Weekly Review August 24 '12



Before I begin talking about what we did this week, I want to record something funny Seth said a few weeks ago (I keep forgetting to write it down).  He has a "pillow pet" that is a monkey.  A few weeks ago he decided to name it.  He said "I'm going to name him 'Scott'.  Do you want to know why?  Because Scott is a good name for a monkey."  (His brother Scott was sitting right there and heard it all.) 

 

Seth is saying or doing funny things all the time and unfortunately I often forget to write them down.  He is at such a fun age.  One day this week he ran around all day looking like this:

 



I am going to miss it when he grows out of dressing up!  He is so cute in his dinosaur costume.  Sometime I really need to video tape him because he is really good at imitating a dinosaur!  Maybe it's because he's the last one (and about to start kindergarten!) but I am always noticing that special innocence that he has--and which we lose all too soon!  Being able to dress up like a dinosaur and not feel silly or self conscious (but actually feel really "cool" that way)--why do we lose that as we get older?

When I left off last week, we were going to dinner with Scott and Allie.  We went to a little mexican restaurant in downtown Frederick--it was Scott's choice.  None of us had been there before but he had heard it was good.  And it was--the food was yummy and it was a really nice atmosphere.  We enjoyed talking with Scott and Allie.  Frank asked Allie what advice she had for Scott for his first year of college since she had just finished her first year.  She gave some really good advice, I thought, such as get enough sleep and don't put off doing homework--do it right away, as soon as it's been assigned.  On our way back to the car, we stopped at a little toy shop and browsed around.  They had a whole section of games I remember from my childhood, such as Uncle Wiggly.  They had lots of newer games and toys too--more educational types that looked fun. 

The boys had lots of activities going on Saturday.  Tanner and Scott went to a baptism that morning for a teen age boy who will be in our ward now.  Tanner was invited to see a movie with his friend Danny and family--they saw the new Ice Age movie--to celebrate Danny's birthday.  Scott went to a wedding reception for two of the YSAs (they aren't YSAs anymore, obviously)--he went with Allie and a couple of other young adults.  Tanner went to a regional dance.  It is hard to keep up with their social schedules sometimes!

I spent the day finishing up preparations for my lesson and preparing for a class presidency meeting, among other things.  I ended up with only one girl in my class on Sunday!  We still had our presidency meeting afterwards because the one girl who came is the class president.  After the meeting I went to choir practice.  We had family night and Scott went to a musical fireside that evening.

Monday was packed with things to do, but seriously--none of it would be interesting to read about!  Just household chores and calling to set up appointments and trying to buy Scott's books online.  (We weren't successful, but finally succeeded in reserving them instead--but that wasn't until later in the week and a number of phone calls to the university!)  Scott went to lunch that day with one of the YM leaders and one of the other boys who had a birthday this week--to celebrate.  We had family night activity that evening.  We initiated Scott's Uno cards and also played some Book of Mormon Battles.  (Scott recently found that game--it's been missing for years--when he moved all his stuff out of his room.  I kept telling him he'd find it if he would just clean his room properly!  At least he was big enough to admit that I was right!)

I didn't sleep well Sunday night, and Monday night was worse.  So on Tuesday I was very sleepy and didn't get much done.  I did have a YW presidency meeting that morning and I exercised too, but that's about all I got done.  I took a short nap in the afternoon but it wasn't long enough and I wandered around in a sleepy haze most of the day.  Jared went to a back to school party given by a new boy in the ward--thankfully, Scott could drive him over for me. 

Scott has been having a lot of nosebleeds the last week or so.  We were starting to get worried about it by Tuesday morning when he had 3 or 4 nosebleeds in less than 24 hours.  I decided to do some online research before calling the doctor and when I read that some blood thinning medications can cause nosebleeds, the thought came to me to check the side effects of the acne medication that he's taking.  Sure enough, nosebleeds are one of the possible side effects.  That was a relief!  I am thankful for that prompting, which saved me from a lot of worry (and possible expense).  I still thought we should probably call his dermatologist to report the side effects, but then the nosebleeds stopped.  I don't think he's had one since Tuesday. 

On Wednesday I spent the morning getting my hair done;  I was long overdue for that!  I got some shopping done and worked on organizing my recipe files.  That evening I had YW and the boys had a Court of Honor.  Scott stayed home with Seth so Frank could go to the Court of Honor while I helped with the YW activity.  For YW we went to a nearby field to play volleyball and eat pizza.  At the Court of Honor, Jared received his 1st Class rank:
 

And Tanner received his Life rank:

 

We are proud of them for making it this far!

Yesterday was really packed too.  I got groceries, took Snickers to the groomer, went visiting teaching, took Jared to go swimming with a friend, picked Snickers back up, made some phone calls, worked some more on files, did some Personal Progress, exercised, and looked over the requirements for paying estimated taxes (both federal and state).  (I determined that we don't have to pay estimated taxes this year, but we will probably not get a refund either--for the first time ever.)  For dinner we took all the boys out to eat--since we didn't get to take a vacation at all this year, we wanted to do something fun with them before school starts.  After dinner Scott went to an interview with the stake president (so he can receive the Melchizedek priesthood--hopefully this Sunday) and then to Institute.  Tanner and Jared went to a party for all the Seminary kids, so it was another late night for us.

Today has been quite busy too.  The boys did yardwork this morning.  I spent a lot of time updating the budget.  I'm not sure why it is taking me so much longer than it used to, although today I did more than usual, trying to prepare for the week that I'll be gone.  We took the Expedition in to have the brake pads replaced.  I took Seth to the openhouse for his school--he met his new teacher and she seems very nice.  (Her name is Mrs. Cullen, but she said the kids can call her "Miss Cathy".)  Scott went to Allie's house to see a movie and then to a YSA pool party.  After dinner we took Tanner & Jared to a party at Ryan & Bryson's house.  Then Frank, Seth and I did some shopping at Costco and at Wal-Mart, then took Seth to get a haircut.  While Seth was getting his hair cut, Frank ran to both banks to make deposits and bought brown lunch bags since they were out of them at Wal-Mart.  Then we came home and Frank exercised while I gave Seth a bath.  (Frank has been doing really great with excercising this week.)  I read books to Seth while his hair dried--he was so cute because he kept feeling his hair and saying "it's still a little bit wet...you'd better read one more!" (Even after it dried.)  Frank is gone now to pick up Jared & Tanner.  We have an early morning tomorrow--they are doing a water sports merit badge thing tomorrow and have to meet at the church at 7:00.  Frank and I are planning to take them over and then go to the temple from there.  So I'd better wrap this up and get to bed.  It is already after 10:00.       

Pets

Next question:  "Did you have any pets?"

The creative answer to that question would be "not as many as I would have liked".  I was pretty interested in animals when I was a child.  I remember having friends who "adopted" stray cats and dogs (who then proceeded to have kittens or puppies) and I was always kind of envious of them.  I also would have loved to have a gerbil, hamster, or guinea pig, but that was definitely a "no go" for my parents!  A bird would have been nice too, but our family had a bird at some point (before I was born) and my mom said she'd never get another one because she felt so bad when it got sick and died, and she couldn't do anything to help it.  (In fairness to my parents, though, I totally understand now why they didn't want random animals running all over our house and I have turned into that kind of person myself!)

We were a dog family.  (No cats!  My parents are not fond of cats.)  I've been told that we had a dog named Pepper when I was very young, but I don't remember this dog at all.  When I was a year or two old, my brother Hans received a dog as a birthday present.  He was a white toy poodle named Pierre.  (Well, his "real" name was Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte Fritz Pew, but we called him Pierre.  He had so many names because there were so many opinions about what he should be named.)  I grew up along with Pierre.  He got sick and died when I was about 11 years old.  I loved Pierre.  I'm sure I tortured him without intending to--I sometimes dressed him up in doll clothes!  I used to pet him and he would lick my hands all over.  (My mom would tell us not to let him do that--I couldn't imagine why!  Now, remembering, I think "Yuck!")  I used to get a kick out of watching Pierre bark because his tail (very short, with a little ball of fur at the end) would go down.  The harder he barked, the farther it would go down!  Pierre would scratch on the door to let us know when he needed to go out.  Sometimes (very rare) we would put him on his leash and take him on a walk.  He loved that!  It was nice having a dog in the house when I was growing up.

Besides Pierre, the only other pets I had were fish.  Some of my older siblings had a fish tank when I was younger and I remember around the age of 8 being given my own fish, whom I named "Hey Charlie".  (I have no idea why!)  Later, when I was a teenager, Amy and I had a couple of fish tanks full of fish.  I remember it was a lot of work to keep the tanks clean.  Fish aren't very hardy, so fish came and went over the years and I don't remember very many of them.  One of my favorites, though, was one of the first fish we got--a catfish we dubbed "Murky".  He would sit on the bottom of the tank and sulk in kind of a cute way.  I liked the neon tetras because they were so colorful and shiny.  We had a lot of guppies, too, and once we bought one that looked pregnant.  Sure enough, within a day or two she had 16 babies!  Our days as fish owners came to an abrupt end one year when Amy and I went to girls' camp.  While we were gone, our fish caught a nasty fish disease called (appropriately) "Ick".  This illness quickly spread through our whole fish population, and by the time Amy and I returned from camp, most of our fish (including Murky) were dead.  We decided we didn't want to start over at that point. 

I think it's kind of funny that as an adult, the only pets I've had are fish and a dog.  I really need to get a turtle or something someday! 

Trek Video

Someone in our stake put together a wonderful video summarizing the trek the boys did in July.  Here's the link (I hope it works!): 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFpy8WbGc1w&feature=youtu.be

You can see both Scott and Tanner in some of the pictures.

I admit I cried while watching it.  Enjoy! :)

Money

It's been a while since I've had time to do a personal history post.  I guess I'm too busy living my life to have time to write about it!  And that's ok.  But today I have some time to write, so here goes.

The questions today are ones I wouldn't think of as typical personal history questions.  "How did your family earn money?  How did your family compare to others in the neighborhood--richer, poorer, the same?  What kinds of things did your family spend money on?"  I'm glad these questions were included, though, because I think money is a very important topic.  Interesting that these particular questions came up just now, too, because this topic has been on my mind a lot lately. 

It's always a little tricky talking about money, because it is one of those topics that people consider "private."  I mean, it's just not polite to ask someone what their yearly income is (unless you're thinking about giving them a loan).  I think these are important questions to answer, though, because our financial backgroud can have a profound impact on our lives and who we become, and the way we spend money (as well as what we spend it on) says a lot about who we are.

So to answer the questions...I don't remember our family doing things together to earn money.  My dad worked hard, as I have mentioned before, and he was our sole financial support most of the time.  As we got older (late high school as well as college years), all of us kids eventually got jobs and contributed to our own support.  (We also worked hard in school, and most of us got scholarships that helped also.)  My mom has not had a job outside the home (as far as I know) since she started having kids, but she did many things to help save  money so that what Dad earned went farther--things I have mentioned before, such as making our clothes herself and baking cookies and bread instead of buying them.  (Doing those things now is not "money saving" anymore, in most cases, but back then it made a big difference.)  She also cooked most things "from scratch" and we rarely ate out, although my mom did not enjoy cooking at all.  We didn't have snack foods in the house, either.  We could have 2 cookies at lunchtime and a snack after school--usually crackers, a piece of fruit, or a piece of bread with jam.  Sometimes we had popsicles in the summertime.  Things like soda pop and chips we had only occasionally, for special events.  Our one indulgence was that we had ice cream every Sunday.  Oh, and a treat of some kind on Monday nights for family home evening.  My mom did most of the money management, I think, although I'm sure she and dad had agreed on a budget and made large financial decisions together.  They were both thrifty and careful with money always, and learned to do many things themselves rather than pay someone else to do it.  Hand-me-downs were normal (I actually loved getting them) and most things were used until they were worn out.  As kids, we learned from example how to be responsible with money, to save up for things we wanted, and to take care of what we had.    

As far as how we compared to others in our neighborhoods, I'm not sure.  I'd be willing to guess that our income was fairly comparable to others around us, but it did seem like we were poorer than a lot of people because we had a larger family.  Let's face it, if you have to divide the clothing budget between 10 people instead of 4, each person is going to get fewer things to wear.  I also don't remember going on vacations, other than to see my grandparents and other extended family members in Arizona, until I was in my teenage years and the older kids were out on their own.  (We did take day trips to nearby sights, though.  And I certainly didn't mind going to Arizona for all our vacations.  I LOVED it there, and only wished we could go more often.)  We lived in nice houses in nice neighborhoods, but we rarely had new furniture and our cars were certainly not fancy.  My parents never complained about money, but I do know that I was aware, even as a child, that money was not an inexhaustible resource and that when it came to buying things, hard choices sometimes had to be made.  All in all, I always considered us to be in the "middle class", although on my grumpier days I felt like we were in the lower part of it.  In reality, we were probably at least in the middle.  (Middle of the middle, that is!)  My dad made a good living for us, and we never went without anything we needed and we always had some of the things we wanted, too. 

What did we spend our money on?  Overall, we were pretty down to earth people, I think.  As I mentioned, our houses were never professionally decorated or landscaped and I don't remember any of us having a great longing for "status" items such as nice cars or the latest "fads" in clothing.  (As a matter of fact, by the time I was a teenager I would only wear things that were "fads" if I actually liked them, and even at that age I thought it was ridiculous to spend a lot of money on a piece of clothing, such as a pair designer jeans.  That being said, I did like clothes and would have enjoyed having more of them!  And I still like getting new clothes.)  I think most of our income was spent on basic needs.  What did we do with the "extra" (when we had it)?  Well, my parents liked to give gifts, and they were always generous with gifts on birthdays and at Christmas time.  Education was important, and my parents were willing to spend money for learning opportunities (within reason).  We always had a lot of books.  The thing I remember wishing the most as I was growing up was that we could visit our extended family more often.  If we had had more money to spend, I'm sure that's where the money would have gone.  (As an adult, I have the same wish--and would definitely visit family more often if finances allowed.)

I can't write about money without saying something about tithing.  My parents had firm testimonies of the principle of tithing and always observed this law.  As a young child I was sometimes given an allowance (I don't remember getting one consistently, but I could be wrong about that) and I was always given a slip of paper listing "tithing", "spending", and "savings" so that I would know how much money to put in each bank.  I'm grateful that I was taught to pay tithing from the very beginning, because it has always been part of my life and I have never felt like it was a sacrifice or questioned whether or not I should pay it. 

It has been a blessing to me, too, to see in my parents' lives that when you are committed to paying tithing, things just always seem to work out.  I turned out to be a very "financially minded" person and looking at my parents' experiences (and hearing their testimonies of this principle) has given me the faith to follow the council of the prophets even when it didn't make sense from a financial point of view and to move forward when it looked like things were definitely not going to work out--at least on paper it didn't look that way!

As an adult, I have had many times when I have worried about finances and in particular I have wondered how we would be able to help our children go to college and to pay for misisons, but whenever I have felt anxious, I have reminded myself that my parents had eight children who all graduated from college and served missions.  I know they were never able to "save up" for these things either, but in the end it all worked out.  We all helped pay for those things ourselves to varying degrees and somehow when the money was needed, it was there.  Knowing that has been a comfort to me many times and I have tried to move forward with faith, always trying to be wise in my spending and then leave the rest in the Lord's hands.  As we have done that, I can truly say that we have experienced many miracles in our lives as well. 

I guess that's why money has been on my mind a lot lately.  The "college and mission years" for our family are (incredibly) upon us now, and when I look back over the last 4 or 5 years, in particular, I am stunned at how our financial situation has changed and how so many things have fallen into place (although often it was through trials that things "fell into place") to make it possible for us to help our boys manage these huge financial undertakings.  I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but I can see that, amazingly, it is somehow going to work out.  I am overwhelmed with gratitude, and feel truly ashamed of the many times over the years that I have whined or complained, focusing more on what I didn't have instead of on what I did. 

The money advice I have for my children and for all my descendants is to be wise stewards of what you are given, be grateful, be willing to make sacrifices (but it's ok to indulge once in a while too--within reason!), stay out of debt as much as possible, help others as much as you can, pay your tithing, and then leave it up to the Lord.  You will see miracles!                

Weekly Review August 17 '12

My planner is full of writing--it was another busy week!

Saturday I took Seth to a birthday party for a friend and that evening Frank & I went to a wedding reception for a girl in our ward.  The wedding reception was outdoors, which I thought was pretty risky for August in this area, but they lucked out and the weather was fairly pleasant.  We took another couple in our ward with us; they don't drive so needed a ride.  The reception was nice and one fun idea they had is that they had everyone sign a block of a Jenga game so later when they are playing the game they can remember all the people that came to their wedding reception.

I can't remember much from Sunday; it was family weekend so we didn't have any extra meetings which was nice.  Scott found out the boy from our ward who was going to room with him at college has decided he can't afford to go back to school yet so now he will not know any of his room mates ahead of time.  I think it bothers me more than it does Scott!  I had to have several days to wrap my mind around it, but now I am feeling better about the whole thing. 

Most of my days the rest of the week were very busy with various errands and chores, most of which you will not be interested in reading about.  Suffice it to say there is a lot to do when you are running / setting up your own business as well as getting a child ready for college.  Plus church callings and keeping a household running--keeps us busy 24 / 7!

So besides all of that, on Monday I took dinner to a family in our ward--she was one of my counselors in Primary.  She had an accident with her food processor and ended up with stitches in two fingers and a chunk taken out of another one--not fun!  I was in the middle of making dinner for them (and us) when one of the toilets overflowed.  We had a mess in the bathroom and in the laundry room below.  Scott and Tanner had to cope with that since I was cooking.  We ended up having to re-wash one batch of clean clothes that was sitting in a basket (it was laundry day of course!)  It all got cleaned up eventually, though.  After dinner we had family night and then Scott went to YSA FHE.

Tuesday Scott had a dermatologist appointment and I took Scott and Tanner clothes shopping for school clothes.  Thank goodness Jared didn't need anything; it still cost a fortune!  I picked up a couple of jeans for Seth too and we ordered jeans for the older boys online since we can never find their size in stores.  Old Navy was having a good sale at least!  I found this shirt on one of the sale racks for Scott:     

He loves it and chose to wear it for his birthday the next day.  Scott went to a party for a friend Tuesday night and while he was gone Frank & I went out to get him a few presents.  It was convenient that he was gone because we could wrap the presents and get everyone to sign his cards, too!

Scott opened presents early Wednesday morning before Frank went to work. 

He got the book The Princess Bride and and Uno game, as you can see.  His main gift is going to be and iHome--a type of clock radio that he can use to charge & play tunes from his iPod.  We decided to get that after we get to Utah, though--fewer things to take on the plane!  Scott loves to play speed Uno, so we figured he couldn't leave home without owning a deck.  Frank and I each brought a deck of Uno cards into our marriage, and we still have both!

I bought most of the school supplies that day; it was a long trip but I'm glad to have that done.  For YM / YW we had a combined activity--"Wacky Olypics"; it was fun.  I baked Scott's cake but none of us were hungry before YM /YW so we sang to him and ate on Thursday.  We let Scott light his own candle (as usual, we didn't have enough candles in the house, so we just used one) since he is sort of an adult now!

Yesterday I got Seth's room all cleaned out.  The boys managed to switch rooms around this week although they still have quite a bit of cleaning & organizing to do.  Other things I did this week was read, work on Personal Progress, and exercise. 

Tonight we are taking Scott to dinner--it's part of his graduation gift that he hasn't cashed in on yet.  We said he could invite a friend too so he invited Allie.  We are leaving in about 15 minutes, so I guess I'd better go get ready! 

Weekly Review August 10 '12

We are back to having everyone healthy around here, which is nice.  Frank did not feel well at all on Saturday or Sunday so he tried to take it easy and he stayed home from church.  That seemed to help, though--by Monday he was well enough to go to work although he still wasn't 100%.  It was a fairly quiet weekend; I don't remember what we did.  I know I kept busy but it must have been just keeping up with the regular chores and taking care of Frank.  I was still trying to take it easy myself although thankfully I was feeling a lot better by then. 

Monday morning I was up and going early because I had a lot to do.  I bought groceries and got the boys started on laundry and vacuuming before taking Seth to his annual check up at 10:30.  That went well; he charmed the doctor and her nurse with his friendly, talkative manners.  He is 47" tall now and 48 pounds.  After I got Seth back home I left the boys in charge for the rest of the day while I went off to play--I had a "girls day" with my friend Jeanine.  We were actually celebrating her birthday a day early; it was her wish to go to visit Annapolis together and I was more than happy to comply.  Annapolis, if you are not aware, is the capital of Maryland.  It is also the home of the US Naval Academy.  It's a very picturesque little city located on the Chesapeake Bay.  I took a ton of pictures and the whole day I kept thinking about what amazing pictures Anna would have taken of this place!  (I've gotta get you out here sometime, Anna.)  Anyway, we had a really fun day.  The first thing we did was walk down this long street full of cute little shops and restaurants, on our way to the water front:  

Once we got there, we went on a boat tour of Annapolis.  It felt really great to be out on the water with the wind in our faces; it was actually a rather warm and humid day.

 How would you like to live in one of those houses?  I would love it!

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, from a distance.

Annapolis from the Bay (it looks a lot more impressive in real life)

Coming back in--you can see the Capital Building's dome in the middle of the skyline.

Annapolis water front

After we got off the boat, we walked over to the Naval Academy.  We've both been through the museum already but Jeanine was hoping to see the inside of the chapel.  She's tried to see it several times but it's always been closed.  So we walked across the campus.  On the way we passed the officers' quarters:

 Nice houses!  We always thought "quarters" meant a samll space.  Not in this case, apparently.  It was a beautiful tree-lined street with gracious (but identical) old houses.  I loved the flags and bunting!  We also passed the head dude's house (can't remember his title--Admiral maybe?):

Not too shabby!  We saw a whole ton of cadets marching by, singing a song about bubbles in unison:

Then we finally made it to the chapel.  The sign outside said it closed at 16:00 and it was 4:00 right when we got there, but we decided to try the door and it was not locked.  So we went in and Jeanine finally got to see the inside of the chapel.  I'd never seen it either, so I was happy too.  We got to walk around for a few minutes and take pictures before we heard a clock striking 4:00 and a guy came upstairs and apologetically told us we'd have to leave.  We were just glad we got to see it at all; isn't it beautiful?:

 We went back outside and walked across the campus a little more.  Here's Jeanine by the water:

This is the chapel from the outside.

After that, we walked back into the city, passing many beautiful historic houses like this:

And this:

Until we got to "Federal Circle", a beautiful brick street the circles around the Capital Building, Governor's Mansion, and other government buildings:

Maryland State Capital Building.  Jeanine's comment was "Here's where our state lawmakers ruin our lives."  (Sadly true; they are mostly Democrats.)

Here's the Governor's Mansion.  There was a big wrought iron fence all around it, but we put our cameras through the bars to get some pictures.  After that, we walked back down the street full of shops, only this time we stopped at several stores, looking for a shirt for Jeanine's son Joey.
 

(You can sort of see the water at the end of the street.  Much easier to see in real life than in the picture.)  I acquired some postcards and a Christmas tree ornament.  The shops all had fun window displays like this:

We went down one side of the street, and then we stopped at a restaurant for dinner.  Then we went back up the other side and finally found a t-shirt for Joey.  After that, we walked back down to the water front to sit by the water and enjoy the peace for a while before heading back to the car.  The sun was setting as we walked back:

It was just a great, relaxing day and we had a lot of fun.  Jeanine will be moving out west soon so we won't have many more chances to spend time together.

The rest of the week was mostly the usual stuff so I won't write about it in detail.  I started exercising again and I started going through files, trying to get them organized better.  I still have a long way to go before I get that project done.  Wednesday evening we had a water activity for YW and I got very wet.  We had some games planned that used water guns but of course by the end of the evening it had turned into just a big water fight!  It was fun, though.  Jared had Freshman Orientation at the high school Thursday morning.  I just dropped him off for that; I've been to it two times already and didn't feel like I needed to go again.  Thursday evening all of us (except Scott; he went to Institute instead) went to the Eagle Court of Honor for Jeanine's son, Kalvin.  Today Scott took Allie to an Orioles baseball game--they won't be home until late.  It is "Mormon Family Night" so the tickets were quite inexpensive. 

I did a lot of reading this week also.  I finished the book for book club--The Robe.  I read it in high school but didn't remember much about it except that I liked it.  It's not a quick read but it is worth it because it's a really great story.  I also read a book called Mansfield Park Revisited, which is a sequel to the Jane Austen book, but written by Joan Aiken.  Apparently, Joan Aiken wrote a number of Jane Austen sequels and now I'm reading another one called Eliza's Daughter, which is a sequel to Sense & Sensiblilty, although I haven't figured out how it's related yet.  I enjoyed the Mansfield book; it was an entertaining read although I'm not sure I liked the ending.  In addition, I've also started reading a book that Amy recommended called Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking.  As she told me, it is quite fascinating.  It's giving me a lot of things to think about, and reminding me of a lot of childhood memories, such as my 1st grade teacher getting mad at me for not "speaking up".  In spite of the sometimes unpleasant memories it's conjuring up, I am enjoying the book a lot.

Another project we started this week is an overhaul of the boys' rooms.  To my great surprise, Tanner has decided he would like to have Jared move into his room with him when Scott leaves for college (Tanner has complained more than once over the years that he's never had his own room) and Jared would like to move in with him (also a surprise) so that means we have a lot of rearranging to do.  Seth is growing out of his toddler bed, so we are going to move Jared's bunk bed into Seth's room.  Seth can sleep on the bottom bunk and when Scott is home, he can sleep on the top bunk.  That leaves Jared's room empty, except for Scott's boxed up things.  So now we are in the process of going through everyone's stuff, getting rid of everything they don't need or want anymore and when that is done we will start moving furniture around and move Scott's stuff upstairs and Jared's stuff downstairs.  It's going to be quite a job, but I hope in the end we will have streamlined their possessions quite a bit and will have cleaner, more organized rooms.  On a happy note, we already found Tanner's missing scout shirt!  And we have at least 3 large bags of give away stuff already, so we're making progress. 

I am feeling a little freaked out that school starts in less than 3 weeks.  Frank took the boys to buy backpacks at Costco today.  While there, they ended up buying Scott's laptop for college.  Frank's been researching possibilities for the last few weeks and he had it narrowed down to a few choices.  Then while they were at Costco he saw one that was even better and it was on sale for a lower price than the others, so he went ahead and bought it.  Scott is pretty jazzed about it, of course.  That's one less thing I have to do, but we still have school supply shopping and clothes shopping to do, as well as getting all the things that Scott is going to need for his apartment.  It's going to be busy!  

Weekly Review August 3 '12

This wasn't the most productive week for me because I was sick for most of it.  The same illness that Tanner caught first and then gave to Scott has been making the rounds of the family.  Seth started getting sniffly around Thursday or Friday of last week, I came down with it on Monday, Jared started getting sick on Tuesday, and now Frank is feeling pretty sick.  I guess that means everybody has had it, though, so hopefully we'll be done with it soon!

Frank and I managed to go out to do some car shopping on Saturday.  (Frank had previously done quite a bit of internet research to get a feel for what would be a good price on some of the kinds of cars we were thinking about.)  We didn't have a lot of time but we saw several possibilities and test drove a couple of cars.  It turned out to be a good thing we went then, since by Monday I wasn't feeling well enough to go looking and probably wouldn't have been up to it again until yesterday.  Our goal was to buy a car before today, because today is the last day our insurance company would cover the cost of the rental car.  On Saturday we talked to several dealers and let them know what we were looking for.  We did not have our hearts set on getting another Prius, but we did let them know that good gas mileage was one of our main requirements.  One of the dealers called us early in the week to tell us they'd had a Prius come in on a trade in so Frank stopped by to test drive it.  That ended up being the car we decided to buy; Frank went in to fill out all the paperwork on Wednesday after work.  I'm glad I didn't have to go with him because it took hours and I was still feeling pretty wiped out that day.  So here is the new car: 

    



It's a 2007 Prius.  We are happy that we were able to find a good car for a good price.  With the settlement we got from the insurance for the old Prius plus a little of our own savings, we only had to finance about half the cost and through Marriott's employee credit union we got a loan with a very low interest rate, so we were able to keep the loan at 3 years instead of 5 and our payment is still a lot less than our previous payment was, so we are happy about that.  It all turned out about the best that it could have, under the circumstances.

Back to Saturday--Scott was called and asked if he could cover a shift at work so he went in to do that.  He had not been given any hours at all this week, so he was glad to be able to work a little bit.  We've been frustrated at how few hours he's been getting the last few weeks and it's not getting any better--the manager just left on a 3 week vacation and before he left he completed the schedule for the next 3 weeks and didn't put Scott on the schedule at all during those three weeks.  Apparently, they over-hired at the beginning of the summer and so there are not enough hours to go around.  When Scott didn't get any hours last week, he called and left the manager a message to let him know he was free to work and asking if there is a reason he didn't get scheduled.  The manager never answered him and then didn't put him on the schedule again, so what else can he do?  Seems very unprofessional to me.  Scott went in yesterday and put a note up by the schedule saying if anyone needs a shift covered to call him, so hopefully he will get called in at least a few times.  In the meantime, he has been looking around for other work to do but at this point it's unlikely anyone will be willing to hire him since he'll be leaving for college in less than 5 weeks.  As I said, frustrating!  He could have worked every day this summer except for the 5 he went to Camp Helaman and the 3 he went on Trek.

Saturday evening we were getting ready to go to an open house for a young man in our ward who got married but then we realized that the open house had been the day before!  I wrote it down on the wrong date on my calendar.  That was disappointing, since his family are good friends of ours.  Oops!  Tanner took Seth to the park to play and they came back about a half hour later with Seth crying because Tanner was swinging and Seth got too close.   Tanner hit him in the stomach and knocked him over on his back.  Seth was pretty traumatized and he actually took a short nap after he calmed down.  I noticed that his right eye looked bruised, but he kept insisting that his eye had not been hit and that only his stomach and back hurt.

On Sunday morning Seth was still pretty sore and he also had a pretty decent cough and runny nose, so we decided to keep him home from church.  I stayed with him--Frank always had to stay with the sick ones when I was Primary president, so I figure it's my turn.  It's a good thing anyway because later in the day on Sunday was when I started feeling like I was coming down with something and by Monday morning I was full blown sick, so at least I didn't pass my germs around on Sunday.  Here is Seth, recuperating on Sunday:    

 I was trying to get a picture of the bruise under his eye, but it really doesn't show up.  It was only slightly discolored and never turned into a real black eye, but it was definitely bruised--it got a little yellowish / purple later in the week.  Sunday afternoon we had family night and Tanner & Frank went home teaching.  I talked to both Amy and my friend Jeanine on the phone--it was nice to get caught up with both of them.

One of my visiting teachers was supposed to come see my Monday morning, but I called her and told her not to come.  We visited on the phone for a few minutes instead.  Scott helped me out by taking books and movies back to the library for me; he also took Jared over to his friend Bryson's house for a birthday party (they went to see the Batman movie and had a sleep over).  Tanner ended up being invited to spend the night with Ryan (Bryson's brother) too.  Frank stopped on his way home to pick up groceries for me and the boys got the laundry and vacuuming done.  I was able to rest most of the day thanks to everyone's help; I was grateful for that!  Since I was lying down not doing much anyway, I was able to help Tanner and Jared get some stuff done for scouts and encouraged Scott to work on Duty to God (he's only got a few things left to complete).  After we had our family night activity that evening, Scott went to a young single adult family night activity. 

I felt a little better on Tuesday but still not terrific and doing little things wiped me out.  I had a presidency meeting that afternoon which I asked to do over the phone so I wouldn't have to go anywhere.  Scott picked up Tanner and Jared for me also.  He went that evening with Allie to see the Batman movie, so now all three of the older boys have seen it.  (Tanner still hasn't seen Spiderman, though.)  Jared came home not feeling well and he took a nap.  He felt worse when he woke up, though, so he's been down the last few days.

By Wednesday I was improving but had reached the "cough up your lungs" stage of the illness.  I managed to make a trip to Wal-Mart for some necessary items but that wiped me out and I stayed home from YW that evening.  Frank took the boys over to YM for me.  Scott didn't go--they were doing board or reviews and he's done with scouts.  He's pretty much done with YM too, really--most of the boys his age are gone to college already or working so it's not much fun for him anymore.  He is transitioning into the college crowd and goes to Institute instead.  Jared was still feeling pretty sick but we didn't want him to miss board of reviews again, so he went over long enough to get his board of review done and then Frank brought him home.  Frank also took over some things that I needed to send for the YW activity.  We had planned an outdoor activity but a thunderstorm rolled in just in time for YW, so I hear they did the inside backup activity we had planned instead.  Board of Reviews went well for both Tanner and Jared, so they are FINALLY going to be able to advance in rank.  Jared will be getting 1st Class and Tanner will be getting Life.  We really are getting to the "light at the end of the tunnel" with them, because they have almost all their merit badges done already.

Yesterday I was starting to get my energy back (although I'm still coughing a lot).  We returned the rental car in the morning (Frank went from there to work) and I ran errands after that.  We got laundry and vaccuming done but I didn't do much else after that--tried to get some more rest.  I got quite a bit of Personal Progress done this week while I was down and I am nearly 400 pages into the 500 page book we're reading for book club.  I also did family search indexing every day.  So maybe I wasn't as unproductive as I feel.  Scott went to see his friend Collette yesterday afternoon--she was in a car wreck this week which totaled her car, but fortunately she is ok.  She has bruises on one knee and on her back but it could have been much worse--she hydroplaned, went off the road and hit a tree.  Collette came back to our house with Scott and they both went to Institute from here.  She left this morning for Utah--Scott won't see her again until they both start school at BYU Idaho in September.  Her parents have to be back in Maryland before then, so she asked if I could be her surrogate parent at orientation.  We all stayed up late last night watching the Olympics.  I'm wondering, since everything we are watching was taped earlier anyway, why they broadcast the Olympics so late in the evening.  We had to stay up until midnight to see Gabby Douglas get her gold medal in gymnastics.

Today I did my usual Friday chore--updated the budget.  It didn't take as long today, thankfully.  I'm still coughing a lot but improving.  Frank has been working from home and feeling sicker as the day has progressed.  I'm sorry he's sick but thankful that since he had to be sick, he didn't get sick until I started feeling better.  Hopefully he will be able to get a lot of rest this week end and feel better by Monday.