I am thankful for . . .

Our sharing time this month in Primary has been to teach the children how to give thanks through service, how to serve and how to show gratitude for service rendered.

Today I am thankful for a mother in Guatemala. Let me explain and bear testimony at the same time.

On Thursday night I packed up to leave the office, grabbed my purse, my phone, my banana and whatever else I needed to take home with me. I went down the hall, maybe 20 feet to the locked woman's restroom (my wife/boss and I are the only women on our floor and you have to have a key to use the restroom), locking my office door on the way. Then I went down to my truck (mine is the first parking space on the left in our parking lot, maybe another 30 feet from the front door) and went maybe 10 blocks downtown to attend a business reception at a law firm by the capital. When I got out of the parking space downtown I went to grab my purse and my phone, only NO PHONE! With a bunch of smelly construction workers standing around and being a little late to the reception I figured I would just look for it when I came out.

After the reception and fishing under both my seats and dumping my purse on the passanger seat . . . still no phone.

Keep in mind that EVERYONE I know and need/want to talk to is in that phone, along with some pretty funky ringtones and tons of pics of my grandbabies! So this phone is "worth" A LOT to me.

So, now I go back to the office, and call my cell from my office phone (it is on fibe but if it is close you can her it "buzz"). Nothing. I go down to the bathroom ... clean and empty. Nothing. I say my little Primary prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me find my phone and walk back out to my truck (slower, even though it is dark and my phone is maroon and still nothing.

I go home and park under the the light of my carport and take EVERYTHING out of the inside of my truck, both front seat and back seat! Then I go next door and ask Miss Virginia to call me from her phone. Nothing. Sweat neighbor that she is she asks me if I want to use her cell phone for the night (she is 78 this year).

The next morning when I get to work I check online (it is now Friday and I am driving up to Greenwood --- 1 1/2 hours each way --- on Saturday and I am in charge of the Priesthood Preview that night and my Primary President LOVES to text me ...) and call the 1-800 to see what kind of deal I can get on my not insured phone from Verizon. This nice call center dude (from SLC no less) gets permission to give me a deal I shouldn't get until next month when my phone is actually a year old. So I tell him I am going to go up to the local store (thinking it will be faster and they will match his deal ... I won't have to wait for his phone to ship on Saturday a.m. for $20 extra). Wasted an hour at the local store only to be told we can't do the deal the phone guy has and we can't break your new phone ($179) down over 3 months and there are no rebates cause I am not getting the deal I would get next month ...

Thankfully the Verizon dude calls me back, gets me the same phone for $79, plus a $50 Visa card (Go Nathan!) and guarantees delivery by noon on Saturday.

I send out a slew of emails about my retarded self/senior moment and then wait till 1:00 (we close early on Fridays here ... it is a Southern thing!). Only my husband/boss decides I need to drive him and our ex-con client down to their hearing on Main Street (just up from where I had parked the night before) so he doesn't have to fight for parking. So I take them downtown and of course he wants me to pick them up (sometime between 2 - 3 p.m. --- long after I want to be out of there) so I go back to the office and my wife/boss has left me a check for $200 for my new phone!

Pretty sweet huh!!! Then I putz around on facebook and clean up my outlook and wait for my bossman to call. All the time my door is locked and I am "closed". Finally go pick up the "boys" around 2:30 and come back to the office and get ready to shut my system down for the weekend when there is a knock at the door. In walks one of my neighbors from across the hall with my phone.

Cartarino, my Guatemalan janitor who tries to teach me Spanish, found it in the bathroom Thursday night and gave it to the neighbors who were still at work. Of course, he and the neighbors were gone by the time I came back after the reception so I missed them Thursay night. I also missed them on Friday morning when they first came in cause I was off to the Verizon store not getting a deal, and again when I was taking the "boys" to their hearing.

SO I am thankful for Cartarino's mother who raised an honorable son, for wonderful hall-mates, for my sweat neighbor for offering her phone, for my wife/boss for giving me money for a new phone (which I got and am keeping the "found" one as a spare in case this EVER happens again) and my husband boss for making me leave late on Friday!

Heavenly Father is AWESOME cause He answered my little Primary prayer!
:-D

So I have a confession ~~~

If you thought I was a mean Mom, and I hope I was (may you ALL need/get therapy!) ... I am still the tough nut in my Primary Presidency. My president hurt herself at the beginning of the summer showing off trying to water ski and so much of the summer the 1st counselor (very quiet from South Africa) and I have been doing a lot of extra work. Thankfully, we finally got a secretary (didn't have one for like 6 months cause ours decided she just didn't want to any more after her teenage daughter got pregnant again ...)!

So I have a "Cameron" in Primary who hugs me like 10 times every Sunday whose REAL Grandpa came out from SLC to visit and he wanted to make sure he introduced him to his favorite "teacher". Moi!

I have already told SC Cameron that I need to take our picture some Sunday so I can send it to MY Cameron in AZ!
;-)

Then, of course, our Bishop, who has six children, all of whom are Primary or younger, has pistols (boys only ... his girls are angels, mostly, except when they are beating up on their older brother). And Collin, his 5-6 year old WANTS to have ADHD so he can have an excuse for being a booger ... but he just needs a week at "Camp Jennifer". Anyway, I harp on him ALL the time. Sit still Collin. Don't touch Ammon Collin. Turn around in your chair Collin. Quit playing with your tie Collin. Mostly I just mess up his name. His older brother's name is Colby, and what with Cameron and then we also have a Colton who is in Colby's class . . .

Anyway, after a long drawn out Sacrament Meeting practice this past Sunday, when we broke out the treats (their reward for working on and practicing their parts and listening to directions, etc.) Master Collin came up and threw his arms around me (and don't even think I wasn't on him ALL day during the practice!) and says to me ... "Sister Perry you are my favorite "teacher""!!!
:-D

The added highlight to that fun Sunday was surviving another Activity Day Tuesday night (our leader is actually our new secretary and a recent convert to the church and pregnant for the first time ...) with almost a dozen girls this week (two of them bring a non member friend most of the time)including my cousins, the Perry girls, who are new converts (older sisters and Mom have been less active and are coming back into the Fold) make for an exhausting Tuesday. So, we get all packed up and they break down their table and fold up their chairs and one of the oldest girls who is graduating to YW says to me "Sister Perry (don't even make me do my southern accent on how they say that!) will you always be in Primary or will they let you come be our teacher some day in YW?

Proof positive the church is true and the atonement works, both on us and for us!

World Travels ~

So I have to say after being out west in April, May, 1 day in June and schedule to return again over the 4th weekend that I may never get "off world". My Dad asked me the other day if I was made of money (apparently it takes money to fly to and from South Carolina and Utah/Idaho . . . )and I simply told him "I am the Gramma. It's what I do!"

After seeing Jennifer's boys excitement when I surprised them at Easter and then having a whole week with Karen's children after Kaleb was born, there is no doubt in my mind that it is SO worth it!

Not only do I have awesome grandchildren who physically, emotionally and spiritually astound me but my daughters continue to amaze me with their inner and outer beauty!

Guess I will have to start scheduling Tucson and Denver for 2010 and fill up on my "boys" and their families!

As thankful as I am that my children were raised outside of Utah, I am even more grateful that they knew and still know that their grandparents on all sides loved/love them very much!

Proof positive I must have done something right!
:-D

Primary bragging

Okay, so yesterday, because it is my month to conduct in Primary, and the assignments in our presidency have been a little vague lately since our secretary went AWOL, there were no talks.

It turned out okay though because the children are getting really good at bearing their testimonies on fast and testimony Sunday (never leave gaps like you get sometimes during Sacrament meeting ...). So when I opened up the floor for anyone to come up and say why they love their Mom and what she does for them that shows them that she loves them, they lined on up!

Of course, just like at fast and testimony meeting, I get to close opening exercises with me and so when I shared with the children that this was my 34th Mother's Day and that my big baby turned 34 last week and that my baby was turning 30 today and that I had my patriarchal blessing on my first Mother's Day 34 years ago ... the following comments occurred:

Cameron (not mine ...) said "You have a 34 year old son? That is how old my Dad is!"

Tai said "Wow you really are old!"

Samantha (Cameron's sister) said "You must get lots of presents and flowers!!!"

So bring it on! Oh non-singing children, non calling . . . and what about gift cards (Regal or Home Depot) since my neighbor and Friday night sidekick Miss Rita's daughter gave her 3 gift cards AFTER she insisted that she NOT give her anything~

Still bragging each week in Primary that being a Mom and Gramma is my favoritest and bestest job ever!
:-D

April Fools!

If it works and even one sucker bites, then it was SO worth it. To the rest who got it, my sincere apologies, because it really was inspired at the temple last night!
:-D
Remember, I DO love you all!
A Whole Bunch!
More than more than more than more than more than . . .
Period.
;-)

Suddenly Scared ~

Okay, I have figured out what scares me. Apparently Primary! Go figure~ I was horrified to teach Activity Day Girls in January (I am the counselor over the 8-12 year olds and we didn't have a leader as my new Primary President WAS the Activity Day Leader). Survived that and the girls all love me (I brought candy). Felt pretty comfortable for the month of February (it was my turn to conduct, so I get to do opening exercises and that's it!) and then the fun began.

February was a short month, and March started on a Sunday and THIS month I am assigned to teach Sharing Time! Aaauuuuggghhh!!! That means two lessons each Sunday, one for Jr. Primary and one for Sr. Primary.

Don't even think I wasn't up until 2 a.m. this past Sunday morning cutting out all my little hand outs (and that was after 3 hours at my girlfriends Shawn's house) so that everyone would have the appropriate number of family members in their "packet" on Sunday.

Of course I have now challenged all the children to remember to bring their "family" with them each Sunday this month while we talk about what each family member's responsibility (job)is.

Thank goodness Carter is giving a talk this Sunday on the same thing, so I shipped him off my handouts and lesson yesterday with a letter knowing he will do an awesome job.

Then, just for the fun of it, I got a call from the neighboring ward's missionary calendar coordinator (I was released 3 months ago . . . ) asking if I knew which week they were supposed to feed the Spanish Elders (we share that set and rotate every other week ...) Apparently no one from that ward has seen the calendar this year so I am feeding all six of my Elders tonight. Gives me an excuse to try out a different mexican restaurant~

Am excited to be going to the temple again this week (trying to get my "sister's" names done and then work on my mechanic's dad's list . . .).

Gotta love life!