Weekend blessings

1. An amazing date. I knew the ballet was going to perform Carmina Burana, but I thought I would be too miserable to go, so I didn't buy tickets. Then our ballerina friend forwarded us a deal for $10 a ticket for opening night. Win-win! Earlier so I'm less miserable, and pay less so in case I am I don't feel bad leaving! We went first to Manny's Mexican, which is always satisfying, and then were early enough to get great parking at the new Kauffman Performing Arts Center and let me lie down for a spell in the back seat of the car before we went in. The ballet was beautiful. And our friend who let us in on the ticket deal and is ALSO pregnant with twins performed. And she looked so cute. She was horrified that she had to wear a unitard in the last piece, but really she looked adorable and you could only tell she had a baby bump if you already knew and scrutinized VERY carefully.  It's her first pregnancy.  After the ballet we went to our favorite popsicle stand (Really, ask us to take you if you come. It's amazing.).

2. Rain on Saturday. No soccer games, more rest for everyone. Lovely.

 3. An answered prayer. Earlier in the week I had faithfully done what Elder Ballard asked us to do and prayed to recognize an opportunity to serve someone in my life. That very day, my friend Alyssa called to ask if we would have her 5 boys stay with us while she and her husband ran a marathon in Wichita. Well, what would you do? If you were huge pregnant with twins? With some trepidation, I talked to my family about it and told them that I felt like it was an answer to my prayer, but that I would need help in a big way. We would have to be like the beehive in Elder Ballard's conference talk, and my contribution would certainly be no more than 1/12 teaspoon. They said they would help and so we were on. Saturday afternoon Avery, Kyler, Wyatt (totally confusing!), Brady and 10 month old Colby showed up with sleeping bags, backpacks and a ton of energy. Wyatt entertained them as long as he could stand it. I fed them the chicken nuggets that have been languishing in my freezer for a year for dinner. Alan took them (except the baby) and our two W's to an indoor play gym to run off some energy. Mariah and Eliza took turns feeding and holding the baby. Then they came home and happily watched The Pink Panther while Alan and I watched our movie upstairs. And all of them went to bed easily. Sunday morning came, and although they weren't as sharply turned out as when their parents are in charge, they all made it to church with us and home again. Everyone took a nap except the 4 older boys, who were kind of appalled that's what we do on Sunday afternoons after lunch. Then they played games until their parents came back. We had another family night about it last night talking about how much fun it was and how the experience blessed our family. And how we need to be brave and pray for service opportunities every day.

 4. Friends testifying of how God has touched their lives. At church, one of my hero/friends spoke. Sister Beatty. She is amazing. I love her. She just quietly started talking and kept saying amazing things. Like when she introduced herself and rattled off 4 or 5 degrees. We were counting and we think she has two bachelors, two masters, a CPA and a partially completed MD-PhD. Then she told the story of King Noah and Abinadi and told about people dying for the gospel--like her brother who died while he was on his mission in Australia. She struggled with that a lot and prayed for answers, and her answer was that her mission was to live for the gospel each day. So even through all the hard things she told us about (she and her husband were the first couple to arrive and leave married for a Harvard surgery residency, and she had a near-death experience two years ago and felt like she was saved by the prayers of the righteous), she knew that she was being protected and preserved to testify of the importance of living each day for the gospel, making righteous choices one day at a time.

 5. Fall colors. After those boys left us on Sunday afternoon, our family went on a walk together. People talk about the "peak" of fall color, but I like the first bit of it best. I love when you see all the colors together--maples with tips just frosted, every shade of green beside the yellows and reds just starting to show their flame. It's better before everything is in color or on the ground to me. I keep feeling like pregnancy is kind of like that. It's good when you've just got a belly showing but aren't puffy and miserable and sporting a fat face and cankles with the oversized bump that is way too hard to keep covered.   I'm moving in the direction of too full blown to be cute any more.  But I should be done by the time the leaves are down.