Goodbye to a Wonderful Prophet!!!!

Tonight our great prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away, at age 97. He died at home, with his family beside him, at 7:00 p.m. When I found out, I was upstairs reading with Aubrie. Ben came in her room with a very serious demeanor and I knew something was wrong. Amber had texted everyone, of course hearing it so quickly living in Utah! At first I was stunned and could see Ben's eyes teared up. The tears quickly began to fall down Aubrie's face. She was very upset about it, which jump started my water works. We are so happy that he finally gets to be with his wife, who passed several years ago, but we all feel a great loss! He was such an amazing prophet! He was so good publicly, and always made us laugh. I never felt so loved by someone I never met, except the Savior and Heavenly Father, of course! Every time he spoke in General Conference, or at BYU devotionals, I felt so loved by him and felt the wonderful Spirit he brought with him. It's amazing how we can feel such a loss for someone we never met! We are so grateful that we got to live during the generation of President Hinckley! What a great man! We will miss his youthful, vibrant spirit!

Don't really know how I follow that with anything, but I have a lot to catch up on!

Thursday night Aubrie and I went to Color Me Mine. Krista invited us for a special girls night, where it's only 2 dollars for the session if you have 3 or more people. It ended up being Lorraine, Krista, Keri, my Mom, Aubrie, & Laura Simon. It was a fun time with Laura, and I also thought it would be fun for Laura and Krista to meet since they are both single and have some things in common. We had a great time. We first met up at Paradise Bakery for dinner, which is always yummy! I had the chicken walnut sandwich, of course, and a bowl of the tomato soup....the best ever!! We then headed next door to Color Me Mine. Very convenient!:) I made a "special" dinner plate that family members can use when they did something really special that day. I have had the idea for awhile, but have been looking for the perfect plate. I'm excited to finally have one! I'll post a picture when I get it back. They have to fire them up, so it takes a few days to get them back. Aubrie made a cat, of course, and did a pretty good job.

Oh, I forgot about Tuesday and Wednesday! Tuesday I went to this party at a friends where several people where showing their "goods"! There were Gold Canyon Candles, designer jeans, jewelery, Layers clothing, and some baby stuff. Silly me thought I could use a credit card, so I wasn't able to get all I wanted. I went a little crazy and bought Sophia a lot of bows for her hair. I guess they aren't exactly bows. Their headbands that you clip these cute flowers onto. Soooo cute! The girls company is jonesybaby.....such cute, inexpensive stuff! I also got an amazing smelling candle! Can't wait till it comes in! I love a great smelling house! Mmmmmm! When I got home, Ben and I caught up on American Idol! I love that show. It's so funny to see how people think they are so good and they are not! It's hard to believe that they really think they are good! I told Ben that if I ever sounded that bad he better tell me so I don't humiliate myself at church. He assured me that my singing was "good"! I'll never really know! LOL! That's what we did Wednesday night, too! Wednesday was crazy for me...I can't remember why now! But Ben tried to make me feel better with these! They are the most beautiful roses I have seen in a long time. The outside is pink and the insides are red!!

Friday Ben and I went to Olive Garden. I have a love/hate relationship for that place. Love the food, hate the wait!!! We ended up snagging a table in the bar area, so we wouldn't have to wait. I don't think we will do that again. The service wasn't very good, and our appetizer came out with our dinner. So now we have this 8 dollar appetizer sitting in our refrigerator that will never get eaten. I complained to the manager as we were leaving, but he didn't offer to make up for it! Don't they know how much food we buy from them for our Christmas Parties!!!!LOL! They know we'll be back for those bread sticks, raspberry lemonades and Ande Mints! After dinner, we saw Cloverfield. It was a pretty weird movie. It was all taken through the view of some one using a video camera, kind of like the Blair Witch Project. There weren't any real answers to anything, I hate that....no closure! I had a hard time sleeping, too! I shouldn't see those scary movies, but they keep sucking me back in!!! I had to go to bed early, too, b/c I had to get up the next morning at 4:30 for our Youth Snow Trip!

Amazingly enough, I popped right out of bed when the alarm went off. We had to meet at the church at 5:00am, but didn't leave until 5:30. I had to pick up a girl in our neighborhood, but I had the wrong address, so I had to go to the church to get the right address, pick her up and come back. I felt bad b/c she called the house and woke Ben up and he never got back to sleep, so he says! I drove up with Erin and so we got to catch up on things during the 2 1/2 hour drive. We went sledding up in Forrest Lakes, where the Bishops parents live. We meet at their house and all the youth get their snow clothes on and then we go to the "sledding place". The boys had camped there the night before, so when we showed up they were making breakfast. Brother Hintz was nice enough to make Erin and I some breakfast; pancakes, sausage and eggs! I think that gave me the energy I needed to enjoy the day. It was a beautiful day for sledding! The sun was out, but the snow was powdery and perfect! Erin and I took our first ride down the hill together. There was a lot of bumps and we are now feeling it on our rear ends, legs, etc. I have a huge purple bruise on my tail bone; sorry no pictures of that! HA! As the day went on, Erin and I got more brave. We did the plastic saucers, snowboard and started going face first on the "boogie board" type sleds! That ended up being our favorite. I also really enjoyed the snowboarding, except it took too much time putting the board on and taking it off! Erin and I also did some runs with some of the YW. That was fun, too! It was a great time! Erin and I were the only YW leaders that went sledding. I guess there was only one other YW leader there now that I think of it! Anyway, I'm glad that we participated! What good memories for all of us! The bruises and bumps were worth it all!

When I got home the kids were on the corner of our street selling Lemonade with the neighbor kids. They did pretty good; ended up making 12 dollars all together. After they were done, I rode scooters with them up and down the street! The kids and their friends thought that was cool. I was feeling youthful! Guess that's what hanging around the YW all day does to you! After Ben ran some errands, we all sat around the hot tub (the kids got in the pool a few times) and ate dinner...well just a rotisserie chicken....while sitting in the hot tub! We were wondering what the neighbors were thinking if they were looking down on us. It was actually the funnest dinner I have had in a long time. No messes to worry about, and no manners to scold for! Sophia even ate the chicken. She started grabbing at the pieces I had in my hand. I was beginning to wonder if Ben had fed her all day, she ate so much! LOL

Today was a full day. Ben taught Aubrie's class and then I had to teach YW. Ethan had a break down in Primary because his regular teacher was out of town and Sophia was doing her normal break down at the end of Sunday school. So I sent Ethan and Sophia home with Ben during the 3rd hour. My lesson went well, I am getting more and more comfortable teaching the girls. The lesson was on how we can grow closer to Christ. The girls are so willing to help and participate in the lesson and always have things to say that I don't think of myself. One girl in particular mentioned how we should invite those who seem like good people but don't have the complete understanding of our standards to join us in our activities. I couldn't believe I didn't think to mention that! Missionary Work is a definite way to come closer to Christ! Sometimes I follow the lesson too strictly I guess. But just a testament to what a great youth we have! I feel so blessed to work with them!

After church I did some Visiting Teaching; always fun visits! For dinner, Ben bought some baby back ribs and cooked them up on the grill. It was actually quite funny b/c it has been raining all day and he wasn't about to let a little rain get in his way. So he kept running in and out of the rain to go check on them. He did a pretty good job, but next time I think we will cook them on low! Aubrie loved them! She had 5 ribs all by herself. She in a huge meat eater. I feel sorry for her future dates....expensive!! The boys did alright once we took the meat off the bone. Boston was freaking out even thinking of getting his hands dirty, my little O.C.D boy! After dinner we watched Funniest Home Videos and played a few rounds of hide and go seek! Then it was bed time and that brings us to the beginning of the blog. Again, what a great loss for us, but I'm sure the Heavens are rejoicing to have him there, along with his sweet wife!