some serious blog Catch up

I was already a few days behind once I got violently sick on Monday night so now I have some serious blog catch up. (thanks again denise)
Our #11 had another soccer game after we got home from camping. She played goalie the second half which totally freaked out Jeff and I - she actually did really well and only had one goal scored on her. I must document her number because of the day she got her jersey and found out she was #11. She came home in tears. Jeff had picked her up from practice and threw is hands in the air saying, "I have no idea what is going on" She showed me her jersey and looked at me and I knew right way, she had a odd number. I am sure there is a condition for this but she is a even number freak. She will count her money and if the number is odd she will remove the amount to keep it even and put the extra in a drawer, she collects bouncy balls from our local pizza shop and will only keep an even number in her jar. She loves numbers has always been good at math and gets excited when the time on a digital clock is 2:22 or 4:44 or 12:12. kind of funny. the therapy we gave her to keep the jersey seemed to work as she kept #11.

Saturday night I went to the broadcast for Women's Conference thanks to a kind friends encouragement. (I have underestimated the awesome experience of watching this with a group of women vs. reading it later) It is a worldwide broadcast from the leaders of our church for all the women in our church, over 5 million. Our local women had a dinner before hand where everyone brought "a taste of home" dish. Before the conference our Stake R.S. president talked about the importance of family recipes, cooking for our family, teaching our children to cook. It was pretty amazing and very touching how they brought the theme of the dinner together before the conference even started. She talked about how cooking is a way for women to see a start and a end to their day. In a world of raising children where you don't see results of your hard work for years or ever, doing something as simple as cooking dinner gives you a chance to start and finish something.

This seems like the perfect place to put in Mindy's grandmother's granola recipe that some of you asked for.
A few of my favorite quotes from the broadcast:

I love taking notes in a cute notebook!

Women find true happiness when they understand and delight in their unique role within the plan of salvation. The things women can and should do very best are championed and taught without apology here

Families mean work, but they are our great work—and we are not afraid of work. This is what we do best You are each unique and precious. Each of you has your own burdens and challenges, which give you the blessing of turning to the Lord for help. We also have the opportunity to assist the Lord by providing relief for others, which is the greatest, fastest solution to loneliness and hopelessness and a sure way to obtain the companionship of the Spirit. All we need to do to start offering relief is get on our knees and ask, “Who needs my help?” Every sister—married or single, young or old—is needed in this relief effort, and it is what we should do better than anyone else.

Julie B. Beck
Dear sisters, love and nurture your children. Tell them you love them. Put your arms around them. Appropriate physical affection will accomplish miracles. Express kind words. Show them by example how to work. Remember that it takes a lot of patience to raise a child. As precious as they are, children can be exasperating, frustrating, and sometimes even naughty. It takes a tremendous amount of patience and restraint in order to avoid doing or saying things we will later regret. Sometimes parents need to put themselves in “time-out” in order to avoid making serious mistakes. Removing yourself from the room for a minute in order to regain control is often very helpful. Barbara Thompson do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle. Thomas S. Monson

Then on to Sunday...

not matter what happened i knew it would be a good day because Sally Jane made it to church with shoes on, unlike last week. It is so fun pulling out the Halloween dresses.

I have been bringing my camera to church to the get the congregation photo directory in order. Annie Kate grabbed my camera and started taking a bunch of photos, I thought this one of one of her favorite people was so cute.
This was one she took of Jeff driving home on the 495. How could she be taking it while he is driving down the freeway... well we have encountered a new twist to our going to church downtown and that is taking two cars. Jeff had to go down early, which could be happening more frequently. I just keep being grateful we have a car and don't have to walk.
she also took this photo of the Temple coming out of the tree tops. There is another view we see were it looks like it is floating in the sky, but said this is her favorite as you drive around the freeway you can look back and see it in the distance. I was amazed she knew that, it was something i had never noticed before.

I also loved that she took this photo and if I ever wonder if I have an influence on her the answer would be yes!
Sunday was really great today and I could write a million things about Testimony meeting. But just a few things I don't want to forget.

• The man who sang all the verses of How Great thou Art in a way I have never heard before. He sang it as part of his testimony in honor of the missionary couple that had to emergently leave to go home because his wife had a recurrence of cancer. They will be so missed.
• Our bishop takes notes of every testimony meeting, I always watch him smile as he is rapidly writing for each one. One the weeks he conducts he concludes the meeting with mentioning EACH person by name and what he loved hearing. It is very touching.
• Primary was great today and I seriously could just squeeze the guts out of those kids i love them so much.

Then I got sick.
While I was sick and my friend kindly took my kids for the day, I would roll over and read stories from this book. Tell My Story Too. it is a compilation of journal entries from immigrants and pioneers who cam to settle the Salt Lake Valley. Most of the ones I have read so far are from England. It is fascinating! Sure made me lying in big fluffy bed with a down comforter not seem so bad.

If I would have done SPT this week.
challenge "Fall into Autumn"

It would have been me holding one of my many Pumpkin oils you can find burning in my home. I love this stuff and this is when it feels like Fall in our home. It is from Bath and Body and right now on sale for half price!
I also took Jill's wonderful idea of a General Conference basket and made three. I went to Goodwill found the baskets and made it exactly the same way as she had been given last year. A notebook, a pen, a water bottle, licorice and some other treats. It was not much but I am telling you with great ribbon and cellophane wrap anything in a basket looks good.
I made them not knowing who i would take them to, because of our calling downtown I don't have people I visit teach, so it was fun to get up this morning and kid of decide on my way out the door. I decided to take them to our compassionate service leader, R.S. President and Stake R.S. President - people who give so much all the time.

We also made our spooking baskets yesterday. We do 5 of these ever year and it is so fun. You can print all the information I put on last year if you want to do it.
It was really fun and even Jeff said, "I love doing this" We usually know 3 of the people we are going to do but as tradition we pick the last two while we are driving around. I think one year we even did one to someone we don't even know.
We have also had sweet little Claire on our mind as she checked into the hospital and has begun her chemo treatments to prepare for the transplant next week. We love you so much! Thank you to all the Pink Christmas girlfriends who have rallied together for this little girl.