Weekly Review September 27 '08

My, oh my...this was a busy week! Just a lot of extra stuff going on. Even our day of rest wasn't very restful! The other counselor in Primary was out of town, so we were short one set of hands. I was doing sharing time, but the rest of the time I was running around taking care of problems that came up. One nursery leader and one teacher didn't show up, so I had to find replacements; then another teacher had an emergency and had to leave so I had to find someone to teach her class, too. Crazy!! It all worked out, though. After church I had choir practice, then our home teachers came (well, actually only one of them made it), then I had a Primary presidency meeting, then friends came for dinner (the Primary president and her family), then Frank & Scott went home teaching. Whew! I still managed to squeeze a 15 minute nap in there, which is probably why I made it through everything else. Kudos to Frank, who basically cooked the whole dinner himself. Have I mentioned that he's a great cook?

School started two hours late Monday morning so Scott didn't have Seminary. We all enjoyed sleeping in a little bit! Frank came home from work in the early afternoon because he wasn't feeling well. He picked up some kind of intestinal bug which thankfully none of the rest of us got...at least I hope it's not going to hit any of us still! He was pretty miserable on Monday and Tuesday (stayed home Tuesday) but finally started feeling better on Wednesday.

Here's all the other extra things that happened: I had book chat Tuesday, sewing "night" on Wednesday morning, taught a merit badge class Wednesday evening, Had a check up with the cardiologist Thursday morning, met with the new Cub Committee Chair Thursday evening, and had Pack Meeting Friday evening, and went to the temple this morning. This evening I have stake enrichment meeting and the General Women's Broadcast. So lots of things going on that don't usually happen during a normal week!

We had a nice big group at book chat--nine people came! (We usually get about 6 people.) We had lots of yummy food. Since Frank was home that day, I put Seth down for his nap right before I left. I enjoyed going to book chat without having to keep track of him (although he is usually very good.) We discussed 1776 by David McCullough. Very good book! If I get time, I will do a book review on it later.

Marci, Rebecca, and I decided to resurrect our sewing group. We were meeting in the evening before, you may remember, and that worked for quite a few years, but it kind of fell apart after Seth was born. We gave up for a while, but now that Marci is not working during the day (she lost her job and now she is taking some online classes) we decided to try meeting during the day. It seemed to work out well. I got a few "mending" things done, and we had a nice visit. I've missed our talks! We've often joked that it's really "therapy night", not "sewing night" because we don't always get a lot of sewing done, but we have really helped each other get through a lot of things over the years. So I'm glad we are meeting again! The other nice thing is that I am now a visiting teacher for both Marci and Rebecca, so I got that done at the same time--score!

The merit badge class went ok. The boys were pretty talkative, which I expected, but I would have liked it if they had paid attention better. I tried to make it interesting with a few visuals and object lessons (one of those included food, which was very popular, of course) but there's only so much you can do when you are talking about money, budgeting, and investing! The 11 year old scouts came, too, and I'm afraid most of it was really over their heads, poor guys! I will be going back a couple of times to meet with each boy individually, but that was the main part of it, so I'm glad to be done with that! The boys have to do most of the rest of it on their own.

I had the check up with the cardiologist because I had to get cardio clearance before I have surgery on my eye. They did an EKG and everything looks fine. I go back for a check up in one year. Jared was supposed to have soccer practice that evening, but it got cancelled because of rain. It rained all night and into Friday. We weren't disappointed about the cancellation--one less thing for us to do!

I met with the new Cub Committee Chair to pass on all the stuff I have. She's done it before (although it was a long time ago) so she isn't completely at sea about what to do, which is nice. After she left, I spent quite a bit of time e-mailing her a bunch of documents that she is going to need.

On Thursday afternoon I ended up talking to my friend Jeanine. I needed to ask her a question anyway, and then I got an e-mail from her where she said she really needed to talk, so I called her. We ended up talking a long time, and not only was I able to help her with some of the things she is struggling with, but she said a lot of things that helped me with some of my challenges. Our situations are very different, and yet in many ways they are the same. It is so helpful to have someone to talk to who can really understand what you are going through and can give you advice and encouragement! Jeanine and I have been friends since I moved here 8 years ago. Among other things we have in common, she is the mother of 3 boys--her oldest two are the same ages as my oldest two (and our kids are great friends, by the way). I really believe our paths crossed because Heavenly Father knew we were going to need each other! I am so very grateful for that.

For Pack Meeting on Friday night we had a pretty poor turn out, but those of us who were there had fun. Among other things, we had a relay race with shoes--each person had a "buddy" and you had to run down to the pile, get your buddy's shoes, run back, and put them on your buddy's feet. Then your buddy did the same for you. My "buddy" and I won the first time and came in second the second time (we had to switch buddies the second time) but we had an unfair advantage because I was the only person there wearing loafers! It rained very hard again that night and off and on this morning, so Jared's soccer game was cancelled.

I had planned to go to the temple this morning, so I was glad they cancelled the game. I didn't miss it, and Frank had one less thing to do while he was watching all the kids for me. Jared's friend Sage still came over because his dad had work to do--he went home around 1:30.

I had a wonderful time at the temple. It took longer than usual, though, because the session I was in was completely full, and I was in the back row! There were 3 young men and 2 older women in our session who were there to receive their own endowments, along with all their families and close friends. There were also 3 spanish speakers, and the headset for one of them wasn't working at first, so the bottom line was--the session started late and ran late. I was in the 11:00 session, and I didn't get back down to the dressing room until about 1:15. Even so, it was great. You'd think with all that stuff going on, it would have been chaotic, but it wasn't and there was a beautiful spirit there. I was touched by many things today. Seeing those 3 young men with their families reminded me that I will have a son old enough to do that in 5 more years--amazing! And I loved going into the celestial room and seeing all the families together! Because of my blocked tear duct, if I get even a little bit emotional the tears just run down my face. Thankfully, I thought to stuff 4 tissues in my pocket--and I needed every one of them! I've been trying to get to the temple for the last 3 weeks, so I am very happy I finally made it there.

Frank is being wonderful and taking care of the kids basically all day while I get spiritually fed, since I'll be leaving again to go to the RS Broadcast in a few hours. I look forward to that meeting every year! I expect I'll get more out of it than I did last year since Seth was a 4 month old nursing baby at this time last year. (Hard to believe!) He wasn't very cooperative and I ended up coming home because I was stuck in the mother's lounge so much of the night where I couldn't hear the talks. This year he is staying home with Daddy!

Seth has been doing so many cute things this week. On Monday we were singing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam". My older boys like to jump every time we get to the "beam" part of "sunbeam". Seth laughed & laughed, then tried to jump too. He's got the whole thing down, including lifting his arms up in the air, except for actually getting his feet off the ground! He's been practicing all week, and he actually did get his feet off the floor once--pure luck, maybe.

Seth loves books. When he looks at his book of doggies, he says "woof, woof, woof!" When we read Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, he clutches his head and wags his finger at the appropriate places ("bumped his head" and "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!") Unfortunately, he also loves to destroy books. He pulled the back cover off one book and pulled pages out of two others this week--these are board books, mind you! He LOVES animals and will stop and point at them when he sees them on television or in real life. (Maybe because I decorated his room in a Noah's Ark theme?) One time he completely forgot about the tantrum he was having when some deer came on the television. (Animal Planet is my best friend lately!) Such a fun, fun age he is at!

That was our busy week! What have the rest of you been doing?