It may seem strange to many people that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints look forward to approximately sitting through 8-10 hours of church on TV every 6 months.   Haha! But it is true! I LOVE General Conference and the opportunity to hear directly from the Lord's living prophet and apostles. The simple instructions provided help me refocus my life and my efforts in striving to be a more Christlike person and keep evil from my home and family.

I feel that this General Conference I was especially focused on how the messages applied to me. Becoming a mom has been so wonderful, but it also scares me to think of raising Grace in such a confusing and misleading world. I wanted to know how to be a stronger, more prepared mother in teaching my daughter the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If any of these messages speak to you, I encourage you to read/listen to the messages presented at this General Conference.  You can watch the talks here, or they will be written and published at lds.org. As I listened to the speakers and music this weekend, the Spirit testified to me that God knows me and loves me. He is proud of the work I am doing as a mother. I am so grateful for the guidance provided in the scriptures and through church leaders that helps me leave the worldly influences behind and follow with confidence the will of my Father in heaven.

The morning started out nicely. Andrew had taken Cali out to go to the bathroom around 5:30, and then he left for work. Grace woke up at 7:20. I left Cali in her crate and picked up my baby girl, nursed her in the quiet of her room, and brought her downstairs into the kitchen. I set her in her Bumbo seat and returned upstairs to pick up my pup and also bring her downstairs. While they were both happily contained, I ate a quick breakfast and cleaned up a tiny bit. I then got Cali her dog food and set down to feed some baby cereal to Grace. (Already I was thinking, "Wow, this whole baby and puppy thing isn't so bad. I've totally got this!")

Well, I had this FABULOUS idea that around 8:30, while kids were passing our house to walk to school, I'd take both Grace and Cali outside to our back porch area. Grace would be bundled up and snuggly warm, and she'd sit happily in my lap and watch the kids walking by. Cali I'd have on a leash right by the grass so that she could explore and go potty. We'd sit out there for 10-15 minutes as one big happy family and all the families passing by would be so jealous of my beautiful baby and adorable puppy.

Bahaha! You already can guess that my dream and my reality definitely did not match.

This is how it actually went:

• I put a jacket and fluffy hat on Grace. We took a picture to send to Daddy at work: all smiles. But then she started to get a little fussy so I picked her up.
• With Grace in my arms, I bent down to put the leash on Cali and told her to come to the back door.....she didn't move. So I had to go back over to her and pick her up. (Now I have Grace in one arm and Cali in the other)
• I walk to the back door and realize that I cant open the door while I am holding both my baby and my dog. So I put the dog down, open the door, pick the dog back up, go outside, put the dog down, close the door, pick the dog back up so that we can go down the stairs, and finally put the dog down on the grass and sit in my chair.
• I start to get comfy when suddenly Grace gets super angry. Of course, this is when I realized that I failed to bring a binky to pacify my crying child. So I try to talk to her, bounce her, show her the dog....nothing works and she continues to scream at me.
• While all of this is happening, moms and kids are walking past my house giving me "you bit off more than you can chew" looks.
• Cali has decided just to sit there and not go to the bathroom, so basically this whole exercise is for naught!
• I sigh and juggle my way back inside my house; this did not work out how I had planned.

I am not regretting our decision to get a dog, but I will definitely have to learn some more juggling skills in order to keep this up. I am sure I will have more ridiculous, juggling stories to tell you soon. In the meantime, pray for my sanity!