Girls vs Boys

"Girls are almost as smart as boys, huh, Mom"

I look sideways at him trying to gauge if he is sincere or teasing me.  (He loves to tease me.)

He continues,"back when they didn't let girls go to school, their brains were really tiny. Now that they go to school with the boys their brains are just about the same as boys.  It is pretty smart that I know that, huh?"

"Yes.  I am glad you know that girls can be just as smart as boys.  You know Gavin, when I was growing up, Granddad used to tell me I could do anything that a boy could do.  It helped me to try and learn a lot of things that most girls didn't.  Like fixing my car, and playing basketball."

"Really?" he says surprised.  Granddad's wisdom is second only to Gavin's dad so this is big news.  "But girls can't pee standing up."

Race of Life RS Lesson Outline

At the request of a couple people, I have uploaded the outline of the lesson I taught in Relief Society in September.  It was based on the talk by President Monson-- "The Race of Life" (who knew it would be in the top ten in Google Search.)

I tried to clarify some of the thoughts I had abbreviated for my lesson purposes.  I hope you'll be able to adapt it with some of your personal experiences--I think those are the best lessons.

In my ward, the sisters shared so much of what they have learned in their life that we were unable to finish the entire lesson.  

I hope it is helpful.

 Jennifer's RS Lesson Outline

Here is the link to my earlier post. September Race of Life post

Lost Another Tooth

See the hole on the bottom left?  That is where one inserts the
tooth.  The black Lego is then placed in the hole area
securing the tooth inside the "tooth holder."

Gavin lost another baby tooth today.  When I asked him if he was going to put it under his pillow and trade the tooth fairy for a gold dollar he said "NO!" and took off running into the other room.

A few minutes later he brought in this Lego creation. 

"That's cool Gavin.  I like the handle."  I say expecting a correction of my "handle comment".  (Obviously it is some galactic object that powers the ninja-turbo-minecraft power boosting something or other that moms simply cannot understand.)

Instead he smiles proudly.  "Yep.  It is a tooth holder."

Gavin's Scarecrow...Kinda

Gavin pulls his school papers out if his backpack.

"I made some Halloween decorations at school today" he comments handing them to me.

I look at the strangely put together scarecrow and consider whether he completely missed the instructions, or whether it was his "new design" attaching all the limbs in this way.
 
I look up and he is smirking at me, enjoying my puzzlement. 

"This looks a little bit like a scarecrow, but different." I comment to his delight.

His smirk spreads into a full on smile.  "Yeah, I decided to turn it into a creeper instead.  Cool huh?"

Your Tone!

When the girls were younger, if I were talking sternly to them, they would often reply to my words with "Stop yelling at me."  Of course with my patience and rational personality, my response would usually entail "This is not yelling.  This is my angry voice.  If you want to hear yelling. THIS IS YELLING."  Not among my prettiest parenting moments I admit.  However in my defense, the times that there was actual YELLING in my house were few.  (Usually after I was told I had been yelling and I had not been.)

Jocelyn is particularly in tune with the changes of people's inflection. One time, when she was about 8 years old, were at the grocery store in the cashier line behind a very rushed person.  The lady spoke quickly to the cashier.  Jocelyn turned to me and said "That was rude." We talked in the car about the difference in being hurried, and being rude. Jocelyn pointing out that one could be both.  :)

Jocelyn, I saw this and thought of you!

Even now, Jocelyn notices subtle changes in the way someone says something.  Not in their word choice, but in their inflection and speed. (I hadn't connected before her chosen major Psychology and her skills of emotional detection before now.)  So when I saw this quote, I immediately thought of her.   My first reaction was to laugh, and post it here.  However I must say that I really do think it matters how we say things.

Reception Priorities

Jocelyn and I have been making wedding/reception plans, with the help of so many of our family members (Thank you all!)  Of course every great event has a budget to manage, and the reception is no different.  While Jocelyn and I view most things very similarly it has been interesting what each person we talk to sees as the financial priority.  And which things they could do without completely.

So I pose this question to you.  If you were going to list the financial priorities for the reception/wedding what would they be? (We can rule out actual wedding costs since the Temple charges nothing! I love that the most important thing is completely covered. :))

Flowers (Bouquet, boutonnieres, corsages, bridesmaid flowers)

Photographer  (Bridal, Engagement, Wedding Day pictures sub categories)

Invitations

Venue for reception

Decorations for reception

Reception Food

Wedding Dress/Tux for Groom

Bridal Party Dress/Suits

Wedding Cake

Rings

DJ/Music

For me the wedding dress is probably the most important, because I want her to feel like the princess that she is that day.  The invitations are a close second, because for some people, they are the only part of the wedding they will see.  

Don't be shy, chime in and tell me at least your top two, and one you could live without completely.

When Will We Be There?

Any person who has driven more than 30 minutes in a car with a child will hear the inevitable question, "Are we there yet?"

This past week we went to Yuma; about a 7 hour drive.  After the initial question, I pointed to the clock on the car and told Gavin to look at the clock if he was wondering how much longer it would be until we arrived.

With about an hour left in the journey there is an audible sigh from the back of the car accompanied by this comment:
"ughh....I wish I were the Master of Time."

Reading Missionary Letters to Home

I had a chance this past weekend to go though some old papers at my mom's house while trying to find some pictures for a thing we are doing for my mom and dad's wedding anniversary.  There were letters to my mom from our missionary boys.  Although I am sure I had a chance to read some of Todd's letters while I was at home, with the others I was gone to school and married and didn't get a chance to read them as they were delivered.  Matt wrote letters directly to Shawn and I so I didn't ever read his letters to my mom, although she shared parts of them with us.

It is so different to read these letters to my mom/family as an adult.  As a teen, my life was about me, and how things effected me. Reading the letters then, I suppose I was jaded to see their lives with respect to mine.  Reading the letters as an adult--in retrospect--gave me a opportunity to see the mission experience as a story--more like reading a book. I saw a different perspective of missions and missionaries that I am sure I didn't see as a young adult.  The struggles to stay focused on teaching the gospel, with companions who are a mess, money that is not coming on time, and relationships with girls at home that are in one way distracting and in another encouraging the missionaries to finish the work.  Not even mentioning the physical and spiritual weight of trying to help people with their eternal salvation.  These boys have to have an underlying bravado, a sense of what is right, courage, dedication, and all mixed in with some humility.  Otherwise how could they give two years of their lives to doing what the Lord asks of them? 

Of course these boys, these brothers, are now men.  Raising their families and preparing their boys to serve the missions.  I am proud of them.  So amazed at the choices that they make to be righteous men, fathers and husbands to their wives.  To these men, as to my Shawn, I am grateful for your sacrifice to serve a mission, and for your willingness to do what is right, often at the cost of other things you thought you may have wanted.

Now days we read a missionaries letters to home on their missionary blogs. I love this way of sharing the missionary spirit and sacrifice with those of us at home.  I am sure it is only snippets of their actual letters home, but I love hearing their experiences, seeing them deal with struggles and watching them grow into men.

Thank you to all the families who prepare these young men to go and teach the gospel, and thank you for sharing their incredible experiences with us.

Gavin's Work Contribution...

After a long day putting up Christmas trees at Mom's stores, Gavin volunteered to "rub our feet".(He liked the attention and possibly wanted to trade for pool supervision time.)

He told us to invite our friends and tell them he charges $10 to get in and $3 for a one minute rub.

Randi said she appreciated the foot massage preview but that she probably couldn't afford it.

Gavin added "Don't worry, Aunt Randi, family is free."

Every time we started to laugh he'd yell "Think spa!"

He has mad skills in foot rubbing.  He even names the different techniques.

Up and down the side, strangling egg-head, gentle fingers(option for callous removal is included in this one), strangling up and down, strangling egg head on the side, and finally egg heads on the heel.

Thank you Gavin!