Saturday, April 10, 2010

Yet another blog in which I catch up ... and talk of random things ...

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I did a REAL post.

Let's see ... where to begin?

Easter - We didn't really do a whole lot ON Easter. We'd already done pre-Easter egg hunts (with family and then one at a friend's birthday party). We talked about Jesus and the reasons why we celebrate the holiday. ... Gave the kids a DVD of The Princess and the Frog ... broke out some chocolate.

General Conference - For those of you not in-the-know about Conference, it's ... well, twice a year (first weekend in April and October) when the WHOLE church either watches or listens to (OR, if they're REALLY luck/able, GOES to Salt Lake City) our church leaders give addresses for the benefit of the entire church.

Personally? We watch it online (used to just listen to it online when we had dial-up. Unless we were at someone's house who has cable/satellite ... or we've gone to the church building [where they have satellite] to watch it) and try to keep the kids quiet enough so we can hear/concentrate on what is being said.

I think I'm getting better at listening. There were some really, really awesome/powerful talks. If you're at all interested/didn't get the chance to hear the talks, that link above will take you to the website where you can watch/listen/read any of the talks. If you can't wait until the May edition of the Ensign (or the Liahona ) comes out. (Those magazines are church publications. If you didn't already know.)

I still really miss hearing President Hinckley and Elder Maxwell ... and, oh, since we're able to watch it, I realize how much older our apostles are than I remember. ... Like Elder Packer. I don't know if he'll be around for October's conference. It always worries me a little when they have to stay seated to address us.

Still ... President Monson is 82 years old (and will be 83 before October's conference) ... and wow, he's so full of life and vigor. It makes me happy.

I'm very glad that we have a prophet on the earth, and living apostles. to guide us. It's reassuring and it makes me happy.

(Also, President Uchtdorf's talks were AMAZING. Of course, so were President Eyring's ... At this point, I don't know that I have a favorite apostle anymore. Everyone's talk at conference was SO. DANG. GOOD.)

This was the first year that I actually really checked Twitter during conference, using #ldsconf.
It was really great. I was able to write down some good quotes ... or leaders' names that I had missed. Technology has come so far ... and it amazes me. Especially when we're able to use it for such good things (like Family History and all ... SO GOOD).

Oh, and I know that this is kinda stupid and shallow ... but I'm SO GLAD that Easter was on General Conference weekend. I got to sleep in, stay in pajamas, and eat chocolate. ... Even though I had the cold from HADES and had lost my sense of smell ... and not being able to smell/taste chocolate is very less-than-fulfilling. :(
There have been years, though, when Easter's fallen on a Fast Sunday ... and it's been SO HAD to make it through until after church, when I've descended upon my Easter basket like a starving T-Rex. ... I'm just saying.
And I'm SO. GLAD that THIS was not one of those years. ^_^

Ham Radio License Exam -- For those of you on Facebook, this is old news (as of a few days) ... But I took my test for my radio license.

I passed!

I could have missed nine and still passed ... I missed three.
Two of them (I have to assume, since you don't get to see which of the multiple-choice questions you missed. You're only told how many you missed), were questions that I hadn't studied. Oops! Which means that the other one was probably something that I just answered totally incorrectly. Still, it worked out to be, like, a 91% ... So that was good.

I didn't attempt to take the General-level test. I haven't studied for that one ... and, though it WOULD have been free at the time, I was eager to go home (and eat dinner, since I had to skip out in order to make it to the test on time). ^_^

My Birthday - Well, as of yesterday, I'm 29 years old. ... Kinda weird, huh?
I received tons of well-wishes from friends on Facebook ... and a few phone calls (my Grampy in California and my dad). I got a few cards in the mail.

And I got a package! ... Here's a little backstory:
So, last month, Mom and I ordered some shirts and a skirt from DownEast Basics the evening of St. Patrick's Day. We did receive an email that they were sold out of one shirt in the order (and they'd wait three days to hear from us to include something else in the order before refunding the cost of that shirt). And we waited and waited and waited for it to arrive. I almost was wondering if, maybe, someone stole them or something. (I know that I blogged about this before ... so I'll keep it short.) ... THEN, then finally arrived. And they all fit and are cute and wonderful.

SOOOOOOOO ... We had ordered a few more shirts Tuesday evening.
And I figured that it'd take, like last time, about a week or so for them to arrive.

They came yesterday. ON MY BIRTHDAY.

Oh, yeah! Awesome birthday surprise, no??

Like, I said, Mom was up this week. With my Aunt Julie. And they came up Tuesday and left Thursday morning. We had my birthday dinner (beef stroganoff and salad, with strawberry cheesecake and ice cream for dessert) Tuesday night (since I had my test Wednesday. And Michael had EQ visits). Wednesday was pizza night. ^_^

Thursday, Michael came back shortly after leaving for work, and needed me to drive him in. I woke up Mom and asked if she and Ju could watch the kids till I got back (about 1.5 hours total), and went with Michael down, and drove the van back. And then made the trip with the kids again that afternoon.

And Wednesday, the hall toilet showed serious signs of being plugged. So, after Michael got back from visits, we took it apart, put it in the tub, and tried to get whatever was causing the problem out. We had limited success. It's working a LITTLE better. And I mutter under my breath that it's a possessed, devil toilet. Michael's offered that, when we replace it, I can smash it apart to figure what the problem is ... I was pretty eager ... then I started to wonder ---
WHAT IF it's like Pandora's box? If I smash it open, what new evils will be released to prey upon the world? WHAT IF IT'S THE NEW HELLMOUTH?? (I know, I know, I've watched too many episodes of Buffy, right? ANSWER: Not possible.)

Thursday night, after we got back from bringing Michael home, I went to my ward's Relief Society Meeting (Seriously, I'm so ashamed to say this, but it's been MONTHS since I last was at a RS Meeting. :S) ... It was fun. There were Young Women there, so I was totally with friends. And, truly, I like all the ladies there regardless. We also had a clothing and book exchange. I picked up some Bible story books for our church bag, some board books for Bruise, and a LOT of the Disney Small World collection (each book is about a country/nation) for Bruise and Bucket.

....

So, back to my birthday (YES, I AM getting on with it), Michael worked on the truck while the kids and I watched the first episode of BBC's The Blue Planet. Bruise and I ate cheesecake for breakfast, we played with bubbles in the driveway, the kids rode their tricycles to the park and played (I got to spin in these weird-chair-things with them and got INCREDIBLY dizzy. ... But not too dizzy to NOT laugh uproariously at my children stumbling around like they were little drunks. :P), came home, let the kids watch another show, they had naptime, and then we got them dinner and ready for bed.

It was a pretty wonderful day ... except when poor Michael's socket and LAST spark plug fell into the engine ... and had to wait for him to buy a telescopic magnet this morning so he could finish working on the truck.

Today, I need to bake bread (I have bread dough in the fridge) and spray around the house so the STUPID, STUPID ANTS stop coming into our house. (Seriously, it's disturbing, getting ready to take a bath and seeing, like TEN tiny ant corpses around the back of the tub. WHY????)

I still am getting over my cold. I'm really ready for it to be over. ... At least it's nowhere near as HORRIBLE as it was earlier in the week. Like last weekend, where I couldn't smell ANYTHING. Or Tuesday and Wednesday, where I had my husky, husky voice.

My cough is MOSTLY gone. And my nose isn't so awfully runny. Phew! But I'd really like to stop needing to blow it, oh, CONSTANTLY.

Yeah, I'm a whiner.

A whiner who had a pretty darn awesome birthday. It wasn't anything wildly exciting ... but I don't NEED wildly exciting days.

Besides, two of my YW dropped by the house to serenade me! I was touched! Seriously, how sweet is that?

I really have very wonderful friends. I appreciate you all. You're the best birthday present EVER. And I get you MULTIPLE YEARS. ^_^

And, hey, since I have a few coupons for free birthday swag -- ice cream, hamburger ... Now I just have to actually LEAVE the HOUSE to get those. :P

But, hey, I have really cute shirts to wear when I do it.

(And, since I saved my skirt and one of my shirts to wear to church, I'm super excited to go! ^_^)

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