Well, I just wanted to say thank you to my mom for the encouraging email. We got home late Friday night and I was tired, so Id didn’t update the blog then. I had to work all day Saturday and today I went to church, took a nap and did homework. It is about 10:45 at night and I just got an email from my mom on my phone that said how much she liked reading these. I was about to go to bed, but I better get this posted before the week starts, or I won’t get to it until next weekend.
Hallie decided that she wanted to go to Fat Cats and go bowling like Shelby did last week. I have contemplated making a list with pictures of all of the different activities we can do along with where we can get treats, so they can have more of a variety. I like them to make the choices, but I think that it would be easier for them if they had more choices to look at.
We started off by driving to the Fat Cats, which takes about ten minutes. The whole drive consisted of Hallie and I arguing about how 2+3 doesn’t equal four it equals five. I guess Hallie had been doing some homework before we left and misunderstood Annie when she was helping her and had it stuck in her mind that 2+3=4. I could not convince her for the life of me. I tried using my fingers, comparing the numbers to m&m’s and trying to convince her that I had learned to do addition as well. It was a hopeless battle so I gave up. I told her that she should call mom and ask her, because apparently dad’s opinion wasn’t worth much. She is only five and I have already lost all credibility with her. So much for dad knowing everything until she is a teenager and finds out the truth. She already knows that I don’t know anything.
We arrived at Fat Cats and there wasn’t a lane open so we went mini golfing until there was one available. This time she let me show her how to hold the club and she hit the ball quite a bit better. She wasn’t too concerned about getting the ball in the hole. She was more concerned about where her next picture was going to be taken and how she was going to pose for it. We made it through with more pictures than club strokes. When we got to the eighth hole she mentioned that eight was her favorite number. Besides 55 which was my high school football number eight has always been my favorite number since I was about her age as well. 
There was a lane open and I didn’t know her shoe size either. She wears a nine for the record. Thanks to the label on her boot as well. The little ramp that she used like Shelby did was bent and it was hard to line up correctly. It did however give the ball a pro bowlers spin to it. IT looked like it would be going into the gutter and ended up curving to the middle if you did it right which was impossible. Luckily she wasn’t too concerned about her score. After the first couple tries she became distracted by another group of kids her age and couldn’t keep her eyes off of them. She is a people watcher just like her mom.
As I observed her observing them I had one of those special parent moments where you can pretty much see directly into their little hearts, past the talking, the attitudes, the crying, the clothes, the makeup and everything else and see them as they really are, (a child of God). I had an overwhelming sense of love come over me for her and her innocent, happy personality that brought tears to my eyes. I had a fast forward to all of the different obstacles and frustrations that she would face in her life. Would she have friends? Will she be accepted? Will she succeed in school? Will she make good choices? Will I be able to handle the things that she is going to have to go through? It was a scary, but special moment for me.
We finished up our game and Hallie had decided that she wanted m&m’s from the store and then she wanted a pink lemonade from the coco bean like I had last time. What do you know; we had to stop by Wal-Mart again! I can’t make it through a Friday without going there! Hallie had already decided that they needed vitamins, and informed me that they had already gone through the ones from two weeks ago. This time she wanted the gummy type again, but wanted to be sure that we got the ones that they could take “twice a day” instead of once per day. Hallie got her m&m’s and vitamins and we headed out to the car. This was about the time that Hallie had decided that we should end the 2+3=4 argument so she decided to call mom and get the truth. Annie convinced her that 2+2=4 and 2+3=5 in about thirty seconds rather than half the night like I had tried. I guess mom has more pull than I do. We headed to the coco bean for the fourth Friday in a row and Hallie got her frozen pink lemonade right as all of the college kids got out from a movie and packed into the tiny store. By this time Hallie was getting tired and ready to go home and see mom.
I decided that I needed to get some dinner, so we stopped by Gator Jacks which is a delicious sandwich shop to get a sandwich. It is decorated like a southern bayou with a tree, moss and fake alligators inside. It is pretty cool. Everywhere we go everyone loves the girls. The girls working at Gator Jacks loved Hallie and gave her a balloon and a free cookie. Hallie said that she was really lucky, because she had gotten so many treats. She decided that she would give the cookie to her sisters so they wouldn’t be left out. On the way home she was singing the primary song, “I will go; I will do the things the Lord commands”. To herself which was pretty cute.
It wouldn’t be an end to the night if we didn’t get home and have all heck break loose. As soon as we walked in the door, Hallie gave the cookie to Shelby, but all Shelby could see was that Hallie got a balloon and she didn’t. She started throwing a fit, so dad turned off the TV and put everyone to bed crying once again.
On another note, Hallie had to give a talk in primary today. She has had this assignment before, but I have had to read the talk as Hallie hides behind the pulpit. We practiced a few times before church and she did pretty well. I had a talk with her about how it was her talk to give and not mine. At church I had to take my class of rowdy eleven year old boys with me so I could help her. Mom and Mya came as well. Hallie got up there and did a great job and seemed very confident. We were very proud of her.
Tonight during family night we were telling Hallie how proud we were of her and she said that she had felt really good inside for getting up there and giving her talk. We helped her to understand that she was feeling the Holy Ghost telling her that what she was doing was good. A little later on she said, “Dad, don’t you just love the gospel?’ I was surprised and told her that I did. I am grateful for the opportunity that they have to grow up in the church and have opportunities to get out of their comfort zone while they are little along with being able to feel the Holy Ghost teaching them the truth.
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