A Fun Baby Shower Game......

I saw someone last week that I hadn't seen for many years.  It was Morgan's first piano teacher.

She reminded me that I threw a baby shower for her when her first daughter was born.  (The one and only baby shower I remember throwing.  I'm not a great party thrower, they stress me out.  I'm more of an informal "Hey, why don't we just head over to my house right now - and since I wasn't planning on it, I guess you won't mind if the house is messy." kind of girl.)

We did do one thing that was kind of funny.  I can't remember if we had any other formal games, but my sister-in-law Jayne had told me about something they had done at a shower over in Tremonton.  It sounded like a fun idea and we decided that probably nobody in our neighborhood had heard of doing this, so I talked my other sister-in-law, Monica, into showing up at the shower about a half hour late, frazzled and carrying a diaper bag.

When she got there, I pretended like I didn't know her.   She walked in, apologizing for being late.  I acted polite, but started asking people (discreetly) if they knew who she was.  Nobody did, so I pulled Jenny out and asked her if she was a relative of hers.  Jenny said she had no idea who she was.  It was funny watching people act polite to Monica and wondering who she was and why she was there.  Finally I came out and said, "How do you know Jenny?" 

"Jenny?"  she said, "Who is Jenny?  I'm here for Natalie's shower?"  "Natalie who?"  I asked.  "Natalie Jenkins."  she said (or some other made up name, I can't remember what it was).

So then she started acting embarrassed, like she had suddenly realized that she was at the wrong house.  I asked the address of where she was supposed to be, so she said she had the invitation in her diaper bag.  She started rummaging frantically in the bag, eventually dumping it on the floor.  I then helped her pick things up and then we told people that it was a game and  handed out paper and pencils and had people write down anything they could remember that was in her diaper bag.  And that was the game.

It was funny to see peoples' reactions.  You can't get anything past Joyce Johnson.  She yelled out, "Is this a setup?" when Monica dumped the bag.  The girls (we had invited the Young Women too) were really confused.  It made me laugh.  I did like the comment someone else made.  They said, "I was so embarrassed for her when she dumped the bag that I tried on purpose not to look at what was in there."

Anyway, kind of a funny game, but you need to make sure and have someone do it that wouldn't be recognized by anyone else at the party.

One Proud/Happy/Relieved/Sad Mama

Well, it happened.  I can now breathe a big sigh of relief.  One burden has been lifted.  (One more to go, but I'm not really at liberty to talk about the other thing just yet.)

Morgan just found out today that she received the Thomas S. Monson Presidential Scholarship to BYU, her first choice college.

I am so proud of her and all her hard work.  She really has earned it.  I have no doubt that she will do well in school because she has been taking college level and AP classes since she was a sophomore.  She has earned a 5 on every AP test so far and scored a 35 on the ACT.  (I'm bragging here, because it's not really the type of thing you can just trumpet all over facebook.  I'll assume anyone reading this here will be happy for us.)

I am happy because I know she is a good girl and will fit in really well at BYU.  To be honest, I don't know if I would have fit in there.  I'm not really known for my "sweet spirit", but she fits what I think of when I think of the type of girl who does well at BYU.  (And yes, she does read her scriptures regularly.  I would have failed on that count alone.)

I am definitely relieved because we have really been sweating, waiting to hear if she would get any sort of financial aid.  She got a full ride to USU, so it would have been hard to send her to BYU, paying for housing, food AND tuition.  Definitely a big weight off my shoulders.

And finally, I am sad.  I am so sad  that she will be leaving our home so soon.  She has been  fun to have around, but she has been so busy taking all those classes (4 AP classes this year alone) that I feel like I have been cheated out of her company for the last few years.  She has been so busy getting herself to this point that  I had really been looking forward to her living at home for college, coming home for lunch, or after some early classes to just hang out with ME.  Morgan is the most like me of anyone else in the family, so I will miss my little mini-me.  (Well, let me qualify, Morgan has more of my "good" qualities.  Ally, unfortunately, ended up with my, how do you say this politely?, "naughtier" qualities.  Ally likes to see how much she can get away with without actually breaking the rules.  Let's  just leave it at that, shall we?)

Anyway, this has been a day of very strong, mixed emotions.  I couldn't hide the tears as we read the scholarship e-mail.  Happy tears.  Sad tears.  Tears of relief.

Where did my little girl go?  (Sniff, sniff.)