Sunday Miscellaneous

Today I did not feel like going to church. That doesn't happen very often but today it did because of lots of dumb little factors.

I was extra tired from staying up later than usual (even for a Saturday). We watched School of Rock at about 9:00 and then started Ironman while we were waiting for Morgan to get home from a party. (Well, we had to finish Ironman didn't we?) I also got up late this morning, so we were running late. I hate it when you are trying to brush your teeth while still finishing up the last bite of cereal. I was also having a very bad hair day! (Worse than usual.) Hal called as we were trying to get out the door to see if I could find his keys and bring them. So that threw us off another couple of minutes. I hate to be late!

We had family prayer in the car and I told Morgan to pray that we would be glad we went to church today. The kids raised their eyebrows at that one but she did it anyway. Funny, this is the first Sunday in a while that one of the kids hasn't wanted to stay home. I guess it was my turn.

So we made it in time to slip into our usual spot, which luckily was still vacant. We had a couple of minutes to spare, so I walked over to the office to give the keys to Hal. On the way over, I looked at the speakers and didn't recognize the missionary but knew the other speaker so at least I knew sort of who was on the program.

When it was time for the missionary to speak, once he got up I realized who it was. It was Spencer Nielson, one of my old Sunday School boys from about 6 years ago. I was so happy to hear him. He actually gave a really good talk and he looked good too. I remember when he was in my class as a 15 year old kid he had this big moppy hair and was in a band called Stanley's Pajamas. That made my day to hear him speak. I quite enjoyed him as a rebellious teenager (he was always pretty good for me - his scout leaders, not so much). I really like him as a more mature young man. He had a tough mission in the poor parts of Hawaii and I think it did him some good.

After the meeting I went up to talk to him and I told him I hadn't recognized him at first. He told me he saw me walk past and he felt badly because I didn't say anything to him. Boy, I'm glad I talked to him later. (I might not have if I remembered how bad my hair looked, but come to think of it, it kind of looks like it did when he was in my class. Maybe he will think that I haven't changed a bit. Ha ha. I'm just saying that to make myself feel better. One of the few great things about being over 40 is that nobody else really cares what you look like. To them you're just old.)

After church we went home and I was glad we were done. I told the kids to get on comfy clothes and we'd just lounge for a while. (Luckily we had leftovers that we could just heat up and eat. When we have 9:00 church it is tough to get a roast or anything else big ready to cook before we leave.) Hal said he'd get home early today (2:30 or so - he's usually gone from 6:30 until about 4:30) so I need to get going on fixing something for him.

Austin kind of cracked me up because we made Valentine cookies and there were a few left. He kept wanting one so he'd say "I'll give you a hug and a kiss if you give me a cookie." Then I'd say "You can have one if you eat something healthy first." Then he'd counter with "I'll give you TWO hugs and THREE kisses." I finally talked him into eating an apple.

After eating part of two slices (everything but the peels) he said, "I know of a great game! I'll close my eyes and then you go get a cookie and put it in front of me and then you run away and I'll open my eyes and see the cookie and act surprised."

Well, ok, that one was pretty clever so we played the game. And to his credit, he did act pretty surprised.

Ally then came into the kitchen to get something and slipped on a big fluffy ribbon thing that was on the floor that I had used to wrap around a Valentine gift that I gave Hal yesterday. I can't believe how slippery it was. She really splatted. I'm glad she wasn't hurt too badly. The funny thing is, that after she fell, she "forgot" to pick up the ribbon. Austin needed a drink of milk to go with his cookie so I went into the kitchen to get it and I slipped on the same piece of ribbon. Luckily I wasn't hurt either.

I guess that's about it for now. I'm going to go read the book I got from the library last week. It is called Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World. Let's hope I can learn something from it. Last time I checked out a book like this it was Raising Responsible Children. I ended up losing the book and having to admit it to the librarian. She got a good laugh out of that and it finally did show up, much to my relief.