Aren't you supposed to relax on the weekend???

Life has continued to be insanely busy. I really feel like Rob and I have switched roles. He now only has one major responsibility on his plate outside of our family - his job. I feel like I'm working two full-time jobs. We've laughed over the changes recently.

This weekend for example . . . Rob and I have always sort of divided up watching the kids. I get up with them at night, then he makes sure I get to sleep in on Saturdays (and Sundays when we had church later). He would often have to wake me as he left for a meeting or something like that. Megan's first two years of school, I would set out her clothes and he would get up by himself with her and get her ready. They would kiss me as they left, trying not to wake me, then I would get up with the other three a bit later. I think my days of sleeping in are over. Saturday morning I had to leave for a meeting at 8am, so I was up by 7 or so. The house was quiet and everyone else was asleep when I slipped out the door. I got home around 1pm, got bread made and rising in the oven, and loaded everyone into the car to go pick up Rob's car at work (we had picked him up the night before to go to Costco together after work and forgot to pick up his car on the way home). I took Rob's car, ran to the farm to pick up some stuff, then drove home, where I prepared dinner. We had Kora and Bret and their kids over for dinner, which was a lot of fun, then Rob and Bret left to go watch the UFC at Buffalo Wild Wings and Kora and the kids went home. I got the kids ready for bed and worked on homework for a while, then went upstairs and got ready for Sunday. I have a hard time going to sleep before Rob gets home, so I waited up for him. He got home around 1am and then we talked for a little bit, so I got to sleep around 2am. I woke up at 5:45am, rolled out of bed quietly after 6am, and got myself ready for church. I left around 7am. The rest of the family was still sleeping. It was even sort of dark outside. Church meetings starting at 7:30 and then church until noon. Rob and the kids stayed home as Beth and Jack can't go until April due to Beth's upcoming surgery and I didn't want Megan and Kylie to have to sit out in the hall alone for an hour when no one else was at church. I got home from church, spent some time with the family, took a 2 hour nap (3.5 hours of sleep just doesn't cut it!), then got up, made dinner, had our version of a Superbowl party, which involves eating a picnic dinner of fingerfoods in front of the tv, and left for a meeting. Got home around 9:30pm and Rob and I did a project that Kylie needed for school today, then I got to do homework for an hour. This week promises to be busy as well since I have a major paper due for my class on top of everything else. I had not realized quite how slow paced my life used to be!!!

There were a lot of good parts about this weekend though. My meeting on Saturday morning was a Regional training meeting for leaders in our church. There were leaders from at least 100 congregations there. We had the amazing opportunity to have the 1st counselor from the General Relief Society Presidency (which is the presidency over the Relief Society program throughout the whole Mormon church) there, along with a counselor from the General Young Women's Presidency (the girls' youth group) and a member of the General Primary (children's group) Board. The man in charge of our region of the church was there too (LDS congregations are divided up geographically into wards, or congregations, then a group of wards is a called a stake, then a group of stakes is called a region). We got to hear from all of them, then they divided us up by group and we got to meet with the individual over our organization. Sister Allred, the 1st Counselor in the General RS Presidency (see here ~ http://www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,7928-1,00.html ~ she's the second one down), taught our group. It was amazing to get the chance to learn from her!!! I wouldn't have missed it for the world - it was even worth getting up early for, which anyone who knows me will know means a lot coming from me! :)

Having Kora and Bret and their kids over was fun too! Our kids get along really well, which always makes it nicer as we actually get to spend time talking with Kora and Bret :) After dinner we played a game they had brought called Battle of the Sexes. We divided up into teams based on gender, then competed against each other, answering questions from areas that would be considered to be information the opposite gender would be more comfortable with. For example, the guys were asked questions about cuts of diamonds, spices and fashion brands (among other things). The girls answered questions about military history, monster trucks and guns. Kora and I totally creamed the guys! We made it across the board and all the way back in the time it took them to make it across the board once :) Go Girls!!!

It should be another busy week. Beth's surgery is scheduled for this Friday. I'm not horribly nervous about it - it's a pretty simple surgery. The only real risk comes from the anesthesia, but she didn't have a reaction to it last time they put her under and we are having the surgery at a children's surgical center, so they are used to dealing with little kids. I'm more concerned about keeping her from getting sick for the next two months. I guess we'll just keep her sort of trapped in the house. Poor Beth and Jack (who will stay trapped with her), but hopefully this fixes the problem! :)