It's "Fair Day" so the kids are out of school. If I were a great mom, I'd take Seth to the fair. But I'm not going to do that because I've been there more than once and it is not much to get excited about. Plus, it's expensive. The older two boys are gone on a two day camp out. Hooray for their new scoutmaster! Jared might get his 20 camping nights someday after all. :)
This week was better than last week in most ways. I wasn't nearly so stressed out. I was pretty much an emotional wreck the last two weeks, but this week I've been feeling better. Maybe it was just hormones! Well, life was pretty crazy though. This week I decided to give myself a break and I didn't plan any visits. The first few days of this week were still quite busy but the last few days things have slowed down a bit, which has been nice for a change. It was almost another really insane week, though. On Monday evening one of my counselors called me because she had just found out that a family in the ward was losing their house to foreclosure and they had to be out by Sunday! What?!! The next day they talked to a lawyer and found out that they really have 30 days to move. That's still not good, of course, but it's a lot better than 6 days, which would have been a complete nightmare. So I didn't end up having to organize getting a ton of people in there to help them this week, which was a relief. I still feel terrible about the whole thing, and we are of course working on getting help for them but it's a blessing to have a little more time. They are relieved, too.
When I was writing last week, Tanner was gone to a Priest / Laurel activity. A kind of funny thing happened when he got home. We had forgotten and locked the screen door so he couldn't get in with his key. His phone had died, so he couldn't call us and he thought we were asleep so he didn't want to ring the doorbell. So what did crazy Tanner do? He thought maybe his key would get him in the back door from the deck (it wouldn't have...but he didn't know that) so he decided to climb up on the deck and try the door. (Why he didn't try the back door first, which is at ground level, I will never know.) The deck is a good ten feet above the ground, but by using the next door neighbor's fence and shed, he managed to climb up on the deck and try the door...just as Frank was coming up the stairs from the basement and noticed the doorknob jiggling. He thought someone was trying to break in. (Well I guess someone was...but it was only Tanner.) I was upstairs and heard Frank suddenly yell "HEY!!" really loudly. Then I heard Tanner's voice saying "It's me, Dad." It was funny in a way, but he certainly gave Frank a scare. He was pretty successful at getting onto the deck quietly, too. I was sitting right by a window that overlooks the deck, and I didn't hear anything. Tanner says that's because he's a Ninja!
Last weekend was Stake Conference. Frank attended the Priesthood Leadership session at 4:00 on Saturday, and then I met him over there at 6:00 for the adult session. That meeting didn't start until 7:00, but the stake RS presidency always provides a meal for the stake presidency, the stake clerks, executive secretary, and their wives. It's always really yummy and it's nice to visit while we eat. The general session was on Sunday morning; as usual, Frank had to be there early and he saved us a seat. Also as usual, Frank didn't get to sit down for more than about 20 minutes of the meeting. He always has to deal with problems that come up with the technology...sound or visuals or something! Plus, there were issues with the HVAC (which isn't really his job but he knows a lot about it)--some of the rooms were stifling hot and I am here to tell you that the chapel was freezing, since that's where we were sitting. (It was a nice day outside--the AC was working overtime, though.) Anyway, the meetings were really nice and uplifting. For the general session, we had a missionary choir composed of all the missionaries that are serving in our stake right now. Which just goes to show you...the fact that they had enough to make a choir is pretty amazing! And they looked and sounded great. There were two youth speakers that were incredibly impressive, too. I have a lot of hope for the future of the church...it's in good hands for sure!
After stake conference we were going to have some friends over for dinner, but they had to cancel on us. The boys helped unload chairs at the church...they always have to borrow a couple hundred chairs from our building in order to have enough chairs for the whole stake. I took a long nap Sunday afternoon which was very nice.
I forgot to mention that on Saturday before all the meetings started, Frank was gone doing work for clients all morning. I took Seth to a practice scrimmage for his soccer team...it was kind of frustrating to watch him because he really doesn't get the game at all yet. He seems to get distracted easily too, so half the time he doesn't hear the coach's instructions. He seems to be having fun though, and hopefully before the season is over he'll get some of the basics of the game figured out! After coming home from the practice, I worked on the sewing project the rest of the afternoon. I finished the first pair of pants and got another pair done as well. I had a lot less problems this time, so I started feeling a lot less stressed about getting the rest done on time. I had managed to work out the bugs and figured out what worked the best and how to work with the fabric, not to mention I had my sewing machine a lot more figured out as well.
Monday I had a presidency meeting in the morning. I got some housework and shopping done and after dinner we had family night. After that I worked on the pants again and got another pair done.
Jared stayed home from school on Tuesday. His nasty cold wasn't getting any better so he needed a day to get some rest. That seemed to help a lot...he is nearly better now. I got the last pair of pants done; I sewed a couple of patches onto a baseball jersey as well. After I got that project done (and it was a relief to finish it!) I got all my other regular Tuesday chores done (bathrooms, grocery list, etc.) Tanner had some on the road driving that afternoon for 2 hours (to complete driver's ed, he has to go on three 2 hour driving sessions with an instructor). He was supposed to do all three sessions this week but he ended up doing only one of them--the school had to reschedule his Monday session and we rescheduled his Wednesday session because he wasn't feeling very well.
Seth had soccer practice Tuesday evening as well, so I was running around a lot that day. I had an emergency food order that I ran out to do that evening as well. The guy I fixed the baseball pants for came to pick them up late that evening and he was very pleased with everything. They did turn out looking really nice, so I was proud of myself! He sent me an email today to let me know the pants worked out perfect for his games, and included a picture of him playing with one of the uniforms on. I'm not totally done doing sewing for him...that was the first part of the project. I still have one more patch to sew on another jersey and three more pants to either hem or put elastic in. But that part doesn't need to be done until October 20th, so I have a little more time. I'm planning to start working on them soon, though! Don't want to be stressed out again at the end. In some ways I'm glad I had this project to do even though it stressed me out. I learned a lot about my new sewing machine and I am actually really happy with it!
Tanner was coming down with Jared's cold so he stayed home on Wednesday to get some rest. I wasn't feeling so great myself that day...most of the week I also felt like I was trying to fight off the same cold, and Wednesday I had a terrible headache and a sore throat. I felt pretty good in the morning, actually, but after shopping all Wednesday morning (regular groceries and also wedding gift shopping for Erin & Dan) I started to feel a lot worse. Meanwhile, Frank came home from work on Tuesday with a very pained expression on his face, saying that his right kidney really hurt. That has continued to bother him ever since...never bad enough to make a trip to the hospital necessary, but he's been pretty uncomfortable the last 3 days. He's having other kidney stone symptoms too so we're pretty sure that's what it is. The last time he had a kidney stone he passed it without ever having to go to the hospital, so I'm hoping that will happen again but it's frustrating that it's taking so long.
The guys came to re-clean our air ducts on Wednesday morning. The manager came this time and made sure the job was done right. He got a ton of stuff out of our vents and did several things that the other guys hadn't done at all, and he confirmed that the other guys definitely hadn't done the job right. I'm glad Frank called to complain! Meanwhile, Tanner was working on his application for National Honor Society, which was due the next day. I've been nagging him about it for weeks and he had done a bit of work on it, but unfortunately he procrastinated a lot of it until the end. After resting all day he did feel better and went to YM...we let him do that mostly because he needed to get some signatures from several people there for his application. After he came home he still had to finish up and so he was up late and I was up late too because I don't leave the boys up by themselves when they are on the computer. Someday I hope one of my kids figures out that procrastinating is not the way to go.
Yesterday was a lot more relaxed. I felt my heart start fluttering Wednesday afternoon and it was still doing that Thursday morning. I felt a little short of breath and light headed, although it wasn't too bad. I also felt really tired. Since I had that going on I decided to try to take it easy a little bit. I certainly didn't sit around all day...I got grocery shopping done and some sweeping and there was still laundry to do. But once I got those chores done and the laundry was going, I sat down and spent the afternoon watching a movie from Netflix. Once the boys got home from school I was busy again...they had to quickly pack for their camp out and I had to take them to the store to pick up a couple of things for that. I got them over to the church and after I got home from that I relaxed a little more before making dinner, vacuuming the whole house, and folding all the laundry. If the boys had been home I would have made them do all that! Frank normally would have helped too but he felt worse than me. By evening I was pretty sure my heart had stopped fluttering too...I didn't feel nearly so tired. Today I have felt back to normal.
Frank worked from home on Wednesday. Yesterday he went in for a few hours and did more work from here. Today he is working from home again. It's really a blessing that he has that option when he is not feeling very well! Today I took the dog on a walk and got the budget done. Seth has enjoyed being home from school. He plays quite nicely by himself, although he usually makes a mess.
We must be crazy, but we are thinking about starting house hunting again. I have no idea how we'll actually have time to fix up our house and to fit a move in, but we just felt like it was time to start looking. Houses seem to be selling pretty quickly around here and prices are going up. There is not a lot on the market, but when we looked online we found a few places that interest us. So we're having our friend the realtor come over tomorrow to look at our house and he will also take us to see a couple of places if he can get appointments set up. We've thought about doing this so many times that I'm not sure if we'll ever actually take the plunge, but maybe we will. We are in a better position to buy now than we've ever been and our house is closer to being ready to sell, too. So we'll see what happens. Frank is actually more anxious to move than I am, which is a fascinating reverse of our usual roles. I have become pretty content with where we are but in talking to Frank lately I've realized that it is important to him, and I think I owe it to him to start looking again. Don't get me wrong...I'd love to have more space! But it's not as important to me as it used to be. Having one less child in the house has made a difference. In a few more years we'll probably have plenty of space and I think we'd decide to stay here forever except when we think of the guys coming back to visit someday, with wives and children...well, there'd be no place to put them! So I guess we'll take a look around.
RS has been pretty low key this week, which has been a good change. I wanted to write down one experience I had, though. There is a young single mom in our ward who is less active...I've actually never met her. But I have communicated with her via text messaging over the last couple of months. A few weeks ago she was on my mind, so I texted her and told her that, and asked her if she needed anything. She responded that she was still trying to get her car fixed (it's been broken down the whole time I've been communicating with her) and she also mentioned that she is trying to find a new place to live. Evidently, she is living with other people right now and she said it wasn't the best environment so she was trying to change that. I sent her some words of encouragement and then kept thinking about her. A few days later I heard about a not for profit place that fixes cars for people who qualify at greatly reduced rates. I texted her the information about that and she was very grateful! I also asked her if she would like me to put the word out to the ward that she is looking for a place to live; she said that would help her a lot. That was about 2 weeks ago. Then on Wednesday she sent me a text message...her car was fixed and passed inspection...she was SO happy about it! She told me she knew it was the work of the Lord. First of all, I was thrilled that she wanted to share her good news with me. Second, I was so glad that she is recognizing the hand of the Lord in her life, that I cried. Then I laughed...why do I care so much about this person that I've never even met? Well, the fact remains that I do, and I know that I am feeling the love of the Lord for her. It is a wonderful feeling.
That's all I've got for this week. Sorry still no pictures! There hasn't been anything too notable happening that would warrant pictures. I haven't taken a single picture yet this month. Maybe soon. We hope Erin & Dan have a wonderful wedding day...we are thinking about them today! If I were there, I'd have something great to take some pictures of. :)
Pew Year in Review 2024
8 months ago
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