Weekly Review July 19 '13



Let's start out this week with the snake pictures I promised last week:

 

 



 

Jared is holding two different snakes in his pictures.  I'm holding the same snake in both of mine...it's name is Elliot.  That's because some of it's markings look like the face of ET.  I was surprised that all the kids at the park had heard of ET...it's such an old movie now!

 

So on to this week.  Saturday Frank was doing some work for a client most of the day.  I went to a baptism in the morning--there were 4 kids from our ward getting baptized and I felt the need to show support for their families, especially since at least one of the families is kind of in crisis right now.  The baptism was very nice, although it didn't go without glitches...one child didn't go under all the way the first time, two of the dads had to repeat the prayer at least once and one of the kids decided he was scared of the water and didn't want to go under.  Goodness!  (The frightened child did fine once we decided that he didn't need all of us watching him.  We all left the room and he was baptized in private.)  After the baptism, I came home and the boys and I got some housework done. 

 

Sunday morning I had Ward Council before church.  We all went to sacrament meeting in our ward (where Jared gave a talk, and did a good job--the mission president and his wife were also visiting our ward and speaking and they both complimented him) and then we left to go to Allie's ward because she was giving a talk before leaving for her mission.  She did a great job on her talk too.  We came home, Frank took the boys to give the sacrament to a ward member, we ate, took naps, and Jared and I went to choir practice.  After all that, we went out to Allie's house because she was having an open house:

 She left on Monday and went into the MTC on Wednesday.  We hope she has a great mission!

Monday was busy with the usual things like grocery shopping and laundry; I also made several phone calls / sent emails to set up appointments.  Most of the day was spent with the boys, though.  My friend Jeanine's son--Kalvin--was here visiting from California and the boys wanted to get together with him, so we drove over to Westminster in the morning to pick him up and take him to lunch.  We invited the boys' friend, Taylor (who is in our ward), to join us because he and Kalvin are also friends--they met at EFY a few years ago.  Frank had gone in to work really early and was back home finishing up some work from here so he took a break and came with us to lunch at Red Robin.  The boys had a fun time.  Then we took Kalvin over to visit with another friend for about a half hour.  Rather than drive back home, I let Tanner get some practice driving around the neighborhood while Kalvin visited with his friend.  Then we came back home and all the boys played games together for a while until around dinner time when I took Kalvin to the mall to meet another friend who was giving him a ride back to Westminster.  Here's all the boys together:

(Kalvin is on the far left of the photo with Taylor next to him)

It was nice to see Kalvin again and we hope we can visit the rest of the family someday!  I think my two favorite parts of the day were listening to all the boys singing together in the back seat and noticing that they had discovered Seth's quiet book and were playing the game "Going to Heaven" which is in there--silly boys!  They actually sing really well, and they put their whole heart and soul into it! :)

I had several errands to do on Tuesday--took Jared to the orthodontist, picked up a gift for Scott from a ward member (a pillowcase made out of cool missionary fabric), took Tanner to the bank to cash a check from a job he did, picked up a prescription, and did some shopping at Costco.  Besides that, the boys and I cleaned bathrooms and I worked on RS stuff.  It was a busy day.  Tanner was leaving around 6:00 for a trip to New York City (more on that later) and Jared's friend Joseph was coming over about the same time to spend the night and the next day--his Mom was at Girls' Camp.  We got Tanner out the door on time and Joseph arrived too.

Tanner was invited by his friend Taylor (same Taylor as in the photo above) to go with his family to NYC to see a matinee of The Phantom of the Opera.  I know--so jealous, right?!  He had earned enough from a job he did that he could pay for his own ticket for the play.  Taylor's family was driving up and coming back in one day, so the only other expense was for his meals and a few subway rides.  We agreed to pay that part for him.  They were leaving very early Wednesday morning, so they had Tanner spend the night on Tuesday.  Not only that, but Taylor had also managed to win two free tickets to a Josh Groban concert so they went to that on Tuesday evening.  Then on Wednesday they got up super early and drove to NYC, arriving there around 11:00.  They had lunch at an amazing place, went to the matinee of Phantom, did a little sight seeing and shopping, had dinner, and then drove back home--arriving around 1:30 am, they said.  Crazy!  They got in so late that Tanner stayed there to sleep and didn't get home until Thursday evening, actually.  Tanner went to NYC once but he was not 2 years old yet so he doesn't remember it.  He really enjoyed the whole experience and was very impressed with NYC.  Of course, getting to see the Phantom of the Opera was a dream come true for him, too.  He texted me and told me that he cried during the overture.  We are really glad he got this great opportunity.  Hopefully next week I'll have a few photos to share--Taylor's mom said she is going to e-mail some to me.  Tanner was allowed to go on the condition that he not breath a word about it to Scott!  I told him he can tell Scott all about it AFTER he gets home from his mission.  Scott really wanted to go to New York to see a play himself (and especially Phantom) so we just don't want to give Scott any reason to wish he were home instead of where he is. :)

Meanwhile, at home, Jared enjoyed having Joseph over all day Wednesday.  They played a lot of games.  I went to Wal-Mart--Seth came with me--and got a lot of RS stuff done.  Jared had YM that evening--they planned for Camp Helaman next week.  I went over to a friend's house to get some help figuring out a new budget program that I'm trying out.  These friends have been using this program for several years, so they were able to give me a few pointers.

We were surprised on Tuesday when one of the sets of Elders in our ward came by to say they were both getting transferred and that we were getting sisters instead--3 of them.  After wanting sisters for so long, I was actually disappointed that these Elders are leaving because they've been doing such a good job.  We've been a lot more involved with the missionaries the last few months and I'm finding that I get a little attached to them.  Must be my mothering side kicking in, since they are just like my oldest boy!  Anyway, we were sorry to say good bye to them.  I was supposed to meet the new Sisters on Wednesday evening but then...they didn't come!  Last minute changes again and this time we didn't get anyone to replace the set of Elders who left.  We're down to one set of missionaries in our ward again and we are feeling a little bereft!  Oh well...hopefully we will get another set next transfers.  Will we ever get Sisters?  I'll believe it when I see it! ;) 

Yesterday Jared and I got all the chores done in the morning.  I took Seth to Wal-Mart--he wanted to buy another Star Wars Lego set, and he had just enough money saved to buy it.  I helped him put it together and then after lunch his friend Liam from school came over to play for the afternoon.  They had fun playing with all the Lego sets as well as all the light sabers etc.  They made a mess and they were loud, but it was fun to see them having so much fun.  Last night my 2nd counselor and I tried to do a few "drop in" visits.  I hadn't been able to get in touch with any of the people that I wanted to visit, so we decided to just go see if we could find them home.  The first place no one was home and the second place we couldn't find!  I took my counselor back home and then we were discussing some things when I got a text message and what do you know...it was the woman whose house we couldn't find.  (And she acknowledged that her house is very difficult to find.)  It was too late to visit by that time but I was at least able to invite her to church and set a tentative appointment to see her on Sunday.  Hopefully I'll get to meet her soon.

Today I've been working on the budget.  In between everything else I've begun to read the book for book chat which is called The Woman in White.  It's pretty interesting so far, but long, so I hope I get through it by next week. 

Frank has continued to be very busy with his business as well as his job.  He has been able to meet with his new boss a couple of times and he really likes him.  He is still spending most of his time doing his old job, but they did finally hire a replacement for him so after he gets the replacement trained he can start to focus on his new job a lot more. 

We are starting to make plans for our trip to Utah and getting excited about that.  It's hard to believe we'll be there in just a couple of weeks!  It will be great to see many of you then. :)