Things that are getting me through right now.

 I used to joke that I knew God loved me because He saw fit to inspire Steve Jobs to drop his Apple announcements AND for Lorne Michaels to set the "Saturday Night Live" season openers in conjunction with my birthday each year. The Academic Decathlon resource list also started hitting during my birthday week, which was exciting, but then Tim Cook took over Apple and he's a horrible excuse for a human being and THEN the SNL debut was pushed to October this year. But I really AM beloved because look at how the stars aligned for me this week! 

Taylor Swift was set to drop her new album October 3, which was something wonderful to look forward to. Of course I stayed up to catch it right when it came out, but it even hit a few minutes early, which was a silly surprise I loved. I'm not sure what I would have done in my current state if it was a TTPD type of album, but TLOAS is fun and light and full of love. It just made my heart so happy. 

She announced there would be a movie dropping in theaters the same day and only running that weekend. I had hoped to see it with friends, but even before we had this terrible news, I decided to go even if it was by myself. I wore my Eras Tour sweatshirt that morning and changed into my Red shirt from Halloween two years ago for the actual movie. I took a bag of Skinny Pop with me and balanced it with a small bag of treats from See's. The movie was fun to watch and of course being a theater of Swifties always helps to buoy one's spirits, ha! Per Bear's rules he's had since we started dating, I also treated myself to a Wetzel's Pretzels pretzel and cheese, since I was at a mall. 

October 3 also brought a BYU football game against West Virginia. Mallory and Elisabeth were both at the game with their friends and it was so fun to watch it at home with the littles and text with Bear (who was working late) and Mally and E, who sent cute pics and videos from the game. BYU won 38-24 and it was a great game. 

The first weekend of October is obviously General Conference weekend, but the Saturday sessions are always tricky because of sports. We watched in the car throughout the day and listened while at games. Bear got a crazy call-out the night of the 3rd and was gone all of the 4th, too, but everything went so smoothly for the day. Ike had a soccer game in Jamul, Nat had a volleyball game in Del Mar, and Cubs had a soccer game in Santee. I just love watching my kiddos do something fun and hard and exciting! 

October 4th was Homecoming for Lid and Bob, so they got all spiffied up for the dance and looked lovely. Lydia took the Silver Bullet to get it washed before she got ready and she locked her phone and keys in the car at the car wash! But the gods smiled down on us and not only was Lid in such great spirits throughout the hiccup, but the tow truck driver made it to us in record time and he was so nice and helpful. 

After starting the season 0-4, UCLA fired their head football coach and their DL and OL coaches resigned. They had a bye week with their interim coaches and then jumped into playing Penn State on the evening of the 4th. Oh, did I mention the Nittany Lions were ranked SEVENTH in the country?! In one of the most amazing games ever, the Bruins rocked a 42-37 win, dropped Penn State completely out of the rankings, and celebrated a comeback fit for the movies. It was sooooo exciting! 

General Conference at home can be a challenge sometimes, just because it's hard for anyone (let alone little kids!) to stay put and pay attention to the TV for so long over the weekend. But Sunday's sessions were so sweet and calm and I was especially impressed with Cubby and Israel, who stayed put and chilled while just listening to the speakers. Bear had to work in the morning, but joined us for the afternoon session, which was nice. Ili was lucky enough to get to attend the morning session, which filled our hearts, and even ran into our bishop's daughter there, which was a crazy coincidence.

        

Silly little things, but to have them all add up to such a pleasant, fun, and DISTRACTING weekend was something I really needed. Kudos to Taylor Swift, Kalani Sitake, Tim Skipper, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for getting together to coordinate it all for me! Glimmers of God in my life right now...