Glad

You may or may not know that I was recently asked to serve in the nursery in my ward. This is a good thing, I promise, but on the flip side, it's where I've done most of my serving. FYI: I was released as nursery leader only a year ago, and then since then I've taught in primary. ANYWAY, with that said, I have been thirsting, literally, for spiritual uplifting feel-good stuff aimed at someone my age.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to our Stake Center and participate in an afternoon and evening of Relief Society activities.

I can't put into words what exactly was said, and I don't really want to say everything that was said in a total of 5 hours, but I am so glad I went. I almost didn't go due to confusion about the afternoon activity. We ended up having a wonderful key-note speaker given by a woman that reminded me just by looking at her of my mom. She spoke about how we need to educate ourselves (Which lit a small flame inside me to start thinking about my own education) so that we can support our family if anything were to ever happen to our husbands.

We also had 3 classes. One class was the importance of reading good books. The next class we read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. Really. We each individually were assigned 4 pages from the Book of Mormon, and so we could say we read the whole book. Also in that class we wrote down our testimonies on a piece of paper so the missionaries could give them away. The final class I went to was a class on journal keeping. I am now motivated to write in my journal now for the purpose of not being forgotten, and of course because it is so good for you to do it, for your own records!

We had dinner, and then we were able to listen to the General Relief Society Broadcast. At this point I was already so uplifted that anything else that was said kind of went over my head. But, during the closing prayer I felt the spirit so strongly that I began to just weep. I was able to gain my composure, that is until I saw the sister missionaries and I couldn't help but miss my younger sister who's a missionary. I wanted to go up and hug them. I didn't, and I started to weep again. It was rather embarrassing. Anyway, I'm just so glad I had the opportunity to go and be uplifted and weep away in front of a bunch of women, because I feel a lot better now. Too bad I still miss my baby sister. *weeping again*

ETA: Hyperlink

Paying for it today, update on Zumba Class

Wow. Let me just tell you: If you love to dance and if you love to "shake your groove thang" then Zumba class is for you! It was a blast! My face hurt afterwards from smiling the whole time. AND, I am sore. Sore in my back. Sore on my thighs. Sore on my outer and inner thighs. Sore in my abs. Sore in my shoulders.

It was a workout! But you don't realize it because you're having a blast dancing away the hour long class.

The hardest part of the workout for me was the whole SHIMMY thing. That is so awkward for me! I have the tools needed to perform, I just am not coordinated to make it look right!!! ;) I've practiced and practiced, but, I just make a fool of myself. I'm too manly or something. Wait, no. Josh can shimmy. Seriously, he really can. He's tried to teach me before! Josh is a man. Let me re-phrase my previous statement, I'm not manly enough to shimmy.

Anyway, I'm stiff as a celery (that's been soaking in water). It hurts to move. Oh well, I had a great day yesterday, didn't I?

Today has been Great!

Today I am having a great day, better than the norm.
1-I got up, and ran 3 miles. I felt GREAT afterwards! Never has that happened.
2-Conrad woke up happier than normal, he didn't cry when I changed his diaper, and he was happy to wait for me to fix him breakfast.
3-This is right outside our front window:
...I thought I'd take a picture with the date stamp to document that the roses are still blooming around here in Missouri.
4-Next, we received this:

...in the mail as a belated birthday package for "Conrack"!!! THANK YOU Lea and Jake and Alyssa and Carly and McKall! Conrack loves his new balls and trucks! (FYI, when we first told little Alyssa and little Carly what Conrad's name was they started repeating his name as though we said it was Conrack, so it has stuck, and I love it!)
I shot a little video of him, too:

Conrad loves the balls. My neighbor and good friend Heidi came over with her son Luke and they had a "BALL" playing with the balls!

4-Heidi even brought me over a nice unexpected gift! ...some yummy chocolates! What a sweet friend.

5-Tonight I am going to a Zumba class at the YMCA. I've never done it before, but I've heard it's a blast. It's dancing and it's supposed to be good for you, so heck, I'm going!

Thanks for reading my blog and thanks for commenting!

I miss Utah

Since we've moved here to Missouri I haven't been homesick. Ok, maybe just a little every now and then when I hear about family parties and whatnot. Anyway, I am finding that I do miss certain things about Utah. I find that by doing certain things it helps me feel better, and more like I'm right at home. Like....

1- Going to Wal-Mart. There's something so familiar about that store, almost like it's the one right by my old house in Layton.

2- Going to church (and in the meantime getting a call to the nursery, which is where I will probably spend the rest of my life).

3- Going to KSL's website. I miss KSL!!! Our news here just isn't the same as it is in Utah. I miss Nadine Wimmer and Dick Nourse, and of course, Whit Johnson! (ha ha, just teasing Josh).

Those are just some of the things I often do in order to "fill" the hole in my heart, the one that used to be full before we moved here.

Look Alike Meter

For those that need Bibs!

Em, I read your comment, and I would be MORE THAN HAPPY to help you out, in return for all your helpful posts!

I hope these pictures help, since I am done with the project I can't take pictures along the way to show you what I did. But, I'll explain what we did as best as I can!

1-Buy dishtowels. We got ours at Wal-mart. Now, we know they are not going to last very long, but they're going to get stained anyway so that's why we got the cheap $5 for 6 towels package.

2-Buy ribbing. We first went to Hobby Lobby and they didn't have that great of a selection so we went to JoAnn's. I believe we figured that each bib would use approximately 10 inches lengthwise (which we later on trimmed down to about 8 or 9 inches), and about 2 inches for the width.

3-Measure your child's head. Conrad's head circumference was about 28 1/4. I don't know why we did this, but we did - and I'm sure there was a reason for it, I just didn't figure out why! (lol)

4-Trim the ribbing down to approximately 8 or 9 inches lengthwise (I think this is where #3 comes into play). Fold in half hot dog way (not hamburger!) and sew along the edge. This makes the ribbing into a collar.

5-Figure out how big of a hole to cut out of the dishtowels. We first used a bib for a pattern and traced it onto the dishtowel. The bib we used velcroed around the neck, so it wouldn't be big enough to go OVER the crown of the baby's head. Then we took a measuring device and made the total diameter across where the hole would be totaling 5 in. (Imagine it looking like a donut... one circle, and then another circle about 1-2 inches all around it, which is where we cut). Cut around the outer circle.

6-Place ribbed collar material and the dishtowel together, right sides together.

7-Pin ribbed collar material in 4 places around the dishtowel. (Think North, East, South, West)

8-Sew, stretching ribbed material as you go, all around the collar. And...VOILA! Hopefully it turned out OK with lessons from a beginner!




I just threw this picture in to brag about my Advent Calendar. It is coming along! My next hurdle with it is getting French Knots mastered. You may ask why? Well, because they are going to be the eyes on my little lamb, my little elf, my little santa, and my little birdie and my little reindeer. And others that I didn't put in the picture. If you look at the white scrap of material, that is my practice sheet. So far, I've been successful 2 out of 15 attempts. Yikes! If you have any tips, let me know!

Big Test Friday Morning

This is what Josh is doing lately.

...trying to cram all of those flash cards into his brain. (Crazy how amazing the brain is, huh!? I mean, crazy how amazing Josh's brain is! Because... I'm sure he'll figure out a way to get them stuffed in there and pass the test with flying colors!)

I sewed!

The other day my friend Heidi decided that we needed to make bibs! She is amazing, when she wants to do something, she just DOES IT!!! That is something I have yet to learn how to do. (Unless it involves blogging!) Anyway, Heidi figured everything out, then showed me how to do it. Here is one of the finished products!


Here is my (sort-of) work being put to good use:
Conrad was laughing and being silly with Da-da.
They work!!! And look at me- I sewed!

Video... again... of Conrad...

A big milestone... check it out!!!

FYI, after about 30 seconds you can stop it!! We don't have an editing program to cut out me rambling and hoping for more to happen.

Giving Kisses

This video was taken 2 nights ago, right when Conrad first learned how to give kisses.

Happy Birthday to Our Big One Year Old!!!

The Fam:

The banana Frog Cake
The Guests:The Main Event:
More Main Event:
One of the Gifts: (isn't it cute!?!? Can you guess what it was?)
Singing the Birthday Song! (click to watch the video)

OH! And, last but not least, The Decor...right before it was all the way torn down:

Birthday=Sick Day

Today is Mr D's Birthday! He's 1 year old!!! Unfortunately, Poor Mr D has got a fever. He got it yesterday, I took him to the doctor, and all the doctor could say was, "He's got a fever."

So, I've got plenty of Tylenol for him, he's sleeping lots, and I am baking a birthday cake. It's banana cake, and it's going to look like a frog. I think it's very appropriate.
Gotta go, no time for a long post right now.

Penguin Park

Today we had lunch at Penguin Park with a handful of other mom's/girls and their kids. (I say girls because they're my age, and I'm still just a girl!!!)
Here's Mr D coming through a tunnel
Mr D and his buddy Luke. Luke insists on walking everywhere, no more crawling for him!
In the swing, which he thought was DeLigHtFuL! .... though you can't tell in this picture, but he wanted to swing and swing until my arms were falling off.

Conrad...

Just watch the video, and see how much fun we're having nowadays!

Quote

This pulled me out of a down-in-the-dump day:

"Do we frequently reject the Lord's love that He pours out upon us in much more abundance than we are willing to receive? Do we think we have to be perfect in order to deserve His love? When we allow ourselves to feel 'encircled about eternally in the arms of His love' (2 Nephi 1:15), we feel safe, and we realize that we don't need to be immediately perfect. We must acknowledge that perfection is a process. This is a gospel of eternal progress, and we must remember to appreciate the journey."

(Bonnie D. Parkin, "Eternally Encircled in His Love," Ensign, Nov. 2006, 108)

Red Barn Farm

Friday night (last night) we had a ward activity at the Weston Red Barn Farm. Here are some pictures.


...on a hayride...
Didn't Conrad look cute? ha ha. It was soo hard to get him to look towards the camera with everything going on. I don't blame him. Josh, on the other hand, was not too excited about having his picture taken over and over. He was a good sport though.... sometimes. :)

Another hint

Alright, alright, my previous hint was pretty obvious. I should have given you this hint first! (This will just throw you off now!)

Click HERE to see the pan I will be using to bake Conrad's cake.

Small Town, big Visitor

Hey. Guess what? The President came to Riverside. Not the President of our Church. Not the President of Wal-mart. Not even the President of the Madrigals. (inside joke)

If you haven't guessed yet, it was The President of the United States!

He came here last Wednesday, and I had been trying to convince Josh of this. I had heard from the news that he would be speaking in Kansas City. I thought, "Cool."

Then a neighbor told me all about when they went and tried to eat at The Corner Cafe, they couldn't... because the President was eating there. (The Corner Cafe is about 1 block away from our house.) I relayed this story to Josh, adding that our neighbors saw the concourse of cars drive by. Unfortunately, Josh did not believe me.

Thus erupted a misfortunate season of our life. I did not want to speak to him any longer because, as I said, "whenever I tell you something, you never believe me!" lol.

That season lasted for 1/2 an hour.

The next day, which was Sunday, we had our neighbors over and Josh proceeded to explain to them how humorous I was to try and convince him that The President of the USA ate at the Corner Cafe just the other day. They laughed at me, too.

Needless to say, I was feeling a bit picked on.

The next day, Labor Day, we went to a BBQ and had a lovely time. While we were enjoying one another's company a friend piped out,

"Hey, not too bad that the President came to Riverside the other day, huh?"

Did he just say what I thought he said?

He did. He explained that in the paper they wrote all about what he ate, and what he said about the food. I don't remember any of it because I was ecstatic about being a redeemed woman! I was not spreading funny rumors around, I was believing my neighbors, who are good people. I am a credible person. I do not just make stuff up to see if people will fall for it. The worst part about all of this was that Josh did not believe me. I am his equal, his partner, his wife. I felt very infuriated. I will give Josh some credit, though... for trying to research my statement. So, thanks, Mr. President, for making life just a little bit more interesting.

Hint of Birthday Party Theme

This video was taken back in July... before we moved here to Missoura. Conrad figured out how to crawl, froggy style. By the time this video was taken, he was starting to mix in the regular style of crawl, so I had to capture the froggy crawl before he lost it! And by the way, it is gone.

By the way...

I just posted a "TAG," which means someone else in the blogging world told me to answer some questions that they already answered to. I posted it today, but it shows up as being posted last Wednesday, August 29th. That is when I started working on it, and it took me forever to finish it, so Blogger automatically puts it in a chronological order from when I FIRST started working on it rather than when I published it.
If you would like, you can click on THIS LINK and it will take you straight to it, rather than you having to scroll down a few posts to find it.

GuestBook

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Labor Day Weekend

...was certainly laborious. At least, for an almost-one-year-old's mother. Saturday, we decided to go somewhere and do something. To help us find a place, we looked in a "Visit KC" magazine and found "33 Fun Free Things to Do" and settled on Cave Spring Historic Site. To make a long story short (at least, I really don't want to elaborate b/c it wasn't all that great) it was a hot walk in some trees with spider webs everywhere. The office was closed, so we didn't have a guide and didn't know what was supposed to be cool. The website looked great, so that's why we decided on it. Here we are sweaty and miserable after the long and boring walk.
Sunday was an interesting day. Let's just say it was Fast Sunday, and by the end of the day I was exhausted. Actually, more like at noon. But, I was happy.

In the car on the way home from church Conrad started actually LOOKING at a book, not CHEWING on it!! So CUTE!

Monday.... Labor Day... we had breakfast here in our little Town House place with 3 other couples. D-lish. Next, we went to a BBQ at a friend's house, and let Conrad play and play and play. There were 3 other little baby boys/toddlers Conrad's same age, so he had a riot. After the BBQ I went shopping to Zona Rosa with Heidi. I haven't gone and done any serious shopping since Josh and I were first married, when I spent $60. Since then I've just bought a shirt here and there, or gotten hand-me-downs from my little sister who left on a mission, which I was so grateful for!! SOO, needless to say, I am.... no, WAS, in DIRE NEED for new clothes! And for some style. Heidi is a major fashion freak, so I was in good hands. Josh is tired of me complaining about wearing the same 2 pairs of pants every day and the same style of t-shirt everyday. Anyway, enough of me rambling, here is one of the shirts I got!
I know I wouldn't have bought it if it weren't for my good friend Heidi. But, I tried it on, and now I LOVE IT! Even better, I thought it was going to be $25 bucks, and when I checked out, it was $6.74!!! That's the icing on the cake!

Speaking of cake, I'm planning Conrad's FIRST birthday party. It's in 9 days. I'm not planning anything big, but I want to make it nice for pictures! I will eventually post pictures of everything!