Just Another Manic Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday

Friday

What do these..

......and this have in common?

Yup. They are either from Idaho, or a future Idahoan.

Provo was Megan's first choice, but Stan and I are secretly glad she will be in closer, sister-filled Idaho for her Freshman year.

 Since this is Jimmer's last year at BYU, there's no rush to get to Provo anyway.

On Friday evening Amy was rear-ended by someone as she was making her way home from a job interview.  Fortunately, Hailey and Makayla weren't in the car.  Unfortunately, Amy's car lost a bumper and she has a pretty significant amount of whiplash.  Fortunately, this is not her car.  Her car is still drivable.

On Friday I hit the sales at Target and found some clothes that just happened to be

Makayla's and Hailey's size.

Makayla is going through a "must wear a dress" stage.

 It's hard to say for sure, but I think Makayla was excited to have a new skirt.

Hailey and Makayla did a "New Clothes Boogie" dance for us.

"Oh, look! We match Mommy!"

 Posing for pictures and

 more dancing for joy.

You know girls, if you are always this easy to please I may be hitting those sales again!

Saturday

This weekend is our stake conference weekend. We decided to recycle our "pink" from last Fall's broadcast table decor for leadership.

Our theme for Leadership was yup, you guessed it:

"Love, Simplicity, and Sisterhood."
My counselor made these cute blocks from scrap wood, vinyl letters, and a bit of paint.

We covered topics ranging from Hearts and Hands, to preparedness, to meeting the needs of single sisters,  to holding more effective presidency meetings, to new handbook discussions, with an overall encouragement to keep things simple and inexpensive.

Our taster's table focus was "Using Powdered Milk".  I found an idea for these ice cream cones online, and my counselor and I whipped up an extra large batch of hot chocolate using powdered milk and put them together. 

 I know you're all surprised I managed to work an ice cream theme into the day. 

By the way, if you were looking for these around Valentine's Day and couldn't find them, it's because I bought out the Billings supply to use for this project.  Makayla and Hailey will be happy to know I have several bags left.

We've been having record cold and I was sure no one would come to leadership.  Our branches have had large amounts of snowfall.  Not only did we have great attendance, we also had more than enough sisters who willingly volunteered to stay and help serve dinner for the stake.  We have leadership at 4, dinner at 6, and adult session of conference at 7.  That means many of our sisters from the Branches don't get home until 11.  They are amazing!

 Sometime on Saturday, my laptop had a little accident.  Okay, a big accident.  I'm glad I wasn't home to see it.  Apparently, it became despondent and threw itself down the stairs. Stan has become a master screen replacer--this isn't our first disaster.  Stan can replace a screen for the fraction of the cost of replacing the computer.  Stan promised to have me up and running by the end of the week. We don't call him "Handy Standy" for nothing!  Okay, we don't really call him that.



Sunday

Our stake president had chest pains after yesterday's meeting and spent the night and today in the hospital having tests.  That meant our stake conference had a few holes in it and they were calling surprise people out of the audience to speak.  I was one of those surprise speakers.  It was about as fun as my last root canal....

As exciting as this weekend has been, we are expecting this week to be even more thrilling.  Check back mid week for "the big news"!

Sisters

"Sister to sister we will always be, a couple of nuts off the family tree" -unknown

Today Hailey found some leftover Halloween stamps and put them to good use.  Makayla enjoyed it more than her face suggests. I love the way Hailey takes care of Makayla, and the way Makayla tries to copy everything Hailey does.  I think these two sisters are lucky to have each other.

I had a few sisters myself.

Doris, Judy, and Chris, about 1962

My sisters are some of my favorite people

Judy, Doris, and Chris, 1971

and I feel blessed to have them in my life.

Angie, Doris, Chris, and Judy, 1966

Maybe that's why I had so many daughters myself:

Amy and Shelly, Spring 1986

so that I could pass the blessings of sisters forward.

Ashley and Shelly, 1993

I hope my daughters enjoy having sisters

Shelly, Megan, Ashley, Amy, Jessica, 1995

as much as I enjoy having sisters.

Ashley and Jessica, 1995

"I smile because you're my sister,

Jessica, Ashley, Megan, Amy, 2001

I laugh because there is nothing you can do about it!"-unknown

Jessica, Megan, Ashley, 2005

So, Hailey and Makayla, enjoy having a sister/friend to clean up after you,

hold the light while you read,

share silly talk with,

encourage you to "use two words", not just one, as you work to improve your language skills,

and always be your best friend.

Of course, brothers are wonderful too-

Judy, Dave, and Chris, 1968

but that's a post for another day.

Shelly and Scott, 1982

It's Marvelous To Be Megan

On Friday, Megan hit upon a money making scheme: strum a little guitar,

look really cute,

and Dad will walk by and throw a little cash in your case.

A two dollar bill, no less!

On Saturday, Megan went out to dinner with new fella C-Roma and came home with these. 

On Monday, this same young man gave Megan a whole, unhealthy box of chocolates

and a note of request.  It's okay, Megan.  I'll help you eat those chocolates so you can fit into your prom dress.  I'm nice like that.

P-Dubya now lives 1300 miles away. He's apparently not coming back for prom.

On Saturday, while I was still hyped up and/or zoned out on dental painkillers, Megan talked me into going to the mall with her to buy her a new Sunday dress.  Her old dresses are getting shorter by the week.  I don't think Megan's getting taller, it's just that she's been the same size now since fifth grade
 and her dresses want a rest.

  

Then, reminding me how much she treasures her modesty, she talked me into buying a second long-enough dress

 and a cute sweater to go with it.

Suddenly I found myself at the 70% off shoe sale at the mall.  I'm not exactly sure how that happened, but I do know Megan is a girl with a plan.

Megan found these cute shoes.

I pointed out they are not unlike the white and pink number you see in this picture.  Megan said "Oh, but these are sparkly!"  There were only 2 or 3 pairs in the entire store not on sale. This is one of them.
 I bought them.
 Remember, I was on drugs.

Then Megan spotted these boots.  Boots don't go on sale in Montana--why would they? 
We need boots 352 days of the year!
 I bought them, too. 
By now I was in pain AND on drugs.

And Megan said she would take me home and let me go to bed.
It must have been embarrassing for Megan to walk through the mall with a sobbing, slobbering woman, prone to dozing off mid-purchase.  She bravely toughed it out for the sake of fashion.

If my foggy memory is correct, we bought Megan's new hat on Saturday, too.

On Saturday night, I gave Megan my debit card, asked her to put gas in my car, and please

DON'T LOSE MY CARD!

She put gas in my car and lost my card.

Megan waited until Sunday to confess she lost the debit card. 
I would have yelled at her, but by Sunday I had progressed to being
 on drugs, in pain, and throwing up. 

Megan prayed to find that card. Megan prayed some more.  And then a little more. 
Then she found the card.

It's magnificently marvelous to be Megan