Whew!

What a weekend! First and foremost, general conference was WONDERFUL! I so look forward to conference weekend and it's all a bit sad when it comes to an end. I always feel so rejuvinated and back on track! All the talks were great but Pres. Monson's talk in the Sunday morning session was especially meaningful to me. I had to go on to LDS site and listen again to it! Here's the part that touched me deeply.

Mortality is a period of testing, time to prove ourselves worthy to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. In order to be tested we must face times of challenges and difficulties. At times there appears to be no light at the tunnel's end, no dawn to break the night's darkness. We feel surrounded by the pain of broken hearts, the disappointment of shattered dreams, and the despair of banished hopes. We join in uttering the biblical plea, "Is there no balm in Gilead?" We're inclined to view our personal misfortunes through the distored prism of pessimism. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. If you find yourself in such a situation, I plead with you to turn to our Heavenly Father in faith. He will lift you and guide you. He will not always take your afflictions from you, but He will comfort you and lead you with love through whatever storm you face."

The storm is raging, so to speak, for me right now. It's hard to stay focused but just knowing that I'm not alone helps.

On a different note, we finally finished the floors! YOOHOO!!!!! We even started putting new baseboards back up, didn't quite get as far as we wanted but we did make some progress. Enough anyway that I was able to clear out all the pantry stuff sitting in my familyroom and put it back into the pantry. That in itself was worth celebrating! We just have to finish putting baseboards back and then we'll be ready for the carpet in the familyroom and down the stairs. When it's all finished I'll post pictures! The biggest problem now is that the beautiful new floors make the rest of the house look rundown. I really need to restain the banister going downstairs and my kitchen cabinets look beat up. I'm toying with the idea of staining them a dark brown or black...what do you think? Not sure what Jay will think of that though! We'll see.

Lastly, Jake has finally figured out my position in the family! He's been running around all morning saying, "Aye, aye captian!" and then marching off. Wonder how long this will last?