Weekly Review October 5 '08

Last week when I left off I was about to go to the RS Broadcast. Our stake had Enrichment meeting first; we talked about nurturing our families at mealtime (the importance of families eating meals together daily). We had a potluck dinner first--we were each asked to bring a dish that's a family favorite or that triggers happy family memories. I brought rolls, which actually Frank made with minimal help from me. They asked us to share special memories of mealtime, and ungrateful child that I am--I really couldn't remember anything! Maybe it's just that my memory is going, not that I don't appreciate all the meals my mom made when we were growing up. I do remember that we had breakfast and dinner together pretty much every day, and that we had hot breakfast every school day. I appreciate now what a great achievement that was; I have not been able to accomplish that in my own family! The broadcast from Salt Lake City was great, of course--always is!


Frank likes to have some sort of project to work on while we listen to General Conference--helps him stay awake! Last week he decided that this time his project would be to pull down the wallpaper in the kitchen so we can paint it instead. This is a project we've been meaning to do for years, actually. We painted the dining area and part of the kitchen about 5 or 6 years ago, but didn't want to go to all the work of taking down the wallpaper, so we tried to pick something that would coordinate with the wallpaper. It didn't really work out, though, so we've had kind of mismatched walls all these years. The wallpaper was here when we moved in, and actually I liked it at first (small pink and blue flowers), but it's starting to look pretty shabby. I think my tastes have changed a lot in the last 8 years also. I'm not into the "cutesy" country look so much--like a more classic, simple style with solid colors and clean lines. Anyway, I'm more than thrilled to be rid of that wallpaper, but the idea of painting (and pulling out the fridge and stove in particular) got me thinking that the whole kitchen really needs a good deep cleaning and de-cluttering. So I got all ambitious and started cleaning things up, but then on Wednesday I got sick and I lost all my steam. I did get the pantry and the refrigerator cleaned up, though. The rest will have to wait until later.

Speaking of the kitchen, there's a lot of things I would like to do to improve it. If I had been picking out the countertops, cabinets, and flooring myself, I'm sure I would have picked something different! I mean white countertops and a white floor? I'm sure it looked pretty for about...a month! The floor now looks dirty all the time--even right after I clean it. So do the countertops. Unfortunately, changing all these things takes time and money--seems like I never have extra of either of those things! So I try to content myself with making lists and planning what I'm going to do "someday", and doing one thing at a time. Getting rid of the wallpaper and painting instead will definitely be an improvement.

Right now it looks worse, though! Frank worked hard all day yesterday (I helped as I was able, but was mostly occupied with keeping Seth out of the way) pulling the wallpaper off the walls. I had a feeling it was going to be harder than it looked, and I was right. The wallpaper was vinyl, so we had to pull the vinyl top layer off first before we could even get to the layer where we could use wallpaper remover. Then parts of the wall kept coming off with the wallpaper because the wall was not properly prepped before the wallpaper was put on (not our fault). Bottom line is, after working hard all day most of the wallpaper is gone now (there's still a small section that needs the bottom layer removed) and the wall is bare, with lots of dark patches where part of the wall came off with the paper. An interesting decorating statement! We had one of our neighbors who is a professional painter come in to look at it for us and give us advice. He told us what we need to do next, which involves making sure all the glue is gone, then sanding and priming the walls a couple of times before we can paint. Fun! So the paint is not going to go up for a while and in the meantime we will just have to live with the ugly walls. In the end it will be worth it, I hope! At least I have the inner satisfaction of knowing that the floors and walls behind my refrigerator and stove are clean, now! Frank is very tired and sore after working so hard all day.


The bracket on one of Scott's back teeth popped off last Friday (he says he was eating a cookie). I called the orthodontist who said to just clip the wire off as close to the next tooth as we could, and call Monday morning to make an appointment for him to look at it. (The office wasn't open on Friday.) He had to go in Wednesday afternoon. They decided that he needed to have a band put around that tooth instead, so they put in some spacers and he has to go back next Friday to have the band put on. Frank took Scott to the appointment because I wasn't feeling well that day.


We had another round of the stomach flu this week--this time it affected Tanner, Seth and I. Seth and I got pretty mild cases, but Tanner was extremely miserable on Wednesday. Seth only threw up once--that was on Monday evening, and it happened without any warning. He wasn't acting sick at all, then all of the sudden he started fussing, I picked him up, and he lost it. Amazingly, he didn't get me or himself--just the kitchen floor. The floor needed to be mopped anyway.... That was it for Seth. I'd say his appetite hasn't been as good this week, but other than that he has not acted sick at all or had any other problems. Tanner got sick in the middle of the night between Tuesday / Wednesday. I got up with him and by the time I got him settled back down, I was wide awake and couldn't sleep for a couple of hours. That's when I noticed that I wasn't feeling too great myself. I never actually "lost it", I just had stomach cramps that hurt worse if I got up and walked around. I barely ate anything on Wednesday or Thursday, although Thursday I was feeling well enough to get around and do all the things I needed to do. By Friday I was feeling much better and able to start eating again, but we had pizza for dinner and that turned out to be a mistake. I started feeling sick again and went to bed early. Saturday and today I am still feeling residual effects, so I am still being careful what I eat and only eating a little bit. (Which stinks, because I got special yummy treats for General Conference!) Tanner started feeling better on Thursday, but on Friday morning he was feeling worse again and ended up staying home from school that day also. He seems to be doing better now. Whatever it is, it hangs on for a while.


The boys didn't have school on Tuesday--they were out for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). That also meant Frank was extra busy on Tuesday and Wednesday because the other senior tech guy at his work is an orthodox Jew and took those days off. Tanner spent that whole day Tuesday doing homework. He had put a couple of things off that he shouldn't have. He also has trouble focusing on schoolwork, so he takes a lot longer to get things done than it should take. Besides that, he had a total melt down when I wouldn't let him go play with friends for a while--I told him he had to get his homework done first. That was another hour wasted while he felt sorry for himself! He did finally get everything done, and then he ended up being sick and hasn't been able to turn any of it in yet! I hope we are done with sickness for a while. Seems like we have had more than our share this last month.


Seth and I had doctor appointments on Wednesday morning. I was worried about doing that since I wasn't feeling well, but I didn't want to reschedule either of them. It was Seth's 15 month check up and he's 16 months old already! I needed to go also because I had to have my doctor check me over before I can have surgery done on my eye. So we pulled it together and made it to the doctor's office, and luckily I was ok. Seth had to get 3 shots which wasn't so fun but he only has to get one more at 18 months, and then he's done until he's 4 years old--hooray! They did not write down his weight and height for me, so I can't remember now exactly how big he is, but I know he is 25 pounds (don't remember the ounces) and I think he is about 33 inches tall. He's in the 90th percentile for height and the 60th for weight.


I had a Primary meeting Friday morning--we were working out the details for our Sacrament Meeting program which is coming up in 3 weeks. I've had some major frustrations with the Cub Scout program come up this week, but I will spare you all the details since all I feel like doing right now is complaining about it! I'll just say that no matter what we do, someone is upset about it.

Jared went home with one friend on Thursday to go to soccer practice and with another friend on Friday for a birthday party. He is quite the social butterfly--he has a party next week, too.

We enjoyed what we heard of General Conference yesterday. We got a lot more out of the first session because Seth was asleep for the whole thing! We only heard bits of the second session, but what we heard was really good. Hopefully today we will get to listen more. We usually go to the stake center to watch the Sunday morning session, but this time we are going to stay home and watch on the internet (like we do all the other sessions) because Seth is at an age that we don't think we'll get much out of it while at the church--we'll end up out in the hall too much! It will be better to stay home where he can play (we hope). Actually, I'll probably try to get him down for a nap right before the first session starts like I did yesterday. That worked out well! I absolutely love that we can start listening to the talks online within a few days after conference ends, so we can listen to the things we missed!

Frank took the older two boys to the priesthood session last night. (Tanner will be 12 next month.) I got Seth to sleep and then swept & mopped all the floors while I watched a movie on television called The Notebook. (Jared entertained himself until his bedtime.) I'd heard it was good, but I'd never seen it before. It had too much kissing, etc. at a few points (I had to turn the channel a few times) but otherwise it was a very sweet story. Reminded me of my Johnson grandparents! Yes, I cried.

Happy Birthday to Shellie yesterday--hope she had a fun day!

Some of you have been very silent lately--you know who you are! Let us all know how you are doing!