Another Saturday

Ben and I went to the Temple today-- a trip that almost didn't happen.  Ben scheduled the appointment 3 weeks ago (Saturday sessions go fast), but it didn't occur to me until Thursday night to look at my recommend.  It expired in October.  Oops.  Luckily we have the best Bishop and most accommodating 1st counselor to the Stake President ever, and both of them came over to our house to interview me.  Even that almost didn't happen-- I couldn't get a hold of anyone in the Stake Presidency all day.  Turns out that 2 were out of town, and the 3rd was at work, and then out to dinner with his wife.  But thanks to a Stake Executive Secretary who texted Brother Erickson for me, he came to my house at about 9:00, after his date with his wife.  I definitely owe him some cookies.  But meanwhile, I had called the Temple to see what their policy was (after all my recommend expired only 2 1/2 weeks ago), but that was a no-go, and before I knew what happened, the nice lady had canceled my appointment.  Just after that, Brother Erickson called so I knew I'd be able to get the recommend in time, so I called the Temple back, and my appointment had already been snatched up!  I was very upset.  But Ben kept calling the Temple back every few minutes to see if any spots had opened up, and a few minutes before closing, they called him (they figured out who he must be and then looked up his phone number-- how nice!) to let him know they had one cancellation.  So I got to go after all.  Take that, Satan.  :-)
Anyway, a couple of hours doesn't seem toooo far away to go to the Temple, but it took us ALL day!
We got up at 6:40, left the house by about 7: 25, and got to the Temple in San Antonio on time for a 9:30 session.  I'm really slow, so we didn't get out of the Temple until around 12:30, and then a visit to the distribution center (which was crowded!), and a leisurely lunch meant we weren't really on the road until 2:30.  And then Ben and I decided to stop and do some shopping, which meant sitting at a really AWFUL intersection for several minutes, and then on the way back we chose exactly the wrong exit to get off to get gas, which put us in the middle of a construction zone getting back on the freeway.  Long story (and long day) short, we didn't get home until 5:30!
Good thing the boys are resourceful and responsible.  They did just fine at home, although the house did sort of look like 2 ten year olds and one 7 year old had spent the day having free-reign in the house.  :-)  Not too bad, though.  They did artwork, played with blocks and lincoln logs and hexbugs, watched several episodes of "Man Versus Wild," ate half a bag of pretzels and an entire bag of Quaker rice snacks and who knows how many bowls of cereal.  It sure is nice to be able to leave the boys home and not worry about them!
Tonight we went and did our grocery shopping for Thanksgiving.  Wow, Thanksgiving has totally sneaked up on me this year.  HEB already has Christmas trees in front of the store!  Brigham and Mosey have both commented on how strange it is that the years go by so fast.  I don't know what to think about that.  I remember the years passing by slowly when I was their age, especially the weeks leading up to the holidays.  I'm not sure their perception is a reflection of the fast-pace of life we live in now, or a reflection of the fact that they're having fun!  Time flies when you're having fun, you know.
I cut Ben's hair tonight while the boys were supposed to be getting ready for bed.  Instead, they sat on the couch making up insults.  It was quite entertaining. 
"You are a rotten wiggy!"  (This has been a standard insult at our house for a few years.  I still don't know what it means.)
"Well you're a dead poon!"  (Another Turner-boy affront.)
"You're a worn-out toothbrush!"
"Well you're a peed-in-pool!"
"You're Barack Obama!"
"Oh, yeah?  You're George Bush!"  (Hey, my boys are fair and balanced.)
This went on for several minutes until I finally gave them one more insult each and then it was time for bed.
Silly boys, all three of them are rotten wiggies.  :-)