Weekend Top 10 (in no particular order...)

1. Driving my new car. I LOVE my new car! It was fun to drive down to St. George in it yesterday, and I look forward to trips in it too. (Aside from the gas-mileage that is!) One thing I love on it is XM Satellite Radio. I haven't ever had it before - and I don't know if we'll keep the service - but it's fun. There are all kinds of interesting stations and we could have fun listening to them. We'll see...
2. This weekend Cory's Mom, Grandma Harding, Ashley (Cory's sister), and our niece Lexie came down. Lexie had a dance competition on Friday in St. George. So I went down and got to see her dance. (I was also overwhelmed by the whole "girl-liness" involved with dance competitions - WOW!) She did a great job and won several awards with her group. Way to go Lexie! The girls also went to lunch, did some shopping, and came home. I really enjoyed the time we had together.
3. I had an epiphany yesterday at the dance competition. I had always thought that I had become a perfectionist over the years - something I'd developed. But as I watched the little girls dance yesterday I remembered when I had taken dance (I think I was 4...maybe 5...?) I had wanted to take dance, I wanted to be a graceful ballerina and dance beautifully right away. Imagine my disgust and disappointment on the first day of dance when I learned a move called, "THE BRICK". It involved jumping from one end of the dance studio to the other - and it was anything but graceful and beautiful. I remember being upset and not wanting to dance anymore - because I wasn't immediately a prima ballerina. Anyway - as I watched the youngest groups of girls dance, and stumble up on stage I realized that it doesn't come all at once - it take YEARS to develop what I had hoped - even at age 4 - to achieve overnight. This happened again a few years later when I finally convinced my parents to let me do gymnastics - and I was upset because on the first day they didn't teach us to (perfectly) do back handsprings. And this has followed me through life. For instance - I'd love to be a runner - and run marathons. But I know that won't happen for a long time, and I'll have to build up to that. I hate that idea - so instead of putting in the time and effort - I don't run at all. Dumb, I know. But this weekend I realized that this curse of mine started at the young age of 4. Sad...
4. It was SO fun to watch Grandma Harding (one of Gabe & Hunter's GREAT-grandma's) with the boys this weekend. She was out really playing hard with Gabe yesterday afternoon - playing with water guns, playing with his new kite - just really getting out there and having a go at it. It was fun to see them connect. It was also neat to watch her get to spend some time with Hunter. I always enjoy watching family enjoy my kids. I mean I know they're great - but it's fun for other's to love them too.
5. Lexie and Gabe - Gabe sure does love his cousins and had a great time with Lexie this weekend! It's fun to see him with the older kids, and get to have fun with them. I had worried since our kids would be younger than Ashley's older kids - I didn't know if they'd connect. But the Mullen cousins have really embraced him, and love him to pieces. I'm glad he has fun with them. Last night it was almost impossible to get Gabe to sleep because he was so excited to spend time with Lexie.
6. A fun BBQ with friends. We had 2 families of friends over for dinner tonight after conference. We tried cooking ribs for the first time, and I dare say they were fantastic. (Now I don't like ribs - so that's saying a lot!) Wanna know the trick? We took a big stock-pot and 2 liters of Dr. Pepper. Bring the Dr. Pepper to a boil and place your ribs inside. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours. Take the ribs out and slather in BBQ sauce and put on the grill. Cook for a while (Cory did this part - so I don't know how long it took - but not too long) - and ENJOY. They were tender, juicy fell off the bone and yummy. (The reason I don't enjoy ribs, or fried chicken for that matter - is that I don't like eating off of the bone. It's just too messy!) We also had other yummy stuff like Cherry Chocolate Cake, Spinach Salad, potato salad - it was fun to visit, and fun food too! I love summer time when we can have BBQ's and really enjoy spending time with good friends.
7. Made the commitment to start going to water aerobics with some friends starting this week. One of my friends has been going for 6 weeks now and just loves it. She's been trying to get me to come too and I've managed to resist until tonight...So starting tomorrow I'm going to be going in the evenings. We'll see how it goes - I'm not much of a swimmer, but it might be fun. If nothing else it will be good to do something for myself, spend time with friends, and exercise. Cory's been encouraging me too - because he knows when I'm exercising I'm much happier and easier to live with :).
8. I found some fun digital kits this weekend. I've been bad lately and downloaded quite a few fun new kits. Some of my favorite sites are: Shabby Miss Jenn Designs, The Shabby Shoppe, and probably my favorite - The Sweet Shoppe Designs. The layout I posted was from this kit. Now if I could just find the time to get to do some scrapping....
9. Hunter has eaten like a HORSE this weekend. He must be growing because he has just been packing away the baby-food. And last night at dinner he was totally wanting to eat our food too. I have to say I did give him a couple of french fries (just to gum for the most part) - and he loved them. He wants to eat foods he can feed himself, but without any teeth he doesn't do too good. But he does love these little puffs that he can feed himself - and packs those away like nobody's business. But if anyone has great ideas for other finger foods that he won't choke on - I'd love to hear it. And I think Hunter would be grateful too :)
10. General Conference - Now this one is a little bitter-sweet. Because Cory's family was here (which we loved) - we didn't get to watch conference like we normally would have. We did catch today's sessions (although I say 'catch' loosely - the boys did not co-operate and let us pay much attention. Thank goodness we recorded it!), but we didn't get to watch yesterday's. I was disappointed when I realized I wouldn't get to enjoy the Saturday session (which I LOVE, and feel spiritually charged by it every 6 months). But when I got home last night from the dance competition I sat down to watch and at least see who was called as the new General Authority. Then it hit me, and I realized that we missed the sustaining of our new prophet - President Monson. I started to cry. But I watched the beginning of the session and just cried some more. I felt left out. I felt like I had really missed something. But I stood and sustained our new prophet as if I had been watching it live. I wanted to have that experience and get to commit that I would sustain and honor his teachings in my life, and the life of my family. But I was also overwhelmed as I watched those in the Conference Center as they stood and also committed to sustain him. And then I thought of the members all over the WORLD - who were doing the same thing. Wow! I felt a part of something HUGE, and yet - I felt like I had missed out on it a bit. I didn't like that feeling, and it made me want to do better at being a part of that awesome huge group so I wouldn't feel left out again. I wanted to live like that group should live, and I wanted to be a part of something so much bigger than just me. Does that make any sense? I look forward to quite moments this week that I will hopefully get to sit and watch Saturday's sessions more in depth and partake of the spiritual food that is offered with conference.

Elder Ballard's message in conference this afternoon was one of my favorites of conference; and maybe even my favorite talk in YEARS. It made me want to be a better mother, and also made me feel good about what I am doing. I am going to be referring to that talk for a long time to come I think. (If for some reason you missed it - you can find it here and listen to it. Later in the week the transcripts will be available too)

I LOVED seeing President Monson in conference. I have loved him as a church leader since I can remember. He has always had a special place in my heart, and I felt a connection to his stories even as a little girl. One of the things I loved the most during this conference was his sense of humor. That was an aspect of President Hinckley that I knew I was going to miss - he always had a quick wit and kept people smiling. I was worried a bit that that aspect of conference would be missing with him no longer with us. But I felt like President Monson was just as quick-witted today. He had some comments this afternoon that had me smiling and giggling a bit. I look forward to his sweet comments over the years. I love that my kids will hopefully get to know him as a prophet of their childhood, and look forward to helping them develop testimonies of living prophets.