Easter and Conference

I have lots of excuses for taking my own sweet time posting, the best one being that I got sick right after one of the bishopric called me to speak on Sunday, but really, they're just excuses. And though I lost my voice for a while, it's on its merry way back as well, so there's no getting out of speaking in church for me!

Anyway, here we have Annika next to the Easter treasures Nana (Mat's mom) sent. The girls love them all, and I was pretty happy about the chocolate that was included (was I supposed to share it?), but the little mallard duckies are as annoying as the little yellow duckies she sent last year. They quack. Long and loud. The cute little duckies may be taking a swim in a pond someday soon. Or maybe they'll go to nest at the top of the girls' closet for a while.

Every time I bring up the annoyingness of said duckies to said Nana, however, she just laughs. Evil woman.


The girls also enjoyed the gloves they got in their Easter eggs. Yes, we have eggs that big. And the girls will grow into the gloves, I'm sure.

This is what happens when we let Mat use the camera.

Annika's favorite thing to do in the back patio area is be a knight. Here she's wearing her helmet and usually she's riding her horse (also known as the outside broom).

I told Annika she was tired, but she didn't believe me. So I had to get picture proof that I was right. Really, six o'clock in the morning is faaaaaar too early for a 4-year-old to be getting up. She hasn't done it since.


Nana gave Mat a Tigger puzzle for Christmas, one of those evil photo mosaic ones. He hauled it out for us to work on during Conference. This is how far we got.

But poor Mat lives with a compulsive project finisher, so this is how far we got by Wednesday night.

Completed! Thursday morning we pushed through and finished. Now we're trying to decide if we want to mount and frame it, or put it back in the box and do it again sometime. I'm torn between the two decisions, but we don't have a lot of wall space free and I'd like the square footage of our bedroom back.

Mat took two major tests this week--the cumulative exam so that he can graduate in May and the NCE (National Counselors Exam) so that he can get his LAC (licensed associate counselor). The job hunt continues, with some promising leads from an interfaith organization and some private practice recommendations. The state would hire him in a minute, but the workload is insane and the pay is a pittance, so it's Back-up Plan C. Plan B is to go teach high school in Texas for three years to qualify to be a school guidance counselor. In other words, Mat really, REALLY doesn't want to work for the state.