Weekly Review July 31 '10

Where did July go? I am always kind of sad to see July end. August is not one of my favorite months, because it is usually miserably hot and humid around here during that month. But it's already been miserably hot and humid for most of July, so maybe August will be nicer for a change!

This week was not quite as busy. I definitely enjoyed the fact that Scott was done with driving school--he did too! Sunday I had ward council and the choir sang. We are done with choir practices now until September. After church our home teachers came to see us, and Frank & Tanner went home teaching. That, along with family night, filled up our day. I forgot to mention that Jared gave a talk in Primary a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time that he wrote the whole talk himself (without help from me, except for suggestions) and I was really impressed--he did a great job!


Sunday afternoon we had a brief but fairly violent thunderstorm come through. The worst of it went south of us, apparently, because in the Gaithersburg / Rockville area the power was out for about 3-4 days. That meant that on Monday Frank couldn't connect with Griffin's server and many of his clients were also without power, so that limited the amount of work he could do. However, one of his clients who was without power decided it was high time to move their server from their Rockville location to their Frederick location--something they've been planning to do for a while--so he started that project in the late afternoon and ended up working until about 1:00 am. The rest of the week he has been very busy, as usual. In addition to long hours at work, he helped with the cooking for Youth Conference. He went straight from work on both Thursday and Friday to help with that, and didn't get home until pretty late in the evening both days. He also helped with cooking breakfast this morning, so we haven't seen him much for the last 3 days.


The temple was also affected by the power outage. The temple has been closed most of July for summer maintenance and was supposed to re-open on Tuesday. Because of the power outage, it didn't re-open until Friday. We have been very grateful that we didn't lose power up here, since it's continued to be pretty hot. (Although not so hot as it was last week.)


I had book chat on Tuesday, Seth had a doctor appointment on Wednesday, and I had visiting teaching on Thursday. I was supposed to visit teach Friday as well, but the sister we were scheduled to visit wasn't feeling well so that got postponed. The doctor appointment for Seth was his 3 year old check up. He is in the 90th percentile for both weight and height--38 pounds and 3 1/2 feet tall. What a big boy! For my visiting teaching appointment, we met at a restaurant for lunch; I enjoyed that!


Scott had a driving mishap this week which will probably cost us a pretty penny. He was parking the car at Wal-Mart and he swung too wide and hit the back of the van next to us on the passenger side. I realized he was going to hit it, and told him to stop, but not quite in time. We assessed the damage and it wasn't too bad, but there was a dent / crack right under the tail light, so we wrote a note and left it on the windshield of the van. This was on Wednesday afternoon; the driver of the van didn't contact me until Thursday morning. She actually didn't notice the damage and although she saw the paper under her wiper, she thought it was just an advertisement! Thankfully, she was very gracious and understanding about it. She is going to get an estimate for us and then we'll decide whether or not we need to involve the insurance. She can't get the estimate until Monday, though, so we will wait until then to find out how bad the damage to our wallet is going to be. Scott felt really bad about it, but at least I think this will be a good learning experience for him and it could have been much worse!

Unfortunately, Frank also had a driving mishap yesterday. He ran over something (he's not sure what) that flipped up and did some damage to his car. He's not sure what got damaged yet, but he thinks it might be the catalytic converter or the muffler; the car is making a lot more noise now. So he'll have to get it in soon to assess the damage and get it fixed. At least the car still runs!


I got a call from a very good friend on Tuesday morning. She called around 6:45, so I knew whatever she had to say it wasn't going to be good, and I was right. Her marriage is ending and the circumstances are pretty awful. It was a real shock, and I have been hurting for her all week. Things like this seem to be happening to a lot of my friends lately; it's really hard not to feel discouraged sometimes. I can certainly see that the family is under attack!


Scott had youth conference the last three days this week. Youth conference began on Thursday morning. He had his friend Jordan over to spend the night Wednesday night, and I took both of them over to their advisor's house Thursday morning. They did service, went to a place with outdoor challenges, had a dance, and attended workshops. He arrived home this morning and said he had a really good time. (They spent the nights at their advisors' houses.)


Seth is doing really well with potty training. He is getting much more independent about it and I think he's only had about 3 or 4 minor accidents all week. (Mostly because he "waits" too long--typical!) He has even started removing his diaper by himself every morning so he can go (I still put a diaper on him at night, just to be safe). The diapers have been dry, too, so actually he's probably ready to go to underwear 24/7. We're still working on bowel movements, but he's doing better with those also. It is very exciting to see the end of diapers in the very near future!!!

Yesterday the area around my right eye started to feel pretty tender, and by evening was hurting quite a bit. This morning it was worse and it's red and swollen, so I went to the doctor. The doctor started me on an antibiotic so hopefully it will be feeling better soon. However, now I'm feeling motivated to get my right eye's tear duct fixed. It's been watering for several months, with all the same symptoms I had in my left eye a couple of years ago, so I've known for a while that I would probably have to have the same surgery on my right eye that I had 2 years ago on my left eye (creating a new tear duct). I've just been putting it off, but I guess I'd better get it over with. The doctor I saw today said that it is not unusual for someone who has needed this surgery on one eye to have to have it on the other eye, too. She says there's not really any underlying treatable cause that leads to the tear ducts getting blocked, it's more about how the tear ducts themselves are "built". I just got unlucky.

Frank has been bringing home lots of "goodies" from his cooking experiences, so we have a refrigerator full of grilled chicken, hot dogs, lasagne, spaghetti sauce, green salad, cold cuts, potato salad, etc. I don't think I'm going to be cooking for a few days! That's good timing, since I really don't feel so well--my whole head is throbbing and I have a low grade fever because of the infection. I hope I am feeling a lot better by tomorrow because I'm supposed to do sharing time.

Seth is really enamored by sticks lately. He is always picking them up when we go on walks with Snickers, so we have a large collection by the front door now. He brings one in the house occasionally, but usually I make him leave them outside. He likes big sticks, so most of them are 2-3 feet long. It's amazing how much he can entertain himself with a stick!

Other projects I worked on this week: Jared and I worked together to clean up / better organize his room. We're not done yet, but the parts we've done look quite a bit better. As soon as we finish his room, I'm moving on to Scott & Tanner's room. I also worked more on Seth's quiet book; it is getting close to being finished. Just another week or two more and it should be done--finally!

That brings you up to date on all our happenings, so I think I'll go lie down now!

Weekly Review July 24 '10

Snickers adores Frank

Frank, Seth and Snickers hanging out

Some of "my" kids!

Listening to a great American pioneer story

Learning about American pioneers

Making a covered wagon

Covered wagon treats

Learning about African pioneers

Yummy Guatamalan food

We had another busy week--maybe not so much as last week, but still quite busy. On Sunday evening I went to a fireside for all the women in our stake. The three members of our stake presidency spoke; it was very good. We also had family night, as we usually do on Sunday.

We were a bit worried about Snickers earlier this week. He had an unpleasant encounter with one of the neighbor dogs on Saturday afternoon that seemed to really traumatize him. They were sniffing each other and seemed to be enjoying themselves when suddenly the other dog growled and nipped him. I couldn't see any broken skin or anything, but Snickers kept licking a spot on his leg and for the rest of the day he was trembling and he refused to eat. He also didn't potty at all---he would go outside if we offered to take him, but he would just stand outside shivering and then go back in. This behavior continued all through Sunday, but on Monday he finally started to perk up a little bit and by Tuesday he was his old self again. I think he was just a bit traumatized and in shock for a while.

Scott had driving school again all week. Having that every day from 11:00-2:00 has been inconvenient--it breaks the day up too much, and I have had a hard time finding time for Scott to do the other things he needs to do; especially since he hasn't been getting up very early. He did get some more work done on his write up for his Eagle scout project, and a little bit done for Duty to God. I worked on scouts and Duty to God things with the other boys, also. I'm glad driving school is over now! (He still has to go driving with an instructor for three two-hour sessions. He's scheduled those for August.)

The three older boys attended a sleep over birthday party for their friend Ryan on Monday night. They got to go see Iron Man 2, which they all enjoyed. Jared went to bed at a decent hour, but the other two boys stayed up most of the night. Scott didn't get to drive anywhere on Tuesday--I didn't trust him, being so tired! That was too bad, since we also had to go to the orthodontist that afternoon--it's a good distance away, so it would have been good practice for him and would have helped him get some of his driving hours done. The orthodontist appointment was for Scott and Jared both. For Jared, they were checking his progress to see what needs to be done next. He had two teeth come out recently; now they want to see how the new ones look when they come in so they are having him come back in 4 months to evaluate what needs to be done then. The orthodontist thinks it's likely that the two permanent teeth will have to be pulled because his mouth is just too crowded. He will probably be in braces by the end of the year or early next year. For Scott, we moved up his check up scheduled in August because his bottom retainer cracked. (He informed me of this problem right before we left for vacation.) They did an impression and made a new retainer for him right then, so we had to wait a while. They didn't charge us anything for the new retainer, though, so I am not complaining! Scott doesn't have to go back for 6 months now.

Frank had a long day on Tuesday--he left for work around 6:30 and didn't get home until 10:40 that night. He didn't see any of the boys that day at all, since they were all still asleep when he left and they went to bed before he got home. They were all still asleep when he left Wednesday morning, also, so he didn't see them until Wednesday evening. Frank was working from home all day Thursday, though--it was nice to have him around. Then on Friday he had another really long day; didn't get home until nearly 9:00. One of his regular clients (he goes there every Tuesday and Thursday) said they didn't need him to come this week at all. We were concerned about that--worried he wouldn't have enough hours--but it didn't turn out to be a problem! He worked overtime most days, even without the 16 hours he usually works for them.

On Tuesday Frank's car also got a flat tire. He took it in the next day and ended up having to get two new tires. The other two were replaced not too long ago, so hopefully he won't be needing any new tires for a while. He puts a lot of miles on that car, so the tires wear out fast.

When I was at the store with Seth this week, I had an old man smile at me and say "You are a good mother." I guess he had overheard my conversation with Seth, helping him to pick out a birthday card for a friend. Still, I was surprised. It was actually a longer than usual trip to the store (I was buying school supplies as well as the usual groceries) and I wasn't feeling particularly patient. I guess I managed to sound patient, even if I wasn't feeling it! Anyway, it was nice of that man to say something. I smiled the rest of my way through the store. That experience reminded me how easy it is to make someone's day--just by taking the time to say something nice.

The boys had YM Wednesday evening, except Jared--his leader didn't show up. I went to the cub committee meeting that evening because my couselor who usually attends had family visiting. A bunch of the kids decided they wanted to go see Iron Man 2 at the dollar theater after YM / YW ended, so Scott and Tanner went with them. That meant I got to stay up late waiting for them to get home.

On Thursday evening Frank and I went out--we got some yummy mexican fast food (much better than Taco Bell) and then went shopping for a chair. The base of the big Papasan chair that we bought last year broke this week, so we need to either get a new base or a new chair. It would definitely be less expensive and simpler to get a new base, but I'm not very impressed with how durable the last one turned out to be, so I'm not sure I want to go that route. Besides that, I've decided that even though that chair is really comfortable and we all love it, it's round shape makes it take up a lot of room, and it is really too large for our little living room. So we decided to see if we could find a better alternative. That's more complicated than it sounds, though, because Frank and I have different tastes and he tends to gravitate to large, bulky chairs (since he's a tall person) and I gravitate to the smaller, sleeker chairs that turn out to be too small to be comfortable for him. (But just right for me!) Add to that the fact that we have been planning to add new storage pieces in the living room in the (hopefully not too distant) future, so we are trying to find something that will fit in with the overall long-term plan. We ended up discussing several possible ways to rearrange the furniture, and trying to figure out how a chair would fit into the different possible arrangements. Like I said--it got a lot more complicated than you'd think!! So we didn't buy a chair, we just looked and got some ideas, and now we need to figure out what is going to work the best.

Tanner and Jared spent most of Friday hanging out with Ryan and Bryson. I took Seth to a birthday party for his friend Tyler. It was a pirate theme party; they got to go on a treasure hunt. Seth seemed to have fun, although some of the things they did (like a pirate version of "musical chairs" where they had to stand on an "island") were a little over his head. He was thrilled to bring home his "treasure"--a bag of candy--and ate it all up!

Seth is progessing well with potty training, although he still runs and hides when he has a bowel movement--not sure why he does that! Once I convince him to run to the bathroom instead, we'll be set. I think another week or two and he'll have it figured out.

I've been reading the Percy Jackson series, which I'm enjoying, and I have also been able to work on Seth's quiet book a little more this week. I've completed a few more pages, and only have 3 pages to complete, plus a couple of small things to do on a few of the other pages. Tonight I bought fabric to make the cover and a bag to carry it.

This morning we had a Primary activity focusing on the pioneers. We talked about what pioneers are, and then we had some people from our ward who are from different parts of the world do presentations about their countries and talk about the pioneers from their families. We had two families who had the more traditional cross-the-plains type of pioneers tell stories from their families (some emigrated from Europe and others from the easter United States) and then we also had a family from Africa (Nigera) and a family from Guatamala. We were supposed to have one other presentation from Hong Kong, but unfortunately our presenter (my friend Christine) came down with food poisoning and couldn't make it. I thought all the presenters did a great job! We also had all the kids make covered wagons out of rice crispie treats, honeycomb cereal, pretzel sticks, animal crackers, and marshmallows. At the end we had invited the parents to come and share pioneer stories from their own families with their kids. I think the activity went well, and it was very little work to prepare since most of the work was done by the presenters. I was happy with how it turned out. We had a pretty small group--only about 25 kids--but we were expecting that since a lot of people are out of town this time of year and there were also several families involved in swim meets this morning.

This afternoon our ward had their annual Crab Fest, but we decided not to go because it is so hot! It was about 102 degrees with a heat index of 115 degrees. It's been like that the last couple of days, and the next few days are supposed to be pretty hot also. This has definitely been a summer of record breaking high temperatures. We are very thankful for our comfortable, air-condidtioned house!!

I spent some time yesterday looking through our family records to refresh my mind so I could share some pioneer stories with Jared at the activity today. I found a few things that I don't remember ever hearing before (the new BFJ family book is great!) and it was really wonderful to re-read so many other stories. I am truly overwhelmed by how many amazing, fabulous ancestors I have--on both sides of the family! They are incredible people and I am so thankful for the sacrifices they made so that I can have the blessings of the gospel in my life.

Happy Pioneer Day!

Weekly Review July 17 '10

I love July!

He's in underwear!

I said we were going to be busy, and I was right. Sunday was fairly restful, though--no extra meetings or anything. I think my talk went pretty well, and I was less nervous than I've been in the past. Don't get me wrong--I was nervous--just not as much as usual. I'm glad to have that done; hopefully I won't be speaking again for a couple of years! By the way, I was asked to talk about Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus" from last General Conference. It was a great talk--read it, if you haven't already! I forgot to mention last week that Tanner was ordained as the Deacon's Quorum President last Sunday. Since Scott is currently the Teacher's Quorum President also, that means that half the priesthood keys for our ward are currently held by members of our household. That's a little frightening!

The rest of the week has been very busy with various appointments nearly every day. Scott had an appointment with the dermatologist on Monday, Snickers had a grooming appointment Wednesday morning, Tanner had an appointment with the foot doctor to get his orthotics fitted on Wednesday also, and Scott had an appointment Thursday morning to discuss his Eagle scout project with the park ranger at the aviary where he's doing his project. In addition to all that, Scott had driving school every day from 11:00-2:00. Tanner and Jared spent the night Monday night with their friends Ryan & Bryson (they went over late, after family night), Tanner & Jared had a party at a ward friend's house (Joseph) Tuesday afternoon, Tanner had a birthday party for a friend on Wednesday evening (he only went to the beginning, before scouts), Tanner had a summer party with his class from school Friday evening, the boys had scouts / YM Wednesday evening, and I had a Relief Society activity Tuesday evening. Add in all the normal chores to that, and I'd say I felt like I was running from one thing to another most of the week!

Just a few notes about some of those activities. The dermatologist put Scott on four different medications to see if that will clear him up. This is the "less agressive" form of treatment--if we don't see improvement after 3 months, then he will try him on acutane. (Not sure how to spell that.) I'm not thrilled with how expensive the medications are, but I know how much I hated having acne at his age, so I'm willing to deal with the expense if it helps. The dermatologist also said that the red lines on his back are stretch marks from growing so fast. Crazy! He really did shoot up quickly a couple of years ago, so I'm not too surprised. The party Tanner went to Wednesday night was for a girl in his school class. She lives right across the street from our church, so that was convenient--he just left the party at 7:00 and walked over to the church for scouts. All three boys helped with a service project that night.

The Relief Society activity was a spiritual geocaching activity. We divided up into groups and each group had three separate cannisters to find. The cannisters contained scriptures to read and questions to answer. (There was a little bit of candy in a couple of them, also.) The whole activity was relating our search for the cannisters to receiving personal revelation. We were supposed to write the answers to the questions in our journals at each stop, but we didn't do that part because...well, we were still searching for the first cannister when we started to feel a few raindrops. Then a really big rainstorm blew in. We were under cover of trees part of the time, but we still got absolutely soaking wet! I don't think I've ever been that wet in my life, apart from being in the shower or a swimming pool. So our journals would have turned into pulpy messes if we'd tried to write in them. We still had a lot of fun, though. My group got the wettest because our cannisters were the hardest to find (there were different "intensity" levels for the different groups) so we took the longest to finish. After we found our cannisters, we all congregated at a pavilion (we were at a park) for a short devotional. We also had popsicles and talked about our experiences. The whole time, the rain kept coming down hard--torrentially, at times! It was still very inspirational and everybody was a good sport about being so wet. When we finished, we all had to run for our cars! In spite of getting soaked, I had a great time and would like to do something like that again someday. We were in a large park. I've been there before, but I didn't know all those paths were up there. We were up in hills and the views were incredible; it was very beautiful.

We continued our potty training efforts this week, and I am pleased with how much progress Seth has made. Sunday was kind of tricky since we didn't want to risk an accident while at church. Seth ended up in a pull up most of that day, so then on Monday he had a lot of set backs. With all the activities going on this week, it has continued to be challenging to keep him in underwear all day, but on Wednesday he started telling me when he needed to go--even when he had a pull up on--so that was a big step. It's like everything finally "clicked" in his head! He's still having accidents occasionally, but he's well on his way now--hooray!!

Scott has been doing most of the driving as we've gone about all our activities, so he is getting lots of practice. Overall, he does pretty well. Driving school has been a bit boring for him, but he did run into a friend from school the first day, so that has helped. It's just one of those "hoops" he has to jump through to get his license. Oh, and of course he immediately began telling me all the things I do wrong when I'm driving--funny how they think they know more after a couple of days of driving school than you've learned in over 20 years of driving!

You may have heard that we had a minor earthquake (3.6) here on Friday morning just after 5:00. Frank and I both felt it--Seth had been awake and Frank had just come back to bed when it hit, so we were both sort of awake. The boys all slept right through it. It definitely startled us--we heard a noise and then the house shook and the windows rattled for a few seconds. Then a few seconds later (we hadn't had time to react yet) the same thing happened again. Frank and I both said "What was that?!" It felt like a minor explosion had happened nearby, and we'd felt the shockwave. Or else something large had hit the house. Frank got up and looked around the house and outside, but didn't see anything unusual. It made me pretty nervous, mostly because it had felt like an explosion so I wasn't sure if it was going to happen again. (I was thinking terrorist attack of some sort--call me paranoid!) It did occur to me after a few minutes that maybe it had been an earthquake, but I really didn't think that's what it was. So we got up and turned on the television, and after a few minutes we found someone on a local station who said "If you just felt the earth move, you're not alone. We've been getting lots of calls. We're trying to confirm with the US Geological Survey if there was a minor earthquake." Then a few minutes later they confirmed that there really had been a 3.6 earthquake, centered in Rockville. So we went back to bed!

Tanner got a call this week from the school principal at his former school, letting him know that he passed the Algebra HSA (high school level test) so he will be able to take Geometry this year. We also got a big packet of information for Seth for preschool, and I am seeing school supplies in all the stores. Already!! I'm not ready for school to start yet.

Frank has been very busy with work this week again. We are grateful that he has so much work to do, although we wouldn't mind having him around a little bit more. Today he didn't have as much to do as usual, so he managed to do a little bit of cleaning in his office--but there's still a ton of work to be done there.

I sat down with the oldest two boys today and figured out what they each need to do to finish their Duty to God requirements. They are both almost done (Tanner with Deacons and Scott with Teachers); they only have a few activities left to do. The most challenging part is going to be coming up with their service projects, which have to involve their quorums. Scott could count his Eagle Scout project, except I'm sure he's not going to get it completed before his birthday (less than a month away). He'll be able to count that for his Priest's project, though. He is checking with the bishop to see if there is anything he can do for the church instead. I'm proud of them for working so hard on these awards. It's a lot of work and they don't really get any recognition for doing it. It's great to see them sticking with something and finishing it.

In between all of those other activities, I've been doing a lot of summer reading. That's been fun! Next week looks like it's going to be just as busy as this one was. I'm still waiting for the lazy days of summer (and school starts in 5 weeks...)

If Toddlers Designed Cars, There'd Be a Cake Button

We were all in the car this morning when suddenly Seth cried "Mommy, hit the cake button!!!"

The WHAT...?

Yep, the CAKE BUTTON.

We quickly figured out that he had been confused by our recent mention of the "defrost" feature. I mean, where there's frosting, there's cake, right?

Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind having a cake button in the car...but Americans are too obese already...

Weekly Review July 10 '10

Frank enjoys our first "cook out" of the summer.

Grilled food--yummy!

Everybody's ready to eat.

Seth likes eating on the deck.

Seth & Tanner can't wait to eat our traditional flag cake!

It's the glorious 4th!

Scott is sparkling!

Seth waiting for fireworks to start

Nearby church steeple

Sparklers, with Ricardo Hernandez (He's one of my "other boys"--calls me "Mom"!)

I haven't been sleeping very well, and my body is still on Utah time. Which wouldn't be so bad, if I were in Utah, but since I'm not...it's a bit inconvenient. Thankfully, I haven't had any morning appointments so at least I've been able to sleep in. I'm really thankful that it's summer. But really...I need to get back on a normal schedule soon! It's been too hot around here to do much besides hibernate in the house, anyway. It's been between 100-105 degrees nearly every day, with high humidity to boot. I have been giving heart felt thanks for my air conditioned house in every prayer!

It was good to go to church in our own ward on Sunday. There were a lot of people on vacation, though--I'd say the average class size in Primary was 5 kids when usually it's more like 10. One of my counselors and my secretary were out of town also. That night we went to watch fireworks at the new spot we found last year--the hospital parking garage. This time we found a place to park right next to the garage instead of in the garage, so we also avoided all the traffic and got home quickly! A couple of other families in our ward showed up to watch fireworks at the same place, so that was fun. The fireworks show was better than last year--not so short.

The one nice thing about having the 4th on Sunday was that Frank had Monday--my birthday--off, which was a great birthday present for me! Scott and Tanner went to scout camp that morning. They had to meet at the church at 5:30 am, so the day started early. We went back to sleep after they left, though! Frank made me breakfast in bed, did all my chores for me, took me shopping at IKEA, and took me out for dinner. He basically pampered me all day, which was great! I actually didn't buy anything at IKEA--just looked around to get ideas for the future. It was exhausting and a little overwhelming, but I still enjoyed it. Frank was such an angel to take me there--I'm sure there are a lot of other things he would have rather done on his day off! I never gave him a birthday list (I couldn't think of anything--really!) and he wouldn't have had time to shop even if I had, but that evening I went online and found some books I've been wanting and ordered them. I am really excited because I found my all time favorite children's book (The Chestry Oak) for less than half the price I've ever seen it before, so that's one of the books I ordered. (It's out of print, so hard to find and usually very expensive.) I also got nice cards from my family and parents, and a book from my parents also, so all in all I had a great birthday!

The rest of the week has been quieter than normal, with the oldest two boys gone. We did hear from one or the other of them nearly every day, though. On Wednesday I got a call from one of the camp doctors--Tanner had "swimmer's ear" and needed some antibiotic ear drops. That's a real bummer because he was working on the swimming merit badge, but because of the infection he couldn't go in the water anymore so he couldn't finish it. He tried to do the same merit badge last summer and half way through the week another boy tripped him (didn't intend to hurt him, just playing around) and he got a huge ugly cut on his knee and couldn't go in the pool after that because he had an open wound. So he seems to be "jinxed" when it comes to that particular merit badge. He's now completed half of the merit badge twice--too bad it's the same half!

I've been working on Primary stuff and preparing my talk for tomorrow. We had a presidency meeting Thursday evening. One of my counselors didn't make it because she'd had a very bad day. Their air conditioning went out and they found out the whole thing was going to have to be replaced (expensive, of course) and the new one can't be put in until Tuesday. And as I mentioned earlier, it's been insanely hot! So they were really suffering over there at her house. I offered to let them come stay here, but they do have family in the area, so I guess they've been spending their days with some of her sisters.

My other big project this week--trying to potty train Seth. I didn't start until Thursday, actually. So far, not very good. I did convince him to wear underwear, though, so that's a step in the right direction. He seems just fine with the idea of wearing underwear now. But I've pretty much been cleaning up messes all day. I have not lost my patience or yelled at him once, though, so I'm patting myself on the back for that! I've seen a little bit of postitive progress in the last 24 hours. I know he'll get it eventually!

Frank has been very busy with work all week, but we did take the time to go look at a few houses on Wednesday evening. One of them I looked at back before Christmas and I liked a lot about it but there were a few things I really didn't like so I kind of forgot about it. It's back on the market now and some nice improvements have been made (new siding, new deck, and new HVAC system) so I thought it would be worth going to look at it again, and I wanted Frank to see it also. One of the things I really hated about it before was the old faded siding. It does look a lot better now and Frank liked it too, so we are thinking a little more seriously about it. (But we are not packing our bags yet!)

Last night we finally got some rain, and it has still been raining (off and on) today. (We're told it didn't rain at all while we were gone to Utah, and it has not rained since we got home until now.) The temperatures have cooled down a bit, which has been a nice change! All the lawns around here have been looking very yellow and dead. (Nobody waters around here, because it is so rarely needed. Most people don't even own a water sprinkler.) Hopefully this rain will revive them a little. The boys haven't minded--no need to mow when the grass isn't growing at all!

The two scout camp boys arrived home this morning--filthy, tan, tired, but happy. They brought with them a couple of new knives, some basketry projects (Scott), and a whole ton of dirty laundry. Scott completed Canoeing, Snorkeling, and Basketry merit badges. He also got all of Emergency Preparedness done except for one part he needs to do with his troop. Tanner completed First Aid and Canoeing merit badges. He did a lot of Swimming and almost all of Personal Fitness. He also worked on Rifle Shooting, but apparently it is a very difficult one to get, so he didn't get much accomplished on that one. I'm pleased with what they were able to accomplish, overall.

This coming week, Scott starts driving school and we have lots of doctor / orthodontist appointments. Back to being busy....

Weekly Reviews June 19, June 26, July 3 '10

We'll start, as usual, with the photos--hang onto your hats; there's a lot of them!

Looking through the window at "our" airplane

On the plane

We'er going to see Grandpa & Grandma soon!

Paula, Amy, Annette

At BYU

Bean Museum--come on in!

Sleeping Seth

Boys will be boys!

Beautiful new Alumni House

Former major hang out spot!

That's my name!

Ice Cream--yum!!

Salt Lake Temple

Scott, Seth, Tanner

Conference Center

It's huge!

Hall of the Prophets

Touching the temple

Church History Museum

See what I built?

Hide & Seek

Jared wedged in the Tree of Life

Seth

Tanner

Another Perspective of the Tree of Life

Watching the "digger"

Throwing rocks in the pond

St. George Temple

Sitting on the temple steps

Love the palm trees!

Beautiful Arizona rock formations (much more vivid colors in real life!)

Made by water and wind

AT the Las Vegas Temple (Seth is asleep)

The sun behind Moroni

More palm trees!

Las Vegas Temple

The Strip, as the sun goes down

The strip at night, from our hotel room

Seth enjoys the huge aquarium

At Caesar's Palace

The Becks in front of our hotel. (Ethan didn't like the sun in his eyes.)

Aunt Betty

Erika & Uncle Lee

Buck & Anna; Aunt Dianne

Seth & cousins enjoy the Dinosaur Museum

Ninja Destruction!

Zane & Seth

An Andrew, Zane, Seth, and Micah hug!

Ammon & Seth look a lot alike!

Zane

Seth

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Tanner & Madalyn made it to the waterfall!

The prize, after a long uphill hike.

Jessie & Emily at the cabins

Dee & Ben

Daniel & dinner

Curtis grilling burgers (with Texas BBQ sauce)

Ultimate Frisbee

Seth

Cousin sword fight in the loft

Shellie makes ice cream

Juan

Erin and Anna jet skiing

Jared ready to ride (with Hans & Griffin)

Frank , Seth & Annette are off!

Enjoying the rubber raft

Jonathan plays in the gravel

Buck & Anna

Zane

Micah makes Seth laugh

Jordanelle Reservior

Griffin

Seth rides the Zebra

Jared doing trampoline tricks

One of Tim's unique faces

One, two, three...whee!!!

Leaving Park City

Parley's Canyon

Beautiful mountains

Happy Family at the Mt. Timp Temple

Seth gives Sam's cake a "thumbs up"

Waiting for our delayed flight at the SLC airport

Seth likes the chairs at the airport

Good-bye, Utah!

Before I even start, I should mention that I haven't had time to catch up on everyone else's blog yet, so don't be offended that I haven't commented in weeks. I'm looking forward to getting updated on everyone's lives! First I need to update all of you on what we've been doing (although a fair share of you already know, since you've been doing the same things!) I'm really going to try to keep this concise, since I have 3 weeks to cover. But as you all are well aware, I don't have a gift when it comes to being concise. I'll do my best!

We flew to Utah on Saturday, the 12th. It was a pretty uneventful flight. This was Seth's first time flying, but he totally took it in stride. He had a window seat and enjoyed looking at the sights; he didn't seem a bit perturbed at the idea of being so high up in the air. He continued his little trick of running away throughout our trip, though, which caused me a lot of worry and frustration. For example, he tried to get on the plane without us!! We kept him strapped into his stroller most of the time, but whenever we had to take him out of the stroller for any reason, he tried to escape. Anyway, we got to Salt Lake City safe and sound, picked up our rental van, and drove to Mom & Dad's house, where Mom had a yummy roast beef dinner waiting in the crock pot for us. Amy and her two daughters came to visit us briefly that evening.

Sunday we attended church with Mom & Dad. I was glad I followed that last minute impulse to throw my tights in my suitcase, because it was pretty nippy! After church, Frank baked chocolate chip cookie bars; I had a nap! That evening we went to dinner at my friend Paula's house. Amy's family came also. Paula is a good friend from high school; we were also room mates one year in college. It was great to see her and her family--last time we visited Utah her family was living in Germany, so we hadn't seen them in a long time (although Paula and her husband Scott did visit me in Maryland shortly after Seth was born.) Our kids really didn't remember each other, but they warmed up to each other after a while and started playing games and seemed to have a good time. (My kids said afterwards that her kids are "cool"--doesn't get much better than that!) We had a delicious mexican-themed dinner and enjoyed visiting. Paula told me some things I said back in my college days that I can't remember saying at all! What a memory!

Monday the 14th we hung out at Mom & Dad's for the morning, playing horseshoes. It was warmer than the day before, although still much cooler than we are accustomed to being in June. I forgot how quickly I burn in Utah's much higher altitude, so I got a pretty nasty sunburn on the back of my neck and upper back. (Now I have a very deep "farmer's tan".) In the afternoon we drove over to walk around the BYU campus, where our boys had to put up with our endless reminiscing about our college days. The BYU campus changes quite a bit every time we visit, but it's still recognizable and it still feels like BYU! This time, we enjoyed visiting the new Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni House. We also visited the Bean Museum; Seth slept through most of that, unfortunately. We finished up with a visit to the bookstore (where we acquired cinnamon bears and various BYU paraphanalia, including a frisbee, football, pens, a keychain, and a lanyard) and then stoped at the Cougar Eat to get some BYU dairy ice cream--yum!! The boys thought the chocolate ice cream was the best in the world.

Tuesday was pretty hot, so we decided to head to Seven Peaks Water Park before the weather got cooler again. Unfortunately, just about everybody else in Utah County had the same idea. It was extremely crowded! I debated whether or not to stay home with Seth, but decided to take him, thinking he'd enjoy the kiddie pools. In retrospect, I wish I'd made the other decision because he didn't enjoy the pools like I thought he would. He was intimidated by all the spraying water and other kids splashing, and he was too scared to go on the little slides. He did enjoy the lazy river and the wave pool, but overall I didn't think it was worth the money we spent for the two of us to go. We left early (detouring on the way home to drive by some of our former "homes" in Provo) and I drove back to get Frank and the older boys later. They, at least, seemed to have a lot of fun. They went on a lot of the big slides and apparently had a blast.

We spent Wednesday visiting Salt Lake City. It was very windy that day, and a big wind / rain storm blew in that evening, but we managed to get back home before the worst of it hit. We did a tour of the Conference Center first. Last time we visited, they were holding a big competition in the main auditorium so we weren't allowed to go in there. We were very glad that there was nothing going on this time, so we were finally able to see the large auditorium--very impressive! They had the roof closed off this time, because of the wind, but since we got to see that on our last visit, we weren't too disappointed. After the Conference Center, we headed over to Temple Square and stopped by both visitor's centers briefly (the new scale model of the temple is pretty cool), and went inside the Tabernacle for a few minutes. We emerged from one of the visitor's centers just in time to see a large branch fall off one of the trees next to the Tabernacle. Thankfully, no one was nearby at the time. We left Temple Square and crossed the street to visit the Church Museum of History and Art. Everyone else did that to humor me--I'm the one that's always wanted to go there--but I think all the boys found it fairly interesting and Seth really enjoyed the "hands on" children's area on the top floor. I could have spent a lot more time there than we did, but I did get to look at least briefly at all the exhibits. I enjoyed seeing a document signed by one of my ancestors--Frederick G. Williams.

We returned to BYU campus for a few hours Thursday morning, since we hadn't made it to the back part of campus on our first visit. Frank also wanted to visit his former workplaces, which we did, but most of the people he used to work with were on vacation that week. We also went to check out the exhibits at the Eyring Science Center and played in the "Tree of Life" statue for a while. Seth was very fascinated by the "digger" that was tearing up a sidewalk near the statue (not sure what they are going to build there) and watched it for quite a while. After we got back from BYU, we went to the park with Rachelle & kids. The ducks at the pond weren't very interested in the bread Rachelle brought, but the kids had fun playing on the playground while we visited. We also got laundry done that day and otherwise prepared for our week end trip to Las Vegas. Frank had to drive up to SLC to return our 2nd rental van--the tires had a problem. (The first one started making a funny noise and the oil light came on, so we had already traded that one for the 2nd one.) Thankfully, the third time was a charm--that van lasted us the rest of our trip without any problems. And yes, the rental place gave us a discount for all our trouble.

Friday we headed south. It took us longer to get to Las Vegas than we planned because we made several stops--mostly bathroom breaks, as well as a stop for lunch, and a stop to get gas in Mesquite. We also stopped in St. George to see the temple, and spent about an hour there. I loved St. George--all the beautiful red rocks, palm trees, and the heat!! The temple grounds were peaceful and beautiful. All my boys (except Jared) thought it was way too hot. "Who would want to live in a place like this?" they asked. (Me, that's who!) It was pretty hot, though--high 90's. The drive through the corner of Arizona before entering Nevada was amazing--the road goes through lots of fabulous rock formations. It was hard to capture it on film. When we finally made it to the Las Vegas area, we decided to stop to see the temple first. It was in the low 100's and a hot wind was blowing, but I still thought the Las Vegas temple grounds were gorgeous! (Once again, the boys were unimpressed by the extreme heat.) By the time we got checked into our hotel, it was dinner time. We found a Chinese buffet; the boys thought it was fabulous, but I wasn't all that impressed. I have a friend from 4th Grade who lives in the Las Vegas area, and I was hoping to contact her that evening to see if we could meet somewhere, but we got there so much later than we planned, that I wasn't able to do that. We returned to our hotel and Frank took the older three boys swimming for a little while. We enjoyed the view of "the strip" from our hotel room's windows as the sun went down and all the lights came on.

We were up early on Saturday. Our hotel had a pretty nice complimentary breakfast buffet, which we enjoyed. Our purpose in visiting Las Vegas was not really to see the sights, it was to see our good friends, the Becks. They used to live in Maryland, but moved to Arizona (Gilbert) last fall. We couldn't drive all the way to their home in Arizona, and they couldn't drive all the way to Utah, so we decided to "meet in the middle", and Las Vegas worked out to be the best place to do that. We did think it would be fun to see a few things, as long as we were there, so the Becks met us at our hotel that morning and we headed into the city. Our hotel had a free shuttle bus to Mandalay Bay Hotel; from there we took a tram to MGM Grand. We discovered that the distance from one hotel to another was a lot farther than it looked. We decided to go all the way down to Caesar's Palace and then work our way backwards to our hotel, stopping to see things that interested us on the way. It didn't work out quite the way we planned because it took a lot longer to walk than we had expected. We really wore ourselves out walking down to Caesar's Palace. (We enjoyed talking as we walked, though.) We got there in time to see a water show that was pretty good although it scared Seth and McKenna (the show included loud noises and lots of flames, as well as water). We also enjoyed seeing a large aquarium with lots of tropical fish and sting rays. By the time the show ended, we were all starving, so we ate at a nearby restaurant--The Cheesecake Factory. The food was really good, but it took a long time to be served and to eat, so by the time we got done it was time to head back to our hotel! We laughed at ourselves--if we'd known how it was going to turn out, we would have found a restaurant near our hotel to eat & visit instead of doing all that walking! It was interesting, though, to see all the huge hotels and other sights we saw along the way. I can't imagine how much money went into building all those opulent monstrosities! Everything was so elaborate. We found a monorail to take back to the place where we could meet the hotel shuttle. Even so, we got back later than we planned, so we had to head north immediately. We bid farewell to the Becks--it was great to see them; hopefully next time we'll get to spend more time together--and hit the road. The trip home went much quicker--we only made 2 brief stops. There is a lot of construction on I-15 right now and we barely made it through Spanish Fork before they closed I-15 down for the night, thankfully! We arrived at my sister Amy's house about the same time that Curtis & Julia arrived; we stayed up later than we should have, visiting. Frank, Seth and I stayed at Amy's house the rest of our visit. The oldest three boys stayed at my brother Tim's house, where they had a great time hanging out with cousins.

Our family reunion officially began on Sunday, the 20th, with all of us attending Mom & Dad's ward together. Most of my siblings and families had arrived on Friday or Saturday, so everyone was there except for my brother Ben and family (they arrived that afternoon). The Primary was innundated with lots of visiting children (mostly boys), but Mom was gracious enough to warn them several weeks in advance! Sunday evening we all returned to Mom & Dad's house for an open house; we enjoyed visiting with lots of extended family who came to see us. It was nice to spend Father's Day with my dad for once, too! As usual, we got back to Amy's house late. Late nights and not enough sleep seemed to predominate throughout our visit, but we were having too much fun and enjoying family too much to waste too much time sleeping!

Monday morning we had a talent show, which mostly featured musical numbers of various sorts. I am very impressed with how talented all my nieces and newphews are! Monday afternoon a lot of the teen age cousins went to a space camp place where they participated in a Star Trek-like space mission. I wasn't there, but from what I heard, they all had a great time. Apparently, Jared put one of their "attackers" in a headlock--I have no idea how he learned to do that! A lot of the younger cousins went to visit the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Frank took Seth to do that, and he had a great time with all the "hands on" exhibits. I stayed at Amy's so we could go shopping for food--we were in charge of one of the joint meals at the cabins, so we had to get ready. That evening we all congregated again to take family pictures. I was feeling pretty frazzled that night because Seth was at his worst--running away every chance he got, right for the large pond. We ended up moving from that location to another park where the light was better; there was a stream there, so I still had to keep a close eye on Seth. Luckily, the photographer took our family photo pretty early on. By the time we got the the large group family photo, Seth was very tired--he was done!! The older kids seemed to have a fun time, though. They (along with many of the adults) played a game called "ninja destruction" while they waited their turns to have their pictures taken. I followed Seth around and kept him from falling into the stream.

Frank and the older boys went on a hike Tuesday morning. It was supposed to be a fairly easy hike, mostly level, to a waterfall, but everyone who went (many of the cousins and aunts and uncles went also) agreed that it was much harder than they expected--mostly uphill the whole way! I stayed behind with Seth, which turned out to be a good thing. Amy and I made a couple of big trays of brownies to take up to the cabins, as part of our dinner.

The rest of the morning was busy with everyone packing up and getting ready to drive up to the cabins. My parents had reserved 8 cabins at a nice campground just below the Jordanelle dam for 2 nights, so that we could all spend a couple of days together. We could check in at 3:00 that day; most of us didn't get there until a little later! I enjoyed the beautiful drive up Provo Canyon to the camp site. We got settled in the cabins; the kids enjoyed playing soccer and then a big game of ultimate frisbee (including many adults) while dinner was being prepared. Curtis & Shellie's families were in charge of dinner, and we had a yummy meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, salsa, etc. We even had delicious homemade ice cream, and marshmallows to roast also. We did a little bit of singing around the camp fire, but it was getting pretty late so we couldn't sing long because it was almost "quiet time" at the campground.

Wednesday morning started our with breakfast prepared by the young adult grandkids. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, milk, and juice--delicious! After breakfast was cleaned up, we all headed to the Jordanelle Resevoir (except for Grandpa & Grandma, who stayed behind and rested). We all went in together to rent some jet skis (thanks to Erick & Liz, who didn't give up!) so we all took turns riding on those. I enjoyed my second ride better than my first; Seth rode with Frank and I the first time and I was nervous about him falling off, although Seth had a great time and wasn't scared at all! The water at the resevoir was very cold, which is to be expected since it's mostly snow run off. Someone said it was about 65 degrees, but it felt more like 35 to me! I repeatedly and very obnoxiously kept urging everyone to come visit us in Maryland, where the lakes are warm in the summer! Before the day was over, we all managed to get in most of the way, though--even me! We enjoyed playing in the water and taking turns rowing the two inflatable boats that Tim & Rachelle brought. After we got back from the lake, we finished making dinner, which was taco salads. We had some chicken to go on those that had been cooking in the crock pot all day. After dinner we had a brief family meeting with all the adults, took some more photographs, and then had a family testimony meeting, which was awesome! After the meeting, Frank and I discovered that the large bunch of bananas we'd left on our cabin's porch had been plundered by racoons--all that was left was the ripped up plastic wrapper and the peels! I should have known better than to leave food out like that.

Thursday morning we all packed up and checked out of the cabins. Some people headed to the zoo in Salt Lake City; our family decided to go to Park City. Tim, Amy, Erick, and families also chose that option, so we enjoyed hanging out with them. Our whole family took a ride on the alpine slide; the ride up to the top of the mountain on the ski lift was beautiful! Scott and Tanner also road on the coaster. Seth had a ride on the Carousel (he wanted to ride on the "weza"--zebra) and Jared went on a thing where he could jump on a trampoline wearing a big harness, which allowed him to do flips and other tricks. We drove home through Parley's Canyon; another beautiful drive.

Friday morning most of the grandkids between 12 and 18 went to the Draper Temple to do baptisms. Frank and Tim went with them. After they got back, Frank and I did some shopping--we went to the Lehi Roller Mills and Deseret Book, as well as to Wal-Mart and Costco. I would have liked to spend more time at Deseret Book, but we didn't have a lot of time to spend. That afternoon, all the adults went to the Mt. Timpanogous Temple to do sealings together. Julia had provided some family names, which made it extra nice. We were divided up into 3 different groups to do the sealings, so afterwards we all met in the Celestial Room. It was really great to all be there together. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a restaurant called the Blue Lemon. I liked the food a lot, but got too full! Frank's meat wasn't cooked enough, though. After we all went home and changed, we met at the park at the end of Amy's street to have cake and ice cream in honor of my nephew Sam's birthday.

Frank was busy Saturday helping my niece Anna move to a new apartment. Amy and I went that afternoon to a rehearsal for a choir concert that night. The concert was put on by the current and alumni choirs of Orem High School. They've had this event every year for the past 5 years or so, but this is the first time I've had a chance to participate. I purchased all the music ahead of time, but since I don't have a piano I didn't get a chance to learn it at all so we were both pretty much sight reading for the rehearsal--but then, so was everyone else, mostly. And it still sounded pretty good! The old Orem High school building just got torn down in June. The new building is located where the old parking lot used to be. The concert was in the new building, but it isn't quite finished yet, so the concert had to be held in one of the gyms instead of the new auditorium. Not the best aucoustics, but it turned out ok. The new building is going to be very nice; it was fun to see it. There is still a huge pile of rubble where the old building used to be. It was kind of sad to see that, but mostly it's a good thing--that building was old and beat up when I went to school there over 20 years ago! I'm sure the kids are really going to enjoy that new building. Anyway, I think the concert turned out nice. The theme was "Christmas in June" so we did all Christmas music. I would have liked to have learned the arrangements better; they all sounded beautiful to me. But it was really fun to sing with so many talented singers again--just like the old days! Later that evening, we all congregated at Tim's house to watch fireworks--their city of Cedar Hills had a show that evening. The fireworks were really nice--much better than the 4th of July fireworks show we saw last year in Frederick!

On Sunday morning we went to a missionary homecoming for my cousin's daughter, Alyse. We enjoyed seeing Alyse again and hearing her speak. We were hoping to see my cousin Laurel and her family, as well as "Elder Moody" (a missionary who served here in Frederick and then married my cousin's daughter Kirsten after he got home) but none of them made it to the meeting. "Elder Moody" had to work and Laurel got the time of the meeting mixed up. We didn't make it over to my cousin Lane's house to see her later, either, because we were at church with Amy. We wish we could have had more time to visit with our extended family! I enjoyed meeting some of Amy's friends in her ward, though. I was supposed to help her with her YW lesson, but she didn't end up teaching at all because they had so much to talk about and do to prepare for their girls' camp, which starts on Monday. After we had dinner, we all met at Tim's house again for one last family get together. A bunch of people played a crazy game called "signs"; I couldn't even keep track of what was going on, and I was only watching!

Monday morning we got packed up and went to pick up the older 3 boys from Tim's house. We said our farewells to Tim's family and then went back to Amy's so that the boys could tell Amy's family good bye. Then we all went to Mom & Dad's house where we hung out for about an hour until it was time for us to drive to the airport. We got to see most of Curtis's family one more time while there, as well as Erick & Liz. I managed not to cry too much while saying good bye. It was a wonderful reunion, and I really hope we'll get to see everybody again soon!

We got to the airport, where they confiscated our applesauce cups at security--I guess they were a little over the weight limit of 3.4 ounces. The "fry sauce" we packed in our checked baggage made it though, though, which made Frank especially happy! Maybe someday they'll sell that stuff somewher other than Utah. When we go to our gate, we discovered that our flight was delayed a half hour; then it changed to an hour. We wished we could have had that extra hour to spend with family! The cause for the delay was an air traffic control hold going into Baltimore; one of the run ways was under construction so they couldn't handle their typical volume of flights coming in. We did make good time going home, though, so we landed only about 30 minutes after originally scheduled. The flight was pretty uneventful again (although the flight attendants were really funny); Seth slept for almost the entire flight, which was nice. After we landed, we had to wait on the tarmack about 10-15 minutes for our gate to open up. By then it was after 10:00, but the airport was a mob scene! I guess the air traffic hold messed a lot of people up. We were able to get our luggage fairly quickly, but then we had to wait quite a while for our friend who was picking us up to make it through the crazy traffic outside to get to us. We walked outside and were immediately hit by that good ol' Maryland heat and humidity--yuck!!

We made it home by about 11:30, stopping on the way to get some food at Taco Bell and Burger King--just before they both closed down for the night. Frank had to be at work the next morning, so we all went to bed!

Since getting home, we've been busy getting our lives back to normal. I spent the first few days getting through the mountains of laundry and restocking the refrigerator. I've also been busy trying to get up to speed on Primary happenings. Within two days of getting home, I was asked to accompany the sister missionaries to an appointment (fell through, unfortunately), speak at the stake baptism (held today--it went well), and speak in sacrament meeting next Sunday (the 11th)! Welcome home, indeed! At least I feel needed.

We are all still trying to adjust to Maryland time. I haven't been sleeping very well at night since getting home and all of us have had a hard time getting up in the mornings. The second day home I slept until 9:44--I couldn't believe it! Frank has been getting up, though--poor guy has to work, and he has been working hard. He is working today, also--he got up early to go help cook food for a 4th of July breakfast, and now he is helping cook food for a wedding. The boys have been enjoying sleep overs with friends and all the freedom that comes with summer. (I still make them do chores, though!) Jared spent the night with his friend Sage last night, and their friend Brian (from the ward) slept over here on Thursday night and stayed most of the day Friday. This afternoon we are going to be busy getting Scott and Tanner packed & ready for scout camp, which begins on Monday--very early!

I fully expected to be feeling really depressed at this point, but thankfully, I've been ok. (An answer to prayers, I'm sure.) It's been a lot nicer to be home than I expected. The first day home I really felt the humidity, but on Wednesday the weather changed and it's been wonderfully warm and dry--perfect, sparkling summer weather! Being the parent of teen agers has helped me to appreciate summer more than I have in years. No "did you do your homework?", no schedules, less stress, just lots of time to relax and enjoy ourselves! I find myself really embracing the joys of summer! Like yesterday when I went to the grocery store--I came home with peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, blueberries, strawberries and watermelon! Yum!!! On Thursday night we had our first outdoor dinner. Last night we celebrated July 4th a little early with hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob chips, watermelon, and our traditional flag cake. I love summer! I miss my family, but it is hard to be sad when there is so much to enjoy. I find myself, instead, just feeling very grateful to have such a wonderful family and so many great memories from the last couple of weeks that I will treasure forever.