My Saturday was so full that I should probably divide this post, but I think I'll
write it all in one and if you get bored, you can quit. You have my official permission.
REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE: Saturday morning I had a seminary in-service training. I always enjoy these and come away fired up to change the world in my little classroom. What effected me the most this time was a discussion about giving the kids a bigger "vision." They (we all) need to see the bigger picture and not just what is going to happen that day/week/month. One of the brothers told us that he had always been a goal oriented person and before he was a member of the church he always had very lofty goals and they were very visual. He saw himself on an NFL team, or he saw himself the president or something like that. These visions compelled him to work hard, but were not real enough to ever be fulfilled. After he found the gospel he found a real vision, he pictures himself now holding hands with his wife and children in the eternities. That is his visual goal for his future. That goal hasn't needed to change since he found it.
REMEMBER YOUR FAMILY: I excused myself a little bit early from our meetings so that I could drive my neice and nephew down to the Dallas airport. They had been here visiting the family and it was time for them to fly home to their mom. My in-laws were planning to make the drive and didn't sound too excited about the road trip. I, on the other hand, heard about a road trip to DFW and was SO EXCITED. I quickly offered and ended up having a mom weekend getaway! YEAH for me! I enjoyed being with the kids and playing road trip games with them and taking care of them through the adventure travel always is. They took off without problems and I headed out to have dinner with my friend Mimi. I thought we would have a quick dinner and then she would have to leave me because she had another friend coming in from out of town at 8:30. While we were eating she told me that yet ANOTHER friend was in need of her love that same night and wanted to go out DANCING with her after she had said hello to everyone else.
REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE (WERE?): Dancing? Really? You're going dancing? Can I come too?
We stopped by my grandpa's house and talked with he and Toni for a while before heading out to meet Mimi's other friend Christie. We drove she and her husband out to their hotel in Dallas and sat with them while they had some exquisite Dallas cuisine (IHOP). They were exhausted and definitely not up for dancing, so we sent them to bed and headed out to Fort Worth. Well, we started to, and we did eventually get there, but there were A LOT of loopty-loops before we got there. I thought about diagramming our path, that would be amusing, but really not worth the effort. Plus I probably don't really remember. When we finally got to the dance club it was 11 o'clock... which is already past my bedtime. I had a blast though! I was worried that I would be the oldest person there, and yes I was still wearing my dress I'd put on for seminary training - what a dork! I didn't care though. We definitely stood out from the crowd, but in a very good way, I'd say. All covered up and drinking water, not worried about what anyone else thought - just there to DANCE! We had a blast. I had a couple of learning experiences. In that environment, you can't give out friendly smiles like you do at the grocery store. I had one old black man follow me to another room and stand close to me to see if the grocery store smile I had given him was anything more than that. Uh, no, it wasn't. I'd thought he was a security guy on duty from where he was standing and the uniform shirt he had on. Toward the end of our evening a girl came up behind me and put her arm around me like we'd been friends for years. She said "hey, how's it going?" I did not like this. "Uh, fine. How are you." "I'm fine. Hey, my friend wants to dance with you guys, but he's shy." "Oh, uh, no... we're all married." Her reply still cracks me up... " oh, that's ok. HE IS TOO! But he's going through a divorce." Mimi's friend was quick with a "well, we're not" I was glad she'd made it quick and easy to get out of that. Like somehow it would be fine with us that he was married too because it wasn't a good marriage? Whoa. This was no church dance, but we just acted like it was and had a fun time, because they don't really make church dances for our group anymore. :)
We left quite late and Mimi was still nice enough to take me to Wal-mart to buy some shoes to go with my Sunday dress. I'd purposely not packed any because I've been wanting to buy new black shoes for about a hundred years. I was going to make myself just do it, and I did. In the middle of the night when we were too tired to walk, but I did.
The best part about being a mom who went dancing is that I was able to sleep in. I woke up late (at 7:30) and walked around my grandpa's house to see if anyone was up. No one was, so I hopped right back in bed and slept until 10. If you know me at all, that is NOT NORMAL, but so delightful. I just feel bad that Mimi didn't have the same next day experience!
REMEMBER WHERE YOU CAME FROM: I spent the morning talking with my grandpa about family stories and especially enjoyed hearing stories about my grandmother who died when I was 10.
I joined Mimi's family for church in our old ward and really enjoyed seeing all of our old friends and receiving lots of great hugs. It was such a joy to be there again and not be overly emotional about not being a part of it. Part of me still misses it deeply, but I feel so much more stable and settled than the last few times I've been there. It was a welcome change. I still cried a little, but not much more than I do every Sunday. :) I wish I'd had more time to catch up with everyone, but I really wanted to spend more time with my grandpa and Toni, so I went back there for dinner. They took such great care of me and it was great to be with them. This morning grandpa and I went through several boxes of photos, trying to organize them and identify when and where and who, etc. What a fun task to do together. We had a lot of fun.
REMEMBER WHERE YOU ARE GOING: I had a great weekend away and now I'm happy to be back with all of my boys. My mom even came over for a great dinner Jeff made and for a quick FHE tonight. It's great to be home too! I'm so happy to have had a break from the everyday adventures of games and meals and potty training so that I could step back and see the vision of what my family is to become. Bring it all back on!
