Weekly Review November 4 '11

Ok, so this week I am trying to make up for the lack of photographs I've had in the last several posts. First of all, above is the gorgeous centerpiece I have sitting on my table right now. How did I end up with a beautiful centerpiece? Well, yesterday there was a special luncheon held at our church for a bunch of leaders of charitable organizations in our community. This event was organized by a member of our ward who is the head of the local chapter of the United Way. He wanted to help the leaders in our community become more aware of the kind of charitable work the church is doing as well as to give everyone a chance to discuss ways we can work together. Anyway, they asked the sisters in our ward to plan and prepare the luncheon. I volunteered to make a salad and I also went over to the church for about an hour to help with set up. I was given one of the table centerpieces as a "thank you". I'm not sure why I got one--there were only 6 tables and there were certainly more than 6 women who helped (and many who helped more than I did)--but I am happy to have it! I have absolutely no ability when it comes to arranging flowers or anything like that, so I particularly enjoy beautiful flower arrangements when I receive them. That was a long explanation for one photo! The rest won't be as long.

I didn't get many pictures of the beautiful fall leaves this year, but here are a few. They never look as good in photos as they do in real life! (Unless you are an amazing photographer like Anna.) In the above picture, the sky was so blue and the red against the blue was particularly striking.

In this one, I loved the sunlight bringing out the gold / green of the trees and grass.

Last Friday was International Children's Day at Seth & Jared's school. They had a little costume parade and a short program. Seth was representing France; in the above photo you can see him holding up the flag he made.

Jared's class (the whole middle school) sang a song called "Love In Any Language" and made signs that said "I love you" in different languages. Jared is holding up the spanish sign. I was acutally really impressed with his class's performance. They sounded really good! The lighting in the sanctuary (where they hold all their programs) is really bad, so I can never get good pictures in there.

Here is Seth's costume that he wore to represent France (3 Musketeer). If it looks familiar to you, that's because I "recycled" it. Jared wore the same costume several years ago for International Children's Day. No time to make a new costume this year!

After I took Jared's picture several times, he insisted that it was his turn to take mine. So here are the ones Seth took of me:

(Yes, I was texting someone!)

Friday was also Jared's 13th birthday. Three teenage boys in one house! He had his friends Bryson and Sage over after school. We had pizza and cake, and they spent the night. Here he is opening presents. Here is his "crazy excited" face! He was happy to get a Air Hog remote control helicopter! It is a bit tricky to maneuver, but he is learning how to do it.

Here's the cake--not fancy at all! He wanted a red velvet cake this year.

On Saturday there was snow in the forecast, and we did get some. They said we might get 4-6 inches, and if it had snowed continuously, we probably would have got that much. We got a mixture, though--some snow, some sleet, some freezing rain....It kind of alternated all day, so the end result was 2-3 inches of slush. These pictures were taken near the beginning of the day. We did get more snow later on.

We were scheduled to have a chili dinner and trunk or treat at the church that evening. I was surprised when they didn't cancel that (although the trick or treating was moved to indoors) but I'm glad they didn't because it was very fun for the kids and a lot of people came. The roads were cleared up by then, too. I'm mad that I forgot to take a camera.

Saturday was very relaxing, otherwise. I was supposed to have stake Auxiliary training that morning from 9-11 for YW, but they did cancel that. I'm sure it would have been a good meeting, but I was happy to go back to bed!

Sunday was busier but still nice. I went to Sunday School for the first time in over 3 years--that was kind of strange, but I did enjoy it. Then they had a combined RS / Priesthood for the adults. The YM and YW met together, and I thought I was going to stay with them, but after the opening announcements, the 2 members of the bishopric who were teaching the youth that day said they wanted all of the leaders to go to the adult meeting, so I ended up going to that. It was really good. It did seem different not to go to Primary, but I'm sure I'll adjust soon.

Monday was Halloween, of course. The older boys stayed home and passed out candy while Frank and I took Seth around the neighborhood. This was his first year to really go trick or treating, since Halloween was on Sunday last year. He wanted to wear the same costume he wore to the trunk or treat last year, which was fine with me! Last year, that tail was dragging on the ground--he's grown!

We had him wear his shoes under the socks so his feet wouldn't get cold and wet. We knew it would probably ruin the socks, and it did. You can see his shoe showing through the big hole he wore in the sock!

The rest of the week has been fairly low key. I've been fighting a cold, so I tried to take it easy. Thankfully, I have been well enough to be functional! I've been in the coughing stage the last few days, which isn't fun but means I'm getting better.

Scott worked on Tuesday and yesterday, but those were his last two days. He planned to give his two week notice a few weeks ago, but then his boss told him he had finally found a replacement for him so that worked out perfect. He has a few more plays coming up that he needs to do the sound for, so we don't want him to be too busy. It was very crazy the last few weeks when he was trying to work and do the play at the same time. They left on good terms, so we're glad he got some experience and now has someone who will give him a good reference. It was a good experience for him, overall.

Wednesday was class activities for YW. I had the Laurel class as well as the Mia Maid class because the YW president is out of town. We made taffy and put together some bags of goodies and thank you cards to give to the leaders who were just released.

Yesterday I already mentioned I was busy helping with the luncheon. When I took the boys to school after Seminary, the sun was rising and everything was really misty. It was so beautiful! I tried to get a picture after I got home, but it really didn't come out. Here is my attempt:

The sky was pink, and there was a thick mist hanging on the ground. Neither of those things really came out in the photo.

Today there isn't any school. It was very nice to sleep in! I forgot to mention last week that I have to take the boys to seminary as well as pick them up now. The person giving them a ride to seminary was one of the seminary teachers, and he found out that it's against church policy for him to give any of the kids rides--there are liability isssues. So I've been getting up an hour earlier every day the last two weeks.

Scott and Tanner are at a Teacher / Priest retreat right now; they left last night. They are staying at a cabin that belongs to a member of our ward. They won't be back until tomorrow evening. Jared spent the night with Bryson last night, so it's just Seth and I at home today.

Frank's brother James is getting married a week from today and we got this crazy idea that Frank and I could go to his wedding (leave the kids here). We weren't sure it would work out, but things seem to be coming together. At work they are willing to let him work four 10 hour days so that he can have Friday off, and a young lady in our ward who is leaving for a mission the end of the month has agreed to come stay with the boys and drive them all the places they need to go. We're planning to leave Thursday evening (drive part way down to NC) and come back Sunday evening. I have a lot of work to get done in between then and now to get ready, but I'm really excited that we will get to go somewhere alone together for a whole weekend! We have actually never been away from the kids (both of us together) for more than one night since we started having kids. (And there have been precious few of those nights, too.) Sad, I know! I think it will be really good for us, and for the kids too.

I think that's all the important stuff for this week. Seth is waiting for me to peel an orange for him, so I'd better go do that before he tries to do it himself. :)