What to Blog?

I have no idea, but it's been several days (AGAIN) and it seems like I ought to write something...

Uummm... School went well this week. The kids are adjusting and doing well with the hordes of math work. And Katie and Joe have written some pretty good reports and stories for me this week. Joe wrote a terrific cowboy story, but he acts like he's embarrassed about it for some reason. I would love to post pictures of it here, but I don't want him to feel weird about it... so maybe I'll just e-mail it to Grandma and Granddad. :-)

Tuesday was a long day and I can't remember everything that we did. We made our library trip and walked out with new and exciting piles of books to burn through. After the library we headed into town to run several errands. I needed to stop by Sam's Club and Wal-Mart and a couple of grocery stores to try to mooch. :-) With changing campgrounds and having to increase our tuitions for Family Camp this year while still keeping them as low as possible for everybody, we're trying to get as much donated as we can for the Snack Shack. We won't be making any profit off of the tuitions (just covering our costs--we hope!), so it's our only real money maker and we'd love to make MORE money with it this year to help pay for a guest speaker and all that stuff. So we've got people all over the region out asking for donations. I hope God really blesses our efforts. I, personally, HATE mooching. I am sooooooooooo uncomfortable walking into a store and saying, "Hey, would you give me some stuff for free???" But I know it's been highly successful for some people in the past, and I hear that lots of times the businesses have a certain amount that they need to donate, so... Whatever! I did the miserable deed, got one $20 gift card and three "We'll talk it over and get back with you" answers.

We also went to the thrift store and hit the jackpot. Joe was suddenly in dire need of some jeans and we bought several pairs, though a couple he'll have to grow into. And the first time he wore one of the pairs that fit now, he promptly ripped the button off. !!! I had James pick up some replacement jean buttons and got it fixed the next day. I got a new yellow shirt that makes me very happy, though it's very Spring-ish and we still have snow on the ground so I don't feel like wearing it yet. Maybe at Youth Convention in Hatch next weekend. Ought to be warm enough there! Oh, we found an ADORABLE jean skirt for Katie, built long and skinny just like she is! It's too big, but it's SHAPED right (that's sooooo hard to come by for that girl!), so I'm sure she'll grow into it sometime in the next year.

I can't remember what all we did that day. It was a busy one. We came home and spent the rest of the evening listing things on eBay. James put a whole slew of Church books on and I finally got all of my stamping stuff posted. Don't know if any of it will sell, but I'm trying! James already has a whole bunch of bids on his books.

Can't remember much else about the week. It was my ABM service on Thursday night and it was a total bomb. I understand that that word means something good nowadays, but when I was growing up it meant something was horrible--and that's how I mean it! Ha! I think I've told God how sorry I am every time I've prayed since Thursday night!!! It probably wasn't bad enough to warrant that, I suppose, but I just feel like I missed it, you know? ~sigh~ It's a miserable feeling. I'm going to start praying NOW for next month's service so nobody has to suffer through another one of these ones!

We had picked up Old Yeller at the library on Tuesday, so last night the kids asked me to start reading it to them. We never did find a good stopping point though. "Don't stop there, Mom--read more, ple-e-e-e-e-e-ease!!!" We ended up reading the whole book! I think I read from about 6:00 until 9:00 and my throat was sore by the time we were done, but we finished! I think I'm the only one who cried, which is just wrong.

Today we had the kids write reports on Old Yeller (Sam drew a picture), then I let them watch the movie. I was amazed at just how similar it is to the book. Usually there are lots of significant changes in a book-turned-movie, but not this one. The only real difference is that the kid goes ahead and shoots the dog as soon as he finishes fighting with the rabid wolf, knowing that he would have contracted the disease. In the movie they waited until he actually started to go mad--which is much worse, I think. Either way, I cry every time. Joe admitted to me that he had to work really, really, really hard to not cry. I'm amazed that Katie can make it through things like that with no tears--what kind of girl is she, anyway?!

Old Yeller was our break today. The rest of it was spent in preparation for our Mission Luncheon tomorrow. James made tamales and enchiladas (wow, what a guy!) and I made taco salad, poppyseed chicken casserole, pea salad, strawberry cake, lemon bars... hhmmm... I think there was something else or maybe two somethings, but I can't remember.

I guess that's it. Oh, wait! Today was the first day of Spring... and we woke up to 6" of fresh snow! Ha! I love it!!! The only thing I don't like about all of the snow is the terrible mud that always follows. It gets sooooooooo sloppy up here! Pretty ugly. But that's why there's plastic in the van now, right Tammy?!

Hope everybody has a wonderful Sunday. I'm "off" tomorrow and get to just enjoy the big people's Sunday School class taught by one of my favorite teachers :-) and I'm not on to lead songs, our pastor will preach another anointed message about one of the 29, and we're hoping and praying we'll have visitors for service AND for the Mission Luncheon to follow. Then we'll have James' CPMA service afterward. Looks to be a wonderful day in the Lord!