Weekly Review December 11 '10

I guess I'll start with today, while it's still fresh in my mind. I had four things I needed to get done today before noon: make sweet potatoe casserole & some fudge for our ward Christmas dinner, sweep & mop the kitchen floor, have Scott work on the paperwork for his Eagle project, and take photographs of the boys. I am pretty proud of myself that I really did manage to get all of those things done in time. Here is one of the silly photos of Scott:

And another silly photo:

Seth wasn't being very coopertive either, so I had to promise him that he could take a picture of me if he would let me take his first. That seemed to help! Before that, he was wiggling around and making funny faces. I love this little series of photos I took of him--they tell the story! In the first one he is upset because Scott (who was holding a book wrapped in foil nearby to try to help improve the light) got impatient and flicked him on the head:

In this one Tanner was trying to help get him to smile, and instead he laughed:

Here he is just making a silly face:

This one was almost perfect--for a split second, Scott got the lighting just exactly right and Seth smiled a beautiful smile, but right as I snapped the picture, Seth moved a little bit and his facial expression changed. If only I had been a second quicker!:

Then I got this one, and decided it was about as good as I was going to get:

I'll save photos of Tanner and Jared for later.

I wanted to get all of that done by noon so I could take Seth to see a few places for the annual Museums by Candlelight. The older boys didn't want to go. I took Jared over to hang out with Bryson, and then Seth and I went two places. The first was the Mt. Olivet Cemetary, where Francis Scott Key is buried. Did you know that Francis Scott Key was buried in Frederick? Well, he is. There is a statue of him and a little memorial chapel for him in the cemetary, which we visited. The chapel has beautiful stained glass windows, but I didn't get any pictures of them because unfortunately the camera battery died. In the chapel there was a display of artifacts recovered from a time capsule that was buried in 1898 and opened in 1998. Unfortunately, when the time capsule was placed, the box was smashed a little and so the seal was broken and water ran through the box for the next 100 years, so most of the papers were ruined. A few objects and a very waterlogged looking newspaper survived! Seth enjoyed running around the paths in the cemetary for a while.

After we left the cemetary, we went to the library where there was a model train on display that Seth enjoyed watching. After that, Seth had had enough, so we came home for a few hours before it was time to go to our ward Christmas dinner. Frank helped do the cooking for that, so he was gone all day--from 10:00 on. Jared came with Bryson's family to the dinner and we met him there. The dinner was nice--there was plenty of good food. They had a short program also. I missed most of that because Seth wouldn't sit still so we ended up in the nursery where he was able to play. Now on to the rest of the week!

For those of you who are not on Facebook, I am happy to report that I have a new computer and all the data from my old computer has been transferred to the new computer so I am back in business! I am trying not to feel too guilty about the expense. Especially since Frank managed to get my old one working again Thursday night! (It's still having issues, so we decided it may not last much longer anyway.) Frank and I have only purchased one computer our entire married life--the year Scott was born. So I shouldn't feel too bad, right? All the other computers I have used were "new to me" computers that were "cast offs" that Frank picked up from work. I've gone through 3 or 4 of those. It is really nice to have a brand new computer that is all mine. Frank even thought to get me one with a keyboard that has a number pad on the right, so now I can enter budget information super speedy--it rocks! He also set up my background so that it switches to a different beautiful nature scene every 15 minutes or so, and my screen saver displays various family photos. Very nice! I am not used to having all these little "perks".

Now here are some pictures I took last week when Tanner had some friends over to celebrate his birthday:

The cake looks good!

Blowing out the candles

On Sunday I had both of my counselors there which was nice, and my new secretary got called too although she wasn't there. I sent a long list of calling needs to the bishopric last week and when I met with the counselor over Primary on Sunday he said they had discussed it and decided to go with all my suggestions--how awesome is that?! Now if only everyone they call will accept, I'll be in business for the new year. Sunday afternoon was busy with choir practice, fast offering collections, family night, and the 1st Presidency Christmas devotional. I loved the devotional--it was wonderful! I think the boys really enjoyed it also. While listening to one of the talks, Scott said "maybe getting Black Ops (an X-box game) for Christmas is not such a good idea." I was amazed! The game probably isn't all that bad, but the fact that he would say something like that makes me realize that he really is starting to figure out what is most important in this life (and it's not "things").

Scott got to go to the temple on Tuesday evening to do baptisms. It was just the Priests and Laurels that got to go, along with some new members from our ward. He really enjoyed that, but they didn't get home until 11:00 and he had Seminary the next morning. He took a nap before leaving, but he has been very tired lately so it was hard on him. I think his body is ready for the Christmas break!

All the boys had basketball practice and then YM on Wednesday evening. Frank has been asked to help coach the team this season, but he was not able to go to the practice--he had work to do. He's had a very busy week also!

There isn't a lot for me to say about what I've been doing. I have had so many different tasks to do every day that I have found myself getting distracted all day long and jumping from one thing to another, which I'm sure is not very efficient! Lots of Primary stuff, the usual housework, visiting teaching appointments, and Christmas preparations. Oh, and the dishwasher quit working again--so lots of dishes to wash by hand. Thankfully, the dishwasher is still under warranty, because I had a feeling I should extend the warranty when I had the chance last spring. I'm glad I listened to that feeling! I have never purchased an extended warranty on anything before. Anyway, I "blitzed" the Christmas shopping this week and I'm all done except I need to figure out a few more things to get for Frank. He is so hard to shop for, and he hasn't given me a list yet. I'm hoping Frank will not go out and get me anything. I think a new laptop is quite enough for one Christmas!

In spite of being very busy, I've been enjoying some of the wonderful Christmas spirit. When I've been home going about all my tasks, I've had Christmas music playing and the tree lights on. That has helped me to feel cheerful and happy!

Frank hurt his left wrist on Thursday evening. He was playing with Seth--crawling around on all fours while letting Seth ride on his back. Somehow he managed to "roll" his wrist when Seth shifted his weight suddenly. It is just sprained, probably, but it's painful. He is glad it's his left wrist instead of his right!

I had to take a picture of Snickers on Thursday night, he was sound asleep and "playing dead"!:

He doesn't ususally sleep in that position.

Yesterday we got a surprise--a small (very small) snow storm. Only an inch or two, but since no snow was predicted, we were quite shocked. The snow started coming down around 10:30 and by 11:30 it had mostly stopped. That is about the time I had to go pick up Seth from school, and the roads were extremely slick. I felt the Expedition slide more than once on a turn or a stop, and a car turning onto a road right after me did a complete 180 degree turn. Frank was also on the road at that time, and he said he saw numerous accidents. Then he was in one himself--but wasn't hurt at all, thankfully. He was with his boss in his boss's car--his boss tried to stop and the car just kept going. They were nearing an intersection, so he opted to drive off the side of the road and hit a tree in a yard. His car was damaged, but neither of them were hurt. They were on their way to a client's in south DC--his boss called the client and said "we'll come on Monday instead!" Anyway, when I picked up Seth from school a lot of parents who had older kids were picking up their older kids also so they wouldn't have to come back and get them later. I couldn't do that, since I have a carpool child to pick up on Fridays, and as it turned out the schools did not close early and by dismissal time most of the snow had melted and the roads were fine.

Last night Frank was at the Washington DC Temple grounds all evening, helping to direct traffic and parking for the festival of lights. He does that every year, and it seems like he always manages to sign up for an evening that is extremely cold and miserable! (This year wasn't as bad as last year, though!) This whole week has been rather nasty, as far as weather is concerned. We've had temperatures 10+ degrees lower than usual, the humidity has been high (which really makes the cold seep into everything), and a couple of days we had high winds to boot. Brrrrrr!!! I've been wearing slippers and a sweater in the house all day long, and when I have to go out I don't bother to take the sweater off--I just throw my coat on over the top. Even though I am still cold in the house, it is days like these that I am truly thankful to have a house--and one with heat!

Seth doesn't mind the cold nearly as much as I do. Here he is yesterday afternoon, playing in the snow out on the deck:

And smiling at me through the back door!:

He was having a great time, and couldn't figure out why I didn't want to come out!

By the way, thank you to all of you who have been praying for Seth. It's working! He did fine this whole week--no crying when I dropped him off for school at all. Hopefully, he is over that stage!

Oh, and did you know that there are monkeys, gorillas, and mud puddles in the Book of Mormon? Well, there are--when Seth gets his turn to "read" during family scripture study, he tells us fascinating Book of Mormon stories that we have never heard before!

One other great thing that happened this week--Frank's car got fixed! One of the guys he works with is a welder and he was able to weld the main exhaust pipe back together. No more car that sounds like a race car! I told Frank that now I won't have any warning that he is coming home--rats! :) We are very grateful this guy was willing to do this for us.

Only 2 more weeks until Christmas! We hope you are all enjoying this season of joy.