girlfranz

I had a great weekend with my 'girlfranz'. We had stake conference on Saturday evening and Sunday morning so for the first time in months I had a free Sunday afternoon! My friend Mayara (pronounced Majada), who joined the church a few weeks ago, and I were asked to perform a special musical number for the Saturday evening session (with me on the piano and her on the cello). A guy in our ward composed an arrangement of three hymns (86, 100, 220) that was absolutely beautiful but we didn't get the music until Thursday night so we were really nervous about playing. She is an incredible musician and picked up her part quickly but I had to simplify a few areas so that I could just get through the piece. The time finally came for us to play in front of the four hundred or so in attendance and I thought my heart would explode but we made it through. I hit a few wrong notes here and there but I just kept going and tried to finish strong. I felt kind of bad that I had messed up a little but when I sat down my friend Ginger was crying and she told me that it was beautiful and that she had felt the Spirit so strongly. After the session ended many people thanked and congratulated us on our performance and I was just happy that we were able to bring the Spirit into the meeting and that it touched so many. I have a video of us practicing but it's too big to post on here so if you want to hear it let me know and I can email it to you.

After conference Ginger and I went to Erica's and spent the rest of the evening looking through cooking magazines and painting our nails. Ginger stayed the night at my house and before conference yesterday morning she trimmed my hair and curled the ends as I brushed my teeth. We picked up this really sweet girl Angela who's planning on getting baptized in a few weeks and made it to the stake center just before conference started. Fortunately the elders had saved us some seats so we weren't too far back but we were still in the uncomfortable metal chairs. After conference it was great to see lots of old friends and acquaintances before heading out and taking Angela home. Gingy and I had lunch and then napped on the sofa/recliner for a while. I had invited Mayara, Erica, Nate and the elders to dinner so I got up and got the jambalaya cooking. I also cooked up Mom's string beans and Mayara made some garlic toast. It was all delicious! The cake turned out well, too. I made a double layer yellow cake and put some of Mom's raspberry fig jam between the layers and it was scrum-diddly-umptious! The elders and Nate had to get going so us girls were planning on going out to play in the rain but then it stopped. So we put on a movie and Ginger taught us how to curl our hair with my Chi flatiron. She did everyone's hair and we all looked like divas! It was fun to hang out with such good friends all weekend and I was sad to see them go. Erica stayed a little longer to help me clean up and we talked for a while. She and her hubby Adam are moving to Missouri in a few weeks and I will miss them so much! Here are some pictures of our evening:

The cake I made for Erica...it doesn't really make sense because she'll be the one in Missouri but I will be in MISERY!

Happy faces, sad hearts.

The best picture of us turned out blurry! Boo! Ginger, Mayara, Erica, and me after we got our hair did.

Silliness ensued amongst us curly-headed ladies.

I can't believe she's leaving me!! :(

Sadness.

So I guess I should've gotten a picture of the back so you could see more of the curls but I loved what Gingy did to my hair! My hair usually doesn't hold curls long because it's so straight but it's still curly this morning. No hairspray or product needed, just a super hot flatiron, which I already have. :D