My excellent Barbie birthday cake from Anna!The stupid playhouse (minus a roof & ladder) which did my back in. (Don't tell the kids I used the word stupid.)

A busy but good weekend. Friday was nice - Rebekah back from America came over in the morning and we had a nice catch up over cake, and in the afternoon, we had our first Relief Society presidency meeting at my house.

After school I took 2 extra boys home, but then Tom stayed round one of their houses, Lucy had a friend over for a sleepover, and Jack was at drama.

Later on I had my book club (about 10 houses down the road). Lots of great things discussed, including even the book for at least a few minutes. Very good peanut butter cookies. Still couldn't sit in an easy chair though, so a bit uncomfy on the floor.

My back thankfully is feeling a lot better now - down to a much more manageable pain.

Saturday was the getting things done day - trying to find school trousers for Lucy, school shoes for Tom (this is his 3rd pair of Clarks shoes THIS YEAR!!), more screws/nails for the playhouse, a Dunelm visit - returning my suitcase which fell apart on the flight home, and various other stuff, including buying proper running shoes for me and Scott.

This involved our having 'gait analysis', where our running on a treadmill is videoed, and we are matched up with the right pair of shoes. Scott's was fairly straight forward - he has a good gait apparently, but I tried on about 70 different pairs, and had to keep going for little runs outside the front of the shop (looking very attractive with my rolled up jeans and borrowed socks, in the pouring rain), and finally got a pair suited to me. I have never spent so much money on a pair of shoes before IN MY LIFE, nor on such a revolting looking pair. Oh well. At least there is no way on earth now that I cannot go running - I've spent too much to not.

Scott wanted to wear his beautiful neon-yellow-trimmed monstrosities to church today, with his suit - to 'break them in'.

It was also our family's turn to help clean the chapel, but when we got there, the other families who were helping had already been and done it all beautifully. We felt humbled and blessed by truly kind people.

Today was Ward Conference at church, where all our Stake leaders visited. I really enjoyed all the talks (including Scott's.) The Stake President met with Scott and I during church, to see how we are doing. He also gave us both blessings, which were pretty amazing, and have given me a ridiculously lot to think about. I think members of our church will know what I mean if I say it was like having a Patriarchal blessing again. I have never been given a blessing with such boldness or authority, before.