Weekly Reveiw October 19 '12

Last Friday evening, Frank and I went out for a little while.  We are trying to go out on a more regular basis, and we are trying to find new things to do and things that don't cost very much.  This time, we decided to go for a walk at a park in downtown Frederick called Carroll Creek Park.  We've been there a few times--I've mentioned it before--but this time I took the camera along.  It was a little bit chilly, but with jackets on, it was fine.  We walked down the path next to Carroll Creek:

 

The park winds through the downtown historic district with shops and old row houses like this:

A lot of the park is paved in red brick with decorative accents like this:

It was starting to get dark, and all the lights had come on:

There's a couple of bridges spanning the creek (you can see part of another bridge behind the one in the foreground):

We stopped at a little Ben & Jerry's shop for ice cream:

Frank and I both tried a flavor called "Chocolate Therapy".  He also got some "Phish Food" and I got another one whose name I can't remember.  It had a salted caramel swirl and chocolate covered potato chips in it.  Believe it or not, it was pretty yummy!

We enjoyed our little get-away.  Saturday was busy with errands.  We had to mail some things to Scott and then we went to the library.  I got several books about Victorian houses--I'm doing a little research on exterior paint colors since I may paint some of the pieces of my (Victorian) dollhouse soon.  Since Scott is hoping to go on a mission early next year, his room will be empty for two years--and two years might just be long enough for me to get that project done.  After the library, we went coat shopping for Seth--we got a coat for him and found a sweater for me, too.  After all the errands (and cleaning the kitchen floor) we watched the BYU football game via the internet:   

Sadly, in spite of Tanner's blanket, BYU lost the game (as many of you already know).  It was a frustrating game in many ways, but especially because it was such a close game until the last quarter.  Oh well!

Sunday was a little crazy--Frank had to leave right after the sacrament to go to some other wards to do some things on their computers.  He intended to get back in time to take the boys home after church, but he was delayed and didn't make it back.  Jared had a meeting with the Deacons right after church (he was teaching the new Deacons how to pass the sacrament) and I had choir practice but I took Tanner and Seth home first so I was a bit late for practice.  Frank came by the church when he was done and picked up Jared and took him to collect fast offerings.  We finally all made it home, eventually.  We made dinner and had family night.

This week we have mostly had beautiful fall weather.  It's been quite crisp in the mornings (a few mornings downright cold with temps in the 30's) but most of the days have been mild, sunny, and beautiful.  (Although we've had some rain too.)  I just took Snickers out a little while ago and I didn't even need to wear shoes.  The leaves are turning gorgeous colors.  Monday was kind of overcast in the morning and then it rained pretty hard in the afternoon.  Here's my favorite tree (across the street) on Monday morning:

It looked really nice against the gray sky (the colors don't show up in the picture very well).  After the rain storm, the sun came back out in the evening.  The lighting was so beautiful with the setting sun, the remains of the clouds, and the clean "washed" air.  I even saw a faint rainbow in the sky.  I took a lot of pictures, trying to capture it all, and was somewhat successful:

Besides the rain storm, Monday was busy.  In YW, we had a "Muffin Mingle" for the teachers.  We met in the morning and had a brief meeting where we went over the new (awesome!!) curriculum for next year and did some planning but mostly we just ate yummy muffins and visited.  It was fun, but took longer than I had anticipated.  I came home briefly after that and only had time to do a few things (vacuum, move the laundry...) before running some errands (put gas in the car, pick up a prescription for Tanner) and needing to pick up Jared from school for an orthodontist appointment.  After the orthodontist, we stopped at the grocery store on our way home and got home just in time to make dinner.  We had family night activity after dinner--played a game and ate yummy pumpkin cookies.

Tuesday was also busy.  I spent the morning hanging artwork at the school.  I forgot the camera again, but it's looking very nice.  The afternoon was full of phone calls to make various appointments and housework.  I started working on the YW lesson too. 

Wednesday started out really early--Seth woke up at 4:15 am and didn't go back to sleep until after 5:30, and then he only slept a little while and was back up by 6:15. I have no idea why he was so wide awake but Frank was awake around 4:00 also and since he couldn't go back to sleep, he got up and went to work really early.  I exercised, got Seth to school, and helped with artwork again.  I went right from there down to the temple and did some initiatories.  (An accident on the way slowed me down just enough that I missed the 11:00 session.)  They were moving pretty slow, so that ended up taking as long as a session would have.  (But I still enjoyed being in the temple.)  Afterwards I went to the LDS bookstore--I decided to go a different route to avoid some road construction but I'd only been that way once or twice and ended up getting totally lost!  I did finally make my way back to the temple and ended up going the road construction route after all.  That slowed me down so I got home a lot later than planned and I still needed to make a stop at Costco and go to Wal Mart as well.  Frank was supposed to be gone late working that evening so I had already let everyone know I was not going to be at YW.  (It was combined YM / YW and the YM were in charge anyway, so I wasn't really needed.)  It ended up that Frank got  home a lot earlier than he planned so I was able to go to Wal Mart that evening.  I was pretty tired by bed time, though! 

School started 4 hours late on Thursday--kind of a weird schedule.  We got to sleep in a little, which was nice.  Tanner and Jared had Seminary at 10:15 and then I took them to school.  I worked on Personal Progress and got housework going in the morning and then while Seth was at school I ran errands to the grocery store and the post office (I got Taran's package mailed).  After the boys got home from school they did some vacuuming, folded laundry, and raked leaves.  Then I took them over to their friend Taylor's house to spend the night.  (Taylor's mom is the YW president.)  There was an update of one of their favorite games that was just released, so they were all excited to play it together.  This particular game (Minecraft) is rated E (for Everyone) and somewhat creative, so it's better than most.  On the way to Taylor's house, we took some pictures of the beautiful fall leaves:

This is one of my favorite sights on this particular drive--this row of beautiful trees lining a lane that ends at a pond and a couple of farm houses.  Not the best picture--we were moving--but hopefully you get the idea.  I dream of buying this place someday--it is beautiful in every season!  Taylor's house is up on a hill, and here's the view from his house:

Not bad, right?!  After dropping the boys off, I stopped at the library to get a book I'd put on hold and then I stopped to take some pictures of some favorite trees of mine:
 

The picture is not very good--the lighting wasn't too great and the trees have already lost a lot of their leaves.  But I took a picture anyway because I'm afraid these trees are going to be chopped down by next year.  They're going to put a super Wal Mart on this lot next year sometime and I'm afraid the trees will be sacrificed.  I've been admiring these trees every fall for years, and meaning to take a picture of them.  They really are stunning when the sun is shining and they have a full compliment of golden leaves.  There's a whole row of them (hard to see in the photograph); I think they are left over from a farm that used to be here.  Now there is a big warehouse right next to them (that's why there's all those ugly trucks messing up my picture too), along with a little red brick building which used to be where the boys went to school the first 3 years that they were at the charter school.  (It moved to a new location after that.)  The warehouse and brick building are going to be torn down to build the Wal Mart, though.  I'm hoping they'll spare the trees, but it's not very likely.

After that stop, I headed home and took one more picture going up Schifferstadt Boulevard, which is the main street that runs by our house.  It doesn't look that great in the picture, but it really is a nice view, coming up the street.  Frank and I thought the city was crazy when they planted all the trees along the side of the road a few years ago (we thought they'd obstruct the line of vision for drivers and leave branches on the road after wind storms) but I have to admit they look really nice. 

You can see in the photo above that the sky looks kind of cloudy--we had a big thunderstorm come in last evening and it rained a lot of the night.  After dinner, I worked more on my YW lesson and then stayed up late working on a personal history post (the one right before this one).  I had some trouble adding some of the images and finally gave up and went to bed.  It worked fine today, so I was able to finish it up.

Today there was no school.  Tanner and Jared were gone all day--they went straight from Taylor's house (around noon) to help with a service project for a couple of ladies in our ward, removing an old fence and helping pull up carpet.  It turned out to be a much bigger project than they had anticipated and they didn't get home until dinner time.  I worked on the budge and finished up the post from the night before.  It's hard to believe that took most of the day!

Frank's been very busy--there is a lot going on at work (Marriott) and he is putting in new servers for two of his clients, plus doing monthly maintenance for all of them.  One of his clients is going to pay him in advance for next year's maintenance so he is going to get a check for that in January--right around the time Scott is hoping to leave on his mission.  I just figured out that after taxes and such, that will pay for the first year of Scott's mission.  Coincidence?  I doubt it!  Scott is filling out his mission papers now, by the way.  He called me today to ask me some questions.  He is going to put January 30th as his availability date.  So soon--hard to believe!  I'm excited for him too, though.  He has completed his volunteer hours and the theater people are ready to hire him but he can't find his Social Security card.  In the meantime, I sent him a copy of his birth certificate.  He needs to find his card, though--not a good thing to lose!

I will finish up this week's post with a sculpture from a budding artist named Seth:

He says the circle you can see in the picture above is "the circle of death"!  I worry about that kid's mind sometimes....

Here is the bird's eye view of the same sculpture:

Not bad for a five year old! :)