Xander and Elijah have been in school for two weeks now and they are loving it. Xander's favorite friend is Nicole and he lights up every time you say her name. We are moving the second weekend of September. Just across the street though so our address is only changing by 3 numbers. We will be in a bigger, hopefully better place. Xander starts soccer that same weekend and Elijah will start T-ball the week after. Jared starts school today. He is taking physics, calculus, and Cisco systems. Anytime the phone rings Maxwell runs to answer it. He starts talking and when he is done he says bye and hangs up. I have a race anytime the phone rings to answer it before he hangs up. When I was in the shower my friend called a few times and he kept hanging up on her. She had asked if I was there and he said yes so she kept trying. Today is the day I am going to start packing. Yay. I had funny stories to share but I am at a loss now.
A religious endnote:
My friend Fe was baptized on the 12th of August. Her husband Bob will be baptized on the 26th. It is pretty neat to have friends getting baptized. I can honestly say they are totally happier, different people. It all started with me inviting Fe to a women's activity in May. They started going to church with me. Their daughter, Amira, loves it at church and her favorite song is, "I am a Child of God." It's odd because that song never resonated with me before but hearing it through new ears I realize how precious a truth it teaches. We sang it at Fe's baptism and Amira sang loudest. My gratitude for and testimony of the gospel have increased so much through the conversion process of my friends just as we are promised by the prophtets. I was held back by fears and judgement of their lifestyles for so long before I invited them. I didn't think badly of them, I was just worrying about all the things they would have to change or give up to be members. I forgot that none of that matters to the truly converted. I was not providing the opportunity for my friends to feel the love and safety a testimony of the gospel brings. I felt like I would be asking them to make all of these huge sacrifices forgetting that it would be the Lord requiring that of them and not any mortal. My advice to all of you is to simply invite. They may say no, but at least they will always know they are welcome. Your friends will not know they are welcome and invited to attend unless you speak up. When I finally invited the Becks, they said they had been interested but I had never invited them before. How sad is that. I could have invited them anytime over the last year but I waited. Don't wait with your friends. (I have known Bob for 2 years, 8 months and Fe for 2 years.) Sometime soon I will post pix from the baptisms but they will be after the pix of the children if you are interested.