Weekly Review May 1 '15

Here it is, the first day of May.  How did that happen?

As always, we had a busy week.  Frank has had a lot going on at work and he's been working long hours...haven't seen him much!  I keep things going at home which seems to be more and more challenging...the boys seem to have so much going on all the time.

Sunday was a nice change, though...we had a regional stake conference broadcast from Salt Lake City, so we had one meeting at 10:00 and that was it!  No other meetings for me.  I really enjoyed that!  They tried something new this time, though...broadcast from the stake center to two other buildings in the stake.  That really helped cut down on the crowded conditions!  We went to our regular building instead of to the stake center and our chapel was full and most of the cultural hall was full too.  It was nice, but it also meant that Frank was busy again...he was asked to be in charge of the audio visual stuff at our building, since the stake clerk in charge of technology can't be in 3 places at once.  So it was like old times, with Frank running around like crazy and then he sat up on the stand for the whole meeting to keep an eye on the broadcast & make sure everything was running ok.

Some friends invited us over for dinner that evening.  So after the meeting we came home and relaxed for a while (I took a short nap) and then we went to dinner, which was delicious and it was fun to visit with friends too.

On Monday I regrouped a little...made a lot of appointments that needed to be made and so forth.  Tanner worked that day, but that was the only day he was scheduled to work.  When Jared got home from school, I took him to order the corsage for Prom.  He also got some flowers and made a sign because even though he and this girl agreed to go to Prom together months ago, she still said he had to officially ask her!  So he decided to surprise her by showing up at her tennis match with flowers and a sign:

  

Apparently, she was totally surprised and squealed and gave him a hug.  So everyone's happy.

Tuesday morning I took Snickers to the vet for a follow up after his surgery.  He got all the stitches out and everything looks pretty good.  In spite of our careful watching, he did manage to remove 4 of the 5 stitches on his tail himself!!  But it is still healing fine.  They said we still need to keep an eye on his tail for a few days because there's a scab on it that they don't want him to chew off.  But pretty soon we'll be able to put the "cone of shame" away.  I think I'll be as glad as Snickers about that!  I had errands to run that day also, and all week I've been working on visiting teaching changes and the RS lesson for Sunday, since it's my turn to teach.  I've got the lesson mostly figured out, the visiting teaching changes are still a mystery!  (But hopefully I'll get those figured out today.)  On Tuesday I also sat down with Jared and we did some planning for his Eagle project.  We made some progress, but it's always stressful!

Wednesday I got a couple of packages ready to mail, went shopping, cleaned out the coat closet (trying to keep up my momentum with cleaning and organizing!), and worked on RS stuff.  Jared had to do sound for a showcase at school that evening.  Tanner had agreed to help with the YM / YW activity that evening.  But then he got a message from the stake executive secretary trying to set up an appointment with him to meet with the stake president so he could get his mission papers submitted.  And the bottom line was that the stake president could only meet with him during the activity.  So we made some phone calls and did some juggling around, and he was able to find someone else to help with the activity in his place so that he was able to meet with the stake president.  (He would have had to wait until Sunday otherwise, which he didn't want to do.)  The stake president said he would submit his papers either that evening or the next day, so that means that his papers are finally in!  Hooray!!

Yesterday I had a lot to do but also as I have been preparing my lesson all week on blessings of attending the temple, I just kept feeling like I really needed to go to the temple!  I felt like Tanner needed to go too.  So I looked up the times for the baptism sessions and somehow managed to work it out for us to be there at noon.  It took some juggling, and a lot of things needed to fall into place, but they did.  So Tanner got to do baptisms and I got to do initiatories.  I'm really glad we went, even though I still have lot to do and I'm feeling a little stressed about it.  But I'm sure it was the right thing to do.

The flowers at the temple are gorgeous right now!  So we took some pictures.  I took several close ups before I discovered that the camera was set on black and white!  And then the SD card got full so I couldn't take as many as I wanted.  But here are a few:
 

We drove through a pretty decent thunderstorm on the way home, and it rained last night too.  Our new grass is growing splendidly...but it's a lot darker than the old grass so you can definitely tell where the new grass ends and the old grass begins.  It's pretty funny!

Besides going to the temple yesterday, I also visit taught one sister, picked up Seth from piano class after school, bought groceries, did laundry, mailed 2 packages, and vacuumed the whole house (well Tanner did the vacuuming for me actually).  I also started updating the budget, which I finished this morning.

The rest of the day will be busy...Jared has Prom tonight and the other two boys are going camping with Frank for the Fathers / Sons camp out.  I planned a girls' night with friends so that should be fun.  In between I need to finish up my lesson and figure out visiting teaching and make some phone calls for RS.  So I'm sure there won't be a dull moment!

I also had the realization this week that Seth's birthday is coming pretty soon and that he is supposed to get a party this year.  (Not to mention his baptism will be shortly after...at the beginning of June!)  So I've been trying to get some ideas of what to do for his party so that I can get that ball rolling.  It's tricky since our house is small and we don't have much of a yard.  I've been exploring the idea of having his party at a park.  The biggest issue there is privacy though...I am really wishing we had a large fenced back yard instead!  I'd really like to do a carnival theme (nothing elaborate, mind you!), but that would require a decent sized open space.  Well, we'll figure something out.  We've had all of the kids' parties at home over the years (except for Seth's last party) and it's always worked out.

Now I'd better get busy on my list for the rest of the day!