Weekly Review April 4 '09

I feel like I don’t even have time to breathe these days! I’m just running from one thing to another all day long. For one thing, Tanner had a science fair project due this week, and as all you parents know: when a child has a project, his parents have a project! I spent some time every evening helping him work on that, especially Thursday evening. We were hoping to hand it in on Friday, but we would have stayed up pretty late to do that (we were up until 10:00 as it was) so I decided to settle for getting it in on Monday. His teacher had said it was due on Friday, but she would also accept it on Monday, so it’s ok.

Tanner is adjusting well to contact lenses. It only takes him 10-15 minutes to put them on or take them off, normally. Scott had a much harder time learning to do that. He did have one day (Wednesday) that they started bothering him at school, and since he’d forgotten his case and solution, he had to call me and I had to take them over to him. But other than that, he has been able to wear them without difficulty. I think that day he had put one of them on inside out, which would explain why they were uncomfortable.

When Tanner got his eyes checked, he was very tired (he spent the night with a friend the night before and basically stayed up all night, I think) so he did not pick out any frames that night. (Saturday) I took him back after school on Monday to pick those out. I also ordered my new lenses, and I succumbed after all and ordered new frames, too. If I had kept the old ones they would have charged me a $20 search fee so the difference was only about $60 more to get new frames. Tanner’s glasses came in on Friday, so I took him to pick them up after school. Now we are waiting for my new glasses and contact lenses to come in. Scott’s new lenses came in already, so he is set for at least a year, I hope! I still have to get Jared checked, but I am waiting until after they screen his vision at school.

On Sunday morning, Frank noticed a sore at the corner of Seth’s mouth. We thought it was probably a cold sore. When I checked ort pediatrician’s book, I discovered that a child with a cold sore that has not scabbed over (his hadn’t) should actually be kept away from babies or people with weakened immune systems. Since we have both in our ward, we decided to just take him for the sacrament portion of the first meeting, and then Frank took him home (we avoided sitting by anyone who would be at risk). I had sharing time, so I had to be there that day. After church, Jared had a meeting for a couple of minutes where he received a part to read at our Easter egg hunt activity. Then I had choir practice. As soon as we got home, Frank took Tanner out to collect fast offerings; then he and Scott went home teaching. I got Seth down for a nap and took a very brief nap of my own. After Scott and Frank returned, we had dinner, family night, and then the oldest two boys had a fireside. See what I mean about not breathing?

My friend Marci called me Tuesday morning—it was a sunny day and she wanted to get out while we had the chance. (It was still chilly, but not too bad.) She suggested we take the dogs (she’s the owner of Snickers’ parents) to the park for a walk, so that’s what we did. Seth got to play at the playground for a while, and then we took a long walk around the park. Snickers really enjoyed seeing his parents again as well as getting out. Marci and I enjoyed visiting! We dropped the dogs off and got some lunch. After I got back home, I had tons of phone calls to make while Seth napped. More doctor appointments and the like. I feel like I spend a lot of time on the phone lately setting up appointments as well as checking with our health insurance to make sure I get all the proper referrals and so forth. Frank was at a new client that day and he got home pretty late. After we got the boys to bed, we went to look at a couch that some friends of ours are selling. It’s not really what I want, but Frank really likes it and it’s a good deal, so after thinking about it for a few days, we decided to buy it.

Wednesday I went to sewing at Rebecca’s house, but I couldn’t stay long because I needed to get Seth down for a nap early. That’s because I completely forgot Scott’s orthodontist appointment on Tuesday afternoon and had to reschedule it for Wednesday afternoon. Seth needed to be up in time to go with Frank to pick up Tanner and Jared while I took Scott to his appointment. I didn’t get Seth down as early as I wanted to (because that’s when Tanner called needing his contact lens stuff), but he still woke up in time to go with Frank.

That evening the boys had scouts as usual. I went also because I had been asked by the counselor over the beehives in YW if I could bring my sewing machine and come help the girls sew a quilt top. She had already cut out the squares of fabric, so it was pretty simple to help them sew them together. Three other women came to help (including Rebecca), and we were able to get the whole quilt top sewn that evening. It turned out cute, I think. The girls are going to tie it and then give it to the sister in our ward who helps with Personal Progress for her birthday.

Thursday morning was particularly crazy. Tanner had a field trip to see the Senate in session, visit the Capital Building and the Library of Congress. He had to dress nicely (Sunday clothes) and he had to be at the school at 8:00. (School usually starts at 9:00.) I got him over there in time, then took Jared to school an hour later, then took Scott to get his wisdom teeth pulled (his appointment was at 9:30.) Frank was able to stay home that morning which was a huge help! He stayed at home with Seth and got the grocery shopping done while I took Scott to his appointment. He also got the laundry going for me and after we got back he went to pick up Scott’s prescriptions (an antibiotic and 2 painkillers) and got a milkshake for Scott also.

The extractions seemed to go well—they took Scott back around 9:45, and by 10:45 we were on our way back home. They knocked Scott out completely, so he was very groggy and all he wanted to do when he got home was go back to sleep. After a few hours he woke up and was in quite a bit of pain, so we gave him the painkiller and made him eat (he couldn’t suck through a straw) about half of the milkshake. Then he went back to sleep. He was pretty miserable that day when he was awake, but fortunately that wasn’t a lot. The painkillers they gave him were pretty strong, so they made him pretty sleepy. He said on Friday that he didn’t remember much about the day before.

Scott slept on the couch that night, and he woke me up around 3:00 am and asked me to give him more medicine. He was feeling quite a bit better by then, though. Frank was already gone—he went in to work really early. It took me a while to go back to sleep, but evidently Scott didn’t go back to sleep at all. He stayed awake all day, also—until around 3:00 pm, when he took a couple hour nap. The painkiller he was on the second day wasn’t as strong and he didn’t need to take it very much, so he was definitely feeling better. He was able to eat more, also.

Meanwhile, Jared had his first soccer practice of the season on Thursday. Frank took him to that, and also ran some errands for me which was a big help. Jared came home tired—he’s not used to the exercise after being cooped up all winter! He has the same coach as the last two seasons, and we are glad because he is a really good coach.

When I took the boys to school Friday morning, I went straight from there to the vet with Snickers—he had to get one more shot. I scheduled him to get neutered next Friday. Will we ever be done with doctor appointments?! Friday afternoon we had planned to hide the Easter eggs for the Primary activity, but it was raining hard all morning and into the early afternoon, so we decided we’d have to do the hiding early Saturday morning instead. We actually went back and forth several times trying to decide what to do! We probably would have given up on having it outside all together and moved it to the church except the lady who lives on the farm where we were planning the hunt really wanted us to have it at her place. She lost her job this week, also, so we really wanted her to have something else think about and look forward to.

We rented the movie Kung Fu Panda Friday afternoon—none of us had seen it yet. I still haven’t seen it, really, because I didn’t pay very close attention. Everybody else seemed to enjoy it, though.

I was up bright and early this morning (5:00 am) so I could get out to the farm to help hide eggs at 6:30. (It’s a bit of a drive, and I wanted to shower first.) The rain had stopped, it was sunny, and the ground wasn’t even very wet, but it was extremely windy! The wind made it feel a lot colder than it actually was. Unfortunately, the wind continued throughout the whole activity, so a lot of the kids (and their parents) were pretty cold.

We had doughnuts and muffins for everyone when they arrived. Then we did the little activity with the objects representing the Easter story inside 12 eggs. That part didn’t go over very well since it was so cold & windy, and the wind made it hard to hear the kids who were reading the scriptures that went with each egg (Jared was one of the kids reading). Then the kids got to do the egg hunt, which of course they all enjoyed. We had the kids divided up into three age groups, and we had hidden the eggs in 3 different fields. I helped hide the eggs in the field for the big kids, and it was huge! We ran out of eggs before we ran out of field (and we probably hid close to 800 eggs) so there were bare patches, but all the kids found plenty of eggs so nobody seemed to mind. I went with Seth to the field for the nursery kids to help him find some eggs. We only hid about 100 eggs in that field, and we should have done more there. There were only about 9 kids looking there, but Seth ended up with only 6 eggs. The kids were supposed to only pick up 12 eggs apiece, but some of them must have taken more. Seth, or course, really didn’t care and I really didn’t want him to have a lot of candy anyway, so it didn’t matter. Jared shared some of his eggs with Seth also. Seth did have a good time—after we found the first couple of eggs he started to get the idea and gurgled with delight when we found the next egg.

Overall, I think the activity went really well, but I do wish we had made the decision to move it inside. It would have been a lot more pleasant for everybody! I did think to take the camera with me, but I still don’t have any pictures because as one of the people in charge, I was just too busy to stop to take any! Frank said he tried to take some, but the batteries were dead.

The rest of the day has been busy with General Conference. As usual, I don’t think I actually heard a lot of what was said, but I enjoyed the spirit and I look forward to reading the talks soon. I was getting sleepy during the first session, so I helped Tanner put together his display board for his science fair project. That kept my hands busy, which helped me stay awake. He is all done with that now—hooray! We still have to do Jared’s, but it isn’t due until sometime in May. I’m really glad we didn’t have to do two at a time this year!

In between sessions, Frank took Tanner to the eye doctor for his follow up visit; that went fine. The boys played outside some—the wind had calmed down by then, so it was actually pretty pleasant. We invited our friends the Becks to come over for the second session and to have dinner with us. We made soup and they brought bread. We had lots of snack foods, also, which helped me stay awake for the second session! There were a lot of distractions, though, with extra kids in the house, so I still didn’t hear much. Frank and Tanner took Brody Beck with them to the priesthood session tonight—they are still there now. Scott didn’t go because his mouth is hurting. The left side, in particular, is really hurting. I called the doctor on call this afternoon because I was worried that side is getting infected, but the doctor doesn’t think it is. He just said to give him Advil in addition to the painkiller he’s already on, and to bring him in Monday if it gets worse. Hopefully, that won’t happen!

I am reading two books right now and enjoying both. One is called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I’m reading that one for book club. It’s fiction, but based on a true story. It’s about a group of neighbors living on one of the Channel Islands during World War II which was occupied by the Germans for a lot of the war. So far, I am loving this book! The second book is called First Light, and is the first in a series that continues another series that I already read. (Actually, it’s connected with 3 other series that I’ve already read—they are all by Bodie & Brock Thoene.) This series is set in the time of Christ. There are some beautiful portrayals of Jesus interacting with other characters in the book. They are, of course, fictional, but based on real incidents in the Bible. I was reading it while waiting for Scott to get his teeth out, and I was trying not to cry, since I was in a public place—very touching!

Seth is wearing me out lately with his increased abilities to get into everything! He loves to pull a chair over to the kitchen counter and use that to get into things that he couldn’t reach before. He is talking up a storm. One morning I gave him a milkshake to drink (I had made one for Scott and gave a little to Seth) and he kept saying something and pointing toward the oven. I finally figured out that he was saying “Spoon, please.” (The drawer with the spoons is next to the oven.) When I gave it to him, he said “thank you!” I hope the good manners last!





Seth is getting really independent and trying to be bigger than he is. For example, he does not want to sit in his high chair or wear a bib anymore. He doesn't want to drink out of cups with lids, either. I actually put the high chair away because he was just using it as a "stool" to get into things. But the booster seat we bought him won't fit on any of our chairs, so he just stands or kneels on one of the regular kitchen chairs. The bad thing about this is--he can get down! And he does. When it's just the two of us, he moves around the table from chair to chair throughout his meal. Which means the whole table (not to mention the chairs and the floor around the table) is a mess by the time he's done! He does quite well drinking out of a regular cup, but one day this week he decided it would be fun to just dump the contents of his cup out all over the table. Which he did--deliberately! I am cleaning up a lot of messes these days.

As I said, I don’t have any pictures of the Easter egg hunt, but I took a few this afternoon.:




Seth trying to get on Jared's bike. He thinks he is such a big boy! (And yes, the lawn needs mowing--desperately!)

I love spring! (This tree is in our next door neighbor's yard.)

A few spring flowers. I am annoyed by all the bare spots in our flower bed, because we re-planted all the bulbs and spread them out evenly. I don't know what happened. But at least the flowers that have come up are pretty.

Just for good measure, here is a picture I took of Snickers a few weeks ago.:

This is a basket where I keep all the boys' games for their Nintendo DS and PSP. Snickers likes to curl up on top and nap there for some reason--I can't imagine it being very comfortable!

I haven't taken any pictures of Scott because fortunately his face has not swollen up at all. If I remember, I will get some pictures of Tanner without glasses (wearing new contact lenses), Tanner wearing his new glasses, and Tanner with his science fair project display board.

Until next week, then...