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Sunday, January 11, 2009

A time to relax, A time to pull out my hair by the roots...

you see, today was Stake Conference.
For those of you who are reading this 
and thinking that I'm a bad speller and 
wondering why people would confer 
about steaks... Just pretend I said "today 
was a large 2 hour church meeting with 
about a thousand other adults and their 
children...

Anyway... it seemed fair ahead of time!


If I'm being REALLY honest (and I guess I should be since it's Sunday) I would say that they actually did very well for the first 90 minutes... After that M was thirsty (and gum was NOT acceptable even though I had 5 flavors with me!), the lady in front of us offered her baggie of animal crackers, the darn colored pencils started breaking and the DOTS game (a.k.a. "pig in a poke") was drawing to a close.  

I resorted to drawing doodles with the kids and praying for it to be over soon.  When Mr Stake President (whom I greatly adore most of the time) stood up to speak I showed M the clock, promising her that we could get a drink when the hand was straight up...  

11:57 - I think "shoot, he's not winding up and there's a choir number left..."
11:58 - hmmm... perhaps I can distract her for awhile with something...
11:59 - Po says "M, look at the..." before I silence him with a withering look
12:00 - The talk is ending, choir number beginning - I shush Po again as he starts to point
12:01 - M notices Po this time (maybe because he's whispering about the clock and waving his arm at her?) and she is MAD that she is not currently drinking from the fountain...
12:03 - the song is over - I silence M long enough to get through the prayer - and we BOLT from the room....  fountain?  nope, straight to the car...  and of course it takes us 15 minutes to leave the parking lot and get to our house which is normally 3 minutes away...  

Come to think of it, I don't think she had a drink when she got home - but she DID eat her weight in Macaroni and Cheese.  Yesterday I bought a CASE at the big sale...  she's as happy as a pig in mud :)

15 comments:

Kristina P. said...

I can barely sit through 2 hours of stake conference!!

TisforTonya said...

Somebody make sure Kristina has some animal crackers next time!

cold cocoa said...

We've got it all figured out at stake conference! We sit in the high council room at the big table with the sound piped in. The kids can be semi-loud and color easily and we can get about 55% of the talks without having any of the frazzle.

Pam said...

I am just glad that sometimes kids have selective memories and they don't hold what we say we are going to do when we don't. All it takes is some good mac'n'cheese to help them forget. Love the post

Heidi said...

Elder Uchdorf sat with your kids in the audience while you and your husband sang in the choir? I want to go to YOUR stake conference, 15 minute traffic jam and all!

TisforTonya said...

hahaha... that is exactly what I said isn't it... I shouldn't blog while pulling out my hair... I'm going to have to fix that :)

Megz said...

Two times a year is really two times too many for most kiddies. And kiddies' parents. That's why I propose doing satellite broadcasts to our homes during naptime. We all just need satellites now.

April said...

Would it be bad to take the Mac & Cheese with you to Stake Conference? What about benedryl before Stake Conf? Is that bad? I am so glad that my boys are older and I just giggle with them when I get bored. J/K!!! (maybe)

Chelsi said...

I had to laugh at the part about the Stake President speaking. It was my 8-year-old and I watching the clock...mostly because the 2-year-old had HAD IT! Not only did he go over time, but the closing prayer-giver (bless her thoughtful little heart) mentioned each participant of the conference by name and specifics of their participation. Wow! So thoughtful! Glad you survived it!

TisforTonya said...

That sweet and thoughtful lady must have been taking notes to get all those names right!

The Crash Test Dummy said...

AMEN and AMEN!

Kollen Marchant said...

I only had to sit through sacrament meeting today and I felt like I was going insane so good job. You are quite funny.

Anonymous said...

T - I ran into Sis. Stocking (I can't remember her first name) while we were leaving and she said her kids stay home w/her or her husband for stake conference until they are 8. Why am I finding out about these ideas when half my children are that age now and I have endured years of the frazzle? Of course by that age, certain children DON'T want to go.

Anna Lefler said...

Oh, man. Now I want some macaroni and cheese.

Come to think of it, I ALWAYS want some macaroni and cheese...

:^) Anna

lori said...

I've made bingo games for the kids to play when we go to stake conference, but they still only last the first 1 1/2 hours, then they let loose. I think we should vote for 1 1/2 hour stake conference!