Valentine's Day and President's Weekend Recap

The night before, the girls and I had a chocolate night. Amanda and I made a dozen chocolate Covered Strawberry Roses and put them in a vase, and Bea made Oreo Truffles for her boyfriend.
For Valentine's Day I gave Amanda a box of chocolates that said "For my Best Friend". I also decorated her room with red streamers and posted a sign that said "Happy V-Day" and "I (heart) You!"... apparently that wasn't enough because the next day we were sitting on the couch and she had said, "That box you gave me, it only had 4 pieces of chocolate in it"... it didn't matter though, because I had a wonderful valentine's day. Brian surprised me and gave me a bag full of gummy bears, peanut butter m&m's, a symphony bar and a Hershey's Peanut butter chocolate bar.... it was amazing. I guess that was his way of saying thank you for everything with his baptism and the business.


For his kids he gave them bags full of candy and also bought the game twister...We opened it up on Friday (because of the three day weekend, nothing at the institute was going on and everybody went home)... it was fun. Here are some pictures...

Elijah would get twisted up- no matter what was called. His arms were always crossed and his feet would be sprawled out, it was a pretty funny/cute sight.

After a couple of rounds, the kids challenged each other so I had them take a "vs." picture where they struck *Strong poses*.

oh wow! I look huge in this picture compared to the kids.



Brian had a gig playing with the Harry James Orchestra in Kennewick this weekend, and since I don't have a working car yet, I took the opportunity of driving home with him on Saturday. It was really great to be home. The Singles Branch was lots of fun! It was great to see all of my old friends, and the old cliques have broken up, or have at least become less prominent. Jennifer's the relief society president, which is cool! I'm excited for her. I realized this weekend that I need to get more involved in my calling and take it as my own, after my struggle of 10:30 coming around and knowing that there wasn't a piano player in Cheney and I was 2 hours away. I had the program done and everything but I tried getting a hold of my music committe all weekend and nobody answered, so I had to call somebody last minute who also didn't answer, but then graciously at around 10:42 called back and said she would play the piano... I need to start figuring out other people who can play, or maybe even as music chairperson (my co- left me!) I should learn the piano and play for sacrament meeting... or! I can have the people in my committee learn one song each week and they can take turns for each song... we are so desperate for piano players now... i think we have one? plus a sister missionary who doesn't always come. Anyways, had some really good meditating time on Sunday. It was great to have silence and not choir practice to rush off to after church.
Oh yeah! so the weekend. I think i have come to a more finalized decision (that is, it fits together, for the day...it'll probably change tomorrow!) for the summer. I think I'll come home and find a job (i don't think the ARC) and spend time with Jennifer, and Elizabeth, and then maybe I'll take 2 weeks and take a road trip (maybe with Jen) to go visit Phil and Erin in Provo. I had thought about going down to BYU for Summer term, but then I realized i would be missing all the fun time i can be having at home with Jennifer and at the singles branch home.
I'm realizing that you can have fun any where you go. Of course I know that, but I've been in this slump and not wanting to go to activities because I have a hard time getting out of my comfort zone. I guess it might come from not really having close friends (i'm starting to!) and not living at the institute building like everybody else. But I called up Tyler and went to FHE tonight and it was great! We had a great lesson, and then we had a dance class. We learned the fox trot, the tango, and the waltz. All of which I learned in my dance class last year, but it was great to be laughing and having fun with the singles ward here. fun in cheney!?! Whoda thought?!?! :-)
Well, I should wrap this up, it's pretty long. Tomorrow I start a busy week. I have until the 25th to get 25 hours of community service done AND a paper on it for my communications class, PLUS a speech analysis to get done for monday for my comm class... YAY for communications! (i really don't like my teacher, but! I'll be done with it in about a month!)
Thanks for reading if you have got this far :-) Love you all!
-Kimberly

Born of Water and of the Spirit

Baptism of Brian McCann
February 10th, 2008
9:00 AM

This morning Brian was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The baptism and confirmation was performed by Todd DelGiudice.

It was such a good baptism this morning. The kids were both excited. The ward was also excited. Brian chose good hymns to open and close the meeting. We started with Lead Kindly Light, and then Elder Giles said the prayer. A member of the Elders quorum presidency gave the talk on baptism. After Brian was baptized, Todd(the sax/clarinet instructor at ewu) played Come Follow Me on the clarinet. it was beautiful. Then I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. I was so excited to be a part of it. Then the Bishop spoke, and then we sang the closing song, "How Great Thou Art", after which Brian gave a couple of words. He said that for the longest time he was taught and believed that this church isn't true, but after watching his friends closely waiting for them to "slip up" and asking questions of what he thought we had believed, The Lord guided him to where he needed to go. he said, "I can say now that I believe this church to be true, I know this church is true". Then he thanked all of us for being who we are and told us to keep doing what we do. It was a great way to end a baptism.
Then in sacrament meeting, at 11:00, Todd confirmed Brian and he received the gift of the holy ghost. Todd gave a beautiful blessing of peace and courage to do the right things and to be strong with his family.
It was very good. I'm very grateful for the gospel which I know to be true. I'm so glad that I have friends that can strengthen me and help me learn the priorities of life. I'm grateful for Brian and the good example that he is to me.