A week of fun and churchiness

Jessa ~


This feels like a busy and a calm week, all at the same time.  At the very least, I don't feel like I have too much to write about.

Diva Abby with a hat and purse

My visiting teachers came on Wednesday and spent the first 5 minutes telling me how awesome my talk was (awww) and then gave me an awesome lesson.  It wasn't really the lesson in the Ensign, as written, but rather one of the questions at the bottom the lady teaching didn't understand.  So we spent the whole lesson discussing the question and what sacrament and service had to do with spiritual self-reliance.  It was a great lesson.  I loved it.  Afterwards I thanked her for being willing to ask the question, because it did lead to such a wonderful conversation.  She replied, "Well, we were taught somewhere recently… Relief Society?  Yes.  I'm sure that was it… that we should talk about the gospel more in our everyday conversation, and I thought that was a great idea."  My other VTer agreed that yes, she was sure it was RS.  It just made me giggle inside, because it was totally my talk in Stake Conference that they were remembering.  I didn't feel bad, I'm just glad they remembered the idea and were incorporating it, but it was really funny to me after they raved about my talk.  Hah!

Heather and Kessa measuring up to apes

Thursday my old roommate, Jessica, and her almost-2 year old daughter, Heather, came to visit us.  Her husband, Kyle, was recruiting at BYU, so she spent her time with me.  Yay!  After Joy School, naps, and making a cake, we made an impromptu trip to the zoo.  It was a slightly insane decision, as it had been raining off and on all day and was quite chilly and windy.  But we did it anyway.  Because Heather had never been to the zoo.  And because I could get us all in free with our pass.  It turned out great.  It was a little chilly, but we went prepared with jackets and no one complained.  We ate right before we went (Chick-fil-A, which is Jess' restaurant obsession.  haha) so the girls were happy.  It didn't rain at all while we were there.  Some of the animals were more active because of the weather (like the seals and sea otters).  Abby spent the day barking like a sea otter that we heard.  All three girls played well together and overall just had a great time.  I'm really glad we did it.

Abby and Kessa looking at a meercat (I think?)

We came home, at dinner (Auj Jus sandwiches), then Jess left and I went to the church for a blood drive, but was too late to do that and get back to the stake center for my baptism orientation, so instead I just chatted with a couple high councilmen that happened to be there that would be helping with Saturday's baptisms, did an impromptu grocery shopping trip, then went to orientation.  It was a busy baptism month.  12 baptisms!  So orientations were busy, as well.  I really love baptism orientations.  We measure them for their baptismal suits, we have them fill out a spotlight, then give them a tour of the font, while explaining the things they need to know (when to be there, wear white underwear "We don't want Spiderman staring at everyone as you walk up the stairs", take your underwear home; don't leave it in the hamper with your wet jumpsuit (you wouldn't believe the collection of underwear we've gathered), etc.  It's just so great seeing the excitement of all these 8-year olds.  I love it!

Jess' "birthday" cake

Friday morning I worked on decorating the cake we made the day before.  Jessica's birthday was the week before, so we decided to celebrate it with her here.  Jess, Kyle and Heather came back around 4ish and we went to the swimming pool.  It was so much fun!  The girls loved it, obviously.  It was a nice surprise for Kessa.  And Abby did pretty well, too.

Jess with her birthday cake.
With Kessa intentionally photo-bombing. :)

We came back, ate dinner (navajo tacos), then ate cake!  Mmmm…  Kessa really had hoped we could write "Happy Birthday Friend Jessica" but there was really only room to write "Jess".  She was very sad about that, but eventually got over it.  (There's a girl in her Sunbeams class named Franchesca and Kessa always calls her FranJessica, so I think "Friend Jessica" morphed from that.  Either that or it was because I introduced her with, "This is my friend, Jessica."  Who knows.  But she called her Friend Jessica all day.)  I was pretty proud of this cake.  It was a white cake I made from scratch with frosting I also made from scratch, but with pressed palm oil instead of shortening.  I've been wanting to try it for ages, since shortening is hydrogenated, and I don't like that, but I've been too chicken.  It wasn't perfect, but I think that had more to do with me beating it too long and getting too many air bubbles, but I'm not sure.  I guess I'll have to try again.  Oh darn.  :)


Like I said, we had a big month for baptisms.  We originally had 17 baptisms, but for various reasons, it went down to 12.  That usually happens.  But 12 is still big.  The stake we split from still uses our stake center and do baptisms at 11, so we had to schedule everything to make sure we were done by then.  So we had to start at 8:30.  Which meant I had to be there by 7.  Yipes!  But everything went smoothly in the set up.  Hooray!  We had some hiccups and problems along the way, but overall, it went pretty well.  We got out in time, which was the most important.  I did kind of feel like we were doing fast-food baptisms, so I'm requesting that next month we have two sessions (and do one at 1:00).  (Of course, it just occurred to me that my secretary and 2nd counselor will be out of town and my 1st counselor will quite likely be out of town… so that'll be fun… doing two sessions by myself.  Haha.  But actually talking it out, it won't be too bad.)

Jess reading Abby a book.

Abby is really into books lately.

After baptisms I came home and helped a neighbor cut some things out of my Silhouette, then crashed on the couch.  I was so tired.  BJ took the girls for a walk to the park while I slept.  Isn't he just the best husband ever?  Not only had he spent the entire morning with them alone, and knew he'd have them all evening  (RS Broadcast), he willingly took them to the park so I could sleep.  Awwww.  I love that man.

Diva Abby with three! hats

And then that night was the RS Broadcast.  Thanks to my nap I was able to stay awake for the whole thing.  :)  Have you had a chance to watch it yet?  It was super short.  Only about 1:15, which surprised me.  But it was really good.  To me it seemed like the main themes were: baptismal covenants, missionary work, and God loves you.  Then we had a dessert bar afterwards.  While in line, my RS president asked me an interesting question, "When do 8-year olds make the baptismal covenant?"  It prompted a really good discussion that I don't believe ever quite answered the question.  But it is interesting.  Because the person being baptized never actually says anything.  It's like the covenant is being done to them.  BJ pointed out that in early church history the one being baptized actually held their arm to the square and made a covenant.  Apparently a friend of his asked a Board question about it.  I haven't read the answer though.  Maybe I should.  :)

Did I tell you that BJ bought Sim City and that I got into playing it?  Well, Kessa likes to watch me play.  I think all of our Kessaisms this week come from her watching me play that.

• Kessa: What are they saying? Me: That they're sick. Kessa: Mom! They're eating too much sugar, right?
• Looking at a guy on Sim City with a brown beard, Kessa: Is that God? Me: No, but he has a beard like that, huh? Kessa: And gods must have beards, huh.

Hope you have a great week!

~ Tianna and Co.