Church, More Game Nights, Priesthood Blessings

Sunday was an ok day. We made it to church on time. It was hard getting up early for church. Annette Shumway spoke on the sermon on the mount, and the whole bishopric gave short talks because they thought there would be a high council speaker, but there wasn't. Jake took Lila to the back of the chapel towards the end of sacrament meeting because she was getting fussy, and she fell asleep pretty quickly in his arms. She's been sleeping through a lot of church since we've switched to 9am.

Primary is going more smoothly... I spent a lot of time making sure we had an organized agenda. The junior primary is still pretty crazy. We had 5 or 6 new Sunbeams and they have a hard time sitting still and being quiet. :) Jake and Lila went to Hospice for a little bit, but John didn't want to visit for very long. When he came back, Christy held Lila in her lap for a little while (when senior primary came in) and Lila liked sitting with the kids. She was dancing/wiggling to the music in Christy's lap while the kids were singing, which was cute, and she was holding Jackson Mills' hand for a while too. Very cute! I like working with the ladies in the presidency... they're all great and we're starting to get a better grip on things. (We're all fairly new to these callings!)

Oh, this was hilarious... Jacob Macbeth (Valiant 8) was assigned to share a favorite scripture.  As he got up to read his scripture I (and the other leaders) heard him mumbling something under his breath about forgetting to prepare a scripture and then opened his Book of Mormon randomly. The verse he happened to land on was quite an unfortunate one...

"And the husbands and fathers of those women and children they have slain; and they feed the women upon the flesh of their husbands and the children upon the flesh of their fathers; and no water, save a little, do they give unto them."

All the adults in primary sat wide-eyed, some of us barely holding in our laughter at the unlucky choice of scripture! Of course, the children, not paying attention as usual, seemed not to notice.

After church ended, I invited Preston and Annette over for dessert and games on Wednesday night.  I'm really excited--they are an AWESOME couple... one that we've been "waiting" for.  Preston's finishing his second year of residency in the ER.  Annette is due with their first (a girl) at the end of April.  They are really funny, normal, cool... a rarity.  They're excited too.

We headed to the KUB after that for Chinese Sunday School with Kiwi.  When Jake got into the parking lot, he did a little donut (which I don't like, but smile through because he loves it)... and as soon as we walked into the building, Presidents Doot and Anderson (branch and stake president, respectively) both laughed because they'd seen him do it.  I went to gospel doctrine with Lila and sat by Em for a while.  (Em just got called as gospel doctrine teacher!) but left after a while because Lila was being noisy.  She liked the echo in the chapel. ;)  So we climbed the stairs for a long time in the foyer, and she loved that.

Got home, and she fell asleep very quickly.  Jake and I had lunch and watched the new "I'm a Mormon" videos.  Jake left for a 3pm Stake PEC meeting.  Lila and I played around and waited for Jake to get back.  He sold some of his drum cymbals for $50 after the meeting to a guy from Craigslist.

After he got home, we went to Kari and Bret's for pizza and a game night.  (So many game nights lately!  Everyone's getting tired of winter!)  The Burkheads, Ann and her husband Benjamin and baby Lucas, and Danielle Bush's sister Karen/husband/daughter were there.  Lila had fun playing with Hayden's toys.  He had lots of musical instruments.  She crawled into the kitchen a few times without Jake or I and sat in there happily... so she's not afraid to wander off on her own.  The VanZantens and Burkheads aren't necessarily people we have the most in common with, but there is something very comfortable, refreshing, and home-y about being with them, our fellow KUB'ers.  I do miss those KUB days.

Monday (yesterday) I was supposed to get up early, but Lila and I slept till 9:45.  Woops!  It was a good nap day for her though.  She slept from 12-1:20 and 5-6 (and we woke her up at 6 because we had to be somewhere).  Emily came over around noon, we had lunch, and after Lila woke up we went to Meijer for some groceries.  We had rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn for dinner.  Em is such a big help.  

At 6 we woke Lila up and went to look at a house.  Really cute house, great condition, only 140k, but it's pretty small.  It's similar to my parent's house, but smaller... so it probably won't work out for us, but it was fun to look and dream and imagine.  Tonight, Jake is sounding pretty hesitant/skeptical of buying a house again.  Sigh.  ARGGHH!  When will this boy ever want to settle down?  He just wants to talk and pray about it more, which is good, but I just wish he was as gung ho about it as I am.  I want a house so much.  Anyway, that was nice. 

From there we drove over to Rand and Lynn Johnson's.  Rand texted Jake earlier in the day to say that Lynn wanted a priesthood blessing that day and specifically requested that Jake assist Rand in it.  It was a pretty neat experience.  Lynn wanted a blessing because their 3-year-old granddaughter Sadie, who has a rare genetic disorder, is in the ICU.  Complications occurred after a pretty simple procedure.  She told Jake (said, "this doesn't leave the house, but...") that he is one of the few men she knows that she trusts and feels comfortable enough with to give her a priesthood blessing.  We had a prayer before the blessing... I said it.  And then Jake asked who she'd like to act as voice, and after thinking for a moment, she asked Jake to.  Jake pointed out to me on the way home that Rand is going through this whole thing to, and it was probably neat for him to hear this blessing too... it would be comforting for him too.  It was a beautiful, beautiful blessing.  I've never heard Jake give one so specific before.  Even when he blessed Lila at church.  He got a little emotional too.  It was very touching, and the Spirit was there.  A very peaceful spirit.  I love the Johnsons.  I do hope and pray that their sweet Sadie recovers soon.

We got home at 8 and Mike came over for FHE.  He brought cookies.  He called me earlier that day to tell me about his "date night."  He's so funny... he talks a lot.  Kind of like a girl.  (The "date night" went well, but he wasn't really interested in any of the girls.  But he's mostly ecstatic to have a guy friend again... Brandon Zirkel.  He hasn't really had any friends since he married Kalina because she was so anti-social.  So he's thrilled.)  The lesson was on Priesthood Blessings and how a prayer should be offered before one is given to invite the spirit (given by Jake).  Mike brought yummy cookies.  Lila was asleep by 9!  We stayed up way too late though, 11:00.  I don't know why we do that.  We're both so tired.

Lila did not sleep well.  She loves to sleep on me now, but that's not very comfortable.  And she thrashes around and wakes herself up doing so.  She sleeps on her stomach now, and has peed through her diaper a few times recently, so I bought Huggies Overnight diapers and they seem to be working so far.  Sometimes she partially wakes up and starts crawling in her sleep and then bonks her head.  She hates that.  And then at like 4:30 she was up for an hour or so, which was... awesome.  So, we did not sleep well last night.

I just read from the book I ordered back in September (when Lila was going through one of these spells) and she is at the age where she's supposed to be really fussy and having a difficult time sleeping... according to the author's research.  It has excerpts of parents' journals, and they all write that their babies are waking up a lot and they're frustrated and not getting a lot of sleep.  So, at least I know I'm not in this alone and that this is pretty normal.  It should last another few weeks and then she should be much better.  I hope that's true.

This is super long.  Jake's still not home from his meeting... I think his phone is dead, so I don't know when he'll be home.  

So, today was ok too.  We slept till 9:15, which is a little earlier, right?  She took a good afternoon nap.  I cleaned up.  When she woke up we went to Target with Emily.  I got her a few things for Li (some hair bows, a 24-month dress because she's too big for her 18-month ones, and a shirt) and a few shirts on clearance ($3.50!) for me.  Got home, Lila took another nap, and when she woke up we met Jake for dinner at 5:30.  I had a primary meeting at 6:30 and he had his meeting at 7:00 so we met by the stake center.  Lila was cracking up at him for a long time... she was holding up a straw and he would bite it and shake it around.  She was hysterical.  It was awesome.

The meeting was alright.  Sharon Hunt (stake primary president) came in to talk about the changes in the handbook.  

I've been chatting on Facebook with Caty Perkins.  I really like her.  She's definitely a "kindred spirit."  Sam will be home from his mission in August.  Can't believe how time has flown.  They're still in love and it is so sweet to see how devoted they are to each other.  Planning on a December wedding.