11-2-2008 Week in Review

Yes, I know, it's already the 6th....it's been a busy week (you can read about it next week when ever I get to THAT one) LOL. So here's a quick and unexciting rundown....

Sunday night - our new church building in Knightdale was finally dedicated. It was such an amazing event and the dedicatory prayer really touched my heart. I'm thankful for the Lord in my life and for the opportunity to watch His work go forth.

Monday - Um...I can't remember other than I was cleaning...(we're having a yard sale on Saturday and the goal is to clean out the entire house from top (attic) to bottom. We had Family Home Evening and watched a wonderful talk from General Conference by Elder Bednar called Pray Always. I'm really trying to apply his council on making my prayers more meaningful. You should read it if you haven't. It was also my Dad's birthday today!!

Tuesday - Yet another day of cleaning/sorting. I did get some visiting teaching done. My friend, Kelly, and I got to go visit our friend Lisa and share a great message with her and let our kids run rampant. I love going to her house. I always feel at ease and never worry that she thinks my kids are crazy and might destroy something. I've always felt very comfortable around her, I think we have a lot in common. Anyway, I also had Ward Council tonight (A council meeting of group leaders in our congregation that work to meet the needs of our ward.) It's always so inspiring to see the bishop and his councilors at work. They are truly great men. This was also my little sister, Naomi's, 2nd birthday! She's getting so big so fast!

Wednesday - Um, more cleaning/sorting. The boys had scouts. Corben's was at the library. They went to a Halloween party. At night Corben called me in because several of the stories had scared him pretty bad. We sat for about an hour as he told me each story and we worked to turn them into funny stories instead of scary. Like the monster looking for his Big Harry Toe was really a trick or treater looking for his lost gummy candy. Much less frightening. It worked and he was soon asleep. - Our Walton Feed order FINALLY came in. We've been counciled by leaders of our church to have at least a 3 month supply of food on hand for emergencies and times of financial hardship. I've struggled in this area for a long time but at the beginning of the year Ryan and I finally put in a huge order so we could say we had our supply. Well it finally came in and talk about a lot of wheat! I know, some of you are asking what I'm going to do with 8 HUGE buckets of wheat but don't worry. I can actually make some pretty yummy bread among other things. We also got a lot of other items as well but it took several hours to help unload the truck and sort through everyone's orders. Yeah, it's finally done!! Now, if I can just find a place to put it in my house! - I had my last day of photography class and a really great evening. I had some really great feedback on my photos. First of all when I went to go pick up my prints at Walgreens the tech asked me who took the photos and then asked me about my camera and where I'd taken them. He told me I had a really great eye. It was flattering. What was even cooler is what happened when I got to class. I'm not a big talker in group situations (for those of you laughing I mean in groups where I don't know most of the people). I've been pretty quiet this whole 8 weeks and really hadn't been spoken to by anyone either. When I got to class the gentleman who had been on the field trip with us Saturday was telling everyone that I had a great eye and that he was really looking forward to seeing my pictures. Everyone gathered around and all of a sudden I had 20 new friends. I had 2 requests (from other photographers) to come and photograph their kids and 4 requests to go out on photoshoots with others! It was a fun night. Ah well....then back to life :)

Thursday - Corben stayed home from school with a tummy ache and my most fabulous and amazing SIL Jamie came over and helped me clean out and sort every square inch of the girls room. All the baby clothes were sorted by size and season and everything had a place. Talk about a lot of work but it was so amazing to have it done!! Thanks, Jamie!!

Friday - Our sweet RJ was over. He's really getting so big! He's talking quite well and seems to have finally gotten used to hangin' out with his cousins on Fridays. My visiting teachers came over and after hearing about my Yard Sale project set a night to come over and help me clean out the attic. Talk about dedication!! I am truly blessed and thankful! As soon as Ryan got home and RJ had left I packed up the kids and headed over to my friend, Tanya's to go Trick or Treating with Dade and Corben. Ella and Sylvie stayed home with Ryan who manned the door so we wouldn't get egged again this year. It was nice to go to a newer neighborhood. The houses were very close to the street and very close together. Not somewhere I'd want to live, but the perfect place to get max candy in min time. The boys did really well and had a lot of fun. We finally rolled back into the house about 10 pm only to find that Ryan had only had 2 door knocks all night so we have TONS of candy left.

Ella as an Angel	Sylvie as a Witch
Corben as the Black Ninja	Dade as a Mechanic (dirty face/hands and all)

Saturday - Dade spent the night with his friend Andrew and headed out for an early morning service project. The rest of us were up just as early and headed over to the church to clean the building (Members clean and families take turns during the year). The rest of the day was filled with Lady Bugs (everywhere), a nice visit from Rachel, and more cleaning/sorting.....fun.

Lady bugs everywhere!

Even on Sylvie!

Sylvie sure loves Rachel!

Sunday - What a beautiful day!! Of course, we started it off with church where Ella promptly cut her head open on the pew as soon as the meeting started. She never cried but as Ryan picked her up I noticed her bangs were red so her rushed her out. It was more of a puncture wound (she hit the corner of the hymnal rack) and just bled a lot all day. Never a tear was shed but it sure looked bad. - Sunday evening we were invited to go to some friends' property where they were having a HUGE bonfire to burn up some trees and branches that had been cleared off the property Saturday morning during Dade's service project. It was a beautiful night and thanks to some great gates my SIL Erin gave to us I was able to enjoy it without the fear of babies being barbequed. It was a great relaxing evening!

(Above) Ella and Ryan by the bonfire (2 Below) Ryan by the fire