Weekly Review June 26 '15

I got a new set of salt & pepper shaker because...you know, I don't have enough already! But seriously, I had to get these ones for Frank:

So he can tell which one is salt and which one is pepper!

We've made it through another week and I'm not sure yet, but I think when Tanner gets on the plane Monday afternoon he will actually have everything he needs for his mission in his suitcases.  Plus everything that needs to be done before then will be done too I hope.  And if I'm really lucky, Seth, Jared and I will also have everything we need in our suitcases when we get on the plane Monday afternoon as well!

Going back to last Friday, we had a stake picnic.  I waffled back and forth a bit on whether or not to go.  We finally decided to go for a while.  We didn't stay a long time because Frank was uncomfortable sitting at the picnic benches, but we did stay long enough for Jared to participate in the pie eating contest:

He didn't win but I think he enjoyed it.  I mean, he got a whole apple pie to himself, after all.  Tanner didn't go with us because he went to a play that a friend was performing in.  On Friday I also made cookies (more on that later) and all the other regular Friday chores.

Saturday Frank and I went on a short walk.  The Primary president and I met at the church to assemble bags of cookies for all the men in the ward for Father's Day.  (That's why I made cookies on Friday.)  We had several women in our ward contribute cookies so it was not a lot of work and all the men seemed to really like getting them on Sunday.  After that, Frank and I went to the store to get some new blinds for the windows and a new outside light for the front porch.  The HOA said we need to replace the light (it's broken) and Seth broke one of the living room blinds last week.  Since the blinds are all very old (they were here when we moved in, I think) and we've been planning to replace them anyway, we decided to just replace all of them.  That trip ended up taking up more time than we anticipated...the light we wanted had to be retrieved from a high shelf and the blinds had to be cut to fit...so Frank was hurting quite a bit before we were done.  We actually only brought one blind home to make sure it was the right fit before they cut all of them, so Jared and Frank went back to get the rest right after dinner.  Meanwhile, I had a boy in the ward come over to pass off the Personal Management Merit Badge, the Elders came by, and before Jared & Frank got home a huge thunderstorm rolled in.  It was kind of a crazy night.

On Sunday, because of Father's Day, I didn't have any meetings.  So I got to sleep in a bit and I was home to make some breakfast for Frank.  (He chose waffles.)  After the boys got up we gave him some cards and some presents.  Frank's back was hurting and he was lying on a heat pad, so he said he didn't want me to take pictures of him lying down, but I told him it was okay because we'd always remember that this was the Father's Day that he was still recovering from a car accident:
 

There were a lot of people on vacation or something, so attendance and church (and RS) was pretty sparse again.  But we did have some good meetings.  I made dinner for Frank too (usually his job on Sundays, since I'm not around much) so hopefully he felt sufficiently pampered.

Oh, and I got a new counselor and secretary for RS.  My 1st counselor needed to be released because she just had a baby AND her husband was called to be the YM president a couple of months ago.  My former secretary is now my 2nd counselor, my 2nd counselor became my 1st counselor, and I got a new secretary.  So the whole presidency got released except for me, and then of course 2 or the 3 who got released got put right back in.  It was stressful figuring out who needed to be the new counselor (and secretary) but now that they've been sustained, I feel quite a bit of peace and relief.  So I think we're going to work together just fine.

Monday morning I met with my two counselors (the new secretary, understandably, couldn't make it since she just found out about the meeting the day before).  We actually didn't have a formal meeting, I just went over a bunch of things that I wanted to make sure they knew about before I am out of town for a couple of weeks.  While I was gone, Jared had a friend over and they finished spray painting all the signs for Jared's eagle project.  Then I took he and his friend over to a ward members' house so they could mow the lawn for them.  I did shopping (grocery and a few things for Tanner's mission) while they mowed, then picked them back up.  Jared went with the Elders to a dinner appointment that evening.  We had family night without him because Tanner was leaving for YSA family night before Jared was going to get back.

On Tuesday I went in and got my driver's license renewed because it would have expired while I'm in Utah.  It didn't take too long, thankfully, and my new picture turned out okay too.  The boys and I kept busy with cleaning and such too.  The Elders came over for dinner that night.  One of the Elders was going home the next day, so we took some pictures:

Tanner and Jared are in Sunday clothes because they were going to the temple right after dinner.  The youth had a temple baptism trip, and Tanner was asked to go along to help do the baptisms.  I think he enjoyed that a lot.  While I was waiting up for them, I watched a Netflix movie called The Age of Innocence.  We've had it for a while and I've been trying to find the time to watch it.  I read the book a few months ago so I was interested in seeing the movie.  It was pretty good. I enjoyed seeing 1870's New York City come to life, anyway.

Tanner was up early the next morning because he had agreed to drive the Elders to Columbia, MD for the transfer meeting and it began at 8:00.  There were a ton of missionaries going home and the mission president goes home next week so the meeting was super long. He had an appointment at 1:00 and barely got back in time for that.  I was supposed to meet with a sister in the ward at 1:00 so I had to push that back a few hours since I didn't have a car. Jared and I worked on his Eagle project.  We made one of the signs (we want to work out the kinks in the process before we have a bunch of people working on them at once).  It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot and low humidity so it was nice to be outside.  While we worked, Seth played on the hill with Snickers:

(When Seth saw the circular lines left by the lawnmower, he said "Mom, come here!  I think I just found evidence that aliens actually exist!  He is so funny sometimes.)

One side of one sign completed:

Well, sort of.  I think it's going to need a few more coats of polyacrylic.  And even though it looks pretty good, the paper with the picture of the carrots is rather wrinkled so I'm worried moisture is going to get in there.  We're still trying to figure out a better method.

That evening Jared and I went to the church to attend an Eagle Court of Honor for one of the boys in the ward.  I also got a food order signed by the bishop, and delivered it to the family that needed it.

Yesterday, besides the usual Thursday chores of laundry, grocery shopping, and such, I took Seth to get a haircut and Jared to the bank to cash a check.  Jared had a Seminary party that evening and Tanner went to Institute. Most days this week we have tried to do some work on Jared's eagle project but the weather has not been cooperative.  Most days there has been rain at some point, and we have to have several hours to allow things to dry.  If we had a garage, it would make this project a whole lot easier!!!

Today has not gone as planned because Frank ended up needing to go to the doctor and then to the ER.  To make a long story short, while he was at PT today he got really light headed and his blood pressure went way up and his heart rate went way down.  So after he got home he called our doctor and they told him to come in.  The doctor decided to send him to the ER to have his blood checked and some other tests run to make sure his heart is okay.  Everything checked out fine, thankfully, but we still have no idea why that happened.  So he'll be following up with our doctor.  Of course, that ended up taking up all afternoon and into the evening.  I'm not feeling too great about leaving him alone for two weeks!  I wish we knew what was going on with him.

I signed up to take dinner to my former counselor tonight, which turned out to be a little crazy since I was at the ER with Frank.  But I was hungry anyway and the boys needed to be fed also.  So I left long enough to come home, make dinner, deliver some to my counselor's family, and then took some back to the hospital for Frank and I.  They did x-rays and blood tests while I was gone, and not long after I got back they decided he was okay and sent him home.

I've enjoyed being on a more relaxed schedule this week with the kids out of school, but I haven't exactly been sleeping in or anything.  The dog has been waking me up pretty early every day.  He has been sleeping in his crate every night since we got him (6 years ago) but about a month ago he started scratching and barking every night, all night.  (He does that once in a blue moon, but not every night, and he would stop when we told him to stop.)  It was keeping us awake and after a few weeks we couldn't stand it and started letting him sleep on our floor in our room.  He quieted right down, but now he is free to roam around the room at a very early hour.  I don't like it.  I'm thinking about moving his crate up to our room to see if we can get him to sleep in it again.

In between all the other stuff, I've been doing whatever I can to check things off Tanner's mission "to do" list. I also read a book called The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (so so) and then I started reading a book called The Scientist in the Crib, which is a nonfiction book all about how babies learn.  It's pretty fascinating, and I am coming to appreciate even more what a miracle our bodies and minds are!  Things for RS have calmed down a lot and most of Tanner's stuff is done so this week wasn't nearly as stressful (at least until today).  

That's everything I can think of for this week, and I still have lots to do tonight.  I'll finish up with another quote from Seth: "Mom, everyone knows that underwear is indestructible."  I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in a few days!

Weekly Review June 19 '15

It is our first day of summer vacation.  Finally!!  It feels like the whole world has been out of school for a month now.  It's finally our turn.

When I left off last week, we were having dinner and then going to pack meeting.  This is the first pack meeting we've been to for a long time, since Jared hasn't been a cub scout for over 5 years now.  This particular pack meeting was at a park and we had a beach theme for the activities.  It was pretty fun.  Everyone brought snacks to share.  All of the boys got awards, too.  Even boys like Seth who just turned 8 so they haven't had a chance to do any cub scout stuff yet.  They just asked each of the parents to tell them an accomplishment that boy had made in the last year. So I talked about how Seth learned to play the piano and just had his first recital.  Seth had a lot of fun at the park.  Frank was hurting because picnic benches are not comfortable places to sit, though.

Tanner and Jared didn't go to pack meeting with us because they went to see Jurassic World.  They loved it, of course!  Tanner has never completely grown out of the dinosaur phase!

Jared had a really busy day on Saturday.  First of all, he got up really early because our ward was having a sunrise devotional / testimony meeting and breakfast for the youth.  The sun comes up pretty early this time of year so he had to be at the church at 4:45 am.  He was home by 8:00 but went straight to the school from there because he was running lights and sound for a big dance recital and there was a lot of setting up to do.  He was gone all day because they had some problems with the light board so the setting up took a lot longer than it should have.  He didn't get home until 9:00 that evening, but he will get paid for working all day at least.

Meanwhile, Frank and I got to go on a date.  Frank really wanted to see Jurassic World too, so we went to a matinee for that.  Then we had lunch.  That is not my first choice in types of movies to watch, but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.  It was nice to get out alone for a while, too.  It's been a while since we've been able to do that.  After we got home I had lots of things to do and I almost forgot to take Seth to his eye doctor appointment that afternoon!  But I remembered just in time.  We ordered new glasses for him and now I just need to remember to go pick them up.

Sunday was the usual...lots of meetings!  Our ward was a bit on the sparse side for some reason.  A lot of people were missing, including one of my counselors because she had a baby that morning.  We only had about 13 people in Relief Society!  I think a lot of people were out of town, though...vacations planned when we thought we'd be out of school already.  I found out that morning that a sister in our ward had broken her ankle the night before.  Another sister (besides my counselor) had also had a baby earlier in the week.  Her mom was visiting to help, so she had told me she didn't need any help until after her mom left.  But on Sunday I found out that her visiting mom was sick!  So this week was a little crazy, making sure that everyone who needed things were taken care of and doing okay.

Monday I had lunch with my friend Rebekah.  I also took milk to a family who needed it (I messed up their food order somehow so they didn't get any milk) and dropped off a card and some flowers for a sister whose mom died last week.  Oh, and took dinner to the sister with the new baby and sick visiting mom!  In between I managed to squash in things like laundry and grocery shopping, and every day I tried to do some small thing on Tanner's mission prep list. Frank had a busy day too.  He has worked every day this week...Wednesday he worked from home but every other day he went in to work, and put in full days.  He is doing ok but it isn't easy for him.  On Monday after work he spent the rest of the evening down in his office doing work for some clients.  He's had a lot more going on with his business the last week or so.

Tuesday morning I had a lot to do but I felt like I needed to visit a couple of sisters.  So after dropping Seth off at school, I went to the store to get some flowers and then stopped by one sister's house to give her the flowers.  Her dad just passed away and she also has some really difficult things going on with one of her kids.  I wasn't sure if she would want to talk, but she invited me in and we did have a long, but very good talk.  She'll be okay...but again, sometimes I wonder how people manage to keep going!  After that visit I took flowers to the sister who broke her ankle and found out that it had been broken in three places and she had to have surgery on it the next day.  She has older kids living at home including one adult daughter, so thankfully she has a lot of people to help her.  But I still plan to keep in touch with her to make sure she doesn't need more help later.  She'll probably be down most of the summer and I imagine it will be wearing on her and her family!  After I left her house, I checked my phone and discovered I had a message from another sister who sounded pretty upset and wanted to talk to me before she had to leave for work, if possible.  I realized I would be driving right by her house on my way home, so I just stopped at her house.  I was able to talk to her and help her feel a little better...she had a crisis with her daughter.  By then it was lunch time!  Needless to say, I didn't get everything on my list done that day.  But I've been able to catch up over the last few days and I'm sure that was the right thing to do.  I got a few household chores done and called my compassionate service leader to ask her to get a few things done for the sisters I visited.

Tanner and I went to the temple on Wednesday.  We were hoping to get there in time for the 10:00 session but the traffic was terrible so we just missed it.  Rather than wait an hour for the next session, we decided to do initiatories.  I'm really glad we did because it really helped me to hear those promises again.  I felt some of the weight I'd been feeling over the troubles of others lifted, I was encouraged that I can continue to do everything I need to do to help others, and I was reminded why those women are able to keep going in spite of how difficult their lives are...because their temple covenants give them power.  Some of my own burdens felt lighter too.  So that was a really sweet experience.

I came home and got shopping done, and picked up Seth from school.  I don't usually pick up in the afternoons but I had offered to pick up my counselor's son (the one who just had a baby) on Wednesday and Thursday because he goes to the same school as Seth.  (Her husband had to go back to work on Wednesday so he couldn't pick up after that.)  The Elders came over for dinner that night.  Jared was helping with a theater thing at the school that evening.  Tanner and I were somewhat interested in going to a choir performance at the stake center (a special musical fireside thing done by a group visiting from Utah) but I had a lot of catch up to do and so we decided not to go.  Then one of Tanner's friends called so he went to spend the evening with him.  I made a lot of progress on my list of things to do so Thursday wasn't as stressful

Wednesday was Jared's last day of school because the last day for the high school students is a test make up day.  If you don't have any tests to make up, then you don't have to go.  Seth's last day was yesterday, and it was a short day.  They got out two hours early. It was also pajama day, and I'm pretty sure they didn't get much done in the way of learning!  I got my regular chores done and made some phone calls and such for RS before I had to go pick him up.  My counselor's son (Lyndon) and Seth wanted to have a play date right then, but I had made an appointment to get my hair done that afternoon.  So we decided that Lyndon could come over that evening (after talking to his mom, of course!)  I got my hair done and Frank (who had just come home from work) went over with me and got his hair cut too.  He hadn't had his hair cut for a couple of months!  He was already a few weeks overdue to get a hair cut when he got in the wreck.  Since then, it has been too painful for him to think about it since getting a haircut involves looking down and turning your head, not to mention sitting in a chair for a while.  So he had really long, curly hair!  After haircuts and dinner, Lyndon came over to play with Seth for a while.  They had a lot of fun.  Tanner went on exchanges with the missionaries and then to Institute.  I was able to do quite a bit of reading and finished the book for book chat.  We chose a book called Little Bee, and it was pretty intense and had a few pages I'd recommend skipping, but it was a pretty compelling story and the writing is beautiful.  Before bedtime, we went outside and Jared and Seth chased fireflies for a while.  One of my favorite parts of summer!!  Just wish that could be captured on film.  The fireflies have been slow to come out this year and there still aren't as many as usual, but we're starting to see more of them.

In between everything else, I managed to get a car rental booked for our trip to Utah.  It looks like, unfortunately, that Frank is not going to be able to come at all.  He has a lot of projects piled up at work and doesn't feel like he can miss any work until he gets caught up.  I am really bummed about it!!  We also got a call from missionary medical to arrange getting Tanner's medication for him while he's on his mission.  I hadn't had a chance to follow up on that yet when missionary medical called me!  So that was helpful.  Tanner and Jared went out one day and bought a lot of the smaller things Tanner needs for his mission (like first aid and hygiene items) so the shopping list is dwindling, thankfully.  There is still plenty to do, but I think we will manage to get it all done.

That brings you up to date on all of our adventures until next week.

Weekly Review June 12 '15

It's been another crazy busy week.  Seems like we can't get through a week lately without some sort of major life event.  This week it was Seth's baptism, which was on Saturday the 6th of June.  Seth decided to have Jared baptize him, and that was just as well since it would have been painful for Frank to do it.  Frank did the confirmation and Tanner was able to stand in the circle for that, so that was nice.  Here's a few pictures:   

After the baptism, we came home to change clothes and then took Seth to Burger King for lunch (his choice).  Then the boys and I drove down to the LDS bookstore and the temple.  Frank wasn't feeling up to going with us, although he is still improving.

We went to the LDS bookstore so that Seth could pick out a set of scriptures--we get all the boys their first nice set of scriptures when they get baptized.  Then we went to the temple visitor's center for a while and took some pictures in front of the temple.  Jared took all these pictures, and I didn't realize that he set the camera on black and white (which is fine; I just wish we had got one color picture of us in front of the temple).  He was playing around with the different colors and I do think he got some pretty cool effects:

After we got back from the temple, Tanner and I went with the missionaries to visit a sister in the ward.  We had a good visit with her.  After we came back and had dinner, I went to the church to put in the visiting teaching report for May and to print up the new visiting teaching slips for all the sisters who had changes to their routes (and then I forgot to hand them out on Sunday, so I had to e-mail all of them!)  My visiting teaching coordinator, who usually puts in the report and hands out the slips, just moved to Utah.  The new coordinator was called that Sunday but of course she didn't know what was going on yet so I got to do the coordinator's job for a month.

Sunday was the usual busy parade of meetings.  Frank was able to teach his class again, but once again had to go home after that.  After church, Tanner went to a "break the fast" potluck for the YSAs and Jared went to Seminary graduation that evening.

Frank had physical therapy Monday, Wednesday, and today this week.  The good news is, today they cleared him to go back to work on Monday!  We are very happy about that!  I spent a lot of time on Monday getting caught up with some more RS stuff.  That afternoon I took Tanner back to the eye doctor for a follow up appointment for his contact lenses, and got his contacts ordered.  Tanner & Jared got haircuts, which they've been desperately needing.  I also booked our flights to Utah.  It's still uncertain whether or not Frank will be able to come to Utah at all, but the rest of us will be there the end of June.  Seth and I will stay a few weeks; Jared will be there one week because he needs to be back earlier to go to Youth Conference.  We are glad to be coming and looking forward to seeing all of you!  Seth had  a party that evening at a place called Pump It Up (large inflatables to play on) which he really enjoyed.  (He had his own birthday party there two years ago.)  We had a pretty good summer thunderstorm while he was at the party:

I took Tanner to the doctor on Tuesday to get a check for his medication and to find out what to do about getting his medication refilled while he is on his mission.  It sounds like he'll have to find a doctor in Arizona since it's illegal to send the medication across state lines, and they technically aren't supposed to fill it in another state if the prescription was written elsewhere.  (Although he had no trouble filling in while he was in Utah.)  We'll call his mission secretary to talk about it and see what we can do.  I'm sure he's not the first missionary who has needed medication for ADD.  Tanner also got an updated Meningitis vaccine while we were there.

After the doctor we did mission shopping.  We got the pants he needs and a pair of shoes, one more white shirt (we already got the rest of them earlier) and one tie (because he liked it...he has enough ties already).  It took a while to do all that and we were pretty tired by the time we got home.  I still had to do all the usual Tuesday chores, but managed to get everything done by bedtime.  We had family night that night too, since we hadn't been able to do it on Monday.

On Monday the touch screen on my phone quit working completely, which means basically I couldn't use my phone at all.  I could see that I was getting text messages, but couldn't read them.  It's pretty unnerving to know people are likely going to try to contact you but not be able to get in touch with you (especially when you happen to be the RS president), so on Wednesday I gave in and we got me a new phone.  And since the only "non smart" phones available to me were pieces of junk (according to Frank), I gave in even further and joined the 21st century by getting a smart phone.  I was eligible for an upgrade (had the last phone about 5 or 6 years, I think!) so I was able to get the new phone for a relatively cheap price.  The change in the cost of our cell phone plan wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either, so it wasn't too painful.  And I do like the new phone.  I got a Samsung phone because it is very similar to my tablet so I already mostly know how to use it, which is helpful.  Scott and Jared got new phones too since they were also eligible to upgrade, but we didn't get one for Tanner of course since he's leaving in less than 3 weeks.

Also on Wednesday Seth had the spring music concert at school so Frank and I went to that.  My friend Rebekah and I made dinner for another friend in the ward because she's been sick a lot the last few weeks.  That evening we had our monthly RS meeting.  It went well; we had a pretty good turn out and we had a class on how to stretch and ways to fit it into our schedules.  The sister teaching it showed us ways to do stretches while standing at the sink doing dishes, ironing, picking things up off the floor, and so forth.  It was funny!  Then we had samples of healthy snacks made from "super foods" and they were all really yummy.  I had to do a food order that night also so it was busy but everything worked out.

I had a visit Thursday morning with a sister in my ward who is going through some really tough things.  Sometimes it is amazing to me what people can endure!  I had book club that afternoon.  I was in charge of picking the books to choose from and I wasn't having much luck finding any books I thought would be good that our library had more than one copy of, but I finally found a good list to choose from on Good Reads, plus got some good ideas from Mom & Dad.  So I ended up bringing five books to choose from (we usually have 3 choices).  After book club I still needed to get groceries.  Thankfully Tanner and Frank had kept the laundry moving while I was gone!  The Elders came over for dinner that night too.  They haven't been getting fed much lately, unfortunately, so Frank told them anytime they don't have a place to eat, they should text "Dinner?" to us, and we would have them over if we could.  They had actually asked to come on Wednesday, but then one of them ended up in the ER because he had a seizure so they didn't come that night but I invited them over to come the next night instead.  (The Elder who had the seizure seems to be ok, but they are still figuring out why he had one.)

Today I had another RS visit this morning although it was just getting to know a new sister in the ward, so not so intense.  Then the new visiting teaching coordinator came over so we could go over her responsibilities.  We were going to meet at the church originally so I could show her the computer program but then this week the church switched us over to the new system.  Now I have access to all the visiting teaching stuff from my home computer, which will be very convenient, but it won't be available at the church anymore so I'm not sure if the coordinator is going to be able to access the new system.  We'll wait and see.  I might have to do all the computer reporting stuff myself now but the coordinator will still be in charge of making sure all the calls happen to get the reports from the sisters, and get that information to me.  In between I worked on the budget and got that done.  I'm trying not to think about how much money we've spent in the last few weeks, but with a child going on a mission, and having to buy a new car, and so forth, it's been pretty unavoidable.

Tanner went to the temple today.  I've gone with him every week for the last 3 weeks but I just couldn't fit it in this week so Frank dropped him off before his physical therapy appointment and then picked him up afterwards.  They stopped on the way home to buy some computer equipment for one of Frank's clients and to get lunch, so they didn't get home until mid afternoon.

Now I need to go make dinner before we go to pack meeting.

More pictures for June 5 '15 Weekly Review

Here's the pictures I promised from Jared's Eagle project:

Caught one of them writing his name!  (He's not the only one who did that.)

There's the new Prius in the background...it's silver.

And one other thing I forgot to mention.  Seth came home from school yesterday with a broken pair of glasses!  He has no idea why they broke, either.  He wasn't playing with them (they were on his face) and no one hit them or anything like that.  But the part of the frame around one of the lenses broke completely through and the lens fell out.  Let's add to the financial chaos we've been experiencing as well, shall we?  It wasn't enough to have Frank on partial pay (short term disability doesn't pay his whole salary), to have to buy a new car, all the other expenses from Frank's wreck, and to be buying a bunch of stuff for Tanner's mission.  Let's throw replacing a pair of glasses into the mix!

It will all be ok in the end...I know that.  We've been very blessed in many ways.  Just have to laugh at how many things can hit us at the same time!

Weekly Reviews May 29 and June 5 '15

Usually when I report on two weeks at once, it means I've been on vacation for one of them.  A vacation would have been nice, but that's not what happened this time.  I was just totally swamped the last few weeks.  All the normal stuff, plus throw in a birthday party, mission preparations, trips to the temple, buying a car, a continuing Eagle project, another house showing, a husband who can't do much, and yes...I'm still the RS president.  Most days lately I feel like I am going crazy!  That's the short version of the last few weeks, and you can stop reading now if you don't want to wade through all the details.  But for those who like to torture themselves, I'll write the longer version.

 Sunday the 24th Frank made it to church long enough to take the sacrament, but then he went home because he really wasn't feeling well.  He had arranged for a substitute to teach his class again.  i don't remember anything else about that day...it was just a regular busy Sunday.

Our ward had a picnic for Memorial Day, but the kids didn't care if we went or not and Frank definitely wasn't up for it, so we didn't go.  It turned out to be  pretty busy day anyway so if we had gone I wouldn't have finished everything I needed to do.  I don't remember details now, but one thing that took a lot of time was shopping for Seth's birthday.  I realized over the weekend that I hadn't purchased any presents for him, so I needed to get going on that.  He had pretty specific things that he wanted and after going to several stores I had only found a few things.  I ended up having to order some other things online and one present (the one he wanted most!) didn't arrive until this week but he was pretty happy with everything in the end, so it didn't matter too much.

Frank had his first physical therapy appointment Tuesday morning.  He planned to go to work afterwards, but after checking him over very thoroughly, the orthopedic physical therapist said he was in no shape to work and wrote him out until at least June 12th.  So he came home and collapsed instead.  We weren't too thrilled about that but he really wasn't feeling well at all so it's what he needs, I'm sure.  After weighing our options, he decided to apply for short term disability so he wouldn't have to use up all his days off for the whole year.  It's been complicated and we're still trying to figure everything out.  There have been lots of phone calls to make and paperwork to fill out.  Thankfully, Frank has been able to handle most of that because if I had to do it on top of everything else I have to do, I would definitely lose it!!  It's been a bit stressful worrying about his job and the projects he's supposed to be working on but later that week he was finally able to talk on the phone with his boss (who has been out of town) and his boss told him not to worry...his job will be waiting for him when he gets back and he should just concentrate on getting better.  So that has helped a bit.

The bishop told Tanner he should go the temple once a week until he leaves on his mission, so on Tuesday he and I did that.

We decided to do sealings so that Tanner could experience that.  We ended up in a pretty lively group of temple workers and we were doing family names for one lady who was very grateful!  It was a pretty sweet experience.  The sealer told Tanner he wasn't sure where he had picked up this person who was impersonating his mother, who was obviously too young to really be his mother!  I must look even younger in the temple than I do anywhere else.  We came home and I tried to get all the other things done that needed to be done, including some mission preparations for Tanner.  Then we drove to Gettysburg to meet some friends for dinner...they live in Washington state, but were in Pennsylvania for an event.  We had a nice dinner and visit with them, although Frank was hurting the whole time.  I had to do all the driving.

Here's my "to do" list for Wednesday the 27th, just to give you an idea of what a typical day is like:  Exercise, Wal-Mart shopping, dust, prepare for presidency meeting, wrap presents, party preparations, Jared Eagle planning, order cake, call groomer, make eye doctor appointments.  Besides that, Jared had drama awards that evening and Seth went to his first Cub Scout den meeting.  Funny story about that...he has been saying for weeks that he didn't want to go to Cub Scouts, and on that day he was saying the same thing and kind of having a tantrum about it, and insisting that he didn't want to go.  I asked him why he didn't want to go and he said his friend Luke goes to Cub Scouts.  He wouldn't say anything more specific than that other than that Luke had to wear a uniform.  Later on, I was thinking about it and I had one of those (rare) parenting moments when I got a flash of insight.  I found Seth and asked him "Have you seen Luke's uniform, and you think it looks dumb?"  Seth said "yes!"  I asked him if Luke had to wear a hat and a neckerchief and everything, and he said he did.  I told Seth he didn't have to wear all those things, and took him to the closet to show him the blue shirt that he would wear.  I showed him what the patches look like on the shirt, and told him the blue shirt was the only thing he would need to wear...he could wear it with his regular jeans or shorts, and he didn't have to wear a hat or a neckerchief.  After that, Seth said "Ok, I'll go then."  And he did go, and he had a GREAT time!  For this particular den meeting, they visited a local museum called the Schifferstadt Museum...it's a house built in the 1700s.  Later on, one of the den leaders told me that Seth was trying to persuade one of the older scouts who didn't want to participate to come in the garden and check out the plants.  She thought it was pretty sweet that he was a brand new scout but was trying to help one of the older boys.
Thursday the 28th was Seth's 8th birthday.  I had a presidency meeting that morning.  Seth opened presents after school:

Card from Grandma & Grandpa!

He got a Lego Star Wars game, a Lego set, some books, a couple of Batman toys, as well as cards and money from both sets of grandparents.  He spent the rest of the evening playing with new toys.  Because we were having cake at his party, we didn't have cake on his birthday but we ordered pizza for dinner and we got some donuts too.

Friday I had to finish up everything for Seth's birthday party...I'd been working on things here and there whenever I could squeeze it in throughout the week but there was still a ton to do.  Besides that, Frank wanted me to go look at a car.  He did some "shopping" online throughout the week, getting an idea of prices and what cars he wanted to look at.  On Thursday after his PT appointment, he stopped and looked at a few he was interested in and test drove one of them.  I was working on the budget, trying to get that done before jumping into the final party preparations and going to look at the car, when I got a desperate call from a sister in the ward who needed someone to watch her daughter.  And of course, I couldn't find anyone to do it so I ended up doing it myself.  She was only here for a few hours and she was not any trouble but it did complicate my plans.  We did go drive the car, taking her with us, and by the end of the day I got everything ready for the party, with a lot of help from Jared.  Tanner helped too but that evening he was gone to a Baltimore Orioles baseball game with a friend.

So when I planned to have the party at a nearby park, I didn't stop to think that meant everything for the party would have to be transported from the house to the park!  That made everything extra complicated.  And it's amazing how much "stuff" you need for a party!  Here is the kitchen table and floor on Friday evening, with all the party stuff finally ready to go:

Plus this box full of stuff had to go too:

The white paper on top is my detailed plan of everything that needed to be done...I had copies for Jared, Tanner, and Frank so that I would not have to constantly tell them what to do.  Since we were going to be transporting stuff and we also needed to cook all the food Saturday morning, I knew I wouldn't be able to be at the park for all the set up.

We got up early Saturday morning and got going on all the preparations.  Everything took longer than it should have and so we were still finishing up when all the kids started arriving.  So much for taking pictures of everything ahead of time!  There were a ton of kids, and I was actually too busy to take pictures at all, but between Tanner, Jared, and Frank we got quite a few.

The party itself was crazy and nothing went the way I'd planned but the kids had fun so that's the important thing, right?  Just a couple of things I learned:

• Don't make centerpieces with balloons for an outdoor party.  The wind will destroy all of them within 15 seconds!  (It doesn't even have to be a strong wind...a little breeze will do.)
• Don't expect 8 year olds to be able to keep track of a bag with their name on it.  And don't use paper bags...use something plastic, because 8 year olds can destroy paper bags within seconds, without even trying.  I thought I understood kids better than this.  I wouldn't expect anyone under say, 6 years old to keep track of and not destroy a paper bag, but I thought 8 year olds could handle it.  I was wrong!
• If you give any 8 year old a water gun, he is going to immediately start squirting everyone around him or her, even if the object of the game is to shoot ping pong balls down with the squirt gun, not to get other people wet.
• Don't expect girls to be calmer than boys.  The girls at this party were wilder than the boys, I think!

So we had a carnival theme for this party.  As the kids arrived, we had a little photo booth set up for them to get their picture taken.  We had various hats and props that they could choose to wear for their photo.  Some of my favorites:

Seth is ready to party!

One of our carpool boys really getting into the fun of it!

Little beauty queen!

Where is he?

There he is!!

Another beauty queen...and twin sister of the first one.

The girl from Seth's class that he says he is going to marry someday!

Besides the photo booth, we also had a big jar full of jelly beans...they all had to guess how many jelly beans were in the jar.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it. (Remember, no time for that!)  The kids also enjoyed playing at the playground until everyone arrived:

Then we divided into groups and there were different carnival games to play.  We had a beanbag toss, the formerly mentioned squirt gun game, a duck matching game, and a game where they tried to knock over cans with bean bags.  These aren't very good pictures, but you get the idea:

Bean bag toss

Squirt gun game (from a distance)

Knocking over cans (Jared ran this game).

Tanner ran the bean bag toss game

I was in charge of the squirt gun shoot game

Frank supervised the duck matching game.

After games, we served lots of carnival food:  corn dogs, hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, big pretzels, fruit (ok, not really carnival food, but my attempt to have 1 healthy item!), cake, and ice cream cones.  Oh, and lemonade to drink, of course!

While everyone finished eating, I took the kids over to the prize table to cash in the tickets they earned while playing the games.  After we cut the cake, Frank admitted that he needed to lie down.  He had helped a lot more than he should have with set up and then keeping the party going, so he had overdone it.  So he went home and Jared and Tanner helped me with the rest of the party and then with all the clean up.

Meanwhile, Seth opened presents:

And everyone kept squirting their squirt guns, and playing, and eating!

We also announced the winner of the jelly bean jar game.  Their were 1,238 jelly beans in the jar and the winning little girl guessed 1,089.  After all the kids went home, a few of the parents from the ward who had come to pick up their kids stayed and helped us clean everything up, which I appreciated SO much!!  There was a lot to do and of course everything had to be transported back to the house when we were done.  After making the 2 or 3 trips home, Tanner, Jared, and I were exhausted!!!  It was a nice day but got pretty hot by afternoon so moving everything in all that heat really wiped us out.

Even Seth was tired...he was supposed to go to another birthday party for a friend that afternoon and he refused to go!  He stayed home and rested, and put together new Lego sets instead.  Meanwhile, Frank was insisting that we needed to go buy the car we looked at...we had decided to buy it and the rental car we had needed to be returned on Monday so after cleaning everything up and resting a while, I agreed to go.  Of course, that ended up taking a couple of hours.  We didn't actually bring it home, just got all the paperwork done so we could pick it up on Monday.  (We didn't have the check from the insurance company yet.)  Have I mentioned that I hate car buying?  It's a nice car and I'm sure we'll be glad we have it over the years, but I am still trying to reconcile myself to going back into debt when we were so close to being out of it.  And yes, we did get another Prius!  They are really good cars and after Frank's experience with his wreck, we feel pretty good about the safety rating of this car.  Everyone says we should get a bigger car, but he really does need a good commuter car (not a tank!) and the Prius is surprisingly roomy inside.  I haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but further down you'll be able to see it in the background of another picture.

On Sunday the 31st Frank was able to teach his lesson, although he had to go home after that.  It was the usual busy Sunday; we also had the Elders over for dinner.  We had a pretty decent thunderstorm that night.  We've actually had a lot of rain this week.  The last 3 or 4 days have been constant "Maryland mist".  I will be happy to see the sun again when it decides to come back out!  But rain is a good thing, too.  It just hasn't felt much like June yet, though.

Frank has had 2 PT appointments this week, too.  They do seem to help.  They do exercises, and electric shock, and have him lie in beds of a warm, rice-like substance.  He is slowly improving.  The first couple of weeks after the accident I really didn't see much change in him...he seemed to be in just as much pain as he was the first day.  But this last week he started to improve a bit, the last few days in particular.  He still gets tired easily and he always has some sort of pain or stiffness in his back or neck, but it's not as intense as it was.  So we're hopeful that he will recover completely someday and more immediately that he will be able to go back to work after the 12th, as planned.

Tanner taught Seminary two mornings this week...Monday and Thursday.  On Monday I took he and Jared to the eye doctor.  Their prescriptions have changed a bit so we ordered new glasses and contact lenses.  We returned the rental car and picked up our new car on Monday, too.

Snickers went to the groomer on Tuesday.  Frank had a follow up appointment with our primary care doctor.  I had my monthly meeting with the bishop.  We ordered a bike for Tanner...in his mission, they need to have a bike delivered to the mission home before they get there so it's ready for them when they arrive.

I spent a lot of Wednesday and yesterday working on RS stuff.  I have a long list of things that I haven't been able to get to lately, plus visiting teaching changes for June needed to be figured out.  The bishop told me when I met with him Tuesday night not to feel bad that my mind hasn't been on RS much lately (with all the things that have been going on in the family) but I still have been feeling the need to get caught up on some things.  Plus some callings need to be figured out right away, too.

Besides that, the realtor called on Monday and said the people who looked at our house about a month ago wanted to come look at it again...could they come on Wednesday?  Well, sure...why not?  Our lives are already chaos so why not throw a house showing into the mix?  We have kept the house relatively tidy since the last time they came, but some clutter has crept in and it needed some touching up.  Tanner helped me a lot with that on Wednesday.  Apparently, they are trying to decide between our house and one other nearby.  I can't decide if I'd rather have the house sell or not.  There are pros and cons to both alternatives.  I've definitely been more anxious about the idea of moving since Frank's accident, so if they decide they don't want to buy our house it would be a bit of a relief in many ways.  I guess it's good that we don't get to decide!  Whatever they decide to do, I will be happy about it and roll with it!

On Wednesday evening while the house was showing, Seth was at Cub Scouts and I went with Jared to YM because they were working on his Eagle project that evening.  They spray painted one side of all the plywood and PVC signs white.  The PVC was already white, but had some stains so we wanted to cover those up.  It went well, although we ran out of paint and I had to run to the store to get more.  Of course, the store closest to us (Lowe's) didn't have any so I had to drive to the other side of Frederick to Home Depot to get what we needed.  But the boys played a game of basketball while they were waiting for me to get back, so they didn't mind.  Here's some pictures:

Ok, maybe not!  For some reason, blogger won't let me upload any more pictures.  So I will have to put them in a separate post, which I will do as soon as I finish this one.

On Thursday besides RS stuff, we ordered a suit for Tanner.  We have not had time to go out shopping yet; hopefully next week!  But we are getting little things done here and there.  Today I took Tanner to the temple.  We did initiatories this time.  Temple trips always seem to take most of the day.  But we enjoyed it.

Maybe that doesn't sound incredibly crazy, but I left out all the usual grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry, etc. plus several errands like trips to the library and filling prescriptions and so forth.  Not to mention the spiritual exhaustion of trying to make a lot of decisions.  That's it for this week!