{Busy busy busy and ME THINKS....}

I'm always amazed at how fast Mondays roll around it has been so busy here the past week pretty much! So in point form :

• D and I went on a date Thursday night to see Twlight {I even got him to go imagine that eh! and he liked it too} It was so good I loved it! I have to admit there were some odd, funny parts and Edward wasn't my first pick but yeah by the end of the movie definitely a good choice! I want to see it again!
• Anyway we had three babysitters this weekend crazy! Date night was so fun then Friday we took the kids to our town's old fashion Christmas party the kids loved it and we went really early and barely had to wait anywhere in line! They got all they wanted to do in and came home and crashed. And for the first time Lauren WASN'T afraid of Santa! That is huge!
• After that we went to a fun party with a bunch of people from our old ward it was really a lot of fun and nice to get out with other people!
• Saturday I had to do some parent council duties at a craft fair here and sit at a fund rising booth we were doing to raise money for a new playground. I did get a lot of Christmas cards done so I guess it was worth my 2 hours and not selling much.
• Saturday night we went to an amazing production our stake put on called Saviour of the World: His birth. It was not your typical stake show it was AMAZING they did incredible. I pretty much bawled through the first part about Elizabeth and Zacharias not being able to have children and then she gets pregnant when she is really old.... you know the story! That will probably be me when I'm 80 j/k ha ha!!!
• Sunday went to church and had naps except Masen who decided to spray down the whole kitchen with the sink sprayer and to dose the kitchen with sour cream lovely eh!! So a few clean ups later and no early bed time it was a long day.
• We had some friends stop by which was so nice and fun to sit and talk, then D's parents came just as they were leaving so it was a fun night we love it when people just stop by.
• MY SIL Kristyn and BIL Rustin had their baby yesterday too CONGRATS TO THEM on another beautiful baby girl, Emma Rose !!! She was a big baby too 8 lbs 3 oz for such a little mama!! But we are so happy and excited for them! So another little niece for us!
• Today I had parent council and clean up day around here!
• Crazy times December is filling up fast we have kolt's bday coming up, a couple of ward parties to go to. Our previous ward is having there party this weekend and I've been trying to talk D into going cause we had had some invites to go, but he kept saying no but by the time last night was over and enough people had invited us I think we talked him into it! So I'm looking forward to that
• It will be a lot of fun we love our old ward and really miss it! Its nice to know that they still care about us and haven't forgotten us we often get visitors and phone calls from friends in our old ward which is so nice to know that they still love us and think of us at least once and awhile.
• So the calender is filling up and I still have so much to get done before Christmas! This Christmas we are cutting things in half it just gets to be so much so it will be more of a do we or they really need that ?
• We have some fun plans that will mean a lot more then the presents under the tree that we hope the kids will remember a lot longer then what they get for Christmas!

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SO for ME thinks this week:

A story that we had in our Relief Society lesson yesterday that I can't stop thinking about its well worth the read it makes you stop and think

I want to be this kind of HERO.

{and I think most of us have felt like the author}

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Hero at the Grocery Store
By Stephenie Meyer Ensign 2006

I was part of one not long ago at the grocery store. I hope I never forget it, though the memory is bittersweet.
I had been shopping for almost an hour by the time I got to the checkout lines. My two youngest sons were with me, the four-year-old refusing to hold onto the cart, the two-year-old trying to climb out of the basket and jump down to play with his brother. Both got progressively whinier and louder as I tried to keep them under control, so I was looking for the fastest lane possible. I had two choices. In the first line were three customers, and they all had just a few purchases. In the second line was only one man, a harried young father with his own crying baby, but his cart was overflowing with groceries.
I quickly looked over the three-person line again. The woman in the front was very elderly, white haired and rail thin, and her hands were shaking as she tried unsuccessfully to unlatch her big purse. In the other line, the young father was throwing his food onto the conveyor belt with superhuman speed. I got in line behind him.
It was the right choice. I was able to start unloading my groceries before the elderly woman was even finished paying. My four-year-old was pulling candy from the shelf, and my little one was trying to help by lobbing cans of soup at me. I felt I couldn’t get out of the store fast enough.
And then, over the sound of the store’s cheery holiday music, I heard the checker in the other line talking loudly, too loudly. I glanced over as my hands kept working.
“No, I’m sorry,” the checker was almost shouting at the old woman, who didn’t seem to understand. “That card won’t work. You are past your limit. Do you have another way to pay?” The tiny old woman blinked at the checker with a confused expression. Not only were her hands shaking now, but her shoulders too. The teenage bagger rolled her eyes and sighed.
As I caught a soup can just before it hit my face, I thought to myself: “Boy, did I choose the right line! Those three are going to be there forever.” My mood was positively smug as my checker began scanning my food.
But the smiling woman directly in line behind the elderly lady had a different reaction. Quietly, with no fanfare, she moved to the older woman’s side and ran her own credit card through the reader.
“Merry Christmas,” she said softly, still smiling.
And then everyone was quiet. Even my rowdy children paused, feeling the change in the atmosphere.
It took a minute for the older woman to understand what had happened. The checker, her face thoughtful, hesitated with the receipt in her hand, not sure whom to give it to. The smiling woman took it and tucked it into the elderly woman’s bag.
“I can’t accept …” the older woman began to protest, with tears forming in her eyes.
The smiling woman interrupted her. “I can afford to do it. What I can’t afford is not to do it.”
“Let me help you out,” the suddenly respectful bagger insisted, taking the basket and also taking the old woman’s arm, the way she might have helped her own grandmother.
I watched the checker in my line pause before she pressed the total key to dab at the corner of her eyes with a tissue.
Paying for my groceries and gathering my children, I made it out of the store before the smiling woman. I had made the right choice of lanes, it seemed.
But as I walked out into the bright December sunshine, I was not thinking about my luck but about what I could not afford.
I could not afford my current, self-absorbed frame of mind.
I could not afford to have my children learn lessons of compassion only from strangers.
I could not afford to be so distant from the spirit of Christ at any time of the year—especially during this great season of giving.
I could not afford to let another stranger, another brother or sister, cross my path in need of help without doing something about it.
And that is why I hope never to forget the Christmas hero in the grocery store. The next time I have a chance to be that kind of a hero, I can’t afford to miss it. --------------
I hope we can all look for opportunities to be "that kind of a Hero" we really can't afford to pass up the opportunities to show our children and others first hand what it means to have the Spirit of Christ {mas} not only at Christmas but all year around. To help others, to look for opportunities to serve and to feel the awesome feeling of helping somebody else... a feeling far greater then any wrapped gift.

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Another story that touched my heart this week {or my leaking eyes these days it seems}

Is of a fast food drive - thru in a city not far from here, where a couple went thru and went to pay for their food only to find that the car infront of them had already paid it for them. So they passed it on and 60 cars later the spirit of Christ {mas} was still going.

PASS IT ON. Have a Wonderful Week!

"Blessed are those who give without remembering and receive without forgetting."