The Curse of Nine-O'clock Church

It's no secret that I really don't like 9:00 curch. First of all, Dale hates getting up early on Sunday and now that we have 9:00 church he has to get up all the earlier for Bishopbric meetings. He complains about it every Saturday night. He's lucky though, he doesn't have to deal with the getting the family ready. Trying to get the whole family out of bed and to church by 9:00 is not what I would deem "sabbath worthy." I get myself out of bed regularly at five in the morning to go to aerobics, but at that time, I only have to get myself ready, and I don't have to look good to go to the gym. I can wander in with my hair all standing out and my teeth unwashed. Sundays are different. So today my alarm went off at seven, and I hit the snooze. Soon after I heard Jordan get into the shower. I hate fighting for the warm water, so I decided to wait for him to finish before showering myself. I got up and decided to eat breakfast. I also got Marie up so she could be eating breakfast too (it takes awhile for her to eat). I decided to allow Valerie to sleep a little longer, because she had the smarts to shower last night. At 7:30 I hopped in the showe.  As I left to get my shower, I mentioned to Marie that she should be getting her shower soon too. At 8:00 I emerged from my shower dressed and ready for church. Marie was still sitting at the kitchen table. I told her she had to get in the shower, now! I knew she enjoys long showers a little too much, but I thought she would be done and ready by 8:45. (We always try to get to church 15 minutes early so that we are actually there on time.) I sat down to look at something on the computer. Marie headed into the bathroom with dress in hand. At 8:15 I heard her come out and I thought, "Wow, she was really fast today." At 8:16 I heard the water in the shower turn on. I was not a pleased mom at this time, but I thought, "She still has half-an-hour." At 8:30 I knocked on the door and told her she had 15 minutes to finish getting ready. This was repeated again 7 minutes later only with much more urgency. She told me she was just washing out the conditioner in her hair.  At 8:45 I was now yelling at her, as I tried to help her finish dressing, and blowing her soaking wet hair dry.  She still had to put on her shoes. Approximately 10 minutes later she was ready, but neither girl was wearing socks with their sunday shoes, so I sent both of them off to find appropriate footware. Five more minutes passed and we were able to get into the car without any problems for a change. We even managed to make it to church on time. So I had ranted and raved for no real good reason. Everything would have been fine, but now I'm exhausted, and its too easy to fall asleep in church.  I hate falling asleep in church.  I never see any of the other sisters falling asleep in church, and it's embarassing.  Today the lesson in Sunday School was really interesting, so today it was easier to stay awake.  
My other complaint about 9:00 church, is having the rest of the day to do stuff. I realize that most everyone else LOVES 9:00 church for this reason, but I don't.   When we had 1:00 church I could prepare my lessons, or read church books or just read. I could even take a nap just before church. Now I have to remember to prepare my lessons on Saturday, and on Sunday I find myself asking, "What do I do with the rest of my day?" Mostly I just sit around and think about all the things that I should have done yesterday and didn't do, or watch TV all day, or blog:) , and on fast Sunday we sit around being tempted by food all afternoon.
I guess Eleven o'clock church is probably the best time to go.  This is when we are able to visit family in the afternoons and still have a reasonably calm morning, but we'll have to wait for one more year for that one. Honestly my children are getting older and they pretty much get themselves ready in the morning. I know Marie will catch on soon, or I will make sure she is showered on Saturday from now on, and once I am at church I don't notice much of a difference in the time. I shouldn't complain. I like church, and Dale is home by 1:30 finished with his clerk job, (He's not sure what do on Sundays anymore).  I'm sure I'll get use to the time slot. I just hope it happens soon.