Mad for Mother's Day

I was in a terrible mood all weekend. I want to preface this by saying I have a bad attitude when it comes to Mother's Day. I love celebrating it for my mom and Trent's, but I am not a fan. I figure we will celebrate it for me when my kids are grown up. For now we spend it driving everywhere visiting our fantastic moms and they are totally worth it!
Saturday we had Cam and Tys' soccer games at the same time (for the third time this season), so I didn't get to see Tys' game. After our game, Kay, Cam, and I ran to the store for milk and bread and antihistamine (which I'll get back to in a minute). We had just walked in when we ran into the other half of our family. Trent and Tyson slinking around the back of the store, looking like I caught them with their hands in the cookie jar. I know exactly what they are up to.
Suddenly, all three kids have to visit the restroom, so I give Trent an opportunity to finish whatever he is up to by telling him to take the kids to the bathroom and I will finish shopping. I figured they would be gone at least twenty minutes with the bathroom and the "sneaking."
Nope. They were back in five. I started to get mad. Bad enough he waits until the last possible minute to shop for Mother's Day (I always get our mom's gifts for him), but now he's not going to get me anything?! Not that I need anything....it would just be nice....
We leave the store and I am positively wallowing. Plus, I forgot the antihistamine! We spend the rest of the day trying to finish moving the trees (again, I'll get to this in a minute), and then we have to run the digger back to the tool rental place before five. We pack the kids into the truck and head to Orem. We are all filthy from weeding and digging. We had borrowed Trent's dad's truck because it can handle the heavy machinery trailer better than Trent's truck, so we had to go swap trucks in Provo too. After visiting with the in-laws for a bit, we had to go shopping for some slacks for Trent's latest business trip. We spent all night looking for stuff for everyone else, and by the time we left the store I was on the verge of tears wondering if they even remembered that tomorrow was Mother's Day.
On the way home, the kids were starving, so we started to stop at Wendy's, but Trent kept pushing me to pick some place else, even though it was 8 on a Saturday night, we were dirty, the kids were starving and tired, and I was stinking deeper into my wallow. We finally settled on Mexican.
Sunday morning I am the first one up (typical, no breakfast in bed for this chic). I hadn't been able to finish some of my Primary stuff for the day because I couldn't get a hold of some people. I HAD to get to Church early so I could get stuff done! Of course, my kids are dragging. Finally, I leave without them, without breakfast, running late, and my feet are killing me. By the end of Church (which was great! The kids sang so cute in Sacrament Meeting and the bookmarks we made for the Primary kids to give the moms were adorable), I just wanted to go back to bed. My toes were on fire, I was tired and frustrated.
Trent took the kids upstairs to change their clothes and I got started on lunch and the stuff we were taking to dinner. I could hear them running around upstairs and I figured Trent was trying to redeem himself, but I was still stewing.
Then Cameron comes downstairs and asks if I will cut out a heart for him. He is grinning from ear to ear. Trent comes downstairs and asks if I can stop being mad long enough to come sit on the couch. Cam gave me his cute card. He was positively giddy that I had cut it out but he didn't tell me what it was for. So clever! They gave me beautiful tulips and a card and....and iPod Touch!!! Yay! I love it. The kids love it too....they want to watch movies on it and play the lightsaber game. All is quickly forgiven. I realize what an impatient, selfish pill I've been! OF COURSE THEY LOVE ME?! Duh, I know this. We spent the rest of the day with our beautiful Moms. Loved it!
As to my gorgeous toes. Evidently, I am really allergic to something in our dirt. We found out last week that the landscaper who did the yards on both sides of our backyard didn't survey the lots. So he missed the property lines by several feet...on both sides. Which means our yard just got about five feet skinnier and we had to move trees we planted last year. Normally, Trent would try and find someone else to help him because of my back, but everyone cancelled at the last minute, and he couldn't find any non-busy friends on a Friday night. Funny how the Spirit works. Our WONDERFUL neighbor Travis came wandering over and asked if we needed help! Love this man. I owe him brownies, lots and lots of brownies...maybe a whole cake.
I've been digging around the backyard weeding for weeks, but for some reason, stomping up and down on freshly moved trees in flip flops triggered what I thought was a sunburn...until the blisters and sores popped out all over my toes. I would post a picture, but feet are ugly enough on their own without the red rash and puss-filled blisters. Seriously, gross. Plus, I've had to wear flip flops all weekend (including Church) because shoes hurt, so everyone gets a good look at the hideousness that are my feet. Nice.

May I Rant?

Can I just stand on my soapbox and vent for a moment? Primary: Best calling in the Church.

I mean it.

I will admit that when I was a Primary teacher, at times I felt very much like a glorified babysitter. Luckily, I also realized that I was also performing a huge service for the kid's parents by allowing them to go to their classes and feel the Spirit.

But a calling is Primary is more than that, whether it be as a teacher, a Cub Scout leader, or in Activity Days. You are helping to raise and grow future missionaries, future leaders of the Church, future members of your community.

What greater responsibility is there?! What more important calling is there?!

My beautiful friend and Primary President said something a few weeks ago that had never occurred to me before:

"They deserve a lesson."

And they do. As a teacher, you are not there to just keep them out of trouble and keep them quiet. You are a teacher! Heavenly Father didn't call you to be a babysitter, he called you to be a teacher. Teach them. They are Children of God, and they deserve to know it. So teach them that their Heavenly Father loved them enough to give them good parents who would bring them to church. He loved them enough to restore the Gospel, so they would have something to learn about and aspire too. And He loved them enough to call YOU to Primary, so you can serve them, teach them, and learn to love them too.

I don't believe there is a harder or more rewarding calling in the Church than being in Primary. You don't get the awards and the accolades, but you will get the blessings. And you will learn to love those kids.

Primary teachers, CS leaders, AD leaders who do more than just show up, but come with every intention of fulfilling and magnifying their callings, they are the ones who understand and love Primary. Thank you to those sweet brothers and sisters. You deserve every blessing that comes your way and a million more.

I'll hop down now.

Lissa Lou

I know. You are totally thinking, "Ahh. The 80s. Aren't we glad our hair will never look like that again!" And this, this is Southern 80s, so...enough said.

See the cute red head on the far left? That's Annelle. Well no, actually, that's my sister Melissa. She is playing Annelle (yes, the religious skank) in Roger's production of Steel Magnolias. If you live Davis County way, you should go see it. It you don't, you should go see it anyway. She's worth the drive, trust me.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700028724/Stage-calendar-Magnolias-among-theater-offerings.html

By the way, for the record, I have to mention Steel Magnolias is one of the best chic flicks ever, no matter what my husband says. I cry every time during that scene with Sally Fields and the girls. You know which one I mean. Go watch the play, then you can watch the movie some weekend on one of those women's channels. It's on almost every weekend, with good reason!