Well, after working in primary for about 6 of my 8 years in the church I have now received a new calling. (I'm not telling until Sunday) I'm both excited and nervous and overwhelmed and humbled. I hope that I will do my best to accomplish the things in which the Bishop hopes for me to do. I'll keep you updated. :)
edit: Won't find out til the following Sunday. Sorry all you followers of my life. HA-HA...I'm probably the only one reading this, so no big deal.
Soon after our family sat down for dinner tonight I noticed Olivia rocking back and forth in her seat being overly wiggly for her normal wiggly 4-year old self. This led me to ask her, "Do you need to go potty?"
"No"...more wiggling..."are you sure?"..."I'm sure"...ok, now the wiggling is intense, and I look up at Olivia and she puts another bite of her roll in her mouth and says, with mouth full, "I think I do need to go!" Urgency strikes..so she tries to run the twenty feet to the bathroom to get there in time. As soon as the door shuts, Lauren, Dale, Julia and I then got a concert. It was HILARIOUS! Olivia started singing as her own little tune accompanied in her crazy little head and the words went something like this:
I know it's human nature to complain about having to get up in the middle of the night with crying babies, but I just realized (at 1am, mind you) that I absolutely love the opportunity Julia gives me to have me and her time. Albeit I may not be completely conscience while tending to her needs, I know that soon enough she will not "need" me anymore and I say, "why not get up an average of five times a night just for little snack to fall back asleep?" Some may say I'm crazy feeding her whenever she wants in the middle of the night, but I say, "this is only a short glimpse in the span of Julia's life that I can devote to her. My beautiful Julia, thank you for helping me realize that I just love being your mom.
Although it is super cute, Olivia never has and doesn't seem to have the desire to ever in the future like her hair cut.
Well, since Proposition 8 passed officially yesterday mid-morning, I have been slammed with hate mail. I HAD some gay friends on facebook that knew my religious beliefs and started attacking me. Mind you, I have not said one hateful or mean thing about gay people AT ALL! I am not that kind of person. Yes, I'm the kind of person that vents frustration and gets irritated easily, but I do not attack people because of their religious beliefs, race, gender, or sexual preference. Since I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, I have been targeted and am now reeping the awful backlash of angry, disgusted people. These are the same people that have been saying how hateful, intolerant, and plain wrong the Yes voters are on Proposition 8. I have actively campaigned for the Yes on Prop 8 campaign; however did so quietly and did not broadcast my involvement. I did, however, call hundreds of people to encourage and educate people about the Yes on Prop 8 campaign. I did this because I believe so strongly that marraige should only be between a man and a woman AND I don't want 4 judges overturning the will of the people.
Now, all of this started with my logging onto facebook and finding a horrid, disgusting, hateful post written by a so-called friend. This person, I went to high school with and got along well with and was excited to find him on facebook years after high school. Well, his post was directed directly at My Church, at fellow church members as well, but most difficult for me was directed at "old high school friends". After reading this awful post, I immediately deleted this person as a friend because I did not want to be affiliated with someone that would show so much hate toward my church and "blame" the church for the passing of Prop 8. Well, about an hour later, I came back to the computer to check my email and saw numerous emails from facebook. One was a "friend request" from this individual saying not to add him as a friend, but in short saying he was glad I finally had the guts to show my hate for him by deleting him as a friend. That's the short version. I then saw an email from another "old friend" that previously wrote to me about my support for prop 8 and said that I was bigot and full of hate. His email months ago was really long, but pretty much told me how horrible I was. Well, he emailed me with some more hate mail and said how he wanted to vote on my marriage to Dale. It was a stupid email, but full of blame pointed at me. (As if I'm the only one that voted yes on Tuesday!) Obviously I am not the only one that voted! Hello! I am just so frustrated that I'm targetted. Then the rash of emails from Susan Goldberg came. I don't know who she (if she's even real) is, but she wrote a gross email to me calling me a bigot and asking why I hate her. "She" also sent off an email to MANY people titled "do you know Shannon Roberts?" Each of the emails said that I was a bigot and hateful, etc., etc. I've heard from at least ten people that received this email and I'm sure there are more, so that's why I'm wondering, Why me?
Now that I've vented, I feel much better and although I felt the need to close down my facebook account and change my personal email, I say good riddens, but I may just file a police report and scare these people away.
Well, last night Lauren came in due to a nightmare so I let her curl up next to me on the edge of our queen size bed that I already share with Dale and Julia. Dale woke up at one point (about an hour later) because he was falling off the bed. We were pushing him off apparently. So, I sent Lauren back to her bed. When Lauren went back to her room, Olivia woke up and I heard a big ruckus going on and then Olivia comes in crying that there was paper in her bed and she couldn't sleep and she proceeded into the bathroom. I had no idea what she was talking about...paper? I went into their room and almost peed my pants with laughter. I had to go back to Olivia in the bathroom to see what actually caused the fiasco that was her bed. This was her response: "I couldn't get the my covers and I needed to get covered because I was cold. I don't know where my covers went but then I had this good idea. I had paper in my bed (image the continuous feed printer paper --size of two pages wide--scrap paper for drawing) and I thought, "oh, that could cover me" I tried to cover me, but then it wasn't a good cover so I tried to get it off, but it kept getting bigger and bigger and I couldn't see anything. I wanted to cut it, but didn't know where is started to cut. I need your help."
OK, now I'll tell you what I saw. I walked into the room and being that Olivia is on the bottom bunk...imagine: continuous feed paper still attached to each other strewn all over the bed from the mattress all the way to the bottom of the top bunk and filling the entire underside area of her bed. It was so funny I didn't mind being up at 4am folding the paper back into a stack. I then had to come back to bed to tell Dale, but I was laughing so hard and crying tears of laughter, he didn't end up hearing the entire story until this evening. He did get the gist of it though that he did laugh. What a good idea she had..ha!
Well, Sunday was our ward's Primary Program. For those of you that are unfamiliar with terms from my church, Primary is the program in charge of children up to age 11. I am a leader in that organization. We work hard with the children all year long to learn songs and topics to go along with our yearly theme to present to the entire congregation. This year's theme: I Am a Child of God.
Well, due to the fact that I have a small baby, I did not go up on the stand to be with the children and instead got to watch the beautiful kids sing and say their little parts. Too cute! Lauren even gave a talk that was fabulous. I was so proud of her. She wrote it all by herself and delivered it beautifully. Olivia is in the youngest of the classes presenting and her part was "I love to paint and draw with my family." She was so excited because she thought of it by herself and she had said it in the microphone nice and loud at each of our three practices. Well, her turn comes and she looks at the congregation and just starts breathing into the microphone (think Darth Vader). She finally turned around and sat down without saying anything.
I was a little dissapointed until she got up to sing. Throughout the program the children sing songs that they have practiced throughout the year and Olivia has worked terribly hard to learn all of the songs. The little old lady in the very back row could probably hear Olivia without problem. Olivia sang so vibrantly and confidently, I couldn't help but smile and be proud. She was so excited that she knew all of the words that she kept getting louder and louder. It was so cute. The hardest to witness was the last song the the entire congregation joined in on. We sany "I Am a Child of God" and Olivia noticed that everyone else knew it too so she kept getting louder and louder and realized that she needed to stand out. (this is my interpretation). She says, "hmmm, how can I stand out...oh, I'll let everyone know that I REALLY know all the words" so she sang them ALL, except for the fact that she kept singing ahead of everyone and was the loudest in the building. It brought tears of laughter to my face. It seemed that by the end of the song Olivia didn't have to use as much power to be the loudest because as I looked around many (and I mean MANY) of the people around me were laughing so hard they couldn't sing. Although I was red with a touch of embarrassment and wet with tears of laughter, I will never tell her to hush because she was singing to OUR Heavenly Father who loves and appreciates her dedication and power in voice.
Well, as a few people have lovingly told me, I need to start blogging again. It's not that I just quit, it's just that I got out of the habit. Remember, my family was very sick about two months ago and that lasted for seemed to be forever. Now that the school year has started, it seems that all of my time is wrapped up in Lauren's studies. Although I am very much enjoying it, I am a bit starved for "me-time". Well, today I got two small stretches of me-time. I went to a lunch get-together at a friends house and the kids played while the women chatted. It was nice, but I was a little dissapointed for Lauren because her friend who is also her age and homeschooled couldn't make it. Lauren was the only school age child there and got quite bored. Lately Lauren and Olivia don't get along too well, so asking them to play together is a 50-50 chance of happiness. I think that Lauren is growing up and seeing that she can do a lot on her own, while Olivia wants to be able to do everything Lauren does, but can't. And then add in the baby and it's hectic.
I started a homeschool co-op with my friends because I was sick of us saying we wanted to do stuff and never having it happen. Our first activity is soccer practice next Wednesday. Dale volunteered to coach. It should be quite fun.
I am also in the Primary Presidency which is the part of our church that is over the children's sunday school and extra activities. We are currently planning a program that will be presented by the kids during church (with a lot of singing). It's going to be great! I just know it. We are also planning an activity for our ward's annual Halloween party.
I like be involved with a lot of stuff, but I get burnt out because I want to take over and try to be in charge of everything. So, hopefully I will take breathers when needed and also get back to blogging.
Well, the past few days, we've been hanging out at "The Ranch" (aka my Mom's second house). While there Julia was having fun using her little walking push toy roaming the house following me or her sisters. Quite cute. When all of a sudden.....guess who took a step without support.....
The goal was to be without crutches by his next visit (Oct 8th). Well, he just gave it a try and took a few steps without his crutches. Of course, he still has to use his boot,
but it's progress nonetheless. Yay, Dale! By the way, Julia will be walking anytime. Guess who took a step yesterday? Julia really did. She was standing holding Dale's hands, let go, took a step, and then sat down. She didn't fall down, she just slowly sat down. It was too cute!Well, ok, I can read, but I can't concentrate enough to actually READ. You know what I mean?
I've had the book for four weeks (that's one week longer than the allotted 3 weeks given by the library), so yes it's overdue, and I've only read 8 pages. I've tried to renew the book, but someone has it on hold so I can't. I have to go return it today to stop the overdue fines and to give the poor other person a chance to read the book. If anyone reads it, tell me how you like it and maybe I'll give it another try.
Last month, during the olympics, a friend let me borrow her book: 
Yes, Twilight is the new "it" book and it's by an LDS author, so kinda cool. The main reason for me borrowing it is that the 3rd book in the series is on our bookgroup's agenda for November so I wanted to actually get going on the reading. Well, I've had that about a month also and wanted to read it, but felt guilt every time I picked this book up instead of the current book club read, so finally stopped. I guess I can try to start it up again.
My lack in ability to read could be the result of one or a combination of any or all of these causes: I have kids, I have a baby, she's teething, I homeschool, I have laundry to fold, I have a husband that is at home due to foot surgery who can't do anything...ok, he can finally kinda walk, but I still have to do a lot more than usual without the help.
Do I really have an excuse? There are plenty of other people that put books toward the top of their list, but I just can't at the moment. Maybe once Julia isn't nursing anymore. We'll see.
While reading a friends blog, I came across this beautiful letter she wrote to the Olympic Swimmers. Since I agree wholeheartedly, I wish to share it with you:
Happy Birthday to Lauren is who turned 7 yesterday! She actually got some great birthday gifts:
Mom and Dad gave her this art project to do. It's a latch hook rug.
Olivia was very excited to spot this Miley and Jake doll set on clearance at Target. Not sure if she got this for Lauren just because she wanted it, but Lauren was excited nonetheless.
And, since Lauren has been really into the American Girl adventure of Kit, who types up her own newspapers, I was able to find a great little typewriter from Freecycle for her (although it's cream, and not this adorable turquoise color):
Along with her own little scripture tote and a book, Lauren had a great birthday!
Julia is all tuckered out.
Olivia swimming on her own!
Lauren after hours in the pool.
Our family portrait.
Lauren and Genesis posing mid-lap. Genesis was a true energizer bunny that day. She just kept going and going. It was amazing.
Elder Bell and Elder Hinckley set up our booth to look really cool with lots of FREE stuff for passerbys.
Olivia posed after Mom did a little face painting.
LATE at night Olivia was swinging at the playground.
So sorry it took so long for an update on my blog. The past two weeks has been really hectic. Here are some great photos of our fun day at the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. It was a ward BBQ and I was in charg of games although I think itw ould have been fine if I didn't do anything because the kids loved playing at the playground. Although they did LOVE
the bubbles that I brought. Here they are:
Lauren running around popping bubbles that the other kids were blowing.
Olivia washing all the bubbles off her hands.
One of our favorite elders (Elder Bell) who just got transferred to Arcada.
Lauren and Genesis were attached at the hip that day.
Benji (Chess master) and Trey playing a nice game of chess.
that a
will be found. You can make a donation on my behalf by visiting this page:
Lauren and Olivia felt very fancy at the dinner table with "gold" napkins. Lauren was a little afraid to actually use it though. The evening was just beautiful.
After Dale met his civic servant duties as a "commisioner of marriage", he sat with us and here you see him being such a wonderful Dad and husband letting me eat while he reads to Julia.
Olivia was quite fascinated with the glasses and thought it quite strange that she had so many. She apparently thought one was an monical and tried to use it as such. Quite amusing, just a little embarrassing.
The family all dressed up, lookin' good! 
And I threw one in of Julia looking oh-so-cute since she wasn't looking at the camera for the family shot.
A little Daddy-daughter dancing.
Olivia is having an absolute blast!
Dale dancing with beautiful little Lauren.
Olivia kept dancing without Mom, Dad, or sis on the dancefloor.
Pretty Personal Princess Pizzas
Four Beautiful Princesses
Perfect Placesettings with little teapots for each person filled with yummy pink lemonade.
Julia wanted to join in on the fun.
This was all orchestrated by Lauren and Olivia including little teacup invitations, placecards, food ideas, etc. Mom just made the pizza dough and miniature strawberry shortcakes for dessert. They had a blast!
