Weekly Review May 31 '09

Scott gave his talk on Sunday, and he did a great job. The last time he spoke in church was exactly two years ago—I remember because it was the day before Seth was born. I think he spoke all of 30 seconds that time. This time he spoke more like 5 minutes (which was what he was supposed to do), and he was just a lot more confident and had some good thoughts to share. It is fun to see how much he has changed in the last two years!

Memorial Day was busy but fun. We hung out with our friends, the Beck family. In the morning we all went on a hike at Cunningham Falls State Park. We hiked to—guess what?—Cunningham Falls! Jana and I stayed with Seth at a place where we could see the falls while the dads and the rest of the kids climbed on rocks up to the falls. Thankfully, nobody got hurt. (That comes later in the week.) When we were leaving the park to head back home, we were glad we got there early—there was a huge line of cars waiting to pay the fee to get in!

The men & kids climbing on the rocks--Jared, Tanner, Brody Beck (McKenna behind him), Ethan Beck, and Frank

Jana Beck with Seth

Scott--victorious rock climber

Cunningham Falls

"Jack-in-the-Pulpit"

Jared & Seth

Lots of hikers

"Hey everybody, look this way!"

Family photo

Crazy kids!

During the afternoon, Seth took a nap while Frank, Brother Beck, and our boys played games. Frank also hung up my quilt for me, and helped make Seth’s cake and some yummy strawberry-banana ice cream. We had decided to celebrate Seth’s birthday that day because Thursday was looking too busy. (That’s probably going to happen a lot—we’ll probably celebrate on Memorial Day pretty often, but that’s totally appropriate since he was actually born on Memorial Day.) After Seth woke up we let him open his presents—3 little trucks, a little garage for some of his other trucks, and a small play dough set. He seemed to be very happy with everything, and has enjoyed playing with the new toys all week.

The quilt's finally done!

Opening presents

One of the trucks

Playing with the garage

After that we went back to the Beck’s house for a cook out. We had lots of yummy food and then had Seth’s cake and the ice cream for dessert. Seth really seemed to like it when we sang to him, but he wouldn’t blow out the candles!

(Sorry--sideways again!)

Seth's cake

Seth enjoying cake and ice cream

(Frank drew the truck on the cake, by the way—he did a much better job than I would have done! It was my idea to use Oreos for the wheels, though.)

It looked like it might rain most of the day on Monday, but luckily it held off until after we went to bed. Then the rain really came down in torrents! I woke up more than once in the night because it was coming down so hard, and it continued to rain all day Tuesday with spurts of more very heavy rain. Scott didn’t feel very well that morning—he felt nauseated and had a headache—but he started feeling better enough that he decided to go to Seminary and then to school. (He missed his ride, so I had to take him to Seminary.) He only made it through one class, though, before he started to feel pretty sick again, so he went to the nurse and I brought him home. Luckily, the call from the nurse coincided with the time I was taking the other two boys to school, so I was able to pick up Scott on my way and didn’t have to make a separate trip. He felt pretty sick at first, and then he slept for a while. After that he felt better enough to eat some toast and by the end of the day he was feeling back to normal. I’m not sure what it was, but I’m glad it was short-lived.

I went to lunch with some friends on Wednesday. That evening was busy because I had a visiting teaching appointment at 5:30 (the only time we could meet this month!) and then at 7:00 was the Court of Honor for the older boys. I got dinner made for everybody else, but I didn’t get to eat until much later! The Court of Honor was nice. I was kind of surprised, though, that out of about 20 boys only about 5 of them had earned any merit badges (two of those boys were ours, and one other was the scoutmaster’s son!) and only 3 had a rank advancement (again, our two boys and the scoutmaster’s son). Our scoutmaster is really good; evidently most of the other parents are not following up with the boys at home to finish up their merit badges. Anyway, Scott got five merit badges (Personal Management, Communications, Cooking, Reading, and Citizenship in the World) and his Life rank; Tanner got three merit badges (Personal Management, Reading, and Citizenship in the World) and his Tenderfoot Rank. (He should have got Citizenship in the Community also, but they forgot to get the documentation that proves he’s done the community service. He’ll get that next time.) I am proud of all the hard work they’ve done.

Tanner "pins" me

Scott gets his awards

And let me tell you…I’ve EARNED those mother’s pins!!!

After the Court of Honor was over, Frank was playing some basketball with a bunch of the boys and he totally wiped out (he was going down the court full speed and was tripped up) and landed hard on his left shoulder and side. He was in a lot of pain that evening and it was even worse the next morning.

Meanwhile, Seth woke up 3 times during the night for some reason and then woke up before 6:00, so I had maybe five hours of very interrupted sleep that night. Frank called and got a doctor appointment at 9:00, so we were trying to get everybody out the door. Then Tanner spilled his hot cereal on the floor and burned his finger and knee with it. I gave up on trying to get a shower and grabbed a granola bar for breakfast! We still just squeaked into the school right at 9:00, and needless to say we were late for the doctor appointment. The doctor sent Frank for x-rays, of course, but we were very surprised (the doctor was also) when they said nothing was broken, cracked, or dislocated. So then we had to go back to the doctor to get a prescription for some painkiller. With all the waiting, we didn’t get back home until nearly noon. Then I got Seth fed and down for a nap so I could go pick up Frank’s medicine and get a few groceries. After that I finally got some lunch and got the laundry going. Then I took a nap until Scott got home! (About 30 minutes.)

Thursday was, of course, Seth’s actual birthday. He ended up spending the morning at doctor’s offices, of course, but that wasn’t such a bad thing since he got to play with new toys, eat a lollipop, and (when the doctor found out it was his birthday) pick out a toy from a big bin (he chose a little fire truck). We saved his biggest present for that day—a little bike—and he enjoyed sitting on it although he hasn’t figured out how to pedal it yet. The present from Grandma & Grandpa came late that afternoon, also. He LOVES the truck! All the boys have enjoyed the Veggie Tales movie, also. For dinner I made grilled cheese sandwiches and we had strawberries because I know he really likes those two things. I was really glad when it started raining in the late afternoon so soccer practice was cancelled—I was exhausted anyway!

New truck from Grandpa & Grandma (Seth likes to lie down and push trucks around.)

This cool truck has tools, too!

New bike!

Frank has continued to really suffer all week end. The doctor asked him to call back on Friday because he wanted to know how he was doing. When he did that, and told them that he was still in a lot of pain and not seeing much improvement, the doctor said he probably has a hairline fracture in one or more of his ribs that just didn’t show up on the x-ray. Meanwhile, I have been feeling like a single mom with an extra child to care for (although Frank really has been a patient invalid). My hat goes off to anyone who has to “go it alone” all the time. I have barely had time for eating and basic hygiene! Frank really does do a lot to help out around the house when he is able, and I really notice a difference when he is not well enough to do that.

Since Frank needed to do some work for one client that he couldn’t do from here, I drove him there on Friday morning. (It’s too painful for him to drive, and even if he could I wouldn’t let him because he’s on a pretty strong painkiller.) He only needed to do work for a couple of hours so while he worked, Seth and I did some shopping at the scout store and the LDS bookstore. At the scout store, they were having a “BOGO” free sale on scout uniform items, so another mom and I had decided to get the boy scout shirts for our sons who are turning 11 this year together. One of them was free, so we each only had to pay ½ price. Scout shirts cost $32 these days, so it was definitely nice to pay half price instead of full price. After we finished shopping, Frank still had some work to finish up, so I took Seth over to the temple visitor’s center. We sat in front of the big statue of Christ and listened to the narrative—Seth actually sat still and listened to the whole thing! Then I let him wander around a while and just look at whatever interested him. After that we went over to the temple and walked around it a little bit until it was time to pick up Frank.

Once again, it started raining that evening so Jared’s soccer game was cancelled—I can’t say I was too sorry about that! It was also Pack Meeting that evening so we were able to go to that instead. I took all the boys with me and Frank stayed home to rest. Jared received his Artist activity badge. He would have received a couple more things except I didn’t let them know he’d earned them because I thought we were not going to be there. We came home and let the boys watch a movie afterwards, so we were up a little late.

Jared’s Saturday morning soccer game was not cancelled (it was sunny and nice) so I took him to that—it was at 8:00 am—yawn!! They played well, but the other team outplayed them, and they ended up losing 7-3. That’s only the second game they’ve lost this season. We came home, worked on scout stuff (we’re starting the Artist Merit Badge), bathed and brushed Snickers, and I got the floors cleaned while Seth napped. After he woke up I took the boys and went to a party given by some friends in our ward. There were a lot of people there and lots of yummy food. We didn’t stay long because I didn’t want to leave Frank for a long time, but we had a nice time while we were there, and brought home a plate of food for him. While we were there I ended up talking to Jenn (the mom of the family) about some of the issues we’ve had with Snickers lately (lots of nipping and barking) and she offered to come over and work with him a little, and to teach me how to train him better. They are real animal people, with lots of pets, so she is really good with them. I am looking forward to that!

While we were at the party, I talked to Jana, the primary president, about the stake leadership meeting that had been held that morning (I had been planning to go, but had to miss it after Frank injured himself). She said “Guess what the meeting was all about? The scout program!” So it’s just really too bad I couldn’t be there! But she said she took notes.

Now it’s Sunday—I didn’t get this posted yet, so I’ll add a few notes about today. Frank stayed home from church and I had choir practice at 8:15 so everybody had to get to church early with me. We had practice before church because we were singing in Sacrament Meeting today. We sang an arrangement of “I Wonder When He Comes Again” which included a children’s “choir” (three Primary age girls sang that part) singing the melody and the choir doing back up. It turned out really beautiful, I thought, with those sweet little girls singing! Seth wasn’t happy about me leaving him to go up and sing, so as I was going up the aisle, Scott was carrying Seth out who was crying “No, Mommy, no!” at the top of his lungs. I saw Scott in the back with Seth while we were singing, though, so he calmed down enough to come back in and hear the song. Scott took Seth to nursery also—I knew he’d never stay if I took him!

After church Frank got a call from one of the stake clerks—some computer emergency—so I had to take him over there to get that fixed. After we came back a couple of our friends from the ward came over to give Frank a blessing. He is doing a little bit better—able to move around a little more without as much pain. We would appreciate all your prayers in his behalf as well—especially that he will be able to work.

This evening I took Scott to a fireside to sign up for and get excited about youth conference. The theme of the meeting was service, and they had asked a couple in our stake to come speak about the service they received after two of their teen age children were killed in a car wreck last fall. They did an amazing job and it was very uplifting!

Everyone have a great week as we move into June!

*Note about the photos--I just noticed as I was adding the photos that the dates are off on most of them. The camera batteries must have died and the date wasn't set correctly afterwards. All the photos taken after the Memorial Day hike are off by about 6 days! I'll have to fix the date on the camera next time I use it.

Weekly Review May 23 '09

We are all getting a little anxious for school to end. Too bad the boys still have 3 weeks and a couple of days! It will be over soon enough, I guess. We are still having really cool mornings, but the weather warms up nicely during the day. Very beautiful!

This week was not so eventful. Maybe this review will be short, for once! Sunday was busy with my presidency meeting, choir practice, and family night. We had barbecue ribs that we made in the crock pot for dinner—they were yummy! I’ve been going over budget on food so much lately that I decided a few weeks ago to try to use things I already had on hand as much as possible. So I cleaned out both my freezers, and I found all kinds of things in there that I’d forgotten I had—the pork ribs were one of them! My grocery lists have definitely been shorter and it feels good to be resourceful, but I can’t say that I’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the amount I’ve been spending—sigh. I don’t know why that is.

For family night activity on Monday, Frank had us play a game called “add on” where one person does a gesture (say, touches his nose.) Then the next person has to repeat that gesture and add on a new one, and so on…. It was hilarious, because the boys all started making really crazy faces when it was their turn to add on. They were remarkably good at duplicating each other’s faces, too. I stunk at it, mostly because I was laughing so hard that I would forget half the gestures. I wish we had a video tape of that game. Seth had a lot of fun watching us play that game…I think he thought we’d all gone crazy, but in a good way.

On Wednesday for “sewing” we met at the park and had lunch. I didn’t get much visiting done because I was too busy chasing Seth around, but it was a beautiful day so it was nice to be out in the sunshine and fresh air. That evening I had a visiting teaching interview at the church; I brought the boys home from scouts with me when I was done. The interview was nice and I got chocolate afterwards—yum!

I left Seth with Scott on Thursday evening when I took Jared to soccer practice, so I was able to sit in the shade and read David Copperfield in peace for an hour—that was nice! It was another beautiful day—sunny with a gentle breeze—so I really enjoyed that. I figured out that I need to read about 50 pages per day to get the book done in time. It isn’t too hard to read, and the story is quite interesting so it hasn’t been too difficult to get the 50 pages read most days. I’m still not really far into it, but it’s getting more engaging all the time and I suspect it will end up being a really good book.

Scott finished up the reading and cooking merit badges this week. (Tanner finished reading and he’s almost done with cooking.) As we were looking over the merit badges he’s done, we realized that he has enough done now to get his Life rank. That’s pretty exciting! We are starting to see “the light at the end of the tunnel”! (Scott is getting excited, too, which means he is a lot more motivated.) He still has to get 10 more merit badges for his Eagle, but between Frank and I we think we can get him most of the way through the 5 electives this summer, and he should be able to get some of the required ones at scout camp. I think he will be able to get done with all the merit badges by the time he finishes scout camp next year, and then all he’d have left would be the Eagle Scout project. Tanner has a lot more to do, of course, but he is much farther along than Scott was at his age so I think he will be able to finish by the time he’s about 15 also.

Yesterday Frank had a meeting at work and the news wasn’t so good. Because of the downturn in the economy they just aren’t getting as much work to do and the company finances are suffering as a result. Because of that, his boss (the owner) has decided starting in June to put everybody on “hourly” instead of salary. In other words, Frank will only get paid for the hours he works, so if it’s less than 40 hours per week, he won’t get paid as much. They also will no longer be paying for our health insurance. It’s hard to say at this point how much difference all that is going to make. Frank hopes he will be able to get close to 40 hours each week (lately he’s been getting between 34 and 37 hours). For the health insurance, they were only covering Frank’s portion (we were paying the difference between an individual and a family policy already) so hopefully that won’t be a huge difference. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all pans out. I think we are still in a better position than a lot of people we know, who have just received pay cuts—at least Frank has some control over how many hours he gets. He can do some things to try to get more. But if there just isn’t enough work to do, then there’s nothing he can do about that. My bigger concern right now is just that the owners seem so worried about the company. If the company goes under, then of course he will be out of a job. We are hoping for the best, though.

Friday evening Frank and I went to the temple. It had been a few months since we were last able to go, and even longer since we’d been able to go through an endowment session together, so it was really nice to be able to do that again! I felt like I learned a lot, too—just lots of little bursts of inspiration; I love that!

Today has been pretty busy—we had lots of shopping to do (Seth’s birthday; shorts for Scott and Frank…) and this afternoon and evening Frank was helping with the food for a wedding reception. There was also scout stuff and homework to get done, and Scott had to write a talk for tomorrow. Seth took a very short nap and he was crabby when he woke up. I admit I felt pretty crabby all day…I’m blaming it on hormones! I took Seth with me to the wedding reception this evening but all the other boys wanted to stay home. I kind of wish I’d left Seth home too because he just could not sit still for more than a couple of seconds—even to eat! So I was chasing him all over—the life of a mother with a toddler!

Now it’s late and Frank just got home (he brought home a lot of yummy leftover food, though!) I still haven’t read my 50 pages for today, so I’d better go get some reading done, and then get to bed!

I'll finish up with a video we took on Sunday. The boys had gotten into the costume box, and we were laughing because Seth was trying to call Scott "Darth" but it sounded more like "dork". So we videotaped it...enjoy! (Sorry it's sideways...I'm sure there's a way to fix that, but I don't know how and I'm too tired to figure it out right now.)

The Joy of the Box

Aren't boxes wonderful things when you're a kid?

I remember reading a great book as a child called "Kristina Katerina and the Box" (or something like that). It was all about a little girl and all the fun things she did with a big box leftover from a new refrigerator (or similar appliance...I can't remember specifics.) Her mom kept trying to throw it out, and she kept finding new uses for it.

I don't remember doing a lot with large boxes as a child, but I remember I loved shoe boxes! I used to make little "houses" for my small dolls out of shoe boxes--cut out door and window holes, color wallpaper on the inside edges, make little "curtains" out of fabric scraps and yarn, then put the doll and her little furniture inside. Loved it!

(By the way, the new design of shoe boxes--with slanted sides--is ruining this kind of creativity for a whole new generation! Not to mention that it's impossible to find a suitable box for those inevitable diorama school projects.)

My older boys were fortunate to have access to quite a few large boxes since we moved around a lot in our early married years. They have had a ball making "forts" out of these boxes, and after we moved here Frank and I even made them a really cool train out of some boxes that they enjoyed for several months.

Now Seth is discovering the joy of the box. Frank brought a new computer for a client home a few days ago and there was a beautiful box left over after he took it out to get it set up.

Seth climbs into the box...

...and closes the lid.

"Where's Seth?", I ask. The box giggles.

"Where could Seth be?" The box wiggles. It giggles some more.

"Where is Seth?"

...Oh, there he is!

Thankful Thursday: Mom & Dad

This morning I found myself thinking about my parents.

I've been reading the book David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I'm not very far into it, so I'm still reading about David's childhood. He was mistreated in a terrible way by his step father. It just makes me angry to read it!

Maybe that's what got me thinking about my own parents, who (in my opinion) are just about as close to perfect parents as you can get in this imperfect world. I loved and respected them as a child, but as an adult (and a parent myself) I have really come to appreciate all the things they've done for me and what they have accomplished as parents. My love and respect have grown even more.

I look back at my childhood and teen years, and although I remember times that I was sad, upset, and worried by things that were happening at school or with my friends or at my job, I remember home as being the happy place; the place I was loved no matter what just as I was; the place where everything was always all right. In short, home was a haven.

As a parent myself, I appreciate my parents' ability to be consistent, to have few rules but to stick to the rules we had, to be firm but not too firm. So much of being a parent is finding a happy medium--my parents found it! I'm still working on that, myself.

Mom. What else can I say about Mom? I so underappreciated all the things she was doing every day while I was at school. I remember Mom being busy almost always--and no wonder! We had a real, cooked breakfast every school day. All our bread and cookies were home made. So were almost all of our clothes. (I still miss getting a new Easter dress every year, and the new school clothes every fall! I remember the other girls, with their "cookie cutter" store-bought dresses, looking longingly at the beautiful one-of-a-kind creations my mom made me!) She kept up with 8 kids (twice as many as I do!) and all their schedules. How did she do all that?

I remember as a child that when Mom wasn't home (and this was relatively rare--she was almost always home when I was) nothing felt quite right until she got back. Mom got excited for us when good things happened and she was sympathetic when bad things happened. (There are days I wish that I could still crawl into her lap!) I remember Mom always being involved in church service, fufilling her callings the best that she could. As a child, I envied her faith and the close relationship she so obviously had with the Savior. Mom read the scriptures to us younger kids before school, teaching me how important the scriptures are. She didn't usually comment about them, but I still remember the comments she did make.

Then there's Dad. He refuses to take the credit for all the good he did. If anyone says he has good kids, he claims it's all because of Mom. It's true that Mom was with us more--"down in the trenches" every day, and therefore she has had a profound impact on my life. Dad was gone a lot, but in doing that he taught me many things. Through his example I learned the importance of having a good work ethic, of doing the best that you can for your employer and taking pride in being dependable. Through his example I learned that providing for a family is noble work. I learned from him that church service is important, too--to give myself 100% to whatever I am asked to do. Even when Dad was home, he was usually working--yard work (he always got us to help, so we know how to do it, too), fixing things (He can fix just about anything! Car mechanic? Plumber? What are those?!), helping Mom.

Dad taught me, by example, to say "I'm sorry" when I make a mistake. He always impressed upon me the importance of thinking of others, to be kind and considerate instead of harming or inconveniencing others with my thoughtlessness, that taking a little bit of extra care can spare a lot of hurt and trouble.

Together, my parents somehow managed to convey to me the importance of being responsible with money and living within our means. They taught me the importance of following the commandments and having faith that the Lord will provide. They taught me that the little things, like family prayer, family home evening, and personal scripture study are important. They taught me to have faith and to keep moving forward.

I could probably write all day, if I had time, but these are the things that jumped into my mind first as I was thinking about my parents today.

I owe them both so much.

I am thankful for my parents!

Weekly Review May 16 '09

I have to start out telling you about my screen saver on my computer. You know how you can set it to be words going across the screen, or bouncing around the screen? Well, I didn’t have mine set up that way, but I noticed about a week ago that my screen saver had switched to words. I looked closer, and the words were “I Love You Mom Jared”. He had gone in there sometime when I wasn’t paying attention and changed it. Sweet!

I felt very loved on Mother’s Day also. Frank made dinner and took care of Seth and basically did everything so I could lie around all day and relax. (Except for church, of course—Primary was business as usual!) He also invited the Becks over for dinner so Jana and I enjoyed visiting while the men cooked. I got two cards—one from the kids, and one from the dog! I have never received a card from a dog before, but I deserve it because I certainly am that dog’s “mommy”! I feed him, walk him, clean up after him, and pick up his toys! The boys also gave me some towels (nice big ones), a throw pillow for the couch (red and brown stripes) and a Hannah Montana Light Up Fashion Studio. They got that last one because it included a small light box, which is what I really wanted. Real light boxes cost about $100, but the whole kit was only about $10. Of course, it’s not a really high quality light box, but it will work well enough for the quiet book project, which is why I wanted one. (Thanks for the tip to look for one in a children’s art kit, Amy!)

The rest of the week has been busy with all the usual things—school, work, errands, house work, scouts, and soccer practice. We had a few unique events, also, though.

I took Tanner to the doctor on Monday for his follow up visit. They said that he does indeed have ADD, so we are trying out a low dose medication for him to see if it helps. He started that on Tuesday. Of course, it is hard to tell yet if it is really helping, but I did notice that he was able to tell me what homework he had each day after school, and he even remembered to bring everything home that he needed to complete his homework which is definitely an improvement!

Jared told me Tuesday morning that he had thrown up in the night and then hadn’t slept well, so I let him stay home from school. He never got sick again or seemed to be all that uncomfortable, but he didn’t eat anything until later in the day and then he just had a little bit, so his stomach was definitely bothering him. He was able to finish up his science project display board that evening and went back to school the next day. He says he did well on his science fair project, by the way. He didn’t have much to report since his seeds never sprouted, but for the results portion I made him say what he would do differently if he were to do the project again. He didn’t really want to do that part, but he told me later that his teacher pointed that out and said that was a really good thing to do instead of not having any results at all. I knew that was a good idea!

I had book chat on Tuesday also. We always have a really yummy potluck lunch and good discussions so I always enjoy that. Now we are reading David Copperfield (Dickens). I haven’t started reading it yet because I just picked up my copy from the library today so I can’t say much about it, but a few people have read it and they say it’s better than Great Expectations. I’ve read that one, and I really liked it so I expect I’ll like David Copperfield. However, it is 991 pages long, and I have to get it read by June 9th—yikes! Wish me luck.

Wednesday afternoon the Beck kids came over so their parents could go buy a car. It ended up taking a lot longer than they expected, so they came to pick them up around 9:30 instead of 7:30! The kids weren’t too much trouble, though—it was just a little crazy with all the trips to the church and back with the older boys. I also took Tanner and Scott to the library that afternoon. We are having a “media free” week (again) to give the boys more time to concentrate on school work, but another result of this decision is that they have rediscovered reading as a form of entertainment! Last week end I suggested to a bored Scott that he try the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Frank owns it) and he loved it, of course, so we went to the library to get the next book in that series.

Scott has been doing a human reproduction unit in health lately and on Thursday he came home and reported that they had been talking about childbirth. I asked “So, what did you think?” In reply, he came over, gave me a hug, and said “Thank you, Mom, for all you went through for me!” I got a kick out of that! (I told him it wasn’t that bad and of course, it was worth it!) Tanner and Scott went to a play at Tanner’s school on Thursday evening while I took Seth with me to Jared’s soccer practice. The play was “Cinderella and the Substitute Fairy God Mother”. They said it was really good.

On Friday morning when we were bathing Snickers we discovered that he had a large tick behind his left ear. We actually just treated him for fleas and ticks earlier this week, but we think the tick must have bit him before that. It was obvious it had been there a while (although it was dead—the treatment did kill it) because it was so big. We called the vet and they said they would remove it for free, which they did. The site looked infected, though, so now we have to give Snickers an antibiotic for two weeks. We also got a vaccine that he needs to take before he visits the groomer so that visit ended up costing over $50. If we ever go 4 weeks without having to shell out close to $100 for this animal, I will be so happy!!! We want to take him to the groomer soon; his hair is getting long and if it gets too long it starts to matt. We have been working with Snickers a little more on training this week. He already “sits” and “comes” pretty well on command; now we are working on “down” as well as trying to get him used to being touched all over (especially his mouth and eyes—he’s very defensive about those!) He did let me brush him for the first time ever this week and he decided that he likes it! So that is a step in the right direction.

The schools all started two hours late on Friday, so supposedly we got to sleep in. In reality, though, Seth woke up at 5:45, so it was an early morning for Frank and me. Last evening we had Kalvin Koetting (my friend Jeanine’s son) come to spend the night so he could attend a merit badge day with Scott and Tanner this morning. It started early (7:30) and the Koettings live about an hour from here, so it was just easier to have him come spend the night here. Frank and I got away for a quick date—we went to a Greek festival being held here in Frederick to get some gyros. They were very yummy and huge—I know I felt like I was never going to need to eat again by the time I finished mine! When we got back we all watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which was longer than I remembered, so we all got to bed kind of late.

This morning we were up early to get the boys out the door to their merit badge class. They were all doing Citizenship in the World, so now they are both done with all three of the Citizenship merit badges. While they were gone, Frank, Seth and I went to Jared’s soccer game. His team was playing much better this week and they won their game 5-0. Jared scored one goal and assisted with another. I went out this afternoon to run some errands and ended up buying a storage secretary that I found on clearance for a really good price. Frank spent the next 4 hours putting it together (a much bigger project than I anticipated!) and it is now standing in a corner of the kitchen. I plan to use the closed storage at the bottom for small appliances and all the dog stuff, and the top part can be a desk / homework station / craft area. It looks nice and I am excited to have a place to organize some of our clutter! While Frank was working the older boys went outside and had a water fight (Seth was napping) until Kalvin’s mom came to pick him up. Then they all helped me make dinner. Scott mixed up waffle batter and Jared made all of them. Tanner mixed orange juice and Jared also helped me mix up eggs for scrambled eggs. I cooked the eggs and some bacon as well. It was nice to have all that help!

Since I finished all my other books and until today I was waiting for the book chat book, I’ve been reading the 6th Harry Potter book this week. I read it when it first came out, but that was years ago and I’d forgotten a lot of the details. I’ve been enjoying it. When the movie comes out I’ll be able to remember the book better as I watch it. I also got a little bit of sewing done this week—I got some loops sewn on the back of a quilt so that it can hang on the wall. Now we just have to get a dowel cut for it—I couldn’t find any dowels long enough at the craft stores. The blocks for this quilt were made 10 years ago, I pieced the top together about 7 years ago, and I quilted it and finished binding the edge about 4 years ago so it will be nice to FINALLY have it up on the wall!

When I had Seth at the soccer practice, I let him climb around in the car for a while. He was sitting in the front passenger seat and I was in the driver’s seat. Seth indicated that he wanted to trade places with me, so I let him climb into the driver’s seat. He sat right up to the wheel, looked at me, held out his hand, and said “Keys, please!” Yikes! Seth has become obsessed with lawn mowers lately and asks several times a day to “go see the lawnmower”, which is on the back porch under the deck. He also talks a lot about Tanner and Scott using the lawn mower, and it is a special event whenever the lawn gets mowed—he watches the whole process very carefully! Another day this week he said “Sorry Mommy hurt you,” after he had bumped me in the head and I said “Ouch!” It is just really fun to see him start to act like a grown up!

Here's a few pictures from this week. First of all, you can't say I never put any pictures of me on my blog. I'm even putting on this goofy one that Frank took of me on Mother's Day. I have no idea why I had such a weird look on my face! I'd put on a better one (photo, not face!), but unfortunately I don't have one. I take most of the pictures around here, so I'm not in very many of them.

One of our neighbors across the street was revving his motorcycle engine this morning. Seth and Snickers decided to check it out.

Here is Jared at his soccer game this morning. He played goalie first half and didn't let any goals get through.

Jared on a break during his soccer game (second half).

The new storage secretary that Frank worked so hard to put together.

That's it for this week!

Thankful Thursday: A Good Night's Sleep

My alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. I realized I had slept through the night with only minor awakenings (Frank prayed with me before he left; I heard Scott in the shower...) and I went right back to sleep after those. I hadn't heard a peep out of Seth all night (he hasn't been sleeping well lately). It was not very hard to get up. I felt rested!

Getting a good night's sleep is something I have learned not to take for granted. I used to sleep like a log every night. I remember my mom mentioning "not being able to sleep last night" fairly often when I was a teenager, and I couldn't understand what she meant.

Well, now I know. My troubles with sleep began when I was in my mid-twenties. I had just graduated from college and was working at my first "real" job. It was a pretty stressful work environment. The company I worked for was plagued with financial difficulties (as in...I hope I get my paycheck this pay period). I was working in the accounting department, so I always knew just how bad it was! Then there was the "owner" of the company. He was an interesting character, let me tell you! I don't want to go into a long description of him, but to get your imaginations going, I will mention that one of my responsibilities for part of the time I worked there was to fill out the report for his probation officer every month! He had a terrible temper and thought nothing of bursting into the accounting department (or any department, for that matter) and yelling at people for not getting him the information he needed, which he did on a fairly regular basis. (Fortunately, he never singled me out for this treatment, but I witnessed it many times.) To top it off, I worked on the 7th floor of a very old building with a scarey elevator and an even scarier fire escape. I used to have dreams that the building was on fire and I was trying to find a way out. Then I'd wake up and lie awake worrying about work-related things. I stuck with that job, believe it or not, for nearly 2 years, and by then I was an expert at lying awake and worrying.

By that time, I had a 4 month old baby, another root cause of serious sleep deprivation! My first two babies were terrible sleepers (love you guys, though!) so I went straight from worrying about work to that hazy "young mother" stage where getting 5-6 hours of interrupted sleep is considered a good night. And since my first 3 babies came every two years (just like clockwork!) I was barely getting "the baby" to sleep well at night before a new baby came along and I got to start all over. Jared was a better sleeper than the first two, but when he was young Frank was traveling a lot so I was in a high state of "alert" at nights and woke up to every bump, thump, or squeak. I'll say this for those years, though--I was so exhausted from night time feedings and so forth that I usually went right back to sleep as soon as the baby did.

After those 6 or so years, my kids stopped waking me up on a regular basis, but I reverted to my former "lie awake and worry" chronic insomniac self. Believe me, there is always something to worry about! And it always looks ten times worse in the middle of the night than it does in broad daylight, for some reason. I do not wake up every night, thankfully, but I really never can depend on having good nights on any kind of a regular basis. (I had another baby in there, just for good measure, so I took a short detour back into the "young mother" stage, but he was by far my best sleeper, so it was brief!) Not sleeping well on a regular basis is a great trial for anyone, I'm sure, but it is especially trying for a major "type A" personality like me, who thrives on planning ahead, being organized, and checking things off a "to do" list! There is nothing I love better than feeling well enough to get up early so I can read my scriptures and pray in peace, get a shower, and then maybe get the laundry going before the kids get up! Not sleeping at night makes it pretty impossible to plan anything or to have a regular schedule of any kind (did I mention I thrive on having a regular schedule?).


This week has been different, though. I’ve been trying out something new (for me) called Melatonin. It’s the chemical in our bodies which promotes sleep, and it’s available over the counter in pill form. It really works! At least, it’s been working for me for a week now. It is just a great blessing to get a good night’s sleep! I have hopes that this will be happening for me more regularly now.

I am very thankful for a good night’s sleep!

PS—Can you say all 50 states in alphabetical order? How about all the state’s capitals in alphabetical order? Do you have the words (all verses) of “Where Can I Turn for Peace?" and “Be Still My Soul” memorized? I can, and do—that’s a few of the by-products of my many years of poor sleeping. I did do a lot of praying and pondering during those sleepless nights, also—so not all of it was unproductive! I'm thankful for that, too.

Weekly Review May 9 '09

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day….

It’s been all rain this week, seems like. I guess we got a little bit of sunshine now and then, but not much! All the rain has sure turned things green, though. Here’s the view off the back deck (taken Thursday afternoon during the hour or so that it actually wasn’t raining!):

Jared’s soccer practice and his game were both cancelled this week because the field was too wet and muddy. We did manage to get the lawn mowed—we had Tanner do it after he got home from school on Wednesday—about an hour before it started raining again!

Seth is really expressing himself in words these days. He is starting to really let his wishes be known! One day when I picked him up to put him down for his nap, he was playing with a fire truck. He said “want play fire truck”. A month or two ago he would have just cried and fussed when I picked him up! Another day when Jared was taking Snickers out for a walk, Seth came to me and said “Put on shoes. Seth walk.” He is saying stuff like that all the time now.

On Monday we played “hide the button” for family night activity. Seth really liked playing this game. He wandered around while the rest of us hunted saying “Where button?” After the rest of us found it, we would give him big hints to help him find it—he was always so excited to find the button! One time he found it before a few of the rest of us did. We let him have a turn hiding it, too. First he tried to hide it under the television, but he ran over there to hide it before everyone had their eyes closed, so I told him to hide it somewhere else. (I was helping him.) Then he tried to hide it in his diaper! We all laughed when he went looking for it himself, walked right over to where it was, looked, and then said “Nope!” and walked away.

Tanner and Scott are both struggling with some school classes right now, so they were both banned from television, computers, and games in order to give them more time to focus on school work. It was a lot quieter around here this week! In addition to getting their school work done, they have developed a whole new interest in reading! We returned the questionnaires about Tanner to the doctor and received a phone call back the same day saying he definitely “met the criteria” (of what, I’m not sure…) and they want me to schedule a visit to talk about what options are available to help him. I wasn’t too surprised by the call—I looked over the questionnaires and noticed we had all answered them very similar, and we all reported a lot of problems in the first section of the questionnaire. I guess I’ll understand it all better after I go talk to the doctor, which we’re doing on Monday. I’m just glad that we are working toward a solution!

I wasn’t feeling very well on Wednesday, so Frank handled all the runs to the church and back for scouts that evening. He also took Seth with him and went to the store to buy milk, so I had some quiet time to rest. I really appreciated that! I’ve had some trouble off and on with congestion, slight sore throat, and headache all week (kind of like last week), but Wednesday night was the worst. Again, it’s never turned into anything major, and I’m glad of that.

Jared was finishing his science fair project this week. Unfortunately, none of his plants sprouted! We even checked the dirt and found the seeds, but no roots or anything. I’m not sure what went wrong, but I suspect we over watered them at first and the seeds rotted. Besides that, there has been so much rain and so little sunlight the last two weeks that I don’t think they got enough warmth and sunlight. It’s been a little tricky for Jared to finish up his report when he doesn’t have any results to talk about. Next week he has to put his display board together and then we will be done with science fair projects until next year…hooray!

Here’s our amazing story for the week. I got Jared some little sunglasses last week. (He looks so cute in them, by the way!) He was wearing them Thursday morning when I took the boys to school and then to the grocery store. Later when we went out again he asked for his sunglasses, but I couldn’t find them. After making two different trips around town, I found the sunglasses on the back bumper of the car! Seth must have put them there when we were unloading the groceries, but I can’t believe they didn’t fall off sometime during those other two trips! I am glad we didn’t lose them, though.

Frank went to a Symantec presentation on Friday. As part of their presentation, they also rented out a theater so all attending could see the new Star Trek movie. Frank says the movie is great! He really enjoyed it. He says he learned a lot of useful information about Symantec’s products also.

Last evening we had the Beck kids over here so that Scott could watch them while their parents went out (it was Jana’s birthday). When they came back they took Scott back to their house with them so he could put their kids to bed while they went to get something to eat. (They had gone to a movie and it took longer than they expected so they hadn’t had a chance to eat yet.) I waited up for Scott, but Frank was too tired so he went to bed.

This was not a good week for dental news at our house. Frank went to the dentist for his check up on Tuesday and found out he needs another crown done. That’s two he needs now at over $500 each (our part of the cost)—ouch! Then I took Snickers to the vet on Friday to have his teeth checked and they said he has two baby teeth that haven’t come out yet which are blocking the adult teeth from coming in in the right place. They say the teeth need to be pulled and for dogs they have to knock them out to do that. The estimate they gave me was between $400-500 for that. Frank says absolutely no way is he going to pay that much for a dog’s teeth!! So we decided to hold off on that for a while and I am praying those teeth will just fall out! We are trying to save up so we can go to Utah next year, and between Frank’s extra crown and Snickers’ teeth, that would pretty much wipe out everything we’ve saved so far. It’s discouraging, but I can’t really complain too much. I feel like we are much better off than a lot of other people are right now.

Today we went to a Celtic Festival. Tanner and Scott needed to go to an ethnic festival to pass off one of their pre-requisites for their Citizenship in the World merit badge. (Well, that was one of their choices. All the other choices sounded soooo boring!) We thought it was pretty interesting, but not worth the price ($15 each for anyone over 12—at least Tanner, Jared, and Seth got in free). I’d say 95% of the booths were vendors selling stuff. (A lot of cool stuff, too—but expensive!) They did have some Irish & Scottish dancing, Scottish & Irish bands, and some Highlands games competitions, which were all very fun to see. We just wish they’d had more of that kind of stuff. There was a children’s tent also, but it was mostly crafts and none of my boys are the crafty type, so that didn’t interest them. We did watch some of the Open Stone and Scottish Hammer competitions, which basically involves throwing heavy objects as far as you can. That looked pretty difficult! We also really enjoyed watching the dancers and seeing the bag pipe bands march (and hearing their music). Frank and Scott have gone back now to watch the Caber competition (throwing big logs) and a Gaelic football demonstration (I think they are doing some Mother’s Day shopping also). I stayed home so that Seth could take a nap and Tanner and Jared could work on their homework—they both have a lot of that to do.

Scottish dancers. We watched Irish dancers later, but no photos because the camera batteries died!

Scottish band marching by

Scott and Jared watching the Open Stone competition (do you see me pushing Seth in the stroller back there also?)

Open Stone competition (sorry--you can't see much in the photo; much more exciting in real life!)

All of us watching

The last few days have really warmed up (in spite of the rain)—we’ve even had the A/C on a few times. That means the weather is right for popsicles! Here is Seth enjoying a fudge pop:

We are looking forward to the summer days ahead!

Just a Note

Attention: to all those ice cream companies out there who have switched their 1.75 quart container to a 1.5 quart container and are still charging the same price as they did for the 1.75 quart container and thought I wouldn't notice:

I Noticed.

And I'm really annoyed....

Weekly Review May 2 '09

Let’s see, Sunday Frank stayed home with Seth while I took the older 3 boys to church. (I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting being completely amused by the fact that I had Scott on one side of me and Jared on the other, and they were both sitting as close to me as they possibly could—almost on top of me! They never completely outgrow their mom, do they?) Seth woke up early but went back to sleep and then didn’t wake up until after we left for church, so it’s a good thing we had decided to keep him home. He was starting to feel better that day and thankfully started sleeping better again also but he still has a runny nose. After church I had choir, then our home teachers came to see us, then Frank & Scott went to home teach two families, then Frank had to go set up some computer stuff for a meeting at the stake center, then we had family night. Scott & Tanner had a fireside that evening also but we just ran out of time (I wonder why?!) so they didn’t make it to that.

Meanwhile, Frank started getting a sore throat and head ache on Sunday and by Monday morning he felt terrible. He had a sore throat (he nearly lost his voice), chills, head ache, aches all over, and lots of congestion /sinus pain. He is still getting better. He stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday although he still got some work done both of those days from here. He went to work for about 4 hours on Wednesday (and did more work from here) and put in a full day on Thursday. He didn’t have to go anywhere on Friday but he had plenty of work to do remotely.

I had a slight sore throat and head ache off and on all week, but thankfully never got really sick. Tanner and Jared have both had some congestion also, but didn’t miss any school. Scott seems to be healthy as a horse!

I also had some trouble with my right eye—the eyelid was red, swollen and tender for a few days. I have no idea why! I didn’t wear my contacts for a few days and that seemed to help clear it up.

On Tuesday we got our other new chair. Everybody likes it; it is very comfortable!

Here is Scott & Seth enjoying the rocking chair, too.

I am still fussing around trying to figure out the best way to arrange the new furniture. The walls were still bare until today because Frank wasn’t well enough to hang all the pictures back up, and I am too inept to do it myself! I did move the book case back into the living room all by myself, though, and I put a shoe rack back together also (we had to take it down to paint the door—it hangs behind the door of the coat closet.) The room looks a lot more “home like” now with the new curtains hung and some pictures on the walls.

What do you think?

The beginning of the week was very warm (hot, even) but then a cold front came through and it rained. It was nice to wear shorts for a few days! We’ve had a lot of rain the last few days, though. We haven’t been able to mow the lawn (the boys who are responsible for doing that are not heartbroken!) but Jared still had soccer practice on Thursday and a game today. It rained pretty hard for a while this morning, but there was a break in the rain in time for his game, which was at 11:00. The game didn’t go so well—his team lost 4-1. They just didn’t look like the same team this week—not really working together like they usually do. Oh, well. I guess they have to lose sometimes. Jared still played well. He was goalie for the second half and only let one goal through. He blocked several other goal attempts.

Seth has been acting like a two year old this week even though he has a month to go before he is officially two. For example, he is getting very independent. He wanted to pour his cereal into his bowl all by himself (a huge bag—I don’t think so!). I got around that one by pouring some cereal into a cup and then letting him pour the cup into his bowl. It worked the first time, but I’m sure he’ll wise up soon. He is also starting to protest more when he doesn’t get his way. He was being so difficult at the store Thursday morning that I just gave up and came home. (He wanted a different cart, but I knew there wasn’t enough space in the cart he wanted for all the groceries I needed to buy. He refused to sit down in the cart I got instead. He wanted me to carry him and / or let him push the cart all by himself.) I decided to give him a bath when we got home and he liked that, but then he came unglued after I got him out and wouldn’t let me put clothes on him. I had to wrestle him into a diaper (after he’d already wet on the floor). It was at this point that I decided it was nap time. (It was only 10:00, but he woke up before 6:00 that morning.) He took a long nap, so he must have been tired. There is a part of me that wonders if I have the stamina to handle a two year old again!

Then again, Seth does so many sweet and cute things. He has started to repeat the words of prayers when we say them. One day this week when I was watching a conference talk online he sat beside me and listened to about half of it. Then he looked at me and said “Jesus Christ, Amen.” I think he was letting me know he thought it was time for the talk to end! He is still fascinated by trucks so I have started teaching him the names of different kinds of trucks. He picks up on that very quickly and now as I am driving around town I hear “dump truck”, “cement truck”, “mail truck” in addition to “big truck” (what he used to call all trucks) coming from the back seat. Seth is also learning all about possession. At the dinner table he will point and say “Daddy’s plate.” “Scott’s plate.” And so on—then last of all he will smile big, pat his chest and say “Seth’s plate!” He has also learned to say “Seth’s turn” when he wants to do something someone else is doing. I’m not sure how he figured that out! One day this week when we were eating breakfast he looked at me and said “Hear bird, Mommy?” There was a bird singing outside—I hadn’t noticed until he pointed it out.

Yesterday evening was the Blue & Gold Banquet (finally—we’ve had to reschedule 2 or 3 times). I think everyone who attended had a good time. The theme this year was dinosaurs. We have a father / son cake bake every year and tell the boys they can decorate a cake to fit the theme, or they can decorate it any way they want. Well, dinosaurs must be very popular with all the boys because almost all the cakes were dinosaurs. That made it very difficult to come up with a unique award for each cake, but I had to do it because I was one of the people who ended up doing the awards.

Jared’s cake was one of the more unique ones—he made a cave. I have photographs, but unfortunately I can’t share them because I took out the memory card and forgot to put it back in, so they are on the camera’s internal memory. Frank can’t find the right cable to get the photos off the camera. Hopefully we will find the cable or get a new one soon, so I can post the pictures. In the meantime, you will just have to make do with a few descriptions. One of my favorites was one that had several plastic dinosaurs on one side of the cake, several Book of Mormon figures on the other side, and a frosting “river” flowing in between. I came up with “Best Alternate Ending to the Book of Mormon” for this one, but that was kind of long, so we decided to simplify and gave it the Man vs. Wild Award. We were all laughing over the other idea, though! Another one, which had plastic dinosaurs of various sizes covering every square inch of the cake, got the “Most Populated Dinosaur Island” award. Jared received three more activity badges--Scholar, Fitness, and Geologist--and 4 beltloops (citizen, chess, basketball, and soccer.)

After the banquet was over, Tanner went to a Deacon’s activity—a sleep over at the YM president’s house. It was a farewell party for one of the deacons who is moving this week. Jared also went to a sleep over with his friend Bryson, so we were down to two boys for the evening. We let Scott stay up to watch a movie, but I went to bed before he was done!

I’ve been doing more reading this week—I got the book for book chat on Thursday and read it in two days (it was pretty short). It’s called A Separate Peace by John Knowles. It was a good book; I enjoyed it. The author writes beautifully and he has a way of putting feelings into words. Now I am reading a book called London Refrain, which is a book in a series. I read the rest of the series years ago and I thought the series had ended, but I stumbled across three additional books in the series recently, so I’m reading them. (This is the first of the 3 books that I haven’t read yet.) I’m enjoying it so far; it’s nice to learn even more details about what happens to the main characters.

I'll end with a few more photos of our tulips out front. They are blooming in shifts this year!

Here is another photo of the apple trees right outside our front windows.

Remember the photo of the apple blossoms a few weeks ago? There weren't any leaves on the trees then, but now they are covered with a ton of green leaves! All the trees around here have sprouted leaves in the last week; now we can't see the river anymore. That's the result of all this rain we've been getting.

I hope the rest of you are getting some nice spring weather!