Game Night, Lonely Mike

Game night with Frank and his wife, Kate, was a lot of fun.  Kate is from Vicksburg (and she knows who Brady and Kelsey are).  She is due with their first, a boy, in a few weeks.  So it was fun talking about pregnancy and babies.  She's definitely the talker in their marriage, but Jake and I agree that it was nice, because she had interesting things to talk about and she asked a lot of questions too.  She majored in Linguistics and Italian and sells truffles and other exotic mushrooms to restaurants.  It was a fun time, after their son is born I think I'll try to bring over dinner or something.

Friday morning, Lila and I went over to Kasey Hunt's.  She wanted to talk cameras and photography.  She just got a DSLR and really wants to learn more about photography.  I truthfully haven't spent much time or energy since I got pregnant on photography, but I suppose it's time to get back into it.  Especially now that I have friends who are also interested.  Kasey wants to start a "photography club"... there are a few other women in RS who like it, so she wants to have a photo shoot every month.  She wants to do a maternity one in February or March with Desiree and/or Annette Shumway.  I spent two hours over there.  The babies got to play together and we got to chat.  It's so nice to spend time with other moms during the day... I'm starting to get cabin fever; winter is getting old!  Kasey's really nice.  I think I'll go over there this week.  Other women in the ward are always like, "Uh yeah, you should come over.  Whenever you want.  More than once a week."  We're all bored.

Friday afternoon, I did Primary stuff while Lila played around in the living room.  Cleaned up.  Jake wanted to go to Guitar Center and I wanted to go out to eat.  (AnnaMarie pointed out that we eat out a lot.  It's true!  We're only going to eat out once a week from here on out.  Friday nights.  I love going out on Friday night.)  We went to Panera on Westnedge where Emily was working.  I told Jake that Emily would be SO excited to see us, and she was.  It was hilarious.

Friday night we watched An Education on Netflix.  (We got a Blu-ray in the mail, but they sent us Eclipse again on accident.)  He liked the movie.  Lila didn't get to bed till late and we were all very tired.

Saturday morning Jake helped Jana move her stuff into a storage unit.  She's moving to Battle Creek because her internship/student teaching is over there.  So he was gone till maybe one.  Lila took a nap and Jake and I got some much needed alone time.  After Lila got up we all laid in bed for a while, Jake was tired.  Then we went to the church to quickly do a few things and then to Walmart to pick up some groceries.  We were planning on having Dan and Mike over for dinner, but at the last minute, Dan cancelled because he had to pick up a shift at work.

So, we decided to have dinner at Mike's place.  Lila fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we thought she would sleep all the way over to Mike's.  But she woke up when we hit the freeway.  It was my first time to Mike's since the whole thing with Kalina happened.  He still doesn't have couches.  He had a campout with his YM the night before and it went really well... he made sure to have a fireside and testimony meeting and then a Preach My Gospel activity where the YM could practice teaching.  He said it was awesome and unlike any activity the YM usually have during the year... mixing fun with spirituality.  I told him that Girls Camp does that really well.  He was saying that the boys were farting on each other and sledding down the stairs on mattresses... things that would never happen at a YM event. :)  I miss youth!

Mike was bothered because Cassandra hadn't written back.  On Friday night, when he was at the YM campout, he sent me a Facebook message:

So, the day after Cassandra got back to school I thought to myself "I really (genuinely) miss talking to her". It really felt like an emptiness inside me. Well, when I think about it now, I still feel that way. I want to talk to her! So, that kinda stinks. I really like her. I'm not talking about love, but I just really...want that friendship with her. I want to get to know her more. So it's a big downer that she hasn't corresponded with me anymore. I really didn't expect that. I don't know why this is going down the way it is and I don't know where this is going to go; I just know that it is all to my benefit. But, I wish that things were looking up a little more than they are. I see that I am being taught the eternal principle of patience and maybe even long-suffering.

Poor guy.  Very confused and lonely.  He was wondering if Sister Lillrose had somehow met Kalina at an ARP meeting (Sis. Lillrose runs those) and found out about Mike, and thought maybe Kalina told her that Mike was emotionally abusive.  Jake and I reassured him that Cassandra is probably just really busy.  Well, later that night, she finally did write back, and it was really nice... just a friendly email, nothing romantic, which is really what Mike needs right now... friendship, not romance.  He was feeling pretty down and depressed earlier this week and went to the temple.  Tonight he has a "date"... a couple from his ward is having a game night and inviting a non-member friend over to introduce to Mike.  He's pretty excited.