A few words before I go . . .

Hopefully we're leaving tomorrow for a family ski holiday. I say hopefully, because it looks like our youngest child is sick, which means we'll have to delay the trip by a day or two, or just the big kids and dad will go skiing, while I stay home with the sickie. We're waiting to see how she feels in the morning.

We had New Beginnings this week. I definitely feel that the middle of February is late in the year for New Beginnings. We probably should have done it in January, but I felt like we'd just barely put on YW in Excellence, and I wasn't ready for another YW event yet in January. Anyhow, I have a laurel who was finished all her personal progress except for her Good Works project. She told me the project was a surprise for me, and that she would give it to me at New Beginnings, which was so sweet. Right up there with a CTR 5 child giving her primary teacher a picture she made during sacrament meeting. This YW had obviously consulted with the YW secretary, because the presentation was printed up right into the program. She made me a book of quotes on service. It was so perfect, and so her. This girl has a quote for every subject we discuss in class. Her bedroom is practically wallpapered with quotes. She also wrote her testimony in the back of the book. And I thought I'd miss primary.




There's been an unexpected upside to the dishwasher breaking down and my choice to turn to disposable dishes: the kids' jokes have improved tremendously. You know how little kids try to tell jokes, but they just aren't funny. Well, no more. When I bought dixie cups I was really just trying to buy something that all the kids would use, which meant no disney princess, winnie the pooh, or anything else that might offend a 10 year old boy. The joke cups were the only other option.

So why is it dangerous to do math in the jungle? Because when you add 4 and 4 you get ate.

I have a couple of Value Village treasures trapped in the trunk of my minivan. The van is 9 years old, and certain functions are starting to go. The remote for the locks doesn't work every time on every door. In fact, the interior buttons for the locks don't always work. Another problem with the van is that quite often it won't register that the trunk door is closed. When this happens the wiper on the back window won't work, which means with the sloppy roads we've had around here, I have to stop frequently at a gas station just to clean my back window. I just came out of a long stretch of the rear door tricking the van into believing it was ajar. I was so pleased when after a trip to Value Village the rear door registered closed, and the wiper started working again. That was 11 days ago. I haven't opened the trunk since I left the store that day - I'm too afraid the next time I open and close that door I'll be back to a rear wiper that doesn't work. Good thing we're taking Ken's truck on our trip, not my minivan.