Weekly Review November 7 '09

Sunday was eventful because there were quite a few changes in our ward. The YW presidency changed, which of course led to “trickle down” changes in a lot of other places, including Primary. I knew some of what was happening ahead of time and that’s one of the things that kept me busy last week—figuring out who I needed to replace the people I was loosing. Besides that, our chorister (my friend Rebecca) had asked to be released also and another teacher was taken from Primary to replace my friend Marci’s husband since they are moving. The bottom line is, at this point I have lost 2 teachers and am going to lose 2 more tomorrow, and I’ve only been given 2 teachers in return. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another 3 months to get the other teachers replaced. This kind of stuff drives me crazy! Everything else about Primary I love, but staffing—yikes. I did get a new chorister, though. The funny thing was, he didn’t know it until they sustained him at church. I was sitting across the aisle from him and it was obvious to me that they had forgotten to talk to him. Thankfully, he was a good sport about it and accepted the calling anyway. He said it was like being back in the 19th century, when they used to call people over the pulpit and as long as he didn’t have to go colonize St. George, he was ok!

Frank missed all the excitement because he was still feeling pretty sick and stayed home. Tanner complained that morning of a headache and stomach ache, and his temperature was a little elevated, so we let him stay home too. That turned out to be a good idea, since by the time we got home from church his temperature was over 100.

In Sacrament meeting, Scott and I both shared our testimonies. I was a bit anxious about going up because Frank wasn’t there and Seth was not behaving too well, but I felt that prompting so I went up. After a minute or so, Seth followed me up and when Scott came up to get him for me, Seth bolted into the choir seats and a chase ensued. I couldn’t see what was happening because they were behind me, but I could tell from the noise (pounding feet, loud giggles from Seth) and as a result I don’t think the things I wanted to say came out in a very coherent fashion, but I’m hoping I get blessings for trying!

The boys did not have school on Monday. Jared and Scott were both invited to spend time with friends that day. Tanner was invited also, but couldn’t go because he was sick. He had a field trip scheduled for Tuesday which had cost me $24, so I decided not to “wait it out” with him, but took him to the doctor Monday morning. Of course, it turned out that he just had a virus, so we were out of luck getting any treatment that would shorten his illness. He missed the field trip on Tuesday and also stayed home on Wednesday, but by Thursday he was better enough to go back to school. The trip to the doctor was not a complete waste, though. The doctor noticed Seth and asked how old he is. When I replied that he was almost 2 ½, she said that they had seasonal flu vaccine and swine flu vaccine available for his age and asked if I wanted them to give it to him while we were there. That seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up, so I went ahead and had them do that. I was also able to pick up the refill for Tanner’s prescription medication, which is a controlled substance so I can’t just call to get it refilled.

Frank started feeling better early in the week and returned to his regular work schedule on Tuesday, although he still wasn’t feeling terrific. He worked a lot of overtime on Thursday and Friday because they were setting up a server for a client.
I took Scott as well as Marci’s daughter Haley to Seminary every morning this week except for Wednesday. That was convenient on Tuesday since it was election day and the place we vote is at our church. I was able to vote when I went to pick them up to take them to school. In this election we were electing the mayor and the board of aldermen. I was interested to find out the next day that all 5 incumbent aldermen had lost the election, so we now have a completely new board of aldermen for Frederick. The mayor is brand new also. Only one republican candidate made it onto the board of aldermen, but the new mayor is a republican also. Should make city government interesting, I think!

I went to my friend Marci’s house Tuesday evening. I was too tired to take a project, so I just visited with her while she worked on making jewelry. That was our last craft night since she is moving tomorrow. I think I’m in denial!

Wednesday evening I had a Primary presidency meeting while the boys had scouts. Jared had 11 year old scouts for the first time. Thursday was busy also. After dropping the boys off at school, I went to the church to help sew baby bibs and blankets—we’re giving them to a local charity who will give them to new mothers in need. I went straight from there to a “farewell” lunch for Marci. I wanted to take the older two boys to an open house for the local Career & Technology center that evening, but since Frank didn’t get home until about 9:00, I wasn’t able to do that after all.

On Friday after dropping the boys off at school, I took Snickers to the vet to get a vaccination and then took Seth to get his hair cut. A new lady in our ward (Kathleen) cuts hair (she did mine last month) so I took him to her to get it done. Seth was very good and he looks so handsome with his new hair cut! After he was done, I let him play for a while with Kathleen’s son Tyler—they play very well together! Marci came over before we left to get her hair done, so I got to visit with her a little more also.

Jared had soccer practice on Friday at 4:30 instead of 5:30 because it gets dark by 5:30 now. I lost track of the time, though, so we didn’t make it to practice. That evening I took all the boys and Snickers over to the Nelsons so we could all say good bye. I am mad at myself for forgetting my camera because I could have got some cute pictures of Snickers with his parents and baby siblings. We had a fun visit and said our good byes; we will miss them!

This morning we tried to take some family pictures. Why is it that whenever we try to take a family photo it becomes such an ordeal that I think most of us are wondering if we even want to be a family by the time we are done?! We only got one family photo that is pretty good. Most of them looked more like this:

(No, Seth is not really picking his nose, although it looks like it! We all laughed so hard over this photo. Frank looks like he'd rather be anywhere else but here, and Snickers is looking at Frank, who had just run into the picture.)

Seth was very uncooperative. I don’t have a picture of the four boys together because Seth refused to get in the picture with them, and it was equally hard to get a picture of him by himself. We could have had a few really cute photos of him if he had stayed still for more than 2 seconds, but most of the time, he didn’t. We are planning to get some copies made of the good ones to send to all of you soon.

After the photo shoot, Jared had his last soccer game of the season. Wouldn’t you know it--after a whole season of losses, his team finally got things pulled together and actually won their game 3-2! I have no idea what happened, but they looked like a whole different team than the one I’ve been watching all season. It was a great way to end the season, at least.

I missed the second half of the game because I took Seth down to the playground to play. Scott and Tanner watched him for most of the first half until Ryan’s mom came to pick them up—they went to Ryan’s house for the afternoon to play. She also dropped off Ryan’s brother Bryson—he watched the rest of Jared’s game, and then came home with us to play with Jared for the afternoon. Seth took a nap and I kept busy doing Primary things. Frank changed the filter on the heater (it was pretty cold this morning; I think we are going to start using the heater a lot more) and replaced the ceiling light in the hall downstairs. That light has not been working for a long time, so it is very nice to have light down there again!

Snickers has been driving us crazy the last month or so because he has started getting careless—he puts his front paws only on the puppy pad, which means he ends up peeing on the carpet. Then the last week he has started “going” other places in the house instead of on the puppy pad. We can’t figure out why he’s doing that when he was completely trained a long time ago. This week I decided I’d had enough, so the last few days I have been taking him outside several times a day. So far, it seems to be helping, and he really enjoys getting outside a little more, even if it is only for a few minutes at a time. I hope we’ll have him trained to go outside instead of inside soon.

They are doing a lot of road construction in downtown Frederick near the boys’ school, which means I’ve had to be creative in finding different ways to get home from their school since the usual roads I use are often closed without warning. Fun! Just something else to keep life interesting.

I went online last week to check for houses in our price range and found a few that looked promising, so we went to look at 3 houses this week—one on Monday afternoon and two on Wednesday afternoon. These houses were better options than the ones we looked at a month ago, but I’m still not feeling motivated to move. The first house we saw was immaculate, but really no bigger than the one we’re in now. The second house is the best option, I think. It’s in a nice neighborhood, is the biggest house we’ve looked at, and it’s in great shape although it is pretty old. It also has a HUGE backyard. There were a lot of things I liked about that house, but it is also pretty expensive (a little out of our price range, actually) and the bathrooms (although clean and in great shape) are very small and very dated. As in pink tile all the way up the walls in the master bath, and yellow tiled walls in another! I actually don’t mind that too much (and it could be changed eventually) but the size of the bathrooms is harder to fix. I worry about resale value, especially since this home has been on the market for over a year! The last home was also in a neighborhood we like and it had a great backyard with a play structure, large deck with screened in porch, and a small in ground pool. But the house itself was not in very good shape and I think we’d still be crowded in it. We got a laugh from that house, though. The two upstairs kids’ bedrooms were wallpapered in baseball themes. One featured the Boston Red Sox and the other the New York Yankees! Our realtor’s comment: “do you think they fight?!” Anyway, the bottom line is, I am not going to be motivated to go into a lot more debt unless I find something I really like (or something that can be fixed up to be something I really like). We’ll keep looking—maybe that home buyer’s credit that congress just passed (for 2nd time buyers, as well as for 1st time buyers) will mean more homes go on the market soon.

That’s more than enough for this week, I think! I’m seeing Christmas stuff in the stores now, so I guess there’s not going to be any slowing down now until after the New Year. I am really looking forward to the holiday season, though! We’re going to try to keep things simple and enjoy this wonderful time of year.

Weekly Reveiw October 31 '09

Happy Halloween!

When I left off last week, we were on our way to the chili cook off. We had a good time visiting, and when it came time to eat, there were lots of yummy choices! And yes, we did win an award for our chili. We didn’t win all around best, but they also had several category awards, and we won “Best Chili Like Mom Used to Make”, which is funny since Frank is the one who made it! After dinner, there was a story told by the father of the host family—The Green Gorilla Story—it’s a family tradition of sorts. I really wish I could have taken a picture of some of the kids’ faces while he told that story! He had them riveted!

Sunday was the long awaited Primary program. I had to be there early for ward council; by the time I got out of that meeting my counselors, with help from Frank and the boys, already had all the chairs set up and things ready to go. I guess I’ve gotten used to doing Primary programs, because I was only a little bit anxious—I still remember being a nervous wreck the first couple of times I had to do one of these! (Although I had to laugh when I woke up Sunday morning—I realized I’d been having “disaster program” dreams all night!) I think I’ve learned over the years that everything always comes together and the congregation always loves it no matter what. I was very pleased with how things worked out this time. Not a single child “chickened out”, everybody spoke their parts loud and clear, the kids were mostly reverent (especially for the sacrament), and the songs were all really good also. Everything moved along smoothly and we only went over about 10 minutes, which is what was expected—much to my relief! We had included an insert in the program asking for comments to share with the children, and we received a lot of really nice feedback, which I enjoyed reading to the kids. The children were pretty wired during Primary, but we planned a very laid back sharing time—we watched a church movie and ate snacks! The older kids got to see “Together Forever”, and my secretary had me laughing—she was mouthing all the words because she saw it so many times while she was on her mission, and so did I!

The rest of the week has been pretty busy. My visiting teachers came on Monday and I did some visiting teaching on Thursday. On Tuesday evening I went to Marci’s to help her paint. (She’s still getting her house ready to sell.) We got a lot done, and I also got to see and hold all of Snickers’ new siblings—so cute! It’s hard to believe he was ever that small; he’s grown up a lot!

Wednesday evening we had a Primary / Ward Halloween activity. We didn’t do Trunk or Treat this year; we just had games, a costume parade with prizes, and refreshments. We were going to visit the nursing home across the street from the church to show off costumes, visit, and deliver some warm socks, but all the nursing homes around here have stopped allowing large groups of children to come in because of all the flu (swine or otherwise) going around, so we couldn’t do that. We wrote notes to tuck into the socks instead. I think all the kids had a good time. I didn’t have a chance to take any pictures because I was helping run our game all evening, which was a fish pond. The kids all seemed to really enjoy that one. The YW had two games also, I heard, and the YM did a spook alley. I helped to judge the costumes; we gave awards in lots of different categories and it was fun. Scott and his friend Ricardo won the award for “best group costume”—they dressed up as missionaries complete with black name tags, pass along cards, and back packs full of copies of the Book of Mormon. They went around all night trying to give away BOMs and make appointments! I wish I had got a picture of them.

Wednesday was also Jared’s 11th birthday, so it was a busy day. Jared was actually home from school that day because he was sick, but luckily he was on the tail end of the illness so he really wasn’t feeling too bad. So staying home from school and watching television all day is not such a bad way to spend your birthday! He complained on Monday of a headache, and by evening he had a pretty high temperature (102.4, I think.) On Tuesday he hovered in the lower 99s all day and seemed to feel much better. By Wednesday, he was close to normal again, so although I kept him home from school, he did get to go to the Halloween activity that night. He opened his presents after everyone got home from school—all he asked for was two games for the Nintendo DS—so that’s what he got, along with 3 books from us and 2 books from Grandpa & Grandma Pew. He seemed happy with everything. He wanted to wait to have his cake when he was well enough to invite a couple of friends over, but I did make a bunch of Halloween sugar cookies (pumpkins, ghosts, and black cats) instead. We also ordered pizza for dinner, which worked well for me because I had to get through dinner fast in order to get over to the church by 6:30 to set up for the activity.

Jared was feeling better on Wednesday, but Frank started to feel pretty sick and he has been miserable ever since. I think he has the same thing Jared did—just a more severe case of it. Since Frank wasn’t feeling well enough to go to the activity on Wednesday evening, and I knew I was going to be busy all evening, I left Seth home with Frank. Seth didn’t know he was missing anything, so it didn’t really matter.

The boys got out of school early on Friday. It was also the last day of the term, so we were busy this week making sure everybody was caught up with school work. Scott had to stay after nearly every day to make up tests and quizzes he missed while he was sick, but he got everything done and I think both he and Tanner have managed to pull off all A’s and B’s. We’ll see for sure when the report cards come home! Jared had soccer practice Friday evening and Tanner went to spend the night with his friend Ryan. We rented a couple of movies for the other boys—the newest X-Men movie and Monsters vs. Aliens. I didn’t really watch either of them that night—I was too busy with other stuff—but I did watch the second one on Saturday afternoon. It was pretty good, but not anything to get too excited about.

Jared had a soccer game Saturday afternoon; his team lost again. I didn’t actually keep track of the score, but it was about 4-0. His team just has never pulled it together this season. It hasn’t helped that so many practices have been cancelled because of rain or other games interfering. Thankfully, Jared has still been having fun, so it doesn’t really matter.

For trick or treating that evening, Jared had his friend Evan come over to go with him. His friend Sage also came, but he was later, so he hooked up with us while we were already out. Tanner passed out candy at our house; Scott helped and both of them also spent a lot of time outdoors playing with their friend Joey. Since Frank was still feeling terrible, I took Seth and Jared (and friends) trick or treating. I just took Seth around our part of the court and then dropped him off at home and continued through the rest of the neighborhood with Jared. Seth was Batman this year—mainly because by the time I was able to get to the store to get him a costume (this Tuesday) that’s all that was left in his size. I like to pick cute things for them to wear their first couple of years before they get all opinionated and start picking super heroes, but this year I just didn’t have time to figure anything else out. He looked adorable in the Batman costume anyway, although he refused to wear the hat/mask. Jared wanted to be Aragorn (from Lord of the Rings) and so he just wore part of the Legolas costume I made for Scott a few years ago—that worked for me!!

It rained a little bit during the late afternoon on Saturday, but it cleared up in time for trick or treating and it was mild enough outside that we didn’t need to wear coats or jackets, which was nice. Even so, we had VERY FEW trick or treaters come to our house, which means we have lots of extra candy in the house—which is good or bad, depending on how you look at it! I got back home with Jared by about 8:30, and we only had one small group of kids come by after that. We visited with Sage’s dad for a while and Evan’s parents didn’t come get him until after 10:00, so we were up pretty late and glad that we got to set the clocks back an hour!

We’ve had quite a bit more rain this week, but it’s mostly been warmer so it hasn’t been too unpleasant. We are glad for every nice day we have from here on out!

Now it is Tuesday afternoon and I really need to get this posted before another week goes by. The last few days have been pretty busy and eventful, but I’ll save all that for this week’s post!

Weekly Review October 24 '09

I'll start out with some pretty fall pictures this week:

Of course, the photos don't really do justice to how beautiful it is right now, but I had to try. The hillsides are just covered with trees of all different colors. Wherever I go, I have a hard time keeping my eyes on the road!

This week wasn’t quite as crazy as last week, thank goodness! It was still busy, though. My second counselor (Tammy) told me that her husband thinks we (the Primary Presidency) broke the record for the number of e-mails sent in one week! Well, probably not—but there were a whole ton of e-mails going back and forth as we have thought of last minute things for the program and as we’ve been gearing up for the next event, which is the Halloween Activity—it’s going to be on Wednesday, just 3 days after the program. It’s no wonder we are busy! I will be very glad when both of those events are over. Of course, then I have to start planning the Priesthood Preview….

Frank was very tired on Sunday and he had sore legs for days from all the time he spent on his feet cooking for the wedding reception and for the youth activity. I think both events were great successes, though. I think Scott had fun at the barn dance. They had a pumpkin carving contest, and he and a friend won 3rd place (out of about 20 entries); not bad! They pulled a bunch of the stringy stuff and seeds through the jack ‘o lantern’s mouth to make it look like it was throwing up—nice, huh?! What else can you expect from teen age boys?

Our second practice for the program went pretty well and we got through the whole thing this time. It’s going to be long, but hopefully no one will mind too much. They gave the Sunday School teachers warning that they’d have a shorter class time, at least. And actually, I don’t think we’re going to go over any more than the high council speaker did on Sunday! (Which meant we had less time to practice…)

Seth is starting to give up naps, apparently. The only day he got a good nap was Thursday. (Well, actually, he’s napping right now, so hopefully today will be a good nap day also.) Monday through Wednesday I got him to sleep each day, but he woke up when I put him down (which he never does!) That was frustrating, especially since I had so much to do. He picked a bad week to give up naps! He took a good nap on Thursday, though, and on Friday he got a nap—but it was only for an hour while we were in the car coming back from the orthodontist as well as picking up Tanner & Jared from school.

On the days he didn’t nap, I was able to get him to sleep earlier in the evening, at least. One day he conked out on the couch right after dinner.

On Wednesday, I got him down right before I left to take the boys to scouts at 7:00. (I had an appointment to talk with the bishop about several Primary things, including some callings we need to fill. Can I just whine that staffing is the worst part of being Primary president?!)

Seth may not be napping much anymore, but he is still saying cute things. On Friday morning, I had just turned off the television so the older boys would get ready for school. Seth said (very indignantly!) “Mom! You turned off Special Agent Oso! (A favorite show.) Not a good idea!!”

I had book chat on Tuesday. We discussed Triangle, and now we are reading some short stories by Tolstoy. I managed to make it all the way through high school as well as a college minor in English without ever reading Tolstoy (I wasn’t avoiding him, either!) so I am looking forward to reading some of his works. I wasn’t sure we were going to have book chat this week because we normally have it at Jane’s house but her daughter is the one who just got married, so we had planned to have it at Cheryl’s house instead. But then Cheryl fell down in her backyard (it’s a hill) last Thursday evening while taking her dog out and she broke 3 ribs, her upper arm, and tore her rotator cuff! Crazy! I felt so bad when I heard about it—her husband wasn’t home at the time and her daughter in the house didn’t hear her cries for help. So she was stuck lying on the ground in the cold and rain for quite a while until our bishop, who happens to live next door, went out to his backyard and heard her. She is on the mend now, but it’s going to take a lot of time. Anyway, we had book chat at Laura’s house instead, and then she ended up working on a job (she does decorative painting) which took much longer than she thought it would, so she wasn’t even there! But she left the door unlocked for us. Laura has this absolutely gorgeous home because she is so talented at decorating. I loved being there—it is so elegant—but I realized as I looked around (feasting my eyes) that even if I were talented enough to decorate like that (I’m not!), that a house like that would never fit my family’s personality! I found that thought rather comforting—I immediately stopped wishing I had a house like that!

Tuesday evening I went to my friend Marci’s house and we had a nice talk while she shortened all the necklaces that she had made for me. (I discovered that most of them were too long—she forgot I’m a lot shorter than she is!) She is moving to Kentucky in just a couple of weeks, so our time together is pretty limited. They just bought a house in Kentucky that she is excited about, so it was fun to hear about it. I hope they can sell their house here. Their dog, Cookie (Snicker’s mother), was due to have puppies soon—we were watching her panting and trying to decide if she was in labor or not. She stopped panting before I left, though. The puppies arrived early Friday morning, and there are 7 of them! The vet said she was having 5, but Marci thought there were more. I guess she was right. Snickers was part of a litter of 6 puppies, and he will not be a year old until November 11th, so Cookie has given birth to 13 puppies in less than a year! Pretty impressive. (I’m so glad I’m not a dog! Although the shorter pregnancies must be nice.) Marci said that after the last puppy was born, Cookie raised her head and looked at all the puppies carefully—as if she were counting them—and then looked at Marci with a look like “Oi! There’s so many!”

Scott was supposed to get his braces off on Wednesday (I changed the appointment from 2 weeks ago because he was sick) but his appointment had to be moved back again because of a funeral. (The orthodontist had to go to one, not us—thankfully.) He went on Friday afternoon instead. So here are the photos—before and after!:

He has retainers now, which he is supposed to wear at night and for 4 hours each day. They are clear (he’s actually wearing them in the “after” photo) so they don’t really show. Much to my relief, he did manage to brush well enough while wearing braces that he didn’t leave permanent stains on his teeth. I think he looks great!

Friday was busy with appointments because I also had a mammogram that morning. Thankfully, that went well and I don’t have to go back until my “annual” appointment in 6 months. (This was a follow up to my last one 6 months ago, to make sure nothing had changed since something looked questionable to the radiologist, I guess.)
I haven’t been sleeping so well this week, and neither has Tanner. On Wednesday night he was up a lot of the night so I let him sleep in and took him to school a few hours late. The next night he had some trouble falling asleep, but thankfully he slept well once he got to sleep. I hope both of us will go back to sleeping well soon!

I had to take Seth to get his blood drawn on Thursday. He had to be checked for lead and iron levels. I actually got the lab order at his 2 year old check up in July, but guess who forgot all about it? It ended up in a stack of papers and I didn’t “unbury” it until last month. Poor Seth had to get poked in both arms because they had so much trouble finding a vein, but my stoic little Spartan boy barely fussed at all, although I could tell he wasn’t happy about it. No kicking, no screaming, and barely any crying. He didn’t cry at all with the first poke and subsequent probing around. It was only after the second poke (with more probing involved) and they were almost done filling the vials that he decided he’d had enough and started to cry a little. I was so proud of him! He got tons of stickers from the lab technicians for being so brave, and after we got out to the car I was searching in the diaper bag for a snack and found a small bag of skittles, so he got those, too. When we got home he wanted the band aid off immediately, but after that he seemed to forget all about it. He did tell me in the car on the way home “Those Mommies poked me.”

Starting on Monday, we had really nice beautiful fall weather for most of the week, and we certainly enjoyed it! On Thursday evening, Scott and I planted some bulbs in the flower beds out front. (Frank had taken Jared and Tanner to get haircuts—they desperately needed them!) When the flowers came up this spring, I noticed there were big bare patches in the flower beds where no flowers came up. So I was smart and actually wrote down where the bare spots were, so I would remember where to plant more bulbs in the fall! We’ll see in the spring if it actually helped. It started raining again on Friday, which meant a night hike the scouts had planned got cancelled—Tanner and Scott were a little disappointed about that.

Frank hurt his foot somehow on Thursday, so he is limping around a bit. He tried to stay off of it a lot on Friday (he worked from home all day) so it is feeling a little bit better now.

Friday night we had Pack Meeting. (Jared’s soccer practice got cancelled because of the rain, which was nice because it made the evening less hectic!) It was kind of an historic event for us—we’ve been going to Pack Meetings for 7 years now—because it was our last one until Seth turns 8 in 6 years. Jared will be 11 next week—unbelievable! Jared received his Arrow of Light and they had a bridging ceremony for him, since he is now going to be going to 11 year old scouts. Jared also received 3 more activity badges (Forrester, Scientist, and Showman) and the science belt loop. We are proud of Jared for working so hard in Cub Scouts. He is the only one of my boys to earn all the activity badges except for one. (He didn’t get Aquanaut, because we don’t have access to a pool.) Anyway, Pack Meeting was fun. We have several new leaders, and I think they are doing a great job!

We arrived at Pack Meeting with 4 boys and left with 1. Jared went home with his friend Bryson to spend the night. Scott and Tanner went home with their friend Brian to play until late (we wouldn’t let them spend the night because they have homework to do today.)

This morning I had a stake meeting for all the Primary presidencies. It was a nice meeting; we got a lot of good ideas, and they fed us a yummy lunch afterwards. I don’t think it was very well attended, though.

Jared did not have a soccer game scheduled, but even if he did I’m sure it would have been cancelled because it has been raining most of the day—torrentially at times! A family in our ward is having a chili cook off this afternoon / evening and it got moved to the church (instead of at their house—they have a lot of land) because of the weather. We will be going to that event soon. Frank is making chili now, so I should probably post this and go help him!

How Fall Looks at Our House

I love fall! It is my favorite season. After several gloomy days with rain and cold temperatures, the sun has come back out and we are reveling in warm, mellow, BEAUTIFUL fall days! We're prepared to enjoy it as long as it lasts. Today I just had to capture on film all the things around my house that remind me that it's fall:

Come In!

(Wipe your feet!)

Scott made this in Kindergarten or 1st Grade--too cute to toss!

Seasonal salt & pepper shakers, of course!


View out the front door

View from the back deck
Another back deck view

Mulled cider, pear, and cinnamon vanilla scented candles--love the colors and the scents!

Pumpkin Spice candle--makes my mouth water!

This jar lid was my very first cross stitch project--I was probably about 15 when I made it! It was an easy & fun little project. The candy in the jar never lasts long!

So, how does fall look at your house?

Weekly Review October 17 '09

Whew! This week was packed full of different activities. I felt like I just ran from one thing to the next all week.

Sunday we had our first practice for the Primary program. I expected it to be chaotic, and there definitely was some chaos going on, but not nearly as much as I anticipated. We got all 70+ kids seated in their places on the stand in record time, and they were actually quite reverent. As a matter of fact, the kids were really good for the whole first hour of practice. The second hour they got a bit wiggly (can you blame them?!), but they were still amazingly reverent, all things considered. We didn’t get through the whole program, but I expected that! My only concern about it at this point is that it’s going to be way too long. There were a few hurt feelings that day over a few of the kids who didn’t get parts (with so many kids we couldn’t give everyone a part) which I felt bad about, but I was able to talk to the ones concerned and I think everyone is ok now!

I was happy on Sunday because after 13 weeks of being Primary president--and having to call a substitute every one of those weeks—they finally sustained a teacher for the Valiant 11 class! I was even happier when I gave the new teacher his binder and he said his wife was planning to come to the class with him. She is not a member, but she comes to Sacrament Meeting most weeks with her family. They usually leave after that meeting, but now that he has a reason to stay, they will probably all stay which means his kids may be coming to Primary also. Since his wife is planning to stay with him during class, that also means he doesn’t have to teach with the door open, so that’s even better.

I left the Primary practice a little early because Scott was getting set apart as the 2nd Counselor in his Teacher’s Quorum, and I wanted to be there for that. He’s actually been the 2nd Counselor for a long time, but the president was changing so everybody got released and then he was put right back in. I’m glad I got to be there because the blessing he received was not like any blessing of that sort I’ve ever heard before. It’s hard to explain, but he was blessed to do some really great things; it was very powerful! I don’t know if I mentioned it, but Tanner is also serving in the Deacon’s Quorum as 1st Counselor. That happened about a month ago (or less).

I was anxious when I got home from church and discovered that Mom & Dad had called—it was a very unusual time for them to call, so I was worried something was really wrong—but thankfully it wasn’t anything really awful (well, not for us, anyway). They did say in the message that my niece Janna had been in a bus accident with her marching band, but they also said she was ok, so that was a relief. I still called them back as soon as I could and also talked to Amy later and found out what a miracle the whole experience really was. I’ve been feeling really grateful all week for tender mercies, and for an amazing teacher who sacrificed her own life to save everybody else!

A lot of people around here were off work on Monday since it was a federal holiday, but Frank worked as usual and for the boys, it was the only “normal” day of school the whole week. When I woke up Tanner that morning, I glanced out the window (I always open the blind to let light in and help him wake up) and I noticed that Frank’s bike was sitting out in the grass of the backyard instead of under the deck. That was suspicious, so I looked closer and discovered that both Tanner’s and Scott’s bikes were missing. The bikes are supposed to be locked up, but the boys have been lazy about doing that. I was surprised that Tanner’s was taken because it doesn’t work well, but after I took the boys to school and was coming back up our street, I noticed a bike on the sidewalk around the side of our row of town houses and when I went to investigate, it was Tanner’s bike. Whoever tried to steal it must have ditched it when he realized that the bike was not working. I didn’t see Scott’s bike anywhere, though, so I called the police to report it stolen. Scott has barely used the bike, so it’s not a huge loss; I’m more concerned about the presence of crime in my neighborhood. The lady I talked to on the phone said that bikes get turned in to them all the time and encouraged me to call back in a few days to see if a bike that fit the description of his bike had been turned in, but I haven’t remembered to do that yet. I did lock up all the rest of the bikes, though!

For family night activity that evening, we watched some home movies—from the day Seth was born through December of that year. I was expecting to be amazed at how much Seth has changed since then, but what was even more amazing was the change in the older boys, especially Scott. He still had a lot of “little boy” in him back then—not any more! For Seth, I noticed a dramatic difference between ages 5 (Halloween) and 7 (Christmas) months. At 5 months he was still in his own little world a lot of the time, but by 7 months he was so engaged in what we were all doing—making eye contact with us, and reacting to everything that was going on around him. It was fun to watch, but hard to believe how much time has gone by since he was born!

All the schools started 4 hours late on Tuesday. I had volunteered to help with the Book Fair going on at Tanner & Jared’s school that week; I did my first shift Tuesday afternoon. I also helped on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. It was a little frustrating, though—they had booked too many helpers so there really wasn’t much to do and it felt like mostly a waste of time to me.

That evening I had parent / teacher conferences for Jared and Tanner. Jared is doing great; his teacher was very impressed with his first independent project of the year (he did it on jelly fish) and he is making lots of progress in math. She thinks he will probably be placed in Algebra for 7th grade. She also mentioned that he is getting “much more social” with the girls in the class which surprised me—I haven’t heard anything about that at home!

Tanner is doing great, also. His new Language Arts / Social Studies teacher just adores him! She says he is the sweetest, nicest, kindest boy ever! (I told her he was born that way.) He is also doing great academically. She loves the unique voice he has when writing. (I am going to post a couple of his papers soon so you can all get an idea of what a great little writer he is.) Tanner’s Math / Science teacher also had great things to say about him. She had him last year, and the first thing she said to me is “Tanner has really grown up and matured from last year. I see dramatic improvement in the areas of focusing and organization.” For me, that’s the best part of all: he has NO MISSING ASSIGNMENTS!!! It’s probably hard for you all to understand why that is such a big deal to us, but it is. It’s a minor miracle, really. We are just really ecstatic that his medication for ADD seems to be making such a huge difference for him. I am not big on medicating children, but in this case I can see that it was the right thing to do. I was pretty sure that if he always knew what he was supposed to be doing that he would do it, and do it well. I’m so glad I was right. I didn’t get to meet with his Spanish teacher, but he has 100% in that class, so he is doing fantastic in that class as well.

All of the schools started 4 hours late on Wednesday as well except for the high schools (how’s that for complicated?). The high school students went all day because the 10th and 11th graders had to take the PSAT. Scott said it was a hard test, so I don’t expect to see really great scores for him. It was only a practice this year for him, at least. In between school and scouts, we babysat for a friend in the ward so that she could go to her son’s parent / teacher conference. Wednesday evening the boys all had scouts and I had a Primary presidency meeting so we could discuss the program and work out a lot of details.

The weather has been cooler this week and on Wednesday it started raining. It’s been raining pretty much ever since and the temperatures have stayed in the 40’s which feels pretty cold when it’s also wet.

On Thursday I got Scott to Seminary and then to school. All of the schools got out 3 ½ hours early. I picked up Scott at his school while I was on my way to help with the book fair. Seth came too and he was supposed to watch a movie I had brought along, but he wasn’t very cooperative so I spent most of the time chasing him around. (Scott helped me with him, though.) Shortly after we all got home from school, Scott and I went to his parent / teacher conferences. I was glad I was able to meet with all his teachers this week so I could find out specifically what else he needs to do to get caught up from all the school he missed. All his teachers are pretty laid back and said he just needs to get everything in by the end of the term, which is in two weeks. He has quite a bit to do, but it doesn’t look too overwhelming. He’ll be staying after a lot next week, though, to make up some tests and quizzes that he missed. In his business class, he missed the whole unit on accounting—lucky for him, his mom can help him with that homework! Overall he is doing really well and his behavior is great, he just needs to put forth more effort on homework. His test scores are great; his homework is the area that is turning A’s into B’s. It was nice to have a couple of teachers comment on that—at least he’s not hearing it just from us!!

Thursday evening we had the sister missionaries over for dinner. It is always nice to have them over, and we haven’t had them for quite a while; we’ve missed that! They gave a great inspirational message to us. Seth didn’t take a nap that day (for the first time ever he woke up when I put him down—twice!) so he was tired and not very cooperative while I was making dinner. He went to bed right after the sisters left. The other boys stayed up to watch a movie because there was no school at all on Friday. Yes, crazy week! I have no idea what the school board is thinking when they work out the calendar; it’s really ridiculous sometimes.

I spent a lot of time on Friday helping the boys get things done for scouts and helping Scott get some of his homework done. Frank worked in the morning and then spent the afternoon and evening helping to cook food for a wedding reception for a girl in our ward. Tanner was at his friend Ryan’s house most of the day. I left Seth with Scott and Jared so that I could go to the wedding reception that evening. It was nice; I thought the bride chose a unique color scheme—black, white, and lime green. (They used granny smith apples for some of the table centerpieces—that color of green.) I know that probably doesn’t sound very pretty, but it actually looked pretty classy. I got there just in time for a short program, which included her dad eating a pickle because years ago when all the kids were small, he promised them that he would eat a pickle on their wedding days if they got married in the temple. (He doesn’t like pickles!) That was pretty funny. She did not have nice weather for her wedding and the temple actually closed down the day before because of a water main break which I know caused great consternation! But the temple opened back up for sealing ceremonies only, so she was still able to get married and she looked really happy, so I’m sure it was a wonderful day for them even though the weather was nasty. (Cold, rainy, even a little bit of snow coming down at one point!)

Jared’s soccer practice was cancelled that evening, which didn’t upset me much, and his game was also cancelled today because the rain is STILL coming down non-stop. Frank and I didn’t sleep too well last night because our sleep was interrupted at about 1:00 am by a phone call. The person on the line said she was trying to track down a Frank Cleveland and wanted to know what year he graduated and what high school he went to. Unfortunately, since Frank was still half asleep, he gave her that information and she said he wasn’t the one she was looking for. After he hung up, he woke up enough to realize how suspicious that was, so he had to get up and go change passwords on all of his e-mail accounts and other online accounts. Neither of us went back to sleep for a couple of hours. We are still racking our brains trying to think if we missed anything important. Hopefully, nothing will come of it, but you always have to worry about identity theft and computer hacking these days.

Tanner’s friend Ryan came over to play for several hours today. This afternoon Frank went to help cook again—this time for a stake youth activity. It was supposed to be a barn dance, but because of all the rain (and mud) the location was moved to the stake center instead of being held at a farm, as originally planned. Frank and Scott are still at that activity now. I spent the afternoon working on Seth’s quiet book, which is not coming together nearly as quickly as I’d hoped—but I keep working at it! The younger three boys and I have been relaxing at home this evening. I had beef stew cooking in the crock pot all day—it was yummy! We certainly could use some “comfort food” on a night like tonight!

Somehow in between all that craziness I managed to finish reading The Help. It got very interesting and it was hard to put down. I really enjoyed it. Lots of things to think about! If you get a chance, I recommend you read it.

Seth is expanding his vocabulary all the time. Two words he’s started using recently: disgusting and delicious. He is also figuring out possessives. It’s really cute because he’ll say things like “I’m in yours room, Mom” or “It’s raining on ours house”. He hasn’t figured out to drop the “s” off yet. The other day when I was changing a messy diaper, he told me that he had chocolate in his diaper! I had to set him straight on that one, for his own protection!

I hope some nice fall weather comes back before winter sets in for good. I got a “pumpkin spice” candle a few days ago, and it is making my house smell delicious—just like pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream! I love the sights and smells of fall. The last few days it has been miserable to go outside at all. I feel very thankful for my warm, dry house!

Weekly Review October 10 '09

I was very busy this week with Primary stuff. Our first practice for our annual Sacrament Meeting Program is tomorrow, so we are trying to get everything ready for that. There are a lot of things to think about. There were e-mails going back and forth all week, as well as lots of phone calls. We had a presidency meeting Sunday morning before General Conference, but we didn’t have enough time to talk about everything we needed to discuss, and the secretary was sick and couldn’t make it, so there was still a lot of discussion to get through. Monday through Wednesday were the busiest days; things calmed down a little after that.

Frank was very busy this week also, with a lot of projects for work, so I don’t feel like we saw each other very much. I am grateful that he has so much work to do, but sometimes I worry about how hard he has to work all the time. He doesn’t get much time to relax, and he would also really like to be exercising on a regular basis.

General Conference was great, I thought! It’s always great. I didn’t fall asleep during any of the meetings this time. I have already started listening to the talks again via the internet. It is so great to be able to listen to them again—so much good stuff in there; I can’t take it all in the first time through.

Scott was sick all week. He continued to cough and had a lot of congestion, and he had a fever every day. He would start out in the morning without a fever at all, but as the day went on, it would creep up until it was 100 or 101 by late afternoon / early evening. Since his symptoms were the same as many people we know who were diagnosed with a virus or mild swine flu, I didn’t take him to the doctor until late in the week—I thought we were just going to have to wait it out. Frank kept saying I should call the doctor, though, and so I finally did that on Thursday. The nurse I talked to said that his symptoms did sound a lot like two things that are going around—a virus and the flu—but she said since he was on day six, he probably ought to be checked out the next day if his fever went up again that evening. Actually, it didn’t go up very much that day, but I still decided to take him in the next morning. They did a strep test—“just in case”—and he has strep! I guess I should have taken him in sooner. At least he is on antibiotic now. He will have a lot of catch up to do next week when he goes back to school.

Meanwhile, Tanner didn’t sleep well Sunday night and reported that he had thrown up in the night the next morning. So he stayed home from school on Monday and Tuesday as well. (He threw up again Monday afternoon, but other than that didn’t seem very sick to me.) When he went back to school on Wednesday, he reported that 12 kids in his class were out sick and 5 more left before the day was over. So there is just a ton of nasty things going around right now.

Next week is going to be crazy because the schools are all doing Parent / Teacher Conferences. Monday is the only whole day of school (except for the high schools—they have a full day on Wednesday as well because all the 10th and 11th graders are taking the PSAT). Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are half days, and Friday school is out completely. On Tuesday, I got signed up for conferences with all the boys’ teachers.

I went to lunch with my friends Rebecca and Marci on Wednesday—we were celebrating Marci’s birthday. I guess this will be the last time we do that, since Marci is moving in about 3 weeks to Kentucky. I will miss her a lot! She has been helping with the Primary program so I’ve been talking with her a lot this week. Wednesday was a VERY windy day, but not too unpleasant because it was also fairly warm. We are mostly having beautiful warm fall days. I love it!

I spent Thursday morning getting my hair done. A new lady in our ward is a licensed cosmetologist—yes!! I went to her house to have it done. She has three young children; her middle child is about a year older than Seth and they played together just beautifully the whole time I was there—we hardly heard a peep out of either one of them! I think my hair turned out nice, too.

Frank took me to lunch on Friday—that was the one day he wasn’t working from dawn to dusk. It was nice because we were able to leave Seth home with Scott—always good to get away for a little while by ourselves! Friday evening Frank and I took Jared to his soccer practice. We took Seth and Snickers along also. I took Snickers on a long walk and took Seth down to a nearby playground to play. He had a great time but got very dirty! It was a nice evening with a warm breeze—a great time to be outside!

Today we did the usual round of homework and scout stuff in the morning. Jared had a soccer game this afternoon; his team lost 2-0. It was a frustrating game to watch—Jared’s team just doesn’t play offense well (although Jared came close to scoring a goal a couple of times). They were on defense almost the entire game. And every time they did make a break down the field with the ball, they would run into several very tall girls on the other team’s defense, who always managed to kick the ball way back down the field! I keep wondering how old those girls are—they’ve probably just hit their growth spurts already. Most of the kids on Jared’s team were half their size! Scott came with me to the game, but Tanner was playing football at his friend Ryan’s house and Frank stayed home with Seth. Later, I took the older three boys to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the dollar theater. They seemed to enjoy it. By the time we got home, it was late—we just ate dinner and got the kids to bed.

I’ve been reading a book called The Help, which is about African American women who work as maids for white families in 1960’s Mississippi. It is very entertaining and thought provoking, too. I always wonder if I had lived in that place and time, would I have been prejudiced the way many of the white people in this book are? Even more important, am I prejudiced now, in my own time and place? I hope not. Reading about social injustices always makes my blood boil. I just want things to be fair!

Cute “Sethisms”: On Friday I heard Seth call me when he woke up from his nap, so I went up to get him. When I got up there he said “Mom, I been up for YEARS!” I guess I took a long time getting up the stairs to get him! Another day this week it took me a little while to get upstairs when he called me. As I was getting to the top of the stairs, he called again but this time he called out “Scott! Tell Mommy come get me!” I guess he gave up on me! Another time it looked to me like he was chewing on something. I said “Seth, what’s in your mouth?” He smiled very big at me and said “Teeths”! Well, I guess I knew that….

One of Frank’s clients is having computer issues, so he had to go see if he can fix their problem. I hope he isn’t gone all night! (They’re in Frederick, at least!) I am working on a few more things for the Primary program practice tomorrow, and then I’m going to bed.

Maybe someday I will get some pictures posted again, but I just haven't been taking any photos lately. Too busy! I will try to make it up to you all soon.

Weekly Review October 3 '09

I feel like I’ve been fighting something off all week. I’ve had a headache, tender throat, and body aches but no fever and none of my symptoms have gotten worse. Besides that, I’ve been really emotional. A few mornings I’ve felt pretty good, but by the end of the day I am aching all over. I am glad it hasn’t been any worse yet, especially since Frank has had the same symptoms and by Wednesday night he was definitely sick and did only what he absolutely had to do for work the next day. Jared has not been feeling well either, and Thursday morning he had an elevated temperature and was complaining of a bad headache. Since Jared hardly ever gets sick or misses school, I let him stay home, and he lay around most of the day—didn’t have much energy—but he didn’t get any worse. Scott has also been less than healthy—he’s had a cough, congestion, and headache all week—but he still got up at 5:00 for Seminary every day and went to school every day except Friday. What a great kid!! Tanner has had some stomach issues again—on Thursday I had to take him some Pepto Bismal at school, but he didn’t miss any school at least. (Scott and Tanner both missed church on Sunday, though.) We just haven’t been very healthy this week, but I’m thankful because I know it could be a lot worse. There is a lot of illness going around, with many kids getting high fevers that last about 7 days, and one little girl in our ward is really sick with pneumonia right now.

Sunday I was feeling burdened by a lot of different things, so it wasn’t the best day. On Monday the kids were out of school (still—it was a long week end) so the boys and I all went to spend the day with our friends the Koettings. The boys played all day long—we hardly saw them—and Jeanine and I chatted while she worked on a wallpaper project and I worked on Seth’s quiet book. It is always great to talk with Jeanine, and I felt a lot more at peace after that. It was a nice day, but I was exhausted by the time it was over.

On Tuesday I went to lunch with my friend Rebecca; I am also her visiting teacher so my companion and I both came and we did visiting teaching at the same time. I didn’t go to Marci’s for craft night that evening since I wasn’t feeling my best.

Wednesday evening we all went to the church—Frank to help a friend with a computer problem, me to meet with one of the boys who had finished his Personal Management Merit Badge, and all the boys for scouts. Frank kept Seth with him most of the time. Jared went on a hike which is one of the few things he has left to do for his Arrow of Light, and the older boys had Board of Reviews. Actually, Scott didn’t have one because he just got his Life rank a few months ago and he’s not ready for Eagle yet. His goal is to finish up the merit badges during the school year (may need to do one of them at scout camp next summer) and to do his project next summer (we’ll start planning it soon). Tanner will be getting his 2nd Class rank. He’s actually done everything for his 1st Class also except for 2 swimming related things. The Board of Reviews took a long time, so we left the church pretty late and we had to stop on the way home to get some doughnuts and milk for a school project for Scott. (Of course, he had just mentioned that to me that afternoon after school!) We got to bed pretty late.

Seth had a bad night Wednesday night, which meant I did, also. I only got about 5 hours of interrupted sleep and since Frank was quite sick by Thursday morning I got to do the 6:00 am Seminary run and then had to go back at 7:00 to get Scott to school. By then it was time to make breakfast and get the other two up for school, so I never made it back to bed (I didn’t sleep well Tuesday night , either, so it was two nights in a row) but when Seth went down for his nap that afternoon, I took a nap also. I remembered around noon that Scott had an orthodontist appointment at 4:15, a 30 minute drive from our home, so I knew I was going to need a nap! Thank goodness Frank was home that afternoon because Tanner was on Safety Patrol that day (helps with the car line at school) and didn’t get finished with that until about 10 after 4:00. I took Scott to his appointment, Frank picked up Tanner, and Jared stayed home with Seth. At the orthodontist we got good news—Scott is done! We got to make an appointment to go back next week to get his braces off. He is excited, of course, and especially thrilled that he will be getting them off before Halloween! He will probably pig out on all that sticky candy that he hasn’t been able to eat for the last almost two years.

Jared’s coach had a practice Thursday night—they usually practice on Friday nights, but they had a game Friday night again and a game on Saturday as well, so he really didn’t want to go into two back to back games without any practice. Jared missed the practice since that was the day he wasn’t feeling well, though. He seemed to be doing a lot better by evening, but I didn’t want to push it!

Thursday night was better than the previous two nights, but I didn’t get to bed until around 11:00 and Seth woke up right then and was up for about a half hour. After that he did sleep, thankfully, because I had to get up to get Scott to Seminary. Frank got up and went to work really early—he was supposed to do that Thursday morning but he wasn’t feeling well enough. He still wasn’t feeling very well Friday morning, but he was better than the day before and the work needed to be done. Scott came back home after Seminary because he really wasn’t feeling well. He slept a lot and stayed on the couch all day. By evening, he had a fever and he has been the same today.

At one point that day, Seth came into the kitchen dragging a laundry basket with him. That set off alarm bells in my head, because the basket was empty, but I had filled that basket up with clean folded clothes the night before. Sure enough, all the clothes were in a heap in the middle of the living room floor. I got to fold all those clothes all over again!

Friday evening was a little crazy—Tanner got invited to go to Ryan’s house again, Jared had a soccer game at 6:00, and I had a bridal shower to attend at 6:30. Frank took Jared to his game and I dropped Tanner off at Ryan’s before heading to the shower. Seth and Scott stayed home. The shower was fun—we had a light dinner of yummy salads and breads, and I got to visit with a lot of people. I’m sorry I missed Jared’s game, though, because his team either won or tied (Frank wasn’t sure if it was 5-4 or 5-5) and Jared scored one of the goals. I’m glad they did well since the previous two games they lost. They also lost their game on Saturday, 6-2, I think. Jared had to play goalie the second half and he didn’t do so well—let 4 of the 6 goals through. He did kick one goal, but the referee called offsides on him, so the goal didn’t count. Frank says the referee was incorrect, though—Jared really wasn’t offsides. Frank wasn’t very impressed with this particular referee, who didn’t seem to be paying much attention to what was really happening. That’s how it goes sometimes, though.

Today I enjoyed the first two sessions of General Conference—I actually got to listen to almost all of them! Frank wasn’t so lucky—he took Jared to his soccer game which was at 1:00—for us “Easterners”, that is right in the middle of the first session. Then when he got back he had to spend the rest of the afternoon putting new brake pads and rotors on my car. The brakes started making noise about 2 weeks ago, and even though I told Frank right away, this was the first chance he’s had (on a day it wasn’t raining, that is) for him to take care of them. I’ve been trying not to drive the car as much as possible, but even so, he had to replace the rotors as well as the brake pads. This was the rear brakes—he had to do the same thing for the front brakes in the spring—so at least I should be set for a long time now. The weather was really beautiful—warm and sunny—all day, so at least he could enjoy being outside even though he was working!

For dinner this evening I made these really yummy biscuits to go with our omelettes. Frank and I had some biscuits at Red Lobster about a month ago that we both loved, so I decided to go online to see if I could find the recipe. I found it, so I tried it out. They turned out great! Frank agreed that they were as good as the ones we had at the restaurant. I love the internet! Frank and Tanner went to the priesthood session after dinner, but Scott had to miss it since he's still sick. Tanner and Frank got ice cream afterwards, so they got home pretty late (10:40ish). I’m glad we don’t have to get up really early tomorrow!

I did a little more online research on houses in our area this week and discovered that there are quite a few really good possibilities (ie: houses that are a lot more like what we are looking for) that are not all that far out of our price range. That confirmed my feelings that we ought to wait a while longer. It was actually encouraging to me that there are some really nice houses in neighborhoods I like that aren’t nearly as expensive as I thought they’d be. It makes more sense to wait a while and get what we really want. So no more house hunting for now! With the Primary program and a Halloween activity both coming up this month, I don’t have time, anyway!!!