Unfortunately

I am here to tell you an unfortunate story.

It starts out fortunate, with some cute boys coming and sitting by my roommates and me in Sunday school.

My fortune started to wane a little when I couldn't hear anything that anyone else, the teacher or my classmates, was saying, so I started to color in a missionary letter for one of my best friends.

Which started up the "do you have a missionary?" conversation, which led into the "relationship status" conversation.

Which isn't too unfortunate, until it reminded me that I had to send a txt. And in my head, I was like: "Maybe I shouldn't txt during church. I'm supposed to be paying attention, after all." But since I couldn't hear anything anyway, I figured it would be okay.

So I just leaned myself forward in my little seat. My phone was mere inches from my fingertips.

And then, my heel slipped. I lurched forward. My face smacked the chair in front of me, and every boy in the ward turned to look.

I didn't even know what to do. I turned to the boy next to me and said stupidly, "Did you see what just happened to me?"

Of course he had.

But the story isn't even over there! Because a few minutes later, I decided I could try to get my phone again. I planted my feet firmly on the ground. I leaned forward. My fingers closed around my phone. I started to sit up to type out the txt I had to send.

My phone went clattering to the floor.

I felt like God was really bugged that I kept trying to txt during Sunday School, so I stopped trying then. Unfortunately, this happened several hours ago, and this is still kind of what I look like, in my head:

Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam

When I go to my home ward, I typically try to avoid big kid meetings as much as possible. Instead, I like to spend all of my time helping out in Primary!

I walked into the Primary room today and was greeted with a huge hug from the Sunbeams teacher, Sister Henderson. I was her unofficial teacher helper in the summertime and I absolutely love this lady. But even if she was terribly annoying or rude in any way, Primary would still be a highlight of my visit. I never fail to be entertained and enlightened.

Here's what happened this week:

Prayer: Someone stood at the front and gave the prayer. I didn't hear it. I did hear: "Sarah, put your dress down. All the way down." In a whisper voice, "Turn around. Turn around. Turn around. STOP! Turn around." From in front of me, "She's my favorite toy ever!" From across the room, "Big deal, I can pray, too." And, when the prayer was over, "A.....me-e-e-e-e-e-en!" sung quite beautifully.

Singing time. The children learned that it is better to give than to receive. The chorister had one child come to the front and pick a random present out of her bag. (They were small things, like a baseball, a cookie cutter, a cool plate, etc.) The child then wrapped the gift in a yellow napkin and tied a yellow ribbon on it. That child's teacher then went out into the hall and pulled in a random person who was just standing out there. The unsuspecting hallstander would come in and stand at the front of the room. All of the children then sang a verse of a Christmas song to the hallstander, the child presented them with the gift, and everyone wished them a Merry Christmas. Random gifting is so fun!

Bishopric Message. One of the counselors in the bishopric came in and told a shortened version of the story of Christ's birth. At one point, he said "They said that Jesus was going to come -" "Jesus is going to come??" There was silence. An abrupt, Shhh! And the Second Counselor continued uncertainly, "Mmmm.....they said that Jesus was going to come."

Closer to the end of his message, the Second Counselor said, "We need to be prepared for the Second Coming of Christ." A child in CTR 6 indignantly interrupted him with, "No, the third! He already came and came again, so it'll be the third. I thinkkk so." The Second Counselor shifted and laughed a little uncomfortably. "Um, so, we need to ready for when Jesus comes again," he clarified.

Classtime. After all of this, we split up into class. In Sunbeams, we read a Christmas story, set up a Nativity, and made gingerbread houses. You know I was happy about all of those things.

It's a Christmas Hangover!

A side by side comparison of Sunday in Utah vs. Sunday in Maryland:

In Utah, I wake up at 10:25. Caitlin and I listen to Sunday music while we get dressed in the outfits we very carefully picked out the night before. We talk about who we should get a ride from. We usually leave our apartment at about 11:10 and get to church at 11:20, just in time for 11:30 church. At church, I wait until the Sacrament is over before passing out coloring books, crayons, and ritz crackers to whoever is sitting by me. When church is over, I take a nap, eat some food, play with my friends, go to ward prayer, etc. It is a wonderful and relaxing day.

Please see below for a picture of one of my outfits on a Sunday in Utah.

When I am in Maryland, it is a very different story. I wake up at 8:00 for 9:00 church. Someone is probably yelling. Everyone is running around frantically. There are hootenanny pancakes on the table. Will I eat them at the table? You can bet that I will not.

I drag myself out of bed and try to find an outfit to wear. I rummage through my suitcases, trying to keep them packed. I change my outfit three times, because I can't find tights, or a flower that matches, or my other shoe. I become frustrated with everyone and everything around me. I make some comment about how this house is a black hole. I throw my makeup on. I think about brushing my hair. I run around the house, looking for my coat. I finally find the one that doesn't match with my outfit. I run around the house, looking for my church bag. I run around the house, looking for my purse. I lose my coat in the process and have to find it again.

I pick up my plate of hootenanny pancakes and hand it to one of my brothers to take out to the car. I eat it on the way to church. I sit through sacrament meeting in the hard seats in the gym with my family. I'm not sure why, since one car got to the church twenty minutes before 9, when Sacrament Meeting here starts. After Sacrament, I go to Nursery to help out. I kind of just invited myself to work there, since I like it so much, but no one has kicked me out yet, so whatever.

This morning, I had an especially difficult time getting ready for church. Mostly because last night, snow was all over the forecast, and I actually thought that church would be cancelled. (This is Maryland, after all.) It was expected to start snowing early this morning and wasn't supposed to stop until tomorrow at about 4 in the afternoon.

Looking at the forecast, I imagined myself sitting on the kitchen floor with my brothers andsisters, sipping hot chocolate from my Disney Princess mug. Like we always do when church is cancelled, we would give little talks and sing Christmas songs in a makeshift church meeting. We would play Perpetual Commotion, make dinner all together and do a photo shoot in the snow. I was very excited.

So you can imagine how surprised and disgruntled I felt when, this morning, instead of waking up to a winter wonderland, I woke up to the scene I described above. And, although it might not be an acceptable excuse, it's all I have by way of an explanation for my appearance at church today.

Please see below for a picture of my outfit.

black headband: Forever 21.

black turtleneck tee: Papaya.

pink necklace: Club Libby Lu.

pink skirt: Target.

gray tights: Target.

pink and black argyle knee highs: Santa Claus.

gray boots: Julie's closet.

Oh, and that blue jacket? That absolutely does not match with my outfit, in any world, under any circumstances? That is the jacket I wore to church today.

This morning Sarah said, "I don't get why, for church, girls can't just wear like, jeans, and a nice top. Or something."

I said, "Well, it's just because we want to look our very very best. What if Jesus came to our ward this Sunday?"

Then I felt like a hypocrite because I didn't even touch my hair. I put it up in a poof last night and didn't have time to fix it any other way this morning. And I think I wore this shirt last week. And I didn't put on deodorant. All the people in my ward probably wondered if I was suffering from a Christmas hangover.

It was a particularly unhappy Sunday morning for me.