Journaling

- I got to take Charity's activity day girls to their Stake temple outing on Monday.  We had the privilege of listening to the former Salt Lake Temple Matron speak about the temple.  It was such a neat experience!  She said so many things that I hope Charity will remember.  She talked about an experience she had as a little girl up at the Logan temple.  She and her cousin huddled down behind a bush, in the only spot possible, to touch the temple!  She made a promise at that time that she would return to the temple and be worthy to receive the blessings therein.  And that she did!  We took a picture of all the girls touching the Salt Lake Temple.  After the little talk we walked over to the South Visitors Center and took a look at all the things in there.  The replica of the temple is so fascinating!  I think that was really neat for the activity day girls to see.  I really enjoyed the whole time with Charity.  We had a little picnic lunch on the lawn next to the temple.  And then it was time to go home.  I sure hope those girls were able to absorb some of what was given to them.  What a neat experience and great way to help prepare these girls for the temple!  Charity is looking forward to going the day AFTER her birthday. (We found out that girls are lucky because they can go to the temple ON their birthday unlike boys who have to wait until they are ordained deacons, but Charity realized her 12th birthday will be on a Sunday, so she will have to wait until the next day :(.... I think she'll be okay with it then though :))  6-4-12

- Tonight was Lukey's date with Mommy.  We had such a good time!  We didn't have a lot of time, because I was leaving everyone in Charity's watchful care.  So we decided to just go out for ice cream, which I considered "settling", but the way Luke kept saying, "This is the best date EVER!" the whole time, I think he felt otherwise :).  That's the great thing about my kids.  They are USUALLY pretty easy to please.  He chose Dairy Queen and we both got a yummy sundae.  He was even more thrilled when I told him we needed to go pick up some laundry detergent on our way home, because then he could pick out a treat :).  That just made his night apparently.  He was fun to talk to.  He told me all about his mean substitute again and his concerns about ending up with a "horrible teacher" next year.  Can you believe the substitute actually told his class that she had "taught classes that were better!"  That's just mean.  And it totally hurt Luke's feelings.  I think the funniest part of our date was when Luke said, "Sour Punch, Sour Punch, Sour Punch, Sour Punch...." over and over again, all the way home :).  I kept trying to distract him, but he had picked out some Sour Punch Straws and that's what he had wanted to do :).  It made me realize that he really does live in the moment.  He's not worried about how much he gets out of that date, or how much talking we do, or how much bonding we get.  He's just doing what he wants to do.  I thought it was worth it to just let him.  I joined in after a while, but he stopped just long enough to tell me to stop :).  So I did.  It was hilarious.  Ya never know what you're going to get with these dates.  I'm glad he had a good time though.  That means a lot to me to be able to spend good quality time with my kids.  I know they don't get as much as some kids.  So hopefully it's enough and good enough quality to make up for that.  6-6-12

- Nate and I finally got to go to the temple again!!!  Sure felt good.  It's really been WAY too long.  It's crazy how hard it is to get there nowdays, and crazy to think that there was once a time (eleven years ago) that we were able to go on a weekly basis.  I miss that.  Now that the kids are getting older, I think it's a little more realistic to think about doing it on a more regular basis again.  It was nice that we could leave Charity in charge and enjoy the time there.  It was much needed.  Hopefully there is more of that in our near future. 6-7-12

- Saturday night was my Mom's birthday party.  The kids had a lot of fun running around the church field with the dog and holding the kitty.  There weren't any toys there so we brought our own entertainment :).  Afterwards, Nate and I got the kids in bed and headed out for a late movie.  We saw What to Expect When You're Expecting.  I personally LOVED it!  There was some offensive language, but there was just so much I could relate to right now, it was kinda nice to watch it all.  I thought they could have had even more to make it more accurate, but it was good.  6-9-12