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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Halloween and baptisms

Jessa ~

Daylight Savings ended last night.  Oy.  It's only 8, but it feels like 9.  And I'm tired.  We even had both girls in bed by 7:30.  But they were exhausted by then.  I could totally take a nap now, too.  Haha.  But I can always take a nap.  Always.

Let's see.  Where did we leave off last week...

Tuesday was the 100 Years of Scouting in the church broadcast.  I was asked to help with an activity. Mostly I delegated then bought 32 dozen donuts.  Spending $100 on just donuts was kind of fun.  Haha.  The broadcast was fun.  It was (so I heard) the biggest production the Church has put on since the Olympics.  If you get a chance to watch it, I think you might enjoy it?  I wouldn't go out of your way, though.   They did a really fun thing at the beginning where they asked everyone to pull out their phone and text BSA to a certain number so they could count how many people watched the broadcast.  I just checked and they're over 2 million viewers thus far.  I thought it was a cool use of technology.

Halloween was fun.  Having Kessa in two schools really dragged it out.  She had the Joy School party the week before.  Preschool party Wednesday, then our trunk or treat that night.  Then Thursday was Halloween.  We went up to your parents, as is becoming tradition, and Teresa and Steven (Stephen? I don't know) took the girls out trick or treating on the motorized couch.  That was fun.  Your parents played Dominion with us while they manned the door.  That night we gathered up all the candy the girls got from all the parties, let them pick out their favorites (well, Kessa picked out Abby's), then went to bed.  While they slept, the Switch Witch came and traded their candy for a new Legos Duplos set (with a horse and a goat!) and a play necklace/bracelet/ring set.  (I gave Kessa the choice of buying her candy or doing Switch Witch and she chose the latter.  Theoretically we're donating the candy, but so far it's just sitting in a cupboard, being eaten by BJ.)  It mostly went over well, once Kessa got over the disappointment of having to share the toys with Abby.  Turns out, she really wanted the jewelry, too.  Well, had I known I could have saved $12, thankyouverymuch! But now that she's over it, she's had a lot of fun building with her new Legos.  And Abby loves to walk around with the necklace saying, "Brace-wet!"

My big thing this week was stake baptisms.  Now, to start, I want to say that these are my favorite part of my calling.  But I was really nervous about this one for a few reasons.  1) Early mornings and I aren't friends right now.  Nor is extended amounts of energy.  And this required my energy from 7:30 am - 12:30 pm.  2) It was our biggest baptism day yet.  19 baptisms!  So we split into two sessions: 9 am and 11 am.  3) My entire presidency was out of town/country.  1st C was in China, adopting a daughter (who is adorable).  2nd C was in Washington at her granddaughter's baptism.  Sec was running the St. George marathon.  They were all such good things!  Of course I told them all I'd be fine.  And I would be.  Because God loves me and he loves baptisms.  It would all work out.  We have font coordinators who fill the font, do laundry, etc.  So this month I asked them if they'd be willing to do a bunch more.  And they're awesome, so they readily agreed and were my saving grace for both health and sanity.

Jessa.  It was Insane.  And utter chaos.  Administratively, anyway.  I have never run into so many problems.  The main ones?  We ran out of baptismal clothing.  Apparently someone used some and hadn't brought it all back.  Plus, we share the building and clothes with another stake (who thankfully only had 5 baptisms).  We ended up stealing clothes from them, then sending a bunch of clothes home with BJ after the first session for him to do a fast wash on, then replaced the other stake's clothes before they got there.  (I had permission from them to do this.)  We also had water temperature issues.  We were afraid of scalding their skin off and overcorrected and made it a little too cold.  So we had to keep draining some and adding more hot water between sessions.  [sigh]  The copy machine also was possessed and Bro. Royer (the font guy) ended up copying something like 200+ programs one at a time.  AND one of the songs was spelled wrong (Baptizm.  Really?) so I had to figure out how to fix that.  (I just blacked out the title.  lol.)  And then all the little things I'm used to.  Chairs not set up as much as I'd like.  The cord coming unplugged without my knowledge and freaking out in a panic because my movie wasn't playing and the entire chapel and overflow were waiting on me and watching me panic.  You know, the usual hiccups.

BUT, I had so many people praying for me.  Several people told me that day or on Facebook that they had been praying for me.  Awww.  And I had been praying for myself for weeks for this day.  And BJ gave me a blessing Friday night (since I'd leave before he woke up Saturday).  Jessa, that was the first time in weeks I didn't throw up/dry heave.  (And sadly that didn't stick around.)  I had the energy to jump every hurdle and overcome every obstacle.  The grandma of one of the boys that got baptized is in my ward.  In RS today I talked about the chaos in baptisms and how prayer was able to help me overcome.  The grandma pulled me aside after church and said, "Tianna, I had no idea how many things went wrong yesterday.  From my perspective, everything ran smoothly and was done beautifully.  I was impressed at how great everything was."  I'm surprised I didn't break out in tears of gratitude right then.  Because she was right.  Administratively, it was chaos.  But once baptisms got started, it was one of the smoothest baptisms we've had.  And the spirit was so strong.  And I felt great!  (Until the end when stress and hunger got the better of me.  So I came home, begged BJ to make me lunch, then took a long nap.)

Translation: Jessa? I really want to get baptized.  I love you.  I love shows.  (She started to say that she loves shows about Jesus, but got that far and then realized she just loves all shows.) She wrote this to you while I was at baptisms and she was sad that she didn't get to watch them.  I'll have to take her next month.  So she wrote you a letter and drew you a picture instead. Oh, and those circles between the question marks after your name? "Those are the dots that are there when you're writing something on the computer!" (The '…' that shows up when someone is typing you a chat message.)


Speaking of baptism, our lesson in Sunday School was on missionary work.  I wrote this in my journal during it:

Missionary work isn't just about conversion. Missionary work is about teaching and warning the world. God will not judge us by the choices another makes, but about our willingness to share the gospel. The scriptures say, “until the bell is sounded in every ear.” (Or something like that.) Not until every ear hears or accepts it. Just until it has been sounded.

Kessa-isms!

  • Kessa: Do you know why I don't like trucks? Because they make yucky smoke that comes out and makes our earth dirty!  (She was very upset about this and proceeded to tell me how trucks weren't being nice and how we had to have dirty air because of them.  I credit this whole conversation to Joy School's, The Joy of the Earth

Huh.  Apparently there was only one.  So, to make up for it...

Random posts from Facebook!
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I was laying on the couch with my eyes closed (massive headache today) when Abby put a stuffed horse up next to my face and said, "Mommy. Sleeping." I thought it was cute so I kept my eyes closed as she kept piling things in front of, on, and around my face all while commenting that I was sleeping.

And then I opened my eyes to find a pile of wet and/or dirty dishrags and bibs all over my head. And a stuffed horse. It was Disgusting.
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You know the Royal "we"? Well, BJ and I have discovered the Marriage "we". It means the other spouse.

Me: Can we go make dinner now? I'm going to die.
BJ: Do you mean the marriage we?
Me: I do. Yes.

BJ is now making stroganoff for dinner. #besthusbandever
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Oh my goodness. Chaos ensues when two great things fight against each other.

Good thing #1: Guided Access. BJ enabled it on my phone with a simple passcode so Abby could play an app without constantly getting out of it. (Note: I was unaware of this or of what the passcode was.)
Good thing #2: Find my iPhone. When I can't find my iPhone I can make it play a beeping noise (even if it's on silent!) so long as it has battery. It has saved me many a time when kids get ahold of my phone.

I couldn't find my phone. I enacted Find my iPhone. It starts beeping. Loudly. I found my phone between couch cushions. I quickly discover that Guided Access was enabled, so I couldn't leave the app to turn off the beeping. It asked for a passcode. I assumed it was my phone passcode. It didn't work. Then made me wait 10 seconds to try again. Figuring I just entered it wrong, I waited, re-entered it, and it was still wrong. This time I had to wait 45 seconds to try again. ALL WITH THE STUPID THING BEEPING LOUDLY AT ME! I couldn't turn off my phone. I couldn't silence it. I couldn't turn down the volume. BJ yelled the passcode down the stairs (he was putting Kessa to bed), so I sat on the phone to at least muffle the beeping until I was finally able to enter the correct passcode and turn the stupid noise off.

And now there is blissful silence...
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And now, answering questions from old emails that I'm finally getting to.

"But really, what about you? Name options yet? Gender options yet? Haha, meaning, preference? Is it going to be another girl? Am I going to get as sick as you?"  As usual, we're waiting on thinking about names until we know a gender.  I'm not sure what I think about gender.  For a long time after Abby was born I was convinced I was going to have a boy next.  Now I'm a little scared of having a boy (I'm used to and like my calm, sweet girls!) and really have no gut instincts either way.  As for you getting sick?  It'd be better to look at how sick your mom got.  Genetics play a part  But your best bet is just to be healthy before you get pregnant so your body isn't trying to get rid of so many toxins.

"Can I talk to your stomach over skype on Christmas, so it recognizes my voice? When I'm pregnant will you be my guide?" So, does that mean you're Skyping instead of calling?  And yes, of course you can.  :)  And YES! I would love to be your guide when you're pregnant.  Especially if I can come to your labor, too.  (But don't feel obligated.  Some women much prefer to labor alone.  And that's ok.)  But you know me.  I'm a birth junkie.  Of course I'll tell you everything I know/think all along the way.  ;)

And now, early bedtime for me!

Love and hugs,
~ Tianna and Co.






PS - a couple of videos for those who can watch them:

1. Kessa loves to sing the Joy School song that goes, "Oh boy!  I've got joy!  I do, I do!"  Abby has been picking up words.  Tonight she stood on her chair and sang as loud and high as she could "Oh boy!  I Kessa!  Oooooh boy!"



2. A 30-ish second mashup of Thriller and When the Saints Go Marching In.

1 comment:

Madison said...

Your girls are growing up so quickly. Its amazing how quickly time flies.
You also have more self control than me. Our Halloween candy is gone. ;)