Weekly Review February 21 '14

No pictures this week...how boring!  The only thing I took a picture of is the roses Frank got me last week for Valentine's Day.  But you really don't want to see the picture because they are looking half dead.  They arrived looking rather dry, but I thought they would perk up after we put them in water.  They didn't.  So after a few days I decided we should get our money back, and I took a picture of them in case I needed evidence.  Turns out the picture wasn't necessary, though.  I think the problem was the snow storm we had.  Frank said they were supposed to be delivered on Thursday, but they didn't arrive until late on Friday.  All that extra time in the box didn't do wonders for them.  But at least they refunded our money without argument.  Besides that, it's the thought that counts, right?  Frank did think to order roses for me for Valentine's Day, and I appreciate it!!

Speaking of refunds, I have to complain about something.  I was paying bills today and when I reviewed the bill for our business credit card, I was shocked to see a late fee and a finance charge on our bill.  I never pay bills late!  So I looked into it a little closer.  The bill was due on January 24th.  The payment was posted on January 25th.  I wrote the check and put it in the mail on January 18th.  How on earth did it take 6 days for a check to get from Frederick to Chicago?  So Frank called them to complain (the card is in his name).  They agreed to waive the late fee, but would not waive the finance charge.  They said that they are not responsible for the mail and we should be mailing in our payments 2 weeks before they are due.  Guess which credit card just got cancelled? 

Ok, that really bugged me and I needed to whine about it so now I feel better!  Well, emotionally anyway.  Physically, I'm kind of sick today.  Not so sick that I have to lie in bed doing nothing, but sick enough that I'm not enjoying being out of bed.  My nose is running, I'm coughing, and I have a headache and slight sore throat.  Tanner is sick with the same thing...only he's worse, so he stayed home from school yesterday and today.

That means Tanner has been to a grand total of one day of school this week.  The boys had Monday and Tuesday off.  Our "long weekend" (6 days) came to an end on Wednesday when everyone went back to school.  At least Tanner made it that day.  I tried to be productive all those days off.  I helped Seth with homework and Valentines (they celebrated on Wednesday, since there was no school Friday).  I had Tanner work on his Eagle project paperwork (he's almost done with it).  We kept shopping for things he needs for the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  I filled out the FAFSA for Tanner.  We did all the normal housework too. 

Frank was incredibly busy.  On Saturday his client moved to their new location.  He was gone most of the day getting all the new computers set up.  Then that evening the server crashed and he couldn't get it back up.  So he spent a good part of the day on Sunday solving that problem, but he was able to get the server back up.  He missed church, unfortunately.  I had a couple of people at church asking about him!  He was sick two Sundays ago and last Sunday he left after taking the sacrament (he had urgent work that had to be done that day too) so this Sunday was the third Sunday in a row that he missed all or most of church.  I had to reassure a few people that he is not going inactive!  Hopefully this Sunday will be better.  He was busy on Monday doing more work for that client, but things are starting to calm down.  He will be doing some more work tomorrow but soon he will be done with this huge project.

Saturday was busy for me too.  First thing in the morning I went to the funeral for the sister in our ward who passed away.  It was very sweet.  Her daughter gave a great talk about the importance of the family in Heavenly Father's plan, and one of her grandsons gave a very tender talk about the importance of grandmas.  I loved it!  When I got home, I discovered a sticky mess on the kitchen floor...Seth had tried to climb up the pantry shelves to get cereal and he knocked over a bottle of juice.  The lid broke off and juice had spilled all over the floor.  So I had to clean all that up...I was planning to mop the kitchen floor that day anyway, so I did the whole floor while I was at it.  It was a pain to clean up because the juice had spilled all over a bunch of stuff on the floor of the pantry.  I finished all that just in time to take Jared to his basketball game.  Except when we got there I discovered that my schedule was wrong and his game was at 10:00 instead of 11:00.  So Jared got there just in time to see one of his team mates score the winning shot (in overtime) as the buzzer went off.  Apparently, it was a very exciting game.  Oh well!  That evening Jared and Tanner went to a birthday party for a friend...it was a good 20 minute drive from our house...and then after that they went to a Seminary party.  So I was driving them to all those places.  Frank did pick them up after the Seminary party because that was about the same time that he came home (11:00 pm). 

On Sunday I had Ward Council, Missionary Correlation Meeting, and choir practice before church.  Tanner wasn't feeling well that day either so he stayed home and it was just Jared, Seth and I at church that day. 

On Wednesday I was planning to go to the temple, but then on Tuesday I was eating a cookie and a piece of one of my molars broke off!  What?!  So I had to go to the dentist on Wednesday instead.  They only looked at it and scheduled an appointment for me to get a crown, but the only available appointment time was in the middle of the day so that ruined any chance of going to the temple.  So strange that we were just at the dentist last week, and my tooth looked fine then!  At least they didn't charge me anything for the appointment this week.  The good news is, I probably won't have to get a root canal, just have a 3/4 crown put on.  (Not sure what that is.)  It's still going to be expensive, but hopefully not too much of an ordeal.  Wednesday evening the guys had YM and basketball practice; I went to a scout committee meeting.  Jared had a board of review and he'll be getting his Life rank at the next Court of Honor.  Frank had maintenance to do for his clients on Wednesday and Thursday nights. 

Yesterday I did a food order, which ended up taking all morning because sometimes people need to talk!  It felt like time well spent, though, because I was helping with spiritual and emotional as well as temporal needs.  I spent the afternoon getting caught up on housework and then I took Tanner to an appointment.  Jared had a song practice...the youth are singing a song for Ward Conference in a few weeks.  Tanner was going to sing too but he hasn't been able to make it to any of the practices.  Jared is going to be singing a solo part in the song, so he has extra practices.  (He had one on Tuesday also).  I was going to do some sewing last night but by then I wasn't feeling very well so I read a book instead.

We are going to be getting a new freezer soon.  Frank mentioned at work that our freezer had died, and one of his co-workers has one he wants to get rid of and offered to sell it for him for $50.  Umm,  yes!  Frank was supposed to pick it up today but they miscommunicated and weren't able to connect.  In the meantime, we removed the ice maker from our refrigerator freezer which created room for a lot more stuff and we gave some stuff away too.  We still have one ice chest of meat outside.  It is too warm now (we actually have had temperatures in the 50's the last few days--nice!) but we put some ice in there so hopefully it will be ok for a day or two more.    

Oh, I think I forgot to mention that Tanner was accepted to BYU-Idaho!  He found out last Friday.  He doesn't know yet if BYU-Provo is going to accept him.  If they do, then he will have to decide which school to go to.  If not, then...well, that makes it easy, doesn't it?  We'll just have to wait and see.

That's all our news for this week.  Not very exciting, but boring is good in this case.

Weekly Review February 14 '14



 

It's still all about winter weather and interrupted schedules around here.  As most of you know, we got socked by winter storm Pax on Wednesday / Thursday.  Frederick got about 20 inches of snow.  The snow was supposed to start around midnight on Wednesday, but surprised us by showing up around 8:00 instead.  By the time we got up Thursday morning, we had over a foot of snow.  It snowed until around 11:00 (with a little sleet mixed in).  Then we got some rain / freezing rain and snow (just a little bit of each) later that evening.  We're supposed to get another 2 to 4 inches of snow tonight, believe it or not!    Here's some pictures from the storm:

 



The view out our front door, with cars buried in snow.  The snow was still coming down hard at this point.

Our front door would only open this far, before being stopped by a large snow drift.

Another picture out front.  Sorry for the "screen" in front of the photo--as I showed in the photo above, I couldn't open the door enough to get a camera out.

A look out the kitchen window, at the table on our deck.  Believe it or not, there are several bags of food under the table (more on that later).  You can't really see them because they are buried in snow.  Looks pretty close to 2 feet of snow on that table, wouldn't you say?

The corner of the deck, with snow mounded up.  Hard to appreciate how much snow there is, just looking at the picture.

 That's how far we could open the back door.  Obviously, a lot further than the front door...that's because there's eaves hanging over the back door (none in the front).  The red thing is an ice chest.  The blue thing is one of our two recycle bins, which is sitting on top of the other one.

Another view of the table (without "screen" in the way)...you can see the bags of food a little clearer here.

The snow was still coming down and visibility wasn't great.

Later (much later) I took Snickers out.  One of our neighbors with a snow blower had cleared the sidewalks.

The snow is definitely higher than Snickers!

This is our street.  Notice the buried fire hydrant across the street.

"White on white"...Snickers doesn't show up very well!  He cracked me up when he kept trying to jump through the drifts...he'd only get a little ways and he'd have to give up and turn around!  Notice the stop sign...you couldn't tell that was an intersection, could you?

The neighbor with the snow blower cleared off the street for a foot or two behind our parked cars.  But from this picture you get the idea how much snow was on the road.  The snow plows didn't come through until midnight last night.  Thanks to snow blowers and our four wheel drive, Frank was able to get out yesterday.

There was no school yesterday (shocker!) and no school today either.  I think we probably could have managed with a 2 hour delay today...the roads are actually all cleared off now (although not as wide as they usually are, due to large banks of snow on both sides).  Monday (President's Day) and Tuesday were already scheduled days off, so we are having a six day weekend!  Crazy!  Ok, I realize that's not really a weekend...it's just short of a week.  There was some talk that there would be school on Monday and Tuesday (to make up for the 2 snow days we were already over) but apparently they couldn't scare up enough bus drivers to have school on those days so instead we are losing a day off in March and one of our spring break days.  Now we've had two more snow days and we will most likely lose another day of spring break and add one day on at the end of the school year.  Ugh!!  It's hard to imagine that we are ever going to get back on a normal schedule, and in some ways I'm not sure I want to be since my normal schedule is ridiculously busy. 

The good news is, it's supposed to warm up to 60 degrees by next weekend.  Oh, except that's bad news because on Tuesday we discovered that our large chest freezer wasn't working.  I sent Tanner downstairs to put something in the laundry room and he was greeted by a strong "burning rubber" smell.  We traced the smell to the freezer.  Unfortunately, it is extremely old (like older than me, I think...I'm not making that up) so replacement parts are not available.  Also unfortunately, it was extremely full.  We kept it shut on Tuesday evening (but unplugged, because it kept trying to come on, creating more of the burned rubber smell) and on Wednesday morning I cleaned out our refrigerator / freezer to make as much room as I possibly could.  Then we cleaned out the old freezer (which was long overdue...I had no idea we had 6 cartons of ice cream down there, or two pot roasts...).  Most of the meat went into two ice chests and everything else that wouldn't fit in the refrigerator / freezer went in bags and were put under the table on the deck.  It was really cold on Wednesday, so we weren't worried about anything thawing.  But in a few more days, it's going to be a problem.  Even today it felt "warm"--it got up to the 40's and a lot of snow melted--but the deck is in the shade and the food is still buried in snow so I'm not worried about it yet.  In the meantime, I've kind of abandoned all normal meal plans and we are just pulling stuff out of the ice chests, bags, and the freezer and making meals out of that.  It's not all bad...tonight I had filet mignon and potato wedges!  Maybe we will get a new freezer at some point, but since we just purchased a new dryer, I am trying to put it off.  We have been so spoiled having that freezer, though!  It is hard to go without one once you've had one.

Well, other than that, the rest of the week has been fairly calm.  The sister I was talking about last week surprised us all by passing away on Saturday.  Her funeral is tomorrow morning.  Her family did not want to put us to the trouble of making a meal for them (even though we told them we wanted to) so they ordered food and are going to have a meal at their house.  Some of us may help them with food pick up and set up, though. 

I took food to one set of Elders on Monday.  Frank was working and Tanner stayed after school to help with a rehearsal so I knew inviting them over wasn't going to work.  It turned out perfect for them too since they were in a big hurry and I actually made them ham & cheese sandwiches and French fries, and had packed it in lunch bags for them (along with applesauce cups and cookies).  We did manage to have family night later, after everyone got home.  The boys and I had dentist appointments on Tuesday and everybody's teeth are in great shape.  Tanner is going to need to get his wisdom teeth out this summer, though.  Tanner had a doctor appointment that day too (just a check for his meds).  I had my rescheduled doctor appointment today...I was actually worried the office was going to be closed again because of the weather, but it opened late, which didn't affect my appointment time.  Something kind of funny about that...I was having a procedure done (I'll spare you the details of what, but it's routine, nothing to be concerned about) and the doctor was telling me how great I did.  I said "what do you mean, do a lot of people squirm a lot or something?" and she said "Yes!  They do!"  I was surprised by that...it was only slightly uncomfortable.  I guess I'm pretty tough! :)

I had a presidency meeting on Monday, did a food order Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday evening we had our monthly RS meeting.  We did a community service project...we made bibs, burp cloths, and baby hats for an organization that helps pregnant women in crisis.  It was really a great activity...I loved seeing all those women together working, and talking and laughing together as they worked.  It felt good to know we were helping other women and at the same time we were being strengthened ourselves, by being together.  It wasn't supposed to start snowing until at least 10:00, but at 8:00 someone coming in let me know that it was already snowing and there was already about an inch on the roads, which were getting slippery.  So we let everyone know, in case they wanted to get home, and a number of people cleared out but a lot stayed and finished up their work and helped clean up.  By the time I left there was an inch or two on the roads, but it wasn't bad and we got home without any trouble. 

On Wednesday evening we brought the boys' friend Taylor home from the church with us and he spent the night and most of the day Thursday with us.  The other set of Elders came over for dinner...Frank had to go pick them up because they aren't allowed to drive in bad weather...and then after that he took the Elders back home and took Taylor and the older boys to another ward member's house to watch a movie.  Afterwards he took them all out to Taylor's house where they spent the night last night. 

Today we all got haircuts (except Frank, he had his done last Saturday).  Frank was out and about quite a bit on Thursday, in spite of all the snow.  He had asked for Thursday and Friday off already (and his office was closed Thursday anyway) but he is still helping his client with their move and has a lot of set up to do yet.  So he worked on that for several hours yesterday and a few more hours today as well. 

The boys and I got chores done yesterday morning and then they played games.  I finished reading the book for book chat (Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell).  I enjoyed it, and it did come to a somewhat decent ending in spite of the fact that the author died suddenly while writing it.  As the reader, you definitely know approximately how it's going to end, but I did feel a bit frustrated because after wading through over 600 pages, I felt deprived of the really great ending that it was obviously leading up to!  I'm sure the author would have written a really sweet ending (she was a very good writer).  Anyway, I'd heard it had been made into a movie so I decided to look it up on Netflix and was gratified to find out that not only does Netflix have it, but it is available for instant viewing.  So I watched that yesterday.  It was actually a four episode mini series done by the BBC, so it took a while to watch the whole thing (I was up pretty late last night!) but I really enjoyed it.  Also, just as I'd hoped...they used "artistic license" to fill in the blanks and create their own ending, which was a lot more satisfying than the abrupt ending of the book.

I hope everyone has had a nice Valentine's Day!  We had some treats and cards for the kids, and Frank and I got each other some chocolate to share, plus...surprise...I got red roses too.  And we got mushy cards for each other too, of course.  Hope you all feel loved because we love you!  

Weekly Review February 7 '13

A good way to describe this week (or really the last month, actually) would be "we interrupt your regularly scheduled life to bring you...winter weather".  There was no school on Monday, no school on Wednesday, and a 2 hour delay yesterday.  We are now up to 7 snow days this winter (we only have 5 built into the schedule) and it feels like we haven't had a "normal" school week since before Christmas break.  Actually, I'm pretty sure we haven't.  I know Hans was worried about making it to the family reunion in time, and the rate we are going it's going to be an issue for us too.  I think I will rebel and take the kids out of school early, if it comes to that.

 

School was cancelled on Monday because of snow.  We didn't get nearly as much snow as they had been predicting, but we did get 3 or 4 inches.  On Wednesday it was freezing rain.  The roads actually weren't too bad, but everything else had a thick coating of ice all over it.  What made the roads dangerous was falling tree limbs and power lines.  Frank and I went out in the afternoon to do some shopping and run some errands, and we saw lots of trees with pretty extensive damage.  There were a lot of power outages in the area (thankfully we never lost power) and it got even worse Wednesday evening because a stiff wind blew in.  A few of the schools were without power and closed on Thursday as well, but our kids' schools were not affected by that.  Here's a few pictures from the ice storm:

 

I took this picture yesterday...all the snow has a layer of ice on top now so it is slick & shiny.  Doesn't show up very well in the picture:

Tree branches down are a common sight.  This is just one branch.  Many trees have piles of branches underneath them:

These weeping willow trees near our house took a beating:

Under all the trees there are piles of icicles that have fallen off of the trees (doesn't show up well in the photo):

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am ready for spring!

I don't feel like I get a lot done on snow days.  I don't have the will power to get up early when I don't have to, so I always sleep in, and then I move slowly too so before I know it the day is half over.  Plus the kids are around distracting me.  I did better on Wednesday than on Monday, but neither day was all that productive. 

The real inconvenience on Monday was that our new dryer (we purchased one on Saturday morning) was supposed to be delivered that day.  But of course the delivery driver decided it was too "dangerous" to be on the road.  And Monday was our laundry day.  There wasn't much we could do about it, though.  They called Monday evening to say they would deliver the dryer on Tuesday between 8:30 and 10:30--the only two hours of the day that I was not going to be home!  (I have to take Seth to school at that time, and I had a visiting teaching appointment afterwards.)  It was frustrating...they wouldn't push it back an hour or two; if I couldn't be home on Tuesday during that time then my only other option was to wait until Wednesday.  Well, I knew that Wednesday was supposed to be bad weather as well.  Seems like they could be a little more accommodating considering they didn't deliver it when they were supposed to.  But it all turned out ok...they actually came early--at about 7:45--which was before I needed to take Seth to school but after I got back from picking up the Seminary carpool.  So I was thrilled about that!  The new dryer works great, too.  Here it is:

Yep, really exciting, isn't it?! 

I was still able to keep my visiting teaching appointment that morning, also.  I really didn't want to change it because it was with a sister that I've been trying to hook up with for about 4 months.  We had a nice visit and actually have a lot in common.  Among other things, she is an identical twin.

So what else did I do this week?  Saturday was really busy because of the dinner after the memorial service.  It went well, though.  There was plenty of food, plenty of help, and the family really appreciated it.  I had Ward Council Sunday morning, then choir practice.  Frank was not feeling well Sunday so I ran back home to pick up the kids after Ward Council.  I think my lesson went ok.  We always run out of time to discuss everything I want to discuss.  Tanner went to a mission prep class that evening and we had family night. 

I had a PPI with the bishop on Tuesday evening.  I also went to visit the 91 year old sister who's been in the hospital.  (And to bring her family some snacks, so they would have something to eat while spending so much time at the hospital.)  They weren't expecting her to live through the week end, but not only did she make it through the week end, she actually started to improve.  When I went by on Friday evening, she was unconscious.  When I was there on Tuesday, she was awake, talking a little (although it was an effort) and even eating a little bit!  She was released from the hospital today and taken back to the nursing home.  She is declining, however, and they don't expect that she has made a full recovery.  She still probably won't live a lot longer, but it's going to take longer than they expected.  So in the meantime, I'm sure her family is happy to have her with them for a little longer.

I mailed a Valentine package to Scott, took Tanner to an appointment, and visited a sister in the ward who has a new baby.  Frank and I went to lunch together today, thanks to the gift card Mom & Dad sent him for his birthday.  (He was working from home.)  In between everything else, Frank and I have been working on our taxes, I took Tanner to do some shopping for things he needs for the Hill Cumorah Pageant (the first of many trips!) and I've been trying to track down some information Tanner needs so that he can finish up his Eagle scout project paperwork.  I was supposed to have a doctor appointment on Wednesday, but the doctor's office was closed too so that had to be rescheduled to next week.  Frank had to get new tires for his car.  When I was at Wal-Mart this week, they had coats on sale and I got this one for $15:  

Frank does not like my old coat and kept telling me to get a new one.  I figured I probably wasn't going to beat $15!

Frank is still busy working on that big project for one of his clients.  He's gone working on it right now, as a matter of fact.  The meeting he had on Tuesday went great!  He worked from home on Monday but made it to work without any problems on Wednesday.  He saw one car on I-270  that was smashed because a tree fell on it right as it was driving by.  (Thankfully, the driver wasn't hurt.)

Now I need to take Tanner to a party at a friend's house (they are going to watch the movie Catch Me if You Can...which is the next play they will be doing after Bonnie & Clyde).  I have run out of things to say anyway.  That's all the important (and probably some of the unimportant) things for this week.