Weekly Review January 1 '16

This week has gone by fast. It’s hard to believe that the boys will be back in school and Frank will be back at work on Monday. I don’t really feel ready for that yet. I have been enjoying the more relaxed pace and having everyone home. But I guess it is good for us to get back to “real life’ soon.

The day after Christmas, Frank, Scott and Jared went to see Star Wars (I got them tickets as a Christmas gift). They all really liked it, and Frank decided that it was okay for Seth to see it so the three of us went to see it on Wednesday. Seth loved it, of course. I enjoyed it too…it had the humor and the feel of the “original” Star Wars movies (Episodes 4, 5, and 6), which I liked, but I wouldn’t say I was blown away by it or anything. Honestly, the plot line was not all that original. Basically the same plot line as Episode 4. Most people think it’s amazing, though, so maybe I am too critical! As I said, I did enjoy it. 

Anyway, back to the weekend. On Saturday evening Jared had Jessie over and Bo (a girl in our ward who went to the same mission as Scott) came to hang out with Scott so they were both here for dinner. It was nice having them here. Our house is a whole different place when there are girls here! Everybody is nicer, somehow.

Frank didn’t have any meetings on Sunday and that was nice for a change. We got to relax a bit more…and we tried to enjoy it since that was our last Sunday when we didn’t have meetings until 1:00 pm. This Sunday we are back to the 9:00 am schedule. (Although overall, I prefer 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.) Tim & Rachelle sent us a DVD of a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert with the Sesame Street Muppets, so we watched that and it was really good. Another ward friend came over for a while that evening to talk with Scott. They were comparing their woes over girls!

Monday morning we were up early because we had to get Scott to the airport by about 7:00 am for his 9:00 am flight. It was rainy and foggy, as it has been most of the time for the last few weeks. We got him there on time and he made it back to Utah okay. Kind of a bummer to see him go, but we are glad we got to see him for a few days. After we got back home, I went to the grocery store and got laundry going, but then Frank and I both went back to bed for a while because we were sleepy! After a 2 hour nap, I felt a lot better. We got the rest of the work done that we needed to do. In the late afternoon, we took Seth down to the scout store because as a boy who joined Cub Scouts this year, he could get a free gift (turned out to be a t-shirt) and I wanted to get a few things at the store too. Then we went from there to see the lights at the temple. Jared didn’t come with us…he had already seen the lights and he wanted to hang out with some friends in the ward. The lights were beautiful, and I enjoyed seeing all the nativity sets from all over the world too, as always. We timed it really well because we got there shortly after they turned the lights on and well before the evening concerts started so it wasn’t very crowded yet. Here are some pictures:

Here are some of the nativity sets I liked the most. I love how so many of the sets reflect the unique qualities of the culture they come from:

Take this one from Tanzania, for example. Of course we all know that there weren't any tigers, giraffes, or zebras in the stable where Jesus was born, and that He was of Jewish, not African descent. But I love how different cultures make Him their own. He is, of course, the Savior for all people, so He really does belong to all of us, and I love how nativity sets from all over the world reflect this truth.

I also love to see all the unique materials used to make the sets. This set from Kenya incorporates corn husks:

These three sets from Nepal, Italy, and Belize are all pretty tiny:

I love how this set from Hawaii is inside a coconut shell:

I loved the bright colors of this painted wood set from Georgia (the country, not the state):

This one is from Ghana:

This one from Myanmar is made out of some kind of glass:

I love how this set from Alaska have the people dressed like Eskimos:

 I thought this fabric set from Kazakhstan was really neat:

 The pieces of this set from the Ukraine look like they nest inside each other:

I loved the detail of these fabric figures in this set from Bolivia:

As I was going through the exhibit, I noticed that they had sets from almost every country where someone in our family has served a mission, so  I'm going to do a separate post about those.

I don’t remember much about Tuesday…I got lots of housework done and also did a bunch of stuff for Cub Scouts. Our stake is going to have a day camp next summer so I am helping plan for that. The Elders came over for dinner that night. Jared worked on both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons / evenings. We had the Sisters over for dinner on Wednesday. One of them was not feeling well, so Frank gave her a blessing. We saw her the next day, and she is much better! We've gotten pretty close to this set of sister missionaries. They call me "Mama Cleveland" and they call Frank "Uncle Frank". It cracks me up! I didn’t sleep well Tuesday night, so I slept in on Wednesday and didn’t get a lot done that day besides grocery shopping and going to the movie. One thing I didn’t mention about that is that we spilled soda all over Frank’s car on the way home! He had one of those huge drinks and he got it refilled right before we left the theater to come home. Then as he was pulling out of our parking space, either he or I knocked it over with our elbow. It happened really fast so I don’t know exactly what happened. I just remember trying to catch it and thinking I almost had it for a moment but it got away from me. Plus Frank slammed on the brakes so my seat belt locked and I couldn’t lean forward to pick it up quickly either so literally the whole cup spilled on the floor before I could pick it up! My pants and coat got soda on them, but surprisingly somehow most of the soda ended up on the floor instead of all over me. I was glad I didn’t get doused in ice cold soda, but it would have been easier to clean me up than it was the car. It’s probably going to smell like soda for quite a while!

Thursday I was busy, busy all day because besides the regular chores I also took down all the Christmas decorations. I wasn’t in a huge hurry to take them down, but we had invited some friends over for New Year’s Eve and Dad and I both decided it would be best to have more room with all those kids running around! I do love the Christmas decorations, but the house looks cleaner and bigger without them. The Elders came over around lunch time to help Frank and Jared put together the other storage cabinet for the other bathroom (we may get the bathrooms put back together someday!). Then we fed them some lunch before they left. For New Year’s Eve, we had our usual dinner of lots of appetizers and chips and so on. I also had some veggies and cheese in an attempt to have some healthy food. It was all pretty yummy. We played games and a couple of my friends helped me make the puzzle that Hans sent us. It was a puzzle that Uncle Hans sent us. It was fun and not too hard to put together. We all stayed up until midnight but we were pretty tired by then so our friends left shortly after midnight and as soon as Jared got home we all went to bed. Someone nearby set off about 4 aerial fireworks right after midnight. Jared spent the evening with Jessie and another couple on a double date. They went to dinner, then went bowling, and then went to a dance / party at our stake center. 

Friday I didn’t wake up until nearly 9:00! Poor Frank’s internal clock got him up at about 6:45, so by the time I got up, he was ready to go back to bed for a while, which he did. Then he spent a lot of the day working on some things for one of his clients. He's had a lot of work for clients over the last few weeks. I’m not really sure where that day went--I guess it goes by fast when you don’t get up until 9:00 am. I did get the budget all caught up which took a while, and wrote to Tanner. Jared went to a movie at the dollar theater with friends in the afternoon and Jessie came here after the movie for dinner and then they played games for a while. I read some Harry Potter to Seth (we are in the 4th book still). Then I made a long list of things I want / need to get done in the next month or two, so that I can start working on them. I had a lot of things in the back of my mind, bothering me. It helps me to write them down! 

One thing we are going to have to do soon is get either a new dining set or at least some new chairs. Our dining chairs have been falling apart over the years so the number of chairs has been dwindling. In the last week two of them have broken beyond repair and we are now down to 3 chairs! Since there are four of us living here and we often like to have guests over to eat (especially the missionaries), we really need some more chairs. My dilemma is this: I'd like to get a new set (matching table and chairs) because the table we have doesn't really match the style of the kitchen we have now (since we changed the floor, counter tops, and wall color). However, the table we have is a really nice, solid table. It would make a great craft / sewing table, so I don't want to get rid of it. The problem is that I have no place to put it right now. But if we ever buy a bigger house, I know I am going to want that table to use for crafts and sewing.That is actually why we've been putting off getting a new dining set for so long. So do I get chairs to match the table we have, and just not match the kitchen? Or give up the table? First world problem, for sure--I know!! We'll figure it out. Hopefully by next week! :)

That brings you up to date on us. We hope 2016 is very good to all of you!

New Salt & Pepper Sets Christmas 2015

I received a number of new Salt & Pepper shaker sets for Christmas yesterday so I thought I'd record them while I'm thinking about them. 

All the boys gave me this cute set that will be fun to use on birthdays:

Yum! They look good enough to eat! This set came from Cracker Barrel.

Here's another Cracker Barrel set they all gave me:

I actually don't have a lot of Christmas sets so it is nice to have this one.

Here's a third set from Cracker Barrel given to me by all my guys:

Frank's mom gave me this cute set when we were visiting at Thanksgiving time:

I didn't receive this last set for Christmas. Frank's mom sent it to me sometime between July and November (I can't remember when.):

You can read more about my salt and pepper shaker sets here and here and here.

I now have 116 sets.

2015 Christmas Ornament Additions

Here are our new ornaments for 2015:

Frank's mom sent him this sweet ornament to add to our tree.

This is Jared's ornament from Grandma Pew. She made it herself, of course! I love how the bow makes the mustache!

This is Seth's ornament from Grandma Pew, also made by her. Tanner and Scott got ornaments too but I don't have pictures of them.

For our family ornament, I chose this ornament this summer while Ben & Dee were visiting us and we went to Monocacy and Antietam Battlefields. It will always remind me that Ben's family visited us in 2015! This ornament has a different picture on each side. Here is one side:

And here is the other:

Sorry the photos are a little dark. The ornaments showed up a little better with a flash, but they lost that magical tree lights glow, so I opted for the pictures without the flash.

Weekly Review December 26 '15

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We had a pretty relaxing day; the guys playing games and Seth building Lego sets. I watched a movie Frank gave me about Handel’s Messiah which was really cool. I also talked to Mom & Dad. For dinner we were invited to a friend's house...they also invited the sister missionaries and a couple of other families in our ward so we had quite a big group there and the conversation was pretty lively and fun. The food was all really great, too. It seems like lately I can only eat a little bit and then I feel really full but that is probably not a bad thing. I may make it through the holiday season without gaining a ton of weight! So anyway, it was a nice day but the best part was talking to Tanner:

Doesn't he look great?! He could talk for 30-40 minutes and we did talk the full 40 minutes! He seems to be happy and doing well.

The rest of the week was pretty busy, with all the Christmas preparations. Unfortunately, Frank got sick with whatever I had the week before so he was mostly down for the weekend. He started feeling better around Tuesday or so. In the meantime, on Saturday I made buckeye candy and I invited the sister missionaries over to help with that. They loved doing it and it was really nice for me to have the help, especially since Frank was sick.

 That night we had our ward Christmas party, and they did something different this year…we didn’t have a dinner. Instead, we had hot chocolate and dessert and a nice musical program (Jared was the emcee, and he did a good job). It was fun, and much less stressful for a lot of people. One member did a slide show / song of “Bishop Got Run Over by a Reindeer” which was hilarious! The RS president put together a really nice video with different people in the ward talking about what they love about Christmas, or their favorite Christmas song, etc. Some of the things the kids said were really funny. Frank was too sick to go to the party, unfortunately. He was in charge of getting a lot of the paper products and the hot chocolate, as well as a bunch of donuts, so Jared and I ended up doing all that. I just can’t seem to get away from being involved in ward activities! That is the second ward activity we’ve had since I got released as RS president, and I ended up doing a bunch of things to help with both of them! Oh well!

On Sunday we had our Christmas program and it was lovely. I felt the spirit so strongly all day Sunday; it was really sweet. Jared and another YM sang a duet of The First Noel which was really good and Jared and I sang two songs with the ward choir. All the talks and lessons were really great too. I really do love our ward. So many great people! They almost feel like family! :)

Frank didn’t use a lot of vacation days this year so he is taking all his time off now. His last day of work was last Friday (the 18^th); he doesn’t have to go back to work until January 4^th. So he was home this whole week, which was nice. Especially since he wasn’t feeling well, so he was able to rest a lot. I didn’t rest; I had lots to do! Besides all the usual chores, I spent a lot of time on Monday wrapping presents. I also did some Cub Scout planning. That evening I went to a viewing for a lady in our ward who passed away on Friday the 18^th. Unfortunately, I had a conflict so I couldn't go to her funeral on Tuesday. I wanted to make sure the her family knew we were thinking of them! She has been living with her son and his family for the last several years and they have been taking care of her. I had a nice talk with both the son and his wife, and they were handling the whole thing really well and had some sweet experiences with her before she passed away. None of us can really feel anything but happy for her, since she has been in bad health for a long time. She had diabetes and had to have one of her legs amputated a number of years ago so she's been in a wheelchair ever since. She was a sweet lady and I loved going to visit her. She lived a very full and great life. I can imagine that now she is running around and very happy!

Tuesday I went to the temple, and that was awesome!! It felt so great to be in the temple right before Christmas. I really felt joy! Tanner's good friend Elisabeth was going to the temple for the first time (she is going on a mission to Sweden Stockholm in January) so I was there to support her. There were 3 other people receiving their endowments in that session besides Elisabeth so it was a really full session and kind of crazy but still very nice. There were a number of people from my ward and stake there so it was nice to see familiar faces. That evening I went to a Messiah Sing Along at a historic theater in downtown Frederick. A group of us from ward choir went together; I picked up a couple of YSA girls. It was really nice too. The Messiah is just an amazing musical piece. They had amazing soloists and a small choir sang one of the choruses, but on the rest of the choruses the audience was invited to sing along. It was super fun. My only complaint is that they skipped all the choruses that I just learned this spring (it’s really long, so they couldn’t do the whole thing…still lasted nearly 2 ½  hours!) so the only chorus I knew well was the Hallelujah Chorus. I stumbled my way through the rest of them, but it was still fun. That day was super busy since I also did all the usual Tuesday chores in between everything else.

Tuesday was the last day of school for Jared and Seth. On Wednesday Scott flew in, and we all went to pick him up. Of course it has been nice to have him here! I kept busy all evening making fudge and cookies. Jared went to YM (they made cookies and took them to some of the less active boys) and Frank had to run an errand for a client; Scott went with him.

Thursday was really busy too. Everybody helped with chores like vacuuming, taking out trash, laundry, and grocery shopping in the morning. I wrapped a few presents in there too. In the afternoon I picked up the sister missionaries, who were invited over for dinner. They helped me finish decorating cookies and get our Christmas Eve dinner made, which was a really big help.

Sister Bartschi chopping walnuts

Sister Sanborn decorated all these cookies!

 Sister Sanborn making sweet potato casserole

Now she is making appetizers!

Seth is trying to give "high fives" to Sister Bartschi:

 It is super nice to have other girls in the kitchen working with me! (And Snickers gets some much wanted attention from Sister Bartschi!)

Our menu for Christmas Eve dinner: chicken cordon blue, sour cream potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and rolls. We had both sparkling cider and egg nog to drink, and for dessert we had lots of choices of candy and cookies, plus these rice crispy treat things called Scotcheroos that Sister Bartschi made. Most of the dinner items needed to be baked and it would have been really nice to have double ovens in this instance! 

I decorated this gingerbread boy in honor of Tanner!

 While we were waiting for dinner to finish baking, we were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas and within a few minutes of each other we got calls from two families in our ward, both of whom wanted to drop things off for our neighbor (the one who is investigating the church) but didn’t know exactly which house was hers. It was funny! We pointed her house out to them and they put stuff on her doorstep and then waited in the bushes at the end of the court to make sure she got it. Hopefully she felt really loved. J

We finally had dinner and then we each opened a present. I got Frederick City ornaments for the sisters and they loved them!!

So many presents under the tree!

It was a Lego set!

Sisters excited to open their presents!

Jared got a nice jacket from Scott.

 After presents, we watched the Joy to the World DVD. It was nice. I took the sisters home after that and they said they hadn’t been homesick at all so they were really grateful. After all of that, we got to bed later than we usually do but it wasn’t too bad. Dad and I woke up first on Christmas—Seth didn’t even wake up until 8:00! We had to drag Scott out of bed so that we could do presents! You can see he doesn't look too thrilled to be awake;

If you can't read the tag, it says: "To Mom, From The collective testosterone of the Home" Cracked me up! I guess that was Scott's idea.

Scott helping Jared play his new game.

Funny story about the sled. I saw sleds at Costco last week and thought about getting one because our only sled broke last year. I decided to ask Frank about it first. Then a few days later, he and I went to Costco to look for a big container of hot chocolate for the ward party. We didn't find the hot chocolate, but I saw the sleds and remembered we might want to get one. Frank agreed to the idea, so we ended up buying just a sled...nothing else. We were laughing about how it looked like we had rushed over to Costco just to buy a sled, when it was in the 60s outside! One guy right behind us as we were leaving Costco called to us "I like your optimism!!"

Frank successfully put together his 3D elephant puzzle from Mom and Dad this morning. He was putting it together last night and only had a few pieces left when the whole thing fell apart!! He gave up and went to bed but the first thing this morning (even before he ate breakfast) he was at it again and this time he succeeded.

Seth in his new Star Wars pajamas.

Speaking of Star Wars, Frank, Scott, and Jared are at the movie theater watching it now. (I got them tickets for Christmas.) I will see it later--Frank wanted to watch it and make sure we feel okay about Seth seeing it. If he thinks Seth will be okay with it, then he and I will take Seth to see it soon. Seth and I have had a quiet time here at home. He's been having fun building and playing with Legos (he just finished building the Minecraft set Mom & Dad sent him) while I try to get caught up on some things. 

It has been warm, foggy, and rainy all week. It's rained pretty much every day:

I mostly like it although I admit that when we were doing all that baking on Thursday it got uncomfortably hot in the house. (Notice in the photos you can see doors open in the background.) We actually gave in Thursday evening and turned on the air conditioning because we were afraid we wouldn't be able to sleep if the house wasn't cooled down a little. Air conditioning on Christmas Eve! Crazy! Today is not quite as warm but it's still fairly mild. Never fear...we are supposed to be getting more normal temperatures starting January 1st. Happy New Year for Frank!