Texting

Since Jackie told you all about our camping trip I thought I would talk about something that has become a sore spot in our household, TEXTING!! It has become a dirty word in our house and since I am YW President, it is very annoying at church also.

I totally understand that texting has a purpose in the world but I think it is becoming a HUGE problem. It is very addicting just like drugs, alcohol, and dare I say pornography. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to look at their New Era's and read what is being said about texting.

My girls want unlimited texting so that their friends will talk to them!! Does anyone else find that amazing? Their friends won't talk to them?!!!?????? Because they don't text :( They don't text because they have to pay for each and every one of them which is 20 cents per text which adds up fast. I want them to be smart with their money so I want them to learn a lesson and I also think that there is more to life than staring at a cell phone. Well the lesson was learned the hard way for one daughter who had her texting turned off and the other daughter who thinks life is unfair is just being smart and learning to control herself. Do I think this is bad? NO! I think more parents need to teach their children that there is a time and a place for texting and it isn't at church or when someone is sitting next to them talking to them.

Texting is soooo huge that it is the only thing we talk about as a group with the YW. Ok not the only thing but it comes up too much. The girls like to compare to see who sends more texts!! One girl did 9000 texts another 10,000 texts a month. That is one text every 5 minutes in a 24 hour period. Anyone else out there think this is a problem? :(

Not ready

There comes a time in a mother's life when she has to come to terms with the fact that her son will grow up and fall in love and leave her.

Tayler just went swimming today and I guess some girl approached him and said, "My friend thinks you are cute and hot, and wants to know if you want to go out with her." He of course said no and then the girls were blowing kisses at him and all kinds of silliness. I don't know if I am ready to come to terms with this right now, but it looks like I better get there. Time is marching on.

Like Father like Son

Tayler and I had a conversation yesterday and this is how it went:

Me: Tayler your dad is getting ready to work on the van, go help him.
Tayler: What is he doing?
Me: It doesn't matter it is all stuff you need to learn.
Tayler: I am going to pay someone to do all that stuff for me when Iam older, so I don't need to learn anything. (smug smile)
Me: (lots of frown lines) Just go!! George go teach your son something!

George just putting on his coveralls grinning at me.

After the frown lines and the frustration, this picture warms my heart.

Jackie's Tattoo

This morning everyone was at the table eating breakfast, and I ( Jackie) had my head resting on my hand, when I looked down and saw this thing printed on my arm! I quickly yelled "What the Heck!" and everyone looked at me and smiled. They had no clue either, until they looked at my shirt. Apparently my shirt left the print on my arm while i was sleeping. I think it is funny that it clearly showed the G, U, A, and D. It almost spelled GUARD when I close my arm together. This is the shirt that left my arm tattooed. It took a little scrubbing and it finally came off!

Church

Today at church a man stood up during fast and testimony meeting and told us that he was not a member but had been prompted to come to our church. He says that he likes what he sees at our church more than others and he is impressed that we like our children and we aren't bothered by them. He also said he thinks we are very smart to be prepared, that we will need that some day, he thinks days not years. Who knows about that right, but it was just interesting to hear.

I was just impressed that for one he was prompted to come to our church and two he stood up in front of us all and let us know what he thought about us. He was a very nice man, I enjoyed hearing what he thought about us. Sometimes all we hear is bad so it was refreshing to hear this man.

It seems like the theme today was our youth, I am very thankful for all the youth programs we have. Personal Progress and Girls camp, Duty to God and Scouts, Youth conference, EFY all of these things keep our youth busy doing worth while things. If they are doing what they are supposed to be doing they are way less likely to get in trouble. Sometimes I just need that extra reminder to make sure I have a good attitude about everything. Sometimes I get tired of our activites every tuesday night, so I just needed this little reminder (again) of how important these activities are.

Summer of the.......

I am going to nick name this summer "Summer of the Merit badges". I know I have talked about this a little to much lately, I can't help myself, it has consumed me so I am talking and pushing and talking and pushing Tayler to get as many done as humanly possible and still have a life :)

Tayler has just spent the last week at scout camp and I am happy to say that he got 4 merit badges done!!!!! YAHOO!!! That is four merit badges that I don't have to talk and push and talk and push him through!!! For those of you who know my son, you know that I would have to talk and push a lot!! :) So I am very happy that he got them done. Now he will be able to advance to star in August.

Another thing I am totally happy about is the fact that he got his lifesaving merit badge. I put him in private swim lessons and made him swim a lot before camp so that he could get this badge so it is totally sweet that he got it!!!! I can't help bragging I am just so happy that all his hard work paid off. Way to go Tayler!