This year our October General Conference was very different from the usual and traditional. A couple of my sisters went online and found a cabin to rent that would hold the whole Morgan family for the weekend. Alan's parents graciously gave up their "traditional Saturday night" so that we could spend some of the weekend with my Morgan sibs and all the cousins. Tess was the only person missing out of the 43 family members — we even had the Hulme's dog Macy with us! We had fun watching conference, going for walks, making jewelry and of course eating often. It was especially fun for all the younger cousins to run around and play — which believe me, they did. Sunday morning we came down and spent the day watching conference with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a great weekend.
Waterford Mothers' Day
Every year I get to spend a day going to school with my children. I have to confess that it was a bit more fun when they were little and I got to sit with them at their desk and work together on writing a story or figuring out a math puzzle. Going to school with older kids usually means sitting in the back of the classroom on a folding chair watching the teacher teach and the students learn. And while I am not at all qualified to be in an AP Calculus class, it was fun to see the daily life and routine of my boys and I do like to watch and get a feel for how the teachers teach.
Clark and Elliot Percussion Concert
Our recitals have turned into real live concerts in the concert hall! It is so fun to go and hear all the Waterford percussionists play. There were some soloists and a lot of group performances. Elliot didn't have a solo piece this time, but Clark got to perform "Yellow After the Rain" which is meant to be a solo piece, but his teacher had him perform it as a duet with Erica Park, another 8th grader. Playing together was quite the challenge and they both did great! It was really impressive.
So Elliot asked if his 3 friends (the other 3 Ninja turtles) could come and carve pumpkins at our house before they go out for the evening. Of course, I said sure and told them I would make them all hot dog mummies. Next thing we knew, we had 10 kids coming over and Elliot and Clark were making a mad dash to the grocery store for more hot dogs! Madeleine was here too, so it was quite the pumpkin carving party. My favorite part was taking pictures of the four Ninja Turtles jumping off our front stairs into the air while striking their poses — they did a great job with their costumes.
Clark took the easy way this year and went as a Lego guy. And Madeleine at the last minute decided to be Siostra Tess Brown! She borrowed one of my skirts and Alan enlarged and printed a photo of Tess's name tag. She grabbed scriptures and started proselyting to all the goblins and creatures on the street!
We got another CD full of photos and a few videos. It is always fun to see Sister Brown in action! Watch a video of her in an interesting Warsaw park. October has been a great missionary month in Poland with several baptisms — two of which Tess was very involved with! Her time in Warsaw has been wonderful, but has now come to a close with her transfer back to Katowice which is where she began and where she will finish her mission.
A funny quote from her last letter, "It's fun seeing the members in Katowice again and to actually be able to communicate with them instead of just smiling and nodding my head. Several people in church on Sunday came up to me and told me that I speak better Polish now than when I was here last which would kind of make me chuckle. Well, I would hope that I speak more Polish now!"