I have a few minutes before the missionaries arrive for dinner, so I'll see how much I can get written by then. We are certainly keeping busy. I didn't get any time to write this post yesterday and we are well into the day today. Last Saturday Frank continued to work on getting a server set up for one of his clients so he was gone all day again. I had a lot of things going on that day--a couple of RS visits, checking in with another sister who was supposed to have surgery soon (she found out yesterday that she doesn't have to have surgery after all and she is ecstatic about that), taking Seth to get a haircut, and a whole bunch of weeding in the front flower beds. I also took the older boys to get some donuts--they earned coupons for free donuts for their grades this last term. (Jared got all A's, Tanner got two A's and two B's.) The coupons were for a little local donut shop called The Fractured Prune. Strange name, but the donuts are delicious. They make them hot while you're there and you choose what topping you want on yours. (I got "Blueberry Hill"; someone else chose "Cookies & Cream") Jared was explaining to Seth on the way over what prunes are and what they do to your system when you eat them and he had Seth in hysterical laughter. It's a boy thing! I also cleaned the kitchen floor that day, worked on Personal Progress, went on a walk, and gave Seth a bath. Tanner and Jared had to be at the school that evening for the play, so I took them over there too. Frank was tired when he got home that evening, but so was I.
Sunday morning I had Ward Council...it was an extra one so we could watch and discuss part of the Worldwide Leadership Training video. I had choir practice later and that evening Tanner, Jared and Frank had a Stake Priesthood Meeting.
I had lots of errands to run on Monday. That afternoon I had presidency meeting. Tanner and Jared had the play again this week end, but since they had performed 3 times already they didn't have any rehearsals this week. It was nice to have them home a lot more this week. After Seth got home from school on Monday we did the experiment part of his science fair project. We decided to freeze salt water and fresh water to see if they freeze differently. We put salt water in two cups and fresh water in two cups. Here he is making the labels for the cups so we'd know which was which:
He colored "lakes" on the freshwater labels and yellow and blue for sand and ocean on the salt water labels. After we labeled the cups, we mixed the salt water:
Here's the four cups, ready to go into the freezer:
The salt water got slushy and eventually froze into small chunks like this:
The chunks froze together eventually--but not until the next morning. It was kind of a fun experiment. Since then, I've been working with Seth to get the writing done for his display board. He's supposed to do the actual writing himself, although I can help him figure out what to say and have him copy my writing. I've been having him write a little bit every day.
While we were waiting for the water to freeze, we had family night activity. Then I took the boys to Dairy Queen for a treat--Frank stayed home to keep checking the water; we brought a blizzard home for him.
Tuesday was our 21st Anniversary. We did the usual things during the day--Frank went to work and I did fun things like clean all the bathrooms. My visiting teachers came over too. But that afternoon I received a gigantic vase full of long stemmed red roses:
(I love how you can see Seth in the background of this picture.)
That evening we went out for dinner too. I'm glad we celebrated on that day because Frank started feeling sick on Wednesday and he hasn't been very well since then.
On Wednesday Snickers had a follow up visit with the vet--his ear infection is all cleared up now. Frank went to a client's after his regular work day to follow up on the new server and to fix a problem with a computer that had come up, so he got home pretty late. I had been asked to help with an activity for the YM / YW that evening. Seth went to play with another boy in the ward while I did that. The activity was pretty interesting. The kids were told that they were having a carnival and that local businesses and ward members had donated some really great prizes. When they got to the carnival, they were each given 10 tokens and told that they used the tokens to play games. Some of the games would earn them tickets and some of the games would earn them more tokens. The tickets would help them to earn the prizes. The prizes were things like shirts, iPods, clocks, etc. They could also use the tickets to purchase food--slices of pizza, cinnamon rolls, donuts, cookies, etc. The more entertaining games earned tickets. The spiritual based games (questions about the scriptures, etc) earned them tokens. They had to pay a token to play each game but if they chose the spiritual games they got their token back at the end of the game, along with a few more. Anyway, the whole thing was actually a set up. As the kids started to play the games, there were two of the YSAs who started coming in the room and quietly taking kids out, one by one. After they went out, they were told that they had "died" and were taken to be "judged". The judges were members of the bishopric, dressed in white. The judges took away all of their stuff--food, tickets, etc--because when you die you can't take anything with you. They also asked them questions about the choices they had made at the carnival. It turns out that the tokens represented talents, and so it was better to have a lot of tokens. The tickets were worthless, and no one got any of the "prizes" that they thought they were going to get. After everyone "died", they had a meeting in the chapel with music and speakers who talked about the plan of salvation. I missed that part, because I had to get Seth home to bed. (All I had to do was run one of the games.) Anyway, I'm sure it's an activity that the kids will not forget. A few kids were upset about it...Tanner and Jared didn't mind much though. I'm still not sure I like the fact that they tricked the kids like that, although I know the purpose was to teach them some valuable lessons.
By the time I got home, Frank had just arrived home. He was feeling nauseous and seemed to have a fever too (although Frank never actually gets a high temperature--he just gets alternately hot and then cold). He's been feeling a lot the way Tanner felt last week. Thursday morning he was probably worse so he took sick days on Thursday and Friday. Besides the new illness, he has continued to have trouble with a nasty cough. He's starting to think the cough might be allergy related.
I had a luncheon with some of the RS sisters on Thursday, at my secretary's house. We are going to have these little luncheons every few months--we invite a small group of sisters so we can get to know them better. This was our first one and it wasn't very well attended. Hopefully we'll get more people to come next time. Tanner & Jared had the play again that evening.
I had visiting teaching appointments yesterday morning. Then I worked on the budget until it was time for me to leave for a "Girls' Night Out". Last night was our stake's Fathers / Sons Camp Out, so a lot of the women were home alone. No one from our house went on the camp out this year--Tanner & Jared had the play. Originally, Frank had planned to take Seth and go to the camp out, but since he was sick and Seth also has developed a lot of congestion and a yucky cough this week, they were not able to go. They stayed home and watched a movie together while I met the women at a cafe to eat and then went to one sister's house to watch a chick flick. There weren't a lot of us there, but it was fun. I stayed out way too late and got to bed very late last night (or, more accurately, very early this morning).
I did not sleep in this morning, however. I had an 8:00 appointment to get my hair done. Then I ran errands, finished the budget, cleaned the kitchen floor, and went on a walk. Jared got the lawn mowed. This evening we had the missionaries over for dinner. Jared and Tanner were already over at the school for the play--they had dinner before they left. We had three missionaries come this time because one of the traveling APs came with them. They gave us a nice message.
We've had fairly nice weather this week although most mornings have been quite cold--even down to freezing. One day it was pretty chilly all day but most days it warmed up nicely during the day and we've had lots of sunshine. (It did rain Wednesday night, though.) My pansies are looking happy:
Tonight is the last performance of the play. It's the last play of the year, so they also have "Senior Night"--where they honor all the seniors that are involved with theater. I remember last year Scott and Tanner both came home feeling pretty emotional after that so I expect Tanner and Jared will probably be the same tonight. I know Tanner feels a lot closer to the seniors than he does to the kids his own age and younger so he is pretty bummed that they are all graduating. Here are Jared and Tanner in their "Young Frankenstein" shirts:
(I'm not very thrilled with the plays their director chooses most of the time. We didn't even go to see this one.)
Next year Tanner is going to be in a special program called the Arts & Communications Academy. It will be for two of his class periods all year. He just found out this week that he was accepted. He is happy about that! I hope it is a good experience and that he learns a lot. He is also planning to take AP Literatue and an advanced physics & chemistry class that lasts all year. (Most of their classes at this school only last half the year--I've always thought that was dumb.) So he'll be pretty busy but I know he can handle it.
That's everything I can think of to write about for this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment