General Conference

Saturday and Sunday was General Conference.  The boys groaned when we tried to prepare them on Family Home Evening a few days beforehand.  I can't blame them.  We usually didn't go to the Saturday sessions, growing up, that often but I do remember a plenty of Sunday ones and was bored out of my mind.  Back then, living in Oklahoma, staying home in your nighties and watching conference on t.v. wasn't an option.  You drove to your meeting house (in Sunday dress), stayed the 2 hours, and then had a potluck with the rest of the branch.  Then we waited for the next session to start.  6 hours later you were finally heading home!

For the last few conferences I  have tried different things to entertain the boys.  Last time I bought all kinds of different toys/activities for them to play with during different talks.  As you can imagine, that got expensive.  Last Wednesday night I got to go have dinner with some of my college friends (Charlene, Eileen, and Kristi) and was mentioning this to them.  Charlene suggested something that she has done with her kids.  She gets a bowl full of candy and picks a certain word per talk.  If the speaker says it, then they get to get one candy.  

Brigham explained, "This is the best conference ever!" once he learned of the goodies.  Mommy, however, didn't do so well...

I don't know if it was the fact that it was my heavy day on my period or that David wasn't there to help me (he was fixing the truck) or that all this candy was making my boys WAY too hyper but I did not enjoy this!  So by the last session on Sunday, I was done with the candy!

 There were a few sweet moments here and there though :)

I had to get creative by Sunday's last session.  So I printed off some coloring sheets from the internet.  Instead of them coloring certain blocks the right color, I changed them to odd colors.  This got the boys to crack up as they colored the missionaries faces blue :)

My worst day was on Saturday but you know, honestly, I got the most out of the talks on that day.  My favorites were Henry B. Eyring, Jeffrey R. Holland, and David S. Baxtor's talks.  On Sunday, my favorite was probably Dieter F. Uchtorf.  

Each one touched my heart in some way as I either applied it to my life or thought of a loved one.  Life can be so difficult and then there are times when you feel so much love for it.  I loved listening to these men as I remembered past experiences and knew I was in a much better place.  I loved listening to them as I tried to apply what I was now being reminded to do.  I truly am grateful for conference weekends.....even if my boys drive me nuts sometimes during them :)