Weekly Review November 27 '10

I'm a little late getting this weekly review posted--we were traveling home on Saturday, so I couldn't do it then.

We really enjoyed having Erin visit us last week end, even if it was a short visit and we were running around like crazy most of the time she was here. Seth really took to her--as you can see in the photograph, he even started playing with her hair, the way he does with mine!

Frank took Erin to the airport early Monday morning. We're glad she made it home safely but sorry that she caught some of our germs! Frank stayed home from church on Sunday to try to get some rest and get better, and it seemed to help--he was able to go to work on Monday and got a little bit better each day. I had ward council before church and choir practice after church, so I had a busy day. Tanner had BYC after church also, so I took him home with me. Erin helped us out a whole lot by driving the other boys home, after helping Scott return the trailer we borrowed for Scott's Eagle scout project. It was a bit of a drive, so we really appreciated that a lot!

The rest of the week was busy with preparations for our trip to North Carolina, as well as parent / teacher conferences. School started 4 hours late on Monday (Seth didn't have school at all that day) and they got out 3 1/2 hours early on Tuesday. There was only about an hour between the time I had to pick up Seth and the time I had to pick up Jared from school on Tuesday, but the school was also having their book fair that week and had planned a story time / picnic lunch for the preschoolers so I brought lunch for Seth and I, and we stayed for the story time.

I had conferences for Seth and Jared on Monday afternoon and for Tanner and Scott on Tuesday afternoon. Everyone is doing pretty well; Scott's grades could use some improvement. All of his teachers say the same thing--he is pleasant, respectful, polite, intelligent, and needs to work harder! It was nice to be validated that way--exactly what I tell him all the time at home. Tanner and Jared's teachers also say that they are pleasant, respectful, polite, and intelligent--no complaints about them at all. Seth is doing well, also. We are grateful that we have such good boys.

Tuesday evening we got everything packed and ready to go. Frank had a lot of work to do that day and got in enough hours on Monday and Tuesday that he didn't have to work on Wednesday, so we were able to leave about 10:30 instead of around noon, as we had planned. The trip went smoothly, without too many stops. Seth and Snickers both traveled pretty well--better than we had expected, anyway. We made it to our destination around 7:00. We stopped by Frank's parents' house for a few minutes to say hello to everybody and then we got settled in the little house we had rented for our stay. Frank and I had some shopping to do that evening, also--groceries, since we were making sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, a chocolate cream pie and layered banana pudding as our contributions to Thanksgiving dinner.

The house we rented had a full kitchen with all the kitchen utensils provided, which made it possible for us to cook. The house also had a dining room, a living room, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a covered back porch with a washer and dryer. Nice! It was a bargain, too--didn't cost much more than a hotel room would have cost. It was really great to be able to spread out and not be in each other's faces. Frank and I had our own room with attached bath. One of the bedrooms had a bunk bed with a double bed on bottom and a single bed on top. Scott and Seth slept in the bottom bunk and Jared slept in the top. (Seth ended up in our room on the floor all 3 nights, though.) Tanner got the other bedroom to himself. Everyone agreed that he should get it, since he has never had his own room!

We spent Thursday morning cooking. Then we all met at the church for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a nice day with Frank's family, playing games and eating lots of good food. Pick up sticks was a particularly popular game. We had enough food for dinner, also, so we all stayed at the church for that. Frank's mom made a blanket for Seth--it has a great dinosaur print on one side and a fleece frog print on the other side. Seth loves it!

Seth's new blanket

Frank Sr. and Frank Jr.

Mom says "I love you!"

Granny & Grandpa

The whole family, except AJ (hadn't got there yet) and Jon & Frank (they were taking the photos).

Frank with his parents and siblings

AJ and James

Me relaxing, back at the house.

The next morning we slept in a bit. It was Tanner's 14th birthday, so we opened presents first:

He got an MP3 player, a game for the Wii, and a scripture marking pen.

He also got some nice cards and a gift card to spend. We all wanted to see the new Harry Potter movie, so Frank took Tanner to see it first and then I took Jared and Scott to see it. (We didn't want to take Seth--too much for him!) We all enjoyed it and look forward to seeing part 2 of HP7 this summer. While Frank & Tanner were at the movie, Frank's parents came over for a while. I showed them a bunch of the photographs we have on the computer. That evening we all met at the church to eat again--there was still lots of food left! After that we said our good byes to Frank's siblings and families. We wanted to get an early start home on Saturday.

We got up early and made it to Frank's parent's house by about 8:30. We said our good byes and got on the road. The trip home was also pretty uneventful; the traffic was maybe a little bit heavier. It was definitely colder! Thanksgiving Day was quite pleasant, but on Friday it started raining and got colder. Saturday it was clear, but very windy and FRIGID! We did see some nice views on the way home, though, like this:

Everyone is glad to be going home and keeping busy with games and movies:

It's become traditional for us to play the "license plate game" on every trip. That means we try to see how many different state's license plates we can spot. At the beginning of this trip, the boys were saying that we will probably never see Alaska or Hawaii, and I told them that actually I have seen both of those plates on other trips, more than once. They didn't believe me, but on the way home we saw first Hawaii and then Alaska--ha! Told them so! :) We didn't see all 50 states, however. I don't think I've ever seen all 50 states in one trip before. Someday we will take a big trip across the country, and then maybe we will see all of them! When I was a kid, I remember we never saw states like Delaware or Connecticut. Now it is easy for us to find those ones, but we rarely see Wyoming or North Dakota. On this particular trip we saw every state on this side of the Mississippi River except for Rhode Island (and we usually see that one, I'm not sure why we didn't see it on this trip). Then there were about 7 western states that we didn't see. Anyway, I digress!

We got home in time to unpack and make dinner. After I got Seth to bed, I went over to my friend Rebecca's house to visit with her and my friend Marci for a few minutes. Marci and her children were here for Thanksgiving and stayed with Rebecca.

Something funny Seth is saying these days: "Aw, nuts!" He says that when he doesn't get what he wants or something goes wrong.

It was great to see Frank's family and to get away for a few days, but it is also good to be home!

Weekly Review November 20 '10

Seth playing in his room (cute new haircut!)

the advent calendar I made

The rest of the photos are Scott's Eagle Scout project:

I guess I'll start out with an update on my eye. It's doing very well, overall. I didn't bruise very much this time and the swelling went down quicker. It looks almost normal now, except for the incision that's still visible. I've been able to wear my contact lenses since Thursday. It never did look as bad this time as last time. On the flip side, I've been experiencing a lot of sinus pain and my teeth on the upper right side of my mouth have been quite tender. My nose has been running a lot, too, and the antibiotic they put me on has made me feel very dizzy. None of those symptoms happened last time. It's been hard to tell if all those things were a result of the surgery or if I have some kind of sinus infection, but probably they are just after effects from the surgery. I mentioned all of this to my doctor at my follow up appointment on Wednesday afternoon, and he said I may have some infection going on in the tear duct still; he thinks it looks a little infected. He said to drink lots of liquid to help flush things out and to call him back if the symptoms don't go away or get worse. When I told him that my eye had bruised a lot less and the swelling had gone done a lot faster this time, he smiled and joked "Oh, good--I'm getting better at this!!" I also talked to him about my left eye, which has been watering a lot more in recent months, so he checked it out. It seems to be fine, though--the duct is not blocked, anyway. That was good to hear! Hopefully now that my right eye is not watering any more the left eye will stop watering too.

I stayed home from church on Sunday and got some rest. Scott went to his friend David's house for a while after church--they did some baking. We got some of the raspberry bars that they made, and they were yummy! We had family night and rested.

Starting with Monday, I jumped back into real life. I've been going, going, going all week, and I'm grateful I've had the stamina to keep up with it all. Besides all the ordinary things, Jared had an orthodontist appointment on Monday, I went to the library twice, I had book club and a Presidency Meeting on Tuesday, Frank also had a church meeting Tuesday evening, I worked onthe next 2 weeks' Sharing Times, I did some Christmas shopping and mailed a Christmas package, shopped for Tanner's birthday, purchased treats for the Priesthood Preview, made a lot of phone calls, visited a Primary girl who is turning 12 this week, helped at the school library, took Snickers to be groomed, went to my surgery follow up appointment which took a whole afternoon because the doctor's office is a good 40 minutes away and I had to wait over an hour in the waiting room, Friday night I went to the YW president's house to read the Book of Mormon for a half hour as part of an all night "read-a-thon" that the YW were doing, and in between all that I tried to take care of sick kids. Whew!! I feel bad because I've been so busy that the sick kids have been left unsupervised quite a bit.

Tanner hasn't been feeling his best for a week or two, but on Wednesday after Seminary, he decided to stay home from school because he was feeling a lot worse. By mid day he had an elevated temperature, and on Thursday his temp went up to 100.4. It was still the same on Friday, so I took him to the doctor. It turns out that he just has a virus, though--no strep or anything like that. Meanwhile, Frank started feeling sick Thursday and was totally miserable by Friday. I assume he has the same thing as Tanner.

Seth also had a rough week. He's had a cold (cough / congestion) since last week but seemed fine and happy, so he'd been going to church and school as usual. But on Monday I got a call from the school about an hour after I dropped him off. One of his teachers had taken him to the nurse because he was crying and out of sorts, and then when she was holding him, she could hear that he was congested, so she thought he might be getting sick. I decided to go get him, but by the time I got there he was a lot happier. However, since I thought he might be coming down with something and because they had told him I was coming, I decided to take him home anyway. He seemed fine the rest of the day, though, and claimed that he was crying because he had "forgotten to give me a hug and a kiss". He hadn't, actually, but anyway, he had run back out into the hall to give me a hug right after I left, and then someone ran into him and their backpack knocked him on the head, so I think it was the combination of me being gone already and getting hurt that set him off. On Tuesday he seemed fine and went to school without any problems. On Wednesday, however, I was starting to leave when he came running back out of the classroom in tears again. I gave him another hug and a kiss, and he seemed to be ok and went back in, but when I waved goodbye to him from the door, he started to wave back but then his face crumpled and he started to cry again and ran back out to me. After that, he didn't want to let me go, so his teacher invited me to stay for a few minutes. He was pretty clingy for a while, but when they got to storytime, he got interested in the story and was ok letting me go--he even waved and smiled. However, later on Frank had to go over to the school (I was shopping) because he had a bowel movement and they are not allowed to wipe him (I didn't know that--I guess I need to work on teaching him to do that!) and when Frank was done and he tried to leave, Seth fell apart again. Frank ended up staying with him until dismissal time--about a half hour. Thursday and Friday I kept Seth home from school. He felt a little warm to me and he said his head hurt and that he "wasn't feeling well". I thought he might be coming down with the same thing as Tanner, so I let him stay home. He hasn't been acting all that sick, but he has been a lot more emotional / easily upset than usual, so maybe he has a mild virus or something. I hope that is also why he has been having trouble being separated from us this week. It's really perplexing, because he usually has no trouble with separation. He loves school and has been perfectly fine with it until now, and asking him to tell us what is wrong just leads to going around in circles: "Why were you sad at school, Seth?" "Because I needed you." "Why did you need me?" "Because I was sad." It's a mystery! Please keep him in your prayers. Next week he only has one day of school. Everyone is off Wednesday-Friday, and Monday and Tuesday are half days because of parent / teacher conferences. Since school is only in the afternoon on Monday, he doesn't have school that day. Hopefully he'll be fine on Tuesday. It's his show and tell day, which should help--he's always excited about that!

The other big project for this week was Scott's Eagle project. Thursday evening one of the men in the ward who is a structural engineer came over to talk about how to build the new lid for the turtle cage. Yesterday Frank and Scott went to pick up a trailer they were borrowing from a family in our ward to use to transport all the supplies for his project. Then this morning they were up bright and early to go buy the supplies. His project was supposed to be from 9:00 to 1:00, but it ended up going much longer--until about 3:30. A lot of the boys who came to help (including Jared) were going to a merit badge clinic at 12:30, so I helped transport a bunch of them to that. Scott, Frank, another adult and a few boys stayed to finish up the project. I took Tanner home because he still wasn't feeling well and got there just in time to meet Erin who was arriving at our home this afternoon. She came with me to go back up to pick up Scott and Frank. We were supposed to bring the trailer home with us also, but unfortunately I left Frank's keys at home and they had the key to the trailer hitch on them, so we had to leave the trailer there and Frank and I went back up to get it this evening. Meanwhile, I had to go back to pick up the boys from the merit badge clinic and take them home. Since the clinic was not nearby and the location for Scott's project was also a good distance from home, I spent a lot of time in the car. So the project that was supposed to take about half a day ended up takint the whole day, and I'm exhausted! Poor Frank is still feeling very sick and should have been in bed all day instead of working hard all day. I felt so sorry for him! The project got done, though! The turtle cage is all settled in it's new home and it has a brand new lid. Scott may need to go back and do a few little things, but the bulk of the project is finished--hooray!! Now for the paperwork...ugh!

We are all looking forward to a very well deserved rest tomorrow!

Weekly Review November 13 '10

This has been a strange week for me because the first 3 days were packed full of activities, and the last 3 days I haven't done much at all. That's because the first half of the week I was trying to get everything done before I had surgery, and the last half of the week I've been recuperating from surgery.

The first part of the week was full with all the usual work that needs to be done around here, plus I was trying to get as much done as possible so that Frank wouldn't have too much to do during the days that I wasn't going to be very helpful.

Seth and I had haircuts Monday afternoon, and I got my color touched up also. My hair is still brown, but with a little bit of red mixed in. I never thought I'd be the type to change my hair color frequently, but since I have to choose between faded gray hair or getting my hair colored on a regular basis, I've decided I might as well have fun with it! Late that afternoon I went to look at two houses. Frank was hoping to be home from work to go with me, but he didn't make it so Scott came with me instead. I haven't looked at too many houses lately, but these two looked like good possibilities, so I decided to check them out. Scott and I both liked the first house better. It was bigger and much newer than the second house. Of course, it was more expensive too. Frank will have to look at it before we decide whether to pursue that option any further. After Frank got home from work we had family night, with pumpkin roll for treat. (Yum!!)

Tuesday I ran a bunch of errands, including picking up a couple of books on tape from the library so I'd have something to do while recuperating (it's hard to watch a good movie or read a book when you're lying on your back with a cold compress on one eye). Then I spent the rest of the day doing a lot of planning / thinking / emailing for Primary stuff.

Wednesday I signed up for parent / teacher conferences, did all the shopping, finished the advent calendar, made copies of the directions for the quiet book (I've had a couple of people who have seen Seth's book ask for them), and took the boys to scouts. I dropped them off and then went to the stake center to meet one of the primary presidents in another ward to borrow some costumes from her that we want to use for sharing time this Sunday. Then I took them over to the house of one of my counselors, since she is doing sharing time for me tomorrow. After that I went back to the church to get the boys. I had several people I needed to talk to as well, and was happy that I managed to find everyone!

Thursday was my surgery. I had to be there at 11:00, so I had arranged for a friend to pick up Seth from school and take him to her house to play until we got back home. Frank did a little work from home that morning before we left. We got there right on time and they took me back and got me ready. Then we had to wait a bit for the surgeon to arrive, but they got me back to the operating room about 12:15 (surgery was supposed to be at 12:00). Everything went well. Waking up afterwards was not as rough as last time and my head didn't hurt as much as last time either, although I still got sick as I did last time. I guess because I was expecting it this time, though, it didn't seem so bad. It's common to get sick with this particular surgery because the patient has a tendency to swallow blood. Anyway, we headed back home by about 2:30 I felt pretty "dozy" the rest of that day and just stayed in bed. It was good to get some food in my stomach since I had to fast before the surgery. Fortunately, my eye wasn't hurting too much since they messed up on the pain medication they prescribed for me. When Frank went to pick it up at the pharmacy, they said this medicine (Vikaden, I think it is called) is a derivative of Codeine and pretty much anyone who has an allergic reaction to Codeine will have an allergic reaction to Vikaden. I'm glad the pharmacist caught that. I wouldn't have wanted to make a trip to the emergency room that night. I stuck with extra strength tylenol for pain, and that was enough.

I've spent the last couple of days trying to take it easy. Frank worked from home yesterday so he was able to get the kids to school and take care of me. I really appreciate all he's been doing! The patch came off my eye yesterday morning. It looks pretty ugly, but better than last time, I think. I spent most of yesterday in bed with a cold compress on my eye 20 minutes out of every hour. I've been enjoying one of the books on tape--I managed to find one of the Mitford series by Jan Karon, one that I haven't read yet, so that's been very entertaining. Today I came up a step--I showered and got dressed!

The boys have been busy today with many activities. This morning Tanner and Jared had "scouting for food" pick up. Then all the deacons came to our house to do some weeding and raking; this was for Tanner's Duty to God project--one of the last things he needs to do for his Deacon part of it. Now he will switch to the new program. I admit I helped a little bit with the raking although I wasn't supposed to--I'm not supposed to do any exercise besides walking, I'm not supposed to bend over, or pick up anything more than 10 pounds, either. I was really careful Thursday and Friday, but today I'm starting to get weary of sitting around doing nothing. Scott went to help sort the food collected. Now he is at a dance. Jared went to Bryson's house for a while. Everyone is home now and getting ready for bed (except Scott). I feel worn out and a bit out of sorts. I don't make a very good invalid; I'll be glad to get back on my feet soon!!

Seth has had a rough couple of days with injuries. Last night he was perched on the edge of our bed saying family prayer when he lost his balance and fell backward off the bed, going head over heels and hitting his head pretty hard. Today he has fallen and hit his head again, bit his tongue, fell and hit his toe, and been hit by one of the Wii remotes when he got too close to Tanner, who was playing. Poor little guy! Fortunately, none of his injuries have been serious.

We've been back to fairly mild weather this week, overall. Most days all we've needed is a jacket. The fall colors are beautiful, too! I'm sure cold weather will be here to stay soon, but in the meantime we are soaking up as much warmth and sunshine as we can!

I hope Mom has a very Happy Birthday tomorrow! Happy birthday to Anna and to Timo this week, also.

Weekly Review November 6 '10

School spirit! (Scott showered before I got a photo of his red face.)

The rest of the photos are from Scott's Eagle Scout project:

Cute boy enjoying the outdoors

Boys playing around

Tanner takes a whack at a rock

Digging

More digging

And more digging

Beginning to move the turtle habitat

Not afraid to get his hands dirty!!

Moving the habitat

More moving--using logs to roll it down the hill

Lowering the habitat into it's new home

One of the turtles (won't go into the new habitat until spring)

Another turtle who's getting an improved home.

All the hard workers (+ a few cute kids)

Before I go any further, I should mention that I did do a weekly post last week. It posted before the post with the photo of the bent curtain rod, because I started the weekly post first. So if you missed it, go check it out. There are some really cute pictures of Seth in his Halloween costume!

Do I need to say it? Yes, this week was busy, too!

We started out being a little late to church on Sunday. That's because our wonderful clock "fell back" a week early. We bought it a few years ago, before they moved the dates we go on and off daylight savings time, and it's "hard wired" somehow to automatically "fall back" and "spring ahead". This would be very convenient if it were changing on the correct dates, but is not so convenient since it's not. We really need to get a new clock!! Anyway, shortly after I got out of the shower at what we thought was 7:00, Frank happened to check his phone for messages, and noticed that it said 8:00. We immediately realized what had happened and went into panic mode. I think we did pretty well--getting everyone up, ready and out the door in less than an hour! We got to church in time to sing about half of the opening hymn.

Jared was recognized in Sacrament Meeting for advancing into YM; he recited the 11th Article of Faith. After church, Frank ordained him to the Aaronic priesthood which was especially wonderful because our bishop invited Scott and Tanner to both join the circle for that. After that ordinance, I rushed off to a Primary presidency meeting, followed by a visit to a new family in our ward who have 3 Primary age children. I missed choir practice entirely--trying to do too many things at the same time! It was nice to come home from the visit and relax after that. We had family night that evening, which was interrupted by the arrival of trick or treaters several times. We were reading scriptures afterwards; we are in Mosiah and were reading the chapter where Abinadi is teaching King Noah and his priests about the 10 commandments. Right as Frank read the verse where he teaches "Keep the Sabbath day holy"--ding dong! The doorbell rang for another trick or treater. We all got a kick out of the irony! Seth enjoyed seeing all the kids come to the door in costumes and didn't mind at all that he wasn't going out himself. We had fewer trick or treaters than usual this year, though, so maybe we aren't the only ones who don't go out on Sunday. No one came to our door after 8:00. Up until then, we could hear a lot of the neighbors outside chatting and someone behind us had Halloween spooky sounds cranked up really loud, but by the time I put Seth to bed at 8:30, it was completely quiet outside and not a soul was out on the streets. We thought that was kind of strange, but didn't mind of course!

We've been busy this week getting ready for Scott's Eagle scout project. He had to send several emails and make some phone calls. Then yesterday he called everyone to remind them about the project this morning. We were going to buy supplies this week also, but then last night as we discussed what we were going to do this morning we decided that we weren't going to get to the building part yet, so we decided to wait to buy the supplies. We thought Home Depot was going to donate / give a discount on some of the supplies, but it's starting to look like that isn't going to happen. It's been a little frustrating because every time Scott talks to them he gets a different story. The first person he talked to (a couple of months ago) made it sound like they would probably donate a significant amount of the supplies, but the last person he talked to said they would probably only give him a $25 gift card, and for that amount it doesn't really seem worth the hassel.

The kids were out of school on Monday and Tuesday. Monday was a teacher work day and Tuesday was election day. Why do I always think that when the kids are out of school, I'm going to have more time to relax? I still had plenty of work to do, even though they were "on vacation". On Monday Tanner and Jared went to Ryan & Bryson's house. Scott went with another friend from the ward (David) to help him and one of the men in our ward work on a little film they are making for some church competition. Apparently, he had a lot of fun. Scott and Tanner have both been growing out of their jeans, so I arranged to pick up Tanner & Jared and meet Scott at the store to see if we could find some jeans. I was later than I'd planned, but Scott was with David and they got lost so they were even later. I was starting to feel pretty concerned by the time they showed up. I spent the time waiting, though, combing all the shelves for pants in what I thought was his size and managed to find 3 pair. When he arrived, he tried them on and they did fit well, so we got them. Scott's 3 pair of jeans that he is outgrowing fit Tanner, so I didn't have to buy any for anyone else. (And thank goodness; the ones I found for Scott weren't all that cheap. I've never spent that much on a pair of jeans for myself before. They weren't outrageously expensive, but they were more than I'm used to paying.)

Frank had to be at work really early on Tuesday (4:00 am). I got up early too so I could go to the temple. (I decided to take advantage of the fact that I had babysitters at home that day.) I managed to make it to the first session, which starts at 8:00. I had a few anxious moments because the traffic was worse than I had anticipated that morning, but it all worked out perfect. (They only have sessions every hour on weekdays during the day, so if I'd missed the 8:00 session I would have had to wait an hour for the next one.) When I got to the temple, the sun had just come up and the temple was bathed in this beautiful, soft early-morning glow. The sky behind the temple was a gorgeous soft blue, still streaked with pink. The trees around the temple were beautiful fall colors, and some white Christmas lights (which they must have just put up) were still on and twinkling. It was just a breathtaking sight--oh, how I wished I had a camera with me!!! I feel so grateful that I got to see that amazing sight!

After he got off work that day, Frank went directly to our church because he had signed up to help "babysit" the building for a few hours. Because it is a polling place, they wanted a priesthood holder to be present in the church at all times, just to keep an eye on things. The man who was supposed to relieve him after his two hours were up was an hour late--Frank wasn't too pleased about that! But he finally got home, and he and I went to vote (our polling place is the middle school down the street). We took Seth with us because the older 3 boys were all at Ryan & Bryson's house again. Jared had soccer practice that evening--his last one for this season.

On Wednesday after school I took all three older boys to get haircuts. Frank had to work all night that night. Unfortunately, he was working all day Wednesday also, so he only got about a one hour nap. I had a RS meeting that evening--our Christmas activity. There was a class with gift ideas for friends and neighbors, a bunch of Christmas family home evening ideas, and they also had several Christmas crafts we could make. I had signed up to do two of those. I finished the first one (a sillouette nativity on a glass block) but had to bring the other one home to finish (an advent calendar). We already have a nice advent calendar, but I decided to do this one as a gift. It is so cute that I wanted to learn how to make it! It's made from a mini muffin tin that has 24 cups. Each cup is covered with a decorative square (made from patterned papers and other fun Christmas scrapbooking products) attached to the tin with magnets. You can put a piece of candy or some other small treat in each cup. I spent a couple of hours making all the squares on Thursday afternoon. I still need to attach the magnets to finish it up. They suggested adding a scripture to read each day, which I'm going to do also. Anyway, at the meeting we each brought a favorite holiday appetizer or dessert to share. It was a fun night, chatting with others while making our projects and eating lots of yummy food!

Thursday I helped take kids in Seth's class to the library and then I took Snickers to the vet to get an immunization. The rain really came down all day; it was cold and wet. It seems that our beautiful fall weather is coming to an end. It was cold (not just chilly) on Tuesday and Wednesday. With the rain on Thursday, the temperatures came up a bit but it's definitely not warm and mellow anymore. I guess it couldn't last forever! The trees all over town are really beautiful right now, though.

Scott and Tanner's school had homecoming this weekend, so they had "spirit week" and were supposed to dress up in different ways on different days all week, finishing up with a pep rally on Friday. On that day, each class was supposed to wear a different school color (they are red, white, and blue--the seniors were supposed to wear all three colors). Some of their friends had some face paint, so Scott wore red face paint all day and Tanner wore blue. We didn't do anything fun Friday night--we were tying up loose ends for Scott's project and our main goal was to get to bed early! (Tanner did have his friend Seth over, though--he didn't have a way to get to the church Saturday morning, so we just had him spend the night and come with us the next morning.)

Today we had a "non stop" day. We met at the church at 8:15 to offer rides to any who needed them up to Cunningham Falls State Park, which is where Scott is doing his Eagle Scout Project. Not many people met us there, but we did get a few and then several other people met us up there or arrived later. In the end, we had close to 20 people there working (including us), so that was a pretty good group. We did some more excavating to level the site out a little, moved the turtle cage to the new location, re-assembled a few of the pieces that had to be taken apart, and did a little more leveling. We were done by 11:00, which was earlier than we'd planned, but that was good since we had a lot going on. I spent most of the time watching Seth and monitoring the snacks we brought for everyone. I had purchased a lot of snacks and bottled water, but the hot chocolate we made that morning was the most popular choice, by far!

By the time we cleaned up and got back home, we only had about an hour until Jared's soccer game. Seth curled up on my lap and fell asleep, so we left him with the older boys and Frank & I both went to the game. We were really interested to see how this game went because they were playing a team that beat everyone by a huge margin last season (and they weren't very nice about it, either). Jared's team has been playing a lot better this season, though, so we were interested to see if they would do better against this team this time around. We were thrilled when Jared's team didn't just do better, they beat the other team, 4-3! Jared's team actually was ahead 3-0 at half time, but the other team rallied in the second half and made 3 goals. Fortunately, Jared's team made another goal that half also, so they came out on top. The other team were poor sports when they won last year, and they were poor sports again when they lost, unfortunately. It was the last game of the season, and they were undefeated up until this game, so they considered themselves the "champions" coming into the game. This league is a non-competitive league and they don't even keep track of wins and losses, but the coach of the other team had purchased a trophy for his team and after the game they were running around with it and saying "in your face, Cosmos"(Jared's team name). As Frank put it--"not very classy". Jared's team just kind of shrugged their shoulders at them. Jared's team also only lost one game this season, so if they had been keeping track and awarding a championship, Jared's team would have got it. At any rate, it was a great way to end the season, with a big win like that, and we are proud of Jared and his team for working so hard and for being great sports.

The game started a little late and went a little long, so by the time we finished there it was time to go straight on to our next activity, which was the ward chili cook off. Frank made chili Friday night and it cooked in the crock pot all night and day. It was good, but a bit too spicy for me. However, those who like their chili spicy loved it, and he won the award (by a large margin) for "spiciest chili". Everyone had a good time--the boys enjoyed socializing with friends, playing volleyball, and participating in sack races. They also had hayrides and a campfire with s'mores. We left a little early because we were tired and ready for bed! It was a long day, but a lot of good was accomplished.

Seth has been a bit on the ornery side this week. He has been falling apart over little things and screaming whenever he wants something or when he doesn't get his way. Not much fun! I think he hasn't been getting enough sleep. I've been working on teaching him a better way to ask for something when he wants it, which includes refraining from screaming when I feel like doing that myself!

He is so fun when he is happy, though. He goes all over the house, singing. It is especially funny to overhear him singing one of the popular songs of the day ("...I could really use a wish right now...", "...tonight's gonna be a good, good night..." , "...because you're amazing just the way you are...", etc.!) He hears those songs on the car radio a lot when his brothers are in the car. One day I gave him a kiss on the cheek and exclaimed "You're so cute!" (Actually, I do that several times a day nearly every day.) This time, I thought to ask him "do you know what cute means?" He said "Yes." "What does it mean?" He pondered a moment, got a big grin on his face and said "It means 'I love you'!" Come to think of it, that's just about right! Another fun conversation we had this week as we were finishing off a bag of Cheetos: "I think we need to wash your hands." Seth: "I think we need to get some more Cheetos!"

Seth is also being funny about prayers. Right after we got home from Utah in June he started saying his own prayers at night (instead of me saying them for him, as I've been doing since he was very little). He said his own prayers for a week or so and then started to refuse to do it again. Just lately (the last couple of weeks) he has become very interested in family prayers and now he wants to say the prayer every time we say family prayer. He gets really upset when he has to give someone else a turn. However, he is still refusing to say his own prayers at night. He wants me to say it for him, but then he corrects me constantly through the whole prayer! What a monkey! Hopefully he will start saying his own prayers again soon. In the meantime, we are glad that he wants to pray at all--of course that's a good thing!

It's the day after Halloween

These photos say it all!