Happy Birthday, Joseph!

It's been Joey's birthday since Friday and it's been so fun!! We've had a great time. It all began Friday night when Joey had requested that he and I, his parents, my parents, and the kids go to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Joey and Daddy had enjoyed talking about the turnip greens and corn bread since I was in the hospital over by Cracker Barrel last month. Well, we all went and really enjoyed it! I had some great photos but somehow accidently erased a bunch of pictures from my digital camera and I've been just sick about it! Anyway, we had a great time laughing and talking and Daddy enjoyed trying to play the game on the table of just leaving one golf tee in the triangle...I think he got down to three. I'm not sure how many Mr. Hornsby ended up with - but it was close! Joey enjoyed his turnips and plenty of cornbread! Then they brought him blackberry cobbler for his birthday. We were stuffed! It was great to be out for dinner for his birthday with our parents.

Saturday he spent the day with his kids playing and all and I stayed home doing not-so-fun Saturday household chores. Addison was a lot of help and we got done pretty quickly. Then she and I went out for a late lunch/early dinner date before she went to work. Instead of attending the adult session of conference I went to Ginger and Shaun's and had a great time watching the boys so Tiawanna could go to the conference. It must have been inspiration for her to go and not me because Ginger was called as Stake Relief Society President! Wow! I was so happy when they called me after conference and I'm thrilled Tiawanna was able to be there when they announced it. In the meantime I so enjoyed spending time with Spencer, Andrew, and Carson. They are growing up so fast and they always teach me something. This time Spencer demonstrated bowling on their Wii and Andrew took his turn showing me how to play baseball--and they are so good at it!!! It was amazing! They have such awesome personalities! After playing, dinner, picking up toys, and getting ready for bed we all got onto the sofa and Andrew said, "MicMic, let's cuddle and watch Shrek 2" so that's what we did. It was so fun and I look forward to our next evening together.

Sunday, regional conference was so wonderful. The talks were a real inspiration to me and it seems I have questions I've been pondering answered at every conference. I especially enjoyed Sis. Mary N. Cook's talk in which she counseled members, especially the youth to "stand strong and immovable in our beliefs" and to refer often to the "For the Strenth of Youth" pamplet. She commented that she has the YOU circled in Youth because it really applies to all, not just the youth. We were reminded to pray, study the scriptures, and obey the commandments. There are so many challenges and temptations facing the youth and adults alike today in the Church and we need to stand strong have faith as we make righteous choices.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the remarks of Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles as he made reference to having a map to get to a particular destination so you may arrive without dangerous unknown detours. Again we were reminded to pray often, study our scriptures, and obey the commandments of our Heavenly Father. It was a marvelous talk with some priceless advice. It was just a wonderful conference and concluded with President Thomas S. Monson of the First Presidency being the closing speaker. He gave a wonderful talk as well and passed on the love our dear prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, who just hours later passed on from this life at 7:00 PM Mountain time at the age of 97. It was so sad when Erika called me just after 10 PM our time to tell me the news she'd just received in Idaho. I couldn't believe it and I know the whole earth mourns the death of our dear prophet but yet I know he must be so happy to be reunited with his beloved wife who died about 3 or 4 years ago. He expressed in one of the last general conference addresses how he missed his dear companion and oh how sweet they were together. I know he must be rejoicing today! He will be so missed...

Joey's actual birthday was yesterday so after conference Addison and I went to his parents' home for dinner with them for his birthday. Mrs. Hornsby had prepared a delicious meal with all the trimmings and I took a birthday cake and sweet potato pies Joey'd requested for his birthday! He loves them! We ate and had such a relaxing afternoon visiting with his parents -- they are so sweet! Later we took Abby and Alex back to their mom's in the evening and Joey and I went to the hospital to visit Aunt Jean who has suffered another stroke. I pray she will recover soon and ask for your prayers as well. She has had such a hard time since Uncle Buddy passed away in August and I know she misses his so much. Please remember her in your prayers as well as her children and grandchildren.

Today I worked and I'd wanted to surprise Joey with something special for his birthday from just me so I told him just to be over at 6 PM. I'd written him a letter with the "43 things I love about you" anyway and gotten him a "Fender" guitar shirt from me and the kids and he liked it alot. Still I wanted to do something else so I rushed home from work and got ready and he and I went out to Olive Garden for the all-you-can-eat soup, salad, and breadsticks and some stuffed mushrooms to go along. All I can say is YUM! This is his favorite place and he enjoyed his dinner. Then our waiters came over and sang Happy Birthday to him and brought an oh-so-heavenly chocolate cake! Just what we needed - more birthday sweets!! I'd planned to take him to the movies to see "Bucket List" following dinner but it didn't work out. We ate and laughed and ate some more. Time passed and got away past the movie time which was a good thing - I'm positive that after eating that dinner I would have snoozed through that movie! Ha! Instead we went to Ross's and browsed to try and walk off some dinner! Tomorrow is back to the healthy eating and the gym -- these week long birthdays and goodies aren't so good for my waistline. (it is there but just a little covered up at the present time! I'm working on it, though, spring's just around the corner!)

It's been a good weekend all the way into Monday for Joey's birthday yet sad for the passing of President Hinckley. I will remember Joey's birthday real well and the 27th of January, 2008 for both reasons. President Hinckley is probably my favorite prophet of my lifetime simply because I feel like I've grown so much in the gospel during the past 10 years and that's about how long he's been our prophet. (I think since 1995???) I learned so much from him and he just had the best personality about him. The youth of the church loved him immensely and he related to them so well. His quick wit and sense of humor were great traits he also possessed and made it so fun to listen to his words. I know without a shadow of a doubt that he was called of God to be our prophet, seer, and revelator in this day. His strong testimony of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will live on in the hearts and minds of so many for many years to come. He truly loved and taught the teachings of our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ.

I need to call it a night - it's really late and 5:30 comes pretty quickly in the morning. Sorry I wrote such a book tonight and if you're still reading this you must be truly be a friend and hope you're not too bored. I just had a lot I wanted to remember about the past few days and this blog is really more my journal than anything else and a way to share my everyday life especially with my children who now live away. Thank you for visiting and I hope you all have a good night's rest... sweet dreams.