the weekend is over...

Well...it's not too often that I'm glad the weekend is over. But this weekend has definitely been CRAZY! Well...this past week has been crazy. Most of you who read this already know about Lauren passing away...talk about total shock. As much as she has been through with surgeries and transplants and come through them, it was a shock to find out that she basically passed away in her sleep. When it is your time to go though, it's your time to go. I know the knowledge of the plan of salvation is some comfort to us and to the family...but I'm sure it's difficult to not miss that person that you're used to communicating with everyday. All we can do is pray for the family to have comfort and hope they have the faith necessary to receive that comfort.

I'll probably jump around a lot in this blog but that's how my mind has been working lately. On Friday we went to the doctor to see if Andrew's ears had gotten better and the doctor said that he still had a little fluid that hadn't been absorbed yet. It wasn't infected but she still wanted to keep a watch on it. She said she would check them again at his 1 year checkup and if it was any worse...we would talk about tubes.

Saturday...Shaun and I had a 3 hour time block from 1-4 in the afternoon where we didn't have an event to go to. RS Enrichment meeting was at 10 a.m. but I got there around 9:20 or so, so Shaun could help me blow up some balloons for our birthday celebration. They were centerpieces for the tables. I told one of my counselors I'm not sure if it's because I've helped with so many receptions or birthday parties or ward socials...but every table has to have a centerpiece. Shaun is such a good sport and husband. I had to sweet talk him though to keep the nursery while we were having our activity...he said if there were 20 kids when we got to the church...there was going to be you know what when we got home. I couldn't find anyone else to help out with the nursery so I guess that's what he gets for being the husband of the RS president. There ended up only being 2 other kids so that wasn't too bad. After enrichment, we came home so we could get a couple of things done, and at 4:30 we went back to the church for the boy scout fundraiser. Then left there to go to my friend Melissa's wedding reception at the Camden ward, then back to Winnsboro to go to the visitation for Lauren. The boys were exceptionally good to have been gone all day.

Shaun gave such a great talk on Sunday...was it because I helped him? I'd like to think so...j/k. He did all the research, I just helped him organize it a little. It was on the subject of forgiveness...something that I really needed to hear. One of the quotes that I really liked that he gave was one from President Hinckley...he said, "The great Atonement was the supreme act of forgiveness. The magnitude of that Atonement is beyond our ability to completely understand. I know only that it happened, and that it was for you and me." I've thought about this a lot because sometimes I feel that the Atonement is a foreign concept. This quote helped me understand a little better that I don't really need to completely understand it. Here is a prophet of God saying that it is beyond our capacity to understand, even his. But all we need to know is that we need to appreciate the Savior for doing it and take advantage of the healing power of forgiveness. Another part of Shaun's talk he talked about how forgiveness and peace are inseparably connected. How true is that. When we just say "It's all good...I forgive you"... don't harp on it and move on with our lives, a sense of peace does come because we aren't so concerned with what happened in the past. Sometimes our negative thoughts of the past can crowd out the good that we could be doing in the future because all our efforts are concentrating on what we can't change.

Didn't mean to go on a soap box. His talk just really influenced me a lot and got me to thinking...which is a good thing I guess.

Today was a good day...we didn't leave the house. I got tons of housework done and finally decided on the invitations I was going to make for Andrew's birthday party coming up. I was thinking I better start deciding since his party's going to be in a few weeks. I was excited with what I came up with and birthdaypartyideas.com gave me tons of great ideas. Some of those ideas though must cost a whole lot more money than what Shaun and I budgeted for. I think you can have fun though without spending a whole lot of money.

Anyways...I better get some rest. Jenny and I are going to the Bishop's Storehouse tomorrow to help out for the first time and we're going to leave around 7:15 or so. My Grandmother's going to come here to the house to keep the boys. I really don't know what I would do without her! She's so great to get out so early to keep the boys so they don't have to wake up so early...wait...they usually wake up way before 7...or so it's seemed lately. But she said she would come here anyways. Love you Grandmother!

Here's a couple of pictures of the boys. Looks like we might have a piano player on our hands :)

Andrew loves to eat...especially when his daddy gives him ice cream. We try to eat healthy during the day because when daddy comes home, somebody gets spoiled.

I've tried about 7 times to download the picture and it won't go through...but I'll try tomorrow to put some more pictures on.

I edited my post so here's the picture of Andrew loving his ice cream. Thank goodness Shaun decided to take his shirt off...Andrew's that is :)