Hipster Sunday School

Hellooooo!  It is Janis' birthday today so sing her a little song in your heart.  I was released from the Primary Presidency a couple of weeks ago and now I'm going to be Charles' Sunday School teacher!  I am a little nervous, but excited, too.  Matthew is now the executive sec. again  and he told me that they called me because I'm so hip and cool and they just want the kids to have fun in that class.  Then the other kids told Charles that they all think I'm really nice.  Those were compliments that made me feel good, but made Charles and Lucy laugh so hard!!!  Charles told them to not make me mad and Lucy told me that if thinking I was cool helped me sleep at night then I could go on believing that. 

I have been walking at the mall with Clare since it has gotten so cold and then I sometimes find myself at Old Navy when it opens... so I went in today and there was Trent Windsor working there!  He was very friendly and  is leaving for Mesa, AZ on Dec. 18.  Ben Bakaitis is in that same mission. 

Tornado!

We've had a crazy few days around here.  There was a tornado  here yesterday and it was hitting town around noon so they cancelled church.  Ibby yelled, "Pajama church!" and you wouldn't believe how quickly everyone had stripped off their Sunday clothes!  Phin had learned all about tornadoes from school so he was really scared and talking about how green the sky was and how we should all huddle down in the basement with our heads down.  We did go down there, but then had to look out the kitchen windows because it was so amazing!  Golf ball sized hail, wind whipping, tree branches flying around, tornado sirens going off... But by 1:00 it was an absolutely gorgeous, clear, and sunny day.  We could've gone to church, but Bro. Dibble said you can't really put the toothpaste back in the tube, right?  The eeriest thing was that it had climbed to about 72˚ when the sky was all green.  I guess the warm air and cold air hitting each other is what causes tornadoes and why they normally hit in the spring.  It is very strange November weather.  Anyhow, for the most part we were fine here in Bloomington, but in Washington the tornado hit the grounds and cut through a 1/4 mile swath of about 70 homes -- they were completely leveled!  It is so sad!  All the church member are fine and hopefully we can find ways to help in the upcoming days.

I gave a talk in church last week about the hand of God in our lives.  I recounted the story that Ella told us about going to that one family's house.

Wicked

Well, since we went to Wicked today -- I guess my second post will be that!  I feel so fortunate that we live close enough to a big city to attend the occasional Broadway musical.  There is something about live theater that just fills me up!  I wake up singing, "Dancing through life!"  and waltz around the house, "I think I'll try defying gravity!"  And I love visiting Chicago.  The tickets were bought several months ago, and I originally intended for Matthew to take Charles and the girls since I had already seen it a few years ago with Ella.  Unfortunately, the date happened to coincide with Charles' cross country sectionals meet so he couldn't go.  Also, that left us with no babysitter, but my lovely friend Clare was kind enough to watch the boys -- for over 11 hours!!!  Charles kept saying all week, "I can't believe you're missing the last race of my high school career!"  I hoped that he was wrong since he had very good chances of making state this year, but then a team that was supposed to make it didn't (seven runners not associated with a team can go to state -- we knew BHS wasn't going to make it -- but this other team had three runners faster than Charles, which he wasn't counting on) which put Charles in 10th place for those spots.  He did get a PR of 15:47 which is just amazing to me for a three mile time!  Long story long -- we did, in fact, miss the last race of his HS career -- fail!  But we saw Wicked!

I always love the randomly placed art in big cities -- it sparks the imagination!

And this stand held the MOST adorable little puppet show  -- great music and dancing starring a fawn puppy and a black cat!

 

my baby

I've decided to start my thankful month with my sweet baby.  Archie is turning into such a character!  He makes me laugh -- and grind my teeth in frustration, but for the most part he is really a joy.  He is very good when I take him places and people are always commenting on how well behaved he is. And he talks very well.  Of course, I can't remember anything clearly, but I am pretty sure that he talks better than the other boys at his same age.  For a while he was saying, "yeah" to everything, but then he shifted to saying, "yesssssss" strong emphasis on the s, and now he says, "uh-HUH" all day long.  Should we go eat breakfast?  Uh huh!  And the not so cute is me saying, "Stop hitting me," and him yelling back, "I want hitting me!"  He asks me to "Hold you" whenever I walk down the stairs and his favorite show is Daniel Tiger's neighborhood.  He'll walk over to me, touch my shoulder, put his little head to the side and say, "Tiger, pwease?"  How can I resist? 

He is still nursing once or twice a day so I'm enjoying our snuggles, without it being too much and resenting him.  He also still likes to climb on my back and relax back there while I do things around the house.

 He insists on saying pretty much every family prayer and we all have to use steely control to not completely erupt in irreverent laughter.  He loves everyone in our family so much and likes to yell goodbye to the whole list every time we drive away from the house.  They all think he's pretty great, too.