Note the two new sites I just added to my "Cooking and More" section. Wow, there are some creative people out there. I think my cute niece Anna would enjoy and outdo any of these. Please don't think that I am suggesting that Anna is the only one who would or could do that--I know many of you could! But, I've seen what Anna can do and I haven't seen what most of you can do. So, there you have it. Check it out and see how you (any and all of you) can best these ideas. Bakerella and Sweet Designs by Amy Atlas Events. I know you'll get a kick out of them.

You know, I used to be creative, now I'm not. The best I do is fun things for my Cub Scouts, and they're generally outlined in the book for me. Well, now I guess sometimes I'm creative for my Primary chorister calling. I do try to be enthusiastic, even if I'm not very creative. The kids like enthusiasm. And I like the kids, so I try to accommodate. I've had two weeks off from Primary (General and Stake Conferences), and I'm a bit rejuvenated and ready to go back.

We are singing "Follow the Prophet" this year for the program. We have worked on several prophets--Adam, Abraham, Daniel, Jonah, and Noah. I think that's all. There are more verses listed, but I think 5 is a good number. However, I've written a verse to end with for President Monson. I don't take credit for the idea. Last fall at our stake meeting one of the gals from another ward had written a verse for President Monson, I faithfully wrote it down and promptly lost it. I asked the stake leader twice for the lady's name and then never could remember it when I got home. I even got out my old stake directory and tried to find her. I called people from her ward, but no one was ever at home. I finally decided that I'd be way to embarrassed to ask for the name again, so I wrote my own.

Thomas is a prophet, wants us to obey
Loves to tell us stories, help to show the way. (or: help show the Lord's way?)
Has a testimony, hopes we'll have one, too.
Follow our prophet, that's just what we'll do!

Okay, kind of corny, but here's the best part. I'll get some of the paper you put up on bulletin boards and we'll roll it out and draw a prophet. Either we'll just draw the outline or actually trace someone--probably just draw it because when you trace they never have a neck and it looks kind of dorky. Then I'll have the kids color him--our prophet--and write notes to him all over the paper. And, of course we'll write our verse to Follow the Prophet on it. Then we'll roll it up and mail it to President Monson. What do you think? I haven't asked the Primary President yet, so I hope she loves it because I'm excited about it.

So I think 6 verses of Follow the Prophet will be enough. The next song we get to learn is Come Follow Me (I think). I haven't decided which verses to do on that one yet. I don't think we need to do them all. There's one about the Holy Ghost, but I think they hymn is next, so we're well on our way. We still need to pass off He Sent His Son, but I'm going to keep using the pictures for the Jr. Primary. They're just having a hard time remembering. When we use the pictures, they do just great, and you know, there are some songs that are hard to remember. This is one of them; the lines are simply too similar.

We went to see Grandma this weekend. It was nice to be in the home where I grew up. I remember when I was a little girl going to see my grandparents. There was just this really cool feeling when we got there and walked into the house. I wonder if my kids feel that way. It's hard to describe--excitement, contentment, acceptance, peace, longing, nostalgia. I wonder if my grandkids will have those feelings.

We drive an older van and it does not have a CD player, but you can buy a car kit with a tape that hooks to your portable CD player and it works really well, until it wears out. Ours wore out so I bought a new one for the trip to Idaho. Dante was getting it all figured out, since it was different than the last one, and I finished my packing. After a little while I told him he needed to be done so the battery for the car wouldn't die. He finished. I even started the car just to make sure. A little while later I looked out and it seemed like the lights were on. But our lights turn off automatically after 5 minutes so I didn't worry too much about it. We packed, we were ready to go. Car wouldn't start. I couldn't believe it. Completely dead. No gauges, nothing.

I called Emily to see if she would come over and give us a jump start on our car. I called Corky. I called Wally, our resident mechanic. Wally didn't answer. Emily came. We did everything right. Nothing. Well we did get a little something because the gauges moved, but no engine turning over. I called Wally. I called Corky. Wally called back while I was on the phone with Corky, but I can't ever remember how to put someone on hold on my cell phone and I didn't know it was Wally. Oh my heck!

Corky reminded me that he bought a membership to AAA just for this purpose, so I called AAA and Wally called again. Finally I got through to Wally, he told me to go get his battery charger, which is huge by the way. I dragged the charger down the street, but no way was I going to hook that thing up without further instructions. Too many, "if this" and "if that" items that I didn't even know what they were talking about. Finally I get Wally and AAA shows up. So I'm talking to Nick from AAA and Wally from down the street at the same time. Wally says to use his charger because it's got more power and Nick decides to get his smaller one, which once hooked up, starts the car immediately. I scowled. Not that I wasn't thrilled, but hello. Emily and I did everything right and the car didn't start. Nick just looked at me and pointed at his name tag--it was because he did it. Fine. Wally hung up. Nick checked everything and deemed it good, shook my hand, checked my AAA card and left. Emily laughed when I cried--I was so grateful! Grateful for people who could help me. Grateful for a AAA membership, grateful for a wonderful friend who came to jump start my car and stayed by my side even though we obviously weren't helping the car. Grateful for Wally who said he was sorry he wasn't where he could have helped me. Grateful to Heavenly Father for somehow making this all work out. So yeah, I cried. Tears of joy and gratitude. I know, I'm a bawl-baby. And I think it's getting worse.