Mom's Tag

My mom made up this tag a long time ago and challenged us all to do it. I'm just now getting around to it, since it actually takes a little bit of thought.

Favorite scripture: I LOVE my Mom and Taryn's favorites (2 Nephi 31:20, Alma 37:6) but here are a couple more favorites of mine - "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" ( John 13:34–35), and "And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God." (D&C 14:7)

Favorite hymn: Because I Have Been Given Much, The Spirit of God, Praise to the Man, How Great Thou Art, Nearer My God to Thee, Be Still My Soul, I Stand All Amazed, Families Can Be Together Forever, Teach Me to Walk in the Light, Love One Another, and pretty much all the Christmas songs. Sorry, I love Hymns!

Favorite scripture stories: King Benjamin (why can't our leaders in this day and age be more like him?), Christ's birth, and TONS of stories from Christ's life. For example, I love the story about the adulterous woman where Christ says, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

Favorite Young Women/Men Leaders: Becky Franks, Kathy Nelson, Laura Scoble, Lorna Cavalieri, Brenda Ashby, Shelley Garrett, Rachel Anderson...I'm sure I'm forgetting some because I had SO many great leaders. I've thought about them a lot these last few years. They spent so much time with us, and were really there for us whenever we needed them. I'm so selfish of my time with my family that I know I would not be as available as my leaders always were for me. Maybe that's why they've never called me into young women's! They're such great women, and I appreciate them more now than I even did when they were my leaders.

Favorite calling: I'm teaching Carter's primary class right now, and that's pretty fun. I don't have to wonder if he's driving his teacher crazy every week, because it's me! I also really liked being primary secretary, and activity days leader. I wish that I would have realized how awesome the activity days calling was while I had it. Don't get me wrong...I totally loved the girls, and we had a lot of fun. I just had a hard time remembering it since it was only the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, so I ended up throwing something together last minute more than I like to admit. I think I'm more used to having a schedule now, and would probably do a better job. I also didn't mind being a Relief Society teacher as much as I thought I would. I was only in there for a few months before they called me as primary secretary, and it freaked me out to teach adults, but it was really nice to just sit and enjoy Sunday School and Relief Society every week. I guess I've been pretty lucky with my callings so far! Oh man, I've already blabbered on forever and I just thought of my all time favorite calling! It was teaching Primary with Randall. I've always been a little obsessive about spending time with my hubby, so I loved being able to be with him for all 3 hours of church. I guess I should have thought out the answer before I started typing! Ü

Least favorite calling: Is it possible for your favorite calling to also be your least favorite calling? Seriously, I loved the women I worked with when I was primary secretary, and we had a lot of fun together. However, it was VERY time consuming and stressful. I also was the "Faith in God Supervisor." I was supposed to keep track of the goals that the kids had already completed for their Faith in God, and it was really difficult to do. I made little sticker charts and everything, but there are SO many kids in our ward. I didn't feel like I did a very good job with it, so I guess that's why it's one of my least favorite.

Who made you laugh today?: Carter did after I explained that we only have two yogurts left and we'll have to share. His reply was: "I don't want to share like you, I want to eat mine all by myself like Daddy." Meleah also cracks me up daily because she's constantly going around saying "eat! eat! eat!" and if she's not saying that she's saying "poo-poo" whether she's really stinky or not. You know, being the third, you kind of have to fight for attention. Maybe she just likes when I pay attention to her even if it's just to check and see if she really does need a diaper change. She also cracked me up when I was singing to her before her nap. I always start out singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" but whenever I try to switch to a different song she interrupts me with "up-a-ba" (up above) to let me know she wants Twinkle Twinkle again.

Who's happier because of you today?: Randall, because I just upgraded our slow high speed internet to not quite as slow high speed internet like he's been asking me to do for MONTHS!

Describe a sweet experience you've had recently: I can't believe I'm saying this, because this has been a very difficult week for me...but there have been some sweet moments. My kids and myself have all had the flu (yeah the yucky stomach, worst kind of sickness for kids to have, flu). Because of that, I've had lots of time holding my poor sick babies. Even Carter took a nap in my lap while he was sick, which hasn't happened in a long time, and Meleah cuddled for hours with me, which has NEVER happened. I spent lots of time babying each one individually since they were all sick on different days. That being said, my house is a total DISASTER right now, but I'm hopefully going to get it back to comfortable chaos at some point today.

What makes you mad?: My kids making huge messes and not cleaning them up, whining, my husband wanting to spend ANY of his scarce free time without me by his side, and people that get into the right lane at a light knowing full well that the lane ends 2 seconds later.

What makes you sad?: This is kind of a funny one, because I always tell Randall I'm sad at him instead of mad at him, (a failing attempt at guilt) so it's kind of similar to the previous question. Honestly though, just thinking about anything bad happening to my family or friends occassionally keeps me up at night, and makes me sad. Even just thinking of my kids being teased at school in the future, or something really minor like that really gets to me.

What do you want to accomplish?: I want to have a healthy baby in January, and POSSIBLY another one a couple years later...finish school...and lately I've been wanting to work for Kids on the Move (Lydia's early intervention program) or maybe a school office or something. I really love kids, but I'm not sure I want to teach 30 of them every day anymore. If I do, I'll probably want to teach older kids like Jr. High or older elementary since that's what my degree will allow.

What makes you want to get up and do something?: Watching Biggest Loser makes me want to exercise, and putting on loud music usually gets me motivated to clean, exercise, or at least dance around and act like an idiot with my kids.

How do you pull yourself out of a bad mood?: I'm a little too scatterbrained to stay in a bad mood for long. Even when I'm trying really hard to stay mad at someone I usually forget, and start being nice to them without thinking. Since my kids are usually the ones distracting me, I guess I can give them the credit for helping my mood.

What talent are you most grateful for?: I guess cooking since it's pretty much my only talent, although I'd probably be a lot skinnier if I couldn't cook. However, I think it's most likely one of the main reasons Randall married me, so I guess it's worth it. Ü

This post has taken me FOREVER, but I recommend it to anyone. I'm really glad that I have all of this information saved for posterity and all that.