Weekly Review July 25 '09

Happy 54th Anniversary to Mom & Dad this week!!!!

I’ll start out this week with some photos from our visit to Fountain Rock Nature Center last Saturday. It's a beautiful place, and it's only about 5 minutes from our home! The pond is in an old rock quarry. In addition to the pond, there is also a visitor's center with lots of hands on exhibits, some old lime kilns, and a playground. The pond is my favorite spot, though.

I took this video while we were there so you can get an idea of how much Seth is talking:

Sorry how it is sideways. Gotta fix that somehow.

Well, you all know the big news of the week already. On becoming the Primary president…I can’t say I didn’t see it coming (the former president could be moving at any time) but I was really hoping they’d pick somebody else! However, we had this really amazing Sacrament Meeting two weeks ago, and during that meeting I just knew it was coming and that it’s what I’m supposed to be doing right now. So when that meeting ended and the executive secretary tapped me on the shoulder and said the bishop wanted to meet with Frank and I right after church that day, I wasn’t surprised or even anxious. I do not like being in charge of anything—I would much rather be told what to do! But it helps me a lot to feel like it’s the right thing for me to be doing, and I am grateful for that.

When I mentioned last week that I worked on some Primary stuff, what I meant was deciding on counselors and a secretary. Actually, that wasn’t too difficult—I already had a pretty good idea before I was even called who I should ask for. The difficulty was that one of the counselors I wanted was team-teaching our most challenging Primary class with her husband, and they have been doing a great job. So I really didn’t want to take her out of there—then I’d have to find some good teachers to replace them. I felt like I was playing with one of those slide puzzles—whoever I put in there to replace her created a hole somewhere else! I had a list of about 10 different callings that I was trying to juggle around, with 4 or 5 names that I was considering for each one. Crazy! But the feeling I kept getting was that I needed to pick my counselors first, and I needed to choose the ones I felt the best about, regardless of the consequences elsewhere. Once I did that, everything else seemed to magically click into place. It actually didn’t take me that long—I got it all figured out by Tuesday morning, so it was less than 48 hours—but it was a very long 48 hours! I do still need one more teacher, but I’m sure something will work out soon.

I ended up keeping the counselor and secretary that were serving with me in the last presidency. They have both been serving with me for about 5 months and they are both fantastic! My other counselor (the one who is the former Primary teacher) is really new to our ward—she’s only been here about 2 months. I am excited to work with all of them, and I know I am going to be leaning on them a lot!

That’s about all there is to say about this week as far as I’m concerned--it was Primary with a Capital P. Although the last president is super organized (even more organized that me!) and she had everything running like a well-oiled machine, there have still been a lot of things to do like update all the paper work to reflect the changes that just happened, and bringing the new counselor up to speed, and putting together lesson manual binders for a couple of new teachers….you get the picture! I literally spent hours every day on the phone, sending e-mails, typing on the computer, and so on. I also met with the former president on Sunday so she could pass off a lot of stuff to me, and on Tuesday I met with my new counselor to get her oriented. I’ve covered a lot of ground, though, so I think things will start to settle down soon. Actually, things have settled down a lot the last couple of days, so I think I’m getting caught up on everything. I hope so, anyway! Besides all that, I also had Sharing Time to prepare and I’ve been putting together a little book for Jana (the outgoing president)—we’re going to take photographs of the classes and have all the kids sign a page with their class photo on it.

On Thursday evening we had a boy named Danny come over for a couple of hours. Danny is Tanner’s age; he’s autistic and I used to watch him years ago when he was in kindergarten. His mom & dad both had a meeting that evening and they didn’t want to leave him alone. Since his older siblings, as well as all the other teenagers in the stake, were at Youth Conference, they really didn’t have anyone who could stay with him, so they asked if they could bring him here. Tanner and Jared entertained him most of the time he was here, so I really didn’t have to do much. I think Snickers scared him a little, though, especially because he kept barking! So Snickers spent most of those two hours in his crate.

Jared had a fun day on Monday—he got to go to Six Flags with a friend from school. Apparently, he went on a lot of big roller coasters as well as a lot of water rides.
Scott had Youth Conference this week end, so he was gone Thursday morning through Saturday afternoon. The first day, they had workshops, went swimming at a lake, and had dinner and a dance. The second day they did service projects all day; then had dinner, a slide show, and an evening with the Stake President. Today they had a testimony meeting and brunch before coming home. Everything was held locally, but they stayed with host families, so he still had the experience of being away from home for a few days. Scott came home tired, but he seemed to have had a great time.

The weather had been hotter and more humid this week—more like what you would expect in Maryland during the summer months! We had thunderstorms on Thursday, Friday and today (we’re having one right now, actually.) One storm blew up while I was getting Seth down for a nap—he’d just gone to sleep and I was walking down the hall to his room to put him down in his crib when there was a blinding flash of light followed immediately by a deafening clap of thunder. Needless to say, Seth woke up! (He went back to sleep pretty quickly, though.) The funny thing about that was that it was really the only lightning we got from that particular storm.

Jared and Tanner were invited to spend the night Friday night with a neighbor boy (Joey). Then on Saturday morning they went with him to Cunningham Falls to go swimming, so we didn’t see them until late this afternoon. So it was just Seth and I here at home for the whole morning. I took Seth to get a haircut and we ran a few errands. After Frank got home with Scott this afternoon, I was able to go get a haircut and a color. I’m very happy about that because I haven’t had either done for over 3 months! I decided to get a different cut than what I’ve had for a while—I got a bob. It’s nice to have it short (and not gray) again!

Here are Seth and I sporting new haircuts

Frank was not quite so busy with work this week (I hope he got in enough hours) but he helped do most of the cooking for Youth Conference (Thursday evening, Friday evening, and Saturday morning) so he was still gone a lot, and he was very tired when he was home.

Seth has continued his usual toddler antics. I think we went through over 2 rolls of paper towels this week. One day I came downstairs from a 5 minute phone call to find this:

That is a brand new roll of paper towels that you see all over the floor. I know the one before that had just been brought up 2 or 3 days before, and the roll you see in this photo is gone now, also! At least we are doing our part to boost the economy--no paper towel companies are going to go "belly up" if Seth has anything to say about it!!

Now I need to go help Tanner write a talk on “Learning Lessons of Faith from My Pioneer Ancestors”. He is speaking in Sacrament Meeting for the first time tomorrow. Hopefully that will go well! I guess I’ll let you know next week.

No Wonder so many Americans are Overweight

Yesterday while I was driving to the store, I was resolving in my mind to start eating better. (Why? Not because I'm gaining weight--I'm not. But because I'm noticing in my "older" age that my tummy area is starting to look a little poochy.) Overall I eat pretty well; I'm not much of a snacker and I eat reasonable portions. I don't eat a lot of junk food. But I was just thinking that it wouldn't kill me to stop eating cookies with my lunch, and definitely no more eating anything after 8:00 at night! (If I do snack, that's when I do it.)

Then I walked into the store, and someone handed me 2 free Twinkies. (My local Wal-Mart was having a "Grand Re-Opening" after spending the last 3 months in total disarray while remodeling. It was a pain, and now I have to re-learn where everything is located! It does look a lot better, though.) Anyway, I found it kind of ironic that when I was just deciding to eat less sweets, someone handed me something fattening.

I found myself thinking "No wonder so many Americans are overweight!" Because if you hand me a free Twinkie, chances are I will eat it! There are just too many unhealthy choices out there, and they are too readily available to most of us. Nobody can have any kind of event anymore without serving fattening food! Why is that?

The bottom line is, if you want to stay at a healthy weight, you have to be lucky and have an outrageous metabloism like me, or you have to have a HUGE amount of discipline!

I Have 98 Kids

Yes, it's true. Besides my four biological children, I now have 94 others.

That's because yesterday I was sustained as the new Primary President in my ward.

Wish me luck.

Thankfully, I have been in Primary a lot over the last 12 years and so I've done pretty much everything in Primary except president. Which is why I'm not completely terrified. Just slightly terrified!

If I don't put anything else on this blog for the next couple years, now you know why! I am much too busy caring for my 98 kids!

Weekly Review July 18 '09

I forgot to take a photo of my newly manicured toenails last week, so here they are:

We had a lot of different social things going on this week, so we kept busy and the week went by fast.

For family night on Monday Tanner & Scott had us play a card game they learned at camp called “Liar”. Actually, I remember playing the same game when I was a kid, but we called it “Bull”. It’s usually played with face cards, but we used Rook cards which worked just as well.

Tuesday my visiting teachers came to see me (actually, just one of them) and then that evening I went visiting teaching—sort of! I’m my friend Marci’s visiting teacher and she and I had arranged to get together to make jewelry. I invited my companion (I have a new companion this month) to come also which worked out great because she has been making jewelry for years and had extra tools and helped us figure out what we were doing (the instructions that came with the kits we bought were not very helpful). We did talk about the visiting teaching message while we worked! One other sister in our ward came too (Marci invited others); she was knitting instead of making jewelry. I did get one pair of earring made that evening. The kit has a bracelet, two necklaces, and another pair of earrings, so I still have a lot to do—we will get together again soon! It was a fun evening.

Wednesday afternoon my companion and I visited another sister. She is new in our ward, so it was fun to get to know her a little better. That evening Scott and Tanner had a YM / YW activity at the YM president’s house. Jared had to be at the church at the same time, so I took Jared and Frank took the other boys. Frank went from there to a site to work—he knew he was going to be gone a lot of the night, but it turned out he didn’t come home until about 1:30 the next afternoon! There were a lot more problems than he anticipated, but he did get everything done. He conked out when he got home, of course, but I was surprised when he woke up by 6:00.

Thursday I got some shopping done while Seth napped. It was actually hot & humid that day—felt more like the weather we usually get in the summer around here. I haven’t missed it!

Friday we got a decent amount of rain. Jared went to a birthday party for his friend Bryson that afternoon—they went bowling—and then he went to spend the night with his friend Evan. Frank and I went with our friends the Becks to see Harry Potter 6. Scott and Tanner babysat Seth and the Beck kids for us. I loved the movie; I thought it was very well done. It was a lot funnier than I expected, for one thing. I also thought the actor playing Dumbledore did a much better job in this one. There were a few things they left out that I wonder how they will tie everything in, but mostly I thought they did a good job of following the book, with a few alterations and that one scene at the Burrow added in.

Today we are going to be busy, but mostly doing fun things. We are going to visit a nature center in a couple of hours (passes off scout requirements, and it’s just plain beautiful besides) and then late this afternoon / evening is our annual ward Crab Feast. After the rain yesterday, the humidity and heat are back down so it is a perfect day to be outside! I’m sure we’ll have fun.

The rest of the week I kept busy working on Primary stuff, helping the boys with scout stuff (and nagging them to do their exercises!) and keeping up with Seth. He continues to amaze me with his verbal skills: “Want to watch Baby Einstein. The music one.” or “The ball is too big for the house.” (He was trying to put a ball through an opening in his toy car garage, and he was right—it wouldn’t fit.) One day he got into some framed photographs that are on my floor waiting to be hung, and managed to remove the photos and the glass—yikes! I found out he was into them when I saw him running by with a photograph of my mom & dad. I said “Hey, Seth, what have you got there?” and as he ran by, he said “Grandma & Grandpa”! I was pretty surprised (but pleased) that he knew them from their photograph—he’s only met them once, and that was 9 months ago.

Here are some photos I took when the older boys were doing their stretches before exercising--Seth was trying to imitate everything they did!

Seth loves to play with water—I’ve been wishing we had a water table! I finally got smart this week, though, and put a cutting board in the bottom of the sink (to make a flat surface) so he could put all his cups in there and practice pouring water from one to another (he’d been doing it on the counter before that, which inevitably ended up with water all over the counter and dripping onto the floor!) He actually is pretty good at pouring without spilling, but he hasn’t grasped the concept yet that a full cup will overflow if you try to pour more water into it.

Frank continued to be very busy this week and we are grateful for that, although we miss him when he’s gone. He has had overtime every week since he switched to hourly, so actually he has been getting paid more instead of less, as we feared! In a world where we are surrounded by people getting pay cuts or losing jobs, we feel very, very thankful (and humbled) that he has so much work to do. Of course, there are no guarantees it will last, but we will be grateful as long as it does.

Like our pioneer ancestors, we have to say “All Is Well”. (And we are praying for those of you who have been less fortunate!)

Weekly Review July 11 '09

As I suspected, this week was quieter, without Tanner and Scott here for most of the week. It never ceases to amaze me how much difference it makes to have one child gone (let alone two!)—a lot less noise, a lot less activity, a lot less arguing and bickering!

Sunday was pretty eventful, though, as I mentioned in my last post. After we got home from church, Frank was planning to make me a birthday meal and I was looking forward to a relaxing afternoon (possibly with a nap!) but then Snickers hurt his leg. I’m still not sure how it happened because it all happened so quickly, but I was holding him and went to put him down. He struggled a little because he wanted down quicker, so I let him go. He was only a few inches from the ground, but he must have landed on his leg wrong or something. Frank says he thinks I stepped on Snickers, too (which is possible, I trip over him all the time!) Anyway, when he hit the ground he starting yelping like crazy. I could tell he was really hurt. After he stopped yelping, he was shaking all over and he wouldn’t put any weight on his back right leg. Even then, he forgave me immediately—he limped into my lap to be comforted; it was so pitiful! We decided to watch him for a while but after a couple of hours he still wouldn’t put any weight on his foot and he would start to shake again every time he tried to move, so we decided we’d better get him to the vet. Our regular vet was closed, of course—Frank had to take him to the emergency vet hospital. They did x-rays, and to my relief no bones were broken, just some pretty significant soft tissue damage. They gave him some pain medication and said to keep him as quiet as possible for 10-12 days. Of course, that little visit put a big hole in our wallets, but we needed it for our own peace of mind.

The vet visit pretty much messed up our plans for the day. Frank was gone for hours, so I didn’t get a nap and I ended up making most of my own birthday dinner! Frank did make me a blueberry cheesecake, though, and after Frank got back they gave me some presents. I really couldn’t think of much that I wanted this year, so Frank just got me what I asked for—some Dove dark chocolate ice cream bars and a bunch of blank CDs so I can make copies of my blog and of all our digital photographs. Frank couldn’t find any fabric markers (I want them for the quiet book I plan to make for Seth) so he said I could go buy some myself. My other present I have to wait another week or so for—Frank’s going to take me to see the new Harry Potter movie when it comes out. Besides that, I got a book I’ve been wanting to read (3rd in a series) from Mom & Dad, as well as nice cards from them, Frank, and the boys. I think I liked the cards most of all; each one said such nice things—I must be getting old!!! I can’t say it was my best birthday, since I was worried about Snickers and besides that I always get a bad headache when I fast, but it ended nice and I am grateful for that.

With the cheesecake (I was in my pajamas by then!)

Oh, one other funny thing that happened—our bishop called me that evening to wish me happy birthday. When Scott answered the phone and said “the bishop wants to talk to you”, my heart dropped to my feet! I mean, that’s not usually a good thing! It was nice of him to call, though. I talked to his wife also (she’s a pretty good friend) and I told her to tell him “thanks again” for calling but my heart is still racing! She laughed.

Our regular vet called Monday morning to follow up on Snickers which was nice since I had a few concerns and questions. They called again to check up that afternoon; by then Snickers was doing quite a bit better, thankfully. He was still very quiet for him, and spent most of the day in his crate—but that was ok because that’s what he needed. On Tuesday he started acting more like himself (eating a little more, barking at noises, playing with his toys) and he has continued to improve every day since then. As the week has gone on, I’ve seen him put his foot down more and more often although he still lifts it up when he runs. He’s back to climbing stairs and jumping off furniture, though—which he really isn’t supposed to be doing yet, but how do you explain that to a dog?! I try to anticipate his moves and forestall him as much as possible, but I can’t watch him like a hawk 24 / 7.

Tanner and Scott left for scout camp very early Monday morning. Tanner was up by 5:20—amazing!! Frank was one of the adult leaders for the first day, so he helped drive boys up and then stayed all day. He didn’t get home until about 8:30 that evening. The camp is about an hour north of here, in Pennsylvania.

The rest of the week was mostly uneventful. Jared helped me with chores every day and then he got to play games for a few hours. I think he enjoyed not having to share the gaming systems, but I also think he was bored a lot. He spent quiet a bit of time with Joey, one of the neighbor boys.

Frank found a tick on Seth on Tuesday morning. It was on the right side of his head, under his hair. We are guessing that it had probably been attached for a couple of days because we weren’t really outside at all on Sunday and Monday, but we were outside a lot on Friday and Saturday. (I don’t know how I missed it when I washed his hair Saturday night, though!) Tick bites are always a bit of a concern around here because the kind of ticks that carry Lyme’s disease are pretty prevalent in this area. However, after reading up on it a little bit, I am pretty sure that the kind of tick we found was not a deer tick (the kind that carries Lyme’s disease.) They were described as the size of a pencil dot, and the one we found was much larger than that. Of course, it could have been bigger because it was having a nice meal of Seth’s blood, but it didn’t look all that engorged to me. We are just going to have to keep an eye on him for the next several weeks to make sure no symptoms show up.

On Wednesday my friend Marci took me to get a pedicure, as a birthday gift. Somehow it came up when I was talking to her last week that I’d never had a pedicure before and she insisted on taking me to get one. I mostly enjoyed it (very relaxing!) but it was a little awkward because the girl doing the pedicure spoke very little English. She was speaking another language to the other workers; Vietnamese, I think. Marci said every nail salon she’s ever been to is all staffed by Vietnamese workers—who knows why! Afterwards, we shopped a little while our nails dried (Marci got a manicure as well as a pedicure). Her daughter Haley came to our house to watch Seth while we were gone. I got him down for a nap before I left, but he woke up about a half hour before I got home, so I’m glad she was there to help Jared.

Thursday ended up being pretty busy—our friends the Becks called to see if Scott could babysit for them. He was at scout camp, of course, but knowing that their life is ultra stressful right now and that finances are tight (the recession has meant 3 pay cuts for them so far) I told them to just bring their kids over here instead. Frank was late getting home from work, but Jared was a big help—he played with the Beck kids and Seth so that I could get dinner made. (It was grilled shrimp and vegetables on the barbecue that night—yum!) In the middle of that, Scott called to say hello. I asked him how Tanner was doing and he said he thought Tanner had been feeling sick that morning but he was doing better. However, Tanner called a few hours later and said he had felt sick all week and almost thrown up several times, and he wanted to come home. After talking it over, we decided to go get him—Tanner usually doesn’t complain much, so if he does we know it’s significant. Seth was already in bed, so only one of us could go and since Frank still had a lot of work to get done that evening, I ended up going.

I took Jared with me for company. We left here around 9:00 and arrived at the camp around 10:00. I didn’t have any trouble finding Camp Tuckahoe, but I did have trouble finding Tanner’s campsite. I had to call one of the leaders on his cell phone, and then he told me that another leader and Tanner had walked down to the parking lot to meet me, so I had to go back the way I came. We finally hooked up, and they got in the car with me to ride back to the campsite and pick up Tanner’s things. Scott had to get a few hugs from his mom, too! With all the back and forth, we didn’t end up heading back home until nearly 11:00 and I had to stop to fill up (slid into a gas station on the north side of Gettysburg with an empty tank!) so we didn’t get home until midnight. Tanner and Jared both fell asleep on the way home. Tanner hasn’t acted terribly sick since getting home, so I’m wishing I’d made him stick it out for one more day. However, he hasn’t been eating much and he has continued to complain that he’s not feeling very well. Hopefully he will be all better soon.

I noticed a red patchy rash on Seth on Thursday. It was mostly in the armpit area and on the underside of his upper arms. On Friday the rash was also on his upper legs, near the diaper line, and I also noticed his eyelids looked puffy. I’ve seen this kind of rash on him before, so I wasn’t too concerned, but we did call the doctor to find out if we could give him Benadryl, and if so, how much. I talked to the nurse and she agreed that it sounded like some kind of allergic reaction and gave me the proper dose of Benadryl. That hasn’t seemed to help, though—the rash has continued to spread to his trunk and face. If it doesn’t get any better I will be taking him in to the doctor tomorrow.

Yesterday Frank was gone most of the day helping to cook food for a wedding reception. We didn’t go to the reception because I had forgotten all about it (must have lost the invitation) and so I had invited the missionaries over for dinner. Scott arrived home around noon; he seemed to have a great time at scout camp but he was exhausted—fell asleep on the couch right before dinner! He finished all 4 of the merit badges he signed up to do—hooray! Tanner only finished one—besides coming home early, he also tripped and injured himself early in the week and because he had large open sores on one knee and hand they wouldn’t let him back in the pool. He’d signed up for the swimming merit badge, so that one was out! But at least he passed the BSA swimmer test the first day, which is one of the only things he still needed to do to get his 2nd and 1st class scout ranks. He did complete quite a few things for two other merit badges, so it wasn’t a complete loss. Hopefully next year will be more successful for him. Scott didn’t get much accomplished his first 2 years at camp, but he finally got it together this year.

I finished reading The Zookeeper’s Wife early this week. I’m still not sure what I think of The Zookeeper’s Wife. I did enjoy it, and it is a story well worth telling, but I think it could have been told much better than it was. I don’t really agree with some of the reviews on the back cover (“I can’t imagine a better story or storyteller…”) but I’d still say I’m glad I read it. One thing the author is good at doing is description. Reading that book did make me want to visit Warsaw in the spring / summer.

After I finished that book, I started on my birthday book and finished it by the end of the week—I read it when I probably should have been doing other things, but it was hard to put down! I enjoyed it and thought it was a good ending to the series. It gave me some things to think about, too!

I find myself getting a bit frazzled these days keeping up with Seth. One day this week I found him coloring all over Scott and Tanner’s room (and himself) with magic markers and that same day I cleaned up large water spills at least twice. (But water is better than kool aid—he decorated the whole kitchen floor with that on Monday.) There were other things, too, but I’ve forgotten them now. I find myself going through a whole roll of paper towels in a couple of days! I know that is nothing compared to what some of you go through, but I have never been very patient with messes. I keep reminding myself that “this too shall pass.” He does so many fun things, too. One day when we were in Scott & Tanner’s room he pointed to the wall and said “Jesus has a lightsaber”! I looked—there was a Star Wars poster on the wall. (Seth thinks anybody with a beard is Jesus.) And yes, “light saber” has been a part of his vocabulary for a while.

Seth's "body art"

Once again, I’m late getting this posted, so I will do it now and leave today’s events for next week.

Weekly Review July 4 '09

Sunday started early—I had choir practice at 8:15 because we were singing that day. That was our last choir practice for a while; now we are on “summer break”. I had a presidency meeting that afternoon followed by a visit to two of the Primary children. Frank and the older two boys had a stake priesthood meeting that evening.

We are enjoying a more relaxed schedule now, but we are still keeping busy. Every day the boys have chores to do; then they are allowed to play games for two hours. After that they have to find entertainment that “doesn’t involve a screen”. They have struggled this week to find ways to entertain themselves (picking on brothers seems to be the most popular method of entertainment) but they are not used to so much free time yet. I’m sure they’ll figure it out soon. They have been doing some reading and some lego building, and even played outside some.
The weather has continued to be cooler than normal for this time of year, but mostly that means it has been very pleasant rather than really hot so I don’t mind that. Some die hard summer fans who love it sizzling hot are very disappointed, no doubt, but I am not one of those. Sunny, breezy, temps in the 80’s, and an occasional thunderstorm is just fine with me! I have really been enjoying our deck this year—it’s nice to go out there to read—and Seth and Snickers both like to be out there also. We had some rain on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but it never lasted long.

This week I was focusing on getting the older two boys ready for scout camp, so we were working on prerequisites for some of their merit badges. I also got Tanner and Scott started on their 12 week exercise program for the Personal Fitness merit badge—they’ll be doing that over the summer (and into the fall a little). Since the requirements for the Athlete activity badge are very similar, Jared is going to exercise with them and earn that badge also. Besides working on badges, I have been sewing lots of patches—transferring Scott’s patches to his new shirt and Jared’s patches to Scott’s old shirt. I haven’t even started sewing all the new merit badges onto their sashes yet! But that can wait until after camp.

Another scout thing I’ve been doing—trying to track down records for all the boys in our ward. The stake primary leaders want an updated list of what each boy has earned. A nice idea in theory, but a nightmare to actually execute!

I spent a lot of time on Monday planning our summer activities. As in past years, I want to take the boys on a “field trip” about once a week. I want to “kill two birds with one stone” so I was looking for places to go that would also pass off some merit badge requirements. We’ve also decided to go see Hans in Boston for a few days in August. We are very limited on vacation funds this year (trying to save up to go to Utah next year) but he has room for us to stay with him, so that helps out a lot. We are really looking forward to seeing him and meeting Griffin! Monday night we had family night; Frank made rice crispy treats for snack—they were yummy! Afterwards, all three of the older boys went to spend the night with a neighbor friend. I think they stayed up most of the night; I didn’t see any of them until early afternoon on Tuesday and then they all came home and took naps. Seth was taking his nap also and even Snickers was asleep, so I was the only one in the whole house who was awake!

Tuesday evening I got to escape to my friend Marci’s house for a “chick flick”. We saw The Secret Life of Bees. It was excellent, but bring your tissues! I read the book years ago and LOVED it; the movie did not disappoint me. We had lots of yummy movie snacks, and after the movie ended we had a good talk. I didn’t get home until midnight, but it was a fun and relaxing evening!

Scott had an orthodontist appointment Wednesday morning. I think he is nearing the end of his treatment—will probably have the braces off in 6 months or less. They added a rubber thing to his top teeth that stretches all the way around to “help close any gaps that are left”. Predictably, that has made his teeth very sore and it’s been hard for him to eat since then. I let him eat ice cream for dinner one night!

Jared’s friend Sage came over that day to play while his dad went to a bunch of meetings. I think that was fun for both of them. Sage’s dad gave us money to get pizza for lunch, which was nice. Scott was helping me get one of them out of the oven and he burned the back of his hand—he was holding a large cutting board for me while I slid the pizza off of the rack and onto the cutting board; when the weight of the pizza hit the board, he dropped the board down and touched the back of his hand to the inside of the open oven door. I should have had him wear oven mitts! Luckily, the sink was just a few steps away, so he got cold water on it quickly. It seems to be healing well.

Wednesday evening I took the boys to scouts and stuck around for a while checking with leaders to see what cub scout records they had. Then I ended up helping one of the counselors in our bishopric with activity days because the leader had an emergency at the last minute and couldn’t come. I had Seth with me (Frank was still at work) so I don’t think I was a whole lot of help, but I did help a little bit. The girls were making ice cream in a bag, which didn’t work because they hadn’t been able to find any rock salt at the store. But the bishopric counselor had enough foresight to buy “drumstick” ice cream cones also in case of failure, so they still had a yummy treat to eat at the end and I don’t think anyone minded.

Frank has continued to be very busy—I don’t feel like we see him much! But of course we are grateful that he is getting enough hours. As a matter of fact, he has even had a few overtime hours each pay period so far. He went to work very early on Thursday so he was home by early afternoon and we were all in a holiday mood. All the boys (except Seth) watched The Two Towers. By the time it ended, it was 8:00 and Frank was ready for bed! I stayed up later—sewing on more patches (why can’t they be iron on?).

In between everything else this week I’ve been trying to read The Zookeeper’s Wife. It’s an interesting story, but it’s not what I expected and I’m not sure I like the author’s writing style much. I was told it was the story of the owners of the Warsaw zoo during WWII; they hid Jews at the zoo. So far, the story is really choppy; it seems more like a documentary. There doesn’t seem to be any real “rhyme or reason” to what each chapter contains and the author tends to go off on long tangents that are somewhat interesting, but don’t seem to be all that important to the story line. Maybe I will like it better when I get farther into it.

Seth is getting into so much these days. He can open doors (including the refrigerator), turn on water, and climb onto counters. One day this week he had about 5 cookies because he kept getting into them while I was too busy to notice. I am having to work on “boundries” with him a lot more, and he doesn’t like that. He continues to amaze me with his verbal skills, though. One day I came downstairs to find him at the sink with the water running into a dirty frying pan; he looked at me and with a big proud grin said “I wash the dishes!” When we were looking at a Richard Scarey book (Cars and Trucks and Things that Go—one of his favorites) he started pointing at different vehicles and saying “Pig driving cement truck”; “Cat driving fire truck”, etc. His new phrase this week is “No thanks” which he says whenever I tell him to do something he doesn’t want to do! “Seth, you need a diaper change.” “No thanks!”

I spent a lot of time trying to make a birthday wish list (Frank requested one) and came up with practically nothing. What is wrong with me?! I’m not usually short on ideas, but I honestly can’t think of anything I really need or want (except to see my family).

Frank was off work on Friday, so we got to do a “field trip” with the whole family. We went to Antietam National Battlefield—it’s about 30 minutes from here. I’ve been wanting to go there ever since we moved here—only took 9 years!! This battlefield is similar to Gettysburg—lots of monuments and explanatory tablets everywhere, a visitors’ center with a movie and a museum, and a cemetery—but on a much smaller scale. Although it was the deadliest battle in American history (23,000 dead in one day), the battle wasn’t as long (1 day, versus 3 days for Gettysburg), the battlefield wasn’t as large and there were only 3 main engagements. Who won the battle? Well, the Union did, in theory, but they failed to press their advantages so the Confederates were able to retreat to fight another day. Historians say that if the Union general (McClellan) had pressed forward, they could have destroyed the Confederate army and the war would have ended then. Instead, the fighting went on for nearly 3 more years. It was sobering, of course, to think of what had happened there, but the area was absolutely beautiful and we couldn’t have asked for nicer weather—not too hot, mostly sunny and breezy.

See the building in the archival photo? Same building that you see near the center top of this photo. (Rebuilt from some of the original materials on the original foundation.)

Scott and Tanner with typically strange expressions--but I thought Snickers looked cute!

Can you tell it was windy?

My favorite area was Burnside’s Bridge. A small group of Confederates held this bridge over Antietam Creek for hours in spite of being way outnumbered—they finally had to retreat. The bridge is still there, and it is a very beautiful, peaceful spot now. I think I could have sat there all day, just listening to the wind in the trees and watching the creek flow slowly by. Being there, I felt like I had gone back in time. People are too busy these days to sit quietly by a creek, doing nothing!

Burnside's Bridge from the "Confederate" side

Antietam Creek

Scott & Tanner on the bridge

This tree is called the "witness tree". It was present at the time of the battle and (obviously) survived and has continued to thrive.

Anyway, we had a nice day. We took Snickers with us and I think he enjoyed the fresh air and exercise. We were all tired afterwards and I had some really sore muscles the next couple of days—mainly from climbing the steps in the observation tower. Not up them, down them! I’m not really good with heights, and coming down was anxious for me. I think I was so nervous that I tensed up my leg muscles too much coming down—they were already hurting before I reached the bottom!

Looking up at the observation tower. The two small light dots to the far left of the photo are Frank and Seth, looking over from the top. I still can't believe Seth climbed all those stairs!

Jared was not at all bothered by the height or the stairs--he went up and down several times.

I took this photo from the window on the way down. Sadly, after the battle, the area between the two fences was full of bodies. It's called "Bloody Lane".

The views from the top of the tower were amazing! (Photos don't capture them.)

Another view from the top, looking toward Frederick

After we got back from our day trip, we helped Scott and Tanner get packed up for scout camp. Then Frank took them over to their friend Ryan’s house for a sleep over birthday party. He had some work to do on a computer over that way (for some members of our stake) so he was gone for a couple of hours. Jared watched a movie while I made dinner and finished other chores. We tried to get to bed a little early because Saturday was starting early.

Every year a family in our stake has a big 4th of July breakfast and program out at their ranch. Frank was asked (again) to help cook breakfast. He had to be there at 5:00 am, so he was up early. I didn’t go back to sleep after he left, so I was up early, too. (This is my week to be off Melatonin—I definitely haven’t been sleeping as well!) I had to wake up Seth in order to get to the breakfast on time, which started at 8:00. Frank helped cook eggs, sausage, bacon, and potatoes. Then everybody who came brought a breakfast food, so there was a huge variety of pastries, fruit, juice, etc.! Frank was busy the whole time with cooking, serving, and cleaning up, so I had to keep an eye on Seth by myself which was tricky at times, but we managed. I ended up sitting right across the table from our local congressman and his wife! (He spoke in the program later and said some really good things.) The program was long, as usual, but it was really good also. It started out with an amazing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner; after that I could barely say the pledge; I was so choked up. They always honor all the veterans from all the wars—ask them all to come up and get a gift. The veterans always get a standing ovation. This year, a young man who was being deployed to Iraq in 2 days got the same. It’s always touching to see people honoring the troops, no matter what their political views may be. This year I noticed when they called up all the Viet Nam veterans that several (6 or 7) senior missionaries went up. I thought that was really neat—probably some of them didn’t get to serve a full time mission at 19 because they got drafted instead. It’s great that they can be serving now! (Although a part of me wonders how on earth someone who served in the Viet Nam war could be old enough now to be a “senior” missionary!) At the end of the program, they honored a young man who was killed in Iraq a couple of years ago. (His mother was there.) Very sad, but good also.

We had things to do after we got home (a few errands and a little more packing for scout camp) but Frank and I did manage to take a nap while Seth napped—very much needed! Then we had dinner (grilled hamburgers, watermelon…) on the deck before going to see the fireworks. A friend in our ward had mentioned that they always go to the top floor of the parking deck at the hospital to see the fireworks, so we decided to try that spot out. We didn’t want to be too close because we thought the noise would scare Seth and after the boys and I nearly got caught in a stampede last year, I didn’t really want to go anywhere near Baker Park anyway. The hospital is just a block from the boys’ school (we usually park there and walk to the park), so we knew we’d still be fairly close to the park and higher up, where the view would be better. It turned out to be a pretty good spot, although after the fireworks started some people walked up in front of us to lean against the wall around the edge of the garage and their heads blocked some of our view. (Why do people do that?!) We still got to see most of the fireworks and Seth loved them and wasn’t scared. The show was much shorter this year than last—budget cuts, I guess.

Jared & Tanner

Frank

I love this photo--finally, I got Scott with a genuine smile!

I love how Seth is totally focused on his watermelon!

Snickers in his usual spot when we are eating--under the table, hoping for "manna from heaven"! He usually hangs out under Seth's chair; smart puppy!

Waiting for the fireworks to begin. (And showing off flag shirts.)

After we got home we all had a piece of our traditional flag cake. Scott baked the cake this year; Frank and I frosted and decorated it. Then we got to bed late!

Now it is Monday; Sunday turned out to be pretty eventful, so I didn’t get a chance to finish this week’s review until now. I’ll save Sunday’s news until the next review—with Scott and Tanner gone to Scout Camp all week, I don’t expect that there’s going to be a whole lot more to write about!

Thankful Thursday: Summer Grilling

Today I am feeling thankful for our new grill which has given us the opportunity to enjoy so many yummy summer meals!

We've only had it a few weeks, but it has already been put to good use.

So far this week, we've used it three times. On Monday, it was grilled chicken and vegetables:

On Tuesday it was hot dogs (no photos). I'm not a big hot dog fan, but they are 10 times better when they are cooked outdoors!

Tonight, it was steak and grilled pineapple--yum!!

For the 4th of July, we are grilling hamburgers (of course).

I am thankful for all the little pleasures of summer, especially for summer grilling!!!