Cameron made more blankets for the hospital with his friend this week for his Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge. On Wednesday, Mike, Cameron, and Logan went to the Priesthood Commemoration which is just an excuse for them to eat and play sports together… but they always have a lot of fun. On Friday, Emma and I went to a Diaper Shower at the park and Emma enjoyed being with her friends. I left a little early to bring Cameron his birthday lunch at school.

In the evening, we met our friends the Updikes at Stonewerks for dinner and then they came over and played games with us. We played pretty late, but it was a lot of fun.

On Saturday, it was Cameron’s birthday. I registered Logan and Errolyn for Swim Team. Cameron won’t be doing it this year since all of the swim meets are on mutual nights. Then I took Logan to his t-ball game, picked up Cameron’s cake, picked up his friend Josh, and then Carol, Grandma, and Jim all came over for Cameron’s birthday meal. Cameron had a good time. Everyone went swimming, and I left a little early since I had to play the violin at a wedding. I got back early from the wedding and Mike and I watched the 2008 version of the Incredible Hulk since we hadn’t seen yet. There weren’t any ties to the Avengers other than the very last scene with Iron Man.

Today, I had to play the piano for the ward choir which made the morning crazy since Mike was also going to a different ward. I also taught the Relief Society lesson on temples. The lesson was just ok. I had a lot prepared but ten minutes into the lesson, a non-member raised her hand and asked what a temple was. So, I felt like I spent the rest of the lesson teaching to her and dumbing down everything so it was more understandable to everyone. So, it wasn’t the big symbolic in-depth lesson I had prepared, but hopefully the non-member and the new sister baptized have a better understanding of the temple. The one lady did ask me afterwards if she could still be sealed to her children even though she was married outside of the temple. When I explained yes, and how, she seemed very excited.

So, on Tuesday Logan performed with the Kindergartners at the PTA meeting. They sang two songs and he did a good job. Cameron went over to a friend’s house to make blankets for a service project; they need the hours for Scouts. On Wednesday, Emma and I went on a tour of HEB with a bunch of her preschool friends. They got little hair nets and went in the bakery and saw how tortillas were made and got a cookie. Then they went behind the produce section and saw how fresh orange juice was made. Then they went in the meat section and the seafood section and got a glove to touch the crab legs and live crawfish. Emma wouldn’t touch the crawfish though. Then they went on the second floor where you could see the whole store from up above. Then they got to scan things out at a cash register and then meet HEB buddy, the mascot. They each got a goodie bag to take with them and Emma had fun. Afterwards she played with her friends at the park.

On Thursday, Cameron got bottom braces and an expander on top. He was hurting really badly by the end of school and his tongue was rubbing raw in two places because of the new wires. He’s a lot better now, but I feel bad for him. Emma also had her last dance practice on Thursday.

On Friday, Cameron’s friend Josh came over to do their Personal Fitness Assessment again, and then Cameron went with his friend to help him move boxes to their new house. Kevin came in the late afternoon and we all enjoyed seeing him. Errolyn and Logan wasted no time teaching Kevin how to play Bang. He seems to like it and we’ve been playing a lot of it since Kevin arrived. Friday night we all went to Emma’s dance recital. She was cute to watch. Then Mike and I stopped by a wedding reception real quick and then we came home and talked with Kevin.

Saturday, I had my annual Stake Music Training. It took a lot of preparation but it turned out well. Afterwards, we had the Stake Music Workshops and I taught a composing class. Now that Finale Notepad is free, and I got permission from the Family History Center to use their computers, I installed the software on the church’s computers and had a step by step tutorial on how to use the software. It was fun to see how excited people were to learn how to use the software, write the notes, and hear what they had written played back to them. Mike took Logan to his t-ball game and Logan hit both of his balls from pitches from the coach instead of the tee, so he was excited.

In the afternoon, we took the kids swimming and then I took Cameron to the library. Then I took Errolyn dress shopping. We went to at least eight stores a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t find a single modest dress that fit Errolyn. She’s in between sizes right now. So, I finally broke down and took her to the mall and found four dresses that she liked. Kevin spent the day at Grandma’s taking pictures of her family history and then helping her with yard work. We all got home in time for dinner and then we played games and talked. Mike and I wrote/ finished writing our talks in the evening.

So, this morning the kids made me breakfast in bed, sang me a song, and gave me their cards. It was sweet. Mike and I both spoke in church. Mike said some really wonderful things about me in his talk and even got choked up when talking about me several times. I think he’s in love with me. I was supposed to talk about promoting love in the home. I started off talking about Band-Aid fixes and that a lot of the things we do to promote love in the home, incentives, consequences are Band-Aid fixes and don’t change the root of the problem. It’s the whole doctrine, principals, application concept. If you teach you children the “why”, then they will naturally do the “how.” If you teach them to have a firm belief in the Savior and how to feel the Holy Ghost then there will naturally be more peace and love in the home. How can you feel the Holy Ghost and yell at each other at the same time? I talked about teaching our kids to feel the Holy Ghost and to have firm belief in the Savior for the majority of the talk. And then we came home, ate, and played some games together.

Usually, I love these Mother’s Day things… but I don’t know about this one, lol. Logan was cracking up the whole time I was reading it, so I think he was trying to be funny for most of it.

My mom is 33 years old. (close)
My mom weighs 4101 pounds. (what??!!!)
My mom’s favorite color is blue. (green)
My mom’s favorite food is macaroni. (Taco Salad)
My mom cooks the best cookie.
My mom’s job is driving in the car. (I guess it does seem like that)
My mom laughs when… never. (I’m laughing now)
If my mom had time, she would love to change a baby diaper. (Yes, what I’ve always dreamed of… lol)
My mom & I like to go to HEB.
My mom really loves her husband. (Hey, he got one right)
I love my mom because she’s tall. (Just warms my heart… lol)

But, he did make me a really sweet card saying I was the best mom in the whole world.

And here’s Errolyn’s…

These are the Top 10 Reasons Why I Love My Mom:

10- I love my Mom because she reads me stories
9- I love my Mom because she helps me with problems.
8- I love my Mom when she makes me laugh by playing funny Youtube videos
7- I love my mom because she taught me not to be lazy
6- I love to hear my Mom sing “I Am a Child of God”
5- I love my Mom because she finds time to play games
4- I know my Mom cares because she gives me a home and food
3- I know my Mom is smart because she helps me with my homework
2- I love my Mom because she works so hard at cleaning the house
1- I love my Mom because she’s the BEST MOM EVER!

So, a couple of weeks ago we had a lesson on baptism. Mike demonstrated with Logan how it would be done when he turned eight. I just looked over, and Logan had Emma positioned just right and said he was baptizing her. Lol. It was cute. He pretended to dunk her under water and then Emma said, “Wait,” and ran off. She returned with goggles and then Logan pretended to baptize her again. Now they are both wearing goggles. Lol. It’s so cute.

So, I had a pretty bad cold for about a week and a half, but I’m much better now. Mike got really sick too so we weren’t able to go to the ward campout… the kids were really bummed. So, we got a Redbox for them and Logan and Errolyn camped out in a tent in the living room. I found out that I will be playing with the professional Symphony again in their upcoming Planet’s concert, so that will be fun. This last week I had a concert with my Symphony and it was a lot of really great music. Errolyn and Mike came and enjoyed it. We played Finlandia (otherwise known as Be Still My Soul), Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Bolero, 1812 Overture, and then a Phantom of the Opera suite. I’ve played the 1812 Overture several times before, but this time was the first time we played it with a choir. The choir wasn’t very good at the beginning of the piece, but when the orchestra climaxed at the end of the piece, the church bells and cannon came in, and the choir came in singing “God save our sacred land,” I was overwhelmed with emotion in both the dress rehearsal and concert. I’m thoroughly convinced that the composers of old who wrote such wonderful music were truly inspired of God. And when you’re a part of such great music it is impossible not to feel the power behind it.

The big disappointment of the night was my violin. I was tuning, and somehow, my bridge completely snapped in half and broke. Every violinist turned my way in horror… every violinist’s worst fear. Three jumped up saying they had an extra bridge I could borrow. But, upon further examination, my sound post had also fallen over, which is impossible to fix without a special tool. I was told I could still play without the sound post for one concert, but that it wouldn’t sound very good and I would need to loosen my strings and remove the bridge as soon as I was done. I have a friend who works in a violin shop who also plays in the Symphony with me, so he took the violin back with him to his shop and fixed it for me. I picked up the violin on Saturday, just in time to play in a quartet for a wedding I was hired for. My violin sounds much, much better now… so I wonder if the bridge had been having problems for the last couple of months.

Cameron had an orthodontist appointment this week and is ready for braces. He will have braces on his bottom teeth and an expander on top for 5 months and then afterwards top braces. He was prepared to not eat chewy and sticky foods, but when they mentioned he couldn’t have popcorn her was devastated. They told him to have a big popcorn party before he got his braces. Then Dr. Hulme came in, who we trust and know from church, and said Cameron would need some spacers in for about a week before he could get his braces. The assistant said they had time and could put them in right then. Great, one less appointment to make. So, Cameron got in his spacers, and THEN she told him the same rules for braces applied to the spacers, no sticky foods or popcorn. Cameron was crushed that he never got his one last popcorn party. Lol. Poor kid.

Friday, I went to enrichment and learned about self defense. I learned a few moves to escape from an attacker… watch out world. Saturday, we cleaned and then went to Malibu Castle with Carol since she had a Groupon that was about to expire. Emma was so cute on the go kart, thinking she was driving. She loved waving to everyone as we passed by them. And then on the bumper boat she was in charge of the sprayer and enjoyed shooting water at Errolyn and the others. We played golf… but quickly. 4 kids with golf clubs and balls is a scary situation, so we went fairly quickly through the course… lol. Then the kids used their tokens for games and got their prizes. Then I raced to pick up my violin and get to my wedding I had to play at. Afterwards, Mike and I went over to the Updike’s and had fun playing games and talking.