A New Favorite Tradition

So I've decided that having a pre-made gingerbread house kit is the way to go! A few years back, we tried to make a fake gingerbread house out of graham crackers and well.....it didn't turn out so good. This year the house went together great and the kids had a great time snitching the candy and frosting and we had a wonderful time. Much more enjoyable when you don't have to worry about the roof caving in!

Internet, Pop-ups, and Viruses Oh My!

My poor computer has been having some difficulties as of late. A few months ago I kept getting kicked out of different programs and we were having pop-up ads all the time. So we purchased Cyber Defender to clean and protect our computer from all the nasties that were out there. Just in the last little while, my computer has been even worse. It now talks to me. About every hour or so it'll tell me, "Congratulations! You have been selected to win a free laptop computer." Or Nintendo Wii, or cell phone...the message changes from day to day. This is getting really annoying.

So I ran our Cyber Defender scan again to check for viruses and it was fine. Nothing to report...my computer was as clean as a whistle. I then ran a free scan of Norton Security. Umm, it reported that I have not 1 but 143 viruses, and 53 heuristics (whatever those are!) Yeah, I'm not surprised. My computer was acting funny. So much for our crappy purchase of Cyber Defender. It was a complete waste of 45 bucks. Can I get my money back! :-) I miss my trusty, old virus free computer. Feel good inside if you are virus free because it sure is a pain when you're not!

Josh's Baptism

We made it! My oldest is baptized! It was a rough, crazy day getting there though. First thing that morning, Ethan woke up coughing. Then he starts to throw up. I can't really take him to a baptism with him throwing up all over the place. I was stressing because what was I supposed to do? I couldn't stay home with him. I started calling around to the young women in the ward. I really hated doing this because who really wants to come over and be exposed to throwing up germs? But I call...and call...and call. No one is home or they had other plans. After all, I was calling last minute and it was a Saturday night. I'm getting frantic since it's 3:00 and we have to leave at 5:00. Ryan was out with Josh doing a little Daddy/son bonding and when he got home I told him that I couldn't find a babysitter. I think that he was a little annoyed since that was my only task for the day. But he took charge and within 5 minutes he had our next door neighbor, one of his priests, come over and stay with Ethan while we went.

Next, during the babysitter saga, Abby decided that she wanted to get into my make-up. I have this lip stick that is supposed to stain your lips so it doesn't rub off while you eat and drink. Well Abby applied it to her face. Great! I scrubbed and scrubbed. It wouldn't come off. So, she looked very lovely at the baptism.

We had talked to Josh about getting baptized and he said that he was a little nervous about how deep the water was. We told him it was like a big bathtub. Nice and warm and not too deep, plus Daddy would be in there with him so he'd be just fine. Apparently, the water wasn't nice and warm. It was cold! Ryan took a step in and was afraid that Josh wouldn't follow! :-) But he did and I was so proud of him. We had warned Josh that Satan would try his hardest to make things go wrong so that he wouldn't want to get baptized. And let me tell you, things definitely didn't go as planned, but we made it through. What a day to remember.

Oh crap

For Joshua's baptism, Ryan and I wanted to give Josh his own set of scriptures. I drove Ryan into work so that I could have the car to make the 45 minute trip into Dallas to the one and only LDS bookstore around. I selected, engraved, bought and brought the new purchase home. I was excited to give them to Josh tomorrow so I opened them up again to look at them. Something doesn't look right but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then a few seconds later, I realize that the engraving lady forgot to put the "b" in our last name. Crap! It reads Joshua R. Campell. Now I know that I didn't write it wrong on the little slip of paper, she just messed up. But how did I not catch that at the store? Don't I know how my own last name should look? I just glanced at it breifly at the store while I was paying for it. Man, now I'm going to have to take them back. Will they make me buy a whole new set? How can I prove to them that I spelled my name right and they were at fault? I'm stressing. I hope that they don't give me any trouble. So much for the great baptism present. "Here you go Josh. Your very own scriptures. But you can't really have them because I have to take them back." Argh.

Chit Chat

I, unfortunately, had to make a trip to the dentists office this morning to get some cavities filled. Not a real exciting way to start off the day. Now my question is this. Why does the dentist always insist on making small talk? (And this isn't just a one sided conversation.) He's asking me questions. Well, how am I supposed to answer when I have about 5 things sticking inside my mouth...fingers, suction tubes, drills, mirrors. I mean, the best that I could do is answer uh huh and maybe nod my head, but doesn't that just complicate things? I mean what if my head bobbing causes him to accidentally drill the wrong tooth? With a hole there he's going to have to fill it and you know that he's going to charge ME for it. I think in dental school they teach them about making sure to ask the patient all kinds of questions because they get a good laugh out of us when we try to answer. Thus the chit chat. It's all about amusement.