OUT AND ABOUT

SITTING BABIES
I spent two afternoons over at my MS's home to watch kids for her so she could rest. The first day was just with the toddler, who got grumpy, fell asleep in my arms, and slept for an hour until her siblings came home from school. Easy peasy.

Friday, the mom thought I didn't need to come because the kids didn't have school and the oldest could watch the others, but I left the offer open. A few hours into her day, she said, "Maybe you'd better come." Probably a good idea.

I was kept very busy. The day before I read my book and relaxed. With all the kids (five, not counting the baby), I had my hands full. They had been given a cookie-decorating kit. So we did that first. Then they "took turns" watching movies and TV programs. It took some persuading to get them to not only take turns, but be good sports about it when it WASN'T their turn!

The toddler, this time, couldn't be persuaded to fall asleep in my lap. She threw an outright, won't-stop fit until the mom suggested she come in the room with her and nap. Then I offered the toddler an ultimatum: she had to quit crying to be with Mom and Baby. Worked.

Now it was four kids, but the two younger girls were a handful, especially the younger. On and off my lap, poking and prodding, asking me all kinds of questions. It was tiring. I love those kids, they're cute and fun, but it was exhausting. I found myself wanting to sleep about two hours in. When the mom got up and said I could go home...I nearly went home to take a nap!

WINDY ZOO
It took a lot of finagling, but all four of us managed to sync our schedules (with a lot of begging and reminding at work places) so that we could use our free zoo pass (courtesy of Janet @ Altus Public Library) and spend a day together.

Ken was ecstatic. He's been working 10-hour days, but only for four days a week, so his was the easiest schedule to arrange. He's wanted to do something as a family for a long time. I think our last time was our Oregon vacation. He enjoyed himself just because we were all together.

You'd think we were all a little old for the zoo. Nope. I enjoyed the kids examining the varieties and colors of the snakes with animated delight.

Analiese is showing the snake how it's done!

They are curious and intelligent and still see the wonder in God's creations. They were fascinated with the big cats, too. Jaguar and leopard markings were breathtaking!

We had our fun moments, as well. We went to a sea lion show (the Aquarium was closed though,

major bummer!) and had a few laughs.

We were very close to the front

One lady in the audience got startled by the barking of a large sea lion. Her expression was hilarious. We took silly pictures around the place, always on the lookout for a new angle.

Gotta see my Buffalo!

Heavily sedated butterfly?

But there were no puppets in the gift shop...so no play time there. 😔

I had to take a break (swollen knee and sore feet), so Ken & I rested on a bench while the kids explored the gorilla/monkey section by themselves (they are such pals!)

Never too big for the Children's Zoo!

. We had our own entertainment, with a rather chubby squirrel who wasn't shy at all!

He came right up to us, looking for food. Sorry, Augustus (named after the Willy Wonka character who eats everything), we ate all of our lunch!

The only really bad thing about the day was the wind. It was very brisk and quite cold. I had a jacket, but should have had a heavier coat. Analiese, per her usual, thought I was her personal warmer. Ken had gloves as well as a jacket, but Jonathan played it tough with shorts and a t-shirt. Crazy boy! We ended up eating our picnic lunch in the car rather than at one of the nice picnic areas in the zoo. It was too windy to eat outside!

Talking Talents
I had thought that, with Ken released from the Branch Presidency, that I wouldn't be called upon to speak anytime soon. After all, pretty much every month he conducted, I ended up speaking. But this was not the case. Two weeks ago, one of the Branch counselors texted me. Could I speak? 10-15 minutes about Recognizing and Developing Talents.

I've been playing with it in my head the last couple of weeks and trying to tie it down this week. I prepared my quotes, scriptures, and outline. I let Ken read it: he said I had enough for a talk double that amount. Good! I'd rather have too much than not enough. My hardest part is figuring out what to use and what to cut.

I took up my time and then some. The BP told me before church that his wife (the other speaker) wouldn't mind if I took more time. He would have even let me have the whole time, but I wouldn't do that! I gave her at least twelve minutes!

I was tired after that. I am told I am a very energetic speaker; this exhausts me. Unfortunately, I could not rest on my laurels for the second hour and sit quietly in RS. They needed a sub in Jr. Primary, so I went.  That was a circus in itself....one child crying and writhing on the floor, the others terribly distracted by her. I used my crazy wiles to keep them on track. I even printed up a coloring page for them (I was able to eprint right from my phone to the church copier. Cool! I showed the Primary Pres. and she was over the moon with that trick!) and used one of my VIPKid reward slides on my phone plus zoo videos as an incentive (bribe) to behave. Hey, I'm all about tricks!