Old friends and daily frustrations

Friend Beth

How is it possible that I'm just now starting to do this whole blogging thing for real? I am LOVING it!

I recently heard from Beth, a friend of mine from about 15 years ago (can that be right?), way back when my family lived in Florida. She and I were really good friends and spent lots of weekends having sleepovers and such. We sent letters to one another after my family moved to North Carolina, and I even got to see her once or twice. But, eventually, we kind of lost touch. Luckily our Moms continued to exchange annual newsletters at Christmas time, which gave me the chance to hear what was going on with Beth and her family. Now, all these years later, both of us living on opposite ends of the country and with families of our own, I am able to make a few keystrokes and a couple of clicks and see what she's doing and look at pictures of her little boy. I also got to see the blogs of her sisters, which just tickled me to death.
(Don't be mad about the picture, Beth. I spent an hour looking for a photo of us together and for the life of me can't turn one up. I considered using your Glamour shot, but wasn't sure how much you'd like that.) =]

Here's another photo of me with my good friends Kory & Jen from North Carolina (10.15.96). They've also moved away and started families, but we've been able to stay in contact thanks to blogs & email.

It's such a fun thing to be able to reconnect with old friends and see where they are and what they're doing in their lives. I also love how this blog has gotten me back in the habit of writing down daily thoughts and occurances. I've always been an avid journal-keeper and an admirer of scrapbooking, but never really considered how the internet could sort of integrate the two. It's really kind of fun! If I'm not careful I could probably make 2 or 3 posts a day. Not very interesting posts, but I often find myself thinking of something that I want to write about and start considering whether or not it's worth putting on my blog.

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Typical

On another subject, I just have to say how much I loved M. Russell Ballard's talk during the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference. I actually wasn't paying much attention when he started, until Aaron poked me and said, "He's talking to you," And sure enough, he certainly was! You've probably heard people say that a talk was given just for them- well, this one was for me. I loved his funny anecdotes, his wise and wonderful advice for young mothers who might feel under-appreciated (*raising hand), and for the husbands of those mothers. I made sure Aaron was listening then. I cried, of course, feeling that somehow he truly knew what it was like to be me, and being so grateful for the encouragement he was offering. As I'm writing this, my kids are pulling the cushions off the couch after being told not to for the thousandth time (see photos above) climbing on just about everything, putting pennies in their mouths and pulling the wet wipes out to "clean" (those last 2 are just Hakan, to be fair). I'm trying hard not to yell, but am losing my patience quickly. Some days I get frustrated easily, and today seems to be one of them. I need to hear that talk again. I can't wait for the Conference issue of the Ensign- I am going to frame his talk and hang it right next to this poster I am getting from Etsy!!!