Conference Weekend

It's been a long weekend, but good. Our weekend started on Saturday morning, when Jeff had to get up nice and early to take his registry exam. He had to be there at 8 in the morning, but wanted to get there in time to cram like crazy before taking the exam. I had arranged for Mom to pick up the kids and I so we could watch Conference at Mom and Dad's house. But Jeff's test took less time than we thought, and he was able to get home in time to drive us on over and watch Conference with us. He said that the questions were a lot harder than he expected, but he passed! Yes, it's official - Jeff has passed his Clinical Laboratory Science registry exam, and can now be considered fully qualified as a Medical Technologist. That means he gets to put M.T. after his name. What fun!

Anyway, we went over to Mom and Dad's house, carrying with us a huge bowl of potato salad, a delicious apple cake, the diaper bag, a box of crocheted leaves I made for Michelle, a crocheted pumpkin I wanted to show off, an umbrella, and two kids. In the rain. Yeah, our arms were pretty full as we loaded up the car as quickly as possible, trying not to get all wet.

The sessions of Conference were so good! There were so many talks that were just what I needed to hear. I can't wait for the November Ensign to come out so I can read through them over and over.

Our between-session meals were pretty good too. On Saturday, we ate my potato salad, plus a pot of chili and some focaccia sticks. For dessert we ate that fantastic apple cake. I cannot say enough good stuff about that cake - it was so rich and moist and absolutely delicious! I don't have the recipe up on my food blog yet, but here's the original recipe. Michelle and Mark had driven down on Saturday evening, and spent the night. Saturday was William's birthday, so we ate even more cake! Michelle made an adorable cake with train tracks and a fondant train. So cute! Look at the detail on the train - even down to little bows on the gifts, and the hollow chimney stack!


Our Sunday lunch was also fantastic, with Michelle's delicious 90-minute rolls and a yummy zucchini soup. Oh yeah, we ate really good this weekend!

So good, in fact, that I've decided to start counting calories again, at least for a little while. I've been eating "really good" for quite a while, ever since I stopped my diet. And I've gained back about five pounds. So I'm going to nip that in the bud, before I gain back even more. I didn't work so hard for so long to lose that weight, only to gain it all back just because I wasn't careful about how much I eat!

Anyway. We had a fun adventure on Saturday night. Michelle and Mark decided to spend the night sort of spur-of-the-moment, so they weren't prepared with things like pajamas and clothes for the next day, pull-ups for the boys, etc. Michelle thought it'd be fine for Mark and the boys to just sleep in their clothes and wear them again on Sunday, but she wanted some p.j.s and a new shirt. So at about 10:00 at night, we headed off to Wal-Mart for an excursion! It was a great sister-bonding opportunity - Michelle, Janelle, Marie, and I all went and had a great time. It took a really long time for Michelle to choose pajamas and a shirt that she liked, but it was a lot of fun too. Jeff was really sweet and took the kids home and put them to bed while I went out shopping - what a great husband! We ended up not getting home until midnight! :-0

The kids really enjoyed getting to spend two days at Grandma and Grandpa's house, playing with their cousins and aunts and uncles. But for Thomas is got to be a bit overwhelming. Yesterday he had a hard time going down for a nap (he usually goes right to sleep almost the minute I lay him down). He screamed in the play pen for at least half an hour before finally crying himself to sleep, and that was after I had already tried letting him cry it out a couple different times. It was pretty exhausting - I don't usually have to deal with that! And he had a hard time going to sleep Saturday and Sunday night. And he's been really fussy today. Poor little guy - he should get back to his calm and cheerful self after a day or two of normal life.

Speaking of playing with cousins, here's a little video I took of all the cousins playing on the trampoline yesterday evening. They were all jumping around and having a great time. It was just too cute - all those little sweeties playing together. Thomas did end up getting bounced a bit too much and had to be cuddled for a while, but he was fine.



Sorry this post is a bit disjointed. I'm just not having the easiest time putting my words together in a make-good-sense kind of way today. Oh well. :-)