I Have An Hour...

FHE starts in 1:15 and I HAVE to be there. The Bishopric is cooking dinner for us and it's always so yummy!!

But in the mean time, I thought I'd fill you in on my absolutely AMAZING life.

:)

A couple weeks ago I was asked to speak in church... again. I swear I just spoke a couple months ago, but I guess that's what you get when you're just so good at it (like I am.) haha jk, but really, I just spoke!!! I KNOW everyone's sick of hearing from me. Especially since I made a goal to bear my testimony every month for 6 months in a row. hahaha, seriously... I was that annoying girl that got up every month. ;) I wanted my testimony to get stronger and I gotta tell ya, bearing my testimony was one of the most awesome ways to strengthen it. So if you're wondering how you can strengthen your testimony, there ya go. Bear it! Anyway, I always put lots of time into preparing my talk. I'm not one of those "night before" preparers. So this last week I was working on it and my brain just wasn't wanting to be spiritual. My talk just wasn't coming together. So I texted Jordan and asked what he was up to for the night. Thank heavens he was bored and didn't mind me bringing my talk over so he could help me with it. (2 brains are better than one, right?!) And can I just tell you, Jordan is amazing!!! We spent the next few hours thumbing through our scriptures and telling stories of how this scripture helped me when I was going through blah, blah, blah and how this other scripture really taught me _______. It was so awesome. I've never really felt like a scriptorian and believe me, I'm still not there, but the way Jordan and I were able to go from one scripture to the next to the next was AWESOME!!!! It really made me feel like all of this studying is really paying off! I'm learning and applying and my testimony is growing. It was one of the best nights I've had in a long time and I am SO grateful to have a friend like Jordan who will do that with me.

Also, Marshall's birthday was on Wednesday!!! Yay for being 4 years old! Lucky me got to babysit the little munchkin and his younger bro Wednesday morning. I was so excited to have some time with little Marshmallow on his birthday. I planned an Easter egg hunt in my apartment and bought all of the stuff to make cake. He and Tyler had such a great time running around my kitchen and living room finding all of the colorful eggs chucked full of candy. Marshall kept telling me how he loves candy and if Tyler could have expressed it in English (cuz you know 2 years old's don't speak English), I know he would have said "Aunt Lauren, you are the coolest aunt ever!!" After that we decorated the cake I had made earlier in the morning. Marshall poured mud (chocolate frosting) all over the cake and then he and Tyler dumped dirt and rocks (crushed up Oreos) all over the mud and topped it off with some worms (gummy, of course.) Unfortunately, Aunt Lauren didn't let the boys have cake for lunch. :( We made spaghetti!! I got the boys to the table, got them their lunch and made sure they both had water before I sat down to eat. Marshall was so sweet. When I sat down he asked me if I wanted a drink. I apparently didn't answer fast enough for him cuz right after he said "Lauren, say 'Sure. I'd like a drink.'" 

I laughed and then said "Sure. I'd like a drink." 

Cute little Marshall... he looked around and said "Ok then... go get one!" 

I couldn't even believe it!! I totally expect something like that to come out of... say, Tyler Gubler's mouth, but Marshall?? My 4-year-old nephew?? It took me by surprise. He's such a funny kid!! I loved babysitting the boys. They are so funny.

Here's a pic of the boys and their cake. :)

(Oh, p.s. Tyler's birthday was on Monday. He turned 2. Andrea had a party for both boys on Friday. It was lots of fun playing in the dirt with them.)

Oh, and I can't forget, you know Crazy Cat Lady from Wal-Mart?? Well, I met someone completely the opposite this last week. I was 100% convinced after Cat Lady that it doesn't pay to be nice to people, but then Tuesday happened:

A girl came all the way from Mesquite to pick up an order for her boss. She called right before closing time asking if we closed at 7. 

"Nope. We close at 6," I said. 

The girl was panicked!! She told her boss she'd pick up the order and she wasn't going to make it in time. She was still 15 minutes away. So I said I'd stay open for her. I felt so bad that she had driven so far to run this errand for her boss. Besides, there was stuff I could do to keep myself busy while I waited. She said she'd hurry and I didn't care. Win win. :) 

So she gets there, apologizes probably 10 times for making me stay open... 

"No big deal." :) 

She paid, grabbed her bags and was on her way out when I saw a $5 bill on the counter. 

"Wait, you dropped this!" I didn't want her to forget it!!

"No, I left that for you." 

She kept saying she appreciated me staying open for her, but I wouldn't take it. I would have been there anyway!! But she wouldn't take it back. So I got stuck with the $5 bill. 

Moral of the story: it DOES pay to be nice to people. So all of you that have had Cat Lady experiences, keep trying cuz there really are nice people out there in the world that appreciate kind gestures. :)

(Don't worry, I don't have too much more to talk about)

My talk went awful yesterday. I was speaking about our Savior on Easter and the guy that spoke before me did an amazing job talking about how we each need to gain a personal relationship with Jesus Christ... of course I was going to get emotional!! I have developed such a special relationship with Him over this last year. I was so overcome when I got up to speak, it was hard for me to get my message out. People said I did a good job and I did my best, but I didn't feel good about it when I sat down. :/

Anyway, I just got done shopping. (This relates to my talk, I promise!) I went to buy jeans. And you all probably know how sucky that can be. I prepared myself for at least an hour of trying on pair after pair of jeans that didn't fit before finally finding a pair that would suffice. I got to Maurices, grabbed 6 pairs of jeans, and headed to the dressing room, prepared to be utterly disappointed with my selection and completely depressed about my curvy figure... but something amazing happened. 5 of the 6 pairs fit perfectly. And it was the first 5 I tried on that were so wonderful! I'm not even kidding!!! I texted Tierra as fast as I could. "Pinch me!! I'm dreaming!!" (I had just been talking to her about how unexcited I was about this shopping adventure.) I narrowed my selection down to 2 pairs, but just couldn't decide when the sweet Sales Associate knocked on my door to see how I was doing. 

"Great, actually. They all fit. Now I'm just trying to decide between these two."

You'll never believe what she said... "Oh, you know they're buy-one-get-one-50%-off right?" 

... "Are you serious?!" 

Long story short, I came home with 2 new pairs of jeans. :)

So moral of this story: God loves me for speaking in church!! And for spending so much time preparing. So if your Bishop ever asks you to speak in church, SAY YES!!!! Then go shopping. :)

I hope you all had an amazing Easter! Yay for warm weather. No yay for me having to spend this next weekend up in gloomy Salt Lake City for work. I hear it's going to be raining, maybe snowing, the whole time. :( It'll be fun to party with Julie, though. I'll make sure to blog about it when I get back.

TTFN friends. :)