Is There Anything You Can't Do?

13. Write about your earliest childhood memory.

This is a weird memory and I'm not sure why I remember it, but it has always stuck with me. We were living in Okinawa, Japan and I was around 3 years old. We were at the park near our apartment building and we found a huge snail. My dad "caught" the snail and said we could bring it up to our apartment. I remember being really excited and interested in the snail. As we were riding up in the elevator, I remember holding this huge snail and being worried that it would come out of it's shell, so I quickly passed it off to my dad.

Once we got up to our apartment, we put the snail in a glass bowl. It came out of it's shell and I remember we thought it's body looked like a giant foot. I don't remember what happened to that snail or how long we kept it. I don't know why I remember this. 

This weekend was pretty fun. Saturday, we had a very relaxing day and then hosted a Clark Community Gathering (our neighborhood gathering) at our house. This time, the Elders in charge of our community came, as well as a couple from our neighborhood and their two children. We had so yummy food and good fellowship. I do wish this time more neighbors would have come. Our church is trying to get neighborhoods together and fellowship, to meet your neighbors and build bonds. So far, it's not working too well in our neighborhood or in my mom's.

We put Lydia to bed around 8:30, hoping that she would sleep in until 6:30 (new time). But, she woke up this morning at 5:30 and was playing in her crib. Brian tried to lay her back down at 5:30, but she just got right back up. I went in at 6:30 and changed her diaper and rocked her for a bit, hoping that she would go to sleep. She did finally fall asleep (after make a lot of noise in her crib) before 8:00 and then slept until 8:45. We went to our Young Marrieds class at 9:45 at church and then Brian, my dad, cousin Chris, Jessie (and Adah) and Thomas went back to my parent's house to watch the football game. Leah, mom and I stayed for the 11:30 service.

Lydia was still, amazingly, awake when we got to my parent's house - Brian said she had been in such a great mood and playing and chasing the dogs. I gave her lunch and then put her down for a nap, and then she slept for about 2 hours. I even fell asleep watching football and had a nice nap. At 5:00, my mom's neighborhood gathering started, but no one showed up until after 5:30. We had yummy home made ice cream (I shared mine with Lydia and ended up having 2 bowls). The one lady who showed up quickly left, since she didn't want any ice cream. But, we had a great time chatting and playing games.

I really enjoy relaxing weekends, although I'm glad we got to hang out with the family. Lydia can get bored with just Brian and me with her, but she is always entertained when then are several people who will play with her and give her attention.