Another busy week is history, so here goes.
Last Friday, as planned, we had the missionaries over for dinner. They didn't have a car, so I took them home after dinner and Frank took Tanner to a graduation party at his friend Seth's house (he's in our ward). It turned out that Seth wanted Tanner to spend the night, so Frank took him the things he would need later.
Saturday morning both Tanner and Jared went to the stake center to participate in making a film for youth conference. Frank and I took Seth to his soccer game...his team won the game 9-2, or something like that. Have I ever mentioned that his team is good? ;) That afternoon, Seth went to a birthday party for a friend...at a bowling alley; he had fun. Frank helped me get all the floors swept & mopped; what a sweetie! That evening, after everyone was finally back home, Frank and I went on a date. He wanted to go somewhere to play around with the new camera, so we drove over to a place by the Monocacy River and tried taking some pictures. Here's a few I took:
Then we put in a different lens, and Frank took these ones:
Frank was observant and noticed that a few visitors had been down to the river recently:
(A deer)
(And a raccoon)
It was a peaceful spot and we enjoyed it until we had to return to the urban jungle, where we bought some luggage for Tanner. Then we had ice cream before going home.
Sunday was the usual craziness for me with meetings before and after church, and choir practice too. That evening we went to Tanner's Seminary graduation, which was really nice. Here he is with his friends Taylor and Elisabeth afterwards:
(Elisabeth graduated too, but her mom had already left and took her diploma with her.)
Monday was super busy. I had a presidency meeting in the morning and a lot of phone calls / appointments to make, plus all the usual things like grocery shopping, vacuuming, and laundry. Besides that, Tanner had an online seminar from BYU which showed him how to sign up for classes. It's all done online now, and it's somewhat overwhelming with all the different features they have although they have a lot of great options that didn't exist back in the day, when I was signing up for classes. For example, if a class is full, it will tell you how many people are on the wait list to get in so you have some idea if you have a chance of getting in or not. And...let's say you've signed up for all your classes but you still need a 2 credit hour class and the best time slot to fit your schedule is Mon / Wed at 11:00 am, you can put that information in and it will give you a list of all the classes with openings that fit those criteria. Holy Cow!! That would have made my life a lot easier back then. Watching this seminar with him brought back memories of the old phone system, where you'd put in a class you wanted to sign up for and then listen while that computer voice would say "Accounting 110, Section 254...(at this point, you'd hold your breath)...has been added to your schedule (huge sigh of relief!). More often than not, though, instead it would say "...is full." Aaaargh!!! Ok, you can see I'm still scarred from those experiences.
Anyway...back from my stroll down memory lane...besides all that, Tanner had also arranged to meet his friend Kirsten (she's the girl who came here on a mini mission...and he went to her choir / band concert a few weeks ago) at a park in between here and her home to play games and have a picnic. (Their first official date.) And since Tanner still has only a permit, he needed a licensed driver to sit in the front seat while he drove over there. And guess who got to do that? It was about a 40 minute drive, made slightly longer because our GPS is older (and no updates are available) and there's been some new roads put in that area lately. We got there ok, though. I was a bit undecided about whether or not I should just stick around for a couple of hours (since I'd spend a lot of the time just driving back and forth if I went home). I decided to give going home a try but had similar GPS problems going back and even though I did figure out the right way to go home after driving around in circles for a while, that took enough time that I decided it wasn't worth it so I just went back to the park. It was located at an elementary school, so I parked in the school parking lot and Tanner didn't even know I was there. (And I didn't spy on them, either!) I had brought plenty of reading material so it wasn't bad waiting...I made some headway on the Six Days of War book, after reading my scriptures and the RS lesson for Sunday. I think Tanner had fun, and he got in another hour and a half of driving time. Kirsten is starting BYU summer term, so they wanted to get together before she had to leave. He may see her while we are out in Utah; we'll see!
Meanwhile, at home, Frank made sure Jared and Seth got dinner. I ate picnic leftovers (there were lots) on the way back home. When we got home we had family night and then I had the boys help me clean bathrooms and I finished up planning the grocery list. I have no idea how we got so much done in one day! The reason I was trying to get the bathrooms and grocery list done (which are normally Tuesday jobs) is because the next morning Tanner was scheduled to have all four wisdom teeth removed so I wanted to be focused on taking care of him instead of trying to get chores done.
Tanner's appointment was at 9:00 am, so Frank got Seth & carpool boys to school, while I took Tanner in. They got him done pretty quickly...all four teeth were out in 40 minutes or less. Then he needed some time to wake up all the way, but we were home before 11:00 (and it's a 30 minute drive away). Tanner was much more alert than I remember Scott being...they took Scott out to the car in a wheelchair and later on he told me that he didn't even remember the ride home. Plus he slept most of the day afterwards, too. Tanner walked out to the car himself (holding onto my arm) and he stayed awake the whole way home (although he was getting sleepy near the end). After we got home he stayed awake for quite a while...enough that the numbness had worn off and he wasn't feeling too great. Plus, he was still bleeding for a while. He did finally take a nap for a few hours in the afternoon. That evening he felt pretty nauseated...probably a combination of the pain medication, swallowing blood, and not eating very much. He asked Frank for a blessing and after that he perked up quite a bit and didn't have much trouble after that. He was brave and not very demanding, but all in all, I was very glad I had gotten my chores done the day before. I did spend some time filling out his Eagle application and another online form for BYU (I'll explain in a minute), but I was able to do that while I sat in the same room with him, so I was there if he needed anything.
We've been a little concerned about how ADD is going to affect Tanner's ability to do well in college (they are much more forgiving in high school about missed / late assignments, and the pace is not so fast either) so Frank contacted BYU on Monday and asked if they have any help available for students with ADD. There is, and to begin the process of receiving help you have to fill out an intake form online and then set up an appointment to talk to a counselor. So I filled out the form (which was lengthy, and kind of a pain) and then called and got an appointment set up for one of the days that we'll be out in Utah. There was also a part of the form that his doctor needs to fill out, so I got that over to the doctor's office on Wednesday. (I made three trips there this week...Monday to pick up a prescription for him, which wasn't ready, Wednesday to drop off the form and to pick up the prescription after it was ready, and yesterday to pick up the completed form.)
Anyway...Tanner slept on the couch Tuesday night. When he woke up Wednesday, he said his mouth didn't hurt very much, but his face was a little swollen (and still is...mostly on the right side). He has been taking it easy and keeping down as much as possible the last three days. I think he is growing a bit weary of soup, pasta, and eggs! But we're really glad that he is recovering well and hasn't had any complications (keep your fingers crossed).
Tuesday evening I was supposed to have a PPI with the bishop, but his train was delayed so that didn't work out. (I got shopping at Wal-Mart done instead.) We did talk briefly on the phone and he told me that a ward member who's been sick for a long time took a turn for the worse and wasn't expected to live through the night. He did make it through the night, but passed away Wednesday morning. This member and his family are not very active so a lot of us don't know them. The bishop asked me to have some flowers sent from the ward and to pick up a deli tray or some other simple meal to take to the family's home this Monday, which is the day of the service. So I spent some time yesterday ordering the flowers and researching options for the deli tray. I think I have it figured out now, just need to order what I'm getting so I can pick it up on Monday. If you are thinking that we have had a lot of funerals in our ward lately, you are right...that's the fourth this year, compared to one the first year I was RS president.
On Wednesday I took Snickers to the groomer, got Tanner a milkshake, and started packing Tanner's stuff for the Hill Cumorah. (Normally, I would have made him do it himself, but he was recuperating.) I want to have most of his Hill Cumorah stuff packed before we leave for Utah since we only have a day in between getting home from there and the day he needs to leave. Since we bought him his own set of luggage (he'll need it for his mission too), we have enough suitcases that we can do that. The Hill Cumorah packing is a bit complicated because everything he takes has to be marked with his name. EVERYTHING!! Every sock, every pair of underwear, every shoe, plus all his other stuff like travel alarm clock, tools, etc. So it was quite a job getting all that stuff marked. Then of course there are some things he will need in between now and then, so I couldn't pack it all but I did as much as I could.
Wednesday evening there was a Court of Honor. Tanner decided he didn't want to go out in public yet, but Jared received his Camping and Citizenship in the Community merit badges:
(He always gives me a big hug and a big smack on the cheek in front of everyone.)
He also got his Life rank:
If you look at the top two pictures above, you can see in the background a chalk board, and...if you look hard at the second picture...a table with an eraser sitting on it. The scoutmaster had planned this pretty fun competition between the parents and the scouts, to see which group could identify the most merit badges correctly by looking at the patches. Before each boy got his awards, he and a parent had to guess two different merit badges. The first patch was easier...one that the boy had earned (not necessarily recently). The second patch was a more obscure merit badge that was harder to identify. On the harder one, if no one could identify it, he gave us three choices. The scoutmaster had pictures of the patches that he put up on a television screen, and the first person to grab the eraser got to guess what the patch was. Jared got the eraser before me the first time (it was Citizenship in the Nation) which was frustrating because I knew it too, but the second patch looked familiar to me. After looking at it for a few seconds I realized that I had signed up to be a merit badge counselor for this badge a long time ago (I'm not a counselor for this particular badge anymore) and then it took me a few more seconds to remember the correct name of the badge. Then I grabbed the eraser and said "Is it American Cultures?" The scoutmaster's eyes got really big...he couldn't believe I actually got the right answer...without any choices, even...that earned me two points instead of just one. Everyone was stunned. My moment of glory...hahaha! (By the way, in the end the scouts pulled ahead of the parents by about 4 points. But I think we did pretty well considering we're not the ones earning the badges.) Tanner received his swimming merit badge FINALLY, even though he wasn't there that evening.
I think I already covered yesterday...mostly spent on the funeral preparations, besides all the normal chores. Oh, and I booked a flight for Tanner and I for the end of August so I can bring him out and get him settled in his dorm. Southwest had flights on sale, so I jumped on it (although they still weren't fantastic prices...but less than I paid for our summer vacation tickets.) After school, Jared had a couple of friends over...they were working on a project for school which involved making a film. It was field day at Seth's school; I think he had fun. Seth also had his last soccer practice (there's one more, but we'll be in Utah). I dropped Seth and Frank off at the practice while I ran to Costco to find out prices for their deli trays. It was fun getting back to the practice afterwards...too many one way streets in downtown Frederick, and they were all going the opposite way from where I needed to go! I saw some parts of Frederick I've never seen before, but I did finally figure out a way to get back to the practice. Frank took pictures of the practice and got some good ones. I love this one, even though it's blurry:
He's getting some instructions from his coach. His coach is awesome...so kind and patient!
Frank helped out at the end of practice by being one of the goalies for their scrimmage. He did a great job! :)
This morning I got the budget caught up. I will be taking the boys to get haircuts this afternoon. I've been reading whenever I get a chance and have about 50 pages of Six Days of War left. The war part has been interesting and a lot easier to get through than the earlier part of the book, but it still is not a fast read. Plus I haven't had a lot of spare time for reading. Frank has been keeping very busy at work and with clients although work for the business has slowed down quite a bit lately. Frank also found someone to watch the dog for us (what a relief)...and he's going to house sit too so that will be nice. I've been really good this last month about exercising and have established the habit of jogging for 30 minutes, 3 times a week. It feels good to get some exercise, and I will probably increase my work outs to five a week this summer. Hopefully over time I will get in better shape and I will be able to maintain my weight (and maybe even lose a few pounds; I have a few extra I'd like to lose).
That's it!
