Weekly Review March 29 '19

I hear it is snowing in Utah. Sorry, all you folks out there!! Things have been kind of chilly here for most of the week (on Tuesday it was 38 degrees and windy...brrr!) but yesterday was pretty nice and today isn't bad either. We haven't needed to wear coats the last few days, at least--just jackets. Here's what we've been doing this week:

Friday: I took Seth to see a play at his school in the evening. It was called "The Trial of the Wicked Witch" and it was pretty good. One fun thing about the play is that the audience was the "jury"--we got to decide if the witch was innocent or guilty.

In the end, our audience voted that the witch was innocent. (I thought she was guilty.) The actors were all kids in grades 4 - 8, and I was really impressed with the quality of the production. Really, it was better than many of the plays I've seen at the high school! The wicked witch, the wolf, Prince Charming, and Hansel & Gretel in particular did a really great job. It was entertaining and fun.

Saturday: This day started out bright and early because we were one of the families scheduled to help clean the church. (Did I ever mention that Frank is the ward facilities coordinator now? He got that calling at the end of February.) On the way home, we stopped at the pharmacy to get medicine for Frank and then at Walmart to get a few things he needed for his trip to Dallas. (He had another week of training there this week.) He had a busy day working on stuff for clients and I had a busy day submitting my Arc time sheet, getting my Primary lesson done, practicing the ukulele, working on the quilt, communicating with Tanner and Jared about wedding stuff, and trying to figure out the problems with the office furniture website. The website stuff turned out to be pretty stressful because a bunch of crazy unexplainable things were happening but Frank looked at it for me in the evening and he finally figured out that the problems were caused by the browser that I was using. If I use a different browser when I am adding in the products, I don't have those problems. I'm glad that problem is solved!

Sunday: Frank had to get up really early because his flight to Dallas was at 7:00 am. Originally, his flight was in the afternoon but it got cancelled because of the aircraft that are being grounded. He booked another flight and that one got cancelled too! So this early flight was the only option left. I woke up when Frank did and had a hard time going back to sleep so I was tired on Sunday. I did get a nap after church, at least. My companion teacher in Primary wasn't there but a mom of one of the kids in my class helped me and I felt like the lesson went well. It was our ward conference and our Sacrament Meeting was really good.

Monday: I didn't work at the Arc this week, but I spent most of the day on Monday fixing all the problems with the office furniture website. I was finally successful at adding all the new products and having them look right and show up in the right places, though. I managed to get the rest of the normal chores done and even worked on the quilt a little bit. Seth and I watched the movie Home Alone for family night activity. We actually didn't watch the whole thing because the end part was making him laugh too much and laughing still hurts! So does coughing and sneezing. He is mostly a lot better, but he is still tender and we had to do abbreviated brain balance stuff all week. It is just going to take time for him to heal completely.

Tuesday: I had volunteered to work in the school library that morning but after being there for an hour no one had come in so the other lady said I could go home. I shelved a few books and straightened a few shelves out, but that was it. I didn't mind going home, though--I had plenty of other things to do! I got all the normal chores done and got a form sent to Jared that he needed. That evening I had book chat and it was funny because a lot of the women said that the character in the book was really annoying, and I had felt that way too. A few of them hadn't even bothered to finish the book. I did finish it, and I enjoyed it in the end. I just had to keep telling myself that the author exaggerated things to make it funny. Now we are reading a memoir by one of the supreme court justices; I can't remember her name off the top of my head right now!

Wednesday: Nothing too out of the ordinary on this day; I did stop by my friend Wanda's on my way to Walmart because she needed some things from there. I went to my religion class where we spent a few minutes discussing all the rumors we are hearing about what changes are going to be announced at General Conference! It's so ridiculous that people spread rumors, I think! I'm not going to believe anything until I hear it at General Conference. Seth went to YM that evening without a qualm but I went inside with him and made sure he was with an adult before I left. When I arrived to pick him up, he was in the gym playing basketball and he and the boy that hurt him last week were on a team together, playing against everybody else (only 3 or 4 boys). So I guess Seth isn't holding any grudges, which is good.

Thursday: Again, not much to note about this day, I mostly did the regular chores and I didn't have to work at the Arc again. But in the afternoon I went shopping to get a gift for a girl in our ward who is leaving on a mission soon. Her mom is a single parent and she needs some things for her mission, so they are having a "mission shower" for her tonight, which I think is a nice idea. I found a sweater for her and I got a couple of shirts for myself. When I got home, I went through my closet and weeded out some clothes that I haven't worn in a long time (I've been meaning to do that for quite a while). I have a couple of skirts and sweaters that I think this girl might be able to use, so I am taking them to the shower too. I also have a bag of clothes ready to be donated to charity, and I threw out a few things that were really worn out.

Friday: I'm not sure where today went. It is already 5:00! I woke up later than usual, which may be part of why the day seemed to go by so fast. My companion Primary teacher's family is moving to a different house this weekend so after I dropped Seth off at school, I went to her house to help for a little while. I helped her box up everything in her pantry and took a load of it to the new house, where two of her boys unloaded it all. Then I came home and showered and worked on the budget--I didn't completely finish updating everything before I had to pick up Seth from school. We stopped at the library on the way home. Then I finished the budget. I am taking Seth to dinner this evening and going to the mission shower. I would like to get some work done on the quilt and some work done on the office furniture website, but I'm not sure if that is going to happen today.

Throughout the week, I have been working on the quilt when I can and I managed to finish the 4th row. Only one more row to go! I think I need to learn how to use a thimble, though:

Our bishop asked Frank and I to help with the 5th Sunday lesson this Sunday, which is going to be about managing finances wisely. Originally, he asked us to just take about 10 minutes to share some experiences and tips, but it has kind of changed into us teaching a lot of the lesson so I've been thinking about that and working on that a lot this week too.

Meanwhile, Frank has been busy in Dallas with the training class he was taking as well as doing work for clients (remotely) as best he could. I had to go over to one of his clients on Wednesday evening to turn on a server that had shut down--he couldn't do that remotely, of course! He is feeling a little stressed about the business right now and may decide to cut back on some of his clients, but we'll see--I think it has been more stressful for him because he's been out of town so much lately. Of course, I am fully supportive of him cutting back if he needs to. He works so hard all the time! On Wednesday Frank texted me and said "Got a job offer today. Seriously. Wanna move to Dallas?" Well, we're not going to do that! (Although I wouldn't mind living in Texas. I like Texas!) Apparently one of the guys in the training class with him was really impressed with the questions he was asking. He said they could really use him on their QA team! But since he just started a new job, we didn't think that would be a good idea to change again. I mean, we never considered it seriously, but it was an intriguing idea!

And with that intriguing idea, I have run out of things to report this week. Frank will be home late tonight again. We are looking forward to having him back and we're glad this is his last trip for the foreseeable future.

Weekly Review March 22 '19

I seem to be starting with the weather report a lot lately, so today it is cloudy, windy, and kind of cold (temperatures in the 40s). Actually, the sun came out for a little while and that was nice but now it's cloudy again. It rained hard all day yesterday and--no surprise--the river is flooding:

(The first two photos I took from our back deck; the second one is zoomed in a bit. I took the photo below from our mailbox, which is at the end of the street.)

We're about 2/3 of the way through March, and I hope we get some of the warmer spring days soon. This week has been mostly on the chilly side. Here's what happened the rest of the week:

Friday: When I picked Seth up from school, I took him to the library. That evening, there was a family game night at his school so we went to that. It was just a small crowd that showed up and there wasn't anyone there that either of us knew in particular, but we took one of Seth's favorite games (Scribblish) with us and he invited a few kids to play it with us. After we played that game, he wandered around and tried some other games--mostly Twister.

I think he had fun. It was also a potluck dinner; we were supposed to bring an appetizer, finger food, or a dessert. Most people interpreted "finger food" to mean chips, so there was not a lot of "real" food to choose from. I think Seth had cheese puffs and cupcakes for dinner. Ugh!! We took some "Little Smokies" as well as the cake that I won earlier that week--at least I got rid of a few pieces of that!

Frank arrived home safely from Dallas around midnight. Seth was already asleep, and he was really happy to see Frank when he got up on Saturday.

Saturday: Frank did a lot of laundry and I kept busy with a lot of things. I cleaned the kitchen floor, reviewed my Primary lesson, put together some treat bags for my class (it was another birthday!), practiced the ukulele, worked on stuff for my music calling, worked on stuff for the weddings, worked on the quilt, and did some work for one of Frank's clients (I'm adding photos of products to their web page. They are an office furniture store.) Sound like a busy day? It was!

Sunday: This Sunday kind of raced by and it wasn't much of a day of rest. Church was great, as usual. I love the new Primary curriculum! (I know, I've said that before. I haven't changed my mind!) After church I was going to take a nap but something came up with one of my "ministeree" sisters that I needed to handle, which involved a couple of phone calls, including one to our bishop. By the time I finished with that, I couldn't sleep. I feel like the afternoon just kind of disappeared. I did work on my Primary lesson for this week and I did some indexing but that was about it. We had dinner and family night and then I took Seth to a fireside. It was at my friend Rebekah's house and I got to spend the time during the fireside down in her basement visiting with her. So that was nice.

Monday: I didn't work because my Arc lady had other family commitments. It was just as well; I had all the regular chores to do, plus I needed to send some emails related to my music calling, work on some wedding stuff, and work on more stuff for the office furniture web page. I also wanted to get some work done on the quilt, of course. We had a family night activity and treat in the evening. We played Clue and I won because I always win when we play Clue.  (Some luck involved, but I also have a system down! Frank always says "how did you figure that out already??")

Tuesday: We had the Elders over for dinner Tuesday evening. I made a chocolate pudding pie for dessert--I purchased the ingredients so I could make a pie for "Pi Day", but then I got too busy. Other than having the Elders over, it was just the usual chores and "busy-ness".

Wednesday: Seth had a field trip to the library and I kept busy with all the usual chores. Actually, I had extra things to do like work on the office furniture web page, so I skipped the religion class because I knew I was going to run out of time to do everything. (And I was right--I never would have finished everything.) I talked to both Tanner and Jared that day about wedding stuff, too. I was planning to spend the time while Seth was at YM finishing up stuff for the office furniture web page, but that didn't end up happening. I dropped him off at the church a few minutes before 7:00, but about 10 after 7:00 one of the counselors in our bishopric called to say that Seth had been "roughhousing" with one of the older kids and Seth got hurt. He wasn't badly hurt, but he was pretty upset and he said we should probably come get him. Frank was working on maintenance for some of his clients, so I turned around and went back to the church. When I got to the church, he was sitting on a foyer in the couch with two of his leaders. When he saw me, he burst into sobs and got up, but he could not even stand up straight. As far as I can tell from what he (and the leaders) told me, the older boy wrapped his arms around him and picked him up and turned him upside down, squeezing him really tightly the whole time. And according to Seth, they weren't playing...the older boy chased after him because Seth played a few notes on the piano when the older boy was trying to play. I mean, I don't know if the other boy was actually angry or just being playful. I doubt he meant to really hurt Seth, but that was the end result anyway. I was concerned because Seth seemed so distraught (and he usually is pretty tough when he gets hurt) and also because he said it hurt to take a deep breath. As I said before, he didn't really want to straighten up all the way and he was holding his hand on a spot in the middle of his chest. When I got him home, he stopped on the sidewalk and just knelt down for a while because it hurt to breathe. Frank and I decided we should probably get him checked out to make sure he didn't have a cracked rib or sternum or something and since it was after hours, we had to take him to the ER. He was still pretty upset on the way over there. The nice thing about him being a child is that they have a separate pediatric unit that they take kids to immediately, so we didn't have to wait in the ER waiting room forever. The pediatric unit was really busy, though, so once we got up there we had to wait a little while for a room to open up and then we had to wait a long time for the doctor to come see him. But they gave him some ibuprofen and at least we were in a room with a bed, chairs, and even a television:

 
By the time the doctor finally arrived, Seth was feeling a lot better and the doctor barely glanced at him. He just told us to give him ibuprofen or acetaminophen and told him to avoid strenuous activity for a few days and wrote a note so that he wouldn't have to participate in PE at school the next day. (Seth loves PE, so he wasn't exactly thrilled about that.) We were a little annoyed that he didn't examine him any closer, just because he was looking pretty calm. But if we'd had to go through xrays and all that, it would have taken a lot more time. As it was, we didn't get home until 10:00. At any rate, we are glad that Seth wasn't badly hurt.

Thursday: Seth said he felt sore, but that he was well enough to go to school. He was moving slowly and obviously had some discomfort, but he seemed to be doing better. I gave him some ibuprofen before I took him to school and he did fine. He seems to be feeling even better today. I spent a lot of time on Thursday finishing up the stuff that I had intended to do on Wednesday evening for the office furniture website. I got all the new photos and product information ready to add, but I was waiting on a response to a technical question I had before I actually added them. Besides the website work, I got all the regular chores done and worked on the quilt a little bit. Seth got to skip brain balance since that involves quite a bit of physical activity (like curl ups and push ups).

Friday: Today I worked on the budget in the morning. Then I went to lunch with Frank. When I got back I noticed I had received a response to my technical question about the website, so I tried adding some of the new products, but there is still some sort of problem. They did get added, but not all of them are showing up in the proper places when I do a search for them. So I am going to have to figure that out. I finished up the budget and started this post and then went to pick up Seth from school. We stopped at the library on our way home to renew a few items, return a few items, and check out a few new things. Tonight I am taking Seth to see a play at his school.

Seth is still moving really slowly in the mornings (although I have not yet been successful at getting him to bed earlier) but I've managed to get him to school on time every day. I had the idea a few days ago that I should say a prayer with him in the mornings (somewhere along the line we got out of the habit of doing that) and praying has at least helped both of us stay calmer. I don't think he is moving faster or staying more focused, but at least we aren't arguing or yelling at each other.

I have not had as much time to quilt this week, but I have worked on it at least a little bit every day. I finished the third row and I have started on the fourth row. here it is with the 3 rows completed:

Here's a close up:

Hopefully I will have more time to work on it this coming week!

That is all the news I can think of for this week.

Weekly Review March 15 '19

When I wrote last Friday, I mentioned it was snowing. Today it is 70 degrees! That's spring weather for you. Tomorrow we are back down to the high 40s / low 50s which isn't nearly so nice, but is still not bad. Yesterday was pretty warm also (although not as warm as today) and it was fun to see the whole neighborhood come out of hibernation, haha! We're all enjoying the warmer temperatures while they last. Here is a summary of our week:

Saturday: Seth was begging me to make muffins on Friday night, so I made muffins for breakfast on Saturday morning. I also made a pan of brownies for my Primary class--one of the kids had a birthday and that is the treat he asked for. The rest of the day I kept really busy filling out my time sheet for the Arc, cleaning the kitchen floor, practicing the ukulele, working on stuff for my music calling, completing a projected income worksheet for Jared (part of his petition to get financial aid), helping Seth prepare a lesson for YM the following day, and working on the quilt. Meanwhile, Frank was doing laundry (I helped with that) and packing because he had a business trip this week and he was flying out on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday: Frank came to church to take the sacrament, but he had to leave after that. Only 4 of the 8 kids in my Primary class showed up; the birthday boy was one of the missing children! I know at least one of the kids was sick, but I think a lot of people forgot to set their clocks ahead one hour for daylight savings time. There were a lot of kids missing from Primary, not just kids in my class. After church I took a nap and did the usual indexing, scripture study, etc. Seth and I also watched Snow White together. Frank arrived in Dallas safely. He was there all week (he's still there, actually) getting training on the system that the Roy Rogers restaurants use. He will be back late tonight. We've missed him and we're glad he'll be back soon! 

Monday: I didn't have to work so I got some extra errands done (besides the usual chores). I took some cards over to my ministering companion's house for her to sign (the cards are for the sisters we minister to) and I ended up having a pretty long chat with her. Her husband was laid off from his job about the same time as Frank was, and he still doesn't have a job (although he has a part time temporary job at least) so I asked her how she was doing. She's handling things pretty well but I think she really needed someone to just vent to for a while. So I'm glad I asked. I also took Snickers on a walk (it was chilly, but not too cold). In the evening, Seth and I got ice cream at Dairy Queen and played a game for family night. I worked on the quilt a lot that day, too.

Tuesday: After dropping Seth off at school, I went to a "new" store here in Frederick because I just wanted to see what it was like. I put new in quotation marks because it actually opened last summer but I decided then that I was not going to go there while Frank was unemployed. I would probably just see a lot of things I wanted and feel depressed that I couldn't buy anything. The store is called At Home, and it's a home furniture / decor store. It's huge and I wandered around that store for an hour and a half! But I didn't buy anything--I'm proud of myself for that! Actually, I really wasn't tempted. I saw a lot of things that I liked, but nothing that I really need right now. In the future if I am looking for a specific item like a piece of furniture or a rug or something to hang on the wall, then I will probably go there to look because they have a really wide selection so I will probably find what I want there. But for now, I am good! After "shopping", I came home and got all the regular chores done and worked on the quilt a bit. That evening I went to the monthly RS meeting, which was the RS birthday celebration. It turned out to be really fun. One sister showed us how to do several cake decorating techniques (she had 5 display cakes that showed different techniques) and then we had a little cake decorating competition. We were seated at tables according to our birth months, and each table made a cake. (There were only 7 cakes because some of the tables who didn't have a lot of people combined together and some tables had two months assigned to them in the first place.) I was at the June / July table (of course), but it turns out that all of us were born in July. We decided that we should make a summer themed cake, so this is what we came up with:

We used one of the techniques we learned to get the different colors on the side of the cake. They had several bags of different colors of frosting available for us to use, as well as a lot of sprinkles, fruit, and some flowers. They didn't actually have black sprinkles but they had some sprinkles that were black, purple, green, and blue combined, so we went through it and picked out a bunch of black ones to sprinkle on our cake for the "seeds". It turned out looking pretty good, don't you think?

Here are the other cakes (including ours) I think they all turned out really nice:

That last cake, if you can't tell, is a rendition of "The Three Little Pigs". Here is our bishopric judging the cakes:

Third place went to the cake with the flowers "growing" on the side, second place went to the 3 Little Pigs cake, and first place went to our watermelon cake! We were so proud of ourselves! :) The people on the second and third place teams each got a candy bar for a prize. But the members of the first place team each got to take home one of the display cakes. Here they are:  

 This is the one that I got:

I picked that one because it reminded me of the cake that Jared & Jessie want for their wedding. Seth wanted a piece when I brought it home, of course, but then he decided that he didn't like it! (Probably because it is different from the boxed cake mix / canned frosting cakes that he is used to. This one was made from scratch and has homemade buttercream frosting.) That has left me with the whole cake to myself...yikes! I mean, I think it's delicious, but I can't eat a whole cake! Anyway, after the judging, we had a spiritual message and then they cut all the competition cakes and we ate those for refreshments. Look how cute our cake looks when it's cut...kind of like a slice of watermelon!:

Wednesday: I was super busy with just the usual things. Having the religion class in the middle of the day always makes Wednesdays busy...I get Walmart shopping done in the morning and then go to the class. After class, I only have a little bit of time before I have to pick up Seth from school. Then there is brain balance and dinner before taking Seth to YM. So I feel like I run from one thing to another all day! I did manage to work on the quilt, but just a little bit. I also was texting Tanner a lot that day about wedding stuff and texting with Jessie's mom about wedding stuff too! And I called Mom and talked to her for a while also.

Thursday: I got chores done in the morning and then went to work for a couple of hours in the afternoon. After work I took Snickers for a walk and worked on the quilt a little bit. I took Seth out to dinner that night and let him choose where we went. He chose Golden Corral, which is not my favorite but it was pretty good. It's a buffet place and I usually end up eating too much because there are so many choices! On the way home we stopped to drop off something for one of the sisters I minister to. Her kids were outside playing and I got to visit with her for a bit while Seth played with her kids. I haven't seen her in a while so it was good to get caught up a little bit.

Friday: Today so far I just got the budget caught up, and of course now I have this blog post mostly done!

Meanwhile, Frank was in Dallas all week, as I mentioned before. I don't feel like I've been able to talk to him much because the times he was available to talk didn't line up very well with the times I was available, but we did talk a little bit every day. There were 3 other people getting the training with him...one from Seattle who works for Taco Time, and two from Jamaica, who work for KFC. The two guys from Jamaica didn't have a car so in the evenings he often took them to dinner with him and he also took them shopping a bunch of places. I laughed when he told me on Monday that he took them to Best Buy to do some shopping...this is what computer nerds do when they get together!! But actually, he said that they can get a lot of things here in the states that they can't get at home and a lot of things are less expensive here too. So another night he took them to a clothing store and a third night he took them to Walmart. He went to see a movie on one of the other nights. He says he has learned a ton in the training. I think he has had a pretty good week but he is glad to be coming home today. At home, Seth tried to convince me every night to let him sleep in my bed (he thinks our bed is a lot more comfortable than his)! I never gave in, though. Seth has continued to struggle with moving quickly in the mornings and he has almost been late to school more than once. Not sure why he is going through this phase, but I'm going to work on getting him to bed sooner to see if that helps. It's not that he's sleeping in, though. He's awake--he just doesn't get out of bed for a long time. Then once he's up, he gets distracted a lot and plays instead of getting ready for school. It's frustrating, but we'll keep working on it.

To finish up, I worked on the quilt a lot over the weekend (not Sunday) and tried to work on it every day this week, even though some days that was only a little bit. I made a lot of progress and actually finished quilting the second row of squares and I am almost half way through the third row. So that is encouraging that I could get that much done in a week. Seems like the first row took me at least 3 weeks to complete. Maybe I will get it finished sooner than I thought! I hope so, because this quilt is actually for Jared & Jessie (they don't know this, so don't tell them if you talk to them!) and I'd like to get one made for Tanner & Darlee now too. I doubt I will get theirs done before their wedding but hopefully I will at least get it started.

And that is all I've got for this week!

Weekly Review March 8 '19

It is snowing. Not very hard, and it's not really sticking, but still...it is snowing! This week has been really cold too--as in highs in the 20s or 30s most days. Not very typical March weather. I know winter can't hang on forever, though! We are supposed to get some much nicer days in the next week. Now that we've got the weather report out of the way, here's what else we did this week:

Sunday: I had choir practice and church meetings as usual. When I got to Primary, my team teacher wasn't there and then her husband (who plays the piano) asked if I got her message. No, I hadn't (because my phone was turned down). She was sick and wasn't going to make it. I went back to let one of the counselors know I was going to need a helper but on the way I encountered one of the moms of one of the kids in my class and she asked me if I needed help and volunteered to help me so that problem was solved! (Bless people who volunteer like that!) After church I stopped to see my friend Wanda because she hadn't made it to church. She was okay, just didn't come because she thought the weather was going to be bad (and it was supposed to snow...it just hadn't started snowing yet). She needed some things from the store, so I promised to come back on Wednesday morning when I was on my way to the store to get a list from her. The rest of Sunday was spent at home reading scriptures, indexing, and so forth. I discovered a bunch of new family activities on Family Search so Seth and I looked at some of those. I did one activity where they matched my features (from a photo I uploaded) to my ancestors and told me who I looked like. The strongest match was...my mom! I was a 70% match to her. It did start snowing that afternoon and we got a couple of inches of snow.

Monday: Because of the snow, there was a 2 hour delay for school. I was supposed to be taking my Arc lady to the doctor at 9:30, but the delay messes up her schedule too (because she works for before and after school care) so she had to change her appointment. Instead, I did go pick her up at 11:00 (after I took Seth to school) and took her to run a few errands. It was a short day, though...I only worked for about a half hour. She had sick family members that she needed to help take care of on Thursday, so I didn't work on Thursday at all. Anyway, the rest of Monday was pretty busy with regular chores, plus taking Snickers to the vet. I did also manage to file our state tax return. (I filed the federal return on Saturday and it was accepted.) The vet visit was his annual check up. He had to have several vaccines, blood work done, and they also drew some cells out of a growth to test them. It all added up to a pretty hefty bill before we were done, and there's more to come because he also needs an ultrasound ( to check his liver) and his teeth cleaned (they should have been cleaned last year but we put it off because of the job situation). The blood work they did showed that his liver still has some problems so we're doing the ultrasound to check it out. 

Tuesday:There's not a lot to say about Tuesday. I got the usual chores done and worked on the quilt.

Wednesday: Wednesday was also pretty standard, although pretty busy since I stopped by my friend Wanda's to get her list and I also have the religion class on Wednesdays. I got the shopping done before the class and when I picked up Seth from school he came with me to drop off Wanda's things at her place. I was glad he was there to help me because although she didn't have a lot of stuff, one thing was bottled water and that was pretty heavy, of course. That evening Frank took Seth to YM and back so I could work on the quilt. For YM they learned how to build a fire. Seth seemed to have fun even though they were outside and that was the coldest day of the week with highs in the 20s, plus it was windy! After they got a fire built, they had hot chocolate and s'more pop tarts.

Thursday: Normal busy Thursday, plus I worked on the quilt some more and I got my hair cut. I finished the first row of 5 squares on the quilt:

I also started working on the next row last night. I am pleased with how it looks so far but it is taking a long time!

Friday: Today I got the budget caught up and I met Frank for a lunch date. He is keeping busy at work and it seems to be going well. He was also pretty busy with some work for clients after hours a couple of evenings this week. When I picked Seth up from school this afternoon, we stopped at the library to pick up a few movies I put on hold for Seth and he got another book and a couple of games too. The movies were two classic Disney movies--Snow White and Cinderella--because he's never seen them. We used to have a lot of the classic Disney movies, but they were on VHS and our video tape recorder died a long time ago so I gave away all our VHS movies.

I did a lot of reading this week, too, and finished the book for book chat which is called Confessions of a Domestic Failure. There were things I didn't like about the book when I first started it, but I liked the way it ended and it was pretty funny at times and definitely entertaining.

Update of Tanner's wedding: they have chosen June 28th for the wedding date and will be married in the Payson Temple. The ceremony will be at 1:00. They are going to have a reception that evening in Orem in Darlee's backyard. They don't have very many details figured out yet, but that is the basics. I talked to Darlee's mom for a while on Wednesday evening to discuss some of the plans but most of it is still pretty up in the air at this point. I'll keep everyone updated on important details as we figure things out.

To finish up, here is a humorous piece of junk mail we got today:

Haha, I wasn't aware that I had a daughter!!

Not so funny...in the last few weeks we have received a couple of unexpected bills. One was for some imaging Frank had done on his knees 2 1/2 years ago! (Right after his second accident.) Oh, and it was a $2000 bill! We're pretty sure that they never submitted the bill to our health insurance, or if they did they did it recently and our insurance has changed since then so of course it would be denied. We called the lawyer who handled the settlement for that wreck and they are looking into it. Hopefully we won't have to pay the bill (our insurance would have covered most if not all of it if it had been submitted in a timely manner) but it is just another hassle to worry about. Then last week we got a bill related to a rental car we had during the summer of 2017 in Utah. One of Mom's neighbors backed into it when it was parked on the street in front of her house and caused some damage. Apparently his (the neighbor's) insurance paid most of the bill but not all of it and they are saying that we are responsible for the rest. It's not a large amount, at least, but in principle I don't think we should have to pay anything since we were completely not at fault. (We were asleep in bed when he hit our car, and we were legally parked.) So there's another hassle to work through. Then today I got a bill for a routine doctor visit I had last month, which should have been covered by our insurance. When I called on that one, it turned out that they had one of the numbers in my member ID wrong, so when they submitted it to my health insurance company they couldn't identify me as a member and so they denied the claim. At least that one is being resubmitted to the insurance so it should be taken care of. But seriously! I hope we don't receive any more surprise bills dealing with things that happened a year or two ago!!

That's it for this week.

Weekly Review March 1 '19

I didn't get the weekly review written yesterday because I was gone a good portion of the day and didn't get home until nearly midnight. I'll get to that later. Going back to last Saturday, here's what we did:

Saturday: I worked in the morning, helping the lady with the hip replacement. (Her last name is Bell, I will refer to them as "the Bells" from now on to make things simpler!) Frank took Seth to see the movie How to Train your Dragon 3, which Seth really loved. They were still gone when I got home.  I spent the rest of the day running some errands (including going to the library), submitted my Arc timesheet, practicing the ukulele, cleaning the kitchen floor, and working on stuff for my music calling. In the evening, I went to a "girls night" with some of my friends--we just visited and ate snacks, but it was fun. There were a few new people that I hadn't had the chance to get to know very well until then, so it was nice to get to know them better.

Sunday: Church as usual, and then I went to help the Bells for 3 hours. After that I went to visit a friend in the ward--she fell and broke her hip several weeks ago but they didn't diagnose it correctly for 5 weeks! So then she had to have surgery to get her hip put back together. She is doing better now and is able to walk with a walker but isn't getting out much yet. Anyway, we had a nice visit. Frank had some small emergencies come up with a few clients, so he was working a bit. After I got home from my visit it was dinner time so Sunday went by fast! I did get some time to do some scripture study and go over my Primary lesson too though. I knew that Tanner was planning to propose to Darlee on Sunday and by late evening I hadn't heard anything so I texted him to ask him to please keep me updated and he replied a few minutes later with "Just happened!!" and this photo:

So that was pretty exciting, of course! They called me a while later so we could talk for a little while. They haven't set a firm wedding date yet, but they are talking about the last weekend in June. If they do that, Tanner's wedding will be 2 weeks after Jared's...on the opposite side of the country! It's going to be crazy, but we are happy for both our boys, of course!

Monday: The lady I support at the Arc was sick, so I didn't work that day. My friend Rebekah texted me to see if I could go to lunch on Wednesday but that day was booked. I told her I was really busy all week but I did have time to go to lunch that day if she happened to be free and she was, so we went to lunch right then instead. Other than that, it was a pretty normal day and I just got the usual chores done.

Tuesday: This was a busy day. I worked at the Bells in the morning. Then in the afternoon I had a webinar training to learn how to do the web page stuff for Frank's client. I don't think it's going to be too hard although I need to go over it again. After all that it was time for the usual pick up Seth from school / brain balance / make dinner routine. After dinner my ministering sisters came to visit me. They stayed quite a while but I worked on the quilt while I visited with them so I got quite a bit done on it and now I am working on squares 4 and 5 out of 25. (Yes, still a long way to go.)

Wednesday: I ran from one thing to another all day long! I worked at the Bells in the morning. I went straight from there to the religion class. (I ate a lunch that I had packed on the way there.) Then I went home long enough to let Snickers out and then I went to visit one of the sisters I minister to. She had a baby at the end of November, and this is actually the first time I've seen her since she had her baby but I have kept in touch with her by texting nearly every week to see if I could help her with anything. Her mom and one of her sisters live nearby and have been helping her a lot and actually they were both there when I went to visit. I think adjusting to motherhood hasn't been easy for her but she is doing a lot better now. After that visit, it was time to pick up Seth from school. After dinner I took Seth to his YM activity (actually scouts that night) and then went to Walmart to get the weekly shopping done since I hadn't had time to do that earlier in the day. Frank was doing some work for a client but he finished so he meet me at Walmart and helped me get all the groceries. Then he went to pick Seth up from YM while I took the groceries home and got everything put away.

Thursday: I had a lot to do on Thursday also, partly because I had to catch up on chores that I didn't get done on Tuesday and Wednesday, besides the usual Thursday chores. I also worked at the Arc for a couple of hours in the afternoon. While I was out taking the lady I support to the places she needed to go, we both got text messages from the school system saying that the next day's scheduled 2 hour early release had been changed to a 2 hour delay. That's because we were predicted to get 1 to 3 inches of snow overnight. It made sense--since there is not much point in going to school 2 hours late and then getting out 2 hours early--but it caused complications for a lot of people, including me. It was complicated for me because I was planning to go to the temple with a group the next day and we had to leave at 2:30 in order to get to the temple in time for the 6:30 session. Since it was supposed to be a 2 hour early release, Seth would get out at 1:30.  (His school gets out at 3:30 every day except Fridays. On Fridays he gets out at 2:30. But when there is a 2 hour early release on a Friday, he actually gets out 2 hours earlier than the usual 3:30 dismissal time, not 2 hours earlier than the Friday 2:30 dismissal time.) When they changed back to getting out on time, that meant I would need to pick him up at 2:30--which is the same time that I needed to be at leaving the church to go to the temple. However, Frank also got the message and knew that would mess me up. He talked to his boss and got permission to leave work long enough to pick Seth up and take him home, so I could still go to the temple.

Friday:  First day of March! We probably got about an inch or more of snow but it didn't stick to sidewalks or roads which is my kind of snow! (No shoveling, no slippery roads.) I mean, the roads were probably a little icy but I didn't have to go anywhere until 11:00 (to take Seth to school) so the roads were fine by then. I tried to get going on the budget but Seth was a distraction. After I took him to school, I did work on it but I had other things to do too so I didn't get everything done before I needed to start getting ready to go to the temple. Originally, about 10 women were going to go (it was an RS temple trip) but with the schedule change and lots of other things that came up, only 4 of us were able to go in the end. It was still nice. Every time Frank and I have driven to the Philadelphia Temple, we have encountered horrible traffic and it takes us much longer to get there than it should have. This time the traffic was not very bad so we got to the temple in a little over 3 hours. (Technically it should be 2 1/2 hours, so we still had some traffic slow downs, but that is still pretty good!) That gave us plenty of time to change and so forth--it was nice not to be rushed! I haven't been able to go to the temple since November, so it was really nice to be there again. Our session was packed--they had to bring in extra chairs and there were at least 2 people there who were receiving their own endowment. Even so, thanks to the shorter endowment session, we were back in the car on our way home by shortly after 8:30. We got back to the church by 11:30. It rained / slushed on the way home and there was a layer of slushy ice / snow on my car when we got back but the roads weren't bad going home. I enjoyed visiting with the other 3 ladies on the way to Philadelphia and back and I am really, really glad I got to go to the temple again! It is so hard to get there right now. I had such a busy week that I wasn't sure how I was going to manage a trip to the temple too but I wanted to go so badly and I'm glad I did it. Somehow everything else got done anyway. And big bonus: I didn't have to drive!! :)

Saturday: This morning I worked at the Bells, but that was my last day doing that. I enjoyed getting to know them--they are really nice ladies! I've been pretty busy the rest of the day cleaning the kitchen floor, finishing the budget, reviewing my Primary lesson, and working on things for my music calling. After I finish this post, I am going to hopefully figure out the problem with our taxes and get them filed.

I have been trying a few new recipes from the diabetic cookbooks lately and here is one I made recently that Frank and I both really liked:

Blancos Huevos Ranchero! It's scrambled egg whites with cheese, avocado, cilantro, salsa verde, greek yogurt, and jalepeno pepper (I omitted the jalepeno from mine) on toasted corn tortillas. It's actually really flavorful and yummy and bonus--it's pretty healthy too.

I had a pretty difficult week with Seth. He has just not been moving very fast (getting very distracted) in the mornings and since I had places I needed to be some mornings that stressed me out. At the beginning of the school year, he was doing so well at getting up and getting ready for school quickly. Now he dawdles and plays and wastes a lot of time so that he barely has time to eat a little bit before we need to leave. He does this in spite of repeated reminders from me, but then tries to shift the blame back on me when we're running late. ("You should have woken me up earlier." "You should have told me 'no' when I climbed into your bed instead of getting in the shower" Fact: he woke up an hour earlier than usual on this particular morning and I did tell him not to get in my bed but he did it anyway! It's really frustrating and discouraging. I have been working so hard on brain balance with him but so far it doesn't seem to be doing any good. I hope we will see some results at some point and that it hasn't been a waste of time.

But to end on a positive note, I have been noticing something really cool about music during Sacrament meeting. Since I am the ward music chair and am in charge of choosing all the hymns, I notice the music more than anybody else, I'm sure. For most meetings, a member of the bishopric will let me know the topic for the talks ahead of time so that I can choose hymns that will go along with the topic. Sometimes it is easy to choose hymns that coordinate, but some topics are more challenging. I usually get the topic only a week or two in advance which means that I can usually choose hymns based on that topic, but most of the special musical numbers need to be arranged farther in advance so I never know what the topic is going to be when I set those up. In spite of that, it is amazing how almost always the music coordinates perfectly with what is said! This Sunday, for instance, the topic was "self worth". That was a more difficult topic to choose hymns for--I mean, that's not one of the topics listed in the topics index in the back of the hymnbook. So I have to go more from memory, trying to think of hymns that will sort of fit that idea. I immediately thought of "I Am a Child of God", but couldn't think of much else. So I had to leaf through the pages a bit and look at other topics that I thought were related enough that I might find something and eventually I was kind of drawn to the hymn "Our Savior's Love", so I chose that for the closing hymn. Meanwhile, I had arranged to have one of the brothers in our ward sing a solo. He had offered to sing "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" for Christmas, but I already had a full program planned so I asked him if he could sing it in January or February. I originally asked another group to perform this Sunday, but it was a bad week for them so they asked to do theirs another week. So then I asked this brother if he was available to sing that week and he was, so that's what I had planned. This is long before I knew the topic for the talks. So as I said, I notice the words to the songs a lot more now and this Sunday the words to those songs all blended so perfectly--not just with the topic in general--but with specific things that the speakers said. It is just really humbling to realize that Heavenly Father pays attention to the details--ALL the details! (And just today I found out that the topic for 2 weeks from now is "testimony of the Savior" and the the musical number that I arranged for that week is "The King of Love My Shepherd Is". Another perfect fit! I should also note that it's not really me who is doing this--the person performing the song picked it. So everyone involved is being nudged by the spirit.) Anyway, I just love that! I love seeing His hand in even the small details of our meetings. That turned into quite a ramble, but hopefully it made sense!

Weekly Review February 22 '19

Just for a change, I am going to do categories this week.

Cub Scout Cake Bake Off: On Friday evening the Cub Scouts had a father / son cake bake off and a game night. This normally would not impact me at all, since I am no longer a Cub Scout leader and I also don't have a son in Cub Scouts anymore. But since they knew they would have a lot of extra cake, they decided to invite all the Primary teachers to come share the cake. And since I used to work with the boys and I knew that Seth would enjoy a game night, Seth and I went. (Frank tries to avoid places where people are eating cake!) We got there late because our dinner took a lot longer to cook than it was supposed to, but there was still plenty of cake left and we both got to join in and play a game, so it was fun. I played a game I had never played before called "Dead Ringer". It was fun and very simple (easy to learn). I'm glad we made the effort to go. 

Valentine's Day breakfast: Frank and I went to Cracker Barrel on Saturday morning as a late Valentine's Day celebration. It was nice, and besides a great breakfast I also acquired a new set of salt & pepper shakers. They always have lots of cute S&P sets in their store, but I'm pretty good at resisting purchasing them. But how was I supposed to resist these?:

While we are on the subject of Valentine's Day, here is a better photo of my roses, looking red instead of pink:

Stake Conference: We had stake conference this weekend, which is always nice. Frank didn't have to attend the leadership meeting on Saturday so we were able to go to the adult session together, which was also nice. We had to go to the stake center for the adult session, but the general session was broadcast to our ward building so we went there on Sunday. (Thanks to Frank, who pulled all the cable in the building years ago when he was the stake IT clerk!) This stake conference was particularly exciting and emotional because we got a new stake presidency. I don't know any of the new presidency particularly well, but the new stake president and one of his counselors were (are still) serving as bishops of their wards, so there will be lots of changes up the road for some of the other wards. The other counselor was (is) serving as the stake YM president, so there's another change coming up too. I'm sure they will be great! And I feel very grateful to the outgoing presidency...they were wonderful!

Jobs: Frank's new job seems to be going well. He had lots of meetings this week and he is learning everything that he is supposed to be doing. They also encourage him to go to the local restaurants for lunch (he doesn't have to pay for it) and to introduce himself and get to know the managers and people working there. On Monday he decided to go to the restaurant closest to our house and he called and invited Seth and I to come over for lunch too. (Seth didn't have school because of President's Day. Our food isn't free, but we do get a discount.) Frank has also been doing work for clients in the evenings and sometimes in the early morning, so he is keeping pretty busy.

Meanwhile, one of his clients needs someone to update their website (add photos, etc) and they asked if I would be interested in doing it. It would only be a few hours a week and I can do it from home, so I decided to give it a try. I also started another job today--helping a lady who just had hip replacement surgery. She is the caregiver for her 93 year old mother, so she needs some help for herself and some for her mother. It's 3 hours each morning, but it will only be for 2 weeks. Another sister in our ward is going to do some of the days (mostly the days that I am supposed to work at the Arc). I really don't feel like I was very helpful today--I did make breakfast for them and took out some trash and let their dogs outside once. The rest of the time I was just talking with them. But she said that is mostly all they need--just a little bit of help, and someone to keep them company.

I didn't end up working at the Arc this week so that job continues to be very sporadic and unpredictable. My RS president also called me this week to tell me that a sister in our ward who does bookkeeping from home 2 days a week wants to retire at the end of this summer and is interested in training someone who could then apply to take her place (no guarantees, I guess). She wanted to know if I am interested. So I will have to think about that! I probably won't need to work long term but if I have learned anything the last several months it is that it would be a good idea for me to get some more recent experience in the accounting field, just in case. So this job sounds pretty ideal for that. I just want to make sure that my family doesn't suffer because they are my top priority. The last several months has reminded me of that, too!

Taxes: We filed our tax returns on Monday but received emails on Tuesday saying our returns were rejected because of an error. We were supposed to include an explanation to go with one of the forms and we didn't. Don't ask me why our tax software didn't alert us to this fact when it "checked for errors" and found none. At any rate, once I looked at the form and all the calculations that go with it, I could not figure out why we have to file it in the first place. So I'm still trying to figure it out. It's too complicated to explain in detail, but basically the explanation we omitted is an explanation for why we underpaid our taxes last year. The trouble is...we didn't. We actually overpaid. Go figure.

Snow days: We had another snow day this week, on Wednesday. They actually decided to cancel school the evening before because it was supposed to start snowing early in the morning and it was predicted that we would get 5 - 8 inches of snow. It did snow pretty hard, and we got about 6 inches of snow and the roads were a mess so it was nice that we didn't have to go anywhere. I actually forgot about my religion class, but I'm pretty sure it was cancelled. Seth didn't have YM that evening either. I usually go grocery shopping on Wednesdays, but Frank was smart and suggested I go Tuesday evening instead (he came with me to help me) so I didn't even have to do that. We're up to 6 snow days this year now and school is not going to get out until June 19th. Thursday morning we had a 2 hour delay so the school week was pretty chopped up. I doubt it was very productive!

Quilting: I've been working on the quilt whenever I get the chance. I enjoy it, and it's not hard, but it is going to take forever to finish it!! Here's how it looks now:

I'm working on the third square out of 25. At this rate, I might finish it by June. Wish me luck!

Other things: Besides everything else, we fed the missionaries on Saturday and on Tuesday evening (after grocery shopping) I had book chat. We have a tradition that every February we have fondue--both chocolate and cheese. One of the ladies in the group makes really delicious cheese and chocolate fondue. The rest of us bring things to dip--cookies, cake, fruits, vegetables, pretzels, keilbasa, etc. It's always really yummy!! Oh, and we had a good discussion about Before We Were Yours as well. Now we are going to read a book called Confessions of a Domestic Failure.

I was working on financial stuff this afternoon, as I usually do on Friday, and I realized again--as I was looking over the numbers--that the Lord really has looked out for us and taken care of us these last several months. Just one example--I had to move funds from the business account to our personal account to cover all the expenses for the last couple of months. (Although Frank is working now, he hasn't received a paycheck yet.) I also paid tithing on the income that has come in from the business for the last couple of months. (I set tithing money aside when income comes in, but sometimes it accumulates for a while before I remember to actually pay it.) And guess what? The tithing I paid was almost exactly 10% of the amount I had to move over. So in other words--the amount of income that the business brought in was almost exactly the amount we needed to cover all our expenses. Normally, the business doesn't bring in that much. Another thing that I've noticed is that we don't run out of stuff as often. (You know, things like toothpaste, paper towels, shampoo, etc.) I'm sure that's not a coincidence either. I've actually been praying that we would be able to manage our resources wisely and that what we had would last longer. That prayer has definitely been answered. Just wanted to record that so that I will never forget!

I've managed to exercise every day and while I am exercising, I have been watching a show called Victoria, which is about Queen Victoria. It's pretty interesting and I've mostly enjoyed it. They definitely embellish the facts a lot, or move actual events to different time periods to make things more dramatic or help the story line along. (I can't watch anything historical without checking the facts!) But anyway, it's pretty good. It also helps jogging go faster if you have something interesting to distract you!

That is everything I can think of to report this week but I have to finish up with this cute photo of Snickers curled up on a pillow on the couch:

 

Weekly Review February 15 '19

Why do Fridays always go by so fast? Seems like I just got up, and it's already almost dinner time. We had a pretty full week. Here is what we did:

Saturday: I can't remember Saturday all that well, but I think Frank was pretty busy finishing up work for clients that he wanted to get done before he started his new job. So he was gone a lot of the day. I did the usual--filled out my time sheet for my Arc job, cleaned the kitchen floor, practiced ukulele, worked on the quilt. I also did some wedding related stuff and worked on our tax return.

Sunday: I can't remember anything out of the ordinary about Sunday except that we sat with my friend Wanda on the front row. (Several families take turns sitting with her to help her if she needs it.) I love Primary! I think the new curriculum is the best. When we start talking about the subject of the lesson, all the kids' little faces light up and they say "we talked about this at home!" and they have all these great things to say about the topic. It's the best. I am really enjoying having church in the morning and having the rest of the day to read scriptures and so forth. I actually have a hard time fitting in all the things I want to do!

Monday: It snowed a few inches on Sunday night and the roads were icy, so school was cancelled. Seth actually did something besides watch television all day:

He's playing a game called "Dog Pile", which I got him for Christmas. I got it on a whim, and I'm glad I did because he really likes it. Plus, it's the kind of game that makes you use your brain. Shhh...don't tell him!

Frank started his new job so he has had a very busy week. He worked at his office on Monday, mostly getting oriented and filling out paperwork. But he rest of the week he was working at one of the restaurants in Hagerstown (about 30 minutes northwest of Frederick) because they wanted him to see the technology in action--how it works at the stores. He was mostly there to observe and to be trained, but he did jump in and do everything from flipping burgers to working in the drive through too. He seemed to really enjoy it! (But he says he would never want to work at a fast food restaurant as a regular job!) I didn't work on Monday (the lady I support had to watch her nephew) but I managed to keep pretty busy anyway. It's been a bit of an adjustment this week to have Frank gone all day. I've grown accustomed to having him around a lot more! I miss him, but I'm not complaining that he has a job. Monday evening we had family night and then Frank and I went to the store to get him some clothes--he needed black pants for working at the restaurant this week (they gave him 3 polo shirts to wear), and for the office he needs to wear nice pants and button up shirts (not necessarily white, and he doesn't have to wear a tie) most of the time. He really doesn't have a lot of clothes like that. He mostly has polo shirts and he only has one pair of church pants and 2 button up shirts, both white. We got him two pair of black pants and 2 or 3 shirts (they were all patterns--plaids or stripes), but I wanted to get him some more pants (colors other than black) and a few more solid colored shirts, so I went online last night and ordered 2 more shirts and 3 pairs of pants. The shirts are both blue (but different shades) and he now has navy blue, dark gray, and khaki pants too. I was actually thrilled that he was forced to buy new clothes for himself. He hates spending money and he hates shopping and therefore he hardly ever gets new clothes, and mostly wears ratty old polo shirts with holes in them. I told him very firmly that it really is okay for him to invest in a new wardrobe and I also made him go to a store other than Walmart, hoping to get a bit higher quality. I'm looking forward to seeing him in some nice clothes!

Tuesday: Frank had to be at work at 9:00 am. School was cancelled again--I'm not sure why, because the roads weren't too bad and I think a 2 hour delay would have been fine. I kept busy all day with the usual things and I also finally got the quilt put together--backing, batting, and top--so that it was ready to start quilting. That evening we had a RS activity where we had a "pink elephant" exchange (basically the same as a white elephant, they just called it pink in honor of Valentine's Day). I actually didn't feel like going out much but I made myself go because I knew I would have fun if I did...and I was right!

Wednesday: Frank had to be at work at 7:00 am so he left pretty early. I had a bad night--didn't sleep well at all--so I got a late start and didn't have time to exercise. I got everything else done, though, and enjoyed going to the religion class again after a few weeks of it not being held. Frank was busy after work with some work for some clients and I took Seth to YM and picked him up again afterwards. I got started on quilting too. He had a project for school that he had to finish that evening and we (Seth and I, not Frank) ended up staying up until midnight while he got this done. (It was actually embroidery that he was doing--they are embroidering quotes on quilt squares and his teacher is going to make it into a quilt.)

Thursday: Happy Valentine's Day! It started really early because Frank had to be at work at 5:00 am. I fell back asleep right after he left, though, and once again woke up late enough that I didn't have time to exercise. I worked for a couple of hours, did some more quilting, and finished up our income taxes. We're getting a refund this year, thank goodness! Frank got off work at 2:00 but he had to stop by his office after that and then he to go to a couple of his clients and handle an emergency for one of them, so he didn't get home until after 5:00 and he was working in his office all evening, until about 9:00 so it was a really long day for him! We did get each other cards for Valentine's Day, and on Wednesday he brought home some beautiful roses and some chocolates for me. We are planning to go to breakfast tomorrow morning too--we decided to do that instead of going to dinner together because we want to avoid the crowds. Plus, look at the awesome dinner I made at home:

(I don't know why the roses look pinkish in the photo; they really are a dark red!)

Friday: As I said, today went fast. Frank had to be at work at 9:00, so he didn't have to get up so early and I woke up kind of late once again. I got most of the budget done and exercised and showered before picking Seth up from school. I'm hoping to get some more quilting done after dinner. I enjoy quilting, but it is going to take a long time to get this quilt done!

To finish up, here is a photo I took from our back deck a few days ago:

Sometimes I completely forget that there is a river behind my house! Most of the year, the river is hidden by all the foliage on the trees and bushes growing along the banks but in the winter, we can see it. One of the (only) nice things about winter.