last week before this week is over! yikes!

Weekend update on a Thursday?  Wow.  This is more like a week update.

General Conference weekend is always one of my favorite weekends of the year.  This year was even more special.  We ended up having our YSA friends come for Saturday morning breakfast and conference.  They brought cold cereals and gallons and gallons of milk, donuts, muffins and all sorts of treats.  The girls and I made quick breads, as our tradition mandates! wink! 

The morning session was uplifting, but the kids were also inspiring.  As we watched the conferences in total silence, they took notes, paid attention and focused completely.  These kids are truly remarkable!  After the first session, they all decided to go and play frisbee at the park and asked if they could come back for the afternoon session and just eat more cereal and milk.  They left and Doug and I dedided to go and order a giant 40" pizza from Firehouse for lunch instead of a repeat of cereal.  We ate and the minute that conference began, again, they were focused on the messages of our church leaders.  We do love these kids!  Quayd and Zee were both fighting this same bug and didn't have a lot of interaction, but Grace even went to the park with them.  They don't love every activity because some are focused more on young adults than teens, but they do love the kids!

 

We pulled out pillows and camp chairs and blankets. 

Conference is always great, but with these guys, it was even more "fun"!

Our whole family is fighting this bug.  We've been almost a month with someone sick.  Doug ended up missing four days of work.  Quayd missed almost a week of school.  Zee is now three weeks down, missing two weeks of school at the doctor's recommendation.  She's doing homeschool work to try to keep up.  It's an awful Bug!  Grace and I have days where were feel like it's getting us too, then we are fine.  So strange, but the doctor says it's a bad one and lasts about six weeks.  Yuck!  Zee hopes to go back to school on Monday, but right now, we she's just sleeping a lot.  He even tested her for mono.

The rest of our week has been busy and fun.  Tuesday night, for our Young Womens Activity, we took the girls to a movie to see Miracles from Heaven.  What a sweet story.  Zee had to miss it, but Grace loved it!

Grace is still dating Eric but she's taking more time for herself and her girlfriends this past few days.  We enjoy watching her as she is growing and learning about life and relationships.  What has impressed us most is that she is so determined to help Eric be ready for his mission.  She knows it will be hard to send him off and she has no plans of not dating while he's gone, but she wants to see this boy serve his mission!  We are so proud of her!

Yesterday was a huge day for our home!  We've been in the home for over thirteen months.  One of the first things that I wanted to do when we bought the home was get rid of all of the overgrown shrubs from our front yard.  At first, I was concerned that it would offend Brother Neilson, who we bought the home from.  However, it was needed!   The junipers were literally a spider haven.  One neighbor described them as "so full of spiders that they moved".  So, in between storms, as has been talked about for thirteen months, Alan and Jill came over and with their truck and straps, they, Quayd and Doug were able to pull all of the shrubs from the front of our home.  The rain has been a gift because the ground was soft and they came out flawlessly!  The home looks so different!  Now, we have four trailer loads of junipers mounded in the driveway to haul off to the landfill over the next few days.   What a huge difference!  And next... to wait a few weeks until the weather is good enough to plant something new that won't be so overgrown and out of control!  We're excited to add a little salsa garden in the flower beds.  Last year, we planted tomatoes in 20 different places in the back yard and with all of the full grown trees, nothing grew.  It looks so different outside from the inside and the out!  HAPPINESS!!!

I literally sat and watched but they sure worked hard!

 This boy of ours!  He's incredible.  He works hard and has a great attitude about it!

 What a difference!

I'm still working on ZJ's and Doug's birthday interviews.  She's felt so yucky that we have only answered about half her questions and she just isn't "in the mood".  When you feel bad, who wants to even think.   I'll get hers done and then post Doug's, as well.  At least, I'm not giving up!

And last but not least, today Doug and I celebrate 39 years of marriage!  That's a whole other post, as well.  I'm seriously so behind on blogging, for the first time in ten and a half years!  I keep saying, "Tonight... tomorrow... and I've been much busier before, but right now, it's just not been a priority with all else that has been going on. 

Life is good!  BUSY, EXCITING and good!