SCRIPTURE
This week A was chosen to give the scripture in Primary. They handed me the little paper in the hallway in church last week. The paper said, A has been asked to give the Primary SCRIPTURE on Sunday February 8 at 11am. The scripture for this month is: "The family is ordained of God" the 7th paragraph of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." So, I worked with her a few times and we read over the paragraph together. It was a long one and I figure they chose her because they knew she was small enough to have a parent help her. So, today we went into the Primary. When it was her turn, we went up there together. I whispered all of the words to her, and other than a really, really tiny bit of the giggles, she was flawless. She even did amazingly well pronouncing a lot of the long, big words. After telling her how proud of her I was, I left and went off to Elder's Quorum. In the break between Elder's Quorum and Sunday School, the Primary secretary handed me another paper. Apparently the person who gives the scripture, prayer, talk, etc. gets to draw the name of a child who gets to do the same task the following week. A drew T's name. So, they handed me a similar paper which read: T has been asked to give the Primary SCRIPTURE on Sunday February 15 at 11am. The Scripture for this month is: "The family is ordained of God" (that is all he has to say). Needless to say, after reading this I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. I jokingly asked the people later if I was indeed the biggest idiot in the world. While they were kind enough to not use those words, they confirmed what I already knew. I thought it was pretty hilarious. To all those Primary children who had to sit through the longest scripture ever, I say, "you're welcome!" :)
SWIMMING LESSONS
For their birthday this year, my sister paid for the kids to have their very first swimming lessons. It was a really awesome gift because I was looking to put the kids into some swimming lessons anyway. This will for sure be something we continue, at least for a little bit. I figure they are at the age where they are really ready to learn this stuff. Also, since we are out on the boat so much in the summer time, I thought it would be especially important. They had a ton of fun! They learned how to hold their breath under water without holding their nose, and they learned how to kick their legs using one of the kickboards. It was really fun to watch them. Of course, the pictures did not turn out that well. Lately, on Saturday mornings the kids and I have been heading over to the church at 8AM. I play basketball with some fellow ward members, and every one's kids play together on the stage. Afterwards, we went straight over to swimming. In my rush to get us out the door, I forgot the camera. Therefore, the pictures all come courtesy of my terrible (but better than nothing) camera phone.
They were really good listeners to their swimming teacher
A is here taking a break and chatting it up with her new friend.
Looking at this picture, I could only come to one conclusion. Apparently someone has filled the pool with lemon juice and A must have gotten some in her mouth. Enough of the pranks already people! These are children we are talking about here!
Here, T is holding on to the side of the pool to practice kicking his legs
Judging by that rooster tail behind him, I estimate T's speed at about 30 mph. What can I say, he is a quick learner.
- The only constant struggle in church seems to be getting the kids to talk in a whisper. They usually are not bad in church, just have a hard time controlling their volume. I kept asking them to please whisper. T responded, "I have an idea Dad, how about we talk about this later, after church is over!" Right, as opposed to us having a talk about it before, during, AND after currently.
- A asked me how come I don't ever have to talk in a whisper. I responded that I was talking in a whisper, and that I always make sure to whisper in Sacrament Meeting. She said, "well that is good for you, but I don't like it!"
- I was helping A with something today. Before I knew what was happening, I saw that T had crawled under two rows of benches in front of us. He startled the crap out of the former Primary President by suddenly popping up and asking if he could sit with them today. She is so nice to the kids and they love to sit with her. She of course said yes and he loved it. I can only imagine what he was saying the whole time he was up there, because he had their teenagers laughing the whole time.
- T said the bedtime prayers tonight. He says very sweet, sincere prayers and usually includes everyone. He usually always says something about A and her beautiful pictures and what a great sister she is. Tonight he didn't. After he was finished, A said, "T that was NOT one of your best prayers. You didn't even talk about the important things.........like ME!"
- Yesterday, and a tiny bit today, the kids convinced my parents to play the Wii. The rule is no one can play it without involving Grandma or Grandpa (since it was their Christmas present). The kids were so excited to tell me all about their experience. They said, "Dad, guess what, we played bowling and Mariokart with Grandma and Grandpa and we WASTED THEM!" I do not know where they learned that phrase, but I was proud that the senior citizens did not get the best of them.
