Weekly Review September 25 '15

I'm not sure where today went. Sometimes getting the budget updated takes longer than others and this was one of those days that it took a long time. I also took Jared and Seth to the doctor for checkups and that took a lot longer than it should have too. So here it is after 7:00 and I am just now starting my post for this week. 

We'll start with a sunrise:

I can't remember what day I took this picture, but it was earlier this week.

Last week when I wrote I was coming down with a bad cold. It was definitely a cold, not allergies. I really didn't feel well on Saturday and Sunday. By Monday my nose had stopped running and I started to feel better although I still had some congestion and a pretty nasty cough. By Tuesday the cough was mostly gone, thankfully. I still cough a bit (especially first thing in the morning) but you know coughs like that can sometimes last for weeks! I'm grateful that hasn't happened this time. I've also had a few bad headaches this week and my stomach has been slightly upset. So basically I haven't been feeling my best for most of this week, but I'm grateful it wasn't worse than it was.

Since Saturday and Sunday were my worst days, I probably should have stayed home from Stake Conference but I really wanted to go so I went anyway. Frank went to the leadership meeting on Saturday afternoon. He took our ward executive secretary with him to that. Then the executive secretary's wife picked me up later to go to the adult session together. That way, we were both able to drive home with our husbands. Besides that, we hired their oldest son to stay with Seth while we were at the meeting. (Jared was at work.) So she dropped him off when she came to pick me up and they stopped on their way home to pick him up. Frank had helped me get some stew in the crock pot that morning so when my friend picked me up, we took some stew and bread with us and we all ate together before the meeting started. It worked out great.

Both the adult session and the general session on Sunday morning were really good. Two teenage girls spoke and they did such a good job it just blew me away. I think my favorite talk, though, was from the mission president's wife. They are brand new (just got here in July). Anyway, she talked about a story in 2 Kings chapter 4 where a widow who had a debt to pay or she'd lose her sons to bondage came to the prophet Elisha and asked him for help. He told her to empty all the vessels in her house and to borrow some from the neighbors too. Then she was supposed to take their small pot of oil and start pouring it into the empty vessels. She did, and that little pot of oil filled up all of the empty vessels. He told her to sell the oil, pay off her debt, and use the rest of the earnings for her and her sons to live on. The thing I liked about it is that she then related this story to Sabbath Day observance. She said we should come to church with "empty vessels" (by preparing and repenting) and if we do, then first we can be healed through the atonement (pay our debts) and then be filled with the spiritual help we need to live on for the rest of that week. I never would have made that connection, but I really liked those thoughts!

Jared thought he had a play rehearsal on Sunday afternoon, but it turns out that he didn't which was great because he and Frank were able to go home teaching. Jared had a pretty busy week. He worked a 7 hour shift on Saturday. He had a play rehearsal on Tuesday night. On Wednesday the boys were out of school (another Jewish holiday) and he went with Jessie and a bunch of friends to the Frederick County fair for a lot of the day. That evening I went with him for about an hour while he drove around and got signatures for his NHS application, which he did get in before the deadline this year, thankfully. He also got a haircut, worked on his Eagle project (all pictures and words on the signs are done now), started working on his BYU application, and also started on his application for the Hill Cumorah Pageant work crew. Now he is at a birthday party for a friend. All of those things required assistance / nagging / driving help from me!

Frank was super busy with work for clients again. He worked from home or at Marriott's data center here in Frederick on Wednesday, Thursday and today. That's because the Pope's visit to the DC area was supposed to cause major traffic issues down south so they told everyone who could to work from home.

I signed Seth up for a class at the local community college that was held on Wednesday (since he didn't have school that day). It was really more fun than learning...it was a Legos in Space class, where they basically got to build space-themed Lego sets for 3 1/2 hours. He really enjoyed it. He had Cub Scouts that evening where they planted some seeds and now he needs to take care of the plants for 30 days. Yesterday he had a field trip to the fair. I signed up to be a chaperone and just had Seth and 2 of his friends. Here's a few pictures:

I think he had fun although I'll be honest...I didn't find looking at a bunch of animals and vegetables all that exciting! I think the boys enjoyed watching a couple of cows pooping more than anything else! Unless it was climbing on all the lawnmowers.... They did get to pet a horse which they loved, and Seth wanted to buy one of the baby pigs.

As I mentioned above, both Jared and Seth had checkups with the doctor today. Jared needed a medical form filled out for his work crew application,and they were both overdue for checkups anyway. We've decided to start the process to get Seth diagnosed with ADD (assuming that's what it really is) so I got the questionnaires to fill out for that. Jared got a shot for meningitis and also a flu shot. He also mentioned to me that he's been feeling his heart beat really fast for short episodes over the last several months so we asked about that. The doctor decided after listening to his description of what happens and considering the family history (me!) that we should follow up on that. So he did an EKG which actually did show a slight issue so now he gets to visit a pediatric cardiologist. Hopefully it isn't a big deal.

Besides doing all the housework and shopping and taking the boys all the different places they needed to go, I tried to take it easy this week since I wasn't feeling really great. I did have book chat on Tuesday. I finished the book Tuesday morning! I did enjoy it. Now I am well into the book we are reading for next month, which is called Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore. It's pretty interesting. Yesterday I talked to Scott for quite a while...we haven't talked much for the last 3 weeks and Thursday is his day off so he called me. Overall, I don't feel like I got much done, but I wasn't feeling exactly energetic. I am grateful that I don't have as much to do these days! I did try to visit one sister in the ward today (but she wasn't in her room at the nursing home and I couldn't find her anywhere) and I also got a text message from a less active sister needing some help (she didn't know I've been released) so I got that ball rolling a bit before handing it off to the new RS president. One thing I learned while i was RS president is that there are a lot of things I can do to help lighten the load for the leaders in my ward. Things like being faithful with my visiting teaching, providing service when I see a need, and taking the initiative to reach out to people I see struggling. I really want to look for ways to do things like that, to make it a regular part of my life.

Seth and I finished The Horse and His Boy, and now we are almost done with Prince Caspian. I am really enjoying having all this one on one time with him!

I think that's it for this week, so I will finish up with last night's sunset (taken by Jared):

Weekly Review September 18 '15

Remember last week I said I had to save some of our adventures for this week's post? Well, here is why. On Sunday I was released as RS President. I've known that was coming for about 3 weeks (the bishop told me last time I met with him, at the end of August) and even though someone in my ward stumbling across my blog and reading it is HIGHLY unlikely, I just think it's better not to say anything about church callings until after they are official. During the last few weeks I actually met with / talked on the phone with the incoming RS president a couple of times, but I couldn't mention that then. By the way, getting released came as a complete surprise to me. I just wasn't expecting it right now. I had to choose a new counselor and secretary in June so I figured if they were going to make a change they would have done it then. They didn't, so I assumed I was going to finish out the year at least. But it's okay...I was surprised, but not upset. Once I got used to the idea, it felt right to me.

When the bishop told me he was going to release me in a few weeks, he said something along the line of "usually when you get released from a calling like this, you would expect to get a calling that is really low key. I'm not sure I can do that for you." He did promise me I wouldn't be the president of anything though! So, I know I'm getting released but I don't know what's coming next but it sounds like it might be something kind of hefty still. That's not the best state to live in for 3 weeks. Then last Wednesday morning we get an email from the stake executive secretary asking if Frank and I can come in that evening to meet with the stake president. Uh oh! It actually wasn't a good night for us to go since it was the same night as our monthly RS meeting and Jared also had YM. But Jared agreed to stay with Seth and my 2nd counselor said she would be okay if I left the activity early and we really didn't want to wait an extra day or two to find out what the stake president wanted to meet with us for, so we got it all worked out and went. I was pretty much a basket case all day, thinking that this must be related to my next calling and worried about what on earth I was getting into this time. I knew it might be for Frank, but I couldn't think of a stake calling he would be getting. On the other hand, our stake conference is coming up (this weekend) and our stake RS presidency has been in for over 4 years. Frank was totally relaxed driving over to the appointment and I was trying not to be anxious and then we got there and they called Frank to be the Elders Quorum President in our ward!Oh my goodness, I totally forgot that Elders Quorum callings go through the stake presidency! We were both surprised but it was really kind of funny since we'd both been expecting a calling for me. Frank has felt a bit overwhelmed but he did accept the calling and I know he is going to be great! He is really good at reaching out to people who feel on the fringes of things and he's very observant and he cares about people.

So anyway, on Sunday I was released as RS president and Frank was sustained as EQ president. The former EQ president went out with a bang...he ended up having his appendix removed late Saturday night! (And when they went in to take it out, they discovered that it had already burst.) So I spent my last evening as RS president texting back and forth between the EQ president's wife and the bishop. I got to go out with a bang too, I guess. We had actually invited the EQ president and his family over for dinner (before we even knew about Frank's calling) for Sunday but needless to say, they didn't make it. However, he is going to be okay. He is home now and on the mend.

So how does it feel to not be the RS president anymore? It's kind of strange but I'm adjusting. I wouldn't say I've suddenly had all this free time. As a matter of fact, I spent several hours this week meeting with the new RS president to finish passing on all the information she needed to know but we got that done now. What I have noticed is that I am mentally more at rest. I don't have a bunch of things in the back of my head that I am worried about all the time. The weight of responsibility, worry, and of just knowing something big might come up at any moment is gone. I certainly don't miss that! I have also noticed something else missing, though...something I didn't really consciously notice until it was gone. And it's hard to explain, but the best way I can describe it is that an extra measure of the spirit, which came from being in a sort of partnership with the Lord in doing His work, is what I feel missing now. That's kind of sad for me in a way, but it's okay because I needed it then and I don't now.

I did get a new calling on Sunday and after the discussion I had with the bishop when he told me I was getting released, I was surprised by it, but very relieved. I'm the new Cub Master. Which is very, very undemanding and low key. (Not to mention it breaks my 7 year streak of serving in a presidency!) I'm wondering how long it will take them to figure out that they could probably give me a second calling along with that one. I'm also wondering how long I'll be lucky enough to have this calling because my record for callings like this (ie--not in a presidency) in the 15 plus years I've lived in this ward is 1 year. Most of them were less than that...9 months! However, I am not complaining and I plan to enjoy it as long as it lasts!

The new RS president was actually serving as Cub Master, so we switched places. Who got the better end of that deal? She is going to be wonderful, by the way...she was one of my counselors when I was Primary president and she was an absolute dream to serve with. Full of the spirit, dependable, capable, organized, great ideas, loving...pretty much perfect! She has five children and the youngest is only 9 months old but if anyone can handle being RS president under those circumstances, it would be her. As a matter of fact, a few months ago I was idly thinking that I would be released someday and I wondered who would be the next RS president when that happened and she is the person I thought of. Now I realize that wasn't just an idle thought.

A lot of people still don't know that Frank is the EQ president because of course that happens in Elders Quorum, not in Sacrament Meeting. They will probably announce that it happened at our next Sacrament Meeting, but since we have stake conference this weekend that won't be for another week. The word is slowly spreading around and the reaction most people have had when I've told them is to be pleased about it until they realize that means he'll be released as Gospel Doctrine teacher. He did a great job with that calling and a lot of people really enjoyed his lessons. On Sunday the members of the Ward Council have a meeting after our meeting block to briefly discuss ward members we didn't see at church to make sure someone follows up with them to make sure they're okay and to let them know we missed them. So on Sunday Frank went to that meeting and the new RS president went instead of me. I ran into the HP Group leader in the hallway after church and he asked if I was going to come to my last stand up meeting (the name of our after church meeting) and when I explained that Frank when going and I wasn't, he stopped and gave me a hug! (In a totally appropriate way, it was sweet!) He was really great to work with.

Okay, enough of all that!! There were other things that happened this week, believe it or not. Frank hasn't had much EQ stuff to do yet (he hasn't even been able to talk to the former EQ president since he's been recuperating) but he's still been insanely busy because he's had a lot of work to do for clients. Among other things, one client needed 8 laptops set up. So after putting in a full day of work, he went to that client on both Tuesday and Thursday and didn't get home until nearly 11:00 pm both of those nights.

On Monday the boys didn't have school (Jewish holiday) so Seth came with me to the new RS president's house and played with her son all morning (and into the afternoon) while we talked. Jared had his first in car driving lesson (and did well) that afternoon and had a play rehearsal that evening. He came home from the driving lesson excited because he was able to spend almost the entire 2 hours talking to the instructor about the church. He was really interested and wanted a Book of Mormon so Jared got his contact info and gave it to the missionaries. Pretty sweet!

I went to lunch with some friends on Tuesday. During the week I was able to get my visiting teaching "done" for the month by visiting with one sister, talking on the phone with another, and doing ironing for a third. (She's student teaching right now, besides working a bit, taking a few classes, being the Seminary teacher, and did I mention she's a single mom? So she really doesn't have time to be visited right now but she could use some help with household chores! I asked her best friend what would be a good thing to do to help her and she was the one who suggested the ironing. She even went to her friend's house and stole the pile of ironing off her ironing board and brought it to me. I got them ironed and returned before this sister got home from her student teaching that day. She was surprised and really appreciated it!) One of my visiting teachers came to see me too. I enjoyed the visit and besides she is the Cub Committee Chair so I was able to ask her some questions about my new calling.

Wednesday evening was a bit busy. Jared had a date with Jessie at 6:00 and then YM at 7:00. We were feeding the missionaries at 5:00 and Seth had a hike for Cub Scouts at 6:00 and I was asked to go with them to help out. Then I also had a scout committee meeting at 8:15. So it was a busy night. Frank got Jared to the places he needed to go while I went to the hike and the meeting. The hike was nice although it was mostly uphill and we were picking our way through tree roots and rocks and such. It was a pleasant evening to be out in the woods, though, and I enjoyed the boys and talking with the other leaders. (Our weather has remained nice all week. A little chilly in the mornings but sunny, warm and in the 80s during the days...perfectly beautiful!)

Yesterday Jared was feeling sick to his stomach and so he stayed home from Seminary and school. He missed a play rehearsal also. But today he is doing better and went to Seminary and school as usual. I wasn't feeling all that great myself...my stomach was fine but I had a headache and just felt tired. But I had a lot of things to do like grocery shopping, laundry, and vacuuming, so I got all those things done. I did relax a bit in the afternoon while I talked on the phone with the new RS president for a few hours. Today my headache is gone but my throat is sore and my nose has started running like crazy. I guess I have picked up a cold somehow (or else maybe it's allergies...always hard to tell).

I guess I forgot to talk about last Saturday. It rained all day and it was a pretty busy day. Jared had a youth activity and then he went to a party. He got home pretty late. We didn't stay up to watch the BYU game since it didn't start until after 10:00 pm here and I had 8:30 am Ward Council. I guess it would have been worth losing some sleep over, but at least I have been able to watch the highlights videos. Also that day we went to an ice cream social birthday open house for a lady in our ward.

Besides that the only other things worth mentioning this week is that I cleaned my stove (which badly needed it...I'm hoping I'll get more household chores done now that my schedule is less demanding) and I did quite a bit of reading. I've been making my way through Elephant Company (book chat book) and reading to Seth. We finished The Magician's Nephew and now we are reading The Horse and His Boy. It's been fun to read these books with him. I also watched the movie of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on Friday evening with him. I think that's the first time I've sat down and watched a movie all the way through with one of the boys in years!

That's all I can think of, and that is quite enough!

Weekly Review September 11 '15

This week was somewhat eventful, although a few of our adventures are going to have to wait until next week's post. Hahaha...now you will definitely be reading next week's post, right?

Anyway, Saturday was just busy. Seth had a den meeting for cub scouts (it was postponed from earlier in the week because of rain). They went to a place called Fountain Rock Nature Center (a favorite place of mine) and went on a hike and learned about local animals. Jared had a rehearsal for Legally Blonde. While he was gone, we had the three carpool boys over to play with Seth for a few hours...they wanted to play Minecraft together. Jared went to a movie with some friends after his rehearsal and the rest of us went to a friends' house to watch the BYU football game. We had dinner there...stew and bread sticks, plus other yummy snacks (we contributed pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and mini cheesecakes that we had made that morning). Of course most of you, being BYU fans, know all about how the game went with that exciting last-play-of-the-game-Hail-Mary-touchdown-pass-to-win-the-game. Those kinds of endings are spectacular and so worth it, but you have to suffer through a lot of tension and frustration before the pay off comes! Of course, like everyone, we are bummed by Taysom Hill's injury that takes him out for the season again...our hearts really go out to him because he's the one that's going to suffer the most from that. But we are hopeful for the team and for Tanner Mangum...he was certainly looking pretty good on Saturday!

I picked up Jared after his movie and grilled him on whether or not there might be a particular girl in this "group of friends" that he's interested in, since they've been making a lot of effort to get together, and he admitted that there was. This group met each other at youth conference this summer. So anyway, yes...a girl named Jessie and he are mutually interested in each other and wanting to date. He further admitted that they've been holding hands for a while, and had even kissed each other once. What?!! I told him hand holding was nice but he should avoid kissing. We'll see if he listens to me on that one. Interesting fact: this girl's last name is Hatch. She is probably a distant cousin. 

I can't think of anything out of the ordinary that happened on Sunday. One of my counselors was teaching the lesson and she also had some outpatient surgery two days before. I tried to talk her into switching with me but she insisted that she'd had a feeling that she would be fine. So I told her she could change her mind if she needed to, even last minute, and then worried all week that I should be better prepared just in case! (I meant to prepare a back up lesson, but never got to it.) Thankfully, she was just fine and did a good job on her lesson.

Monday the kids were out of school and Frank was off work for Labor Day. We had wanted to go away for the weekend actually, but it didn't really work out for a number of reasons. So instead, we took the boys to Medieval Times for dinner on Monday. I think they enjoyed it. Here are a couple of not very good pictures that I took on my phone (the lighting was terrible):   

We were rooting for the green knight this time, and he actually won the tournament so that was cool!

Everything looks green because we were sitting under green lights. The green knight, you know...

The bowls and plates were pewter. The cups looked pewter, but they were actually plastic.

All the knights at the beginning of the show.

The king!

Seth acquired another sword. Because he doesn't own enough weapons already, you know! This one is pretty cool because it lights up.

Tuesday was back to the regular work and school routine. I had an RS visit that morning. The rest of the day was just the usual chores and errands.

Wednesday was a lot busier. I had a visiting teaching appointment in the morning. In the afternoon a couple of other sisters in the ward met me at another sister's house so we could "heart attack" her door because it was her birthday. (And we love her!) She was at work so we knew we wouldn't get caught.That evening we had our monthly RS meeting. We had a panel discussion on ways to spiritually prepare ourselves and our families, and it went really well.

On Thursday it rained very hard. Seth had a field trip at school...they went to a place at a nearby school called the Earth, Space, and Science Lab. It was near his school and they were supposed to walk but Seth said when he came home that they went on a bus so I guess they decided it was too wet to walk. He said the field trip was fun. After school, Jared had an orthodontist appointment. It was just a check on his retainer and now he doesn't have to go back for 9 months so he is happy about that (and me too...it's a bit of a drive). After dinner Jared was supposed to have his first in car driving lesson through the driver's ed school but he didn't because the instructor never showed up. It turns out that she got mixed up and thought we were supposed to meet at the driving school instead of at the high school (you have a couple of choices for start locations when you sign up for sessions, and those are both possible locations). Frank communicated with them today and they got him set up for another session on Monday to make up for the one he missed, so thankfully this won't slow him down at all.

Meanwhile, I went to the church to watch kids for another ward's RS activity. The RS president of that ward had emailed me earlier that day feeling desperate because the child care they had arranged for their meeting that evening had fallen through at the last minute. She wondered if any sisters in our ward would be willing to help out. I sent out an email to see if anyone could help but only got one response. To my surprise, however, the one who responded was the new sister I visited a few weeks ago...who told me honestly that she will never come back to church. But she was totally willing to help when needed. I thought that was pretty cool! And since I didn't have a million things to do that night (for once) and I also had a desire to help out the RS president in the other ward (I can be totally empathetic to her predicament!) I decided to help too. Besides that, it gave me a chance to talk some more with this sister. It turns out that the only kids that showed up were the 5 children of the RS president. They were lovely well behaved children so we didn't really have to do much. So I did get to talk quite a bit with this sister and enjoyed getting to know her better.

Today I got the budget caught up while pausing periodically to watch news coverage and to observe moments of silence in memory of the victims of 9/11. Frank worked from home today but he was very busy between Marriott stuff and clients for his business. Plus he went to lunch with a friend in the ward. So I didn't see him much. I wrote to Tanner and then I had an appointment to get my hair done...it looks so much better now! After I got home from that, I mowed the lawn...which is kind of significant because I don't think I've mowed a lawn since I got married. (Well I tried to a few months ago, but the lawnmower quit working almost immediately.)  Frank has always said that lawn mowing is his job or the boys. But Jared was at work, Seth is still a bit young for lawn mowing, and I won't let Frank do stuff like that anymore since it is likely to cause him more problems with his back. It really needed to be done today because we had the opportunity to borrow our neighbor's lawnmower. Since our lawnmower quit working a few months ago, we haven't had a chance to get it fixed or buy a new one. (Actually, Frank doesn't want to buy a new one until we install a shed because all our other lawnmowers have deteriorated pretty rapidly and we think it's because they get wet when it rains.) So our lawn had not been mowed in a long time. Luckily, because we've had a really dry summer the lawn has not been growing very fast but at this point it still looked bad enough that we got a letter from the HOA saying we need to mow it. Well, it looks a lot better now.

Tonight we had pack meeting. Jared was still at work so he didn't go and Frank had to leave early to pick up Jared from work and then to go do some work for a client. As a matter of fact, he is still doing that. I stayed with Seth for the remainder of pack meeting. They had a lady who works at the Frederick County Sheriff's Office come talk to the kids and explain what they do there. It was pretty interesting and I learned quite a bit too. The kids were hilarious with the questions they asked and the comments they made. After that they wrote thank you notes to police officers and firemen, learned how to fold a flag, and played a game where they tried to get across the gym without getting hit by soft darts or marshmallows which we (the adults) were shooting at them.

Seth and I finished reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe early this week. Seth wanted to read The Magician's Nephew next so that is what we are reading now. I have also started reading two other books. One is the book I was supposed to read last month for book chat (Mountains Beyond Mountains--I wasn't able to get a copy until after book chat met) and the other is the book we are reading this month, which is called The Elephant Company. I haven't been able to get a hard copy of that one yet either so I gave up and bought a copy for my tablet. I haven't got very far into it yet (I just purchased it a day or two ago) but I think it's going to be really good.

Most of this week has been miserable, with 100% humidity and temperatures in the 90s. But since the rain yesterday the humidity has gone down a bit and temperatures are in the 80s, so much more pleasant.

We got a letter from Tanner's mission president a few days ago. You may have heard about the sniper shootings that are happening along I-10, south of Phoenix. The mission president wanted all the parents to know that all the missionaries were safe and accounted for. He also said that most of the missionaries don't use that road at all but that he had asked the ones who do to find alternate routes and not use that road until the situation was resolved. I wasn't overly alarmed about the situation, but still it was nice to know that!

I think that is everything for this week, other than that I tried to get some things done for RS but didn't make much progress. I will hopefully get some of that done tomorrow.

Weekly Review September 4 '15

Let's do this week by days. 

Saturday:

Frank got up saying he "felt like baking" so before the day was half over we had this:

And this:

The top photo is strawberry tarts and the bottom one is banana bread. Did I mention that I really like it when Frank feels like baking? Jared actually helped him make the strawberry tarts. Jared went to a birthday party for a friend for most of the afternoon and into the late evening (it was a swimming party). But first he wanted to get a gift for his friend, so I took him to the mall to pick something out. He settled on earrings and I guess she really liked them. I also went to the library, took the dog for a walk, cleaned the kitchen floor, did some sewing on the baseball projects, and finished visiting teaching changes. Jared worked on his Eagle project a little bit too...he did the last coat of poly acrylic on one side of the signs.

Sunday:

Pretty normal Sunday: I had meetings all day. Except that I didn't have the meeting I usually have after church so that was nice for a change. We also had a combined RS / Priesthood meeting since it was a 5th Sunday so it felt like kind of a day off in a way!

Monday:

Besides the usual (vacuuming, sweeping, laundry, grocery shopping, and exercising) I also went on a walk with a girl in our ward. I used to be her visiting teacher but I'm not anymore; I still want to keep in touch though. She has a dog so we took the dogs for a walk. It was very hot and humid (has been all week, actually) so I suggested a short walk. Somehow it didn't end up being short...we walked over 2 miles! I was pretty tired after we did that. I wasn't expecting a long walk, so I just had sandals on and my feet weren't very happy about that. I also went through our shoes that day. I've been meaning to do it...Scott and Tanner both left shoes behind that they aren't planning to use anymore...and then I found out they were collecting shoes to donate at Seth's school so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that. I knew we had accumulated too many shoes (and it doesn't take much in our small house to have too many of anything) but I was totally shocked that I was able to fill two tall kitchen bags full of shoes to give away! The situation was even more out of control than I thought. At least the coat closet by the front door is a lot less cluttered now.

Tuesday:

In the morning I visited a sister in the ward who had a baby a few months ago. Then I came home and did all the Tuesday chores...cleaned all the bathrooms and planned menus and made a grocery list. I also did some baseball sewing. The evening was busy...Jared had a rehearsal for Legally Blonde and the rest of us went to a baseball game. Some friends gave us 4 tickets to a Frederick Keys game (the local minor league baseball team) and since Jared couldn't go, we invited one of the carpool boys to come along and keep Seth company. It was pretty fun. It was late enough in the evening that it wasn't uncomfortably warm anymore. We didn't stay for the whole game because it was a school night--we left at the end of the 6th inning. The Keys weren't playing too well that night...they lost 5-8. So that was kind of a bummer, but it was still fun. One of the Keys players even hit a home run although unfortunately no one else was on base at the time. Seth enjoyed learning about the game and he really enjoyed the candy and popcorn we bought. He also really liked the mascot, "Keyote" who is, yes, a coyote. He gave Seth high fives a couple of times and Seth pinched his nose, so he pinched Seth's nose back. Seth loved it!

I tried my contact lenses out for the first time in a week to go to the game. (I didn't like the idea of getting hit by a ball while wearing glasses. I mean, I don't like the idea of getting hit by a ball at all, but especially while wearing glasses!) My eye seemed to be fine. I didn't have any trouble with it while we were at the game, but after we got home and I took my contact lenses out, it started to sting and got really red and really bothered me for quite a while. So no more contacts for a while! I'm not sure it it's allergies or infection or what.

Wednesday:

This was another busy day. I did shopping at Wal-Mart, dusted, and worked on the visiting teaching report. The coordinator is back in town but now she is really sick with bronchitis AND had a gall bladder attack so she is just needing to rest. So I was doing her job. I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah. After school, Jared worked his first shift at Pump It Up (a kids' play and party place...big inflatables). Seth went to a "Minecraft Club" at the library right after school. The carpool boys wanted to go to it and their mom offered to take Seth too. He loved it, of course. We had the Elders over for dinner, and while we were preparing dinner a pretty decent thunderstorm came through. Frank got out the camera and took a bunch of pictures; here are some of my favorites:

After I picked up Jared from work I took him to YM for a little while but he got off work late, so he missed most of it. Seth was supposed to have den meeting that night too, but because of the rain storm it was too wet and muddy to do what they planned. They are doing it tomorrow morning instead. 

I had a crick in my neck most of that day and by evening my back was hurting too. Then on Thursday my ribs started to hurt and today my hips hurt a little too. It's really weird...I'm just kind of achy all over. It feels mostly like sore muscles. I can't figure out what I did...unless it's a result of the long walk I took on Monday?  I guess I'm getting a taste of how Frank has been feeling the last 3+ months. Hopefully it will go away soon.

Frank had an issue come up with a client on Wednesday afternoon so he was working on getting that resolved until late that night.

Thursday was laundry, grocery shopping, and vacuuming day. I also went to lunch again! This time with my friends Becky and Jane. I finished sewing the baseball stuff that needs to be done for next week. (There are a few other projects that I need to do by the end of October.) I tried to get some RS stuff done too. Jared had one of the other scouts in our ward come over after school to help do some more work on his eternal Eagle project, as we are calling it:

They were able to get all the pictures applied onto the other sides of the signs so that is some good progress. I talked to Scott for a while and got caught up on what he's doing. (He works four 10 hour shifts each week, and Thursday is his day off.) He is able to get some time off from work in December so we booked a flight so he can come home for Christmas. We're looking forward to that! It will be his first Christmas at home since 2012.

Friday (today):

I updated the budget, wrote to Tanner, and exercised. We had a bunch of $15 off coupons for TGI Friday's so Frank wanted to go there for dinner tonight. I have eaten out way too many times this week! It was pretty good though. Jared is at a high school football game now but I'm hearing thunder so I'm wondering what that means for the game.

Now I need to convince Seth to get ready for bed. I started reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to him this week so knowing that we are going to read a chapter or two after he gets ready for bed is a bit of a motivation for him. I am enjoying reading it with him, too.

That's everything for this week.