Stupid book

I just read over 700 pages in about 27 hours (that includes time sleeping, watching kids, and working). Dang it. When I start a book, it's like I can't stop reading until I finish it. First I want to find out what happens and second, I need to finish it so I can go on with my life. It's a good thing that I'm a fast reader. It was a pretty good book, the last of the Eclipse series. I just should have never started reading it at 10 pm. Stupid book.

GNO

It's hard sometime as a mother to give yourself permission to just go have fun. Without kids. So, when a friend planned a Girls Night Out on a super busy week, I called my mom who said "Heck YES!" Thanks again Mom.

So 4 moms hit the concert scene, wearing clean shirts and makeup, so no stains from dirty hands or visible rings under our eyes. I'm not sure what it means, but when we asked a group of teens to take a picture of us, one of the boys not only jumped in our picture, but got a picture with his own camera. Hmm... I'm going to just pretend I'm flattered and not think about how we were twice his age.

But oh, it was SOOO FUN! Jack Johnson is such a great tranquilo performer, it was awesome. And while our husbands would have just stood there listening, the 4 of us danced the whole time, talked, and laughed. During one song, Jack Johnson had to stop halfway into his song due to laughter. He said that someone had just yelled, "I want my wife to have your baby!" Jack looked down into the audience and said, "Lady, I think you're lovely, but I think your husband is very drunk." Anyway, lots of fun. So here's to you, Concert Girls.

the Wedding

I know it was a while ago, but I do have to write about my brother's wedding. Congratulations Jared and Tonya! The wedding was beautiful, really beautiful! The reception was lovely. After the happy couple left and the guests had left, my family relaxed together in the Taj (our backyard little gazebo), lights out except for flickering chinese lanterns. Just quietly chatting and joking. The next morning, we all went to Cherry Hill together swimming. Last year, Bekah was always afraid of the big blue slide. You may remember earlier me mentioning her prayers for all kids to be brave on the blue slide. Well, she and her Daddy had a prayer before we left, and she LOVED that blue slide. We went over and over again, and she went on it all by herself. It was crazy watching this little 3 year old go down on a great big waterslide all by herself! I had this moment, with all my family gathered around me, that this was it... life doesn't get any better than this.

It was hard saying goodbye to Jared & Tonya, and then Josh, Valerie & kids. Gosh I love my family!

as it were a dream

It's a Sunday morning, we are eating banana pancakes and the kids are laughing and waving their silverware around (they are both intent on using a knife... like their mother:). A song comes on the iPod, and suddenly I go back. I am 22, single, living in the Colony at college. It is sunny, I am walking into my apartment, and I can see the mountains rise behind my building. They are so beautiful glowing from the sun, I can feel the exhilaration of just being alive. I know my roommates are waiting inside, dear friends whom I love. I can even smell the the crisp fall air outside my apartment! I get a lump as I realize that although it seems like yesterday, that is gone and I can never go back. Not that I want to exactly... my 2 year old leans over grinning and says, "Fank You Mommy Fow Pancakes!"

What is time? I can give no other explanation than Jacob's, "our lives passed as it were a dream." What moments do you go back to?

Choices, consequences, & prayers

I just had a great teaching moment! Bekah gets to take 3 books to bed, but only gets to keep them if she is quiet. Well, she soon started banging on the wall, and very sadly, lost a book. She threw a fit. No result... she still didn't have the book. So she announced that she was going to pray that I would give the book back, and got down on her knees. I could see the wheels in her head saying, "We pray to Heavenly Father when we can't find something, and we find it, so if I pray to get the book back, I'll get it." Unfortunately for her, that's not the way it works.

I knelt beside her, wrapped my arms around her, and we talked about what "consequences" mean. As a good parent, Heavenly Father won't change the consequences of what we choose; it was our choice. Bekah loves to choose. She loves the music to "My Turn on Earth", so I sang part of one song and explained what it meant about choices. Then we talked about what things we could pray about: being brave, feeling better when we do something bad, to be safe... That got her very excited to pray, and we were again on our knees for a long time. She prayed that she would be brave on the blue slide at Cherry Hill, that other 3 year olds would be safe on the climbing wall at the rec center, that she would feel brave watching the scary part of Sleeping Beauty... Anyway, it was heart-warming. She is actually upstairs praying again as I write.