Conference.

So we had a pretty nice weekend. We started by going to the little pumpkin thing and playing in the park with the Bagley's and then watched COnference- now for those who don't know- We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (they call us Mormons most of the time) and every six months we have General COnference where our Prophet and his counselors can speak to us about things we need to know to be better Christians and better members of the Church.



This particular conference was kind of special because one of the counselors had died. He was an amazing man and it is obvious that he is missed. When one dies, another must be appointed in his place, and leadership gets shuffled around. As part of that, there was a press conference in between sessions of conference with all major press out lets- it was kind of interesting becasue our faith is always being put to the limelight and negative criticism justcomes out of nowhere. Just in the last three months, there was a slanderous movie released, Mitt Romney was Newsweek's poster child for his Mormonism (my personal favorite was the criticism that he is using evangelical phrases like "Jesus Christ as a personal Savior" Had these people ever MET a Mormon before? PLEASE!!)(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21049285/site/newsweek/) and Warren Jeffs- who was NEVER a member of our church-was linked to us several times! With everyone's preconceived bilk with us, we often just leave it alone- but here was the new General Authorities holding a press conference!



The themes of General Conference were also amazing. Some of the ones that stuck out were ones that dealt with how to answer questions people do have about us- and I was most impressed with the answer of "by their fruits, you shall know them" and really, isn't that what being a Christian is all about? I was also comforted by a talk by Julie Beck about WOmen and Motherhood and how it is STILL not out of style, nor unimportant. I need reaffirmation of that sometimes.

Here's a link to that talk and some of the others if you are interested-

http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-775,00.html



On the homefront, we got a new camcorder to get ready for HAWAII!! this week is HUGE for US- 10th anniversary and ALi coming home on Wednesday, my Parents, and LAM coming in on Friday, THE RACE on Saturday- if you want updates sent to your phone on my race progress go here-http://www.thebaltimoremarathon.com/Runner_Tracking.htm and then fly to the islands on SUNDAY!!! I can't beleive it! I have so much to do! any advice here would be helpful!



Bagley "kids" in the hammock
TOday was fantastic because the Bagley's came over (they live close, our kids have a ball together and I promised they could watch conference on our big tv!) and Taji DID IT- she brought biscuits and sausage gravy!!! In many ways I am SUPPOSED to be southern and I deny it as MUCH as I can (although I am total Jersey girl-we don't pump our own gas) but when it comes to the food, I am southern as they come! and it was fantastic!! we had fruit salad, blueberry muffins and MONKEY BREAD (Myrt Fortner you are still in my heart! She was the mom/cook/whistler that I will never be!) and we literally were lolling on the floor, watching conference with over full bellies while the kids ran amuck in the background! Life was pretty good- then a nap after everybody left to top it all off!



SOOO- on some weird and scary pre-race news- a person died at the Chicago marathon today and 200 people were taken to the hospital because of record heat! PLEASE, OH PLEASE don't let next weekend be like that!!!