Everett's Phone, Costume Check, and General Conference

Everett finally got a phone. His tennis coach finally told Everett he could not text us after practice, as it was almost a daily occurrence. The parents had a very hard remembering to pick him up after practice or his meets. We were planning to get him a phone for his birthday, just moved that up 6 weeks. Justin had Mia call the new phone, Everett was out on the trampoline. The new phone was carried outside, “Everett there is someone on the phone for you…!” He hopped off the tramp and his face turned to confusion when it was Amelia. The reality quickly sunk in! Everett was absolutely delighted. He got his fitness watch connected so that finally works like it should. He is now competing with us all via Duolingo. He tried texting dumb gifs but was quickly shut down, do that with your friends. Of course, his phone is a dumb smart phone with Bark limiting his activity. 

Phillip had a band concert at NNU with the college band also performing. Justin attended that event. One of Everett’s first lengthy texts came right after the concert, Justin was on his phone the entire time. Everett was complaining how bright and distracting Justin’s phone was…dangerous territory to tread on my boy. I learned some lessons as well, pulled Justin aside after scriptures so Everett could tell Justin his frustration instead of texting me to deal with that for him. 

The BIG event of the week was the attire/costume check. Sunday night I had a zoom call with the Utah coordinator and Kelly Orton (ID Youth manager) just to hear about Utah’s logistics. They used stickers or notes sent home with corrections. I also learned that attire check would be at the END of each choir right before dismissal. I really like that instead of at the beginning of rehearsal. I had a list of 20 things to get done before our costume check on Thursday. Kelly and I chatted after the zoom call because our costume check would be on a combined rehearsal day which means we were at a Middle School auditorium instead of Eagle Hills church. Thankfully, we have been at the that particular middle school twice so knew the layout. We got a basic plan hammered out. Before Thursday I had to get all the participant lists printed out, stickers made, and my team trained. It was a crazy few days. Even with the chaos, attire check was quite speedy and thorough. For the littles we used stickers, I had my team of 4 assigned with another volunteer going down the YSC line marking down corrections on paper forms and sending those singers home with a sticker. Another volunteer took a small group of singers out to the dismissal crew. That crew let parents know if their singer had corrections and handed them the sticker. Children’s chorus was in the band room, that was a longer process since that choir is by far the largest. After that was done I learned one line of singers did not have any of the corrections marked down on my forms, only had the corrections form going home with singers. That was a bummer, I could not tell what singers had missed the costume check and/or any corrections. The youth and concert choirs were released at the same time. Youth were funneled into the band room with two of my trained leads (Sara Ostler and Cara Hancock) while myself and Kellyn were in the atrium checking concert choir. That went quickly with minimal hassle. I’d say most of the corrections were covering shoe buckles and the under-layer showing around the collar. I was told all participants were to come in costume the next week for a second attire check regardless if they had corrections or not. Yay…two weeks of chaos in a row. 

I went food shopping to Winco this week. I needed quite a few pantry items and restock low supplies. I walked out of there $600 poorer after that shopping trip. I hear food prices are expected to rise another 20% this year with the Chinese tariffs taking place. Talk about a gut punch. The girls went to Hobby Lobby to get some beads and feathers to make costume jewelry over conference weekend. 

 

Our general conference weekend was magnificent. We snuggled puppies, worked on crafts, and built Legos while listening to our leaders speak to us. I’d say the main themes were: 

• Centering your life around Christ     
• Come back to Christ, no matter where you’ve been
• Build faith through covenants
• Prepare for the second coming with hope (the 10 virgins parable was mentioned several times)

Josie crocheted an entire skein of yarn with intent to make a fluffy rug. She made her goal! Amelia decorated her mask and shoes for prom. I started work on a cute crochet blanket. Justin and Phillip worked hard to stop an oil leak Carlita sprung. 

Justin and I made blueberry pancakes with bacon and sausage for a family conference treat. Yum. The puppies are slowly learning to eat puppy chow and lap up puppy formula. Maisie is not keen on staying with the puppies now. She wants freedom! Girl, I get ya!