Apostle, Kamikaze Stairs, Ninja Maps, Audition, Wonder Woman, 2 Chickens,

Elder L.Tom Perry, an apostle for The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints came to speak at our stake conference this weekend. M, A and SL got to meet him. They stood in a line in a hallway where he was sure to pass. He talked to them as he shook their hands. He told M, “You’re the eldest. The others look up to you. You need to be a good example. Sometimes they’ll follow you when they might not follow their parents. Be a good example to them.” To A he asked, “Do you two get along?” I could see A really thinking about it (remembering the times Mandy pinches him), but he decided they did, he nodded his head and said “Yes.” Elder Perry said, “Good. That’s what I like to hear.” Elder Perkins, a regional representative, shook all their hands too. He asked their names, and told them, “Ah SL, a wise name.” “A, the first man.” He got to M and for a second was perplexed, her name doesn’t fit with the Biblical pattern, then he said, “Well, you look like a M.” It was a great experience for them.

I got mastitis last week. It was awful. Everyone has been sick with colds and some fevers, and then I went down with that infection. Ugh. The only thing that saved me was Mom H, K, and M being healthy and taking over. A and S helped with the young ones—but they used a lot of t.v. and video games. In fact, we’ve banned video games for this week to make up for their tremendous use last week. Baby M went on a hunger strike when he had ear infection, sore throat, and teething, and that’s what tipped my body over I think. I’m just glad the mastitis is OVER! It’s the 3^rd time since Baby M was born, and I think that’s quite enough of that.

Baby M has learned how to climb up the stairs. I heard him cry, rushed out of my room, and there he was at the very top of our wooden stairs, unable to pull himself over the last stair (which is covered in carpet). My heart about stopped! Since then, all he wants to do it go up, and he cries when I teach him to crawl down. Kamikaze!

ST has created an elaborate Ninja-Map game that he was playing with SL and A. From what I can tell (it’s enormously complicated), you draw a map that looks like a game board trail. You add scary things along the trail. Then you act it out. One of his maps had an alligator pond, and so they had to fight alligators in order to continue. I don’t know what their quest is or where they’re going, but I do know they’re enjoying the dangerous path to get to it.

Status King has 19,848 users today—it is just growing and growing. We did a photo shoot with models (i.e. friends and family of J’s in Provo) wearing the status shirts. The photographer took almost 2,000 photos and they turned out spectacular. I uploaded three of them to this blog, but plan to upload more as the photographer finishes with them.

M tried out for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at her school. She’s one of the candyman’s children. Yah for her.

We were all sick the day of SL’s baptism. So it is now postponed to March 28^th at noon.

ST said, “I’m a transformer. I transformed into a…” I expected to hear he’d transformed into a car, since that’s what the toy transformers do. Nope. He said, “I transformed into a chicken!”

The chicken saga continues....We are down to two chickens now thanks to a neighbor's dog (we think). And the kids are wanting us to butcher them. I told them we’d butcher them if they plucked them by hand. So we still have two chickens. But we’re wanting to start over with lots of chicks. These two adult chickens don’t lay eggs often and when they do they often peck them till they break. Ah, but they’re survivors (for now….).

Now that Baby M is more healthy, the last two nights he’s only woken up ONCE. I’ve been getting deliciously long stretches of sleep. MMMMMM. I love sleep.

My upstairs bathroom is in desperate need of a remodel. The sinks, in particular, are so stained! I scrubbed them and decided they’d been so abused by the previous home owners that all I could do was bide my time until I had enough money to replace them. But K is wonder woman. She used some of her Airemaster secret cleaners and worked on those two sinks for a long time and….drumroll please….she scrubbed them until they’re white again. I couldn’t believe it and honestly had thought it was impossible. Then she hand painted two cupboard pulls, bought a new shower curtain and put together some rocks and shells I had already, added a blue day lily, and now the bathroom looks clean and beach-themed. I am so impressed with her talent and hard work.

I love having a greenhouse. I have a four foot pea plant! No flowers or peas yet—but wow, what a stem.