One tough weekend.

This whole weekend was pretty tough. Saturday I had to work all night, and I hate closing, especially on a Saturday night. Not to mention, literally 5 minutes before we closed I had a customer come up and say "I have ten books I need for class ASAP". So I looked them ALL up on the computer, wrote down where they ALL were, dragged her around the ENTIRE store to get them all for her. After I help her, I do a walk through of the store to gather up all the books people leave on tables and on the floor, and I get a call from a manager that the last customer to leave left a pile in the cafe. So I head over and what do I find??? ALL ten of the books that I had just grabbed for the customer next to a pile of about 30 magazines. That, in my opinion is probably the rudest thing you can do in any retail store. If she just wanted to know if we carried them, she could have told me and I wouln't have had to go find them all for her, just to turn around and put them back. Grrrr....

So that kind of put me in my weekend-bad-mood-funk.

Sunday, however, was the worst. I was still groggy and irritated and I really didn't want to go teach my primary class. Bryant is the best though and he offered to go so I could stay at home, but that just isn't fair to him, plus, I really like church, just not my ward. So we go, and as soon as we walk in the kids are hitting, punching, biting, pushing, and yelling and nothing in the world can make them stop, no amount of threatening, begging or bribing can get them to calm down.

As we leave the primary room, a lady hands me a paper that says something along the lines of "this is what you missed in relief society this week cause you never get to come" (ok, ok so it doesn't really say that, but thats what it made me think of...) and she says "how's is going sister Francom?"

I can't even begin to tell you how much this irritates me. Apparently just before we moved in, another new couple moved in and got thrown in primary named the Francoms. So now, every new couple in Primary is now "the francoms". Thankfully, it's not just us no one cares to get to know. It doesn't make me feel like such a loser. But come on people, we have been here 8 months! You see us every week, and every week, we tell you our last name is Stokes.

Class was just as bad, we handed out brownies and watched a cartoon movie of the 2000 stripline warriors. The first thing Gabe does with his brownie? He sets in on the floor and steps on it, then asks for another one.... I was ready to smash one in his face.

Once again, I wake up this morning feeling really crappy and still in my bad-mood-funk. My apartment was a disaster, so I set to work getting it in shape. I was about to just sit down and be grumpy over just about anything, when a message on my ipod popped up saying that I had a message from my friend Tyler Robbins mom Valinda. She is amazing, I have known her for ages and she sent me the best advice. She told me that she understands that it's hard to make friends in a ward where we don't get a chance to meet anyone, but that she was sure the bishop (who, by the way, we have only met once and had a 3 second conversation with) appreciated that we had taken the calling. She also said that she had to teach primay for many years and that there were a few times that she basically had to tell the parents of some kids that they were not welcome to come to primary unless they could get them under control first. She also told me not to take any crap from the kids, that if they are acting up and won't stop, to just take them straight to their parents. I always thought that was a little mean, but she said that my calling is to teach them, not to babysit them, and that it's not fair to the other kids if I have to spend all my time taking care of one instead of teaching all of them.

Her note really cheered me up and I was happy to learn that I'm not the only one who has problems with primary. I think the real problem was that I was upset that Bryant and I are not really a part of the ward. I signed up for vollyball and he signed up for basketball, neither of us got any info on games or anything. We both go to all the ward parties and activities, not one person says hello to us, and we end up wandering around until I pretty much just want to cry.

Bryant is the best at cheering me up though. Every night this past weekend, he gets me a bowl of ice cream or a glass of coke and we sit down and watch my (new) favorite show Dexter. He is also really good at being calm and helps me see the logical side of things when i'm upset and not thinking straight. He even helped me finish cleaning up the kitchen. What a good sport.

So thank you Valida, for thinking of me and giving me the support and advice I needed.
Thank you Bryant for always putting up with me and listening to me, and loving me and being the best husband in the entire world! I definitly don't deserve you, but I'm so glad you found me and are willing to deal with me for eternity :) haha.
And thank you Dexter, for keeping me entertained when I need time to relax and unwind, and for being available on Netflix.