Saturday we made a lasagna, and a shrimp pesto alfredo dish, and Jon made panna cotta (gourmet Italian jello-pudding) and then we got a mix of Ceasar salad and added in some olives and purple onions. We went early to set up two tables and set the table with a tablecloth and centerpiece and nice disposable plates, cups and silverware. We even found small disposable dessert dishes for the panna cotta. We had a lady who made two fresh loaves of French bread- really good. We cooked for 14 people including our Temple President and his wife, Mission President and his wife, Stake President and his wife, Stake Presidency, Elder Hallstrom and Elder Dudley (visiting General Authorities). It went pretty well, but it got a little busy. I was supposed to be back with food right when our babysitter showed up. I gave her a quick run down and left her my phone number and told her to text me if she had any questions (even if it was to just find something). Dinner went well and the adult session was good. The topic of the conference was "The Work of Salvation". Elder Dudley spoke about Ward Council and Family Council and one lady who spoke, spoke specifically about family council in her family. She mentioned how they had a problem once and brought the matter to everyone's attention in family council, then they dismissed everyone for a few minutes and had everyone retire to their rooms to pray about the problem. Everyone came back and they started youngest to oldest with their solutions. I don't remember all of them, but the youngest girl thought they should ask Grandma to come help (so they did). One of their boys came up with another plan and they incorporated his idea. They used everyone's idea and got through the problem. I thought that was great- how everyone in the family was expected to pray and come up with an idea and everyone's idea was implemented, in some way or another. Elder Hallstrom spoke about the Sabbath Day. It made me realize I need to change some things. Sunday is the Lord's Day, not just a day of rest. It's a day to rest from the cares of the world and focus on the Savior. It is not enough to merely refrain from doing certain things, but also to fill it with uplifting things. It was mentioned that appropriate Sabbath Day activities will change from family to family. One family spoke of how Saturday is a very hectic day getting ready for Sunday and they have different activity centers set up for their kids for Sunday, including a family history area in their home and a place set up with coloring stuff to send pictures to grandparents (from the smaller children). Anyways, Mom's blog post last week had a meme that suggested appropriate activities, such as reading a conference talk or a random act of kindness, writing in your journal or calling someone who is sick. It reminded me of my mission and how Sundays were not a relaxing day. It was filled with worrying about which investigators were coming to church and meetings and teaching (just like any other day). I guess our Sundays should be more like mini missions- whether we're studying, ministering, teaching, doing family history- we should make sure that we are doing the Lord's work on Sunday. (Spending time with family is part of the Lord's work too, or can be.) Besides making a few goals for better Sunday worship for myself, I was also impressed that family council and Sabbath Day were the main things they talked about with a theme of "The Work of Salvation". I felt like improving our Sabbath Day worship and family council are very important parts of attaining Salvation and Exaltation- so they're things I need to improve on.
Conference weekend, we had a friend stay with us and her son (who doesn't love George- her son is an introvert and George doesn't understand how someone could want personal space). Anyways, we invited her and her husband to eat lunch with us before heading home (they live in our stake but about an hour away). Then we got Jon's mom from the airport that night.
This week, lots of birthday preparations and lots of grandma time. We went to the library and the store and Tuesday we went to Babies R Us to look for a present for George from Grandma Patsy. I don't remember day to day, but his party went great! Mom sent lots of cool stuff and then we put everything up. Only 5 kids came, but George went from sad and wanting to be held to his face lighting up and wanting down so he could play. We had lots of cars to play with and balloons and a craft (precut stickers to put on an outline of a car which can be made into a magnet) and a pin the headlight on Mater. The cake turned out well and the food did too. We just did a picnic on a blanket in the front room. George learned how to use his toy from us (Jon and I) his first car ramp thing and had lots of fun. He crashed afterwards. Friday we had a down day but we did go to Once Upon a Child, where we bought George some clothes and I found this animal zoo I've been looking for (on Amazon it's $75 and on ebay it's $70 used so I was happy to finally find it at Once Upon a Child for $15).
We set up all his presents and wrapped the good stuff from Mom. It looked like Christmas- but I think it was more exciting for me than for George. When we went to open presents he was more interested in the computer where Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Julie and Aunt Bug were watching. But he loves his new toys. He got a tool set from Mom and a magnet set that we haven't gotten out of the box yet, but he likes the music it plays so far. And he liked carrying around his movies (Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 and Make Mine Music with Peter and the Wolf on it). He's so fun to watch and play with now. After opening presents we went for a drive to a small town about 30 minutes from us called Nashville. We went to a puppet/marionette show for his birthday. It was a Halloween show and was really well done. Afterwards the lady told us to come to the Christmas show in Indy. She told us they normally say 18 months and up but that George was so good and watched this whole show that he'd be fine at the Christmas one (if we want to). I enjoyed it and George laughed and he got to high five one puppet and she had an alien puppet that landed on his hand. Then we ate lunch, got fudge (which Nashville is known for) and headed home. Jon watched George while Patsy and I went to the Women's Broadcast.
