Wow! I had a wonderful 2 days of “filling my bucket” at Women’s Conference. Although there was no class on dandelions, I attended some fabulous classes taught by really neat people. There were so many fantastic topics it was hard to choose just one class to attend some hours. The theme of the conference was taken from Esther 4:14 “For such a time as this”, and there was a lot said about how this is our time. We have been brought to the Kingdom for such a time as this to do things that only we can do in our situation. Very inspiring! I heard talks about raising small children, the power of prayer and creating a masterpiece of my life. We heard from Bradley Wilcox and Wendy Watson Nelson, also Jeffrey and Patricia Holland. And one talk called “Are we enough? Of course we are!” It was truly a wonderful experience.

One of my favorite sessions was Friday morning’s general session, where they had a wonderful show of speaking, dance and song called “Arms around my sister.” It is described in the booklet as “In an original musical presentation commissioned for this year’s Women’s Conference, we look inside the hearts of women from Old Testament times, early nineteenth century, and our present day. Each addresses the timeless question: Was I sent to the kingdom for such a time as this?” It was so well done and very touching.
The weather could have been more cooperative, as we had very cold temperatures and lots of rain to make our trek around BYU campus a little bit less comfortable than it normally would be. I took advantage of the learning service rooms to do little projects for charity while I listened. I made 3 Christmas stockings and blanket stitched one and a half baby blankets.   
Robin and I had a great time! Each day we came home exhausted but happy. We were glad we had taken our umbrellas, that’s for sure.    
This morning, we braved the cold (it’s REALLY cold for her, since she’s up here from Arizona) and went garage saling, but we only found about 5 garage sales and didn’t buy all that much. At one, however, we both picked up jackets and put them on and wore them for the rest of the time. Luckily, that was a really cheap garage sale, with a grocery bag full of clothes only setting you back $2. We decided to bag the bargain hunting and go and get pedicures. And on the way home, it was actually snowing. Who knows if we’ll be able to wear sandals tomorrow and show off our toes if it’s this cold.

I’m so glad that Ryan held down the fort so I could attend the Women’s conference, and if you haven’t ever gone, you should try to go next year. It’s really worth the time and effort it takes to go.  (And here’s a picture of Whitney Hall.  Anyone else remember that place?)  

AT 5 minutes for Mom, you can enter to win a Mother’s day IPod. Well, who wouldn’t like that? I ask you.

Speaking of Mother’s day, they just had some Mother’s day ad on the radio, and I casually mentioned to my kids, “Mother’s day is in a week and a half. Buy your presents early!” And their responses were:

“Presents for Grandpa,” that was John. It was recently Grandpa’s birthday, and we gave him a really cool blow up skee-ball game. I’m guessing John was very impressed by that giftl

“I don’t have to buy a present, I’ll make one,” from my little craft/recycle girl, Jenna, who, on Cole’s birthday, gave him one of her stuffed animals that she was tired of.

And Cole and Natalie got into a conversation about how it’s unfair that Mothers and Fathers have a special day and there is no “Kid’s Day”. I must have let some snide comment slip out about how maybe they would be happier to not have a mother, and they picked up on that and debated about how long Mom will live and that when I’m gone they won’t have to buy me presents anymore. Although, really, they don’t buy me presents now, so I guess the only difference would be that they would actually have to WORK.

Oh yes, the joy that is Mother’s day. Bring it on.

I actually will be teaching the lesson in Relief Society on Mother’s day, and the RS president mentioned to me that we might be having all the moms come in to enjoy the lesson, so that the only one who would have to be working would be….well, me. But I don’t think that would work. What with staffing the primary and all, and isn’t that when the kids make all those sweet card that hopefully contain chocolate? So, I get to teach a lesson on SERVICE to the Queens of service–the Moms. I’m trying to brainstorm and think of a way to make it really fun, like my last lesson, but without it being so much work. And prizes. I need some cool prizes. Any ideas?

Oh, and speaking of cool moms (were we speaking of cool mom? hmmmm), I’m picking up my good friend Robin tonight, and tomorrow and Friday we are going to Women’s conference at BYU. My kids are so excited to have Robin come (although they are sad that her kids are not coming with her), and Cole has even cleaned his room and is prepared to sleep in the basement. When we were talking about having Robin come, one of the girls said, “That means Robin will clean out our pantry and we get to go to the Spaghetti factory for dinner!” I don’t think she’ll have time to clean our pantry–that’s an all day affair–but we’ll try to work in a trip to the Spaghetti factory.

I haven’t studied the list of classes yet, but I’m really hoping that there’s one on How to deal kindly with your teenager even when he forgets to hand in his assigments and you receive a deficiency notice in the mail or Potty training without the yelling, and no guilt. I could also use one on Just because you have dandelions in your grass that does not make you white trash, or the one on Making dinner when you really don’t feel like it—ever. And I was looking for the class titled How to appreciate your husband for the things he does, and not just grumbling silently when you look at his large pile of unfolded laundry, but I didn’t see that one in the schedule, either. But I’m sure I will find many classes that will deal with just the things I need to hear so that I can be a more patient and loving mother and wife. And I really appreciate that Ryan is going to work from home those two days so I don’t have to find and arrange for child care for my little ones. Hopefully we’ll have nice weather, be uplifted and have a great experience. And if you are there, too, and happen to see someone that looks like me but her name tag says “Jess”, say hi anyway.

Overwhelmed with Joy is doing a book giveaway. If you are interested, go and check it out.

And I have to just mention that I did something for the very first time tonight.  I voted for an American Idol.  Yep.  I had to vote for my favorite idol, miss Melinda.  She’s awesome!  So, yes, I took that first step and voted.  I feel so American now.

Yesterday I spent the day digging.  This should have been the soundtrack of my life yesterday.  You remember when they are on the chain gang?  Yep, that was me.  Digging in the garden.  My sister will be proud of me, since she’s already caught the gardening bug.  I had to dig trenches for watering in our HUGE garden plot.  I also planted a flat of petunias and some snapdragons. Then I went and bought some little plants and seeds, and last night for Family Home Evening we planted our garden.  So, out there we have:

two nice sized rhubarb plants (Thanks, Dad E.) that we actually picked enough for at least one pie last night,

3 little cabbage plants,

12 tiny tomato plants,

9 very small zuccini plants,

and 6 little lettuce plants.

We also planted (from seeds) corn (wishful thinking, I know), carrots, little pumpkins, big pumkins, butternut squash and watermellons. I  have some chives, chamomile and peppermint to plant, too, but ran out of room so they may have to go in a pot.
I know from past failures that the planting is just the beginning and that I have to actually water and weed the darn garden all summer long, but I have a good attitude this year.  I think I can do it.  I have no babies, no toddlers, no long vacations scheduled (sad, I know), so really, there’s no excuse other than laziness to keep us from actually keeping the garden alive.

But Boy am I sore!  I sunburned the back of my arms and my neck, and my back and arms are sore from all that digging!  I do NOT want to be a farmer.

I’ve spent my morning listening to an interview with Donny Osmond on Kosy. They’ve been playing songs from his new album, which I think I need to get ASAP! But now it’s time to get my kids (and me) dressed and get on with our morning.

****

updated to add–still not dressed, but I did order that CD, and they also mentioned that Mr. Osmond will be in concert in August at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City.  Who’s going with me?

Saturday, as I was cleaning the bird cage and scraping and cleaning the bird poop off the floor (Ick!!!), there was a weird buzzing noise.  I called Ryan in and asked him if he knew what that noise was.  We walked around listening to electronics, thought it was the fridge for a while, but then he turned that off and the noise kept on going.  He even went so far as to turn off all the breakers, while I, armed with a walkie talkie, told him if the noise was still there.  He turned them all off, and the noise kept on.  We could NOT figure out what it was.  Finally, he said, “Where’s your phone?”  “In my purse,” I said.  Well, it wasn’t in my purse, so he called it with the home phone.  Once the cell phone rang, the strange noise stopped.  Seems the phone (in my garage sale bag, NOT my purse) had something sitting on it, pushing one of the buttons, thus making that annoying sound.  It was sitting right there on the chair ringing at me the whole time.  And yes, it took a man to figure that out.

Thursday was Jenna’s Kindergarten Class Pet day. All the kids were invited to have their parents bring their pet. Sound like a great idea? Right. Since we don’t have dogs or cats, we’ve always brought a bird. We just put one of the birds into the small travel cage and take them in that. It’s worked pretty well in the past (this is the 3rd time we’ve had this Kindergarten teacher–we really love her). Well, this time, when I asked Jenna who she wanted to bring for pet day, she thought for a moment and said, “Rachel!” For those of you who might have forgotten (or just didn’t know), Rachel is Cole’s turtle. Ok, I thought, I can bring the turtle.

Talk about an easy pet to take! when I got to the kindergarten playground, there were all kinds of parents there with all kind of pets. Some of them were wrestling big dogs on leashes, some had large pet carriers with angry cats in them, and some even had chickens in a big cage. There were fish in bowls, and one mom with a big lizard that she had wrapped up in a towel to keep him warm. And me? I’m carrying the little turtle in a designer turtle carrying bag that I picked out just for the occasion!        
The turtle is the perfect pet for pet day! She doesn’t bite, doesn’t climb out of her carrying bag, doesn’t run away, Jenna could hold her and show the other kids, and she was the only turtle there. She doesn’t need a leash, doesn’t throw up in the car (my dog growing up always threw up whenever we took him in the car. Did your dogs do that?), and doesn’t bother the other pets waiting at pet day.

By the time we were done, she was a little antsy and trying to climb her way out of Jenna’s arms, but not in a scratchy violent way like cats do. And on my way home I had to stop by the copy store and make some copies for Cole’s school project, and I just left that little turtle in the car!

So, yes, Rachel was the PERFECT pet for Kindergarten pet day. And I’m sure Cole would let you borrow her for your child’s pet day as long as you promised to feed her some blackberries.

I know you want to hear about my latest bargain, don’t you? Well, if you don’t and the thought of hearing another of my bargain shopping stories puts you to sleep (it’s ok, Ryan, we both know I’m talking about you), just click somewhere else right now.

I had two hours of mad errand running while John was at his playgroup, and I went to Orem to go get my car cleaned at Supersonic (hooray! Now I can stand to drive it again!), then to Costco to exchange a shirt and get some more petunias. I had a coupon for Bath and Body Works and one for the Children’s place, which are close to each other in the mall, so I made a dash for it. After picking up a few nice smellies at Bath and Body Works, I dashed to the Children’s place, looking for pants for John. Hooray! I found a pair of navy church pants on the clearance rack for $4.99. Even though my girls don’t need any clothes, I went to the girls’ side and just looked through the clearance racks. I pulled out this dress.
It was the only dress on the rack, and I said to the sales lady, “this isn’t really supposed to be here in the clearance, is it?” “Oh, yes, it’s a return,” she said. So that dress was $4.99. The price tag says $34.50 Score!. I hope it fits Natalie, but if it doesn’t, I’ll just save it for Jenna. I also got a darling sweater that could go over it (also $4.99), 3 little jean jackets that if the girls don’t LOVE them, I will save for birthday gifts for their friends. Oh, and some flip flops for Cole and Jenna. Then I had a 15% off coupon, so my order total was $31 or something like that. Give me a Woo-Hoo!

The sales lady handed me back the coupon, too, just in case I want to do any more shopping. No, thanks. I’m in a hurry to get out of here before I see any more cute things on clearance that I just have to buy. I handed the coupon to the lady behind me in line, so she can also get 15% off (good Karma, you know), but she didn’t really have an arm load or anything, just a few packages of socks. But she said thanks.

I’ve also been sewing (shock, I know!) and I’ll let you know how that turns out soon. Hopefully I’ll be finished tomorrow and can post a picture or two.

So, Ryan, it’s ok for you to tune back in now, if you haven’t left the room completely. I’m done talking about bargains.