Blah, blah, blah.

Well I have let another week slip by without a blog entry so now you get another verbose entry. I need to work on my brevity a bit.

First, I have a new calling at church. I am the new nursery leader. Greg says he removed himself from the decision and let his counselors decide. I have only done it one week so far. I think I will enjoy it once I get into the swing of things. I think it is going to be hardest on Liz. It is hard for her to have me in there but not devoting all my time and attention to her. She will be a Sunbeam in January, though, so that should help things a little bit. Ben is happy as long as he can see me. When I went in with him for the first time as the nursery leader, he started to cry and wouldn't stop for 10 minutes because he thought I was going to leave him. It took him a while to figure out that I was actually going to stay. I do miss my old class a lot, but I think this might be the best thing for Ben right now.

Next, I have a good friend, Leah Jensen, who likes to take pictures, mostly because she is a big scrapbooker. She was so kind as to take some of our family and of the kids, and they turned out beautifully. This is blogworthy because the last family picture we have includes me, Greg and Anna, and Adam. I will post some so you can see.

We have had a temporary pet as of late, which has been kind of fun. We have been taking care of some caterpillars. The first one we got was already a pretty good size and within a week he had made his cocoon and just today he hatched out into a beautiful monarch butterfly. Our other catterpillar started out teeny-tiney, smaller than a straight pin and he is now long and fat. I bet he is as long or longer than my index finger (but not that fat). It has been really cool to see him grow so much in such a short time. I think it won't be long until he is ready to make his cocoon though. It really is an amazing, and fast, process. The kids have named them oozie and poozie (don't ask me), and they have gotten a lot of attention. I have also had to learn what milkweed looks like and where to find it in Iowa. Lucky for me, it grows next to corn fields a lot. There are a few of those around here. I would highly recommend this little project for anyone who has young children.

Lastly, it was my birthday on Sunday. I am now 31 years young. Despite some babysitter troubles, Greg and I were able to go out Saturday night. It is always fun to have time just with each other. We had a really nice time. Then the actual day of my birthday was great too. It was stake conference so Greg was with us all day long. It was lovely. He helped get the kids ready in the morning, even bathing them. He took Ben out in the hall at church. He made me lunch. He let me have a nap and read. Then kids set up this great treasure hunt for me to find my presents. Greg surprised me by buying me a bike! We have a date to try it out this Saturday. Then we had some friends over for dinner, which Greg made, and cake and ice cream, you guessed it, made by Greg. It was just a relaxing day, which is exactly what I needed.

Well, that's all for now. Bland entry, but tells a lot of stuff. (Which you were all dying to hear about right?).