Just call me the bag lady

I've had the fabric for a year...and finally took the time to finish Megan's tote bag. It is very cute with french poodles and glitter. Glitter makes everything cute :-)

Bryce is Nice

We spent UEA weekend at Bryce Canyon. The weather was glorious, and the drive through the canyons coming home was enhanced by the leaves changing colors. I love Fall! I love the weather, the smells, the colors. . . and the anticipation it holds for the coming holidays.

We had a great time hiking amongst the breathtaking scenery--except for Megan got a pretty bad blister because her meany mom made her take some old tennis shoes instead of her new ones and they were too tight. (I'll go down in history for that mistake.) There are too many pics to post individually, so I'm making a slide show that I will link here.

After Bryce, we drove up over Cedar Breaks to Enterprise to visit Mark, Debbie, Kristin and Dustin (our neighbors from Vegas) who have recently moved out of the hustle and bustle of Vegas to the wide open spaces of Washington County. A nice change. Kristin was home from BYU for the weekend. Mark and Mike were able to squeeze in a mtn. bike ride up to the "C" on the mountain in Cedar City. The girls and I drove over to Cedar to meet and pick up Mike, then on home.

Saturday night Shane Haycock, Rob Imlay, and Dave Tanner brought the boys from our Vegas ward to spend the night at our place. They had driven up to attend the Priesthood session of Conference. Elder Holland's son, David, is the Bishop of the Las Palmas ward, and got them tickets. Evidently (from what I was told) they didn't have enough tickets, so three of the boys (one of them was Dustin) got to ride to the Conference Center with Elder Holland in a golf cart. Pretty cool having an Apostle's son for a Bishop!

It was quite a different feeling (and smell) having 12 boys in the house! Mike whipped up some pancakes and eggs for them Sunday morning, and they left by 9:00 am. It was a bit of a whirlwind weekend, but good to see some of God's amazing creations and catch up with old friends.

Sunday Evening Discussion

Last night Megan was reading her book, titled Strawberry Hill by Mary Ann Hoberman. It is about a girl named Allie who is Jewish and moves to a new town in Connecticut. After arriving, she meets Martha, who attends the local parochial school. The book is mainly about making friendships, but the author touches on the differences between the Jewish and Catholic faiths because Allie has to deal with some anti-Semitic comments from one of Martha's school friends.

Right before bed Megan came up to me sort of chuckling . . .

Megan: "Mom, listen to this" (chuckle)

Me: "What?"

Megan: "Allie is Jewish and Martha is Catholic, and they're talking about Jesus. Allie's dad tells Martha, 'Jesus was Jewish.' " (chuckle, chuckle. Like that is the most preposterous thing she has ever heard.)

Me: "Jesus was Jewish."

Megan: "He was?" (stares at me incredulously)

Me: "Yes."

Megan: "But I thought Jesus was Mormon?" (deadpan)

Me: "Well, no. He was Jewish. Jewish can mean someone's nationality or ethnicity, like we are American because we were born in America. Jesus was born in Israel, near Jerusalem. It's also a religion"

Megan: "But he was Mormon, right?"

Me: "No. . . not technically."

Megan: "I don't get it. So where did Mormons come from?"

[Simplified explanation of Christ's ministry, the Apostasy, and the First Vision ensues.]

Megan: "So how did Joseph Smith become a prophet?"

Me: "Heavenly Father appeared to him and called him to be one."

Megan: "But I thought you had to be an apostle to become the next prophet."

Me: "That's true now, but there weren't any living apostles when Joseph Smith was trying to figure out what church to join."

Megan: "Oh. So who will be the prophet when President Monson dies, Uchtdorf?

Me: "No. Boyd K. Packer, if he's still alive."

Megan: "But he's not one of Pres. Monson's counselors."

Me: "I know. Elder Packer has been an apostle longer than any of them except Pres. Monson."

[Explanation of apostolic seniority ensues.]

After that she look slightly confused, so I told her to go to bed. We obviously have our work cut out for us in FHE in the coming weeks. :)

Another Teenager

We celebrated Brooke's 13th birthday on Wednesday. She is now officially a teen, although she's been showing signs behaviorally for quite some time now. OMG! Like, I totally, like, can't believe she's a teenager. That is so, like, totally unbelievable!