Weekly Review October 18 '08

This week was definitely not a typical week. The boys' school schedules were crazy! Because of Parent-Teacher conferences, they went in 2 hours late on Monday, 4 hours late on Tuesday and Wednesday (except for the High Schools-they were open all day on Wednesday), got out 3 1/2 hours early on Thursday and were out of school on Friday. None of the parents like weeks like this. I'd be willing to bet that they got very little done on the days they were in school, since it was only for a few hours each day. And yes, I didn't get much done, either!

The first part of the week we enjoyed having Mom & Dad here. Unfortunately, Mom got sick on Sunday. She didn't feel very well most of the day, although she did go to church that morning. But by evening she really felt awful. Frank and Dad gave her a blessing, though, and by morning she had improved a lot. We're glad she got better quickly and that Dad didn't get sick too! I didn't do a lot on Monday and Tuesday--just the things I had to do--so that I could spend more time with them just visiting. It was nice that the boys were out of school part of the day so that they could see more of Grandpa & Grandma also. We played Apples to Apples for FHE activity on Monday evening, and Mom won.

Mom & Dad flew back home on Tuesday afternoon. I took them to the airport after I took the boys to school, and then picked the boys up from school on my way back home. At least this time I didn't miss any exits--as Amy pointed out, I seem to have trouble getting to BWI and back without some kind of mishap! My track record is not so good-- besides taking an unplanned trip into Baltimore when I picked Mom & Dad up last week, once I took the wrong exit getting there and we got so turned around that Amy missed her plane. Last time Mom & Dad came to visit, the car died it's final death on my way home from dropping them off at the airport. At least that didn't happen this time!

We were sorry to have to say good-bye to Mom & Dad, but we are so glad that they got to come see us! Seth even let them hold him their last day here. We hope they enjoyed their visit and that we will get to see them again before too many years go by. That is the one thing we don't like about living out here--being so far away from all our families!

Sunday at church was busy for me because we had our first practice for the Primary program. It went pretty well, though. We even got through the whole thing, which is really great for a first practice! This Sunday the Primary president will be out of town (her brother is getting married) so it will just be the other counselor (Andrea) and I running the whole show. Hope that goes ok!

Scott didn't feel too well Tuesday morning, but I made him go to school anyway since he didn't have any serious symptoms. (He was only supposed to be there for a few hours anyway, so I thought he could handle that.) He was there less than an hour when the school nurse called and said he was there and wanted to come home. So I went and got him, and he did throw up shortly after he got home. This is the 3rd time we've had stomach flu in our family since school started! Enough already! He got a blessing that evening, and he also was doing quite a bit better by Wednesday morning, but wasn't well enough to go to school, so he missed the one full day he was supposed to have all week. He was feeling a lot better by evening--bouncing off the walls!

Seth hasn't been feeling too well this week, either. He seems to have some kind of cold--he's congested with a mild fever and he sounds a little bit croupy at night. He has not been sleeping well at all, which means Frank & I haven't been sleeping well either. Hopefully he will feel better soon.

I scheduled all the parent-teacher conferences for Thursday afternoon. I was able to get Seth down for a nap right before I left, which was nice because I didn't have to take him with me. Scott was supposed to come with me for his conferences, so Tanner and Jared stayed with sleeping Seth. Scott's teachers had really good things to say about him. His government teacher said he is really smart and that he is the "go to" person if he asks a question and nobody is responding because he knows Scott will give a good answer. His science teacher said he is the best student in the class and he really should be in honors science next year. Because he was absent, he has some work to make up, though, so he has been busy this week-end doing some catch up. Tanner has also been doing some more catch up--I found out he has a few more missing assignments. Overall, Tanner is doing well and his teachers like him. He just needs to get more organized and he especially needs to focus better. It takes him a really long time to do his work because he has a hard time focusing. This is not a new thing for him, but it is becoming more apparent now that he has more work to do. We are considering having him tested to make sure he doesn't have ADD or something similar. As it is now, I have to sit right next to him when he is doing homework to try to help him keep on task. Not much fun for either of us! Jared is doing great. I asked his teacher to focus more on spelling with him because I think he needs to work on that.

Jared was supposed to have soccer practice on Thursday evening, but when Frank took him over there was nobody there. We thought they cancelled it because it had rained a little bit and it looked like it was going to rain some more, but we found out at his game today that they had just moved to a different field because there were too many teams trying to practice on the same field. The rain on Thursday was unusual--mostly we are having just gorgeous fall weather. Crisp in the mornings, warm in the afternoons, and mostly sunny. I am loving it, and just trying to enjoy it as long as it lasts!

Scott, Tanner and I spent Friday morning doing homework. Jared had a cub scout activity. The Frederick Ward cubmaster planned an outdoor event with hiking, fishing, etc. and they invited our ward cub scouts to join them. Jared seemed to really enjoy that. After he got home he was invited to go play with one of the other cub scouts and then that evening his friend Evan came over to spend the night, so he had a busy day! Scott went to play football with some of the other YM in our ward that afternoon. I feel like I spent most of the day driving kids to their different activities, as well as helping with homework.

Last night about an hour after we went to bed we were awakened by fireworks! Some of our crazy neighbors were setting some off, even though it is completely illegal to do that this time of year. We weren't too thrilled with them for waking us up, so when the police showed up a while later and gave them a ticket, we were kind of happy about that. Evidently, someone else was even more annoyed than we were and called the police!

This morning was one of the days that we did not have gorgeous fall weather. It was windy and cold! Jared's soccer game was at 10:00. His friend Evan came with us to see Jared play. We were all bundled up in extra sweatshirts, but we still got cold. About 2/3 of the way through the first half, Seth's hands were ice cold, so I volunteered (big sacrifice!) to take him to the car. Evan came too since he was pretty cold by then. We could actually see a lot of the game pretty well from the car, and Seth was very happy climbing around inside the car, so that worked out pretty well. About half way through the second half, Frank traded spaces with me so that I could see some more of the game. Jared played the entire game--the first half he was on defense, and the second half he was the goalie. I didn't realize he was the goalie until I traded places with Frank. I don't like it when he's the goalie (makes me nervous!), but he did a great job--blocked lots of goal attempts--so I was really proud of him. I was pretty frustrated with his team as a whole--most of the kids on offense were just not really playing--but in the end the score was tied 2-2. The other team scored one of their goals in the first half, so they only got one goal past Jared. While we were at the game, Scott and Tanner got their homework done. They had to do that before they could play, so they were motivated to get it done!

This afternoon Scott needed to take some pictures for his digital photography class. He needed to get some in an open space, so I decided to "kill two birds with one stone". I drove him out to a pumpkin patch. Scott got his pictures taken, and I bought a couple of pumpkins. We got one large pumpkin to carve for Halloween and one tiny one for Seth. It turns out that today is the annual "Family Festival at the Farm", so as well as pumpkins to purchase, they had a petting zoo, hay rides, pony rides, face painting, etc--all free. I was sorry Seth wasn't with us--he would have loved the animals--but he needed to take a nap! Scott and I took a look at the animals and went on a hay ride. I think Scott would have got his face painted, too, except we had to go to the store afterwards!

At the store we got Sunday shoes and dress pants for Scott since he is outgrowing the ones he has (already!) I also got some shoes for Seth. Our trip was cut short because Frank got a call from a frantic client with an emergency, so he had to go down to Rockville to take care of that. Fortunately, he was able to get the problem solved fairly quickly.

Tonight Scott is going to his first dance--a barn dance for all the youth in our stake. I asked him if he was going to dance, and he said "probably not--I don't know how to dance". I think he is going for the food! Actually, they are going to have hayrides, games, and a pie eating contest as well, so it sounds like there will be plenty to do besides dance. Maybe he will work up the courage to try dancing, too. I told him he should find girls who look left out and ask them to dance--it would make their day! It will be fun to hear about how it goes later. Knowing the girls in our ward, I'll bet some of them will drag him out there and convince him to give it a try!

That's all we have to report this week.