Miscellaneous Monday

Time to start another week. Is it really November already? Does that mean I have to spend money for Christmas soon? Oh, bother ... (And Becca, don't read this post unless you want a Christmas surprise ruined! That's right. Stop reading right now ...)

Yesterday was our annual primary program. Turns out this year I couldn't see either one of my kids. Zachary was behind a 10-year-old, and Tyler wasn't on the stage and not tall enough for me to see over the heads. I realized that it's just not nearly as fun to see the primary program when you can't see your own kids. Oh well ... they've got a few more years left in primary for me to try again.

I did have a laughing fit in the middle of it, though. There were too many elements that just combined and gave me the giggles. (I'm hoping I wasn't too obvious -- if Heidi didn't notice then I wasn't, right?) Anyway, the first speaker (a 6-year-old) mistakenly announced to the congregation that he had just peed his pants at the end of his talk. He is such a cute boy, and I sure hope he's not traumatized from speaking in public from his experience. That wasn't enough to set me off.

But then I made the mistake of remembering a story I had just heard from another lady in the ward about her son who was really upset he couldn't remember the words. She said he ran down to her crying (he was probably like 8 or something), so she told him that she learned in high school choir that if you can't remember the words to just mouth the word "watermelon" over and over. He was appeased and went back up to try it. The next song they did in sign language, but he proudly mouthed over and over the word watermelon, even though nobody else was singing. Pretty funny. That got me laughing.

Then to top it off, my laughing distracted Paul, who then started to sing with the kids during the next song. We were way in the back, so he was definitely the only one singing. Through my laughing I had to tell him he wasn't supposed to be singing. I guess 3.5 years in primary programmed him to be singing, even when you're distracted by those around you. So that made me just about burst out laughing. I contained myself and got control. Phew!

Yesterday afternoon we headed up to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I can't remember if I mentioned that our family has a plan to visit various temples and look for symbolism on the exterior of the temple. We also want to give our kids the chance to touch the temple, because there was a conference talk in April that encouraged kids to do that, because "as you touch the temple, the temple will touch you."

We knew it was Sunday, a day when the temple isn't open, but we figured that'd give us a little less commotion. What we didn't expect was that the gates were locked and there was no way to get onto the temple grounds. All the temples we've lived near (okay, Provo and Seattle) both lock the gates for cars not to enter, but leave openings for you to walk onto the grounds. Oh well ... we looked from afar and touched the fence. We also drove to the Jordan River temple and it was impossible to even walk around with the gates locked. I guess we'll have to do that one another day.

The good thing about the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, though, was that I was able to get a photo. Becca saw some cool photos of it in a Deseret Book magazine, and she really wants one for Christmas. Only problem is that those photos are $100 each! No thanks. So, I took my own and did my own distressing to print for her for Christmas. Problem is I can't decide which edits look coolest. Please let me know which you like best: #1: Mostly black and white; #2: Partial color; or #3: Full color.

#1:


#2:


#3:


Good news is that Becca rarely reads my blog, so she shouldn't have this surprise spoiled. But I figured I better put the disclaimer at top just in case. Thanks so much for your input. When did I ever get so indecisive?

Have a great week!!!