Mothers' Day weekend

Mrs. Olivia came to sub for me a half day on Friday so I could purchase supplies and clean my home for Saturday's baby shower. My sister and mother, who were throwing the shower, weren't able to make it here from Tulsa until after midnight. I didn't go to bed until 2:30 am, and woke up with Jackson at 7. Yuck!

The shower was very successful. Although many people weren't able to make it, as we had unknowingly scheduled it on the same day as a church stake activity, we had a great time. Sometimes baby showers have a tendency to be forced and awkward, but this one wasn't. It was very laid back, the food was really great, we played a few easy games and just sat around and chatted. That was really what I needed - girl time! I really didn't need much in the way of baby supplies since I am having another boy, but baby showers are an excuse to get together and celebrate and I'm always up for that! My sis and mom made the invitations out to be just a diaper party, since let's face it, we all go broke buying diapers and I'm about to have 2 in diapers!! That was the best idea, and boy, did I get a lot of diapers and lots of other cute things. I probably won't have to buy diapers for Samson for a long time! AWESOME!!

I got a new wave of excitement as I put things away last night. YAY! Another boy! I can just imagine my two boys - so close in age - romping around the house, doing boy things and making a happy mess of our home! I'm all for it! Bring it on!

I did see another side to Jackson this weekend though, one I hope we nip in the bud. He is so used to being the little kid of the group. Every day I see him carefully watch how the big kids play together, and try to come join them, and see how annoyed they get with him. Being the oldest sibling in my family, I remember how frustrating it is to always have some little kid following you around and messing with your stuff, but it makes me sad sometimes to see him get his feelings hurt. I am trying to teach him about taking turns and not taking toys out of the other kids' hands, and he does fairly well with it, not usually throwing a fit - just accepting it. However, my sister brought her crawling 10-month-old with her this weekend, and for the first time, they were both alone on the floor of the playroom: Ella, with a world of cool new toys around her, and Jackson, with "his"toys. Suddenly, he turned into the mean, big kid. He wasn't so great about sharing, he took toys away from her and was also a little rough, but I suppose that is to be expected. He is about to have to get used to it real fast, so it was a good eye-opener for me on what to expect when baby Sam gets here.

Today, Ben got up with Jackson and made us both breakfast for Mother's Day: omelets! YUM! I love Ben's omelets. I even got to sleep in a little while he was making breakfast until he had to go study! Jackson and I got a lot of quality time today because Ben had to study for most of the morning. He is supposed to be in class today (He has Board review courses 7 days a week for the whole month of May), but he stayed home to study on his own so he could #1 be home for Mother's Day, and #2 watch Jackson for the last hour of church so I could teach Relief Society. I wanted to take Jackson to church alone, but unfortunately his allergies have escalated into a thick, yellow snot-nose with a nasty croupy cough. With all the swine flu scare and just because his nose needs to perpetually be wiped and they have A LOT of kids in nursery, I didn't want to take him to nursery today. Plus, they sent home a note last week about when you should not bring your child to nursery and runny nose and cough was one symptom listed. He is in good spirits, has no fever, and I really don't think he is contagious, but the snotty nose does make a nasty mess! This evening my choice to keep him home was validated when he kept coughing so much that he'd gag and throw up. I hope his cough improves by tomorrow because I have a doctor's appt in Denton, and I'm pretty sure I'm starting the fun invasive check-ups, so I'll have to leave Jack with Mrs. Olivia.

Remember how last week I was called to teach RS? Well, today was my first lesson, and overall, I felt it went pretty well. Knowing I would have a lot going on toward the end of the week, I read and studied the lesson last weekend so I could pray a lot about it and allow thoughts and inspiration to come to me all week. I put the final touches on it this morning, and that proved to be a good plan because I felt pretty ready when it was time to speak today. There was no helping the nerves, but I felt a personal connection to the lesson so that gave me some confidence. At first, I felt like the lesson was choppy and didn't flow well, and that I was just reading from the manual (although I was counseled to rely heavily on the manual and the scriptures and not much else), and I got nervous when I was about 2/3 of the way through the notes I had prepared, and I had 2o minutes left to speak. Then people started warming up and making comments, and I was able to calm down, stop being so self-conscious, and I took some deep breaths. It started to feel like I was leading a discussion instead of standing up there reading a book while people stared at me, thinking who knows what...In the end, with my notes and the comments people made, the timing worked out perfectly.

As I was thinking it through on the drive home, I realized my personal comments were kind of slanted toward how to deal with trials in your life instead of how to handle persecution, which was basically the topic, but I guess that is what someone needed to hear (or maybe I needed to share) because I felt inspired to say those things, so I'm not going to second-guess myself or beat myself up about it. Anyway, the bonus is that I now have a month where I can sit back and listen to other people teach me and get ideas and tips on how to present material before I have to teach again!