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!