Which Do You Want First?

The good news or the bad news?

We'll start with the bad news. We went kayaking on the beach. I know, it doesn't seem bad. But if you consider that Kevin had his cell phone and our car's keyless entry in his pocket when his foot slipped into the water, you might see things our way.

This caused our car alarm to start and not turn off for way too long, Kev's cell phone to completely die and also for us to miss the first part of the Saturday session of General Conference (a semiannual series of discourses by leaders of the LDS Church). Most people would be OK with missing the first part of one session, since there are 5 over the weekend. But we missed a big one.

You see, President Monson announced that 5 new temples would be built around the world in Japan, Brazil, Utah, Chile and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Yes, that's right, here in our own stake - literally minutes away from our home! Right now the closest temple is in Orlando. That's about 4 hours away. This is huge news around here. All the members of the Church are abuzz, my seminary students can't stop talking about it; friends who are not members mention it; the local news outlets carried the story.

In addition to this conference news, we got to watch the last session with friends while we ate a practice turkey. In the grand tradition of dinner at the moms', we stuffed and roasted a turkey. Why? Because Thanksgiving dinner is just too good to only have once a year. We all had a great time, especially Stellan, who got to play with his new buddy Kirk. Kirk's mom and I do Girls Camp together and she has adopted us into her playgroup. The two boys are about 3 months apart and look so much alike they could be brothers.

So obviously that's all part of the good news. The rest? I spent an evening being a grown up doing semi-grown up things! Maybe I should say being a person doing person things, as opposed to being a mommy doing mommy things. As a birthday gift, my friend Rosanna got us tickets to see Paula Cole. Yep, I went to a concert! It was in a small theater and was very intimate. She was great, very personal and very warm. Oh, and pretty darn talented. We got to meet her after the show. Here's a photo taken on my cell phone:

What? Not convinced that's really her? How about this?

Oh, and in further developments, Kev and I both got fancy new phones. Our contract was up, so we traded up to phones that are far cooler than we can afford to fully utilize at this time. However, we hope to not be poor forever and we hope to put these new exciting features to use eventually. Our phone numbers remain the same, so you can still feel free to call us if you miss us. Wink, wink.