Weekly Review December 18 '15

Here we are, one week away from Christmas. Besides making cookies & candy and wrapping presents, I think I am all ready.

We saw Tanner on Facebook this week…someone posted a video of his whole mission singing “Called to Serve” and we could see him on there. I would say most of the missionaries in his mission were not identifiable in that video, so we feel kind of lucky that he was right in front and we could see him (even though it was very blurry). I liked an extra verse they sang at the end that is unique to his mission. Plus it was also fun that they all sang a verse in Spanish.

When I posted last week, I was sick. I'm feeling better now. I pretty much didn’t do anything on Saturday and Sunday but by Monday I was doing quite a bit better. I still have a little congestion, a bit of a cough, and my throat gets tired and raw kind of easily, but mostly I feel practically back to normal.

On Saturday while I stayed in bed all day, Frank got to do fun things like take Seth to a birthday party, pick up Seth’s new prescription (I still don’t think it’s helping much), and take the Expedition in to get an oil change. (It wouldn’t start Saturday afternoon and Frank discovered there was almost no oil in the engine. Not sure why the oil light never came on!) Jared worked in the morning and in the afternoon all the youth in our ward went to the temple visitor’s center to see the lights and such. I did drag myself out of bed that evening long enough to get a Christmas secret service thing we do all put together so it could be delivered on Sunday. Jared delivered it for us Sunday morning. Since then, we have seen some Facebook posts about it so we know it was well received.

I didn’t go to church Sunday and I also missed the Mormon Choir of Washington DC’s Christmas Concert that evening which was a bummer, but I really needed rest and it did seem to help a lot. The investigating lady and one of her daughters came to church and also went to the concert, I was happy to hear. They haven’t had any more discussions at our house but they are progressing a bit and have a new baptismal date for January so hopefully they will keep heading in that direction.

We took the Elders out to dinner on Monday (one of them was being transferred) and had the Sisters over here for dinner on Tuesday. Then the Elders were back over last night (not for dinner, though) so that the new Elder could meet Frank and they could talk about things Frank would like them to do to help with the Elders Quorum. At dinner on Monday, Seth begged us to order him this dessert:

He only ate some of it, of course, and the rest of it came home with us and has been in the freezer ever since!

Jared was busy Tuesday…he did lights and sound for a concert at the high school. I think he went to visit Jessie one day for a little while (can’t remember which day), he went caroling with the YM on Wednesday, and yesterday he practiced a song with another boy in the ward that they are singing on Sunday and he also had a meeting at work. Plus he went to the store last night after the work meeting to buy some honey buns because we had the treat for Seminary this morning (didn’t know that until we got a “reminder” call that evening). Jared found out this week that he has been accepted as a member of the 2016 Hill Cumorah Pageant work crew. He is very excited about it!! The letter said that they had 60 applicants but could only accept 28, so we are happy that he was chosen. He will need to be in New York June 24th and will be home July 22nd. The Pageant performances will be July 8,9 and 12-16. We are probably going to go see it again. I'm telling you the dates now, in case any of you want to come see it too! I know it is far away for most of you, but if any of you can come, it would be a really fun mini family reunion! If you are thinking about coming at all, let us know because we might be able to find a good hotel deal.  

Seth went to his last Snapology (Lego engineering) class on Wednesday and he and I both had Cub Scout den meetings that night. I kept quite busy this week (in between all the usual things I need to do) with finishing up all the Christmas shopping (both online and at stores) as well as doing some Cub Scout planning and working with Frank to get all the information to the lawyer so that they can present a claim to the insurance company for his accident. I also finished reading the third Harry Potter book with Seth and we have started the 4^th book. I was going to try to get visiting teaching set up for this week but when I got sick last week I realized that was going to have to wait.

The weather today is a bit colder and yesterday it rained a lot, but overall we are still having unusually warm weather. One day earlier this week I sat out on the front step for a bit while Snickers sniffed around the yard. I was in short sleeves and bare feet and a pretty good breeze was blowing, and I was perfectly comfortable! I couldn’t believe I was doing that in December! I do not mind one bit and the lack of snow is not dampening my Christmas spirits at all (as a matter of fact, I think I am more cheerful) but Frank is grumbling a lot about the weather. He wants SNOW! Lots of it!! Unfortunately, he is not going to get the white Christmas he is longing for. The temperatures next week are supposed to be in the 60s some days! I am in heaven. But I’m sorry Frank is so disappointed.

A member of our ward just got back from a trip to Arizona last night and this morning he brought me these:

They were picked off his cousin’s tree the day he left to come home. I am really looking forward to eating them! Christmas gold! :) 

That's all I have for this week. Everyone have a very Merry Christmas!

Weekly Review December 12 '15

I am actually feeling pretty sick right now. Jared was sick earlier this week and now I've got the same thing…sore throat, congestion, cough, slightly feverish. Not so fun.Jared wasn’t feeling really great on Friday and Saturday but he had the showcase to do at the school so he basically ignored it until he was done with that. (He also went with Jessie’s family to a Christmas Village thing Saturday morning.) Then on Sunday he couldn’t ignore it anymore so he stayed home and he missed school on Monday and Tuesday too. I did kind of the same thing. I started feeling sick on Thursday but I had too much to do Thursday and yesterday so I pretended I wasn't sick as much as I could. Today I don't have a ton of things I HAVE to do, so I am trying to take it easy. Hopefully I will recover quickly.

One of the things I had to do yesterday was march in the parade I mentioned last week. I was dreading it, since I wasn't feeling well but it didn't turn out to be too bad. I took some cold medicine which helped me feel almost normal. The other great thing was that we've been having unseasonably warm temperatures most of the week so we weren't freezing during the parade. It was actually pleasant to be outside, with temperatures in the 50's. We wore coats and we were perfectly comfortable. Here are some pictures from the parade:

 Those photos were taking while we were waiting for the parade to start. We had to be lined up by 30 minutes before the parade was supposed to start, so we had a long wait. (You try keeping 8, 9, and 10 year old boys from banging into each other while wearing large boxes for 30 minutes!) Once the parade started, it went pretty fast. I would say the parade route was only about a mile long so we were done in about 45 minutes. There were a lot of people there to watch and the parade was pretty long...we were the 44th entry out of 79 groups. There were a lot of other kids dressed like presents; we also saw gingerbread people, Christmas trees, angels, and so on. We even saw an abominable snowman! One of the high school bands was a few entries behind us, so we heard them playing the whole time. Overall, it was fun. When we finished, we walked back to where we started and Frank and Jared met us there with hot chocolate. After we got home, Jared went to a friend's house to watch a Christmas movie.

I, for one, have been enjoying the warmer temperatures. (Frank has been complaining loudly.) It gets pretty chilly overnight and in the early mornings, but the days have warmed up nicely. I even made Jared mow the lawn on Thursday! In December! He wasn’t too happy about it but I had just been thinking in the morning that it would be great to get the lawn mowed one more time before winter really kicks in (there were dead leaves all over it, besides the fact that it was all scraggly) and then in the afternoon I heard the next door neighbor mowing his lawn. It was the perfect opportunity, so I made Jared go out and ask to borrow the lawn mower when the neighbor was done. (Our lawn mower isn’t working.) The lawn looks a lot better and now you can actually see the Christmas decorations I put out there…they aren’t buried in leaves anymore. Thursday we had thick fog in the morning, but in the afternoon the sun came out and yesterday was sunny too.

Frank and I went to the Madrigal Feast last Saturday. We had a boy in the ward stay with Seth while we were gone. I thought the kids did a nice job. It was a good showcase for the kids’ talents…not just the ones acting and singing but also for the art students, who did all the decorations (they were really nice). The food was pretty good and the show was entertaining. I was impressed that they sang Christmas carols and talked about the birth of Jesus! The only bad thing about the evening was that Frank was really uncomfortable the whole time because of his back. On Saturday I also took Seth to a little Lego event where he got to make a little Star Wars Lego set and bring it home. Pictures from the Madrigal Feast:

I couldn't get a good picture of Jared in costume because he was supposed to remain in character the whole time, so he ignored me. So the one above was the best I could do.

We sat at different tables, depending on which high school you wanted to support. (The Arts & Communications Academy, who were putting on the showcase, is housed at Jared's school but students from all the high schools in the county participate.) There was a banner behind each table representing the school and their mascot. We sat at the table for Jared's school, of course, which is Governor Thomas Johnson High School and their mascot is the Patriots. Here is their banner:

 This is one of the other banners, for Linganore High School. I had to look up their mascot...the Lancer:
 

There are 10 high schools, so there were 8 more banners. They all looked really nice. I liked these "stained glass" windows they made too, although I didn't get a very good picture of them:

The rest of the week; we did end up having a discussion with the lady investigating at our house on Friday evening. Just a short one because the sisters were close to their curfew. We read some of 3 Nephi 11 with her. She said she would be at church and she also was planning to go to the 1^st Presidency Christmas Devotional. But then she didn’t come to church or go to the devotional. The sisters were able to get in touch with her, though, and they had a discussion with her and one of her daughters Thursday night. (They wanted to do it at our house but I was going to be gone because I had a hair appointment last night.) They are taught her and two of her daughters again tonight, but I couldn’t be there for that discussion either since I had to go to the parade. I’m just glad she’s still meeting with them, though. We ended up having the Sisters over here last Sunday for the devotional, which was nice. It was awesome, as usual, and we made these cookies and ate them:

We had the Elders over to eat again on Monday because no one else had signed up to feed them. They don’t get fed as much as the Sisters—poor guys! I got all the Christmas cards mailed and did some Christmas shopping. I also went to a local store that carries scout stuff to buy Pinewood Derby cars for all the boys in our pack. I wanted to get a belt for Seth too but they were out of those.

I had book chat on Tuesday afternoon. I haven’t finished the book yet but I enjoyed the discussion. That evening I made another present costume for the parade. It was easier to make it at home because we have a utility knife that I could use. At the den meeting, we were using scissors to cut through the boxes, which wasn’t easy.

On Wednesday I went to breakfast with a friend. Then I went to Wal Mart twice…once to get groceries and then back to get a bunch of Christmas stuff. I didn’t do it all at once because the boys got out of school two hours early that day and I wanted to pick up Jared from school and have him do some shopping with me (he helped me pick out some ties for Tanner). I didn’t have time to get everything done before I had to pick Jared up.  Seth ended up not coming home until 5:00 because the carpool family took him to the park after school, then to their house to play for a while, and then to the library for Minecraft Club. Meanwhile, Jared went to Jessie’s swim meet that evening.

Thursday I got together with the other den leader to plan out den meetings for the next few months. Then I did more shopping. I hope I am almost done with shopping!! I got Tanner's Christmas package ready and Frank mailed it yesterday. Maybe my days don’t sound all that busy, but when you mix in all the laundry and cleaning and everything else, I have actually been running from one thing to another all day every day. Frank has been doing maintenance for his clients this week so he’s been busy too.

Yesterday he had an Elder’s Quorum lunch (wives invited too) so I went with him to that. I would have stayed home but one other wife was coming and I didn't want her to be the only one. It was a small group but it was fun. I would have enjoyed it more if my nose hadn’t been running so much. I took some cold medicine before we left and it helped a bit. I also took Seth to the doctor for a follow up visit about his medicine. We ran out of his medicine on Thursday. After talking with the doctor, he decided to increase his dosage a bit, since the medicine seems to be helping a little but not a lot. The doctor wants me to have Seth eat more in the morning and in the evening when he is not on the medicine since it does seem to be suppressing his appetite. He hasn't been eating most of his lunch on a lot of days (he even brings the cookies back home!) and he has lost a few pounds (but grew almost an inch since his last visit about 6 weeks ago). We'll see how it goes.

That brings you up to date on us!

Weekly Review December 4 '15

Wow, how did it get to be December already?!! I keep thinking that Christmas is this abstract event that is out there a ways but today on the radio someone said it is three weeks from today and I thought “WHAT?!!!” There is a lot to do between then and now but somehow it will all work out.

When I wrote my last post we were in Brevard but we are home again now of course. We had a pretty uneventful trip home. I drove about the first half of the trip because Frank can’t drive 8 hour stretches anymore with his back. The trip in general was pretty hard on his back and it hurt him quite a bit the whole time. So I offered to drive and he took me up on it. And I even managed to not get really angry with Frank for his “backseat” driving (he was actually in the front next to me). Haha!

During the second half of the trip home we were following the BYU game. We couldn’t watch it, of course, but Frank helped me find this website (using my phone) which gave updates after each play so we could hear about what was going on. It was kind of cool! And of course we were happy that BYU won so decisively. We got home in time to see the last part of the game.

When we got home we unpacked and picked up Snickers, who was very glad to see us, although he really liked the other dog at the house where he was staying. Frank had a really busy Sunday as I mentioned he would last week--he gave a talk in church and taught the combined RS / Priesthood class. Mine didn’t turn out to be that hectic. The less active sister I was supposed to pick up ended up having to work and the investigating lady and her daughter didn’t come to church after all. I did still teach Primary and my class had only 3 kids but one of those three kids was worth about 10! We also had tithing settlement and we ended up feeding the Elders because Frank found out they had no place to eat and invited them over.  We didn’t end up having a discussion with the investigating lady(or her daughter) either and the sister missionaries weren’t sure what was going on with her. So I’ve kind of worried about her all week. Last night they texted me though and said she wants to have a discussion tonight. So we are supposed to do that, although they haven’t heard back from her on an exact time yet so I’m not sure if it’s really going to happen or not. At any rate, we found out the sisters didn’t have a dinner appointment tonight so we are going to feed them, if nothing else.

Monday was crazy busy because I was trying to get caught up on all the stuff I didn’t do while we were in NC. We had no food in the house so I had to go shopping, plus all the usual things I do on Monday like laundry and vacuuming. Jared had to get his BYU application done so I spent quite a bit of time going over his essays with him and trying to make sure they were well organized, worded right, grammatically correct, and so forth. It took a lot longer than I anticipated and I think Jared was ready to strangle me before we finished, but we got it done. That evening for family night we watched a Mormon message and then we set up the Christmas tree. We listened to Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas music while we did that and drank eggnog and ate Santa Brownies and Christmas Tree cakes (Little Debbies), so that was nice. I’ve been working on the rest of the Christmas decorations off and on all week and have everything else done now too so it’s looking rather festive around here.

Did I mention that I got called to be a den leader? If not, I was. So now I am the Cub Master and a den leader which gives me more to do. (But still much less than what RS president required!) This week Seth was really rowdy at den meeting so I was pretty frustrated with him. We are going to have to work on that! I think he doesn’t behave as well when I am around. For our den meeting this week we were making costumes because next week for pack meeting we are marching in the Kris Kringle Procession. It’s this Christmas parade they have in Frederick every year where all the participants are supposed to wear Christmas themed costumes. We signed up to be stockings and gifts. So at den meeting some of the boys drew big stockings on poster board to wear while I helped Seth and another boy cut out head and arm holes in a box and then we covered it with wrapping paper. It turned out looking pretty good, I think! We need to make another one between now and next Friday because both Seth and the other boy want to be gifts.

Also on Wednesday we fed the Elders again and they also helped Jared and Frank put together one of the bathroom cabinets that we purchased right before we went to North Carolina. (It’s the kind that goes over the toilet.) We still need to put the other one together AND hang all the towel racks and stuff. I’m not sure if we’re ever going to get that done. (But it's okay that we haven't done it yet because I am rethinking the ones we chose and we're probably going to return those and get something different.)  Yesterday I did all the usual Thursday chores and I also got the budget caught up because today I was planning to go to the temple and knew I wouldn’t have time to work on the budget. Also in between everything else I’ve been trying to work on Christmas cards and my ongoing scanning project, and getting a little bit of Christmas shopping done online too. I've decided online is the only way to go. Especially if the two things your son really, really wants are Lego sets that are hard to find or retired. What would I do without Amazon and eBay?!

Oh! I forgot that we got a new Kitchen Aid this week (it was a Cyber Monday deal). Frank's mom gave us an old Kitchen Aid a few years ago and it works great! We took it with us to North Carolina to use for mixing up the pie and cheesecake fillings and while we were down there we decided to give it to Frank's sister. Funny thing was, when we put it in the car to take down to NC with us I had a feeling we would leave it there for some reason, and then we did. We got a really good deal on the new one (it’s black, by the way…looks really nice with our countertops) and it works great so we are happy about it. Early Merry Christmas for Frank and I!

Today I did go to the temple as I’d planned. It is our stake’s annual “Temple Jubilee” today, which means they encourage us to spend as much time at the temple as we can. Frank decided to work from home today so he took care of all the morning carpools so I was able to leave here at 6:30 am and made it to the very first session of the day at 8:00. It was a nice way to start the day and it felt really great to be there. Frank needed to work today and I’m not sure how his back would hold up in a temple session anyway but I hope we can get him to the temple soon; initiatories or sealings might be easier for him. Someday I would like to stay longer and do a couple of sessions but today I needed to get back home so I could write to Tanner, among other things. When I got home, Frank and I went to lunch since we haven’t gone on a date for quite a while…plus honestly, I was starving!

I’ve been exercising again this week after taking most of last week off (difficult to do when traveling) and my body was really unhappy with me about it at the beginning of the week! I am less sore now. My right foot has been hurting quite a bit this week, though…for some reason it hurts mostly when I am walking on it not when I am jogging…go figure! Today it feels a lot better though (although I haven’t jogged yet today).

Jared is gone tonight because they are doing a “Madrigal Feast” at the school. It’s a dinner and a performance all in one, kind of in the spirit of Medieval Times (only no live horses or anything like that of course!) It sounds pretty cool and I would like to go to it…maybe tomorrow, because they are doing it tomorrow too. Jared says he is wearing tights so really…that would be something to see! ;)

That is all I have to report this week! Sorry no pictures again...maybe next week.

Weekly Review November 27 '15

This week’s post is coming to you from Brevard, NC. I am currently sitting in the laundry room at the Holiday Inn Express, waiting for our laundry to get done. We got here on Wednesday afternoon. We left Frederick on Tuesday in the late afternoon, after Jared got home from school (Seth had a half day but the high school had full days) and after we got finished getting everything packed up. We intended to leave sooner but Frank had a busy day at work and was still on a phone call (some sort of crisis) when Jared got home from school and Frank hadn’t even packed his stuff yet! So he got packed and he and Jared got everything in the car while Seth and I took Snickers over to the family in our ward who are taking care of him while we are gone. We did finally get out the door but by then it was close to rush hour traffic time so getting out of Frederick and through Harper’s Ferry took a long time. We finally got through all the messy stuff and then made better time. We stayed at a Fairfield Inn in Roanoke Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday we drove the rest of the way to Brevard. We would have got here sooner but first of all we slept in and second, by the time we got to Asheville we were pretty hungry and we did NOT want to eat fast food again (we had fast food for dinner the night before) so we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch and of course that takes some time. But we got here eventually.

After we got to Frank's parents' house, we (mostly Frank, but I helped a little) made two cheesecakes and two chocolate cream pies. We also helped his mom make some ham and turkey rolls (stuffing inside them) and we took a bunch of stuff to the church. Then we took Frank's family out to eat at a Chinese buffet place. (Jared and Seth came too.) Yesterday was Thanksgiving of course and as usual we all gathered at the church for the feast and had all the usual kinds of food. Most of Frank's family was there, plus a few friends from church and the Elders too. (The Elders had three other places they were going to eat that day!) We ate and played games and just visited. I read to Seth a bit. We just finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Today we slept in again and have just been doing laundry. (I haven't been sleeping very well on this trip.)

Last weekend Frank and I did more shopping for the bathrooms and we got some Christmas shopping done too. We still haven’t got the towel racks or anything put up yet as we hoped. Maybe soon. Jared had a priest / laurel activity and a dance on Saturday. I volunteered to help drive to the activity and when I got home the Elders came over for dinner. I missed the BYU football game while I was doing all that so of course BYU won the game by a ton of points. They only play badly when I get to watch. The good news is, they should do well tomorrow since we'll be driving home and I'll miss the game again.

Tonight we are going to Frank's brother's house for dinner (James) and then tomorrow we will head home. Frank has to give a talk in church AND teach the combined Priesthood / RS lesson and I am substituting a Primary class (not Seth’s this time) and giving a ride to a less active young sister so Sunday will be busy. Oh! And we are also having the nice investigator lady over for another discussion. She didn’t show up for church last Sunday and she cancelled the Monday discussion so we were expecting the worst but then the sisters texted us on Tuesday and said her daughter has decided to take the discussions too so they are both coming to church on Sunday and then to a discussion in the evening. So hopefully that will go well.

We forgot to bring a camera with us on this trip so sorry I don't have any pictures! But a nice family in Arizona texted me this picture of Tanner last night:

The message said they love him so they made sure to take good care of him for Thanksgiving / his birthday and that we have raised an amazing son. I am grateful for people like this!

That's all I've got for this week!

Weekly Review November 20 '15

We’ve had a pretty busy week. I guess all weeks are pretty busy. Jared is done with his play so he’s been around more. Not sure he’s enjoyed it much since I’ve been bugging him to work on his Eagle project and his BYU application and both Frank and I had to get after him for his grades because this last term he didn’t do very well. He thinks his grades are actually lower than they should be so he’s going to look into that. Jared was able to meet with both our bishop and a member of our stake presidency about his BYU application so he’s basically done except he has to write his essays. I was feeling pretty good about his chances of getting accepted to BYU - Provo, but now I’m afraid his first semester’s grades might ruin his chances. We’ll just hope for the best though.

On Saturday Frank and I went shopping and got most of the things we need for the bathrooms. We also found some lights that don’t need an outlet box so on Monday Jared (with help from Frank and I) hung up the light in our bathroom and on Wednesday he did the one in his bathroom. It is nice to have lights again! We still haven’t found the time to hang the towel racks and other things, but hopefully we’ll be doing that tomorrow.

We enjoyed "seeing" everyone on Saturday and we hope Mom had a very happy birthday! Now I can mention that the last couple of weeks I've been working on her book when I was able. It was fun; just wish I'd had more time to work on it! In the process of gathering up all those pictures of things that she has made, I was really overwhelmed with the time and effort that she has put into making beautiful things for us! I knew she spent a significant amount of time sewing clothes for us kids when we were growing up, but I had not truly realized how much time she has spent since then, making clothes, quilts, and cross stitch items for us as adults and for grandkids and daughters and sons in law. Thank you, Mom!!

While we were watching the pathetic BYU game Saturday evening, the sister missionaries serving in our ward called. They have an investigator who lives right across the street from us and they wanted to know if they could teach her at our house. She has 2 big dogs and about 12 grandkids living at her house, so she didn’t want to do it there. We said sure, so she came over Sunday evening for the first discussion (she went to church that day too) and last night they all came over for a second discussion.  It’s been totally awesome!! She is this really humble lady who is willing to listen and accepts readily what the missionaries have to say. Last night when she came over she said she’d been looking forward to the lesson and she even turned down an opportunity to work so that she could come. She agreed on the first visit to prepare to be baptized on December 5^th and when she met with us last night she had read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon (which is what they asked her to read), plus a little bit more. She also said the closing prayer last night even though she was nervous about it and she did a beautiful job. And she said she is excited to read more of the Book of Mormon and learn what is in there. The missionaries are doing a great job teaching her. They are both really new but I’ve been impressed with how well they teach; how bold they are and how powerful their testimonies are. It’s been really great to be a part of it, and to have the chance to share my own testimony here and there. The third discussion is scheduled for Monday evening, so we’ll see how it goes.

 The rest of the week has been full of many things. I visited my friend Wanda (she lives in a nursing home) and she was really happy to see me.We had the Sisters over for dinner on Monday and we’ll have the Elders over tomorrow. I went visiting teaching this week…saw three of my four sisters. My companion has been sick a lot so I’ve been pretty much on my own for the last 4 or 5 months to do visiting teaching. I got together with the Cub Committee Chair to work on the charter renewal for Cub Scouts (we're almost done) and one of the den leaders got released on Sunday and hasn't been replaced yet so I helped with the den meetings on Wednesday evening as well. Seth had Snapology again and Frank has been working on maintenance for clients. Seth and I finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone a few days ago and now we’ve started Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Seth keeps stopping me to point out how the books are different from the movies, which is kind of annoying but I’m still enjoying reading them with him. Plus, he's only seen the first two movies so after this book he won't be able to do that anymore!  

Today Seth had a very short school day because of parent teacher conferences. It is sunny and not very cold so the carpool family took him to the park for a while after school. Seth has half days next week also (Monday and Tuesday) and he and Jared both are out of school for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I had Seth’s parent / teacher conference this afternoon and his teacher reports that she has seen small improvements in his ability to focus. Not as much as we'd like, but some.

It’s supposed to get a lot colder tonight and be quite frigid the next few days. We really can’t complain too much about the weather so far, though. It’s almost the end of November and we’ve had hardly any cold days. It's been really nice.

Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  

Weekly Review November 13 '15

Wednesday was Snickers’s birthday…he turned 7. So I got him some treats. He loved them! That’s what he’s eating in these photos. I love how he's holding the treat between his paws in the first one:

 Today is what is called “a very blustery day”. It is super windy and leaves are blowing everywhere. It isn’t cold, though…just a bit cool…and it’s sunny so it’s actually pretty nice. We had a lot of rain and clouds this week so it is nice to see the sun again.

This week we had more illness and more painting going on. Frank wasn’t feeling very great over the weekend but never got really sick. Seth was on the mend but still not 100%. We went out to eat on Saturday and he only ate a few bites of his mac & cheese and then he just wanted to lie down with his head in my lap. He improved on Sunday though and by Monday was ready to go back to school. He went to school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and was just fine but Wednesday night when Frank & I were saying our prayers before bed, we heard him get up and go in the bathroom. Then he threw up all over the bathroom floor! What??!! (That's what I get for thinking I was going to make it to bed at 10:00 or once.) So Seth was home from school again yesterday. No idea if it was just a last burst from his previous illness or something else entirely. He woke up yesterday feeling hungry though, so even though I had to keep him home from school, he ate just fine all day (as a matter of fact, he finally seemed to have his full appetite back) and seemed to feel great. He’s back at school today and I’m hoping we’ve put illness behind us for a while. He actually lost several pounds and his face looks thinner because he was sick for so long! I woke up in the night Wednesday night (after Seth threw up) and wasn’t feeling too great myself, so I was afraid I was coming down with the same thing. But other than my stomach feeling a bit funny and my head hurting a little, nothing much came of it. Thankfully! Frank felt the same way yesterday. Meanwhile, Jared is just sailing along and seems to be the only one who hasn’t felt at least slightly sick. That’s a good thing, though.

On the painting front, our neighbor was here painting sometime between 1 and 4 hours every day this week except today, and yesterday he finished the kitchen. He finished up the bathrooms earlier this week so the painting is all done except we want to have him do the crown molding in our bedroom. We have to figure out what color of paint to do first though. (It will just be a white or cream color. Trying to figure out if we want to try to match the color of the baseboards or just repaint the baseboards too.) There are some pictures of the kitchen and bathrooms below. The bathrooms are kind of dark because we still don’t have the lights up! That’s because we decided to put in new lights and when Frank got them out to hang them, we discovered that we’re supposed to hang them on something called an outlet box, which we don’t have. We’d have to cut holes in the walls to put them in, too. So we’re still trying to figure out what to do about that, and in the meantime we are still in the dark. We’re hoping to go buy new towel racks and stuff like that over the next few days and hopefully we’ll get the bathrooms put back together. The kitchen is easier; it’s mostly back to normal but I’m trying to figure out what I want to hang back up on the walls and what I want to change. I’d like to put some sort of shelving on the wall in the dining area, but I'm not sure exactly what yet. Anyway, I’m glad to have the painting done and I do think everything looks better (although it’s hard to tell in the bathrooms!) The new paint color in the kitchen definitely looks better with the counter tops than the blue paint did. Here's the color before:

Here it is after:

(Please ignore how messy the kitchen is...I am planning to work on that!)

The paint in the two bathrooms is the same color but it doesn't look like it because the lighting is different. Here's a "before" photo of the master bath, where you can see the white stuff where the wall was repaired nearly 4 years ago:

Here it is after, with no more white splotches in the corners:

The other bathroom used to have white splotches in the corners too, but now it's all one color:

On Saturday, even though Frank and Seth both weren’t feeling really great, we went to Jared’s play. (We bought the tickets weeks ago and we didn’t want them to go to waste.) We did enjoy it a lot. It was hilarious and very well done. I thought some of the dancing was a bit too suggestive but overall it was really good and I liked the small size of the theater…made you feel like you were really a part of the show. The cast was very enthusiastic and obviously having a great time. Jared did a good job on his parts. (He only had one line…but he was on stage in various roles for many scenes.) Saturday was a busy day because I spent the morning helping with Scouting for Food. The cub scouts were in charge of distributing all the bags. Fortunately, we had a lot of families show up to help with that and it actually got done quicker than I anticipated. I didn’t actually help put the bags out…I had to stay at the church to hand out routes to people when they arrived and to give them donuts and cider when they finished their routes. So I had a pretty easy job. Seth didn't come because he wasn't feeling up to it.

Jared had play performances on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and he has performances again tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. Then the play will be done. He hasn’t been quite as busy this week because they didn’t have any rehearsals. But he did go down to Brunswick twice…on Monday for an award ceremony for Jessie and on Wednesday to watch a movie with Jessie. He tried to talk me into letting him go down there yesterday too but I wouldn’t budge on that one…I don’t want him to spend too much time with her and let’s face it…that’s a lot of gas money! On Tuesday the youth had a temple baptism trip and he was able to do that. I’m trying to get him going on his Eagle project again, and he is making progress on his BYU application also.

Seth had a class after school on Wednesday called “Snapology”. They are learning about engineering by building things with Legos. He seemed to really enjoy it. I’m glad he didn’t get sick until later that night, or he would have missed it! I finished reading the Chronicles of Narnia with Seth on Saturday. On Sunday, one of the speakers in church mentioned the Chronicles of Narnia during her talk. Seth looked up at me with a delighted look on his face and gave me a fist bump! This week we started reading the Harry Potter series, so that is going to keep us busy for a long time. 

I had a busy week keeping up with everyone else. I did quite a bit of cleaning in the kitchen, too…cleaning walls so they could be painted and I also cleaned the refrigerator and stove. I did a few things for Cub scouts, have kept up with my exercising (except I skipped it yesterday since I didn’t feel very well), and helped Frank decide what benefits we are signing up for next year (health insurance and so forth). I’ve also been reading a book called Brothers Forever which is the true story of two friends in the military who were both killed in action, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. It’s sad and has made me cry but it’s good too and kind of an appropriate book to be reading for Veteran’s Day.

Wednesday evening was the monthly RS meeting and I went to that. They had a dinner and we talked about being grateful. It was really nice. It was especially nice to just show up instead of having to help plan the whole thing! Frank helped cook the food and they did a great job. That’s the first time Frank has done something like that since his car accident. His back seems to be doing a bit better this last week.

Oh! We had transfers last week and our ward got a set of sister missionaries again. We get to keep the Elders too so that’s pretty great. The sisters have an investigating family nearby so they stopped by this week to get acquainted with me. I really enjoyed talking with them. One of them just came out on her mission the end of July and the other one is straight from the MTC! I’m really glad I didn’t have to train when I was that new…I would have fainted! Anyway, they are awesome. They found out I served a mission and they asked me for advice and it was hilarious because they both sat up and leaned forward like they just couldn’t wait to hear what I had to say! Hopefully I said a few things that will help them along their way.

That's about it for our week. I am looking forward to "seeing" most of you tomorrow!

Weekly Review November 6 '15

Well, now Halloween is over and I am seeing Christmas stuff everywhere. (Forget about Thanksgiving, I guess.) I can’t believe it is that time of year again already. Especially since we’ve had beautiful weather all week…it’s been in the 70’s most days. Absolutely gorgeous!! I’m sure it won’t last, but I am enjoying it. I'm not sure about Frank…he just wants snow!

This is the time of year that I keep grabbing the camera to try to somehow capture the beauty I see all around me. It's hopeless...the photos never look as good as the reality. But I keep trying! Here are a few of this week's pictures, starting with what I see out my front windows when I am sitting on the couch and look up:

These were taken from our back deck one morning:

And here is a tree across the street one bright sunny afternoon:

Here's another random picture I took last week:

This bucket of building blocks is probably the best toy investment we have ever made. They cost about $20, and Seth plays with them CONSTANTLY!! I suddenly realized that I have no pictures of him playing with them,, even though he has been playing with them so often for probably the last 5 years. They are an important part of his childhood that I was forgetting to document.

Here's another random photo I took this week:

It's not the best picture because I only had my phone, but maybe you can see that it's a house surrounded by beautiful trees in the middle of a field. Wouldn't that be a nice place to live? It makes me feel more peaceful just looking at it! I drive by this house pretty often.  

So…it’s been kind of a crazy week here. Jared’s play starts tonight so he has had rehearsals every night this week until late (ie 10:30 is the earliest he got home). I am so glad that he can drive himself! Last night was the worst…he didn’t get home until after 12:30. Plus, he armed the security system and then forgot it was on and opened a door so the alarm went off. (It’s very loud.) I didn’t go back to sleep for over an hour after that so it wasn’t a very good night. I have to hand it to him, though, he made it to Seminary every day this week except today in spite of all those late nights.

I said Jared is driving himself but actually he’s only allowed to drive to places like rehearsals and work right now. Last Friday we let him drive to Jessie's house to watch a movie with her. He was supposed to leave there no later than 5:30 so he would be home before dark, but by 6:40 he still wasn’t home and when we called to try to find him, he was still at her house! So he lost the privilege to drive to places for fun for a while. Not the wisest thing to do the first time your parents let you take the car. That was a week ago, though, so we’ll probably give him another chance soon.

Seth has been sick all week. He actually started feeling sick on Saturday and announced at dinner time that he didn’t want to eat and that he didn’t want to go trick or treating. You know a kid must really be sick if he doesn’t go trick or treating! He didn’t seem to be too sick that night, though. On Sunday morning I was telling Frank that I dreamed Seth had thrown up in the night. Seth was lying on our bedroom floor and heard me, and he said “Well actually, I did throw up once in the night. I just leaned over the side of the bed and threw up on the floor.” What?!!! I checked his room, and sure enough there was a spot on the floor. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad and I was able to get it cleaned up. But I told him next time to please let me know right away, even if he has to wake me up! Funny kid! So anyway, we kept him home from church on Sunday. He drank soda and ate crackers and seemed to be fine but Monday morning he said his stomach hurt so I kept him home from school just to be sure. Again, he never threw up but he didn’t eat much either. He did have some dinner that night so I sent him to school on Tuesday. He seemed fine all day but Wednesday morning he woke up feeling sick and started throwing up shortly after that. He was truly sick that day…couldn’t keep even sips of soda down and didn’t even want to watch television most of the day. He just lay on the couch and slept a lot. He was the same for a lot of the day yesterday, but in the afternoon he was finally able to keep some soda down (the one tablespoon every 10 minutes for 2 hours routine really works...every time!) and had a little bit of soup too and he perked up a bit. Of course, I kept him home today too and he hasn’t thrown up anymore but he still isn’t eating much. He seems to be finally on the mend, at least. I took this picture of him last night--he's slept on our floor the last two nights so we he could be near us if he needed anything:

His face actually looks thinner to me! And no wonder...he really hasn't eaten much for a whole week! I'm glad he is starting to feel better. He has eaten a little bit today finally.

Meanwhile, the house has been kind of a wreck because we’ve had our neighbor in doing some painting. He's a professional painter and we asked him a few months ago if we could hire him to paint the kitchen and two upstairs bathrooms. He said he could, but wouldn’t be able to start until sometime in October. Then late last week he stopped by and said he could start this week. So on Saturday Frank and Jared (mostly Jared) pulled down the wallpaper borders in the kitchen and in the master bathroom and our neighbor came over and patched up all the holes and such. (They took down all the things on the walls, including towel racks and so on, too.) Frank and I also went to the store to pick out paint colors. We settled on a light tan for the bathrooms. We will probably do a tan in the kitchen too, but not the same shade, and we are still deciding for sure. Our neighbor started painting on Monday. It’s been kind of a pain because we also decided to replace the light fixtures in the bathrooms so we had to take them down and that means…no lights in the bathrooms! We’ve had to put lamps on the counters in there in the mornings so we can see to shower. Our neighbor painted on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and he got both bathrooms done except for some of the baseboards, which he will do next week. The bathrooms are still rather dismantled because Frank hasn’t had time or been feeling well enough to put the lights back up and we need to go buy new towel racks too. (I am not complaining, though, I AM really glad and grateful to have the bathrooms painted!) Frank seems to have some form of Seth’s illness (although he hasn’t thrown up yet so hopefully it won’t be as severe a case). I’ve actually been feeling a little “off” myself but I’m not feeling as bad as Frank is. Both of us have headaches in addition to our stomachs not feeling the best.

By the way, we did have a pretty decent amount of trick or treaters come by on Saturday…probably more than we’ve had in the last few years, although still not a lot. I bought less candy than usual and we still had leftovers. (Even after I put a bunch of our candy in Seth’s pumpkin since he didn’t feel well enough to go out and get some. He hasn’t eaten any of it yet, either. That just goes to show how sick he’s been!)

Besides all of that, I also had book chat this week, had a Cub Committee meeting, substituted Seth’s primary class on Sunday and for his den meeting on Wednesday, got my hair cut, got things ready for Pack Meeting (it’s tomorrow…we’re distributing the bags for Scouting for Food), went visiting teaching, got a package for Tanner ready and sent it, took Jared to the dentist (he had two fillings done), exercised every day (except Sunday), got the Expedition in to get the brake pads replaced, and worked on another project. I think that is quite enough for one week, don’t you?

Seth and I have continued to read the Chronicles of Narnia and we are now reading The Last Battle and only have 3 chapters left so we'll be done with that soon. I think I am going to read him several of my childhood favorites / Newberry winning books before we tackle another series. It's been a lot of fun to read with him. He could read these books himself, but I enjoy doing it together. Besides, it's been good for him to be exposed to new books and to realize that there is something out there to read besides "Diary of a Wimpy Kid"! (Nothing against those books...they are pretty good too, but he tends to read them over and over and not try new things.)

That's all from us until next week!