Weekly Review April 25 '14

Last week I wrote on Thursday evening because Friday was looking like it was going to be crazy...and it was, so it's good I wrote then.  Trouble is, today is just as crazy as last Friday was but I didn't write last night!  So hopefully I can get this finished somehow, in between all the chaos.

So last Friday, as I said, Frank helped to cook for a wedding, we had the missionaries over for dinner, I made dinner for another family who was moving, and I went to a wedding reception.  It was all a little crazier than I anticipated, even, but everything got done.  The missionaries helped me out by taking the food over to the moving family for me but I was still worried I was going to miss the reception.  There was only a starting time listed on the invitation...I got there over two hours after the starting time, but thankfully the bride and groom hadn't left yet!  

When the missionaries came for dinner, they had a third companion with them...a 17 year old girl who was on a 3 day mini mission with them.  So she and Tanner are the same age and it turns out she is going to BYU this summer.  Besides that, she's pretty cute so after that evening Tanner was wishing that there was some way he could get her phone number.  I texted the sister missionaries to let them know; they thought that was cute and were good sports about it so Saturday evening they came by again...we can always come up with a reason that we need to talk to each other...and gave Tanner the opportunity to talk to her a little more before she went back home.  He didn't get her phone number but she did tell him she'd "friend" him on facebook, which she did and then she gave him her phone number so there has been quite a bit of texting going on between them since then.  Hopefully they will just be friends!

Saturday I took Tanner shopping to find something for him to wear to prom.  His date is wearing a red dress so we wanted to find a red vest and tie that he could wear with his white Sunday shirt and black dress pants.  Turns out there were no red vests to be found.  So we got a red shirt instead, and he is going to wear that with the silver grey vest that Scott bought when he went to prom.  We also found a red, white, and grey striped bow tie for him to wear.  

On Saturday we also dyed Easter eggs:

Frank got some work done for clients, we went for a walk, and I visited Wanda.  I didn't manage to get the kitchen floor cleaned, though.  I wanted to sew instead, so I did.

We had a great Sacrament Meeting on Sunday for Easter.  Jared and I sang a song with the choir and all the talks were excellent and so uplifting.  After church we drove down to Erin's house for dinner.  They had their sister missionaries over as well as another member from their ward so we had a pretty good crowd and really enjoyed it.  The food was delicious, too!  Erin made a ham with some yummy sauce, rolls, jello salad, and carrot cake.  We brought au grautin potatoes and stir fry vegetables.  I probably forgot something, but anyway it was all really yummy.  We took pictures before we left:

And Jared carried Seth to the car like a sack of potatoes:

The rest of the week was busy, but not overwhelming.  I had book club on Tuesday...unfortunately, I did not finish the 600 page book we were reading (Adam Bede by George Eliot) but I enjoyed the part I did read and we had an interesting discussion about it.

I had a presidency meeting Wednesday, did a food order that evening ,and did another one this morning.  On Thursday I took Snickers to the vet for a follow up on his tail and teeth, and Seth had soccer practice.  Jared was supposed to go to the orthodontist too but he wasn't feeling well that day and stayed home from school so I changed his appointment to next week.  (Thankfully, he only had a bad headache and today he is back to feeling better.)

In between everything else, I was sewing and finished this outfit yesterday afternoon:
 

(By the way, Mom--the night after I called you and we talked about how to attach the straps and neither of us could figure it out, I didn't sleep well and while I was lying awake I thought about it some more and all of the sudden I had this little vision in my head of how to do it properly!  So the next day I tried it and it worked.  I'm not sure why I couldn't think of it before, and it's too difficult to explain on here but anyway...I was grateful that happened.)

I have put the sewing machine away now...even though I have fabric and patterns for several more projects...because I need to get some other things done!

I've spent a lot of time this week helping Tanner with Prom preparations.  It's been hard to plan because his date has a tennis match tonight so she wasn't sure what time she'd be able to be ready to go.  She finally decided this afternoon to ask to be excused from the match and now it's raining so it probably would have been cancelled anyway.  Tanner and two of his friends were planning to triple date and on Tuesday they got together and planned the meal they wanted to make ahead of time and everything.  Then yesterday it got more complicated because there were some mis-communications and somehow some other kids in the ward (and their parents) thought we were having a big dinner together and basically invited themselves to their dinner.  That left the other 2 moms and I panicked, suddenly needing to prepare twice as much food but we got it all worked out.  We're still not thrilled about it but I think the kids will have fun so oh well.

Wednesday was our 22nd wedding anniversary.  We really couldn't do much to celebrate that day, but Frank did surprise me with these:

We are planning to go out to eat tomorrow.  We also picked out a new toaster oven to replace the one we got as a wedding gift.  (It's seen better days!)

It's mostly been warmer this week and our tulips bloomed.  I like the variety of colors:

Frank's back has been bothering him all week.  At first he thought he had a pulled muscle, but since it hasn't improved much as the week has gone on, he thinks it may be a pinched nerve.  He has been going to work and getting around, but has just been hurting the whole time.  On Monday and today he worked from home.  On Monday he got a new toy.  He's been wanting to get a nice camera, so as a kind of combined birthday / anniversary / Father's Day present (and probably Mother's Day & birthday for me too) we got a new camera.  I haven't touched it yet, but Frank's been playing around with it and last night he took it to Seth's soccer practice to play around some more and he got a few good shots.  Here they are:

Now we need to leave for Prom (we're taking him to pick up the corsage and his date, and to get pictures) so I'd better sign off for this week.

Weekly Review April 17 '14

It looks absolutely beautiful outside.  In the last week the trees have suddenly produced leaves and blossoms.  The grass has turned bright green, the sun is out, the sky is blue, and flowers are blooming everywhere.  But it's cold!  We had this strange cold front come in Tuesday and since then it's been really chilly.  Below freezing at night and in the mornings.  Warming up to the 50's during the day, but with a breeze, so it still feels pretty cold.  I'm sure it's just temporary.  It's supposed to warm back up soon.

Last weekend was quite busy.  The boys had their last performance of the play Saturday evening; Frank went to see it and he liked it a lot and was quite impressed with the performers, just as I was.  Seth had his first soccer game of the season.  The first time he was put in, he actually paid attention and stayed with the ball the whole time.  The rest of the game he was back to being unfocused.  But at least that's a little progress!  His team is still really good, and they won the game 9-3.  That afternoon Frank & I went to a baptism...the son of a family who used to be in our ward (we lost them in the boundary change last year).  It was really the most incredible baptism I've ever been to.  Both the son's nonmember father and his less active brother spoke, and they did a great job.  The father thanked the missionaries who had taught his son in a most heartfelt way for changing their lives.  (Word has it that the father is getting baptized in a few weeks.)  Then after the baptism, the son shared his testimony and it was so powerful!  I was just in awe, and I wasn't the only one.  I was sitting next to the sister missionaries from our ward and one of them leaned over and said to me "that is the most amazing testimony I have ever heard!"  So it was very sweet to be there...glad we went!  In between those things, I was finishing up VT changes and getting the slips printed up as well as other RS tasks and household chores.  While Frank was at the play I took Seth to the park for a while.  This was before the cold front moved in, so it was still nice and warm.

Sunday I had ward council before church and that evening our stake had a special fireside...an Easter celebration with music and testimonies.  The youth from our ward sang their song again...the one that Jared sings a solo part.  They did a fantastic job again.  The whole evening was really uplifting.  A lot of non members came too.  I invited one of our neighbors, but she didn't come.  At least I tried!  In between church and the fireside, I took a short 15 minute nap and made cookies to take to the fireside.

This week hasn't been nearly so busy, which has been nice for a change.  On Monday I managed to get the tax return for the business sent in.  We had the Elders over for dinner.  For family night, we did service...took some boxes to a family in our ward who are moving, and helped them pack for a while.  Then we got treats at Dairy Queen on the way home.

It rained on Tuesday.  I got all my household chores done by lunch time so after lunch I went shopping...I've been wanting to make some clothes for my doll.  I got some patterns and some fabric; spent way too much time but had fun. I took all the boys to get haircuts after school.  Seth was being a little pill...he would not sit still and he kept sliding down in the chair and throwing the cape over his head.  He did not like it when she used the clippers on him.  She did finally manage to give him a fairly decent hair cut but she gave me her card and said I could bring him back in within a week and get anything fixed that needed it for free.  I did a few RS phone calls and emails as well, but the RS stuff has been pretty light this week (knock on wood!)

Wednesday I didn't have a lot that had to be done besides some grocery shopping.  After that, I decided to tackle a project that I've been needing to work on.  A member of our ward who had an adult daughter pass away gave me a bag of her garments--I guess thinking that I could find someone to give them to?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, I can't imagine that many people would be interested in used garments, especially since many of them were not in very good shape.  I felt bad returning them, though, so I decided to do them a service and just dispose of them.  Imagine my feelings when I went through the bag and discovered that there were about 30 tops and 50 bottoms!  I am still trying to figure out why anyone would need that many.  It boggles my mind.  So anyway, I spent 3 hours working on those (watched more television than I've seen in months) and sadly, I'm not done yet.  But at least I made some progress.  After the boys got home from school, Tanner & Jared went to help with an Eagle scout project for another boy in our ward.  After we got through dinner, I pulled out some of the fabric I bought on Tuesday and sewed until bed time.

Today we began our greatly abbreviated spring break.  (Originally, it was supposed to start on Monday and extend through this coming Monday.  Instead, we got today and tomorrow.)  It was nice for me not to have to be up at the crack of dawn.  I got up around 7:00 instead.  I didn't see Tanner or Jared until almost noon!  I got the household chores done (except for the ones I was reserving for Tanner & Jared to do) and then sewed some more.  After they got up, I went back to the fabric store for some velcro I needed and went to the grocery store too.  Then I came back home and finished up my first project: 

It's almost Easter so my doll had to have a dress, right?!  I had fun making it and it cost a lot less than buying a dress would have.  I have the fabric, patterns, and supplies to make 3 more outfits, a jean jacket, and a hoodie.  It's going to take me a while to get through all that, but it should be fun.  Have I mentioned that I love my sewing machine?  Kudos to Frank for getting it for me one Christmas.  I hadn't even asked for one and I didn't think I needed one, but it is much easier to use than my old machine.  I do find that I am enjoying the process more than I used to.  When I was first learning to sew, it was all about the end result.  Now I still enjoy the end result, but I don't get quite so frustrated when I make mistakes and have to unpick.  (Well, and I'm sure I don't have to unpick nearly as often as I did when I was learning.)  I'm enjoying the learning process now too.  Nice to know I've changed somewhat over the years!

So does that dress look sort of 70's-ish?  That was my goal, since my doll is supposed to be living in the 1970s.  I tried to find patterns that looked like they were from that time period and fabric as well.  It was hard to find either of them, though.  I remember rick rack being big back then, so I like that this dress has rick rack.

After I finished the dress, we made dinner and then I took Seth to soccer practice.  He is still not focusing very well but hopefully he'll improve a little with time.

I'm writing my post a day early because tomorrow is probably going to be kind of crazy.  Frank will be gone all day...after work he is helping with the catering for a wedding reception.  We're having the sister missionaries over for dinner and I'm taking dinner over to the moving family as well.  Then I'll be going to the wedding reception.

We bought our plane tickets this week and are looking forward to seeing you all in June!

Frederick Stake Missionaries

At our most recent Stake Conference, we received a list of all the full time missionaries serving in our stake, including what mission they are serving in.  It seems like there is a high proportion of missionaries from our stake serving in either the western United States (especially California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Arizona & Colorado) or in...Brazil!  Then there is a small portion that are serving in various other random places.  I thought it was interesting so I wanted to record the results.  Here they are:

Total Full Time Missionaries Serving: 45

Where they are Serving:

Washington Vancouver
Washington Seattle
Oregon Portland
Oregon Salem
California Redlands
California San Jose
California Santa Rosa
Idaho Pocatello (2)
Utah Provo (2)
Utah Ogden
Utah Salt Lake City South (2)
Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square
Family & Church History Church Headquarters (2)
Nevada Las Vegas (2)
Nevada Las Vegas West (3)
Arizona Mesa
Arizona Phoenix
Colorado Colorado Springs (2)
Brazil Fortaleza East
Brazil Cuiaba
Brazil Salvador
Brazil Sao Paulo Interlago
Brazil Joao Pesso
Brazil Curitiba South (2)
Brazil Goiani
Brazil Campinas
South Dakota Rapid City
Florida Orlando
Russia Moscow (2, married couple)
Paraguay Asuncion
Fiji Suva
Australia Sydney South
Taiwan Taichung
Dominican Republic Santo Domingo West
Japan Kobe

Total Called to Serve:  6

Where they will be Serving:

Arizona Scottsdale
Georgia Atlanta (2, married couple)
Guatemala Quetzaltenango
Belgium Netherlands
Italy Rome

So here are some interesting totals for our stake, both serving and called to serve.
Total USA: 31
Total Foreign Country: 20
Total in western USA: 28
Total in Brazil: 9
Total USA, not western: 3
Total Foreign Countries, not Brazil:  11
Total Washington: 2
Total Oregon: 2
Total California: 3
Total Idaho: 2
Total Utah: 8
Total Nevada: 5
Total Arizona: 3
Total Colorado: 2

Add to that...our bishop's son just got his call this week.  He will be going to...
Idaho Pocatello

Weekly Review April 11 '14

It's already 9:30 pm and I'm just getting started on this post...it's been one of those days!  So I'm going to try to be more concise and get through this quickly. 

This week was not as calm as last week, and I've felt a bit of stress...mostly because deadlines are looming.  Deadlines like tax returns and visiting teaching changes.  We did get our personal income taxes filed but I am still struggling with the personal property tax return for the business, which is also due on the 15th.  My main problem is that I have questions that I can't get the answers for.  The website doesn't answer them, no one has responded to my email, and the several times I have tried calling I get a voice mail stating that they are experiencing a high volume of calls so call back later.  So frustrating!  So it looks like I will probably be filing for an extension, same as last year.

There were a lot of "extra" things going on this week.  Tanner & Jared have been home a bit more, which has mostly been nice.  They were gone most of the day on Saturday...they had two shows (not three, as I previously thought) but they were home all day Sunday.  General Conference was awesome and I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite talk because I loved so many of them!  Then during the week I listened to all the talks from the Priesthood session and they were all excellent too.  Especially Elder Oaks's talk...wow, if everyone really understood and believed all the things that he said, we could forget all about this "why can't the women have the priesthood" nonsense!  

Jared and I had choir practice Sunday evening and I got a lot of RS things done.  Monday Snickers went to the vet for a teeth cleaning and to have a growth removed from his tail.  He got through all of that well although he really wasn't himself that evening.  He whimpered a lot and was just out of sorts, but by Tuesday morning he was his old frisky self again.  Thankfully, he has not been chewing on his tail so we haven't had to put the "cone" on him.

Tanner decided a few weeks ago that he wanted to go to "Mormon" prom.  Since all the school proms around here end up being pretty disgusting, there is always a regional prom held at one of the stake centers for all the Mormon kids in the area to attend if they wish.  Tanner and a few friends have been talking about going together but he hasn't had time to do much about it.  Finally on Monday he had time, so he made some cupcakes:   

After they were ready, I drove him over to his prospective date's house so he could leave the cupcakes on her doorstep.  She brought him the "yes" cupcake to Seminary the next morning, so now he is committed to going.  She is a girl in our ward (named Elisabeth) and they are just friends so it should be fun for them to go together.  She is very tall so I think she is glad to be going with a tall boy.  We have quite a few details to work out between then and now.

On Tuesday I got a package mailed off to Scott for Easter, went to a bridal shower for a girl in our ward (I was her advisor in Beehives!), and had my monthly meeting with the bishop. (Had to leave the shower early to go to that.)

Wednesday we had our RS Birthday dinner.  I made a crock pot of food for that in the morning, and also had to track down some round table cloths since the ones at our building have mysteriously disappeared.  It turned out to be a nice evening, though.  We had a lot of people come and the dinner was delicious.  We had a short program focused on visiting teaching which turned out really nice, with lots of sisters sharing good experiences that they have had with visiting teaching.  The room looked lovely, too.  One of the sisters on the committee is really talented at decorating and she made these centerpieces for the tables:

They were each sitting on a square of blue fabric, representing the blue and gold colors on the RS seal.  I had a bunch of them at my house because the sister who made them also had the great idea to give them away afterwards to sisters who might need some cheering up.  I sent a few home with sisters who were there (either for them or for someone they visit teach) but I ended up bringing most of them home.  I had absolutely no time to deliver them, though, so I asked the sister missionaries if they would do it for me.  They were delighted by that idea, so they came and picked them up for me this afternoon.  By then several of the daffodils had gotten pretty droopy, but thankfully I have daffodils blooming in the front yard so I was able to replace the droopy ones.

Last night Frank took Seth to his first soccer practice of the season while I went to see the boys' play...Catch Me If You Can.  I'm really glad I went to see this one because it was fantastic!!  I admit in the past I haven't been very impressed with the singing talent of most of the boys at their school but this time most of the male leads did an incredible job with the singing, not to mention the acting was superb.  Besides that, there were a ton of dance numbers and all of them were simply amazing.  There was some real talent there, plus I'm sure a lot of hard work went into all of it.  The show itself has an interesting story line, so all in all it was very entertaining.  I don't like most of the shows their director picks, but I really liked this one.  Frank is planning to go tomorrow...we didn't really want to take Seth along so we had to attend separately.

Today I spent the morning helping in Seth's class.  It's always kind of fun to get an inside look at what he is doing all day.  The boys are gone to their play again this evening.  Frank & I took Seth to IHOP for dinner.  I've been busy updating the budget for the rest of the day.  In between everything else I've been getting the regular household jobs done and trying every spare second I get to work on VT changes and taxes.  I didn't have many spare seconds, though so I haven't made much progress.  Looks like tomorrow will be busy too.

We have had some very nice spring days this week, which we have enjoyed so much.  We got some rain tonight (and Monday it rained most of the day) but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm again.  It's about time!  For a while there it looked like spring was never going to come.  So glad it's finally here.

Weekly Review April 4 '14

Have I ever posted a picture of my newest set of salt & pepper shakers?  I'm don't think I have.  Ben & Dee sent us these clever ones for Christmas:  

 We've been using them since January...I thought having them out in January & February would be an appropriate memorial for the all the astronauts who have died on the space shuttle, since one group died in January and the other in February.  (Sorry the picture is blurry.)  I put them away this week, though, and these ones came out:

Plus another spring set that I've posted a picture of before, so I won't do it again.  I also put the spring "Welcome" sign on the front door.  Today is actually cloudy, breezy, and rather chilly.  But we have had warmer temperatures in general all week and a few nice days.  It was finally warm enough that the daffodils decided to bloom:

Oh, and a couple of birds picked this spot to build their nest a few days ago:

It's right above our front step and they made a bit of a mess on the steps when they were building it (not to mention I've spotted a few bird droppings) but I don't mind too much.  It's a lot easier to not be grumpy when it's spring!  There are squirrels all over the place again, too.  In our neighborhood we have ordinary looking brown squirrels but there are also a lot of black squirrels.  They're pretty.

Well, I said it was going to be awesome to have Sister missionaries in our ward, and I was right!  I love the Elders too but I can work a lot closer with sisters and I can ask them to visit a lot of people that it would be difficult for the Elders to visit (such as single sisters).  This set that we have are working so hard and I am so impressed with them!  One of them is brand new out of the MTC, but you would never know it.  I've spent quite a bit of time with them this week, and they talk to everyone they meet.  They came for dinner on Friday evening and I gave them some suggestions of a few people to visit.  On Saturday I invited them to come with me to visit a couple of sisters who are in nursing homes.  Then I went with them to see a less active sister (one I hadn't met yet) and took them to the Women's Broadcast afterwards.  On Sunday they were in PEC with me so I wasn't the only girl.  On Wednesday they came over so I could give them a list of people to visit.  I went through the ward list and wrote down every sister I thought it would be good for them to visit...less active sisters, sisters with non member husbands, sisters who are struggling, sisters who are lonely.  There were about 59 of them!  Even I was shocked by how long the list turned out to be.  I gave them a little background information on several of them; we are still working our way through the list.  Last night I went on "splits" with them...not true splits since the three of us just went together (since one of them is brand new) and got to visit another less active sister...one I've been trying to visit for months.  Besides all that, they send me a text message every evening letting me know who they have been able to visit and how it went.  They have seen so many people already!  Besides working with less actives and part members, they are also meeting a potential investigator soon and have been having a lot of success helping another investigator progress...she's been investigating for a little over a year now.  I am pretty much in heaven.  It's like having a 3rd & 4th counselor! :)

So besides all that, what else happened this week?  It is "tech week" for the play Catch Me If You Can, so Jared & Tanner have barely been home all week.  The first performance was last night.  There is another tonight and three more tomorrow.  Then they have performances next Thursday, Friday & Saturday as well.  I will be glad when this play is over and we can see them again.  Plus there are a lot of things that Tanner and I need to get going on...like finishing up all the shopping for the Hill Cumorah Pageant, finishing up the paperwork for his Eagle project, filling out his service log sheet for NHS, and applying for scholarships.  It is making me anxious, all the things that need to get done in the next couple of months and he's not here to do them right now.  We did get him signed up for housing at BYU this week...he was given a specific day and time where he could go online to sign up.  Unless something changes, he'll be living at Helaman Halls building 9 (don't know why it doesn't have a name...all the other buildings have them...like "Budge Hall" or "May Hall").  We signed him up for a meal plan too so he won't starve at least.

Frank has had lots of little emergencies and extra little jobs come up with clients so he has been very busy this week too.  Seth and I have been eating a lot of meals with just the two of us, it seems.

Last Friday it was quite nice so after the sisters left after dinner I took Seth over to the park to play until it got dark.  Then on Monday (which was also one of the nicer days) Frank and I walked down to the bigger park with him.  Seth rode his bike...that is the first time we've been able to convince him to actually get on the bike and pedal!  He did pretty well but needs lots of practice still.  Seth enjoyed playing on the playground at the park and then we came home and had a treat.  We did the rest of family night (lesson etc) on Sunday so that Tanner and Jared could be there.

On Saturday I got my hair done, we had the Elders over for dinner (see, we're not totally neglecting them), Jared went to a party, I finished up lesson preparations, Tanner slept half the day (recuperating from the first play before the second began) and I did the visits and went to the Women's Broadcast as mentioned earlier.  Like Mom, I was very touched by the meeting.  There was such a sweet spirit there.  The talks were excellent, but the thing that touched me the most was seeing all those women around me with their arms around their daughters...and on the broadcast, seeing the women in the choir holding the hands of the girls next to them.  I felt like as women, we were showing all the girls what it means to be a daughter of God and a women in the church...letting them see and feel how wonderful that is!

Besides all the extra activity with the missionaries, this week was fairly calm for me.  I went to the library on Monday, had a routine doctor visit on Tuesday, went to the temple on Wednesday, and had a presidency meeting yesterday.  It was great to go to the temple again.  I saw the newest movie, which I hadn't seen before, so I enjoyed that.  It was nice that this week wasn't packed full of things to do since the boys were gone so I didn't have any help with chores.  As it was, I kept busy every day but I wasn't going crazy.  I am also very proud of myself because I managed to exercise Monday, Wednesday, and today.  I am really trying to do that more consistently, and to do exercises that are more demanding.

That's everything worth noting for this week, I think.  The school district finally let us know that the state has granted them a waiver for 2 snow days, so that means that between that and all the days we are making up, the last day of school will be on June 11th, as originally scheduled.  We are looking at plane tickets and hope to have some purchased by next week.