Samuel's Baptism

Samuel turned 8 earlier this month, and today he was baptized. It was a really nice day. He asked if Jeff would be the one to baptize him, which was neat. I played the piano, and Marie led the music, Dad gave a talk, Grandpa L. confirmed him, and Morgan said the closing prayer. The whole family was in on the act! This is cool because I wasn't there for Marie's or Rheanna's baptisms, and everyone else's was too long ago and I don't remember them, except I vaguely remember my own. Anyway, it was very simple, and very beautiful.

After the program, we headed over to our house for food prep and dinner. We had so much yummy food! Mom did a pork roast with barbecue sauce, cooked until it was so tender it fell apart and Morgan mashed it up with a spoon. We served that on my homemade hamburger buns. I made them smaller this time and it was the perfect size. We also had a tossed salad, potato salad, and fruit salad with real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip, and lemonade made with citric acid instead of lemon juice. So good!! For dessert Michelle made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and shaved chocolate/coconut cream filling. I ate three. My mouth was happy; my tummy was not. Oh well, they sure tasted good!!

Then we sat and visited for a good long time. I love getting together with family and talking about anything and everything. For a while, Mom and Michelle and I just sat on the couch and talked. The kids were running in and out, jumping on the trampoline, fighting over toys, and doing all those things that kids do when they get together; the dads were overseeing the chaos; the teens were doing whatever teens do (I think mostly they were playing with the kids or on the trampoline). And we were just talking. I love that.

Anyway, we stayed a good long time; I wanted to make sure that Zaylee was good and fussy before we left. What's the point of having a visit if the kids are happy and cooperative when you leave? The biggest benefit of staying so late is that the kids were soooo tired that they both went right to sleep when we put them down.

Tomorrow I'll be busy. I'm playing the organ again for Sacrament meeting. It went well last week, so I have no reason to believe it won't go well again this week. But I still get a bit nervous. We need to make sure we're there about half and hour early so I can practice. I had to go through this evening and pack all our bags and stuff, because we have to be there so early (Church starts at 9). After Sacrament Meeting I'll head down to Primary, where I'm standing in as Primary Chorister this week. I'm especially nervous about that. I wasn't given much information to go off of, so I'm not sure if I prepared well enough, or overprepared (unlikely!), or what all will be entailed and expected of me. So it's kind of shooting in the dark and hoping I hit somewhere near the target. Jeff will have Thomas during this time, and he's teaching the lesson in Elder's Quorum. I wonder how he'll handle that, but I'm sure he'll do fine. Then tomorrow evening is choir practice. The pianist is out of town and I'll be taking over playing the piano for the choir practice (the choir pianist is actually the ward organist as well, so I'm subbing for both of her duties).

Yes, I'll be glad when this weekend is over, and I can be relieved of at least some of my stress.