Visits

Marley and her best buddy Graham had a joyful reunion yesterday after a week of not seeing each other.  I imposed a quarantine after a suspected exposure to stomach flu.  My Aunt, Uncle and grandmother are coming to visit today and, for reasons I won't go into, I'm a bit of a freak about getting grandparents sick.

Needless to say, she was happy to see him:).

Our honored guests are coming to town to hear Eric Jr. sing in the annual spring concert of the Atlanta Boy Choir tonight.  He's been rehearsing his heart out in preparation, and it's sure to be a beautiful performance, as always.

We've been doing lots of scrubbing, grocery shopping and happy anticipating.  In between, we've made visitis to the ER, urgent care and the pediatrician...mountain biking accident, broken finger, ruptured eardrum.  Word to the wise: when playing kickball, don't use a twiggy bush for first base- your ear will thank you!

After our family visit, we get to be stop number one for our very dear friends Cindy and her kids, on their long trip to Oregon.  Cindy pretty much saved my sanity when we made our departure from Durham, so I'm going to relish the opportunity to be on the giving end this time.

Happy weekend:).

Good news and bad news

The good news- the boys are now able to do their own laundry, from start to finish.

The bad news- this is a list of what I found in the dryer the other day:

1 ziploc bag

1 ball of tin foil

3 paperclips

1 jolly rancher wrapper

1 clementine peel

1 bottled water cap

foil from 1 chocolate coin

1 rusty nail

5 rocks

1 broken rubber band

1 stick

The good news- clearly, they're not littering.

Tune my heart

I had grand plans to print bingo sheets and set out bowls of healthy treats to keep my kids engaged during General Conference this weekend.  It's one of those things I'm never sure about, having not grown up in the church- do you force them to sit and watch?  All four sessions?  Are bribes okay?

I went with a yes to all three, and since I never did find the time to prep anything, I made the rash promise during the opening hymn on Saturday morning of a candy bar for each full session watched.  (By 'watched' I mean, they stayed in the room the whole time- I'm not one to set the bar too high.)  Brigham's response to my offer was a shrewd, "king-size?"

Sure, why not.

You know what?  It worked like a charm.  They mostly rolled around on the floor and stared at the ceiling, but every now and again something caught their attention, and I call that success.  One thing that caught everyone's attention was the mention of our Stake President as a newly-called area authority seventy, which prompted Eric to text our Bishop and suggest that he start growing a beard.  Our Stake President is AMAZING- we'll miss him.  We also got excited to hear Elder Halleck speak, since he was the general authority who interviewed Eric during the BYU recruitment process.

I always enjoy pulling out my journal because the boys are so impressed by my ability to write in small, straight lines on blank paper.  Hey, I'll take it.  Marley's learning to write her letters, so I designated a half-page for her to "take notes".  Other than changing her clothes several times, she mostly cavorted with her friend/soul-mate, Graham.  Or Grammie, as she calls him, which never fails to make me laugh since that's what she calls Eric's mom.  Tracy, my friend/soul-mate and Graham's mother, said he has one friend who just calls him Grandma.  Love it.

I'm off to "re-listen" to President Monson's talk, as I may have dozed a bit during the Sunday morning session.  But I definitely woke up for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's incredible rendition of Come Thou Fount.

I'm always sad when conference weekend is over, but happy to have inspiration and instruction to last another six months.