Talent Show Glory

Remember back in 2012 at our Thanksgiving Talent Show how Whitney did cartooning on demand? It was a big hit with the aunts, uncles and cousins, so I suggested Whitney do that for her school talent show but on an iPad with image projected up onto a big screen.

She had to try out because they only chose 5 of the 7th graders to perform their talent, but she ended up being one of them! She performed for the 7th graders during school on Tuesday and then again on Thursday night for anyone who wanted to come.

She told the audience she "mainly draws dogs, cats, and foxes" so they could yell out something for her to draw and she would do it. This is a cat slapping a dog.

This is a cat twerking!

This is two dogs eating spaghetti.

She did so great! She looked totally calm and collected even though the auditorium was full of teachers and 600 other 7th graders! She later said she was shaking and nervous, but it didn't look like she was at all.

This is the program for the Thursday night performance when lots of parents, teachers and students came to watch all 3 grades perform.

This time she knew to use the microphone more to tell the audience what the crowd had suggested she draw and she knew to leave the drawing on the screen until it was time to do the next drawing (instead of erasing it immediately which she did in the first performance).

My parents were kind enough to come. I had seen the program earlier in the day while at work so I had texted them to let them know she was 3rd on the program (there's no way my dad would have made it through the entire show, he left a couple performances after hers but my mom stayed for the whole show).

The same boys who had requested she draw a twerking cat at the Tuesday show requested a twerking dog at the night show (she just happens to have a huge crush on one of them).

One student requested she draw a fat cat saying "aint nobody got time for dat".

This is a bloated fox floating in the sky.

It was so fun seeing her in action like this and hearing the response of the crowd. Everyone was oohing and aahing. She's now famous at school!

Sunday Thoughts

I actually wrote a Sunday Thoughts post right after church, but then realized I wanted some information from my dad as a part of it, but wasn't able to get it yet so I'm going to save that post for next Sunday. So this is Take Two of my Sunday Thoughts...on Monday morning.

Our lesson in Relief Society on Developing Talents was quite good.

Talent

=

innate ability, aptitude, or faculty, esp when unspecified; above average ability.

• We should use and improve upon our talents.
• Think about what brings you satisfaction and joy (we were born with these things).
• We are all unique.
• There is a reason we were given the talents we have been blessed with.
• Have faith that Heavenly Father will help you discover and develop your talents.
• Developing talents takes work and time.
• We shouldn't hide our talents, even though there are always people more talented than we are.
• Our talents are given to us to bless and enrich the lives of others.
• "While we are not equal in experience, aptitude, and strength...we will be accountable for the use of the gifts and opportunities given." --James E. Faust

We have a tendency to think of talents as being the kind of things we see displayed or presented; things like playing a musical instrument, singing, dancing, acting, painting, etc. But there are so many talents that enhance our lives and the lives of others that don't fall into that category.

Asking,  Praying, Wit,  Wisdom,  Obedience,  Pondering,  Patience, 

Not Judging,  Weeping,  Listening, Avoiding Contention  

Spirituality,  Seeking Righteousness,  Appreciating Music, 

Laughter,  Organizing, Working,  Cooking,  Planning,  Decorating, 

Cleaning (hee),  Humor,  Writing,  Sharing Feelings,  Being Thankful,

Being Fun,  Finding the Good in Others,  Remembering, 

Understanding Things Quickly,  Being Articulate,

Communicating,  Teaching,  Reading,  Sharing,  Helping Others, 

Loving People, Being Generous, and on and on and on and on!

**Thoughts??**

The Things We Do

Yesterday during our Marriage and Family class the teachers (a husband and wife team) had the class list good things husbands can do for wives, wives can do for husbands and parents can do for their children. It ended up being pretty interesting since everyone has different feelings about what their spouses should do.


For example, I rarely make a big, official dinner. I make sure the kids get something to eat at regular meal times, but our house definitely isn't a "Hi honey you're home, here's your hot meal and your slippers" kind of house. But some of the husbands in the class commented that they appreciate that their wife always has dinner ready for them. I cringed a little bit when I heard this, but know that that's just not my way.


Randy spoke up and said that he appreciated the fact that our house is always clean, because he likes that a lot (this was news to me). He said he appreciated the fact that the laundry was always done, that he always has clean socks and underwear, and that he doesn't mind ironing his shirts because he always has plenty of clean ones to chose from. (It was a little bit surreal to sit in a room of about 40 people and hear Randy complimenting me.)


It was also cool to listen to the different things everyone had to say. The beauty of it is that we're all different and can do the things that work for us. This got me thinking about blogging and the things we all post about. I know we all have a tendency to bristle at the posts that strike a nerve with us, whether it's because it's a pet peeve, a weakness, a strength or a desire, because as women we have a tendency to feel threatened by other women's victories.


I think this is sad and it's something that I've been working on and have definitely gotten better about over the past couple years of blogging. So I had sort of an epiphany about this yesterday as I checked my comments on my Sunday post about visiting teaching. Obviously visiting teaching is something I feel strongly about, so it comes easily for me and is something I write about. But there are plenty of things I'm not good at that I don't end up writing about, and I'm guessing this is true of everyone. So rather than reading blogs and feeling threatened or like we're somehow less, why not just take the good from each others' experiences and remember we have other strengths?


I could list strengths from every blog I read, and most of them would be very different from my own. Our blogs are reflections of who we are and who we want to be...not who we're not.

Photos examples are...
Claudia's gorgeous living room
Michelle's beautiful angel food cake
Kristi's marathon finish
Amy M.'s amazing studio and talents
Amie's family focus and marriage
{These are just a few examples
of people I know well.}

**What do you think???**