Dating, schmating

We had a very nice last week of Christmas break.  Except that Archie got sick on Christmas Eve.  He woke up in the night throwing up so we had to call off all of our plans.  We were going to go to the Clark's for a murder mystery dinner and then the kids were going to get together with all of their kids and the Johnson's kids, but I knew that none of them wanted to get sick so we were all quarantined at home.  Sure enough, a few days later Phin got it, too and the rest of just kind of stopped eating in defeat.  I don't know for sure if I got it, but Matthew told me that if I hadn't eaten for two whole days and never felt hungry, I probably had something.  True!  Overall, I just felt like it was completely unfair because we just had a stomach bug at Thanksgiving for heaven's sake!!!!  Once every two or three years is okay, but four weeks???  Anyways, then it was just really cold so we just stayed all snug in the house.  I loved it, actually!  Have a turned into a homebody?  We did puzzles, played games, and watched a lot of t.v.  When Charles came home from school last Wednesday he said, "Where's the t.v.?  I am having withdrawals!"  It is obviously a very addictive device, as you well know (smiley face, smiley face).

As I mentioned earlier, I'm teaching Charles' Sunday school class.  Sometimes I just feel like the lessons don't go well at all!  And I'm sure it is my guilt of not doing well at those things.  The new curriculum is also very difficult.  There are no manuals, just vague topics and you are supposed to teach by the spirit.  That is great in theory, but hard when the kids are either in lala land or talking up a storm.   So the lessons on sharing the gospel (I'm not good at that) and being a good teacher (I'm not good at that) didn't go so well, but this last week was about listening to the Holy Ghost and I love the Holy Ghost!  So the lesson went much better because I could use examples from my life where I felt promptings, or peace, or warnings, etc.  It is much easier to bear testimony of something that we're actually doing a little bit right.

Last night, Matthew and I were on a panel for Standards Night.  I was so nervous that I was going to get questions about rated R movies (ummm, sometimes?) modesty (it's subjective?) awkwardness (I don't want to talk about porn, thank you), but it turned out to be about relationships -- finding the right one, dating, having Christ in your relationship... I was sure relieved that we love each other or that would have been uncomfortable, right?  There were three other couples and it turned out well.  Matthew just said the most perfect things!  I am so glad that he's always tuned into the spirit and says things that just resonate, you know?  One other guy talked about how he dated so much!  And he was so popular!  And that's how he narrowed it down!  And they were talking about fun dating ideas, etc.  Then dad stood up and said that it was really okay if you don't date and it made everyone so happy.  Whew!  Another buggy things was that one of the women said that she had been told at BYU I that any two righteous people could be married and make it work.  Gag!  I understand where that is coming from:  don't be too picky, once you are married try to make it work, etc.  But really?  I don't think I could be married to someone who likes to go hunting for weeks on end, plays video games every night, watches football for hours every weekend, hates foreign films, never eats vegetables, loves watching Zombie movies, thinks I'm too liberal... But some women would be fine with that!  And that is great!  Some people and personalities just don't mesh well and you probably shouldn't marry them!  Not to mention that they should smell good to you.  It would just be gross to have sex with someone you aren't attracted to.  So there you have it.  You will be happy to hear that I didn't stand up and yell that to everyone.  I kept it bottled up inside -- until now.