Dean's first talk

Dean gave his first talk in Primary today. The Primary President told me they were speculating whether or not the new sunbeams (3-4 year olds) were ready to start giving talks, and she said, "we knew that Dean would probably be just fine."  That boy has an opinion and loves to share it with people. He loves speaking in front of an audience. He loves participating. He loves being the center of attention. He's born his testimony twice in front of our whole church congregation already, and begs to speak at the microphone.  When we were practicing this morning at home, I was whispering the words to him, and he would whisper what I said. I told him if he whispered during his talk at church, no one would be able to hear him, and they might not ask him to give another talk. It worked! He said his whole talk in a very loud voice. =)

It was so cute.I was very proud of him.

When I was writing it, I tried to ask him questions about the topic, and some of his answers were incorporated into the talk.

Here is what he said: We are spirit children of Heavenly Father. He wants us to live with him again one day. Heavenly Father helps us through a living Prophet. President Monson is the Prophet of God today. We can listen to the Prophet during conference, but we need to be quiet and listen so we can hear Heavenly Father’s important message. If we follow the Prophet and make good choices, we can live with Heavenly Father and Jesus again.

Letters I and J and a new calling

Well, it was my turn to teach in preschool this week. I had the letter I and the letter J. (Click the links for the full reports on what we did.) Tuesday went pretty well. Today was not the greatest. I don't feel quite so badly about it now, after the fact, but I felt pretty horrible during and immediately following. Nothing I planned seemed to pan out quite like I'd hoped, and I just felt inadequate in the classroom management dept. I have a couple good friends who are real preschool teachers (you know, with training and stuff) whom I'm going to observe next week. Hopefully I can learn a few skills. It should be helpful in my new calling at church, as well, since I was just called as the sr. nursery leader. (working with kids 2-3 yrs. old for 2 hours of church)

Any veteran nursery leaders or workers with ideas that have worked well for you? Our nursery is in serious need of revamping our schedule so we have more structure. I'm just not 100% positive about how to go about it. All I know is that I don't want 45 min. of free play with kids 18 mo.-3 yrs. all trying to play with the same toys!!!! I've already gotten some good ideas from my friend Cassie that I hope to implement soon, but I would love any and all suggestions.

Spirit of Elijah

We just got home from a date night to the temple. I think it's the first time I've been to the temple since having Walt. So, it was the first time in about 9 months!

While my parents were here they showed me how to use the new.familysearch.org. It is sooooo much easier and cooler than the old program, and it's pretty awesome that you can get names temple ready and printed out from home. So, I updated some family info. from the PAF my in-laws gave me 2 years ago and I got about 8 names that we could take to the temple.

So, we did baptisms tonight for those family names and it was very refreshing. Neither of us has done baptisms since we were in high school (I guess I probably did some my freshman year of college. Yes. I must have. But I received my endowments when I was 19, so it would have only been that first year for baptisms.) A member of the Temple Presidency gave a little talk before hand (we slid in right before a single's branch) and that was nice.

We set a goal to go once a month now that Walt's big enough to leave, and I really want to do family names every time if at all possible. It's exciting. One of the names we had tonight was Walter Carrington, the great, great, great grandpa that shares our Walter's name.

Messiah Performance

I'm so excited to participate in this again this year. It's the Sunday before Easter (so next Sunday!!). If you're in the area please come! It is only an hour, free, and a wonderful way to remember Christ at Easter.

Ode to Anne (with an "e")

Well, I've never read the whole Anne of Green Gables series, so I thought it was about time. I read the first two books and went back to the library to check out the third. To my dismay that they do not have the third book!!! Ack! So, if anyone in my area has the series and would let me borrow them, I'd appreciate it.

I also wanted to say that I now think of "kindred spirits" all the time and how grateful I am for them. It's always fun to find an unexpected kindred spirit. I love being able to attend Relief Society and enrichment activities because it offers the opportunity to find friends you'd never have come in contact with otherwise. (We had a really fun enrichment and I got to know some sisters I didn't really know.)

So, thank you Anne for reminding me how great people are.

Delay

Well, sorry for the delay in programming. I have things to write about, I've just been a bit busy. Matt and I were asked to speak in church this Sunday, and I'm having a difficult time narrowing down a topic. It's pretty open ended. Impressions from conference, prophet, conversion, etc.

I've also been working a lot on my page in a bag for April. Pretty close to finished.

Now that he can roll over, we've been working on Dean's new trick. Sitting. He's definitely getting stronger and learning to sit better. At least he can stay up for a few seconds on his own before he face plants.

Mana from Heaven

You know, I think the LDS church organization and community are quite amazing.

Before I had my baby I had our compassionate service coordinator (a person in charge of coordinating service for people in need) send an email to the ward asking if anyone had a swing we could borrow for awhile (to see if Dean was a swinger). We didn't want to throw down a lot of money on an item that he may or may not like and will grow out of fairly quickly. I had people (some I didn't even know) email me, more than willing to lend me their $140 Papasan swing! AMAZING.

And then there's the meal thing. When people are sick, moving, having babies, etc. other people sign up to bring meals to them. These people generally aren't relatives, nor are they always close/best friends (though sometimes they are). However, we feel we need to look after each other (even if we are just acquaintances) because we're a part of the same ward family. It's such a blessing since many of us don't have relatives close by. It makes me feel watched over and cared for.

Matt felt a little bad that people were bringing us meals the few days just after my parents left since I was recovering fairly well and he's an able bodied soul. I know we could have made it on our own, but it was quite a blessing to have one less thing to worry about for a few days at least. I figure sometimes we give and sometimes we receive.

When we got home from the store today we had a message on our machine saying someone was bringing us food tonight. We hadn't expected it, but it was much appreciated! Ribs, salad, rolls, and a DELICIOUS pumpkin dessert. Like mana from heaven. A very nice surprise. Not only that, they also brought gifts for Dean! HOW NICE!!

So thank you ward. Thanks for the great meals, service, pumpkin bread (thanks Emily!), gifts, friendship, and swing. I appreciate it and am in awe of your generosity.

Devil in the Details

I don't really know what the title of my post means, but it sounded appropriate as I'm trying to get the last little details squared away between today and 2 1/2 weeks before I'll consider induction.

• Quilt finished: check
• Bumper finished: check (ok, so not quite check, but it will be done tonight and I'll post pictures)
• Car seat purchased: check
• Hospital back packed: check
• Pack 'N Play with bassinet inset for our room: check (though I haven't set it up yet)
• Figure out where the Labor and Delivery section is in the hospital: check (just yesterday)
• Fridge cleaned: check
• Nursery cleaned: mostly...once I finish the bumper and get the pack n' play pieces out it'll be dandy
• Thank you cards made and sent out: check on the made. Need to get them out still.
  
• Squaring away my church calling: .....Ok. So that's where I'm feeling stuck.

I can't quite decide what I should do about this one. While being primary chorister has it's ups, and I've enjoyed it more than I originally thought, it seems like it would be a difficult calling with a newborn. It covers a 2 hour block, and though I have breaks here and there, it doesn't feel like much. I'm not planning on doing anything for my calling after my due date (October 23) until I get back from CA after Christmas (January 3) at the very least. That means 2 full months of having to find a sub if they don't release me. I don't think they're planning on releasing me unless I request it.

Should I email the Primary Pres. and see if they could call a permanent sub for those two months? And if I decided it would be too much after that, the permanent sub could then be called to the position permanently maybe? I really hate asking to be released from a calling for a couple of reasons. The last time I suggested my release from a calling (since I had 2 and many people in the ward didn't even have 1), I ended up getting released from both of my callings (one of which I LOVED) and was called to something I didn't particularly enjoy. Also, what if I'm supposed to be there for some reason I just don't see? Oi. I don't like this situation at all. Any thoughts?

Anyway, I'm getting close to being ready for this baby people. I have to say, I have not been so pregnant that I'm miserable, but with one week left, I am feeling quite pregnant indeed. Just in the last week my hands and feet have started to swell enough that I've noticed (my wedding ring doesn't quite slip on so easily as it used to). My feet are tired after exercising and running errands for half a day. And my belly feels very heavy. In the last 2 weeks I've outgrown pretty much all of the shirts I purchased for pregnancy, so I'm now wearing the shirts I got from my much taller sisters. They work, but they're just a little big for this 5'3" girl. Plus I like them a little more fitted, and that wasn't the style when they were pregnant. At least I have (free) clothes to wear. Can't complain too much I suppose.

On the up side, the weather is finally starting to cool off! This week we've at least been out of the 90's during the day, and nights and mornings have been cooler than 75* so we've been able to open our windows and let the air circulate. I've even been cool enough at night to stay in my bed rather than moving to the couch under the fan. I have been making weird sighing noises when I sleep though. Not quite sure why.

I had a check up yesterday. More effaced and "a good 1 cm" dilated. "Still quite posterior" but the baby is where he should be, and he still seems to be doing just fine in his cramped quarters. He hasn't dropped at all, I haven't had any sort of contractions I've been aware of, and I've really had no indication he's planning on making his debut any time soon.

I'm a tiny bit worried about the hospital I'm supposed to deliver at. I swear the L&D is always packed. Every time I've tried to go in for a tour, all the rooms are full. If the rooms are all full when I go into labor, I'll either be put in triage to wait for a room or, worst case, I'll have to go to a different hospital further away. We at least know where the other hospital is since Matt had his appendix removed there, but I really would like to avoid that if possible. They say the weekend is usually less busy, so maybe I'll shoot for that. Ha! Like I have a say when this baby's coming.

Ah well. It will all work out.