Have I told you that we're going on a cruise this month? OH MY GOODNESS! We are so excited! Mexico here we come! We're pulling the kids out of school for a week and taking a family trip! We'll be traveling with my folks and my sister's family - we went last year together to Mexico on the same ship. One of the sweetest things about last year's trip was that when we asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was they said "eating together." Glad we spent all that money to go to Mexico so they could enjoy what we do on holidays, birthday, many Sundays......actually they were probably meaning just how much time we all spent together on board, and usually if we were awake, someone was eating.
Today my Mom called and said that because of an amazing offer through Carnival this morning, we would be upgrading our rooms from this....(Which would have been quite lovely and we were gratefully looking forward to....)
to this! Wow! A Penthouse Suite! I can't believe we're going to have a private balcony, a walk in closet, and bubbly tub! The kids are going to use the sofa bed. We are soooooooooooooooo excited! It isn't even on a "public" floor - it takes a special key to get there. We don't leave for a few weeks, but I just wanted to share the excitement!
Sing with us! "Somewhere beyond the sea,
Somewhere, waiting for me,
My lover stands on golden sands
And watches the ships that go sailing..."
Just a question - I was listening to General Conference today and they were encouraging us to have courage to share our beliefs. I was reminded of a time when I was in either High School or Jr High and maybe it was just a local thing but they passed out these buttons at church. They had a heart on them and said "BIONIC", with a white background. BIONIC stood for "Believe it or not I care" and we had to promise that if we took one, we'd wear it everywhere. Well, I don't actually remember the promising, I just had a flash back of being in PE and my teacher telling me I couldn't wear the button on my gym clothes. "But Mrs ?! It's for my church! It's not bad! I promised I'd wear it!" yeah, I didn't get away with it. I think she rolled her eyes at me and told me to take it off. I wonder if I could have gotten away with it today. "I have to wear it for religious purposes!" "Oh, ok Barbara. I'm sorry. Can I have one too? I looks really nice with your gym top!" I don't know. It seems like people get away with more these days. I googled forever and I couldn't find a photo. Does anyone else remember them? The idea was that it would be a conversation starter, but I don't remember anyone ever asking me about it. It was small, like the black or white buttons everyone wore on their denim jackets or bags in the 80's. Anyway, the notion of me arguing with my PE teacher to wear that button just cracked me up. Oh, I felt so misunderstood. *grin*
This weekend is General Conference for our church. What is that? It's a twice a year meeting where the leaders of the church speak to the world to educate and edify anyone that wants to listen. (Directv users - it's channel 374 - byu tv or see LDS.ORG) It's a 2 day thing, and Saturday evenings there is a special meeting for the men, who are members of the priesthood, only. (Which, for the record, is just fine with me. I don't want another meeting to go to, nor do I want the priesthood. Plus, a transcript of the meeting is published in a magazine I can read later if I want.)
Today was extra special
, because while Mr. W will not be receiving the priesthood at this time, he was old enough to attend the meeting for the first time. When he got home he said "Mom, I'm a grown up now! I went to the meeting with Dad!" He and Mike were able to attend a pre-priesthood meeting pizza & rootbeer dinner with some friends of ours and their ward before the meeting. Tonight in Mr. W's prayer he said "Thank you Heavenly Father for letting me go to the man meeting." (I love that he called it that!) So, I wanted to share all this because I know that some of you were mighty curious if he would be attending, and if he did, how he would do in a 2 hour meeting shown on a movie screen broadcast from Salt Lake City. I guess he sat there and for the most part listened. Oddly, he didn't draw for the whole thing, and even SANG ALONG with the last 2 songs. (or tried to.) He came home very at peace and very calm. What a special night. We sure do love our 12 year old!
For Squish's birthday I told him we were going to have a family dinner at our place, and that it would pretty much just be a quiet dinner at home with both sets of Grandparents (Mike's folks were flying in that day for his baptism) and that his cousins would be there too. (the ones that live locally.) So, he went to school and I went into action. (Cue"mission impossible" music) I decorated the backyard with a bunch of streamers and Speed Racer stuff, decorated a Speed Racer car cake, and let in the bounce house man to set up what would make this "The Best Birthday Ever!" (At least, that's what Squish said.)
It went from this.....
To this in just a few minutes. I was worried that phone line would get knocked down or over with the bouncing, but it was just fine. My orange tree behind the castle didn't appreciate how often we deflated and inflated the castle, but the ki
ds loved watching it deflate and fill up again. It was a really cool combo bounce house that also had a big slide and a climb through tunnel. We've never had anything like this before and don't usually do "big things" for birthdays.
When Squish got home from school we told him he had to do his homework before everyone got there, so after he was done, I tied a ribbon to the bounce house and told him "I have a really big balloon for you, you just have to find it." I had wound it around in the house a littl
e, to give me a few seconds to run outside and turn on the camcorder. I hadn't anticipated how fast they would be, and oh, the happiness on those four faces!
"This is the life!" Says Mr. W (while doing his homework later than night)...
Cousin Ozzie enjoying the tunnel .....
Mike enjoyed the bounce house too...
Mike's folks...
Cousin Cakes
and here's my folks.....
And here's my Mom and Sister....
It was a great party, we had pizza for dinner, cake, and created lots of bouncy memories! The best part was that because it was our first bounce house the man left it for us overnight and didn't come back for it until 7pm-ish the next day! WoooHooo!! By the end I was almost forcing them into it. They wanted to keep bouncing, but it was a really hot day and they were just dripping with sweat. Being the good mother that I am however, (ha ha) I kept saying "No, you can't go inside and play video games! We don't know when the bounce house man will be back to take it to his store! Go play!" (Because he just said "I'll come get it in the morning, you don't have to be home") So I really kept thinking it would be gone any second. Let's just say the boys slept really, really well that night. They did their homework in there, and when I finally gave up and could tell they had bounced enough, they laid down inside the bounce house and played Nintendo DS video games and read books. You might say we got some serious mileage out of that castle.
What is it about the Fair? Is it the sights of really cool prizes that can be won?
