an up and down weekend

Well, going private ended up being a bigger mess than I thought. It was too much of a hassel for less-experienced computer users out there (sorry, Mom!) I thought I was doing a good thing. Anyhoo, I'm opening it back up. Hopefully I won't regret it!

We've had a couple of up and down days...a total mess with a sitter Saturday and me ending up in tears unable to go to a certain get together I'd been looking forward to. That happened two weeks in a row with the same babysitter by the way, so needless to say, I won't be using her services any time soon. Ahh well, they're just teenagers. Then after that, a friend from the scrapbooking website I use (www.keepsaketrends.com) gave me a bunch of product that she no longer needed or used. Literally so much stuff, it would take me months to get through. It was so nice of her--she even lent me her copy of a book I want to get "52 Scrapbooking Challenges" by Elsie Flannigan. She gave me a ton of paper and fun things that I am excited to use. So nice! I'm glad I made a friend in her.

Then Sunday, I lost our keys at church. Oh, that is such a horrible feeling. It's our only set because we bought the van used and only got the one. It has a microchip in it, thus we were unable to copy it. Of course we could buy one for $60-80, but we just never did it. I looked for hours for those keys, even going back during another ward's block to see if someone had found them and turned them into the library. No luck; we got a ride home and tried to figure out what to do from there. I called our Bishop to let them know that we were missing them, and that way if someone mentioned it during tithing settlement today, he could put us in touch. Turns out he had them; couldn't even remember who had given them to him, but he had them. Whew.

We then proceeded to have a busy day, with tithing settlement and the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional via broadcast from Salt Lake City shown at our Stake Center--so good! As always, it was wonderful. The messages were sweet, the music was awesome (particularly the Mo-Tab's version of "The First Noel") and of course I love seeing the new center decorated in Christmas trees and lights and poinsettias. Ethan was a little crazy during the whole thing...all in all just too much darn sitting today, but I'm really glad we made the effort to go. The chapel was maybe 1/3 full...I'm sure most of the members of the stake are able to get the broadcast on satellite.

I've been spending some time on ebay, trying to get deals on Christmas gifts for the kids. But I think I'm going to just have to bite the bullet and go to Toys R Us. It's a half hour drive for us and the traffic is horrid, the crowds are worse, and I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm just not finding exactly what I need for one of my kiddos. Fun times!

Tomorrow, Danny and I plan to do a temple session, so that will be a nice reprieve. Perhaps we can hit Toys R Us afterwards, when we're feeling a bit more charitable and friendly. ;)