General Conference, Tilly's first prayer, etc.

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Sunday, October 6, 2013

3:11 pm

It’s General Conference weekend and the last session of conference just ended.  It was wonderful.  I took lots of notes so I could do the “mystery bag” with my kids and my nieces and nephews who will be coming over tonight for dinner and visiting.  The “mystery bag” is a conference game I invented to help the kids pay attention and listen to conference.  The bag is filled with candy, money and prizes and each kid has a chance to answer a question correctly and pick something out of the mystery bag.  They can’t see what’s in the bag and can only pick one item.  I try not to tell them what is in the bag either.  I loved General Conference so much.  I especially like Elder Bednar’s talk on tithing, Elder Holland’s talk about mental illness, and Elder Scott’s talk about the atonement -- especially the part that where he said that weaknesses are different than rebellion and are viewed with mercy.

Conference Craziness!  This was actually taken right after a conference session ended, but the craziness level was still pretty high while conference was going. 

Chad's eyes kept glazing over as he fought to stay awake during the last session of conference.  It was making me laugh so I had to sneak a picture.

 Monday this week I went shopping to get Karalee some new dresses.  She’s gotten too tall for most of her other dresses and needed some new ones for church.  I got her two nice dresses at Goodwill, then stopped at Krispy Kreme donuts to get the kids free donuts for the good grades (They give up to six free donuts for every A on each kid’s report card.), then stopped at VF factory outlet and got her another dress, me two pair of cute pants for only $9 each, and the boys some new pants too.  I haven’t been to VF for a long time.  I’d forgotten what great deals you can find there.

Tuesday Marlee passed off the scripture of the month.  I am so proud of her.  She worked so hard.  I videoed it and you can see it HERE.  Now I just need to get Spencer to finish memorizing it.  He’s really close.  Late Tuesday morning and into the afternoon I scalped our lawn to prepare for reseeding our winter grass.  It wasn’t nearly as hard this year as it was last year because our summer grass didn’t get very thick this year.  Later that afternoon I made a large pumpkin sheet cake because Chad had the teachers come to our house to do indexing for their young men’s activity.  

Chad was still working from home when Marlee finished memorizing her scripture so she got to go say it for Daddy too.

Wednesday morning Tilly said her first blessing on the food!  She talks really well and we’ve been trying to get her to say a pray for a while but she would just look at us and smile, but wouldn’t say a word.  Wednesday she finally repeated what we said and said a prayer.  So cute.  That morning I was able to go to the temple while the kids went to Grammy days.  I didn’t have time to do a session before I had to go pick the kids back up, so I did sealing’s.  I noticed some new things in the sealing of couples that I hadn’t noticed before.  Last time I did sealings, the sealer pointed out that in the beginning of a couple sealing the word you is singular, towards the end of the ordinance prayer it is a plural.  On Wednesday I noticed that both men and women individually promise to live all the laws, rites, ordinances of marriage.  The word rites really stuck out to me and I’ve thought a lot about what the rites of marriage are and that I’ve made a promise to live them.  Marriage has been on my mind a lot this week.   

Thursday I had planned to take Karalee out of school for lunch.  That morning Karalee said, “Mom can you wear your nice clothes when you come pick me up?”  So hilarious, she was worried I was going to come in my pajamas/workout clothes.  However, we never got to go on our date.  As I was getting ready to go pick up her up from school I got a call from the school nurse letting me know that Karalee was in her office and that her side started was hurting really badly.  I got there to pick her up and she dramatically got in the car and came home and lay on the couch.  A little while later after convincing her that she probably needed to go to the bathroom she felt fine and was running around playing.  I didn’t take her back to school though.  I think she just had a lot of gas, but she’s quite dramatic and on the ride home you would have thought she was dying.  I need to get her into acting!!  Bryant stayed afterschool on Thursday for his first student council meeting.  He’s really excited that he was voted in as his class representative and that he got to explain to his class and a third grade class all about the “boo grams” that they sell at the school around Halloween time.  He was a little nervous to go in front of the class, but he did it and did well.  Thursday afternoon my niece Kari’s son Trigger, who is just younger than Marlee, called and passed off the scripture of the month.  I need to send him his prize.  Kari will you send me your address?  Great job Trigger!!!

Poor, sick Karalee

 Friday night Spencer had a soccer game at 6:30.  Chad and I went out to eat at Hong Kong Kitchen on Higley and Chandler Heights after the game.  It was SO good.  We ate there a few years ago and didn’t like it that well.  I think we ordered something different this time and really like it now.  It’s amazing what can happen give it another chance, change your actions and order something different. 

Spencer just came in and passed off the scripture of the month. Good job Spencer!      

Yesterday Bryant’s soccer game was during conference so he opted to follow our stake president’s counsel and stay home to watch conference instead of going to his game.  I did give him the choice.  Karalee’s game was scheduled at the perfect time, 11:30, right in between conference sessions so she played in her game.  The teams were pretty evenly matched and the game was scoreless.  Yesterday after the second session, Spencer and I got our winter garden planted.  Spencer helped me so he could pass off some of the garden merit badge requirements.  Chad and I met with a man in our ward about maybe building a sport court in our back yard.  We’re not sure if we’ll build one for sure, we have to see how expensive it’s going to be before we make our final decision.

This evening the members of my side of the family who are in town, are coming over for dinner, dessert, and visiting.  I’m excited to meet Celeste and Jeff’s foreign exchange student Tiago.  Tiago is from Brazil.  Jeff served his mission in there and Jeff and Celeste’s daughter Shelby is currently serving a mission in Brazil so it’s been extra fun for them to have a Brazilian in their home. 

This week is fall break and I’m looking forward to having the kids’ home and to our Rocky Point vacation.  After reading my letter last week Chad informed me that he didn’t take the whole week off, only the days we’ll be gone on our trip.  Bummer.

Lately I’ve noticed that I’m learning to enjoy the moments when my kids come and ask me to play a game or help them do something.  Marlee and I had a fun tea party with my nice dishes the other morning, even before all her chores and all my chores were done.  I’m trying to find a balance between teaching the kids to work, and also giving them a break every once in awhile and teaching them to have fun too.  I’ve also noticed that I’m not quite so upset when they make a spill or create a mess.  I’m defiantly not perfect about doing those things, but I am making progress, which is such a blessing.  I wish I had enjoyed more of those moments with my older kids when they were little though.  But I’m not dwelling on the past, just trying to live better from here on out.    

Spencer cracks me up.  Not sure what prompted Spencer to put his sweaty shin guards on his head, but it made for a funny picture.

 My quote for today is the poem that Spencer chose to memorize this semester.

YOU MUSTN'T QUIT

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest! if you must -- but never quit.

Life is queer, with is twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about
When he might have won if he'd stuck it out;

Stick to your task, though the pace seems slow--

You may succeed with one more blow.

Success is failure turned inside out--

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt--

And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--

It's when things seem worst that YOU MUSTN'T QUIT.

Love,

Mindy

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8:56 pm

P.S. We just finished with the family get together.  We had a fun visit.  The kids loved the “mystery bag” conference game.  And it was very nice to meet Tiago, he's kind of quiet, but it's probable a huge culture shock for him to come to a Flake family gathering.  However, Celeste just texted me and Louis and Keesa, and Ray got in a wreck on the 60 Freeway on their way home.  They are all ok, but they’re going to be sore.  Celeste lives pretty close to them so she’s picking them up.