Weekly Review January 15 '11

I'll start this week by recording something cute that Seth says. Too often, I forget to write down the funny things he says, and I know I will forget them someday if I don't record them now. Instead of saying "last week we did..." or "we went there a long time ago..." he says "we did that very, very, very, very yesterday!" He also seems to be confused about growth and how that works. He sometimes talks about "when I get littler..." and more than once he has talked about him being bigger than he is now "back when you were a little girl" (talking about me). In other words, he thinks that when I was a little girl, he was bigger than he is now, instead of not even born yet. He's got it all backwards!

Sunday started early for me--I had ward council at 7:00 am. Primary was enlivened by the discovery of one little girl with head lice--yikes! Makes me want to scratch, just thinking about it! I discreetly went to get her mom and we just as discreetly pulled her (and her sister) out of sharing time. Luckily, the discovery was made early on, so I don't think there was a chance for the little creatures to find new victims. An epidemic in Primary is the last thing I want! Singing time for the older kids went great. We had some trouble with some of the older boys last week but the new chorister managed to get the situation resolved and had all of them singing willingly before she was done--and they sounded really great, too! I suspect a lot of those older kids haven't been singing lately. I love little miracles like that!

We were very sorry to get a phone message from Frank's mom on Sunday...his sister Gladys, who was expecting a baby in May or June, had her baby on Saturday, and he was stillborn. She has had at least one miscarriage before this, so it is particularly heartbreaking for her. We feel so bad about it, and wish we lived closer so we could do more to help her, although of course we are praying.

We kept busy this week, but mostly with the usual things. Seth woke up in the night Monday night, crying inconsolably. It took us a while to figure out what was wrong, but he finally told us that his ear hurt. We gave him tylenol and I took him down to the couch with me to spend the rest of the night. We have recliners on each end of the couch, so I was able to be reasonably comfortable while holding him against my chest which kept his head elevated and alleviated some of the pain. He settled down after a while and I got a reasonable amount of sleep although Seth was restless so I woke up often.

Seth seemed better Tuesday morning, but I kept him home from school and took him to the doctor instead. Sure enough, he had an ear infection. I ran a bunch of errands after the doctor, ending with a stop at the pharmacy to pick up Seth's antibiotic. I had book club on Tuesday afternoon and since Seth was still feeling ok and I knew he wasn't contagious, we went to that. It was shorter than usual because everyone had to get home for kids arriving home from school--the schools were dismissed one hour early that day due to an approaching snow storm. That meant that I had to pick up Jared and Javy from school, since Javy's dad doesn't get home from work in time to pick them up if they get out before 3:45. I didn't mind picking them up, but it was about that time that Seth started hurting again. He cried the whole time we were waiting in the car line, and even after I got him home and gave him some tylenol he still didn't settle down for over an hour. He just sat on my lap and cried. Then he finally calmed down and fell asleep, and slept for about 3 hours. Frank was late getting home from work and I didn't want to move Seth from my lap in case he woke up, so the boys got to make dinner that night. Thankfully, I'd planned macaroni & cheese--from the box!

We got a good 3 inches of snow that afternoon / evening and since this is Maryland, that means there was no school on Wednesday. Since Seth was up late Tuesday night (of course, after that long late nap) I was not too unhappy for the chance to get a little more sleep! Thankfully, he slept fine once I got him to sleep (around 11:30) and he has not seemed to have any ear pain since Tuesday afternoon. He woke up from that long nap happy, and with an appetite--ate 3 helpings of macaroni & cheese!

Tanner & Jared went to hang out with Ryan & Bryson on Wednesday afternoon. I took Seth shopping with me--something I usually avoid doing, but he really wanted to go. The roads were fine by mid morning; I think they could have had a 2 hour delay instead of closing school completely, but that's Maryland for you. Whenever schools are closed, all church activities are cancelled too, so there was no basketball practice, YM, or RS that evening as planned.

It was business as usual on Thursday--back to school and work for everyone. I have a lot of friends who were hoping for a 2 hour delay, but I for one was glad to get back into a somewhat normal schedule! Seth is doing a lot better about going to school, but he still struggles a little bit--especially if he's been out of school for a day or two. Whenever school is delayed 2 hours, he doesn't have school at all and since he already missed Tuesday and Wednesday, I was hoping he would get to go on Thursday. I still haven't had a "normal" school week--with everyone in school 5 days in a row--since before Christmas break. Next week they are out Monday through Wednesday, so it's not going to be a normal week, either.

I managed to exercise a couple of times this week--something I am trying to get back to doing on a consistent basis. It feels really good, but it's hard to find a time to do it! Frank is hoping to start exercising soon also. He just had his blood tested and his triglycerides (blood sugars) are still higher than they should be, so he is feeling motivated to do something before he ends up a diabetic.

Yesterday was Frank's birthday. I think he had a nice day. For one thing, he already had over 80 hours for the pay period (a 10 day pay period) so other than going to a meeting for a couple of hours, he didn't have to work. He got home just in time for me to take him to lunch at his favorite mexican restaurant. After the boys got home, he opened his presents:

First, a card from the boys.

Then a card from me.

Now he is opening the movie October Sky, which he has been wanting for a long time. I couldn't find it in any of the stores, but I finally got smart and checked Amazon--I think they have everything! He was very surprised, but happy to get it.

This is the extended version of Avatar, which he was also very happy to get, although he doesn't look happy in the photo!

He also got this cool pillow and he will be getting a hiker's backpack--I wanted him to pick that out himself.

Then we ordered Chinese food for dinner. (I know, too much restaurant food in one day!) I couldn't believe how much food we ended up with, and it was such a chaotic mess with it spread out all over the table that I had to take a picture!

After we recovered from dinner, we had cake--chocolate with cream cheese frosting. The blue candles each stand for 10 years, the green candle for 1 year!

Lighted candles...

...and blowing them out!

Scott got up really early this morning because he was taking a practice SAT test. It started at 7:30. He didn't want to take it at all--we had a discussion about it earlier this week that got a bit heated and turned into one of those "what are you going to do with your life?" kind of parent / teenager discussions. Scott ended up storming to his room, but it turned out well because after he calmed down a little, he decided to pray about it and apparently he got some answers. Love those tender mercies! He told me "now I know why Enos prayed all day". We decided not to pressure him about it anymore that night, but the next day I casually asked him if he had decided what to do about the test, and he said he'd decided to take it. Anyway, the test is important because it's just like the real SAT but the scores don't count at all. He will get a report later that identifies his strengths and weaknesses and offers study tips.

I had agreed to go with the missionaries to an appointment this morning, but it fell through. Scott had a basketball game at noon, but he missed it because he was still taking the test. He got to the church just as the game was ending. His team lost again, but only by 4 points this time. Jared had a game at 3:00. Only 5 boys showed up to play, so those five played the entire game, of course. It was really fun to watch them play. They played well and his team won 26-16. Jared scored 4 points--1 on a free throw and the others on a sweet 3 point shot. We also ran some errands, I made posters for an upcoming Primary activity, and cleaned the kitchen floor, so we've kept busy. The older two boys are gone to a regional dance now--they won't be back until very late.

I am ashamed to admit that between trying to get reading done for book club every month and just plain being busy, I did not get around to reading the book Mom & Dad gave me for my birthday until this week! It is the fourth book in the "Banner is Unfurled" series about the BF Johnson family, and I enjoyed it a lot. We really have some amazing ancestors, and I feel like I owe a lot to them for their strength and faithfulness to the gospel. The books are great, and I am looking forward to the next one.