Friday's Fabulous Five

1. Friday night Nate's Mom invited all the grandkids over for a little dinner at their house. THey did this last year and had the boys all prepare the meal and serve the girls. So this time it was the girls' turn to prepare the food and serve the boys. They had a lot of fun. Nate and I took Noah and Erika to Tsunami. It was a pretty good restaurant. I tried sushi for the first time after my big long break from when I was pregnant. It still didn't seem to go down right. It's so weird!! Maybe I shouldn't eat it anyway since I'm nursing. I just about puked the last time I had it while I was pregnant.... not good.

2. Saturday was an interesting day. It started out with a lot of naughty kids, several threats to not go but after letting the kids earn the chance back, we went to the Kids Show at the Expo center. I had bought some discounted tickets online, so I really didn't want to waste them and I really wanted the kids to be able to go. We had a total blast though so I'm glad we went! The kids got to go on the bounce houses and slides. Had their faces painted, lots of free prizes and coupons, a reptile show with a 150 lb, 11 foot long snake! karaoke, lots of sports to practice on. It was just a really fun outing. I finally got a new Scentsy warmer too (ours broke a while ago and I couldn't justify spending the money, but I got a killer deal on a warmer and 3 bars, so I justified it :)) Noah stayed in the stroller 95% of the time, but jumped out when he saw this cute little dog. It was so cute to see him get all excited about the dog. One of these days I will convince him that the bouncy slides are fun.... someday. Good times though. If only I'd known that the camera had been in the diaper back the whole time!!!! Could have had more than just the few pictures I took with my phone.

3. We had a pretty different kind of Sunday but it was still really nice. Charity had a sore throat so we kept her home while Nate and I traded off to go to church and teach our lessons. I did Sharing time and I wasn't AS nervous as I've been. I felt really good about it this time anyway. It was funny because I had read through the outline for the thing a while ago and thought it sounded really boring, just reading a lot of scriptures, and so I was racking my brain trying to think of something to do with it, but then Sunday morning when I finally sat down and read through the scriptures it had listed, I was SO touched by the Spirit I felt! It really made me feel like this one needed to be the way it was. I liked how it turned out too, I feel like the kids listened and were able to feel the spirit. That makes me happy. And another fabulous thing that happened at church, Brother Petersen from the Bishopric came into the Primary and gave a little lesson, and something that stood out to me in his lesson was how he related Christ being our redeemer to us redeeming a coupon. Sounds funny like that, but I had just never realized how that could be related. In one sense, sometimes when you use a coupon, it's because you don't have the amount that something costs and you want a discount. Well, we will never be perfect, we do not have all it takes. So with the coupon of the Atonement, we can get a discount and be able to be saved for what we CAN pay. I also thought that with Christ as our Redeemer, we just give him the coupon, and he will give us what we need to be saved.... he redeems us! Anyway, maybe this sounds lame the way I put it, but it was cool then :) I enjoyed it and felt the Spirit so strongly. It always surprises me how much I can feel the spirit in Primary with such basic principles being taught. Just shows that the Gospel really is about the simple truths. I love that. It was Fabulous!

4. Monday was Nana's birthday. Nate, Steve, the kids and I, went to her grave to say Happy Birthday. It was a little awkward because the ground was still lumpy, the grass hasn't grown back at all (obviously, winter), and there was no headstone- it should be there in a month. It was still nice though. It's weird because I feel like I've stopped feeling her around. There were a few months there where I could feel her presence a lot. Like when I was rocking Noah or Erika in her chair, and when I would sing to them..... I don't know why, but I felt like she was there a lot. I haven't felt that as much lately. Kinda makes me think she's done with helping me mourn and she's moved on to the next station. I don't know if that's how it works or anything, but that's just how I feel. I miss her. I hope she's doing well though, and I hope she had a nice birthday.

5. On Tuesday I got an amazing deal on some clothes for Erika. I wasn't even really trying, just checking out the clearance rack at Kohls. But I ended up with $51 worth of clothing for only $11! I had a little help from an accident the clerk made using a $10 off coupon too soon, but she decided to let me have it anyway! I lucked out, and Erika has some more cute clothes now :)

6.We had a "freakin' blasty blast" (steve's words) at Steve's 22nd birthday. I made my Oreo Cake again. He loved it :) I think he had a nice day. Glad everyone could spoil him and give him the attention he wanted :)

7. Thursday Nate got the go ahead to start looking for a new facility to work at. We will soon be moving out of state. Kinda crazy, but feels fabulous just because we know now. And it will be an adventure just like everything else we've had to do with this career :).... any guesses as to where we will end up?