable if we went to a hotel, rather than staying in a host's home.  You never know who's going to sleep where and if they'll be split up, etc.  so anyway, it worked out great and the girls seemed to love it.  Shannon got us a good deal on our rooms, and it only cost our presidency less than $300.  We ended up with six girls, which I think was pretty good!  We had Megan, Michaela, Kiaya, Lexi, Courtney, and Bekka.  The girls' testimonies were definitely strengthened, and now they are all excited about the stake dances (well, most of them anyway).  We noticed a big difference between all of the youth during the first dance and the next dance.  They were so much more comfortable the second night.  The first night, they were all huddled in small groups by ward.  The second night, they were more like one big ward.  It was awesome! 

Okay, here are the funny stories:

• Kiaya needed a partner for this basketball relay race.  Lexi didn't want to do it, and Shannon was busy, so at the very last second, I had to do it!  I ran over to her, and linked arms.  We started sprining across the floor, and we realized noone else was running with us!  It was all over!  We were so embarrassed! 
• Michaela and Megan were showing off their moves at one of the dances.  Michaela had figured out what she wanted to do, and practiced it a few times out in the hall.  Everything went well, so she went out to the dance floor, where everyone was in a circle.  She started out with a split, and her pants ripped!  She was so embarrassed!  She jumped up, and the girls surrounded her so no one would see the hole as they inched their way to the bathroom.  We were all laughing so hard, even Michaela.  Adam, a boy that had been hanging out with our girls all weekend, gave her some pants to put on.  She tucked them into her stylish boots and went back out there to redeem herself!  She did an awesome job!  I was so proud of her for handling it so well! 
• I won't go into detail about the last incident because of the nature of the subject.  Let's just say we were all shocked to hear some noises coming from one of the doors at the hotel as we were walking to our rooms the second night.  The funniest thing was Lexi's face of shock!  The other funny thing was Kiaya's note, which she slipped under the door, suggesting that they be a little quieter next time.  She signed it, "Employees and guests of the hotel"  I couldn't believe she did that!  But at the same time, we were all laughing hysterically!

Anyway,  I'm so glad they all had a good time and seemed to really get a lot out of the classes and activities.  I hope this strengthened them enough to keep them strong when times get tough.  We heard several youth say that they were the only LDS people in their school, so I think the girls realize that they are not alone.  And they can be strong!
      

This Weekend

This weekend was so awesome!  On Friday night, when Dan got home with Megan, we ate supper, and headed to New Hampshire.  We checked in at the Red Jacket hotel, and then Dan went to the store to buy us snacks and breakfast for the next day.  We found out the hotel was showing a free movie, so we went down and watched Hotel Transylvania.  We had all seen it before, but we loved it anyway.  It's such a funny movie.  They had free popcorn and pink lemonade for everybody, plus Dan brought some Twizzlers and Cadbury eggs for us to snack on, too.
 
The next day we spent at the indoor water park there, called Kahuna Laguna.  It was so much fun.  We'd been there once before a couple of years ago, but only Megan and Nathan had gone swimming.  It was so expensive that Dan and I just watched.  This year, we planned in advance, plus we got a good deal, so we were all able to go.  It was so relaxing and fun.  It was nice to feel like it was summer for a little while.  They had four slides (two with tubes, two without), a hot tub, a wave pool, a water basketball area, and some areas for younger children with smaller slids and water spouts, etc.  We all loved it. 

On the way home, we stopped at Zeb's, of course (our tradition).  Then, for supper, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant we had noticed.   We had tacos, burritos, enchiladas, chalupas, and beans and rice.  It was so good!  We all loved it.  The kids even got fried ice cream for dessert, which they said was really good.  On the way home, we ate our candy from Zeb's and talked.  We all ended up laughing so hard!  It all started when we were talking about my snoring (apparently, it's really bad). When we were in Florida this summer the girls heard my snoring, but they didn't know what it was.  They were scared to death.  They thought there was someone outside with a chain saw, but they also thought it sounded kind of like a cow.  They were so surprised when they found out it was my snoring.  Anyway, we laughed about that for a while, but that led to more silliness.  By the end of the discussion, we were talking about cows with chain saws, and then horses with chain saws.  You had to be there, but we were all laughing so hard.   We made some great memories, and some new family jokes.  Good time, good times.

When we got home we watched a movie I had rented from Netflix.  It was a suspense movie called The House at the End of the Street.  I had seen it before, but I really wanted to see it again, and I wanted Megan and Dan to watch it .  I thought they'd both like it..  Plus, Dan is always so good at predicting the outcome.  I knew he wouldn't be able to figure this one out!  And I was right!

Sunday was a quiet day.  We went to church (I taught YW) and went to the Linger Longer afterwards.  We came home and Megan and Nathan and I watched a few episodes of Dance Moms and one episode of Cheer Perfection.  I tape those shows every week, and then Megan and I watche them when she comes.  We didn't have to bring Megan back until Monday, so she and Nathan watched Lilo and Stitch before they went to bed.

It sounds kind of sappy, but I really do feel that we got closer as a family this weekend.  We created some great memories! 

Memory Monday

Aunt Glenna!

 

I don't even know where to start when it comes to Aunt Glenna.  She was such a nice person.  I remember when I was little she would sympathize with me when Mike was being a "mean older brother"  She would tell me about all the horrible things Dad did to her when they were little!  

I remember going over to their house occassionally when I was growing up, especially on the Fourth of July.  They had a great view of the fireworks, so they would have a party each year.  I also remember spending several days there once, when Matt was in the hospital.  Aunt Glenna and Uncle Bernard, too, were always so nice to me. They were also both really good with Matt.  They were one of the few people my parents could ask to watch him.  As an adult, I worked in the office at Record Building Supply with Aunt Glenna and Beth a couple different times.  We would talk while were were working, so we ended up talking about all sorts of stuff.  The second time I worked there I had Nathan.  She was so good to him.  She would hold him and talk to him every day.  When he started talking, he called her "Denna."  It was so cute.  This picture was taken the Christmas before she passed away.  It was so emotional for everybody when her cancer came back.  She was only 58 when she passed away.  She is definitely missed by many people.        

This Weekend

Well, this weekend was quite relaxing, which was a welcome relief because last weekend was super busy.  Here's a recap of the weekend:

• I totally relaxed on Friday night.  I didn't feel like doing anything, including making supper (we just had leftovers).  Dan and I did end up watching a movie on Netflix and eating ice cream, though, which was fun.  We watched a thriller that totally stressed me out!  The actor was so cocky and arrogant and evil that I just wanted to reach through the tv and strangle him.  Eventually, he fell apart emotionally, which I really enjoyed.  I don't know why it stressed me out so much!:-)
• On Saturday, the Atwaters came over for a play date.  Nathan loves playing with Joseph and Ephraim, so they had  a great time.  Patricia and I visited and made homemade soft pretzels.  I ended up overcooking them (still not sure how that happened), but they were still okay.   After lunch of pretzels and chicken noodle soup, we ended up talking about recipes and menus.  We wrote out several recipes that Patricia wanted.  It was fun just visiting and talking.  Of course, little Sophie was just as cute as a button, getting into everything:-)
• For supper that night, we had Chinese food from Ocean Pearl.  Yum!   I got lots of boring things checked off my to-do list, like balancing my checkbook and things like that. 
• I've been working on Personal Progress lately, and a couple of weekends ago, Megan and I read the entire For the Strength of Youth.  We each chose three things we were going to work on.  One of the areas I wanted to work on was fasting.  I decided to fast today, which I haven't done in years, literally.  I did pretty well during church, but I could feel a headache coming on as the morning went on.  After church, I decided to take a nap because I didn't sleep well last night.  Plus, if you can't eat, you may as well be unconscious.  The time goes by faster (Heehee).  By the time I woke up I had such a huge headache.  I had to take something for it, and then wait a while for it to kick in.  I'm glad that I fasted, but I hope I don't feel like that every month.
• Tonight we watched the Superbowl.  It's basically the only time I watch football.  It was fun, though, and Dan explained everything I didn't understand.  We ended up eating chocolate chip cookies, Doritos, and cheese sticks for snacks. 
• This afternoon, Nathan and I made chocolate chip cookies, which was fun.  We've also been reading Humphrey books lately, which he's really enjoying.  We recently finished The World According to Humphrey which he read as a school project.  Now we're on Friendship According to Humphrey.   Each night, I've been trying to have him spend at least 15 minutes on Dreambox, which is a math game that we have a subscription to.  I think it's really been helping his math skills.  I love that site. 
• We got Megan's report card in the mail this weekend.  She got on the honor roll again!  She's such a good student!
• Well, here it is, 12:20 in the morning and I am still wide awake.  It's the combination of the nap and the caffeine from the Excedrin.  I'm going to finish up some stuff for school, and then hopefully I'll be able to fall asleep.