Long Lost Friend

I think my blog is a long lost friend! I can't keep up on it anymore. I can't believe it's already October. The air is turning a wee bit cooler. Just slightly, but I love the change. It's especially nice when I hike. It's finally not scorching hot. Soon enough though we are going to need a flashlight.

My girls are busily trying to figure out what they want to be for Halloween. Hattie vacillates from being Rapunzel to a princess to a ballerina to Strawberry Shortcake. Ellie hasn't decided either, although she has mentioned being a "girly girl" even though we aren't sure what that costume would look like. Libby knew first what she wanted to be--a butterfly. And we are going to make Eliza's costume--she is going to be an iPod. It's cute, so I hope it turns out.

My young women's calling has also been keeping me very busy. A couple weeks ago we had a leadership training. I did some pre-prep stuff to get ready, but that night, my assignment was to talk for a few minutes about the resources available on lds.org. I focused on the new on-line personal progress resource. I also spent some time talking about The Mormon Channel--the Church's radio station. There are so many great programs on there--I've been listening to episodes from Everything Creative and those have been fun. Lately there is so much filth and time-wasting things on TV and the radio, but on that station or on lds.org, there is so much tat is good and uplifting.

While I would have loved to hear her speak in person, I found a really neat campaign through Stephanie Nielsen's website. It's called Recapturing Beauty and it's sponsored by BYU Women's Services. Right now they have a 10-day challenge going on, which is really cool. I also like the resources on their site.

What else? Brian recently switched companies--he is now working for Raymond James. He does the same thing as a financial advisor, but just with a new company with more/better opportunity. It's been a TON of work and fairly stressful. Brian deals with stress much better than I do, so he is handling it well, but I know it's stressful trying to get his clients to come over with him and getting them all set up and keeping them happy, etc.

This is kind of random, but I think I am going to learn how to quilt. I have always appreciated the beauty of quilts but have never made one myself. I am looking into taking a class. I think I would like it mostly because of the cute fabrics that are available now. I am not sure Brian wants me to get into it for the cost factor, but I'll start with a small wall hanging or something. Haha.

Ruby is getting closer and closer to walking. She is doing it more and more but hasn't totally converted to walking all the time. Hattie is a stinker! She is very funny and can be very sweet, but she does have a ornery streak. She knows we don't say the word "stupid" in our house, so she's testing us by saying it. Quite often. I am trying to figure out the best tactic to combat that. Ellie is still just LOVING preschool. I need to tape her when she runs to the car when I pick her up. She has the biggest grin--ear to ear--the entire time. She is always talking about her classmates, wonders what the snack will be, sings the songs, tells me what they do in "P.E.", etc. Eliza and Libby are doing well in school. They are still like oil and water 95% of the time, so that is a constant frustration for me. Then they do something cute like they did tonight, so maybe there is hope...Eliza has been working on drawing pictures to make a coloring book that she wants to sell to people. So I copied the drawings and we put a colored cover on it and stapled it so it was all done. Well, Libby went to her backpack and got a dollar and bought one from Eliza. She did all this quietly, then went to the kitchen table and colored the entire thing. I told Brian he needs to ask Libby if she'd sell her colored coloring book and then buy it from her. It was so sweet that she would support Eliza and be excited and willing to buy it from her. And everyone was asleep by 8:35. And Brian was at his bishopric meeting, so I am pretty proud of myself!