I had to give a talk in church today. I hate speaking in church, because most of the time my mind goes blank and I just spout off a bunch of nonsensical gibberish. But I was sweating about this all week, and I prepared the crap out of it. So it went much better than usual.
Tonight we had a priesthood preview meeting for Grant, since he'll be turning twelve next year. He is an incredible kid, and I wish I could freeze him right now. Smart, hard-working, largely obedient, eager to please . . . what an absolute joy to be around. I want to distil this time into a little vial, and then when he's sixteen and being all glum and sullen, lurking in the basement and refusing to talk to any of us I can uncap the vial and smell what life used to be like. He practices basketball every second he gets, he's reading The Book of Three, and my mom loves having him in her class.
Emmett is excelling in school. He enjoys the days he gets to go out to Garland for his gifted and talented program, and he likes to come home and give a full report. This month they had a mock legislature, and he was amazed by how few bills got passed during the session, "But the ones that passed were good bills." Ah, youth. He plays the piano obsessively. I know he should have a real teacher, because my total lack of theory instruction is holding him back. I hope that he can get a spot with my former piano teacher when school starts next year, because she's terrific and can do more to further his talent than I can. He's reading The Moral Compass, which is weird and gratifying.
I volunteer in Ike's class, which gives him an opportunity to hug me five or six times during the time I'm there. He really craves affection--it's a good thing that John's family taught me how to hug, because Ike is basically a puppy. Also I think he has pica, because he ate his reminder card that said he needs to say the scripture in Primary next week. But he's bright and happy and sweet and I guess a little wood pulp won't kill him. He must be deficient in some mineral. We're reading The Dragons of Blueland to him, and he just finished reading Frog and Toad are Friends.
Willa is such a dear little friend to me. We like going to the pet store together to watch the dogs get their haircuts. I will miss her when she goes to school every day. She loves school, loves playing outside, loves helping me, and loves playing with dolls. I brought her with me while I was up at the unpark helping assemble the new playground equipment, and she was so well-behaved and delightful she charmed all of the guys who were there working. She's reading the American Girl doll catalog.
John was elected to be on the city council next year. He is sort of ambivalent about it. He's glad he didn't lose, because that would be embarrassing, but he doesn't want another iron in the fire very much. He just finished reading Drive and has recommended it to me.
If anybody could tell me why Chrome and IE always make the first paragraph double spaced and the following paragraphs single spaced, or better yet, if they could stop Chrome and IE from doing that, it would be just peachy. Because I super duper hate how they format the text of my blog posts and I am ready to crack some heads.
