Incredible Birthday Weekend

This was Daniel's birthday weekend and what a special one it was. See last year we were doing this, and it was an "Oh so SAD weekend". Last year we had stake conference also but I was not about to leave the airport after saying goodbye to my husband and sending him off to a war zone and then drive straight over to stake conference in a rented facility in a town I'd never driven to by myself and while I was pregnant wrestle 3 kids for 2 hours . What a different experience we had this year. We were able to listen to an apostle of the Lord. Elder David Bednar of the quorum of the 12 apostles came to OUR stake conference here in Harrisburg. He was accompanied by one of our area seventy - Elder Gary Crittenden from Connecticut (Mark and Shana, do you know him?) It's interesting to know that both Elder Bednar and Elder Crittenden served in the same southern Germany mission overlapping one year together.

They were AMAZING speakers! I don't know how we got so lucky. I don't know how they have such stamina either. They gave a 2 hour youth meeting on Sat morning, a 2 hour priesthood leadership meeting Sat afternoon (Daniel attended and said it was fabulous!) and a 2 hour adult session that was OUT OF THIS WORLD on Sat night. Then Sunday they had a 1 hour session with new members and investigators and then a 2 hour general meeting. The general meeting was held in the Hershey Theatre in Hershey, PA, an incredibly beautiful building! It was great too and for the most part the kids were good, besides having to take Ainsley to the bathroom 3 times during the general session.

What I can tell you is this: THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS TRUE! HIS CHURCH HAS BEEN RESTORED HERE ON THE EARTH! THE ATONEMENT IS FOR ALL OF US!! WE MUST APPLY IT!! WE CAN DO IT! There is no doubt of these truths when an apostle bears his witness. Their command of the scriptures was unbelievable and their ability to speak and answer questions using the spirit as their guide was astonishing. I will have to ask Daniel to tell you about a question that was asked in the priesthood session and the absolutely inspired answer given.

I could go on and on. But it was truly an honor to be in their presence and have them speak to us directly as a stake. When my parents arrived for dinner tonight to celebrate Daniel's birthday, the first question out of my father's mouth was, "So are you still on your high?" The answer is YES. I have been chastened. I have been motivated! I have been inspired! I hope the high lasts. (at least General Conference is only 3 weeks away)

After the meeting was over I happened to run into a good family friend, Rachel T and her daughter Annie. She had just moved to Hershey from Provo, to persue graduate work at Penn State Medical School. We invited her to join us for dinner and they decided to come. It's about a half hour drive. Annie had a great time with the kids. Ainsley adores her and we had fun catching up with Rachel. My parents had a good time too - see I grew up with Rachel in Dover, DE and her mom and my mom are best friends (and incidently our mothers had spent 2 days together last week).

Daniel chose to have brisket for his birthday dinner and our whole house still smells like smoked meat but it sure was tasty. We like that southern cookin! We also had baked beans, green jello and homemade potato salad. Here's Piper playing "Happy Birthday" Ok, not really but she was blowing the flute and really making noise on it!

Daniel also spent a great deal of time on the phone, which I think is the best part. Everyone that you love calls you on the same day! He was able to hear from 6 of his 8 siblings and his parents and my aunt and sister!! What a terrific weekend.

----- Oh I forgot to mention that we attended a charitable fund raiser dinner/auction on Friday night for a charity called "Brush Brush Smile" serving low income families in the county. Daniel's practice has given a substantial amount to this charity and Daniel's office manager serves on one of the committees. It was fun to get dressed up and go out. The dinner was excellent. There was also a silent auction table. About 15 minutes before the silent auction table closed I went up to browse it and see if there was anything I was interested in. These types of things are really hard for me because I am such a "tightwad". I have to keep telling myself that everything is WAY overpriced because it's for charity. I have to tell myself that I am basically just writing a check to a charity for a good cause and that I get a little something in return. Daniel followed me up and asked if there was anything I was interested in. I said there was only one thing - a very large engraved silver platter - actually it was pewter. But it was a lot of money and I really didn't think I would get to use it very often, plus where would I store it? You'd have to make a heck of a lot of cookies to use that size platter. Daniel tried to convince me we could put our Thanksgiving turkey on it. After much convincing and with hand shaking I signed on the next line. This was about 2 minutes before the auction closed. I was the third bid for this item and my line read $122. Did I really sign up to buy a platter for over a hundred dollars? No - I was giving $122 to kids for their dental care and I just happen to get to take home a platter. Yes, that was much easier to believe. After I signed, I actually got a little rush! I got that shopping high. I could envision all the Christmas cookies I was going to put on there. I couldn't wait to show it to my mom.

We didn't want to stay much later so we were filling out a card with credit card info so they could just charge us when they were ready instead of us staying until the end of the evening. Daniel asked the woman in charge if we would be able to take the platter with us. She said sure but to just make sure we won it. Well of course we won - we signed right before they took the slips. So we checked - AND WE LOST!! Someone had snuck in and signed the line for $137 without us noticing in the last second!! All that shopping high for nothing. So I gave nothing to charity and I don't go home with a platter. What a bummer!

Don't get me wrong though - it didn't taint the weekend at all! WONDERFUL WEEKEND!