Weekly Review December 15 '18

I'm late getting this week's review done because the last couple of days have been insanely busy. Actually, the entire week has been pretty busy. I guess that is par for the course this time of year. Here's the details:

Friday: Last Friday I left off saying that I wanted to get some Christmas shopping done, and that is what I did--a lot of online shopping. The internet sure does make Christmas shopping a lot easier! For my older boys, I had all of their gifts sent to Amy, who graciously agreed to wrap them for me.

Saturday: I had a headache and wasn't feeling too well but I still got a lot done. I cleaned the kitchen floor, finished preparing my Primary lesson, did more Christmas shopping, finished getting all the Christmas cards ready to mail (and mailed them), worked on some things for the Christmas Sacrament Meeting program, and worked on my time sheet for my job at the Arc. (In addition to putting in the hours I worked, I have to include progress notes describing what we did each day, so that can take some time.) Saturday was also the annual Museums by Candlelight event, which I always like to attend but Seth didn't really want to go. I probably would have gone by myself, but since I was so busy and I wasn't feeling really well I decided to let it go. However, Seth did want to go to the library and it just so happens that the library is one of the participating locations for Museums by Candlelight, so by going to the library I did kind of sneak in a trip to one of the locations! They just had a few displays at the library, including a large display of dolls, which I enjoyed seeing. My self reliance group was supposed to meet that evening also but the one member of the group got mixed up and thought we were meeting on Sunday instead so he didn't show up. I really didn't mind have 2 extra hours to work on something else, though! I mentioned I wasn't feeling really well but Frank REALLY wasn't feeling well on Saturday. He had a headache too, and an upset stomach and chills.

Sunday: Mostly the usual things--choir practice, church, choosing hymns for the following week, etc. Frank was still feeling really sick, but he dragged himself to his missionary correlation meeting and to church. He did decide to go home after taking the sacrament, though, and he took a nap. The missionaries came over for dinner after church.

Monday: Normally I work on Mondays, but the lady I work with couldn't do it that day. When I found out I wasn't working (she texted me Sunday night), I added a bunch of things to my "to do" list. I did get everything done, but didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I did some more Christmas shopping, worked on a project for Christmas, and did some online training for my Arc job. I also contacted some of the sisters I minister to, worked on some things for my music calling, and made some doctor appointments (routine). Along with that, I did all the other Monday chores (laundry, grocery shopping, vacuuming) so I was going all day long. Frank was starting to feel a bit better on Monday, thankfully. For family night activity we watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". One of my favorite Christmas shows! ("Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe, just maybe it means something more.")

Tuesday: This was mostly a normal day but I also went to lunch with my friend Rebekah, did some indexing / family history, and prepared all the gifts for our traditional 12 Days of Christmas secret service project. We debated a little bit about doing that this year, since we're on a limited budget, but we decided that we didn't want to give up this tradition so we just scaled it down a bit from what we've been doing the last few years. I'm grateful we were still able to do this! That evening Frank had a ministering visit and I went to our monthly RS meeting. We just got together at the house of one of the RS counselors and visited and ate treats (everyone brought their favorite snack to share). It was relaxing and fun and I'm glad I went.

Wednesday: I try to check to see if there are any substitute jobs available on a fairly regular basis. When I checked Wednesday morning, I discovered that there was a job available at Seth's school that afternoon, so I signed up to do it. In the morning I did some grocery shopping which included getting a couple of things for my friend Wanda and dropping them off to her. (She's in a nursing home and it's hard for her to get out.) I had to miss my religion class to do the substitute teaching job but I felt like I needed to take that opportunity to work, especially since I didn't work on Monday. This time I was working in the middle school, which was slightly terrifying but everything went okay. After school was dismissed, I took Seth to the library to get a book that he had put on hold. Seth had 11 year old scouts that evening but Frank took him over and picked him up, which gave me time to do some more Christmas shopping and to finish that project I've been working on for Christmas.

Thursday: I did work on Thursday. I also had an appointment to get my hair done that evening. In between, I got the regular chores done. (Frank helped me a lot by keeping the laundry going while I was gone to work). While I was getting my hair done, Frank took Seth to get pizza for dinner and then they delivered the 12 Days of Christmas box (and they didn't get caught!).

Friday: Seth had a 2 hour early dismissal from school. I wanted to get some packages mailed to the older 3 boys on Friday but first I had to make candy and cookies to go into the packages. I didn't have any trouble with the first batch of candy, but then I discovered that I didn't have one of the ingredients for the second batch, so I had to go to the store. Frank came with me, and we ended up doing more Christmas shopping and we took a lot more time than we should have. Then when I started making cookies the oven chose that moment to quit working again so we had to use the roaster oven to make the cookies and it took about 10 times longer than it would have if the regular oven had only been working! In between all of that, we also raked & mulched leaves again and got a package ready to send to Amy with all the stuff for the boys' Christmas stockings, plus one gift for each of them (the project I've been working on). Frank got the package mailed to Amy, but I wasn't able to get the other packages mailed because the cookies took too long. After dinner we took Seth out to buy a new coat because earlier this week he mentioned that his coat was feeling tight. I took a close look at him and realized that the sleeves were way too short. Then I checked the coat size--it's a size 8! Well, no wonder it was too tight! I didn't realize how long it had been since we bought Seth a new coat. We definitely got our money's worth for that one. We had to go to a couple of places, but we did find him a nice coat for a good price. After we got back from the store, I worked on the budget until nearly 11:00 and decided I would not be able to finish it that night. I admit I was feeling kind of upset and overwhelmed at that point--just so much to do! I'm also feeling sad that we won't have the older boys with us for Christmas this year. People keep asking me when they are coming home and that hurts!

Saturday: I might as well cover today, as long as I am at it. It is after 11:00 and I am finally finishing my long list of things I needed to do today. Frank was gone all morning / afternoon doing work for a client. After he got home, he did more work for them remotely so he had a busy day. Meanwhile, I got my time sheet updated and submitted for the Arc because the pay period ended today. Then I got the packages for the boys ready to mail and made treat plates to give to my Primary class tomorrow. Seth came with me to help me mail them and we also went to the library again because we had some things to return. Then I took Seth home and stayed home long enough to get some beans soaking (for dinner) and to eat some lunch before I left to do some more Christmas shopping. (I think I am finally done now!!) The stores were incredibly crowded with really long lines, of course. After I got back from shopping, I made dinner and prepared my Primary lesson. After dinner I cleaned the kitchen floor and finished updating the budget. While I was making dinner, Seth threw up! But after that he felt better and he ate some crackers and drank some ginger ale and he seemed to be feeling fine by bedtime. Hopefully he will be fine in the morning too. After we got Seth to bed, I was finally able to get this post written. So that was our crazy week!

We did manage to fit in brain balance and exercising this week and I have read a little bit of A Christmas Carol. Seth and I read a little bit of The Long Winter, but he had a book from the library that he was really interested in reading so we didn't read together as much.

Good news from Frank's interview from last week--they contacted him a few days ago and said they've narrowed down the candidates to the top five, and he is in the top five. They are deciding if they are going to do another round of interviews. He should get an update from them sometime this week.

It started raining yesterday afternoon and it hasn't stopped. It's supposed to rain all night and into tomorrow, too. I keep thinking how much snow we'd be getting if it were colder! I'm glad it's not cold, though. It would be nice to have some snow for Christmas, but I'm okay without it.

I've probably forgotten something, but that's all I can think of and I need to go to bed! I'll just finish with a few photos of some of our outside decorations, as well as one photo of the chaos in the wrapping room as I was trying to get packages ready to mail:

Weekly Review December 7 '18

I'll start out with two things that I forgot to mention from last week. (I use my calendar to help me remember what we did each week when I'm writing these posts, but not all of Frank's & Seth's events end up on my calendar so I often forget to mention them! I also often forget things that happen if they aren't major and aren't connected to a task or event on my calendar.) The first thing I forgot is that last Friday when we got back from getting all the decorations from the storage unit, we found an envelope inside our screen door with our name on it and inside were some movie tickets and gift cards to a local restaurant. Obviously, whoever left it there wanted to do it anonymously, so we'll never know who it was but we are grateful! Such a nice thing to do for us. :) The second thing I forgot to mention is that Frank had a couple of phone interviews last week with a couple of different places. He already knows he didn't get one of the jobs, but the other place set him up to have an interview in person this week.

Now on to this week! I did spend all of Friday evening setting up Christmas decorations. Frank wasn't feeling very well and Seth was more interested in video games, so I did almost all of the decorations myself. It took a long time and I was up pretty late, but I got everything done (with a few exceptions) and our house looks all festive now. I added some writing onto the ornament I purchased for this year to personalize it, so now it looks like this:

Saturday: This day was really busy. Seth had an 11 year old scout activity in the morning (they made breakfast) and that evening our ward had their Christmas party. Frank helped cook all the meat for the Christmas party, so he was basically gone all day. I picked Seth up from his activity and took him to Walmart to spend his allowance (he got a Lego set, of course--a small one). I also finished a few Christmas decorating items that I hadn't finished the night before (a few outside decorations and getting out the Christmas salt & pepper shakers), finished preparing my Primary lesson, read through a bunch of orientation information I got from the Arc at my intake meeting, figured out what books I was going to recommend for book chat (it was my turn to do that this month), made our contribution for the ward Christmas party dinner (sour cream potatoes) and made dinner for one of my ministering sister's families because she just had a baby the previous Monday (the 26th). I actually misjudged the time it was going to take to make the food and ended up taking Seth and our meal contribution over to the church and then coming back home to finish and deliver the meal for my ministering sister's family. Then I went back to the church for the party and thankfully there was some food left when I got there! The theme this year was "Christmas Around the World" and it was really nice. All the tables and the trees had traditional Christmas decorations on them, but they also had little flags from lots of different countries. They had decor from lots of countries on the walls, too. It's hard to describe (I wish I'd taken photos!) but it looked fantastic!

Sunday: This day was also busy because I had choir before church and my self reliance group met after church; then we listened to the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional after I got home. (It was wonderful!)

I was fasting for a number of things that day, and one thing I want to remember. I was starting my work for the Arc on Monday morning and for some reason I was feeling really anxious about it. Mostly just because I didn't know exactly what I was supposed to do and I wanted to do a good job. So in my fast, I included a plea that I would be able to be calm and at peace about my new job and that request was definitely answered. By the time church ended, I noticed that my anxious feelings had been completely replaced with a calm feeling, and that feeling continued into Monday when I actually went to work. It's kind of a little thing, I know, but it made a big difference to me!

Monday: So I as I mentioned, I worked on Monday. I work directly with an adult with a developmental disability, but other than that I can't say much because I need to protect her privacy. But I can say that she is lovely to work with and I really enjoyed my time with her. Really, I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this! So I feel really fortunate to have this job. We worked it out that I will be working with her for 4 hours each Monday and Thursday. It is nice to have a predictable schedule too. Other than working, Monday was a pretty average day and somehow all the regular things I do on Mondays got done even though I had 4 less hours to do them. How does that happen? I'm just grateful that it does. One of the things I did was to pick up some books I had put on hold at the library (suggestions for book chat) and I was shocked when they told me they were due December 26th. Wait a minute...is Christmas really that close??! It kind of put me in panic mode. For some reason I thought I had plenty of time until Christmas!! I haven't even started shopping yet!! That was a wake up call that I needed!

Tuesday: Mostly Tuesday was a normal day but I did take some time to prepare for my next self reliance meeting and that evening I had book chat. We had a great discussion about Okay for Now (everyone else loved it too--you should really read it!) and, happily, everyone liked my suggestions for next month too. I decided to go with Christmas books and we chose to read A Christmas Carol and 4 other Christmas stories by Charles Dickens.

Wednesday: Frank was gone most of the day because he volunteered to work a shift at the church storehouse. He had to be there at 8:30 but it's over an hour away and he was going to have to contend with rush hour traffic to get there, so he actually left at 6:00 am. The shift was supposed to go until 12:30 but they got done a little early so he was home by about 1:45. Meanwhile, I got Seth to school (where he had a field trip to the library) and did all the usual things I need to do on Wednesdays including going to the religion class. That evening our ward was singing a song at the town of Walkersville's Christmas tree lighting. As the music chair, I had been in charge of finding someone to lead us (I just asked our choir director) and helping choose what song we would sing. Seth decided he didn't want to go and Frank was exhausted from his day at the storehouse, so I represented our family. We had a large group of ward members show up to sing and actually it sounded really good! I really felt the spirit while we were singing. Several other churches performed musical numbers also. It was really sweet. Then at the end, Santa Claus arrived riding on a big fire truck with sirens blaring. It was pretty cool and I wished that Seth had come because he would have loved it! I tried getting a few photos of the fire trucks, but they didn't come out very well:

Thursday: Frank had his interview that morning and he feels like it went pretty well. We'll see what happens. I worked again that morning and then when I got home, Jessie's mom came over so we could discuss plans for the wedding and figure out who is going to do what. That was a good meeting and they will be great to work with, and now I have a few assignments to start working on. And again, all of the usual Thursday work somehow got done too!

Friday: So far today I have been working on the budget which is mostly done. My main goal for the rest of the day is to get some Christmas shopping done!

In between everything else, I've been working on getting Christmas cards ready to mail and I'm almost done with those. We've done well with exercising and brain balance this week. Seth and I haven't had much time to read together, though. I did pretty well with my goal to go to bed and get up at regular times. I did better with the getting up part than with the going to bed part (went to bed later than I wanted a couple of nights). I didn't sleep well on Sunday and Monday nights but since then I've been doing much better.

We caught another mouse this week. Ugh!! After we caught the mouse on Thanksgiving, we decided we'd better set another trap to see if there were any more. The trap sat there empty for nearly 2 weeks and I was thinking there must not be any more (I was happy about that!) and I was going to tell Frank he might as well remove the trap. But then on Wednesday when I was home by myself, I heard a noise and I thought it kind of sounded like the mouse trap snapping but I didn't really think that's what it was and I forgot about it until later, when I went down to the laundry room to get food out of the freezer. Then I remembered, so I checked the trap. The lighting wasn't very good but I could see that the trap was actually flipped over, and it looked like maybe something dark was attached to it, so I called Frank to come look at it and sure enough--it was a mouse. So he disposed of the mouse and set two more traps. We'll see what happens. We wish we could figure out how they are getting in so we could block it! It's got to be in the basement somewhere.

And on that "exciting" note, I will end our review for this week.

Weekly Review November 30 '18

I don't think there is a lot to write about this week although I kept really busy. Here's some of what we did each day:

Saturday: Frank's parents left in the morning and Sam left shortly after they did, too. Frank was gone pretty much all day, doing work for a client, so we went from having six people in the house to just Seth and I! I kept busy all day doing things like writing our annual Christmas letter, ordering Christmas cards, finishing up my Primary lesson, cleaning the kitchen floor, writing a letter that Jared needed for his financial aid, and practicing the ukulele.

Sunday: I worked on Faith in God with Seth and started preparing my Primary lesson for this week. I had choir practice before church and after church I met with my self reliance group. We also sat with Wanda in Sacrament Meeting and afterwards things got a little crazy because the person who was supposed to help her right after Sacrament Meeting forgot and I couldn't find any of her other helpers so I ended up taking her to the restroom myself. I was feeling frazzled because I was supposed to be teaching my Primary class and I couldn't be two places at once! A member of the Primary presidency had to come looking for me but I finally made it to my class and the lesson went well. For my self reliance group, one of the guys decided he can't continue so we just have one class member, plus the other facilitator and I. This week, the guy in charge of the self reliance initiative for our stake came to visit and he stayed for about half of the class. It was nice to have another person there.

Monday: I had an appointment to meet the lady I will be working with in my job at the Arc. Just as I was getting ready to leave, the school nurse called and said that Seth had thrown up! (Frank had just dropped him off at school about 15 minutes earlier!) Thankfully, Frank was able to go pick him up so that I could go to my appointment. The lady I'll be working with is very sweet and friendly; I think I will really enjoy working with her. Seth spent the day on the couch but didn't seem to feel very bad. He never threw up again and he was drinking ginger ale and eating crackers by afternoon. So that was really weird, but we're glad he didn't get really sick. Meanwhile, I had a busy day with lots of errands to run like picking up medicine for Snickers, picking up the Christmas cards I ordered, returning library books, and some grocery shopping (plus the usual household chores). That evening we had a Skype call with Tanner, since it was his birthday, and then we had family night.

Tuesday: I woke up later than I usually do so I felt like I was running behind all day. Seth had to wait 24 hours from when he threw up to go back to school, so he went in about 30 minutes late. I decided that morning that Snickers really needed a bath, so I gave him a bath. I also visited Wanda to drop off some things she had asked me to get for her at the store, did a couple of things for my music calling, and all the usual chores, which filled up my day. I also helped Seth work on his Cyber Chip for Scouts and started working on some online training for both my Arc job and the my substitute teacher job. Frank had some work to do for a client that evening which ended up taking a lot more time than he anticipated so he didn't get home until nearly 2:00 am.

Wednesday:  I finished my online training for the Arc that morning. Then I stopped by Wanda's place to trim her bangs for her and then went to the religion class. Afterwards I got shopping done at Walmart and picked up Seth's prescription. Frank picked Seth up from school, which was a big help since I was running late. That evening I finished the online training for my substitute teaching job and also filled out a bunch of paperwork for the Arc. Scott called me too. Seth had 11 year old scouts; Frank took him to that because he was asked to set up some background music for our ward Christmas party (which is tomorrow) so he wanted to test some things out at the church.

Thursday: That morning I had my intake meeting with the Arc, so I am officially hired now and I will start working on Monday. Seth's class had their monthly "Literary Tea" that day, and I had signed up to send in some snacks for that so I got those ready that morning too. Between the intake meeting and all they usual chores, I was busy all day. Frank was gone doing work for clients almost all day too. In the afternoon I did a little bit of indexing and I finished reading my book about temple symbols--that was my "temple time". In the evening I looked over the new curriculum for Primary next year and it is fantastic! I am really excited about it. Thursday was really cold and really windy!!

Friday: Today has gone by fast. Frank and I raked and mulched all the leaves in the back and front yards. The leaf blower makes that job a lot easier! I'm glad we got that done in the morning because it rained this afternoon (even though there was only a 15% chance of rain today). I got the budget caught up and then we picked Seth up at school and went straight from there to the storage unit to take back the camp oven and roaster oven and to pick up all the Christmas decorations. (The oven is working fine again.) After we got home, Seth went to play with the carpool boys for a while. I went shopping in search of a Christmas tree ornament to represent this year. We didn't end up buying one while we were on vacation but I wanted to find one that was kind of Mexican themed to represent our "Remember Me" family reunion. I had to go to a couple of places, but I did find something that will work:

After I got home we made dinner and Frank picked up Seth; my friend Renata's son, Sammy, came over right when they got home and he is still here now. Frank just set up the Christmas tree and I'm planning to spend the rest of the evening putting up Christmas decorations.

We did better with exercising and brain balance this week. I have set a goal to go to bed and get up at consistent times every day because I feel like I will sleep better if I do that, plus I need to be on a more regular schedule so that I can do substitute teaching when the opportunity arises. I will be working at the Arc on Monday and on either Thursday or Friday each week, so I might be able to substitute on some of the other days. Seth and I are over half way through reading The Long Winter, the next book in the Little House on the Prairie series.

That's all we have to report this week; I will just end with a few sunrise photos from this week:

Weekly Review November 23 '18

 It's been another busy week. I'm going to write about this week in categories too.

Frank's parents visiting: We've enjoyed having Frank's parents with us all this week. On Monday and Tuesday they did a lot of genealogy research. They also took Frank & I to a Chinese buffet for lunch on Tuesday. Snickers has been spoiled too because they have taken him on a couple of walks! Right now, Frank's dad is helping him pull some cables for one of his clients. (Sam is helping too.) They will be heading back home tomorrow morning. We're so glad they could be here with us this week!

Self Reliance: We had our 4th meeting on Saturday evening, so we are a third of the way through! One of our group members hasn't been able to make it to the last two meetings, but hopefully he will be able to start coming again. We've had some good discussions and I am reminded that this really is an inspired program. Really good stuff!

Church callings: I still don't have a team teacher for my Primary class, but the Primary president has been asking someone to come in to help me each week. One of my boys had a birthday this week, so we had brownies to celebrate on Sunday. One of the girls came this week and she can be a handful so it was a little crazy but overall it was okay. I'm still working on the Christmas program, but it is coming together. I just need a few people to respond to my emails!

Faith in God: I've been working on Faith in God with Seth, and he has completed all the activities except for one. His 11 year old scout leader is going to do that one with the boys, though. All he has left to do is to learn all the Articles of Faith. We're currently working on number 6.

Watching kids: My friend Renata needed some help with her kids this week so we had her son Sammy over to play for a few hours on Monday evening and then we had both Sammy and his sister, Maddie, over on Tuesday evening from 7:30 to about 11:30. Renata was picking up her mother and sisters from the bus station in Baltimore. There was an accident on the freeway so the bus was very late!! Both of the kids were sleeping by the time she got back to pick them up. (As a matter of fact, everyone was sleeping by then except me.

Seth's school project: All the kids in Seth's class have been working on projects about Native American tribes. He and another boy in his class, Levi, did a project about the Navajo tribe. On Wednesday, they had a Native American "museum" where all the kids displayed and presented their projects. Then they had a "potlatch" lunch. Seth and Levi had signed up to bring Navajo fry bread for their contribution, so we had Levi over here after school on Tuesday so they could make the fry bread together. I was wondering how it would turn out since we've never made that before, but they actually turned out great and it wasn't very hard to make. It did take some time, though, and they also had to put together a display board so by the time Levi left, we only had a few minutes until Sammy and Maddie arrived. So it was kind of a crazy evening! Here is a picture of Levi and Seth mixing up the dough for the fry bread (it was Levi's turn to stir):

I wanted to get more pictures of the process of making the fry bread, but I got too busy and then I forgot to get a photo of the finished product! But I think we are going to make them again sometime, and try turning them into Navajo tacos. (The fry bread are a lot like tortillas.) The next day, I went in to see their project so I did get a photo of their finished display board:

Each child was allowed to invite two adults to this event and Seth wanted Frank's parents to come so I only stayed a little while to see his project and a couple of others. Frank's parents stayed for the meal and they said everything was really good. They had turkey, berries, nuts, and other things besides fry bread.

Thanksgiving: I didn't mind missing the lunch at Seth's school because I had a lot of preparations to complete for Thanksgiving. Frank and I were busy all afternoon making jello, 2 pudding pies, sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole. (Not to mention Wednesday evening's dinner!) Then on Thursday we did everything else--turkey, stuffing, gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, banana pudding, cheesecake, peas & carrots, vegetable tray, cheese & crackers, olives & pickles, and cranberry sauce. We had leftover ham from Sunday as well. (And thank goodness I had decided to cook the ham early!) The preparations hit a snag when we discovered that the oven had quit working!! We have had trouble with the oven several times the last several months and keep meaning to get it checked, but we never think of it at the right time. It just turns off in the middle of baking sometimes. Usually when we discover the problem, we just turn it off and turn it back on and it comes right back on and we don't have any more trouble. But yesterday it wouldn't come back on. We would hear it try to come on (we have a gas oven, so you can hear it light) but then it would shut right back off, and it was definitely getting cooler, not hotter. We were really feeling kind of panicked until Frank remembered we had a camp oven that we could put on a burner on the stove. (The stove works fine, thankfully!) We thought it was in the storage unit but before they made a trip over there I decided to check my list of things that were in the storage unit and while going down the list I saw "roaster oven" and remembered that we had a large roaster oven there too! So Frank and his dad went to the storage unit to get the roaster oven and the camp oven. The turkey finished cooking in the roaster oven and we baked the sweet potato casserole in there too.

Meanwhile, we baked the rolls in the camp oven and then baked the green bean casserole in there also.

 The rolls had been in oven when it died, so they were half baked when we put them in the camp oven. All the moving back and forth, plus adjusting the camp oven temperature didn't do wonders for them so they look kind of flat and aren't evenly browned, but they taste just fine, thankfully! So in the end, we had a great Thanksgiving dinner (although an hour later than we'd planned) and everything turned out fine although I admit it was stressful when we were in the middle of it.

That evening, we had some friends over for dessert and to play games. (I forgot to get photos of the game playing, but here is the dessert table, with Snickers waiting hopefully underneath!):

But even when our friends left, the fun wasn't over because Frank's mom mentioned to me right as they were leaving that she thought she had seen something run under one of the end tables a few minutes before. I said "You mean, like an insect?" and she said "No, much bigger...I think it was a mouse." And just then the mouse decided to make a run for it and emerged from under the end table and ran into the kitchen! Okay, I admit it--I am squeamish about mice. I don't mind if I see them outside or in a cage, but I do NOT like them running around in my house! The mouse took refuge under the dishwasher but thankfully we had a mousetrap on hand so Frank set the trap by the oven and we all went to bed. We were still awake and reading in bed when we heard the trap snap! So Frank went back downstairs to deal with the mouse and I'm glad it's gone. We are going to set a few more traps downstairs to make sure there aren't any more. I don't think we will forget this Thanksgiving in a hurry!

Job stuff: Frank has applied for a few jobs and one day this week he had lunch with some of his former co-workers. He ran into someone from another department and when that guy found out Frank was still looking for a job, he asked him to send him a resume. So hopefully something is going to come up for him soon. That would be especially helpful since we found out a few days ago that even though his paperwork was signed and ready to be submitted at the beginning of October, it actually hasn't been submitted yet! (Something about no paperwork being accepted in October or November, although it's supposed to be going in now. I'll believe it when I see it.) So that was really discouraging news. On the bright side, my fingerprinting came back fine (no surprises again) and I have an appointment on Monday to meet the girl that I will be helping through the Arc of Frederick. So hopefully that means I will start that job next week sometime. Frank has also been pretty busy with his business; he is currently working on setting up five new computers for three of his clients.

Everything else: Brain balance and exercising kind of went down the drain this week, between all the visitors and watching kids and school projects and Thanksgiving drama. We will get back on track next week! I practiced the ukulele a little bit and Seth and I finished reading By the Shores of Silver Lake on Wednesday evening. We've had somewhat mild weather most of the week until yesterday, when it got really cold. (The high for the day was in the 30s!) At least it was a good day to be inside all day, with the oven on (well, it was on for a while!). Today is cold too but not as cold and tomorrow it is going to warm up enough that it's supposed to rain. Mostly we can't complain too much about the weather. It hasn't been very cold yet.

That's all I have to report this week.

Weekly Review November 16 '18

We had a busy and somewhat eventful week, which partly explains why I am writing the weekly blog post today instead of yesterday (Friday) as I usually do. I think I am going to do categories this week; hopefully the process will be faster if I do it that way!

Philadelphia Temple Trip: It always takes a long time to get to the Philadelphia Temple, and this trip was no exception. Theoretically, the temple is 2 1/2 hours away from our house. In reality, the traffic is always awful and this time it was even worse than usual. We left our house at 1:00 pm and finally got to the temple at 6:00 pm. At least I barely got there in time to make it into the 6:30 session. It was raining--usually quite hard--for most of the trip, which no doubt contributed to the traffic problems. I'm really thankful that Frank is such a trooper about driving in the rain, darkness, heavy traffic, and unfamiliar territory because any one of those factors turns me into a super anxious driver and he dealt with all four at once without losing his composure. Not only did I not have to drive, I even sat in the back seat for about half of the trip because when we stopped to grab some food, Seth was feeling slightly sick so I switched places with him and let him sit in the front seat. He felt a lot better after that. Because I didn't have to drive, I kept pretty calm for the trip but even so--when I got to the temple and the brother at the recommend desk said "Welcome to the temple", I wanted to kneel at his feet in gratitude that I had finally made it there!! As always, it was wonderful to be in the temple. Frank and Seth checked into our hotel and got some dinner while I was in the temple, then they came to pick me up. There was a restaurant right next to the hotel so I got some food too. Then we all went to bed. Frank got up really early to go to the temple but he came back earlier than planned. He ate a snack before he left, but after he got to the temple he started to feel dizzy and shaky so he didn't stay very long. He said it was nice to sit in the temple for  a half hour, at least! After he got something to eat, he felt better and took Seth to the pool to swim for a little while before we packed up and headed back home. The drive home went much quicker--the rain had stopped and there wasn't a lot of traffic.

Job Hunt: The hiring process for Frank's job is going very slowly. We really haven't heard anything. In the meantime, his business is still pretty busy (he's currently buying 4 computers for clients, for example) and this week he was contacted about a job here in Frederick--a temporary job--working on a contract for guess who? Marriott, that's who. So he applied for that one. We'll see what happens. My background check came out clean (haha, no surprise!) so I went earlier this week to get fingerprinted for the job that would be helping an adult with disabilities. (The name of the place I'll be working for is the Arc of Frederick.) The fingerprinting process took a lot longer than it should have because they were having trouble with their equipment, but they finally got things working. I'll probably hear back from that sometime next week. I also had my first substitute teaching job this week--a job came up at Seth's school for Friday, so I picked that one up. I was helping in one of the Primary classrooms, which is a combined preschool, pre-K and Kindergarten class. (Three to five year olds.) Expect actually, only the Kindergarteners were there that day because we had a two hour delay (more about that later) and the preschool and pre-K students only come in the morning so when there's a delay, they don't have school at all. That also meant that my job ended up being two hours shorter than originally planned but it was a kind of nice to get "broken in" with a short day. I mostly enjoyed the experience--there was another teacher there who is there all the time so she knows the kids and knows what is going on, which was really helpful. She did have to leave the room a couple of times, leaving me alone with 15 kids and I admit I found that somewhat terrifying--but I'm sure I'll get more comfortable with that in time. I did enjoy being with the kids too. I guess I did okay because at the end of the day the other teacher asked me if she could request me to substitute for her sometimes.

Church Callings: I taught my first Primary lesson on Sunday and it went well. I don't have a team teacher yet but one of the moms of the boys in the class came in to be my helper. It was really easy to teach this class because I already know the boys really well and they already know me. None of the girls were there on Sunday--there's only 3, and 2 of them have divorced parents so they go back and forth between parents on the weekends. Maybe both of them will be here tomorrow! When I got to the classroom, the boys were writing a list of jobs and the board and signing up for them--as a joke--because that's what we do in Cub Scouts. (They take turns saying the prayer, leading the pledge, repeating the scout oath, the scout law, and the scout motto.) That cracked me up! One of my kids has a birthday this week so Frank helped me out yesterday by making some brownies that I can take for a treat tomorrow. I also spent time this week working on the Christmas Sacrament Meeting Program--getting another musical number set up and timing the ones we have to make sure it's going to come out right, time-wise. I had to find a substitute to lead the hymns in Sacrament Meeting for the next 2 weeks also, since the chorister is going to be out of town. Meanwhile, Frank is feeling a little bit frustrated with his calling--the changes to the responsibilities for Ward Mission Leader have left him feeling like he doesn't have much to do. I teased him that he's probably the only person in the church to complain that his church calling isn't "busy" enough!! Anyway, I'm sure the changes are inspired and that everything will work out in time. I think he helps the missionaries a lot with little things and it helps that he is available to do things during the day, like drive missionaries to their new areas on transfer days (he did that last week).

Surprise Winter Storm: We had our first snowfall of the winter on Thursday. Yes, on November 15th! At first they said we would get 1 -3 inches. Then on Thursday morning they increased that to 3-5. Then we actually got closer to 8 inches of snow! School was cancelled, of course. (And that was the reason for the 2 hour delay on Friday as well.) The weather channel even sent a guy to broadcast live from...Frederick, Maryland!:

This is before the snow actually started coming down, as you can probably tell. But he definitely got to see something before the day was over. It came down pretty hard for hours, and the flakes were really large, too. This photo taken shortly after the snow started coming down:

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This was a few hours later:

It still came down for quite a while after that, and we got 4 or 5 more inches. Later in the afternoon / early evening, we got freezing rain and then rain, which helped to melt most of the ice and some of the snow so between that and all the snow plows going, they were able to get the roads cleared up enough that school wasn't cancelled on Friday. Yesterday it warmed up into the 40s so a lot of snow melted but there are still patches of snow on the grass and small banks of snow along the edges of all the roads. On Thursday evening, Seth and I decided that in honor of the snow day, we needed to have a bed time snack of pop tarts and hot chocolate:

Service: You may remember I mentioned last week that a sister in our ward passed away from cancer. This week was the funeral. On Thursday a bunch of us women in the ward went over to the family's house to help clean so that the house would be nice for all the family coming in for the funeral. It actually wasn't that dirty to begin with, and with a big group of us together working on it, it didn't take long. I think driving there and back took longer than the actually cleaning did! (That was the day we had 8 inches of snow, remember! On my way over, the roads hadn't been plowed yet so they were really slick and nasty. Coming home was much better because the snow plows had come through in the meantime.) Last night I made cookies to contribute to the funeral luncheon and today I went to the funeral and later on I went back to the church to help clean up after the luncheon. And right now, I need to go downstairs and move the table cloths from the luncheon from my washer to my dryer (I offered to bring them home to wash them). Okay, I'm back! I bet you didn't even notice that I left! :) Anyway, the service today was very lovely. This family is quite musical so there was a lot of beautiful music. They also had some of the grandchildren tell the story of Joseph Smith, because the sister who died wanted her funeral to be a missionary experience too. She had written an introduction herself, which they read, and then the grandkids read the story of the First Vision in Joseph Smith's own words. It was really sweet.

Events: Seth had 11 year old scouts on Wednesday as usual. Besides the funeral, I also went to my religion class on Wednesday and to a RS activity on Tuesday. The RS activity was a "Gratitude Gala" which started with us writing down why we were thankful for the other sisters in our ward--each sister had a piece of cardstock hung from her back and we all went around writing on each other's cards. So at the end of the evening I had this card with all these lovely things written on it. I truly enjoyed taking the time to think about why I was grateful for each sister there. It's amazing how each person is unique and has her own talents and strengths that have blessed me. Each one is a wonderful woman. We each have some of the divine in us! After that we talked about things we are grateful for and one sister talked about gratitude while going through hard things--her daughter is currently battling cancer. Then we could make a gratitude jar and we had yummy food and just visited. It was a really nice evening.

Everything else: In between all of that, we had all the regular house cleaning, laundry, budgeting, and shopping going on. Also exercising, brain balance, ukulele, scripture reading, and reading in general. I somehow managed to finish the book for book chat, which I absolutely loved so you should read it! It's really a book for older children / teenagers, but there was a lot of great stuff in there and I'm sure we'll have a great discussion about it. It's called Okay for Now and it is by Gary D. Schmidt. Seth and I are still making our way through By the Shores of Silver Lake. I think we will probably finish it this week.

Frank's parents are coming to spend this week (and Thanksgiving) with us, and they will be here in just a few minutes, so it's a good thing I am finishing up now. Sam is coming later this week also, so we will have a houseful, but that's how we like it. We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are thankful for you!! 

Weekly Review November 9 '18

A few fall colors to start out this week's post:

These are all views out my bedroom window. They look better in real life! The colors aren't as vibrant in the photos. It is drizzly with gray skies today--it definitely looks like November! We have had some pretty chilly days the last week and we have also had some sunny, golden warm days. I appreciate any nice days we get at this point.

Here's another photo I took this week; this one is from our kitchen window:

We have these little visitors on our deck pretty often, but I don't usually manage to get a photo of them. The squirrel has a peanut in his mouth. He was sitting up, holding it in his paws and chewing on it when I first saw him, but of course he moved when I came close enough to the window to get a photo.

Now, on to what we did this week. Last Friday when I left off, I was going to be working on the budget. I did get the budget done, but not until really late because first Jared called, then Mom, then Tanner, and then a friend of mine (who lives in Florida now)! It was crazy spending that much time on the phone, but I really enjoyed talking to all of those people. :)

On Saturday Frank was up early to do some work for a client. I went to a baby shower (the third one in a month!) and then spent the day working on my plan for the Christmas program, cleaning the kitchen floor, choosing the hymns for the following Sunday, and preparing for my job interview (scheduled for Monday). I got all of that done before I needed to go to my self reliance group. I ran out of time to work on a project I'm trying to get done for Christmas--that keeps happening! Hopefully I will manage to squeeze it in sometime soon.

Of course you all know by now that Jared and Jessie got engaged on Saturday. They called us to tell us the news that evening, but Frank was gone--he went to a movie with a friend. We weren't surprised, though, because Jared had already told us he planned to propose that day. We couldn't say anything to anybody until Sunday night because they wanted to have time to call close family members and tell them before the news spread all over. You've all probably seen the photos on FB, but here are a few anyway:

We are happy, of course, and look forward to having Jessie in the family!

Not much happened out of the ordinary on Sunday except that I got the binder for my new Primary class from the former teacher. They haven't called a partner for me yet but hopefully that will happen soon. They also didn't call den leaders, but instead they decided to combine all the Cub Scouts and have them meet together, and the Webelos leaders will be leaders for all the boys. Since we only have 5 Cub Scouts that come regularly, that actually makes sense even though they are working on different things. Three of the boys have already achieved their current rank and the other two are just coming for fun so I think it will work out fine. That evening I had arranged to have a group of Primary kids sing "I Am a Child of God" for a family in our ward (the one with the mom fighting cancer) but then they asked to change it because they had family in town and they needed to discuss some things and make some decisions. Plus, the mom was getting a lot worse. Instead, we offered to record the kids singing the song for them and send it to them and that's what we did--we got the group together on Tuesday morning to do that. It turned out really lovely and the family loved it! I'm glad we did it quickly, too, because the mom passed away yesterday.

The rest of the week we had a crazy schedule because the school schedule was kind of ridiculous. There was no school on Monday and Tuesday, on Wednesday and Thursday school started four hours late, and today school gets out 3 1/2 hours early. Tuesday there was no school because of election day and the other three days they had parent / teacher conferences, which is why they had half days.

I'm going to keep this brief because I don't have a lot of time left. I need to pick up Seth from school soon and shortly after that we are leaving to go to Philadelphia for the weekend so that Frank and I can each go to the temple. I'll just mention the unique things we did this week but trust me--we were busy with all the regular things too!!

On Monday I had my interview with the Arc of Frederick, and I think it went really well. They have to do a background check so I am just waiting on that to go through. In the meantime, I heard back from the school district on Wednesday afternoon that my fingerprints had cleared so I'm officially hired by the school district now. I have to go in and set up my account before I can work, though, and I haven't had time to do that yet. Hopefully tomorrow! I also took Seth to the library on Monday. That evening I really didn't feel well--I was having stomach issues--but thankfully that was a one night thing. I didn't eat on Tuesday until lunch time, but after that I was fine.

I already mentioned that we did the song recording on Tuesday morning. I also took Seth to get a haircut and I voted. That afternoon, Seth's friend Lyndon came over for a few hours to play. I went over to see my friend Wanda early that evening because she had left me a message about wanting to vote. By the time I got there, she had decided that she wouldn't be able to go but she wants to make sure she can vote next time. (I couldn't have taken her to vote anyway, so it's a good thing she had already changed her mind.) She did give me a list of things she needed from the store, though, and I was able to get those for her the next day since I was going to the store anyway.

I went to the adult religion class on Wednesday and found out that Jessie's grandpa goes to that class too--I knew him, just didn't know he was Jessie's grandpa!! That was pretty funny. Seth had 11 year old scouts that night, and I took all my Cub Scout stuff over to the church to give to the Webelos leaders.

Yesterday I helped set up a salad bar for the teachers at Seth's school and after I picked Seth up we had his parent / teacher conference. He is doing a bit better with both getting work done and with behavior, so that is good news. Seth actually attended the conference and was in charge of telling me how he was doing, and he did a good job presenting his information. I got the budget done last night, which is a good thing because I definitely wouldn't have had time to do it today.

Today I have mostly just packed for our trip and Frank and I had to make a decision about our insurance coverage for next year. Now it is time for me to go get Seth. We are also picking up one of my friend's kids because she is having a medical procedure done today, but we are taking them over to stay with another family in the ward since we are leaving for Philadelphia. Her kids go to the same school as Seth, so it is easier for us to pick them up since we are familiar with all the dismissal procedures. Plus, we have to pick Seth up anyway, so we are saving someone else the trip!

In between everything else, I've got some reading done and I've been working on the Christmas program and my Primary lesson. There hasn't been a dull moment! Frank has also been pretty busy, which we are grateful for. I forgot to mention last week that Seth had a field trip where they did some orienteering, and he LOVED it! I really need to take that kid hiking / orienteering some more because he really likes that kind of stuff.

I'm certain I've forgotten something since I am in a hurry, but that is mostly what we did this week.

Weekly Review November 2 '18

This week was not as difficult or as stressful as last week, I am happy to say. I still have a lot going on and a lot of new things to adjust to, but I'm feeling better about everything.

I guess I can start with Sunday since last week I wrote late Saturday night. We had tithing settlement on Sunday morning. At church, I was released as a den leader although they didn't call new den leaders yet. We didn't have den meetings this week so that didn't matter so much and hopefully new den leaders will be called this Sunday. I don't start teaching my Primary class until next week. On Sunday I also worked on Faith in God with Seth and worked on some things for my music calling, and we had family night (we do the activity and treat part on Mondays and the lesson part on Sundays). Our ward had their Primary program and it was awesome, as always. I was happy that Seth spoke his part clearly and actually looked at the audience too! When did he grow up and become so poised?

On Monday I went into the high school to see if I could get a transcript for Scott--he needed either his diploma or a transcript for a job he was interviewing for. They wouldn't give me a transcript (since he is over 18) but I did find out who he needed to contact to get one. I had errands to run, like going to the bank and getting more food for Snickers from the vet, as well as the usual grocery shopping, vacuuming, and laundry. Remember how I submitted an application to the school system on Saturday? To my surprise, I got an email on Monday morning inviting me to sign up for an orientation. I didn't expect to hear back from them that soon! The next orientation was for Friday, so I signed up for that one. I also spent some time filling out paperwork for that job. Last week, my bishop let me know about another possible job being a "coach", assisting people with disabilities. I was so swamped with the school application that I decided to wait until Monday to look into that job. I sent an email to the contact person for that job, letting her know I was interested in learning more about it, and she called me back about 15 minutes later! She let me know about one of the people she needed someone to help, and she sounds like a good match for me, so she asked me to fill out an application. I got that done on Wednesday evening and I will have an interview early next week. This job will be 15 hours a week or less and I can schedule my hours when it works for me. The substitute job is sporadic, of course, so I should be able to do both jobs.

On Tuesday, besides the usual stuff, I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah and that evening I had book chat. As always, book chat was a blast! We discussed the book Does My Head Look Big In This?, which was a book about a Muslim teenage girl who decides to wear the hijab. It was a really good book and there was a lot to discuss. I have to bring book suggestions for next time, which always stresses me out a bit because I have a hard time coming up with good suggestions but I'll do my best! I also spent about an hour on Tuesday at the storage unit going through boxes looking for Scott's diploma, since he wasn't hearing back from the lady at the school about his transcript. I found Tanner's diploma and I found Jared's diploma, but I didn't find Scott's. Fortunately, he did finally hear back from the lady at the high school and he got his transcript so that all worked out. He did well on the interview too! It's for a job to be a police officer for the city of Sandy and he found out the day after the interview that he has advanced to the next level, so that is good news. In the meantime, I haven't mentioned that he also was offered a 3 month internship in the financial department at his current job, and he is starting that on Monday.

I complained about the weather being chilly and wet last week, but this week we got some perfectly beautiful days and Wednesday was one of them. I got the normal chores done and went to the religion class. After class, I met with our ward choir director (she also attends the class) for a few minutes to discuss plans for the Christmas Sacrament Meeting program. I'm still in the process of choosing all the musical numbers, but talking to her helped me figure out what I'm doing a little better. After I got home, I decided I should take advantage of the nice weather and get the lawn mowed. I had that on my calendar for this weekend but it was supposed to be raining by the weekend (and it is) so I decided to do it early, and I'm glad I did. That evening we were occupied with trick or treating, of course. I took Seth out while Frank stayed home to pass out candy. Even after the sun went down, the temperatures were still in the 50s, so that was really nice! We went a little further than we usually do this year. Seth wanted to go to the house of the family we used to carpool with, as well as to the house of a girl in his class at school who also lives in that neighborhood so we did a loop through that neighborhood as well as going around our court. A lot of people on our court don't pass out candy so most years he only fills his pumpkin about half full (but he's fine with that!) Since we did that extra couple of blocks of houses, he ended up with a full pumpkin this year. (And even then, we actually passed up several houses because he didn't want to stop--he said his pumpkin was getting too heavy!!) I didn't buy a ton of candy this year, but we had fewer trick or treaters so we ended up with a whole bag of candy left over. That's bad news, since I will definitely eat candy if it is lying around the house! 

Thursday was another beautiful day--sunny and in the 70s! Welcome, November!! (If only the whole month were like that.) I was really busy because I had several "extra" things to do, besides the usual vacuuming and laundry. I had agreed to help a member in our ward who needed a ride for her and her son to a doctor's appointment. (Her car broke down a few days ago.) I dropped them off at the doctor (I also dropped a couple of her kids off at school on the way) and then went to the library to pick up a book for Seth. Then I went back, and read the Book of Mormon while I waited for them to finish. Afterwards, we dropped her son off at school and she asked me to drop her off at a grocery store, so that's what I did. When we got to the store, we ended up talking for a while about her daughter--I know her daughter and she is worried about her. This lady is less active, but her daughter was coming to church pretty regularly for a while. It's always good for me to be reminded that even though someone may not come to church often (or at all) that they still have a relationship with God and still want their children to make good choices. I may not have a lot in common with this sister, but we are both mothers and we both worry about our kids, and that is a strong connection! On Thursday I also did some weeding for another family in our ward (I did some before-the mom in the family has cancer and the dad recently had back surgery. They are both older--probably in their 70s or 80s.) They found out a few weeks ago that the mom's cancer has spread from her pancreas and her liver to her lungs, and she is too weak for treatment so she is on hospice care now. Very sad, but they have a lot of faith, and they are coping! Anyway, it was the perfect day to be outside and I enjoyed it although my back is hurting a little bit today. Then in the evening I had an appointment to get my hair done. Afterwards, I spent some time going over all the paperwork I needed to have done for the substitute teacher orientation today. Somewhere in between all of that, I looked through a couple of quilting books that I checked out at the library--I'm thinking about making a couple of quilts. (In my spare time--haha!) Right now, I'm just trying to get some ideas and looking for some simple quilt patterns to see if it is even feasible for me to try to make something.

Today it is still pretty warm (60s) but it's cloudy and it has rained some so it's not as beautiful as yesterday. All the trees are beautiful, though! I swear, last week at this time most trees still had green leaves but somehow in the last week all of the leaves have turned colors so our street is a beautiful collage of yellow, red, orange, and maroon. Anyway, I spent the whole morning at the orientation for substitute teachers, because it was from 8:00 to noon. It was interesting, though, and there was a lot of good information. I was fingerprinted and once they run my fingerprints and find out that I'm not a criminal (that takes about a week), I will be officially hired and I will be able to start signing up to work. I was surprised to find out in the orientation how many substitutes they need each day--hundreds! That doesn't mean I'll be working every day, of course. I only signed up to work at a few of the schools, for one thing. Maybe once I've done this for a while and I'm more comfortable with it, I will sign up for more schools. That's all I've done today, really, is go to the orientation. After I got home, I ate lunch and worked on this post for a while before going to pick up Seth from school. I'll be spending the rest of the day updating the budget, probably. That's actually my favorite chore, though. I guess I will always be an accountant. :)

I guess I didn't take any photos this week, so that's all I've got for this week.