random sampler

I am still undecided with the whole public/private thing. I actually watched an episode of Law and Order SVU which totally freaked me out but then I checked out the whole process of going private and it kind of looks like a huge pain in the booty. So out of my laziness I will be staying public... at least until the next episode of SVU airs. I loved getting all the comments. There were a few people who commented that surprised me. It's nice to know that the same blogs that I stalk are indeed stalking me too.

Saturday the kids and I got to hang out with a coworker/friend and her kids. It was so much fun getting to know her and meeting her adorable kids. We really had a blast playing and eating at Chick-fil-a and then moving the party over to the Discover Center. After we got home Riley would tear up at the mention of any of the Johnson's names. She makes BFFs very easy.

One thing that I find very cute about Jacob is how he really tries hard to be just like his dad. Dad likes football, Jake likes football. Dad talks about cool fast cars, Jake talks about cool fast cars. Dad follows baseball, Jake follows baseball. You get the picture. Jake tries so hard to keep up with the big boy talk but of course his knowledge is semi limited (I mean the kid is only 9 years old). Jake learned a while back about some super fast car called a Viper. I know nothing about cars but I hear it's like the awesomest of awesome cars. Now any time Jake sees a semi sporty looking car he always asks either me or Jeremy if it's a viper. We can be driving down the street and a yellow Dodge Neon with a little pinstripe job and an added spoiler and Jake will immediately say, "AHHHH Mom is that a Viper?!?!?" To which I have to remind him Vipers are very rare to spot especially in Amarillo, Texas. Jake thinks he sees a Viper like two or three times a week, but of course has never really seen one. Well on Saturday just down the street from us was a fundraiser for a big private school in town complete with a car show. I slowed down so Jake could check out the cars and he screamed, "Mom it's a REAL Viper!!"

Sure enough it WAS a real Viper. Jake was very excited and couldn't wait to tell daddy that he saw a REAL Viper (not a suped up Neon).

Sunday we had our biannual Clement conference tradition of watching the first session of conference followed by homemade biscuits and gravy (Jeremy makes them not me). Jake and girls were Jeremy's little assistants and the food turned out wonderful. My man knows how to cook!! I love our little tradition of watching church in our jammies and eating biscuits and gravy twice a year. Don't you all love Conference Sunday? I loved listening to Sister Dalton's talk on women of virtue. It was inspiring to me and I thought she was a very good speaker. I also felt so proud as President Ballard spoke on all of the advances in South America through missionary work. All my favorite men served their missions in South America and were part of that rich missionary history. I ended up taking some allergy medication with my biscuits and gravy so the second Sunday session was not quite as crisp in my memory, thank goodness for DVR I will have to take the next few evenings to re watch the talks while not under the influence of Benodryl.

Tonight for FHE the kids and I (sadly Jeremy works every night until about 8:30) drove around downtown Amarillo leaving little notes for strangers. I got this idea from Nie Nie and thought it would be a big success with our family. Two weeks ago we actually talked about the importance of being kind to everyone and how it is nice to serve others. After talking about being kind to strangers I gave them the idea of leaving little notes for people. They loved the idea and we went out to Target to pick up the supplies. We then worked on making the little notes and making a list of nice things a stranger might like to read. The two older kids wrote the little messages while Brooke drew some little decorations on the cards. Tonight was the big night to actually leave all our little love notes for others to find. We left them all over including; the police station, library, a small downtown park area, bus stop, civic center and the kids school. After we were done we still had several so we left a couple at some of our friends houses anonymously. The kids were so funny about it all. They would race out the car and look around before leaving the note and racing back. At first they didn't really get why we weren't telling everyone it was us who left them but I explained that sometimes we do nice things for others without telling them it was from us. We really had a fun time hanging out together planting our little love notes for strangers.