Since moving into the ward, I was a long term sub for Primary singing time, I was sad when the regular leader came back from maternity leave. It is one of the best callings I’ve ever had. I’m still waiting to receive a semi-permanent calling–hopefully soon! I am the type of person who needs to feel needed and having a calling helps fulfill that need for me. We’ve had stake conference and general conference and we were out of town this past Sunday, so maybe when I get back they’ll have one ready for me. General conference was uplifting as always. I received a lot of promptings of things to change and do, but specifically I felt the urging to exercise more faith, put the Lord first through the small and simple things (scripture study, prayer, etc.) and that the struggle I’ve had with energy and time management would take care of itself. I’ve been putting it to the test. I was reading my scriptures and praying before conference, but I’ve been trying to make it the first priority of my day. So far, I do feel like it has been easier to get things done.
Aside from all the projects on both houses, we’ve been busy with normal life as well. Beverly is still on a wait list for gymnastics/tumbling, but she’s been doing a running club at school two days a week. Mav and Harvey have been busy with their sport seasons. Mav is really improving. He is probably the best player at catching pop-flies. He is having a bit of a mental block with his batting, because usually that is where he shines. He is still hitting most of the time he’s at bat, but having kid-pitch throws him off.
Harvey and Mav were little buddies this trip. 
Harvey was my little companion since he wasn’t quite tall enough for all the rides. But he was JUST tall enough for some of my favorites! (he made sure he stood extra tall every time they measured him… and they measured him EVERY time because he was literally right at the line). 
I look like a mom who is slightly terrified of her daughter being at the wheel. 
Rain didn’t keep us away! 
Harvey asked me if Captain America was real. I asked him, “What do you think?” Harvey replied, “He’s real.” I love little kids’ imaginations, especially Harvey’s. 
Because we weren’t busy enough with everything, we decided to go on vacation to Universal studios before our season passes expire. We had a great time even with the outskirts of Hurricane Isaias raining down on us periodically. On day two, we tried the Minions Mayhem ride. It broke down while we were on it, so they gave us a single use fast pass (of course it wasn’t good for Hagrid, Harry’s, or Velocicoaster). So we decided to use it on Gringotts. We started day three at Islands of Adventure. Harvey and I did Spiderman and Kong Island while the rest of the gang did the Velocicoaster. Harvey got to meet Captain America too! I was wearing a shirt that said, “I solemnly swear I’m up to no good.” Captain America asked Harvey if that was real or false advertising. Harvey said, “It’s real!” So Captain America told him that since he was sporting the Spiderman shirt, he better be the good guy and keep an eye on me. Harvey loved every minute he got talking to Captain America. Once they were done with their ride, we went straight to Hagrid’s. It had finally opened up (it was having delays every morning for some reason). It was a long wait, but it is my favorite ride, so it was worth it. After lunch, we started heading to the other park and that is when the rain really started coming down. We all had ponchos, but we managed to get pretty wet anyway. We sloshed our way to Universal Studios and did the first ride that we came across to get out of the rain (Minions Mayhem). This time it didn’t shut down on us. Then we hustled over to Diagon Alley when it started raining hard again. It was raining so hard, that when we showed the fast passes to the worker at the front, they just ushered us in. They never ended up taking our fast passes, so even though we were pretty done (from being wet and tired) after Gringotts, we decided to use our fast passes one more time. The kids picked Transformers. We finished our trip at the conveyor belt sushi restaurant and had an uneventful drive home.
The next day, we got up and headed straight to the puppy place for Luna– our newest family member. We sure do love her! Puppy training is exhausting, but she did really well last night. I got up at 2 and took her potty and she slept the rest of the night. She is a bit older than the one we were originally supposed to pickup, which may be in our favor as she has a little bit more bladder capacity. The one were supposed to get ended up having a level four heart murmur. I was sad that we couldn’t get her anymore and though I had a heart murmur when I was little, she wasn’t meant to be ours. Luna has been so sweet and adores us and the kids.