Weekly Review February 19 '11

When I left off last week, we were about to go to Scott's basketball game. That game turned out to be a very frustrating experience. The other team was very good and no doubt would have beat Scott's team pretty soundly no matter what, but we were all pretty unhappy with one of the referees. Frank heard the two referees conversing at half time. The first one said to the other "you need to call the fouls that you see". The second one replied "Look at the score...it won't make a difference if I do". Scott came home very upset because he was pretty blatantly fouled while making a shot but no foul was called. He said "I looked right in the eyes of that referee and he looked right back at me and didn't call the foul." It's frustrating when things like that happen, but we try to use them as learning experiences!

Sunday was busy; I had ward council before church (while I was at the meeting my counselors and secretaries were busy putting up hearts on the Primary teachers' classroom doors--we had the kids make valentines for their teachers) and that evening we had a Baptism Fireside for all the kids who are turning 8 this year. The fireside went well, in spite of several "glitches" that came up at the last minute--among them a sick teacher who was supposed to give one of the talks (I did it instead) and a misunderstanding about talk topics so that two people prepared talks on the same topic (my counselor gave an amazing talk that she came up with on the spur of the moment!)

Valentine's Day dawned beautiful:

The boys received cards, chocolates, and lollipops:

I had my hair done that day, which is always fun for Seth because he gets to play with his good friend Tyler while Tyler's mom cuts my hair. Tyler gave Seth one of those fun dip candy things. Can you tell what color the powdery stuff was?

I made Valentine cookies for family night treat:

Seth took care of the leftover frosting!:

These roses arrived that evening; we've been enjoying them all week!:

Tuesday morning, after getting the kids to school, Frank and I went out for a belated Valentine's Day breakfast date. (We had originally planned to go Monday morning, but Frank had too much work to do that day). We also had to take the Expedition into the shop to get fixed. I had noticed that morning when I picked the boys up from Seminary that it was unusually "bouncy" so I mentioned it to Frank. He checked it and discovered that there was a problem with the air suspension system in the back. (The Expedition does not have shocks and springs like many cars do, it has air bags.) One of the bags has corroded and needs to be replaced. The part has been ordered but won't arrive until Monday, so we've been down to one car all week.

Having one car has not been as big a problem as it normally would have been because Frank and I have both been sick most of the week. I started feeling sick Tuesday evening and was down and out by Wednesday morning. Frank started feeling sick Wednesday afternoon and was truly miserable by Wednesday evening. We have both had high fevers, chills, body aches, cough, congestion, and stomach upset. When I nearly fainted on Friday morning, Frank decided I needed to go to the doctor. I was diagnosed with "flu-like illness"--they tested me for influenza, but it came back negative. Since then, we have both been improving and most of our symptoms have abated but we are both extremely weak and exhausted. That was one nasty illness!

We are both home from church today, recuperating. I feel really bad about not being there because one of my counselors and my secretary are both out of town this week end and my other counselor has been very sick all week also. We had to call one one of the counselors in the stake primary presidency (who is also in our ward) to ask her if she could conduct for us today and for sharing time the kids are going to watch a movie. We didn't know what else to do! How often does it happen that the entire Primary presidency is out?!

Meanwhile, the boys have mostly been going strong. Tanner is home with us today because he says he isn't feeling too well and Scott and Jared both stayed home from school on Thursday because they had sore throats but other than that they have been fine and none of them seems to be falling victim to the same nasty bug that Frank and I have had.

Scott and Tanner had an overnighter at their YM president's house Friday night. They were originally going to go camping in snow caves, but we had a really beautiful "warm snap" this week and all the snow melted! (It's too bad Frank and I were feeling well enough to get outside and enjoy it. We've had temperatures in the high 60's and it feels like spring!) They were disappointed about not being able to build and sleep in the snow caves, but I think they had fun anyway. Jared spent Friday night at his friend Bryson's house, so we only had Seth which was nice since we were feeling pretty yucky.

Jared had a basketball game Saturday afternoon--he got a ride with one of the other boys and his family. They lost their game; neither one of our ward's teams is doing well this year! Tanner and Scott both went to a youth dance in West Virginia last night--they say they had fun.

This morning Frank, Tanner and I listened to a talk from last General Conference and since then I've been listening to music from past General Conferences--very beautiful and uplifting!

We hope we're all back on our feet this week, with two working vehicles! We are very grateful that we don't get sick very often. Everyone enjoy your President's Day!