Last of January

Sadly, Lee and I don't go on a lot of actual "dates". We will watch movies or play a game at night while the kids are asleep.  Awhile ago we started doing dates, swapping every weekend.  But after we moved our dates were more sporadic.  My sister Deb tells me every now and then how it's her turn for a date, or her husband's, and what they are doing.  Sometimes they stay at home, sometimes they go out. But when it's their turn they plan something specific and have a fun treat/snack.  I was thinking about this and realized we need to start having dates every week, and not just watching a movie or show on Netflix. I took a turn last week.  We stayed close to home because the gas budget was gone for the month.  After dinner at home we headed to...Lee's office!  After playing two games, we had cheesecake and watched a show.  It was a fun night.  I am excited to see what Lee comes up with this weekend......


It took a few tries to get a picture of us with the timer...


After the date, we packed up and headed to Lois'.  We swapped going to the temple on Saturday and spent Sunday with them too.  One bit of news, Lee has basically has Saturdays off now!  He's been working six days a week since November 2011.  Of course there were a handful of Saturdays he didn't work-like when we went to Utah. But in general, Sunday was his only day off. Lee hired another eye doctor who is working two days a week for him at Wal-mart--one of those days being Saturday.  Whether it's financially beneficial, time will tell.  But right now we are grateful to have him home on Saturdays! It was great to be able to stay the weekend in Maryland.  We haven't done that for awhile.  Saturday night Lois took me to Trader Joe's. We mainly looked around.  What a fun store.  I was introduced to Trader Joe's on my mission in Los Angeles.  Shanna and Haley tagged along for a little date. One of Lee's contract doctor's gave Lee a sampler of holiday cookies from Trader Joe's.  I love the peppermint Joe Joe's. SO GOOD!


Some kids made tents that night....




As I mentioned we stayed Sunday too.  Church was pretty eventful that day.  Church is split up into three hours.  Generally the schedule is this: the first hour the entire congregation meets together to partake of the Sacrament and then listen to various speakers as they spiritually teach us from an assigned topic.  The second hour is Sunday School.  Each year we study different books of scripture in Sunday School.  We rotate between the Old Testament, New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants/Pearl of Great Price--we're on Doctrine and Covenants this year. Third hour the men meet together, and then the women meet together (same for those over 12, the young men meet together and the young women meet together).

Anyway, the women meet together in Relief Society the third hour.  It's actually the world's largest women's organization.  During the third verse of the opening hymn, the alarm system went off.  A voice told us to exit the building.  Since we were visiting, I was worried about my kids being in this situation with people they don't know.  While people were exiting I went back into the hallway to see if I could find my kids.  I found them outside and thankfully they were calm.  While we were standing in a group, the Bishop told us to go home because a water line broke.  A firetruck came soon there after.  Jeff had to walk to the other side of the building to get to his car, and got a picture of the leak caused by the broken pipe.  Actually the pipe to the sprinkler system (for fires) inside the building broke.  If you can zoom in to the picture, you'll see that water is pouring out between the eaves and over the door-way entrance like a water fall.  Jeff said it was gushing out of the windows too.  You can also see water streaming down the wall.  The pipe(s) apparently broke where the stake offices are located and the guys down there got drenched--they were trying to save papers. Quite the time at church!




We spent the rest of the afternoon, chatting, eating and relaxing.  Lois made a yummy dessert--buttery cake (I can't remember the exact name...).  We enjoyed some right before we went home.  Thanks for the nice weekend Lois and Jeff!