A dress, A Concert and Sunny Days

 Another week has flown by, it's crazy how my life has picked up in speed. Sunday we had in person church which was ok, I was feeling kind of anti-social so we took off afterwards. I did Penny's hair with my new 3 barrel curling iron for church so I figured I should document it. These were the poses I got, that last one she looks like she's in pain but I think she was trying to be thoughtful ;)

I also had a presidency meeting Sunday and one of my counselors made me a little batty. She first complained about the lack of masks for ym and pointed out that my child was constantly pulling his down. Oh Steven. Then she complained about how frustrated she is with the "standards contract" for Girl's Camp. It is basically just your regular church rules but she said they were worded too harshly. I didn't see it but we spent a good deal of time talking on it...when I really just thought the meeting should be over. Especially since I am not the one who made this standard contract, that's a stake thing. 

Monday I made the mistake of eating skittles on my temporary crown. I had this horrible moment when I realized that crown was off and I quickly spit everything out. I brushed it off and stuck it back on and it stayed until the next morning when the dentist was able to reattach it. It was a bummer that my permanent crown wasn't in yet, so I still have to make another trip out there to get that done.

One of my yw had a birthday Tuesday so I went by her house to drop off a gift and ended up spending an hour talking with her mom outside (in the burning sun, I got totally sweaty). Her mom is having health issues and her mom also has her parents (my yw's grandparents) living with her, and they both have cancer. So essentially things are really hard and she needed to vent. We had a good talk and in some ways I could relate to her feelings, that lack of understanding of God's plan and wondering why God doesn't just heal her. At the end of our conversation, the birthday girl came home and I was able to talk to her real briefly,I got the sense she was not interested in talking to me and I can feel her pushing against the church. That makes me sad but hopefully my birthday visit will at least help her to know we still love her.

Tuesday evening Caroline and I went kayaking. It was a good time but it did give me a workout. The funny thing with my lake is it really seems to have a current, even though it's not connected to a river. Paddling out is really easy but coming back is always rough. Afterwards we ate ice cream on my porch and she confided in me some difficult things her son is going through. It seems like her life is a series of tough things and I love her and hope that someday she can find some rest.

Wednesday for yw's we went on a hike at Proud Lake. I love being out in nature but my girls aren't really chatty with one another so I always feel like I have to be the one making conversation with everyone and helping everyone to feel included and loved. It get's exhausting. Especially trying to figure out topics to talk to teens about and trying to relate to them when one feels so old compared to them. 

Thursday I went dress shopping. We are going to get family pictures in June and I usually get the clothes for the kids but often just scrounge up things for me. I decided this time I was going to start with my outfit. Well at Target I finally found a bunch of modest summer dresses but the big problem was that there dressing rooms are still closed because of Covid, so dumb. So I picked the one dress that had the most potential and then had this genius plan that I would buy it, try it on in the restroom, and if it didn't fit I would go back in line and return it. The girls were with me so we got in the handicap stall and I tried it on. Only I got stuck in and I could NOT get out. I was begging the girls to help me, feeling panicked and stressed,I was a mess. Finally I decided I had bought it, I could pull off the tags and just leave the store with this bright green dress on. So I walked out of the store, sweaty, with bright red marks from where I tried to pull off the dress and trying to avoid eye contact because I had this unfounded fear that a security guard would stop me and I just wanted to go. The girls also seemed to think I was doing something totally illegal too and were acting shifty. Thankfully I made it to my car in peace and then I had this a-ha moment. I decided to look at the side zipper that had done little good and with a much clearer head I realized that the zipper went further down, it had just gotten stuck. I was not stuck in the dress forever. The whole thing was such an embarassing fiasco that my girls got to witness. And now I feel committed to this dress ;)

Thursday evening I went to see Abbie (one of my yw) perform in a Pop's Greatest Hits Concert. She performed a solo and did fantastic, there was a lot of talent that night. All in all it was good, just a little long for my attention span. I went with my counselor (and friend) Melissa and her daughter Alissa and Alissa's counselor Renee. I think it really made Abbie's night to have all of us there supporting her. Afterwards we grabbed cones and fries at McDonald's and listened to music loudly. I also ended up in Renee's neighbor's driveway instead of hers which was slightly embarassing (both her and her neighbor have driveways attached to the main road, that literally only lead to their house). I had a hard time getting out and onto the correct driveway but we all survived.

Friday the May's came over and after piano lessons the kids all had a water balloon fight (except for the teens who have apparently become too cool for such things). It has been so dang hot. I feel like we never got to experience the joy of 70 degree temps and we jumped right into humid high 80's. Boo. That night Tyler and I went out on a date and found this fun little diner in Novi, it was good food too. Then we went to get a bug-a-salt gun for one of Steven's friends. Lowe's had it in stock but we had a heck of a time finding it and then when we did everyone wanted to know what the heck it was. It made us very popular.

After a busy week Saturday has been a catch up day for me and that's been much needed. Tomorrow we have our big conference to find out all the changes that will be happening in our Stake. Caroline has been speculating so much on who the new Stake Presidency will be and I just don't care that much. Seeing how no one has met with Tyler, it ain't going to be him so I just don't feel like it affects us so much. But who knows, maybe it will more than I think.