Weekly Review December 13 '13

 

This week was ridiculously busy.  Take yesterday, for example.  I woke up at 4:00 am, went to bed at 1:00 am, and still didn't get everything done that I needed to do (like writing this post, for example).   No, I spent literally all day shopping for RS and Ward Christmas party things, as well as sending out about a million emails, text messages and making phone calls—all  related to the Christmas party or other RS issues.  Ridiculous!  The reason I was up so late is because I decided that I really needed to write to Scott and update the budget before going to bed.  One complication that caused a lot of extra work yesterday was the weather reports for today.  At one point, they said we were going to get 4-8 inches of snow and then some sleet on top of that.  A winter storm warning was issued for the whole day and the school system cancelled all their activities, including the last performance of the play the boys have been doing tech for.  We should really be like Utah and just plug forward with things no matter how much snow we get, instead of cancelling everything when we get a speck of snow--it would make a lot of things a lot less complicated.  (Although admittedly, that sounded like more than a speck.)  As it turns out, we definitely did get some snow today and in the afternoon it really came down for a while and the roads got decently slick.  But it hasn't turned into a howling blizzard or anything. 

 

In the end, the bishop decided to cancel the caroling portion of our activity and move the dinner to a little bit later, because the weather is actually supposed to be better later.  We'll be leaving in about a half hour to go to the dinner.  Most of today has been taken up by preparations for that...we made a triple batch of sweet potato casserole, 5 pounds of mashed potatoes, and enough stuffing to feed 250 people.  Plus I washed 17 white tablecloths that we got from another ward last night (they had their party last night so we had a very small window of time to get the tablecloths washed), Tanner & Jared went to the church to help set up tables and chairs, and Frank is at the church now helping with the cooking of the vegetables.  Plus, he is in charge of serving.  Our family ended up with way too many things to do for this activity and it's a long story how that all came about but...live and learn!  I'll do better next time I get an assignment like this!

 

Well, now it is late Sunday evening.  I was too tired after we got back from the dinner to finish this post.  I admit I was a little grumpy, too, because I ended up spending the whole evening serving dessert instead of enjoying the dinner, which is what I should have been able to do since my part of the assignments (making sure all the food got there...and it did, and I'm happy to say there was plenty of food for everyone) was done.  But on the upside, the activity did turn out nice and I think most people really enjoyed it and had no idea that a few of us nearly killed ourselves trying to get it all done.  So I'm going to repent and stop being resentful about it. 

On to other things...last week we ended up getting about 8 ½ inches of snow, and then we did get some freezing rain / sleet after that so the snow has a coating of ice all over it.  Then we got about 3 inches more Tuesday morning so school was cancelled not only on Monday, but on Tuesday as well, and we had a delayed opening on Wednesday.  All of those things pretty much wreaked havoc on my already tight-down-to-the-minute schedule, and I had a lot of adjusting to do but I managed to get most things done, except exercising. ( I think I’m going to be really fat by the time I get released as RS president.)

 

On the snow days earlier this week, Jared and Tanner had some fun hanging out with theater friends…Jared both days and Tanner on Tuesday.  On Monday Tanner took Seth out sledding for a while.  Here are some pictures, although they aren't very good because I was taking them from far away...my bedroom window...because I had no desire to go outside. 

 



Both on the sled together.

Tanner going down. (Seth waiting at the bottom.)

Both of them with the sled at the bottom of the hill (the brown behind them is the river).

Seth going down.

 

Coming back in.

Tanner pulling Seth through the backyard.

Seth with pink cheeks and wet clothes.

 

Some trees with a coating of ice on them.

 

Seth's shoes got soaking wet, so I decided I’d better buy him some boots.  It’s a good thing school was cancelled Tuesday also because if it hadn’t been he would have been wearing his Sunday shoes to school.  By Wednesday late morning, his shoes had finally dried out enough to wear them again.  We had the Elders over for dinner (yes, again) on Monday and then finally got the Christmas tree set up.  It’s small enough that it fits against the wall in front of the couch, between the wall and the coffee table.  I need to take a picture of it, but haven't yet.  It is white instead of green (appropriate, I guess, considering all the snow we’re getting) and it’s pre-lit so it was super fast and easy to put up.  We can’t put nearly as many ornaments on it so we just chose a few, including a few of Scott's.   I found a popsicle stick (the larger kind) snowman that Scott made in Kindergarten and said “Ohhhh...he made this in Kindergarten and now he is all grown up and away from home…he grew up so fast!!”  Everyone laughed at me for being sentimental, but it did hurt my heart a little, even though there is no place I’d rather he be right now.  On Tuesday I made cookies for the RS meeting we had Wednesday and I don’t remember what else now, just know it was super busy.  I just realized that the reason I don’t like snow days much is that I still have to work even though everyone else is getting a free day.  My “job” is at home, so I never get a day off.

Wednesday I had all this shopping to do at Wal-Mart but I also had a presidency meeting, which had to be moved back to the middle of the morning because of the delay, so I had no time to do a long shopping trip.  I got creative and split it up into two trips.  I got Seth all ready for school before dropping the older boys off at school so that I could take Seth with me to the store.  We bought most of the non perishable stuff before I had to take him to school.  Then I went to my meeting and after that I went back to the store and got everything else.  I got home in barely enough time to drop everything off at home (Dad put a lot of it away for me) and get Tanner to an appointment he had right after school.  Crazy!  We ended up having to get Burger King for dinner because before my RS meeting I had a song practice (and Dad had to coach a basketball practice.)  The meeting turned out very nice.  We had some inspirational readings and sang Christmas songs, and then we had a cookie exchange and refreshments.  From the cookie exchange, I brought home a big plate of all different kinds of yummy cookies, and a couple of people thought the “paintbrush” cookies I brought were pretty cool and wanted to know how to make them.

I'm glad it turned out so well and that the sisters who came enjoyed it, but it was a difficult evening for me...really long story, I won't go into a lot of details, but one of my counselors decided she needs to be released.  She's the one remaining member of the original presidency (besides me) and her husband is in the bishopric and she has lots of health problems, so I understand that completely and wouldn't have been upset except she was really unhappy about some other things and let me know it, and I feel terrible about that.  It's really been a week for me to try to learn from my mistakes, which is always painful.  Besides all that, I had an unpleasant encounter with someone else who thinks he should be using the RS room every 2nd Wednesday and was upset that we were in the room when he got there to have his meeting.  When I told him we had the room scheduled, he said "No, you don't" which made me upset because I knew we had.  This is the second time this has happened, actually.  I think I solved that problem, though.  I came home and checked the online scheduling calendar, and yes...we really did have the room scheduled.  As a matter of fact, it is scheduled every 2nd Wednesday for all of 2014 as well.  So I sent him a very polite email apologizing for the confusion and that let him know that I checked the calendar and a) we did have the room scheduled Wednesday night and b) he wasn't going to be able to use the room in 2014 either.  I even offered to let him know if we changed location or dates for our meeting, as we sometimes do, so that he could use the RS room that month.  I diplomatically left out a lot of the things I wanted to say such as c) you should really be apologizing to me for basically calling me a liar, d) if you want to have a meeting in our building on our ward's night, you should be happy with whatever room you can get, and e) shouldn't the Relief Society get priority when it comes to using the Relief Society room anyway?  Our name's on the plaque by the door, after all.  (Yes, I'm still feeling a bit miffed about the whole thing.  I really have a lot of repenting to do.)  The good news is, he backed down...sent me a response that was sweet as pie and saying that it was no problem at all for them to use the Primary room instead. 

Thursday I had a lot of RS / Christmas party related stuff to do, plus I got a package for Scott ready to mail and got the 12 Days of Christmas secret service project that we do every year all ready to go, since Friday was the first night for that.  We did the same thing as last year, though, and wrapped all 12 things up and put them in a large box with instructions to open one each night, and delivered the box that night.  (Well, Frank is actually the one who delivered the box.)  I guess it’s not quite as fun that way, but it is a lot easier, and with Tanner and Jared being gone so often to various activities and not home to help, I thought it would be best to do it that way.   We picked a family who have been unemployed since March... so we put a few gift cards in there along with the 12 days gifts.

 

I already wrote about Friday except for the really cool thing that happened that day--Tanner got an email saying he’s been chosen to be on the work crew for the Hill Cumorah Pageant this summer!  The email said there were 52 applicants and he is one of the 28 who were chosen to be on the crew.  Pretty awesome, huh?  It is going to be such a great experience for him; I am super excited for him!!  It will be like a mini mission too because he’ll have a companion, live mission standards, (he won’t even have a phone and will have to communicate with letters except for a phone call when he arrives and one when he is ready to leave) and I’m sure he’ll be working his tail off the whole time too but also having uplifting experiences.  He will be gone for a whole month…June 27^th to July 25^th.  If we can manage it, I think we are going to try to go see Pageant this year since he’ll be working on it.  If any of you have been wanting to see Pageant also, this would be a good year to go!  Come on, you know you want to! :)

Sorry if there has been a lot of complaining in this week's post.  Maybe you gathered that it wasn't an easy week for me.  (I didn't sleep well at all this week either...lots of very late nights and very early mornings.)  So I'll finish up with a few positive things!  First, Frank has been a gem and helped me out so much this week, both by helping me get things done and by being a listening ear and giving me a shoulder to cry on.  Second, I sang a song in Sacrament Meeting today with a small group of women and it turned out beautiful so I was really happy about that.  Third, Jared and I went to a Christmas concert tonight done by the Mormon Choir of Washington DC, and it was AMAZING and so beautiful that I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried.  Really felt some of that wonderful Christmas spirit that the stresses of this week had driven away. 

This week is going to be quite busy too, but I'm going to do better at not letting things get me down.