I have been extra blog-busy this week, and I’m not sure why that is, but I plan to settle back down into my normal routine soon.  (The one where I actually spend a little bit more time in real life putting away laundry and loading the dishwasher and stuff.)  Anyway, there were just a few announcement-like things I wanted to communicate.

1. For those of  you who participated in the general conference meme and want to take the challenge to write up your “fake conference talk” based on question #10, the deadline will be the end of October.  If you can do it sooner, great.  I’ll start posting them as I get them (Give me some time for editing and spacing them out a little).  Just write between 500-1,000 words and remember to include some quotes from conference or scriptures.  You can email your talks to me at dd.stephanie@gmail.com or send me any questions you might have in the meantime.
2. The transcripts for the General Conference talks are now all posted online.  Yay!  They also have this awesome tool available called “Study Notebook,” where you can sign in and take notes on the talks– you can highlight them, write notes in the margins, etc., and save it all.  Very, very cool.  And just in case I didn’t make this clear enough before, I would love to have ANY of you join in on the General Conference Book Club (see here).  Invite your friends, neighbors, enemies (the nice ones), whomever.  We’ll start with our first talk this coming week.
3. Speaking of conference, I had a 2-line moment of glory in this article at lds.org.  Scroll all the way to the bottom.  They totally saved the best for last, don’t you think?
4. I feel much better today.  I bore my soul to Matt at lunch today.  He said nice things like “Don’t be a mental case.  I need you to be the sane one.”  He really did say that, but he said nice things too.  He’s right, you know.   We moms need to pull it together and step forward, not just because people need us, but because we feel so much better when we act with confidence.  He wants me to do P90x with him.  (It’s some kind of exercise program that makes you wish you’d never been born.)  Start saving money now to attend my funeral that I predict will occur in less than 90 days.  And for the record, I would like you to bring chocolate to my funeral in lieu of flowers.
5. If you are a mom of boys and you’re trying to think of a way to be the coolest mom on the block without having to do much, I have a tip.  You should invite a bunch of neighborhood kids over to your house next Friday for a “How to Train Your Dragon” DVD release party.  Seriously, throw in some pizza and a couple snacks and suddenly your sons think you walk on water or something.  If you really want to try it, let me know and I’ll email you the invitations I already made.  Obviously you have to change the address to your own house because I’m not that cool.

And just a little something to inspire you:

Young people, do not seek happiness in the glittering but shallow things of the world. We cannot achieve lasting happiness by pursuing the wrong things. . . . Happiness and joy come from what a person is, not from what he or she possesses or appears to be. -Elder Dallin H. Oaks.

Is it just me, or do you think he was probably talking about those jeans I saw at parent-teacher conference? 🙂

Have a great weekend.