so much to blog about...

Morgan and I are back from our San Antonio/Austin trip. We had a wonderful time with Emily and her family but we were both VERY ready to see our family. When we flew back into Amarillo we were greeted by three of the cutest little rag-a-muffins I have ever seen. I really wish I had my camera with me to document Brooke's "pick me up from the airport" outfit. She was wearing shiny black church shoes with no socks, a very short pair of jean shorts that had a rip all the way down the side of them, and a long sleeve old stained Halloween pajama t-shirt. Dad is much funner when it comes to dressing and hair rules (there are no rules). I got some of the best hugs and kisses ever and several homemade cards. I really love to attend my big interpreter workshop each summer but I miss all my babies (this includes Jeremy of course) so much when I'm gone. It was Jeremy's birthday when I flew in at 9:30 pm so I missed most of it, we will be celebrating later this week with a nice dinner and cake at home. Since Jeremy is pretty much one of the most tolerant husbands EVER he was very understanding when I literally got home after being gone a week, threw my suitcases down, changed my clothes and took off for my big Breaking Dawn midnight release party.

I really wanted to make a fun shirt for the big release and also to wear to the Twilight movie that comes out in December. While I was in San Antonio with my sister Emily (one of the craftiest people ever) I was able to get her help and ideas to make a very cute shirt (if I must say so myself). I wanted a shirt that wouldn't be too cheesy or obvious, that way I could get away with wearing it on occasion. I'm too cheap to make a shirt that would only be worn like twice. We decided to use a black t-shirt and use some iron on permanent "bedazzle" style studs to spell out a single word "Bitten".

I thought it all turned out really cute. Emily worried that with the fancy font we used for our template people might be confused and think it read "Kitten" we risked the confusion and went with it. I figured, "hey I've been called worse". Emily made me model the finished shirt (she must have a really fancy camera that makes you look skinnier than you are because umm... I not this skinny in real life. I think she and her fancy camera will need to be my official photographer from now on). Yes this is my "model" face... oh my gosh is that a mustache or a shadow??

Torrie and I got to the big release "party" at about 10:40 with high hopes for some Twilight fun. Let me just say that although the word "party" is in all the advertising for the midnight release event calling it a party is a major stretch. We got there and there were maybe two dozen die hard fans hovering around a small table with a deli and fruit tray on it.

There was also some red, black and white decorations in one area of the store and a very dorky party host or "emcee" for the evening. I think the host was suppose to be wearing a tuxedo but by the time we got there he had taken the black jacket off and the bow tie was just hanging around his neck. I believe he had a word of the day calendar or something because he had the habit of using unusual words in excess. For example:

"I have some very nice shwag (I know it's swag, he pronounced it shwag) to give out to the winners of our trivia contest."

"You can chose between this Breaking Dawn t-shirt and this very nice Breaking Dawn satchel."

"It's about 11:45 right now so if you would all like to start queuing up at these two registers now we will be all ready to start selling the books at exactly midnight. We will need to leave this register open so that people renting movies or buying other things can queue up here and not interfere with our Breaking Dawn queue."

I turned to Torrie and said, "Torrie, these are our peeps."

The store had advertised that they were going to have a contest/t-shirt contest as part of the festivities but I never saw that one come to pass. There were two very sweet sisters that really tried hard to fill the roles of Rosalie and Alice.I thought they looked cute and asked for a picture. I was also one of the big winners of the trivia contest which meant I won a very nice satchel from the big shwag give away. There were five of us who won something so I rounded everyone up for a winner's picture.I informed them all that I was documenting for my blog. One of the winners, Jennifer, was not really wanting to join us for our picture but I talked her into it. I'm sure right about now she is posting something on her blog about the annoying chick in the "Kitten" t-shirt that was at the Breaking Dawn release party... oh well.

After I got my book Torrie and I went out to IHOP to eat some dessert and catch up on what went on in San Antonio and Austin. We stayed for a little while but I was so anxious the entire time to get home and start reading. I got home and chatted with Jeremy for a while then I dove into my book until I HAD to get some sleep for the next day. We had a Primary activity that I needed to be at Saturday morning at 10 am.

The Primary activity was SOOOOOO good. We did a missionary themed activity that was so cute. I remember doing one of these activities when I was in Primary and I'm sure that all the kids that attended will also think back on this activity when they have grown. We started out in the gym with a packing relay for the kids. They were on two teams and they had to run to the opposite side of the gym to unpack the suitcase and dress in the missionary clothes then grab the empty suitcase and run back to the next person on their team. They would then undress and run to the end of the line. The next person would then dress and run back to the opposite side, undress and repack everything. They ran back to the end of their team and then it was the next persons turn. They kept it up until everyone had a chance to go.

After the relay they all went to the MTC where they were taught the first discussion by one of our teachers that is reporting to the MTC at the end of the month for his mission to Ecuador.

They kids then each received their mission calls and reported to the airport where they boarded the plane and watched the in-flight movie, "Called to Serve". They then landed in their country and were met by their mission president and were taught about the culture and people of their mission. After they were finished with their mission they came back to the Primary room where they were greeted by balloons, posters, streamers and their parents. We all had "welcome home" cake for our snack and ended with a closing song and prayer. It was really a wonderful experience for these kids. When Riley walked into the Primary room she was so stunned by the decorations and everyone clapping for her that she looked around found me then ran to give me a hug and started crying. She said she was so happy that she got to go on her mission to Argentina. It really made an impact on her and on all the kids.

After I got home from the Primary activity we put Morgan down for her nap and then Jeremy (such a good guy) let me take a nap while he watched kids. I woke up ready for some serious reading time. I have read the first 420 pages and I LOVE it!! I am so torn between hurrying up and finishing it and taking my time so I can prolong it all. I think I will go ahead and finish it all up tonight, I really need to get back to reality and my responsibilities around here.If you leave a comment about Breaking Dawn please leave it general I don't want any spoilers for those that haven't read it yet.