Seth Happened

Weekly Review October 30 '10

I'll start this week with some pictures of the cutest "T Rex" ever! (The story behind the costume comes later in this post.)

Check out my tail!

Playing a game

He enjoyed his chocolate donut!

I had another week with LONG lists of things to do. I don't think it's going to let up much until after New Year's, but I'm grateful that a lot of work is behind me. The Primary program on Sunday went GREAT!!! My counselor who was in charge of it had some really inspired ideas that worked out wonderfully well. One of the main things she did differently is that she put the older kids in charge of helping the younger kids, so very few adults were sitting on the stand (just me and my two counselors, and the teachers for the youngest 3 classes). This idea had the effect of "killing two birds with one stone"--for one thing, with our huge Primary we barely all fit up on the stand and we always have to set up lots of extra chairs. Doing this left more seats available for kids, so we weren't quite as crowded and didn't have to set up quite so many extra chairs. For another, it kept the older kids occupied and reverent. I wasn't sure how they would do, but they all rose to the occasion and did a fabulous job!! They actually did a better job keeping track of where we were in the program and making sure that the younger kids were sent up to the front at the correct time than the adults usually do. Jared had one of the biggest jobs--he was sitting right next to the podium and helped all the kids say their parts if they got stuck. My counselor gave this job to him and one other girl because they are the only two left in the Valiant 11 class who haven't turned 12 yet. I thought that was a great way to have them participate and feel good about it instead of being embarrassed about still being "stuck with the little kids". The girl in his class didn't show up for the program, though (I'm still not sure why) so Jared ended up helping for the entire program instead of just half of the program. I had a lot of people comment to me afterwards about what a great job he did and how nice it was to see the older kids helping the younger ones. Another thing we did this year was to save copies of the kids' talks that they gave during the year, so most of the speaking parts came from those talks. I think it was a lot sweeter that way because the kids were all saying their own words that they had written themselves. It wasn't as "polished" as it has been other years, but the spirit came through loud and clear. So overall, it was a great program and I am so happy about how it turned out, but glad that there won't be another one for a year!

The rest of the week has been full with lots of different activities. We've been refinancing our mortgage (taking advantage of lower interest rates) and we had to get the paperwork for that done & sent in this week. I took Scott & Tanner to the doctor--they both needed a 2nd Hepatitis A booster and Tanner had to be checked for scoliosis. (The doctor sent him for xrays, just to get a "baseline". They determined that his spine is curved about 10 degrees, which is not enough to be too concerned about, but he has to be checked again in 6 months.) I spent a lot of time shopping / preparing for the Trunk or Treat Primary activity. I got most of my visiting teaching done. I went through Seth's clothes to weed out things he's outgrown, and took them to a friend who will be passing them on to a friend of hers. This same friend had a bag of clothes for Seth that her son has outgrown, so that worked out well for everybody. I went birthday shopping for Jared and did his Primary interview with him (which was very sweet, by the way). I also spent a lot of time shopping for and making a couple of costumes. In between all that, I've been reading two books for book club. Whew!

Remember how I said last week that I thought I'd convinced Seth to be a cat for Halloween? Well, he changed his mind, of course! All along he's been saying he wanted to be a "Saurus Rex" (his pronunciation of Tyrannosaurus Rex) but I haven't been able to find anything that even remotely resembles a T Rex and I didn't think I'd be able to figure out how to make one. So this week, desperate, I checked the internet for costume ideas, hoping I'd find a simple T Rex costume. Well, I didn't find one, but I did find some other animals / dragons, and that gave me an idea of how I could do a T Rex costume. I wasn't able to track down all the materials I needed until Thursday, so Thursday evening I stayed up late putting most of his costume together. I used a brown "hoodie" and brown sweat pants as a base for the costume, and added foam "teeth" to the top opening of the hoodie, styrofoam ball "eyes" on top of the hood, felt stripes to the back, foam "claws" to a pair of dark brown gloves as well as to a pair of dark brown socks, and created a tail out of dark brown fabric with more felt stripes. I attached everything (except the tail) with velcro so that it could be removed later and the clothes could be used for every day. I pinned the tail on with safety pins. I finished it up Friday night. I think it turned out pretty cute (although not very scary looking!) and more important--Seth LOVED it!

When I was out shopping for costume materials on Wednesday, I saw some book shelves at Target that are exactly what I've been looking for to put in Seth's room. Up until now, he had lots of toys in baskets on his floor and stacked neatly between the arm of a couch and the wall. It was starting to look pretty untidy, and then when we moved the couch out of his room a couple of weeks ago that did it! It just looked like a big pile of toys took up a whole corner of his room. I've been wanting to get some shelves in there ever since, so when I saw these shelves I bought them. Frank was at work (and was only going to be home briefly before going back to work for the whole night) so I asked Scott if he would try to put them together for me. He surprised me--he totally took over and didn't even want me to help much! He did a great job, too! The shelves make a HUGE difference in Seth's room. It looks so nice and neat in there now! I am very pleased with the results. Jared is happy also because I was able to move all the "little kid" books out of the book case in his room, so now he has more room for his own things in his own book case. The thing that surprised me the most, though, is that Seth is just as thrilled with them as I am. As soon as Scott finished putting them together, he went up to his room and started putting toys into the bins. By the time I got up there to help, he had already put all of his dinosaurs into one of the bins and was pulling out a new bin to put another kind of toy in. I was really surprised that he thought to "organize" it like that! He didn't want to come down to dinner until all of his toys and books were put away in the new bookshelves. Hmmm...reminds me of someone else I know...he got some of his mother's personality traits, I guess!

Scott is tired, but knows he did a good job!

Seth loves his new bookshelves!

I think Jared had a nice birthday. He didn't get to open presents until after school because the older boys leave before he gets up. (Although Tanner stayed home with an upset stomach that day, so he was there.) He was very patient about it, though. He got an MP3 player, a set of books (The Hunger Games series), and a Percy Jackson book. The symphony bar is a reward for getting his Faith in God done. He also got money from Grandma & Grandpa, and last week from his friends he got a game for the Wii, a nerf dart gun, a yo-yo, and more money. He has been saving his allowance for over a year, so with that and all of his birthday money, he has a pretty hefty sum of money to spend. I'm not sure what he'll decide to get, but I know he will think about it long and hard before making a decision!

Ready to open presents

All the loot!

On Thursday evening I also made another costume for Seth. This one was for "International Children's Day" at his school. He had to dress up in costume to represent another country. We already had a sombraro from a previous International Children's Day costume (for Tanner, several years ago) so I decided to have Seth represent Mexico. All I had to do was make him a little "poncho" out of felt. Thankfully, it was easy, and Seth loved it!

Ready to go to school!

I stuck around the school long enough to see their little parade and then to hear the "Primary" classes (Pre-K and Kindergarten) sing a song in the program. There's Seth, in the big hat in the middle of the picture! Sorry it's a bit blurry--the lighting in there was not good at all, and I was pretty far away. Seth didn't even know I was there! It was fun to watch him!

Here he is after school, with the flag he made at school.

Scott stayed home from school on Monday--he had a heavy cold and felt really awful. Thankfully, he was well enough to go back to school on Tuesday. Seth has had a bit of a cold also, and I almost kept him home Monday as well, but he wanted to go to school so I decided to let him go. He didn't feel really bad, I was mostly just worried about him spreading germs since he isn't very good at covering his mouth and nose when he coughs or sneezes. Tanner stayed home Thursday because his stomach was bothering him, but felt better on Friday. I normally am stricter about letting them stay home from school, but since it is the last week of the term, he had finished all his finals, and he has almost straight A's, I decided it wouldn't hurt much if he stayed home one day. Frank also had a sick day this week--Tuesday--his stomach was really upset. The illness was short lived, luckily, so he was back to work as usual on Wednesday. I hope we are all through being sick for a while, although I can't complain about the minor illnesses--it could have been a lot worse!

There is a girl from one of the other wards who sits right next to Tanner in his Government class, and he has mentioned her quite a bit over the last few months. This week, he came home happy because this girl said to him "Hey, Tanner, where were you at the barn dance? I looked for you, and couldn't find you." Well, he wasn't there because he's not quite 14 yet, but he said "Mom, I can't believe it--she was looking for me!" I just recently figured out who this girl is, and remembered that I have seen her at some stake functions. I said to Tanner "Lauren is Kelsey's sister, right?" When he agreed, I said "Hey, she's pretty cute!" Tanner said "She's HOT, is what she is!" That cracked me up. Tanner doesn't think just about girls, though. He keeps reporting to me how he's doing with memorizing the scripture mastery scriptures for Seminary. Recently he reported that he had memorized 7--the most in his class! He said "I'm one ahead of Elisabeth McClatchie!" (Which is impressive, I should point out. This is the girl who earned her YW recognition award when she was only 13 1/2!) I guess they have a little friendly competition going on.

Seth, that little monkey! He is always saying funny things, and I really need to start writing them down! He also tickles us with his unique pronunciations. The last few weeks he has started saying the word "yeah" like "yay-uh". We have no idea where he picked that up. He was playing with some beanbags this week, and when I called them that, he looked at me and said "No, Mom, they are ZIG ZAGS!" (Said very emphatically, and pronounced slowly, so I would get it right!)

Scott tickles my funny bone sometimes, too. One day last week he tried to say "I love you", but his mouth was full of muffin, so I couldn't understand him. He got this sweet little grin on his face and made the shape of a heart with his hands! It's nice to have a 16 year old boy who isn't afraid to say that.

The temperatures have been rather chilly the last few days, but the rest of the week we were enjoying unusually warm weather for fall. I can give you an idea of how warm when I admit that we turned on the air conditioning once or twice. Yes, in October! I took Snickers out late Tuesday evening, I was wearing short sleeves and no jacket, the wind was blowing, and I was totally comfortable! I was wondering "is it really October 26th or is it May 26th?!" Of course, I am not complaining--no, not at all. We got some rain this week also, which is always needed.

Frank and I went to dinner Friday evening. When he has to work the Wednesday night all night shift (as he's been doing the last 3 weeks or so), then by Friday night we feel like we haven't seen each other for days because he is gone all night Wednesday (and usually part of the day Wednesday), sleeps while I'm awake on Thursday, and then goes back to work all day Friday. So it was nice to get away for a little while and spend a little bit of time together. We found a great place to eat, too--a little Mexican place that was not crowded, had super quick & friendly service, and inexpensive & yummy food. We'll definitely be going back there again!

By the way, if you are ever in Washington DC, be careful where you park (or pull over)! Frank is down there pretty often and he has had a couple of parking tickets. He got one recently in the mail (the kind where they have taken a photograph of the violation) and when he looked at the place, date, and time, he remembered that he had just pulled out of a parking garage and didn't know exactly where he was going, so he pulled over for a few minutes to give his GPS time to connect to the satellite. Apparantly, he pulled over in an area that you are not supposed to park at that time on that day of the week because the street cleaner comes through (he never saw the signs). This week he was in DC so he went in to talk to the judge. He had to wait 2 hours and then the judge was totally unsympathetic so he has to pay the ticket anyway. What a waste of time! He was so frustrated. They are pretty brutal about parking down there!

Now here it is Monday afternoon, and I haven't posted this yet. Saturday was extemely busy, so I never had a chance to finish up. That's because I had a meeting in the morning from 9:00-11:00 (Stake Auxilliary Training Meeting), Jared had a soccer game at 2:00, and the Primary Trunk or Treat was from 6:30 to 8:00. Friday night Tanner and Jared spent the night with Ryan & Bryson, so in between the meeting and the soccer game I had to go pick them up. I also had to pick up 6 dozen donuts I ordered for the Trunk or Treat and make a few other purchases, so I didn't have much time to sit down.

Everything went well, though. The training meeting was awesome! Very helpful information, and very spiritual. I really love our new stake Primary presidency; they are great! So is our new stake presidency. Our primary leaders / teachers had been asked to sing the same song that we sang in Sacrament Meeting in September, so we got there early to run through it a few times. We thought we were going to be singing in the Primary room for just the Primary people, but when we got there we found out we were going to sing in the chapel for everybody (YW and RS leaders were there for meetings also.) We weren't too thrilled about that, but the song went great--we were very grateful! The primary leaders invited all our teachers to this particular meeting and they had a guest speaker come who talked about a lot of different behavior management techniques for children. It was really good! She even gave us a CD with lots of terrific visual aids and ideas. (Now I need to make copies for all my teachers.)

Jared's soccer game didn't go so well--his team lost, 3-1. This team was a lot more challenging than the other teams they've played this season and they also were missing some players on their team. Overall, they just didn't look like themselves on Saturday. That's ok, though--they have to lose sometimes!

The Trunk or Treat went well and was fun for everyone, I think. The YM put together a haunted house, the YW prepared 2 games as well as a cookie decorating activity, and we (Primary) had a game ready, also. We played games for a half hour, then did the trunk or treat part, then had refreshments and gave out some awards for decorated trunks (some people really went all out, which was fun!) We had a lot of our kids plus friends and a few investigator families too.

So that was our very busy week. You know you are busy when a couple of different people say to you "Hey, I was thinking about you and realized that you've sure had a lot going on lately"...and then start to list all the things they know I've had to do. When other people (who are busy themselves) start to notice how busy you are, well...that's a little ridiculous, don't you think?! Well, I've scratched a lot of things off my "to do" list, and that feels good. I have been praying for help to get everything done, and I can really see that I have had help, so I am grateful.

Weekly Review October 23 '10

Happy (early) Birthday, Jared!

Eagle Scout project preparations

Helpers

When I look at my planner for this week, there is a long "to do" list on every day. I won't bore you with the details, though! I'll just summarize and say that in addition to all the usual house cleaning, shopping, laundry, and so forth I also spent a lot of time sending emails to my counselors (Primary program, concerns about the nursery, callings we need to fill, Priesthood Preview set up, Trunk or Treat, and a muscial number we're doing for a training meeting next week--yes, we have A LOT going on right now!). Thank goodness my back has been feeling a lot better this week! It was very painful on Sunday morning but I managed to make it through church. After I got home from church I decided to take a nap, and when I got up it felt a lot better and has been better ever since.

Besides all the Primary stuff, I was also helping Scott do some preparation for his Eagle scout project (which is going to be done in 3 shifts--some preliminary preparation today and the bulk of the work on November 6th and November 20th), I had book club on Tuesday, I made visiting teaching appointments, I visited my friend Starr, went to the library, volunteered at the school, and oh yeah--I decided to have Jared's birthday party this week, rather than the first week in November! So yes, there were a lot of things to do.

I never would have decided to have a party last minute like that except I know from experience that planning a 12 year old sleep over party is not very difficult. All I had to do was stock up on junk food, make sure we had plenty of movies and games, and order pizza. Easy! And besides that, I also know that a bunch of 12 year old boys are not going to care one bit if my house is clean or not. (In my earlier, less wiser days, I used to clean my house meticulously before my kid's parties. And then clean up again afterwards, of course, because it would get "trashed"!)

Frank had another one of those "all night" jobs Wednesday night, so I got the boys to the church and back for YM / scouts. Frank was very tired on Thursday, of course. He came home in the morning and got about 4 or 5 hours of sleep, but that's not much, especially when you've been working for 27 hours straight! Frank was busy as usual this week. In addition to all the hours he put in at work, he also visited 3 wards on Sunday to update their computers.

Tuesday evening Jared had soccer practice but he missed it because we all had a chance to go see a blimp up close, so we did that instead. Frank's cousin Phillip is a mechanic for the Met Life blimp and they happened to be in Frederick for a few days this week, so he invited us to come see the blimp, which was moored at the Frederick County Airport, just a few miles from our house. Here are some of the pictures from our little adventure:

Seth in the blimp's "cab"

The boys and I with Frank's cousin, squashed together in the blimp. (That's our reflection in the mirror.) Frank was on the steps--couldn't fit all of us inside at once!

Yeah, it's not very big!

All my boys pose next to the blimp.

Cousin Phillip and Frank

Jared, Tanner, and Seth playing around

Far away shot

Doing the limbo under the blimp--silly boys!

A last look as we're leaving

Seth playing with Cousin Phillip (or is it the other way around?!)

Seth poses by an airplane. He said "It's just my size!"

Speaking of funny things Seth says, one day this week I asked him who is at home when he gets home from school. He immediately and very matter-of-factly said "Monster and all his friends". ("Monster" is his imaginary friend.) I expected him to say "Mommy and Snickers"! He has quite the imagination!

Jared's party went well. He invited 7 friends, but only 4 of them could come. It was a nice size group for our little house, though. Scott and Tanner had a sleep over at their YM president's house, which made it nice for Jared--he and his friends could have their fun time together without his older brothers interfering. They played games, ate pizza, watched Iron Man 2 (with tons of "movie candy" and caramel popcorn), opened presents, and had cake and ice cream. They were a good group--Frank and I went to bed around 11:45, and we didn't hear any noise after that. Apparently, some of them stayed up pretty late, but they were quiet and didn't disturb us. In the morning we fed them banana fritters (everyone loved them, Mom--thanks for the recipe!), bacon, and OJ. We gave each boy a treat box with candy, a glow stick, ugly teeth, and some silly bands. Pick up time was supposed to be 10:00, but some of the parents overslept, so the last boy didn't get picked up until close to noon. One other boy needed a ride home, so I took him home after that. Jared and Seth came with me; we stopped at Wal-Mart on the way back so I could buy treats for the Primary kids (we always give them a treat the week of the program) and to look at their Halloween costumes. We got the treats, but Seth was still very unimpressed with all the costumes. After we got home I thought to pull out costume ideas I've saved from magazines over the years and I think I've convinced him to be a cat. We'll see!

Meanwhile, Frank left here around 9:45. He wanted to do some preliminary work on Scott's Eagle scout project, so he had arranged with the YM president to meet him at the Aviary, and he brought most of the YM who had slept over (including our two boys) with him. They worked for a couple of hours and managed to level off the spot where the turtle cage is going to be located, as well as dig a trench that will help drain rainwater away from the cage. After Scott got home, I helped him make a flyer to announce the other two days they want to meet to finish the project. Now he is gone again--there is a Barn Dance for all the youth in the stake (14 and up). Frank is gone, also--he's helping to cook the food for the dance.

I'm feeling less stressed than I was a week ago. I really worked hard this week and got a lot done. Besides that, the party is behind me, the Primary program will be over tomorrow, and Scott's Eagle project seems to be coming together (I think the project has been stressing me more than anything else!). I feel like everything is going to work out fine. (Just pray that the weather will cooperate and not get too cold before the Eagle project is done!)

It was quite cold this morning, but it has warmed up nicely and is really a very beautiful mellow fall day--I love that!

Weekly Review October 16 '10

Ahhh....Jared and Seth enjoying their "day off" from school.

Professional relaxer!

Jared the boy scout

Part of the campground at the park.

Seth came home from school one day this week with his face covered in dirt! It doesn't show up in the picture very well, but we tried to capture it on film. It was so funny!!

This week I paid for my ambitious basement cleaning of last weekend. My back was hurting all week! I guess I did a little too much lifting and bending. Tuesday was my worst day; by Wednesday evening I felt almost normal again. But then I guess I did too much because Thursday and Friday I was hurting a little bit more and this morning I am sitting on the heat pad again. I have to be very careful what I do. In spite of my back hurting, I'm grateful that I was still functional and able to do everything I needed to do this week (except I skipped cleaning bathrooms!) I didn't end up flat on my back, as sometimes happens.

We had lots of appointments this week. I had my annual check up with my cardiologist on Tuesday morning. I also had to get clearance from him to have surgery next month. My heart looks good. As a matter of fact, I haven't felt my heart "flutter" in a really long time. The cardiologist did say that I will probably have more trouble with it if I don't keep in shape and suggested I exercise regularly. Well, I'm trying to do that anyway, but I couldn't exercise at all this week because of my back.

Scott had a dermatologist appointment Tuesday afternoon. His skin has cleared up a lot, but the dermatologist decided to prescribe a cream that is a little stronger to help clear him up completely. I also got a recommendation from him for an over the counter acne wash since the prescription one we've been using is not covered by our insurance and has been costing us big bucks.

Tuesday evening Jared had soccer practice and then I took Scott over to the church to meet with the Eagle project advisor for our council. He got his approval for his Eagle scout project, so we can finally get started! We are running out of weekends before it's going to get too cold to do it, so we are trying to get the supplies (Home Depot may donate some of them) as quickly as possible.

Besides all those other appointments, Jared also had his interview with the bishop Wednesday night so that he can receive the priesthood in a couple of weeks. The older two boys helped with another boy's Eagle project Wednesday night and Scott had a meeting with the rest of the priests Thursday night to plan an activity.

Frank had a busy work week, as usual, but his hours were pretty erratic. He worked at home most of Monday, but had some work he had to do Monday evening until late. He thought he'd be done by 10:00 or 11:00, but it ended up being 1:00 am before he got home. Wednesday he had a job that lasted from 6:00 pm to 7:30 am. We did family night on Tuesday evening since Frank was gone Monday evening.

I admit I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed lately. There are just a lot of big things coming up: the Primary Sacrament Meeting program on the 24th (the first practice on Sunday was chaotic, but overall went well), Primary Trunk or Treat activity on the 30th, Auxiliary training meetings also on the 30th, Jared's birthday on the 28th, eye surgery on the 11th, Thanksgiving (we're hoping to go to NC for that), Tanner's birthday, Christmas!!! Somewhere in there we need to get Scott's Eagle project done and Jared gets a birthday party this year, also. I don't see much of a let up until New Year's. I hope we manage to get it all done, without losing focus on the most important things!

The boys were out of school on Friday for some kind of state-wide teacher training. Tanner spent the night Thursday with a new church friend (Seth). Tanner and Jared both had a camp out last night. It was a huge district event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of scouting. Tanner didn't want to go since it was just the 11 year old scouts and deacons who were going to go, but then two of his teacher friends (Seth and Ryan) decided to go also, so he was a lot happier. He is almost out of deacons, of course, and he is much older than all the other deacons, so he doesn't like hanging out with them very much. They are kind of an immature group, and he is usually pretty mature for his age, so I can understand how he feels but we are trying to encourage him to be tolerant as well as to set an example for the younger boys. Jared was excited to go.

After we dropped off Jared for his camp out (Tanner went directly there from Seth's house) Scott, Seth, and I went shopping. We got a suit for Scott and looked for a Halloween costume for Seth (but didn't find one). Then we took a copy of Scott's approved Eagle scout project to Home Depot since they need that before they will agree to donate any materials. By then Frank was almost home from work, so we met him at a buffet place for dinner. It was pretty quiet last night with just Scott & Seth here!

When Frank was home on Wednesday morning (because he worked all night Wednesday night) he came with me to do some shopping / pricing for the upcoming Primary activity. Then we went to pick up Seth from school and took him to look at Halloween costumes. There were very few choices in his size, though, and he didn't like any of the things that came in his size, so we didn't get anything. We also pulled out our box of costumes but all of them are still too big. Since then, I have heard Seth say (in a resigned way) "They don't have any costumes my size, so I am just going to be me, Seth, for Halloween". Well, hopefully we will find something he likes somewhere else! He cracks us up all the time with funny things he says, but I can't remember them long enough, usually, to put them in a post. I do remember last week, though, that one day when we were at the church and he was playing in the nursery that he told me he had "put the baby (doll) in the microwave (part of a play kitchen) so that she could 'get nice and hot and go to sleep'"! We told him to never, ever do that in real life!!!

Today Frank and Scott moved the couch in Seth's room down to the living room so we have more seating down here. We want to get a different couch eventually, but probably won't be able to do that until spring, so this will work until then. Frank and I went to get Jared at his campout and took him to his 1:00 soccer game. We didn't have far to go, because the campout was held at Baker Park, which is the same park where Jared plays his games. Several of Jared's camping buddies walked over to watch the game for a while. Jared's team won the game, although not as decisively as they have been winning most of their games this season. The final score was 5-2. We were really happy that they won in spite of several really bad calls by the referee. It was really frustrating to watch the game with that happening, but in the end Jared's team prevailed. After the game, we went back to the camping area to pick up Tanner and his friend Seth. Now all the boys are playing games together.

We had beautiful warm fall days at the beginning of the week. Then on Thursday morning it started to rain and rained hard all that day. Since then it has been a lot cooler, but today is sunny again and it's fairly pleasant, although quite windy. We are finally starting to see some fall colors and the leaves are starting to fall. (I'm constantly having to sweep the front steps; they get covered with leaves and then everyone tracks them into the house.)

I finished reading the book Son of Hamas this week. It is an interesting and remarkable book and a quick read. If you want some great insights on the Middle East conflict, I recommend reading it. I was really impressed with the author's last words. He basically said that the only way to really resolve the conflicts there is for more people to live as Jesus lived. Pretty amazing, coming from someone who was raised Muslim!

Happy birthday to Daniel, Gwen and Emily this week! (I hope I'm not forgetting anyone.) Until next week, then...

Weekly Review October 9 '10

Pumpkins!

Pansies I planted (I know, our lawn is sad...lots of dead patches.)

Jared helping defend the goal (He really isn't scratching himself!)

Playing defense

The ball is coming his way...

Running down the field

I feel like I spent this week "catching up" after being gone last weekend. It was worth it, though! I wasn't just catching up on work...I was catching up on sleep, too! Saturday night I stayed up all night. That wasn't intentional...we were just talking, and didn't stop. Rebecca fell asleep sometime around 4:00 or 5:00, I think (there wasn't a clock in the room) but Marci and I were talking until 7:00 am! I feel a little bit hypocritical after telling my boys not to stay up late every time they spend the night with friends. Then my crazy brain woke me back up at 9:00 am, and I stayed awake all day Sunday (even through both sessions of General Conference!) so my body has been feeling pretty sleep deprived and trying to make up for the punishment I gave it. Oh, well...I won't have the chance to do that again for a long time, and I feel like it was productive, healing time for both Marci and me. The whole weekend was so good for all three of us, I think. I'm really glad I got to go. It's kind of strange to realize how much has changed in our lives since we were "sewing buddies". Rebecca is going through a difficult divorce and Marci is a widow now. It leaves me feeling very grateful for the blessings I have and I am so impressed by my two amazing friends who are so strong and dealing with their trials so well.

On Sunday after General Conference, we went to see the animals at a farm (Marci's daughter, Haley, has a boyfriend (Evan) who lives on a farm.) We saw horses, goats, sheep, llamas, and alpacas. It was fun, but it was also too cold to enjoy being outside for very long. Then we went inside to see all the cool things that Evan's mom has made from all the fibers she has woven and dyed from all the animals. She had done some pretty amazing things.

The drive home Monday was pretty uneventful, in a good way. Just more talking and the same beautiful scenery. The weather got colder and cloudy on Sunday, and when we got back to Frederick we found the weather the same here--quite cold and cloudy. This weather continued until Thursday. I was starting to think we'd never see the sun again! But on Thursday the sun came back out and the temperatures warmed up nicely, too. We are really enjoying the nicer weather while it lasts, and I think appreciating it more after several cold and gloomy days.

Tuesday started off with a bang--Scott threw up in the night and Seth wet the bed (he did that 3 times this week, for some reason...) Then when Jared got up, he wasn't feeling well either, so both he and Scott stayed home from school. Fortunately, neither one of them got very sick, and they both were able to go back to school on Wednesday. Snickers was feeling under the weather that day, also--we discovered he had pooped in his crate (which he has never done) as well as thrown up in there a few times. Yuck! That was a fun mess to clean up. Tuesday was busy because I was trying to get 2 days' worth of work done. I also did some weeding in the front yard and planted the pansies we bought last week. I can't remember everything I did; I just remember by the end of the day I was really tired! I was glad Jared wasn't up to going to soccer practice that evening.

I was busy Wednesday also. I had a presidency meeting that evening while the boys were at scouts. Seth came with me because Frank had a lot of work to do. We got the write up for Scott's eagle project done and both his scoutmaster and the scout committee chair signed it, so now we need to get it to the eagle advisor for the council so he can approve it.

By Thursday I felt like I was starting to get caught up on things. I helped take kids from Seth's class to the library; that's always fun. That evening Frank and I went on a little "date"--he wanted to go to the bookstore to look for a book that just came out. He ended up getting more than one book, and I got a couple also. I told him afterwards that we need to remember that going to the bookstore is not a "cheap" date!

Frank had to be at work at 4:00 am on both Tuesday and Thursday, so he's been tired this week also. We slept in a bit Friday morning--thankfully, I woke up in time to go get the boys from Seminary to take them to school. I decided to exercise that morning since I hadn't had a chance to take a shower yet. It always feels good when I get the chance to do that; I wish I found the time to do it more often Tanner went to his school's football game that evening, but the rest of us stayed home and watched Iron Man 2 on the new Blue Ray player that Frank bought.

Today we all went to help clean the church at 10:00, then Jared had a soccer game at noon. I took him to that; his team dominated the game as they have been doing all season and won 6 (or maybe it was 7) to nothing. I actually remembered to take the camera to get some pictures of him playing, but it wasn't the best day to do that since he was on defense almost the entire game (his request--he hurt his leg last week and it was still bothering him.) Scott and Tanner took Seth to the park while I was gone. It was definitely a nice day to be out--warm and sunny. I love "Indian Summer" weather! This afternoon Frank and I did some cleaning up in the basement. He worked on his office space while I worked on the laundry room / storage room. We made some progress, but we still have a long way to go. We threw out tons of stuff, though, and have a decent pile of "give aways" also. Unfortunately, I threw away a lot of food storage. I haven't been good about rotating it the way I should--mainly because it was so messy in there that it was hard to gain access to the food storage shelves. Now that I can get to them a lot easier, I will be a lot better about rotating the food storage. The boys helped us a lot by carrying loads of garbage out to the dumpster, and Tanner also kept an eye on Seth for us. This evening we had the missionaries over for dinner.

I hope Shellie had a happy birthday this week--we were thinking about you!