Weekly Review October 11 '14

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day so I am writing this week's post a day early.  I'm also trying to watch the BYU football game at the same time, so if this post doesn't make any sense, you will know why.  I'm realizing that my expectations for this game are completely different than last week's game.  I'm not expecting us to win, I'm just hoping we don't lose miserably.  You all know what a sad disaster last week's game was!  Since it started late in Utah, it started REALLY late out here.  I was trying to hang in there with my team but after the first interception of the 3rd quarter (around 1:00 am out here) Jared and I decided to go to bed.  (Frank had already given up.)  So I was pleasantly surprised the next morning to find out that Utah State actually hadn't scored any more that game, and we had scored another field goal.  So even though we lost, we didn't lose by as much as I expected. I just hope our team can recover somewhat from the loss of our star quarterback!  And of course I hope he recovers and can play again next season.  It's a bigger bummer for him than for anyone else!

Also on Friday (before the game), we had the boys in our carpool family come over to play for a while in the afternoon.  I returned my holter monitor as well and Frank and I went out that evening.  Originally, we were going to go out to dinner but then we ended up going out to lunch instead so neither of us were hungry that evening.  (Frank had set up a lunch for guys in the Elder's Quorum to attend that day--he's been trying to do that about once a month.  I hadn't planned to go at all, but one of the guys called and said he was bringing his wife because she needed to get out of the house, so I went also to keep her company.  We got our own table so we weren't "crashing" the Elder's Quorum lunch; it was pretty funny!)  Anyway, when we went out, we picked out paint for the bathroom and then went and got a new laptop for me.  My laptop is several years old, the screen is starting to have problems, and the plug is also having a lot of problems so that it often won't charge even though it's plugged in.  So we decided we'd better get a new one before the old one gives up completely.  Ironically, I'm still using the old one right now--just haven't had time to move everything over from the old laptop to the new one yet.

We did not end up painting the bathroom on Saturday after all.  We decided some parts of the wall needed more layers of spackle on them first, and those places needed to dry before we could paint.  That part is done now; we need to sand and then I think we can paint.  Hopefully we'll find some time to do that soon!  In the meantime, we had a wonderful weekend enjoying General Conference, and it was nice to be able to concentrate on it.  On Saturday the Sister missionaries joined us for the 2nd session and then the Elders came over for dinner afterwards.  They went with Frank and Jared to the Priesthood session, too.  On Sunday, Erin and Dan joined us for the 2nd session and we ate dinner during the second half of that session.  All of the talks were outstanding, and it was awesome that some of the speakers were able to speak in their native tongues.  I'm already enjoying being able to listen to the talks again.

This week has been fairly busy with RS stuff--lots of people to call & emails to send.  One family in the ward is currently in crisis...such a sad situation!  Not much I can do about it, unfortunately, except be a support and a listening ear.  I am also teaching this Sunday so I've been working on my lesson, I had my monthly meeting with the bishop, and we had our monthly evening meeting this week too.  For our meeting, we had a cultural night where four different sisters shared information about their native countries.  They all brought food for us to enjoy as well.  The great thing is that a couple of them are somewhat less active so it was really great to get them involved.  Besides that, it was a fun and interesting evening, we had good attendance, and I think everyone who came had a really good time.  So I was very happy with how that turned out.

The DC temple has been closed for a month and just reopened this week, so I really wanted to go.  I planned to go on Wednesday, but I haven't been feeling really great and then woke up that morning with a runny nose and bad headache.  Since we had our RS meeting that evening, and I had a really busy couple of days coming up after that, I decided I'd better stay home and try to get some rest.  I certainly didn't sit around all day, but I did take a short nap and I also tried to do things that I could do sitting down.  So I got a decent amount accomplished, but also got some rest.  I did also watch a movie--something I don't do very often at all.  As a matter of fact, I think the last time I watched a movie was the last time I was sick!  I watched Big Fish...we had it from Netflix and Jared had already watched it, but I wanted to see it before sending it back.  It was an odd movie, but I did expect that, and it was a pretty good movie too.  I enjoyed it.

Today I am still not feeling terrific, but I'm not really feeling all that bad either.  Actually, this morning I felt pretty normal but I had a busy day and by afternoon I was not feeling as well.  I actually think it might be allergies, though.  I need to start taking allergy meds again and see if it helps.  This morning I went to a sister's house to hold her baby for her so she could get some things done.  She is having a baby shower for a friend, and she has four kids under the age of five, including a 2 month old who wants to be held all the time!  She was able to get some things done while I was there, though.  The baby is sweet (of course!) so I enjoyed holding her.  Everything else I did today is not really worth noting...just a lot of household chores.  I was doing extra of those, too, since I was trying to get ahead on a few things like this post and the budget.  Tomorrow I am volunteering in Seth's classroom in the morning and we're having the carpool family over for dinner after school so I knew I wouldn't have time to get those things done tomorrow.  Saturday is going to be busy too.

Frank had a busy week also.  He went to the dentist on Monday and on Tuesday he got the stitches out of his knee.  He is able to move it around a lot better now and he doesn't have to keep it dry anymore either, so that has made life quite a bit easier for him.

Jared has a play coming up at school, so he has stayed after a few times for rehearsals.  He has not been feeling his best either, but like me he has kept plugging away.  Tanner has had mid terms this week so he's been pretty swamped but when I talked to him yesterday he had earned a 92 on his first midterm.  He also said he has over 90% in all his classes so that was good to hear!

Seth is not doing quite so well in school.  He is still having a lot of trouble with focusing, so he isn't getting a lot done.  Last week I got a report on an assessment he took called the Global Scholar test, and he did very well on the reading (above average), but he was below average on the math.  Then this week we got a letter from the school letting us know that since he scored so poorly on the Global Scholar test, they are putting him in math intervention for the year.  Seth actually likes math and I don't think he is really having a lot of trouble understanding it, so I think it's likely he scored so low because of lack of focus, not because he is really struggling in math so much, but I could be wrong.  At any rate, Frank and I both think putting him in math intervention is not a bad idea because if nothing else, he may get more one on one attention, which will help him focus, so he will hopefully learn a lot more.  I am interested in talking it all over with his teacher...I have been very worried at how little he seems to be accomplishing this year.  I am also making more of an effort to work with him on an online math program that the school provides for all the kids.  We did some of that tonight and he also did some reading on another program they have.

I got back the results from my 22 hours on the holter monitor, and as I expected they didn't see any atrial fibrillation happening.  I did have a few extra beats now and again, but that is all.  I have a follow up appointment with the cardiologist in a few weeks.

Well, now the second half is starting and I've run out of things to write about, so I will sign off and go focus on the game.  Even though BYU is behind, I am glad to see that the team seems to be pulling things together a lot better than they were in the first quarter.  Maybe the rest of the season won't be as bad as I feared!

Weekly Review October 3 '14

I'm going to start this week with a random picture:

 I would like to live in this house!  I mean, look at that view they have behind them!  (We took this picture on the drive out to Circle of Hope a few weeks ago.  It's a beautiful drive.  The Circle of Hope is the place where Tanner did his Eagle project and where hopefully Jared will be doing his.)

The rest of this week's photos are a bit graphic, just to warn you in case you don't want to look.  Since most of you are on facebook, you already know that Frank got some stitches in his knee on Saturday.  If you haven't heard the story, we were at a cemetery helping with a service project for the Day to Serve.  Frank was helping clear brush with a chainsaw--he just got one recently from his friend that moved to Alaska.  He had just replaced the chain that morning and while he was working the chain came off.  The saw shut off, but the chain still caught him on the knee and cut 4 gashes in it...two of them were fairly deep and required 5 stitches.  Seth and I were elsewhere in the cemetery helping to paint a fence.  Frank actually kept working for about a half hour but then he started to feel a little dizzy and sick, so he came and found me.  That was the end of the service project for us!  I found Jared (painting a different fence) and dropped he and Seth off at home, then took Frank to the doctor to get the stitches.

Here's some pictures of the pants he was wearing:

And here is the wound and the stitches, as of this morning:

Frank has spent a lot of time the last week like this:

Except not always a smile on his face!  He has mostly been able to go about his normal routine,,.he can drive and everything...it's just been awkward and uncomfortable a lot of the time.  Walking in particular, since obviously the knee moves a lot when walking!  The first night he didn't sleep well at all because his knee was throbbing and it was hard to find a comfortable position.  He's done better since then.  Yesterday morning one of the stitches popped open so he had to go back to the doctor to have it looked at.  She put a different band aid on it that was supposed to be super strong but it's already fallen off!  So that was definitely not worth the $25 copay!  I guess she did also put some of that super glue stuff on the wound which is helping to hold it together at least.  He has to keep the wound dry so he wraps it in saran wrap before showering.  The stitches are supposed to come out on Tuesday.  All in all, we know it could have been a whole lot worse so we are grateful for that!

On Sunday in spite of the fact that he slept so poorly, Frank did get up and go to church--mainly because he just got called to be the Gospel Doctrine teacher and he was teaching his first lesson.  Didn't take them long to give him a new calling!  He went home after his lesson, though.  My new counselor didn't get sustained because she wasn't there.  But they did call her and she accepted, so I'm happy about that.  She won't be sustained for another week because of General Conference, which is a bit awkward, but I'll manage.

RS has actually been fairly calm lately.  I'm afraid to say that!  I mean last week I said "boring is good" and then the next day Frank got stitches!  So hopefully I didn't just do myself in.  I did go on several visits this week and it was good to get out and see some of the women in the ward.  One is going through a divorce, one has a new baby, and one just got out of the hospital.  Hopefully we lifted their spirits and helped them a little.  Other than that I had emails to send but there wasn't a lot going on.

It was a moderately busy week with a number of errands.  Jared went to the orthodontist, Snickers went to the vet for a routine vaccination, and both boys got haircuts.  I went to the library to pick up the book chat book...have only made it through the introduction so far, but it sounds really interesting.  I finished up the baseball sewing...glad to have that done!  This morning Frank and I got up at 4:30 am to make cinnamon buns / monkey bread for the Seminary class...they have a new thing this year where they have treats every Friday, provided by one of the families.  This week was our turn.

Yesterday I went to the cardiologist so they could hook me up to a holter monitor for 22 hours.  I have to return it this afternoon.  It's a little awkward but not bad at all.  I haven't felt my heart do anything unusual since they hooked it up, so I doubt they are going to get any data to analyze, but they wanted to try it anyway.  I got the results back from my echo and I have something called "mitral regurgitation" which means that one of my valves doesn't close properly so blood leaks backward back up into the upper chamber of my heart.  Actually, I've had it for a long time and already knew that issue was there...they just wanted to make sure it wasn't getting any worse.  The report said I have a very mild version of this problem, so I'm guessing it hasn't gotten any worse, and it isn't anything to be worried about--just has to be checked annually.

My other project for the week was scrubbing down the walls in our main floor bathroom.  Frank removed the wallpaper about...let's see...it must have been 3 1/2 years ago!  Then we got busy and distracted and didn't get back to it for a long time.  Scott was supposed to scrub the walls (to remove the little bits of glue still on the walls) before he left on his mission and never finished.  So anyway, it took me another year and a half to get to it, but I finally did it myself!  That's because we really want to paint it while we listen to General Conference tomorrow.  With Frank's help, I also removed all the towel racks and so forth from the walls.  We hired our neighbor (who is a professional painter) to come over yesterday to fill in all the holes left from the towel racks etc, as well as to repair the places where some of the wall came off with the wall paper and to fill in a larger hole where one of the boys pulled down one of the towel racks (by hanging on it) when they were little.  He's coming back tomorrow to sand those places down and then we can paint!  (Frank is totally capable of doing that kind of stuff himself but he was a little handicapped this week.  I was going to do it, but he convinced me to just have our neighbor do it instead.)  Frank and I are going to pick out the paint this evening.  After the painting is done, we are planning to get new towel racks, towels, faucet, mirror, vent cover and light fixture, plus add some kind of storage.  I am excited to get it all done!  Hopefully it won't take another 3 1/2 years.

The women's meeting on Saturday was wonderful!  I stayed home to watch it since I didn't want to leave wounded Frank.  Plus Seth was complaining that his stomach hurt (thankfully that didn't turn into anything).  I just love the spirit I always feel at those meetings; it's incredible!  I am looking forward to more spiritual feasting this weekend at General Conference. :)

PS to Weekly Review September 26 '14

I knew I'd forgotten something...

On Tuesday after I dropped Seth & the carpool boys off at school, the Expedition started shuddering and got sluggish, the oil light came on, and the heat gauge went up to the top.  I was worried I wasn't going to make it home without it quitting completely, so I pulled over and called Frank.  He left work to come rescue me.  I'd noticed it was leaking some water off and on the last few weeks...from the back, though, not from the engine.  When Frank came, he added a lot of water to the engine and then it was fine, so we were able to get it home.  He did some research on the internet and figured out that the heater coil in the back was leaking, so he ordered the part and yesterday he installed the new heater coil.  Now not only is the car not leaking water (or overheating) but the heat in the back of the car, which really hasn't been working since we got the heater "fixed" a few winters ago, is working again.  He's awesome, isn't he?!

Not sure if the Expedition is going to make it much longer but I'm really glad we didn't have to rush out and replace it this week. :)

Weekly Review September 26 '14

This week was a little busier than last week, but still...it was relatively boring.  Boring is good!!

I forgot last week to mention the little reward I got for leaving my house at 6:50 am to pick up Jared from Seminary--a rainbow!  That was on Tuesday.  It was a beautiful full rainbow.  I tried to take pictures but all I had was my phone so they didn't come out so well.  Anyway, it was a nice way to start out the day.

Last weekend we had Stake Conference.  It was really good, and I did enjoy having a bit of a rest from meetings and my usual responsibilities.  There were a lot of changes in stake callings which affected me in two ways.  First, Frank was released as the stake IT clerk, after having that calling for 7 1/2 years.  Second, one of my counselors was called to be a counselor in the stake YW presidency, so now I need a new counselor.  I did have some warning about that...about two weeks ago my bishop told me that I needed to start thinking about a new counselor.  I didn't know which counselor I was losing or why, but I did figure out that one of them must be getting a stake calling.  Hopefully my new counselor will be called this Sunday.  In case you haven't been counting, that means I will be up to 5 counselors and 4 secretaries in the less than 2 years that I've had this calling.  I think the next time someone gets released it should be...ME! :)

I had some things going on for RS this week...a presidency meeting on Monday, I wrote the presidency message for the RS newsletter, I tried to make VT appointments, and I had a few VT changes to consider but overall it was fairly moderate.  Oh, and I visited two sisters in the hospital.  Actually, now that I think about it, I've been to the hospital every day this week except yesterday!  How did that happen?  But anyway, I wouldn't have even known one of the sisters (JoAnn) was in the hospital except that another sister in my ward (Rebekah) who was going to see the other sister (Molly) got sent to the wrong room by accident, and discovered JoAnn was there.  Except I don't think it was an accident...it was a tender mercy that they sent her there!  Rebekah let me know that JoAnn was there so I was able to visit both JoAnn and Molly that evening.

I had book chat on Tuesday and we really enjoyed discussing Cutting for Stone.  Now we are reading The Age of Innocence.  Well, actually I'm not reading it yet because I'm still waiting to get my copy from the library.

It was a weird school week--the boys got out of school 2 hours early on Wednesday and didn't have school at all yesterday but they had a regular school day today.  (Yesterday was a Jewish holiday.)  On Wednesday evening there was a Court of Honor but Frank & I didn't go because Jared forgot that's what they were doing.  He wasn't getting any awards anyway...all he has left to do is finish the cooking merit badge and do his Eagle project.  I sewed all evening instead and now I'm almost finished with all the baseball sewing I need to get done by October 16th.  It's nice to be so close to finishing and I'm way before my deadline.

Speaking of deadlines, Jared worked all week on his application for NHS because the deadline to turn it in was today.  He thought it had to be in by 4:00.  It turns out it needed to be in by 2:30.  So when he went in to hand it in at 2:35, they wouldn't accept it.  Frustrating!  He wrote down in his notes that it was due at 4:00 so I don't know how he got that wrong but it's too late now.  I told him to save it for next year since most of it will be the same and he won't have to do it all over again.  It's aggravating that he totally qualifies for NHS but can't be in it because he was 5 minutes late, but I guess if he learns something from the experience it will be worth it.

Yesterday when the boys were out of school, Jared went with a bunch of the Seminary kids to see a movie.  They were going to go to a big wooden slide originally, but it was raining yesterday so they changed plans.  His survival camp out went well last week, by the way.  They built shelters for themselves and they had to show that they could do things like build a snare or bait a hook in order to "earn" their meals.  Evidently he enjoyed it.

That's it for this week except that it's starting to look like Halloween around here.  Check out this spider web on the neighbor's deck:

 

  Actually, today is about as beautiful as days come.  It was quite foggy this morning, but now?  Sunny, warm, light breeze...perfect!

Weekly Review September 19 '14

A strange thing happened when I sat down to plan my week on Sunday.  I didn't have anything "extra" going on.  No meetings, no visits, no school events, no activities.  All I had was the usual things like laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping.  I was shocked.  That NEVER happens!  But don't worry, I didn't sit around doing nothing all week.  I texted the sister missionaries and told them I had time to go on some visits with them.  I signed up to feed the Elders one night and the Sisters another.  I called a couple of the sisters in my ward and set up a meeting to discuss getting Wanda to church and back (we need more people to help).  So my week filled up a bit, but it was still nice to not feel overwhelmed with things to do.  

With the free time that I still had, I spent most of it reading.  The book we are reading for book chat this month is 657 pages long!  So there was lots of reading to be done.  The book was very interesting and easy to read, but 657 pages takes a bit of time.  I did finish it last night, though.  I think it is a book worth reading, although there are a few parts that need to be skipped.  The book is called Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  I really enjoyed it!

I ended up taking Jared to the orthodontist on Monday afternoon because one of his wires broke and popped off.  I sewed a patch on a baseball dress (for the daughter of the guy I do baseball sewing for) also.  On Tuesday since I had open time I weeded the front flower bed (Jared helped me) and I cleaned out my closet (it's Frank's closet too).  Frank went through his clothes as well and we filled 4 large bags with things to give away and I threw away another bagful.  Pretty good!  

I didn't end up going on as many visits as I would have liked, but this evening the Sisters and I went to see a less active sister who is moving and needs help.  We went through some boxes with her while we talked.  We also visited with another sister briefly on Thursday morning.  We had an appointment but she wasn't feeling well so we just had a short visit on her porch.  

Last evening Frank needed to help someone in the stake with their printer so I went with him and then afterwards we went on a date.  We went to a place called Rita's to get gelati and then we took it to a nearby park with a big pond to eat it.  Then afterwards we walked around the pond.  It was nice to get away for a while!

Today there wasn't any school (Fair Day--the Frederick County Fair is this week).  Jared had to be at the church at 9:30 this morning for a camp out.  They are doing a "survival" camp out.  All he could bring was a sleeping bag and one other item...he was assigned to bring a first aid kit.  Each of the boys was assigned to bring a different thing.  I'm interested to hear how it went when he gets home tomorrow afternoon.

We did have a few activities over the weekend.  On Friday Frank and I went on a date.  We decided to go on a drive and take some pictures.  Frederick County has three covered bridges and I've always wanted to see them so that's where we went.  Here's the first one:

    

Here's the second one:

And here is the third one:

Yes, they all look a lot alike!  We had an enjoyable drive, though.

On Saturday our ward had an activity...a chili cook off.  I was one of the judges (again...I was a judge last year too) and Frank's chili won second place.  (I did not sway the other judges at all!)  Every organization was also supposed to have a pioneer game planned.  That didn't work out too well since Saturday turned out to be rainy so we had to have it at the church instead of outside as planned and most of the games were outside games.  But for RS we had planned to help the kids make a pioneer toy...the button on a string that you twist up and then pull the ends of the string to make it twirl.  Hard to explain; hopefully you know what I mean!  Anyway, they were a hit!

On Sunday we went to Erin & Dan's for dinner and Anna and her girls were visiting too so it was really nice to see all of them!

This weekend we have stake conference so I feel like I kind of have the week end off!  No extra meetings!  It's always really good too so I'm looking forward to it.

Frank was busy this week because he did monthly maintenance for all his clients.  He has had a nasty cough for about 3 weeks so I convinced him to go to the doctor on Wednesday.  They did a bunch of blood work and took a chest xray but didn't find anything unusual (which is reassuring) but they did go ahead and give him an antibiotic, and anti-inflammatory medication and some cough syrup.  The cough seems to have improved somewhat although it has not gone away completely.  Hopefully it will disappear soon!

Weekly Review September 12 '14

This week was not nearly as busy as last week, thank goodness.  I actually had some free time now and again but I'm afraid that when I get free time these days I just collapse instead of doing something useful like painting the bathroom.

Sunday was the usual marathon meetings craziness for me.  I enjoyed the meetings, though.  We had a couple in our ward bless their new baby and it was sweet.  This couple couldn't have any kids so they adopted two little boys.  Then they did an embryo transplant (or something like that...not sure exactly) so the mom gave birth to their third child (a girl) but she still isn't their biological child.  They did this all rather quickly so they had 3 kids age 4 and under.  Then out of the blue, the mom got pregnant!  So this was their fourth child but their first biological child.  When the dad blessed her, he blessed her that she would feel the love of her family...especially the love of her older siblings, who are all grateful to her for waiting to come to earth so that they could be a part of the family.

Also on Sunday, an older couple in our ward who have been serving a church service mission for the last 2+ years got released.  For their mission, they were the caretakers for all the buildings in our stake.  They made sure they were all kept clean and maintained, and locked up at night and so on.  One of the counselors in the stake presidency came to our Sacrament Meeting to officially release them, and in the process he thanked them for so faithfully serving "in one of the most menial jobs in the church"...something like that.  Well, later on in RS we had time for testimonies and this sister who had just been released from her mission got up to bear her testimony.  She referred to what the counselor in the stake presidency had said (but she wasn't mad about it or anything) and then she said in this firm voice full of conviction "I just want to testify that there are no low jobs in this church.  Every single one is important and helps build up the kingdom of God."  Wow, it was powerful!  Such a great example of serving with dignity and humility!

So on with our week...here are the out of the ordinary things that we did.  On Monday I took Snickers to the groomer and he looks all cute again.  On Tuesday I had a check up at the cardiologist.  He decided after hearing my history and the more recent episode I had (plus I've felt my heart fluttering quite a bit more often since then) that he wants me to have an echo done to make sure my leaky valve isn't any worse and he also wants me to wear a halter monitor for 22 hours to see if they pick up any irregular rhythms.  I told him they probably wouldn't get anything unusual since I rarely have problems but he wants to try it anyway.  So I have appointments to get both of those things later in the month or early next month.  Then I go back for a follow up visit.  In the meantime, my heart seems to have calmed back down.

Also on Tuesday I took Jared out to meet with a lady about a possible Eagle Scout project.  It's actually at the same place Tanner did his project and we met with the same lady that he worked with.  You may remember Tanner did his project for a place called Circle of Hope, which does therapeutic horseback riding lessons.  For this project, she wants someone to make new signs for their arena.  I guess all arenas have signs with letters spaced around the outside of the arena that the teacher and riders can use as reference points.  (For example, the teacher can say ride to "K" and then stop.")  Because they work with children a lot, each of their signs also has a picture of an animal that begins with the letter on the sign, to help the kids learn the letters.  Their current signs are made out of poster board that's been laminated and they're attached to wood with velcro.  Well, the velcro gets full of dirt so it stops working and the signs fall off.  Plus the signs get exposed to all kinds of weather so even though they are laminated, eventually moisture leaks into the seal and they don't look very good anymore.  So for this project she wants new, weatherproof signs, out of sealed wood or some other durable material.  She'd also like the signs to be interchangable...so that more than one set of pictures can be used with the signs...either another set of animals, or a set of different foods or something else that kids would like.  It sounds like a good project and fun (although I'm sure a lot of work too) so Jared has decided to go ahead with it...as long as he can get it approved.

We had our monthly RS evening meeting on Wednesday.  For this meeting, we had a panel discussion about preparing ourselves and our daughters to serve missions.  We invited the YW to come as well.  On our panel we had an older couple who had served a mission, a mother of a daughter who is currently serving, the sister missionaries serving in our ward, and two sisters who had served missions earlier in life.  I ended up being one of those because one of the sisters we asked to do it had to back out last minute.  We had a great discussion so I felt good about it.

Yesterday Frank and I went to lunch with another couple in our ward.  They also brought along a friend of theirs who is an inactive member.  We enjoyed visiting with all of them.  Last night we stayed up really late to watch the BYU football game.  I think if we had been way ahead at the half we would have gone to bed, but then most of you know that Houston came back right at the end of the first half and scored twice so even though we were still ahead, we weren't certain enough about the outcome of the game to go to bed.  So we were up until nearly 1:00 am.  I am more and more impressed with our quarterback all the time.  I thought Houston's quarterback did a good job, too.  Glad we hung onto our lead and triumphed in the end!!

In between everything else I finished sewing the baseball uniform stuff that needed to be done for next week and I got a good start on the book we are reading for book club.  It's called Cutting for Stone and it's quite good so far although there's a few spots that need to be skipped.  I also had RS stuff to do too, of course, but not a lot this week.  Yesterday I watched a lot more television than usual (the usual is nothing) because I watched some 9 / 11 commemorative stuff.

That's it for this week except I should mention that I didn't send Scott's letter out this week because I didn't get one.  For some reason that I can't understand, he didn't get my letter to him.  (I did write one, and double checked and I did send it and sent it to the correct address so I don't know why he didn't get it.)  At any rate, the only thing we got from him was an email that said "You didn't email me!!!!"  I was so disappointed not to get anything else from him that I cried and Frank admitted the next day that he sent Scott and email and chewed him out for not writing to me.  So hopefully he won't do that again!  (And hopefully he'll get this week's letter as well as the one I sent last week...I forwarded it again.)

Until next week then!

Weekly Reviews August 29 and September 5 '14

Well, here I am over two weeks behind on updating my blog.  Lucky for you, that means I have forgotten a lot of the details of what we've been doing, so you will be getting a shortened & condensed version of our last two weeks.  Of course, I saw many of you during that time and you have at least a vague idea of some of the things I've been doing.  But anyway, for the sake of keeping a family history I will attempt to recap the last two weeks. 

The last few days before Tanner and I left for Utah were very busy.  Frank had a client with an emergency and he ended up working very late on that Friday.  The boys and I had a visit from a former Elder who served in our ward (he went home in March) and his family that evening.  We enjoyed getting to know his family and they brought us Swiss chocolate too so that was a bonus!  (They are American, but they've been living in Switzerland for the last several years for the Dad's job.)  

On Saturday, amidst all the usual chores and such, we went out to lunch as a last family get together before Tanner left.  And that evening Frank & I went to the temple...it was our ward temple night.  We ended up being the witness couple and there were several couples from our ward attending, so that was nice.  We actually took one sister with us...Frank home teaches her family and her husband is less active so he doesn't have  a recommend yet...I think it's important to help her get to the temple as often as possible.  After the session we stopped for dinner on the way home (another couple also met us at the restaurant) so we got home pretty late. 

On Sunday I had my usual meetings and Tanner & Jared sang their song in the Spanish branch.  That evening we enjoyed having Erick, Liz, Erin and Dan over for dinner.  It was Liz's birthday so Erick and I had collaborated on a treasure hunt for Liz so she could find pictures of her gifts (he didn't want to bring them out here).  That was pretty fun.  Also, Erin made a coconut cake that was to die for...and I don't even like coconut that much!  

Monday (the 25th) was the first day of school for Jared and Seth.  I forgot to take a picture of Jared (in my defense, he leaves shortly after 6:00 am for Seminary) but here is Seth all ready to go to his first day of 2nd grade;

Meanwhile, I was busy packing and a bunch of stuff like that.  Tanner was packing too.  That evening, Frank took him to his Eagle Board of Review so he is done now!  We just need to turn in his paperwork.

We were up fairly late and then up early because our flight left at 9:00.  Our flight to Utah was pretty uneventful; the most exciting thing that happened (in my opinion) is that a lady at the airport asked if Tanner and I were brother and sister!  Holy cow!  Mom and Dad were gracious enough to pick us up at the airport.  They also fed us and gave us a place to stay and let me use their car a lot.  I really appreciated all of their help!  Tuesday afternoon Tanner and I had shopping to do.  He needed bedding and a bunch of things like that for his dorm room.  He also needed Sunday shoes.  So we did a marathon shopping trip and we were both tired but we managed to get everything on the list.  Of course, later we realized there were some things that we forgot so I made a couple more trips to the store on Wednesday and Saturday to get a few more things for him.  Tuesday evening I took him to the Cafe Rio in Provo to meet a group of the guys from the Hill Cumorah work crew who were all in Utah.  Some of them live there, some of them were there for school (like Tanner) and one of them was there because he was going into the MTC the next day.  They had dinner and then went over to BYU campus and went bowling and generally hung out and had fun.  One of the other guys is also living at Helaman Halls in the same building as Tanner (just a floor down) so that is really nice for him.  One of the guys who lives in Utah gave Tanner a ride home so I didn't have to go back out to get him.  I was extremely grateful for that because I was EXHAUSTED!

Wednesday the 27th was the big move in day.  We loaded all of Tanner's stuff into the car and headed to campus.  It was really quite amusing to see the madhouse in the parking lots around Helaman Halls...all the parents and students unloading and carrying suitcases and boxes and such.  I found a place to park and then discovered that we were about as far away from Tanner's building as we could get.  So after he checked in, I walked back to the car and drove it to the parking lot nearest his building.  There was no place to park there and I was circling the lot looking for a place that we could stop and unload without obstructing traffic when Tanner pointed out the empty disability parking space.  And I remembered that we were in Mom & Dad's car, which has a disability license plate.  And may the heavens forgive us; we parked there!  Don't worry, we paid for it with our guilty consciences.  I noticed some of the other cars parked in disability spots DIDN'T have permits to do that which salved my conscience a little bit...but just a little.  It was kind of a parking free for all that day.

Anyway, we got Tanner moved in.  I was really surprised to discover that the moms were allowed to go upstairs to the rooms to help unpack.  When I moved Scott into his apartment at BYU-I, I was not allowed to go into the bedroom area of the apartment at all.  Even though we were the only ones there.  But I was glad I got to help Tanner.  (Kind of made up for the time when I was a little girl and we took Erick to school and I had to sit down in the lobby of Deseret Towers and wait because I wasn't allowed upstairs.  Yes, I still remember that...mostly because I was DYING of curiosity to see what Erick's room looked like!  I was so sad that I couldn't even get a peek!)  Tanner's roommate had already moved in and he was nowhere to be seen (I never did meet him).  So we had fun unpacking Tanner's stuff and trying to divine what his roommate was like by the clues we could get from his stuff--without actually snooping, of course!  What do you think?:

 (Yep, he's from Texas!)

Here's a few pictures of his room:

They have a sink and a mini fridge.

Tanner's closet & desk

Tanner's bed (and Tanner, unpacking)

More unpacking

All done!

It was a pretty simple process to unpack, actually.  One of the benefits of having boys!  But we were unpacking and Tanner said "I hope I have more pairs of socks in the other suitcase."  "Why?" I asked.  "How many are in that suitcase?"  "Three."  Well, there weren't any more in the other suitcase, so that is one of the things I made an extra trip to the store to get.  We also ordered his books that day and he went to the Wilkinson Center and got his student ID card.  After he was done moving in, we went to the Cannon Center for a late lunch...I actually got to eat there for free.  It is pretty nice and I think Tanner will eat well!  After that, I headed back to Mom & Dad's house.  Tanner was going to take a nap but I found out later that he got in touch with a girl from our stake who is also out there (Natalie) and they went to get ice cream instead.  That evening they had move in socials at all the on campus housing developments.  A different girl Tanner knows from out here, Kirsten, (but she's not in our stake) came with him to the Helaman Halls social and then he went with her to the Heritage Halls social for a while.  So he sort of went on two dates with two different girls in one day.

Here's the view of the Hinckley Alumni building from the Cannon Center:

After I left campus, I drove around a little bit to see if I could find a nearby pharmacy (Tanner has a prescription he will need to fill).  I got a little lost and ended up in the old neighborhood where Frank and I used to live when we were newlyweds.  So I took a few pictures, for old time's sake.  Here's the second place we lived after we got married; we moved into this apartment in August of 1992:

This is the church building where our ward met.  We lived in two different apartments within this ward (the second one has been torn down, so I couldn't get  a picture of it).  Scott was born while we lived in this ward and he was blessed in this building:

It was kind of a fun little jaunt down memory lane.  But I have to say, overall, that helping one of my kids move into a dorm at BYU was really cool and really surreal...all at the same time.  We've visited BYU campus many times since Frank graduated and we moved away (we've visited campus on almost every trip to Utah) but this trip it felt really different.  I was constantly bombarded by memories of my own days as a BYU student and it was just really hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that it's been enough years since I was a student that I now have a child old enough to be a student!  I am really, really happy that he is going there but it is also really strange!  I have to admit that I have also felt a little bit...jealous.  Because Tanner is doing what I always wanted to do...go away to college!  No offense to my parents...I really didn't want to get away from them...but I never did have the experience of being completely independent while I was in college.  I mean, let's face it--when someone asks "where are you from?" and you have to say "Orem, Utah"...just 15 minutes up the road...well, that's pretty boring!  It's much cooler to say you're from Maryland! :)

On Thursday and Friday, Tanner was busy with New Student Orientation activities most of the day.  On Thursday there was also a full day's worth of orientation activities for parents, and I went to most of those.  My friend Starr (she's one of my counselors, actually) was also attending (her daughter Elisabeth and Tanner have been friends since they were 3; she's the one he took to Mormon Prom) so we sat together...it was nice to have someone I knew there with me.  Because I had used Mom & Dad's car most of the day on Wednesday, I didn't want to take their car for a whole day again so I rode the train to Provo and then got on a bus that took me to BYU campus.  Of course, the drop off was on the opposite side of campus from Helaman Halls (where check in was) but I didn't have a chance to exercise all week so I figured between all the walks across campus and the moving in and such, I was at least getting some sort of exercise.  (A few views from the train):

I met Tanner first to give him some of the things I bought for him (including socks!) and then I checked in and met Starr.  The day started with a devotional of sorts in the Marriott Center, attended by both the students (who had been put in "Y Groups") and the parents.  They showed a movie about the history of BYU which was incredibly moving and made me cry.  Talk about miracles!  I had no idea that the beginnings of BYU included so many miracles.  Then the new president of BYU spoke too.  I really liked the things that he said.  One of the things I thought was sweet was that he said he felt like he was part of the freshman class of 2014, in a way, since this is his first fall semester as president of BYU.  He said a lot of other cool things too, though, like relating the scripture in Moses 1:39 to the students at BYU.  He said that whole purpose behind the earth being created was for us...so that God could bring to pass our immortality and eternal life.  Then he said the whole reason that BYU was created was for the students...to help them reach their divine potential.  He said "It was all created for YOU."  Which I think is a pretty nice thing to hear on your first day as a student at a new school.
 

After the devotional, we went to a parent luncheon which included listening to a great speaker.  The food was really good too.  Here's a picture of my friend Starr and I at the luncheon.  It's a terrible picture of me because I closed my eyes (of course!) but it's the only one I have:

After the luncheon we went to a panel discussion and then we went to two different break out sessions (there were several to choose from) on lots of different topics geared to help us help our child through their first year of college.  I went to one on ways to get involved and another on ways to stay healthy.  I also caught the end of one about preparing them to serve missions.  All good stuff.  The first session I went to was in a room in the Wilkinson Center that had a great view of part of campus and the mountains, so I attempted a photograph:

As you can see, the window was reflective, though.  After the break out sessions, Starr and I met Tanner and Elisabeth at the Cannon Center for dinner.  Well, sort of.  We ate with Elisabeth, but while Tanner was waiting for me a girl came up and started talking to him and kind of attached herself to him, so he ate with her instead.  This girl's name was Ola...she said she was from Massachusetts but originally she's from Poland.  And it turns out she's Catholic!  She applied to BYU because she "loves Mormons".  I think she and Tanner are friends on facebook now, but I don't know if they see each other much other than that.

After dinner I headed back to the bus stop on the other side of campus.  I was walking up the path next to the Tanner Building when I had one of those many memories flash back into my head.  Just for a minute, I remembered walking around campus with my heavy bookbag but with this really great feeling inside.  This feeling of "wow, I'm actually here, a student, going to BYU!"  And I realized that's why I have such great memories of BYU.  Because the truth is, going to college was stressful and a lot of work!  And I often say that I worked too hard and didn't have enough fun.  But I did always feel this incredible spirit there.  It felt like I was part of something important and it felt like the right place to be.  So I was really happy there.  The movie I watched earlier that day about BYU included a story about Brigham Young coming to John Taylor in a vision and he told John Taylor not to worry about the school because it "had been accepted in heaven" and "the Lord is at the helm of the school".  I had never heard that story before, but when I was a student at BYU I felt that.  I feel so incredibly grateful that Tanner is getting to experience that feeling too.

Anyway, at the bus stop I met this kind of crazy lady.  First of all, she asked me if I was attending BYU (how old do people think I am, anyway?!).  Then she kept telling me about different things prophets have said and making me read them out of a book she had.  Then she asked "What calling do you have in your ward?  Are you the Relief Society President?"  Well, that was weird...!"  When I told her that actually I was, she made me take her book.  She said I needed to share it with the sisters in my ward.  Ok?...  It was easier to take it than to find a polite way to refuse.

I was on the train going back to Mom & Dad's when I noticed that my heart was starting to do it's flutter thing.  It actually kept fluttering all evening and I felt somewhat short of breath which was pretty uncomfortable.  I was hoping it would go away in the night, but I woke up a couple of times and could still feel it fluttering, and when I rolled over in bed I would get really light headed.  It was still going at it in the morning and I was somewhat dizzy so I thought maybe I should go get checked, but then a few hours after I got up, it finally stopped.  That's the longest atrial fibrillation episode I've had since I was pregnant with Seth.  No idea why it happened.  I did walk around a lot that day, but I jog pretty regularly and never have a problem.  Plus I even drank more water than usual that day.  Anyway, I was just glad it stopped and I was able to go ahead with my plan to go to the temple that day.  Mom, Amy and I all went together and it was very nice.  (Unfortunately, Dad hadn't been feeling well at all the day before, so he had to stay home and rest.)  On our way home we picked up some cheese steak sandwiches and had a late lunch / early dinner before everyone arrived to watch the BYU game.  We had a nice girls' visit downstairs while we sort of watched the game, and we were glad BYU won.

Saturday morning I got a couple more things Tanner needed and met him at his dorm to give those to him and to say goodbye.  It was sad to do that, but I just tried not to think about what I was doing very much!  I cried a little bit on the way home but not too much.  Mom & Dad took me back to the airport.  My flight was delayed a little bit but the flight home was also pretty uneventful.  It was nice to get back home...to see Frank and Jared and Seth.  Snickers was really happy to see me, too!  It was pretty late by the time I got to bed and I had an early meeting Sunday (as usual) so I was pretty tired on Sunday, and trying to adjust back to a different time zone.

The following week was really busy because I was trying to get caught up on everything I missed or hadn't done the week before.  I won't give you a detailed description of every day.  Here's just a summary:  it was nice that Monday was Labor Day so I had an extra day to get back on a schedule.  That day was actually quite stressful but I'll spare you the details why--to summarize, it involved facebook, of all things, and a psycho guy.  It all worked out ok in the end, thankfully.  We had the sister missionaries over for dinner that night which was really nice.  I was super busy all week with RS stuff.  I made tons of phone calls and sent out tons of emails.  We had a presidency meeting on Friday and I did a food order on Thursday.  I met with the bishop for my monthly meeting on Tuesday and we both had a lot of stuff on our minds so it was long...but productive.  Starr's husband had major back surgery on Wednesday so Crystal (my other counselor) and I took her family dinner that evening.  I worked on visiting teaching changes and got some things ready for a ward activity we're having this week.  I made appointments for Snickers to go to the groomer, for Frank and I to get haircuts, and (because I felt my heart acting up quite a bit throughout the week) a check up for me at the cardiologist.  I worked frantically on sewing on got almost all the projects done that need to be done by September 16th, so that was a relief.  We had the Elders over for dinner on Thursday.  In between, I got caught up on laundry and shopping and housecleaning.  I was feeling a little bit crazy most of the week but thankfully by Saturday I was mostly caught up on things and feeling a bit calmer.

Oh, something funny that happened...on Wednesday I got "heart attacked"...twice!!  That means someone left paper hearts with nice notes on them all over my front door.  The first time, I discovered them in the afternoon when I let Jared in when he came home from school.  That "heart attack" came from the sister missionaries.  The second time Frank discovered the hearts all over the door when he came back from picking Jared up from the church in the evening.  This time there was a plate a cookies along with all the paper hearts.  I don't know who it was from, though.

 

 

On Friday evening I did take time away from everything else so Frank and I could go on a date.  We went to dinner and then browsed at a book store and then got ice cream.  It was really nice except for the speeding ticket Frank got on the way to the restaurant for dinner.  It was frustrating because we weren't even in a hurry...just hadn't noticed that the road we had just turned onto had a speed limit of 25 instead of 35.

Frank and I both got haircuts early Saturday morning.  That afternoon I went to an 80th birthday gathering for one of the sisters in my ward...it was nice.  Then that evening we all watched the BYU football game which of course was great (especially the 3rd quarter!)

In the meantime, we've all been trying to adjust to not having Tanner around.  I feel like I make half as much food and it's amazing the difference one person can make in the laundry department!  We do miss him, though.  Seth is usually the last one home (Jared gets out of school before him and Frank is often home from work by then too since he goes in really early) and when he gets here, I look around and think "Is this all?"  It feels like a bunch of people...a lot more than 2...are missing!  Tanner has been pretty good about keeping in touch, though, which is nice.  He seems to be enjoying his college experience so far and he says he's keeping up with his homework...I hope that's true!  The day I flew home from Utah he and Kirsten went on a day long date and they even kissed each other too!  But then they decided they needed to back up and not get so serious, thank goodness.  They are still hanging out and dating a bit, I think, but not exclusively.  Tanner reports that he is a home teacher now and he's also been called to be one of the leaders for his family home evening group.  He found out that with his technical theater experience, he could easily get a job at BYU because there are more openings than there are people to fill them.  But Frank really doesn't want him to work this first year.  He may see if he can work a few hours a week.  He also ended up dropping one of his classes and getting into another one which was  bit of a hassle on our end (buying the books and such) but it all worked out.  We are grateful that he seems to be happy and doing well, and that he is having this wonderful opportunity to attend BYU.  Thanks to all you Utah folks for keeping an eye out for him too...inviting him over and giving him rides when he needs it.

That's it... I am finally caught up!!