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):