"Almost" teen communication skills

Just a random thought... How come my almost teenage boy can only respond to me in jokes and grunts? Jokes if he's happy and grunts if he's not... Have we lost the abilty to communicate in a normal fashion??? Am I not a communication "expert"? What does it say about me when my children have abnormal communcation skills? When I ask a question and he responds with "Beans!" do I interpret that as positive or negative? just wondering

Do you have the same Tooth Fairy we have???

Our Tooth Fairy is a little Flaky!!!

She tends to forget a lot - and then she comes at weird times, or leaves the money in weird places. Unfortunately it sometimes makes for very distressed little girls in the morning. She always seems to make it right eventually, but sheesh!! What a Flake! Do you have the same Tooth Fairy we have???

Visiting a friend...

I am always full of good intentions. I have a good friend that for weeks, if not months we've been doing the "we should get together and visit thing..." I've missed talking with her and just finding out how she's doing. Last night my oldest was headed to her house ( to see her husband) and I just invited myself along. We spent almost two hours just hanging out and chatting and I probably kept her from everything she had to do, but I am SOO glad that I just went with my instinct (or listened to the spirit) and followed through. Something I definitely need to do more often.

Inside Out

What does it say when you realize at the end of the day that your sweater is on inside out and that the tag has been sticking out ALL DAY?!! And furthermore, that your teen age son says he noticed but thought it was just supposed to be that way?

Friday the 13th!!

Spencer turns 10 today and he has the distinction of having his birthday on Friday the 13th this year along with the Valentine's celebrations at school. He'd rather not have his Birthday associated with Valentine's so we decided to play up the Friday the 13th theme! You have to love iron-ons! We made him this t-shirt to wear to school.

We have decided that Friday the 13th is a lucky day in our house! Grandpa Hall's birthday fell on the 13th of the month along with 2 of his siblings. Spencer also has an Aunt and an Uncle with birthday's on the 13th! Ironically, I had 3 of my 4 kids on Friday and Spencer was the only one not born on Friday. He was born on Saturday. He was also my only child born with the aid of an epidural and he came into the world with his mother laughing (I couldn't believe I was actually having a baby because it didn't hurt!). I think that laughter transferred to Spencer because he has the most amazing smile. He certainly knows how to melt my heart!
Happy Birthday Spencer!!

Choir

For those of you that have ever attended choir with me, you know that there is just something about choir that loosens me up. Maybe it is the people that I attend with or that somehow it is a place that I don't have to worry about anything else. And yes... Sometimes I have been know to relax a little too much at choir.

Today we had the opportunity to sing for stake conference. And while the conference was good, I really think it was singing with the choir that really made me feel good. So I have been pondering this experience today. I've decided that it is probably a combination of things. One reason I think goes back to Pres. Uchtdorf's talk to the women last September reminding us of our abilty and need to be creative. Being part of the choir is one way that I can let that creativity out. Music for me has always been a creative outlet, and I just don't take enough opportunities anymore to use that creativity.

Another part of it probably has something to do with the fact that I get the most satisfaction out of the intense moving pieces. Think about it. When do we really get the chance to stand up in church and raise our voices to the fullest and have that be a good thing? So I get to let out my emotion and stress, do it in full voice, and... I wasn't actually yelling at anyone!

To top it all off. Spencer gave us the greatest compliment! He said that we sounded just like the tabernacle choir! What a great kid!

Warning...

Should have known it was coming.

Would have rather it hadn't happened at work.

Thanks for the hugs and the Diet Coke.

Moving on...