Sure no

It turns out that there is more to the story from Relief Society. The girl who gave her testimony is Armenian and looks a lot like Debbe Lavely in our ward. They sat by each other. Debbe was feeling inspired to have Anna tell her conversion story before Leah even asked her to. They were brought together in that Debbe's patriachal blessing tells her to do her geneology for her Armenian Ancestors and Anna shared that the spirit told her that the reason she was brought to America was so that she could find the gospel and teach her family and do her family temple work. Those Armenian ancestors must have some real pull in heaven. The spirit was so strong, and we all just listened. It was so cool.

This morning I woke up to the insistent and persistent request for long black socks and fabric scissors. I know when I hear that tone in Eirik's voice that I am going to have to either give in or fight all day long, so I got up and found him a non pair of mismatched black tall socks and cut out the heal and the toe at 7:15 AM so that he could dress like a ninja. We had to make him a mask too.. also out of a sock. He drew the war paint on his face and in his mind he was truly a fierce, actual ninja all day long. He so literally becomes his characters that it is past acting. He IS a ninja. After I saw what he was trying to create with the socks, I was like, "hmm, that does look pretty cool." I'm telling you, he's a smart one, and he knows what he wants.





Yesterday I spent 6 or 7 hours working on visiting teaching routes and assignments and other follow up items from presidency meeting and ward council. It was nice to get some things done. I have a couple more hours of work this week ahead of me, but I made some good progress. Also, I still have to plan my lesson. I thought I would teach on self reliance, but it occurred to me that I ought to play off of the listening to the spirit lesson we learned last week and talk abut spiritual self reliance. That goes along with conference really well too. I should have been working on that instead of watching 2 episodes of Glee tonight, but it was so much fun! I wish I were a performer. Sometimes I laugh so hard thinking about my patriarchal blessing that says I will achieve all I want in acting and singing. HA! What the crap is that supposed to mean? Still, I think my voice has really blossomed in the past couple of years. I love to sing. I wish I knew if I were any good.

I have been trying really hard to catch my boys doing good things so that I can give them stickers for their books. Eirik is easy to give stickers to. 1. He is old enough to actually help out so I can ask him to do something and he can do it. 2. He's desperate for stickers, so he will do a lot for them.
Joren, not so much. I am having the hardest time getting him to obey anything. He is in his own world. He loves to wander outside and do "stuff". He does what I always thought little boys did outside, poke the dog, throw stuff in the water, find worms and other bugs, collect stuff, make pocketknives, rescue his pet dinosaur, leave the garden gate open for the bunnies to get in, get in the great big tin bucket full of rain water and take a very dirty swim, or better yet, splash in and then, hey why not, lay down in the huge muddy puddle. And of course, he likes to wander. "Mom I was just trying to catch the ducks." or "I crossed the big street on my bike because I was trying to follow Montana" (the neighbor teenage girl.) I tell ya, he is trouble! He is never malicious, just non compliant, often in an infuriating way. He can get away with so much because he says, "I won't do it again mommy." "I just had to." in the sweetest voice. How does he twist my arm like that!!? Anyway, he won't help, he disobeys, he bites, hits and screams in a super high pitched decibel when he does not get his way and makes mischief and messes everywhere he goes. He likes to say, "sure no." which means, "I'm not gonna do that mom." He also sasses. ie; Joren, please go to your room. "mom, you go to your room!" I wouldn't trade him, I just can't give him very many stickers. I could give him stickers for being cute I guess.