Weekly Review August 30 '09

It must be August—the cicadas are singing! I don’t think I've ever heard them as loud as they’ve been this year.

Well, we survived the first week of school. I don’t like being on a schedule, but it hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. Seth seemed a little unhappy the first day, but he has adjusted to having the older boys gone and he plays pretty well by himself at times.

Here is Scott on the 2nd day of school. I forgot to do it the 1st day.

I still haven't remembered to take photos of Jared & Tanner!

Last Saturday we made it to the store and ended up buying a new lawn mower. The weather has continued to be very hot & humid most of the week so the lawn mower didn’t get put together and used until Thursday. Frank did the lawn himself this time (usually Scott and Tanner trade off) so I guess he wanted to try out the new “toy”! He got the lawn done in the nick of time, too—it rained a lot in the night and continued to rain a lot on Friday. Frank, Scott and Tanner also got the worst weeds cut down in the garden that evening and this morning we all worked together to get the rest of the weeding done. So our yard looks pretty good at the moment…just don’t grow anymore, weeds! Did you hear me, weeds? Don’t grow!!!

We also got a new head board & foot board on Saturday from some friends. We’ve actually never had a bed with a head board and foot board before (excluding the water beds). Frank spent quite a bit of time getting it put together—mostly because we kept realizing we didn’t have all the pieces! After 2 trips back to our friends’ house, he finally got it all put together. I think it looks nice.

Sunday started early for me—I had Ward Council to attend at 7:30 am. Seth woke up at 3:30, though, and for some reason I never went back to sleep. Luckily, I got a short nap that afternoon between church and my Primary presidency meeting / visits. After I got home we had dinner and family night, so it was a full day. For family night, Frank gave all the boys blessings.

Tanner has slept better this week, thankfully, and he is getting up in the mornings a lot better than last year. We are waking him up a half hour earlier than we did last year, too. Hopefully he will continue to do well—next year he has Seminary and will have to get up 2 ½ hours earlier than he is getting up now!

Everybody seems to be adjusting to school pretty well so far. Tanner and Scott have both had a decent amount of homework already. Scott seems to like his German class the best so far—he keeps coming home with interesting stories to tell and he likes to use the words he has already learned. Tanner says he likes his new teacher better than the one who left. Jared has the same teacher that he’s had for the last 2 years, so it is all “old hat” to him. Tanner and Jared are both going to be on “safety patrol” this year. That means they help with the car line at dismissal—open car doors and help keep the kids in the safe zones. They are in the same patrol and will both be working at dismissal for the next two weeks which means I will be picking them up a little later than usual.

For me, the days have been busy with all the usual things I have to do, plus filling out all those forms that inevitably come home at the beginning of the school year. I have also made a couple of trips to the store to pick up more school supplies, took books back to the library, worked on Seth’s quiet book, did a lot of stuff for Primary, gave Snickers a bath, went visiting teaching, and my visiting teachers came to see me. For visiting teaching, we went to see my friend Marci. She doesn’t like the traditional “sit on the couch” kind of visit, so we all sat at her kitchen table and worked on projects. I worked on Seth’s quiet book, and Marci and my companion were making jewelry. I think it is fun to do it that way. We still did the lesson, but we also had “girls’ night out”!

Seth’s quiet book is causing me grief. I spent a lot of time this week making finger puppets for one of the pages and now they are too thick for all of them to fit in the pocket where they are supposed to be stored. I followed the pattern and the directions, so all I can figure is that the pellon I got is too heavy. (I couldn’t find the exact weight the pattern calls for.) It is discouraging to finally get some momentum going on a project and then have the “train derail”, so to speak. Now I’m not feeling so motivated to start over, but I guess I will work up the energy soon.

Frank has been busy with work, as usual. On Tuesday evening he had a class for Microsoft certification. He and a few of his co-workers are all doing the class together. They are supposed to do it every Tuesday evening, but I think this is the first time they’ve actually all been able to get together to do it. Problems come up with clients, usually, and that takes priority. It will be slow going getting through the classes at this rate, but at least they are working on it! Besides work, he has also had 2 or 3 calls this week to help with various stake computer issues, so he has really been running. One evening he made some salsa out of all the fresh tomatoes and peppers he got last Saturday. It’s good, but a little too “hot” for me!

Friday evening was Pack Meeting. We have a new Cub Master and he did a good job. Jared got a whole bunch of awards, including his Webelos badge, 3 belt loops, and a bunch of activity badges. He has now completed 16 of the 20 badges. We will probably get through all of the remaining 4 except for Aquanaut (because we don’t have access to a pool). I am proud of him for getting so much done. It is true that I have worked with him a lot, but it’s been pretty easy to get through so much because he participates so willingly.

Our friend, Jana Beck, came over last evening to use our internet—they have stopped their service in preparation for their move. They have good news—her husband (Brody) has found a job in Arizona and they also have already received an offer on their house. He is supposed to get the official job offer tomorrow, so they don’t know details yet, including when he is supposed to start the job, so we don’t know yet when they will be moving but I’m sure it will be soon—maybe even this week. Anyway, she was using our internet to look up homes for rent and she had Brody on the phone so he could write down the ones she wanted him to go look at. We are really glad that things are working out for them so quickly!

Seth is Mr. Independent these days. His favorite phrase is “I do it myself!” I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that when Tanner gave his talk in Sacrament Meeting, Seth sat straight up, folded his arms, and listened to the whole talk! It was so cute. He is very adamant that we call him his name. If I call him anything else, like “little boy”, for example, he will say “No, I not little boy. I Seth!” He gets confused about adjectives—if we say “You’re smart” he will say “No, I not smart. I Seth!” I guess he’ll figure it out someday. It is so cute the way Seth says some things. For example, he will say “Look, Mommy, it’s other one big truck.” He hasn’t figured out how to say “another” yet. Seth loves to sing, and he can sing loud! He loves to sing along when we sing for family night, but when he sings by himself, his favorite song is "We Are the Champions"! He will use any long, slim object for a microphone--sometimes a straw; today he was using a spoon! He had us all laughing at family night last week because he sang "I Am a Child of God" along with us, but mixed up a few words on the chorus. Seth's version goes like this: "Lead me, guide me, walk aside Mommy..."

Today was a typical crazy Sunday in Primary. (A good, busy kind of crazy.) I always need a nap after church these days! This afternoon we went to see a mural painted by the father of Jared’s friend, Sage. The mural is located at a large park here in Frederick called Baker Park. There is a bandshell at the park, and the mural is located on the outside walls of the bandshell. It’s actually several glass panels spaced around the walls; each panel is a different picture that represents a different aspect of Frederick.

The reason the mural was of great interest to us (besides the fact that we know the artist) is that Jared is in one of the panels. He posed for one of the panels, along with Sage and another girl in their school class named Stephanie. They are in the panel that represents the children of Frederick. I think Yemi (Sage’s dad) did a great job. The painting of Jared looks just like him! All the other panels are beautiful, also. It was hard to get a photograph of the panel since it is all white on glass, but we tried anyway!

Here are Sage, Jared, and Stephanie posing beside their panel.

You can't see the whole thing--they are actually running in the painting.

They are holding balloons, and by their feet there is a dog.

Here's a close up of their faces. If you can't tell, Jared is in the middle.

Jared has a copy of the panel on paper and in color, also. I’ll have to take a picture of that and post it sometime. Anyway, today was the official unveiling of the mural but we didn’t stay for the ceremony. We just stayed for a little while to see the panel, to take some photographs, and to congratulate Yemi. I’m not sure how long he’s been working on the mural, but Jared posed for it quite a while back—I think maybe about a year ago. It is fun to think that now Jared will always be a part of Frederick history—or at least as long as the mural lasts!

After we came home, we had dinner and family night. Now it is bedtime, and time for me to post this and get to bed myself! Seminary starts tomorrow, so we will be getting an early start most mornings from now on.