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.
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