Weekly Review October 17 '15

Here it is Saturday evening, and I am finally getting a chance to write my blog post for the week. We've been a bit busy, although not really with anything too exciting. I don't have a lot of time so I will just give a run down of what each of us did this week. We'll start with Seth. Last Saturday Seth and I went to Pack Meeting. I mean, I was actually in charge so of course I went! But I didn't have to do much because we were helping with a community service project planting trees. Here's a few pictures (the last two are of Seth):

This turned out to be a great project because the kids could really help and they loved it. Part way through, Seth said "Who knew planting trees could be so much fun?"

Seth got a haircut on Tuesday and his picture taken (at school) on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday he went with our carpool family to the library after school for "Minecraft Club", which he loves. Both he and Jared got out of school 2 hours early on Thursday and yesterday they didn't have school. I took Seth to a follow up appointment with the doctor on Friday and after looking over our completed questionnaires, they did decide to try some medication for him. So he is starting with the same medication that Tanner is on, just a smaller dose. I'm not going to have him take it until Monday (we just picked it up today) so we'll see how he does. I hope it helps him! On Friday I also took him to the store to look at Halloween costumes and we found a really nice Batman costume for cheap so he and I are both happy about that. Other than that, he's just been doing the usual little boy things. He and I have finished reading Voyage of the Dawntreader together and have started on The Silver Chair. We got the Dawntreader movie from Netflix this week so he enjoyed watching that.

Jared continues to be super busy. He and Frank went out to the farm (for his Eagle project) last Saturday morning so they could get a better idea how they are going to hang the signs when they are done. After that he went to work and after work he went with Jessie's family and some friends to a haunted pumpkin patch place. They didn't end up getting back to Frederick until nearly 1:00 am! We weren't too happy about that. I had to go pick him up at our stake center at that crazy hour.

On Sunday he had rehearsal but got permission to go late so he could stay for all of our church meetings. He was set apart as the 2nd assistant in the Priest Quorum that day. He has also been called to be our ward representative on the stake youth committee. On Monday he woke up in the early hours with the stomach flu so he didn't go to school that day. Luckily, it was a short lived illness and he was able to go back to school on Tuesday although he didn't make it to Seminary until Wednesday. He had play rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. On Friday, the Arts and Communications Academy at his school had a showcase. He had to prepare the lights for that show and he also performed as part of the Advanced Theater Studies group. That means he was very busy at school on Tuesday and Wednesday and he didn't even come home in between school and the showcase on Wednesday. I went to the showcase, and it was really good--lots of talented kids. There were singers, pianists, and other instrumental numbers. Jared recited a poem relating to time as part of the ATS performance and he did a really good job. On Friday Jared wrote his letter for his Hill Cumorah Pageant work crew application. Then he went to a pumpkin patch with a group from his theater class. Jessie met him there and after they were done there, I picked them up and took them to Jessie's house. (At one point, I took the wrong exit out of a round about and ended up on a bridge going over the Potomac River. I didn't plan on going to Virginia yesterday, but I did!) Jared had dinner with Jessie's family and then went to her high school's football game. Jessie plays the trumpet in the band and he wanted to see her perform. Today he went to work, mowed the lawn, and now he is at a dance, so he will have another late night.

Frank has been busy as usual with work and work for clients. It seems like a new emergency comes up with one of his clients every week. His back has been troubling him quite a bit all week so I wish he could take it easy more than he does (which is practically never). Frank got a haircut too, along with Seth.

I kept busy with all the usual housework and so forth, as well as getting everybody to all those places that they needed to go. Besides that, I had a doctor appointment Monday morning (just my annual female check up, although I kept forgetting to set up an appointment so I was almost a year late), and an eye doctor appointment on Wednesday. I was asked to help organize an upcoming ward activity, so I got going on that. I also did some Cub Scout work...got our Pinewood Derby scheduled. It's not until January, but the place that loans the track out is used by many of the packs in the area so you have to reserve it pretty far in advance. I tried to get some visiting teaching appointments set up, but I've had trouble connecting with my partner. I went to the library, kept scanning photos, and got some new winter clothes. I went to Jared's showcase, as I mentioned, and because of that missed the monthly RS meeting. I was sorry to miss that because we were doing a service project that involved sewing, so I really wanted to go. But as I said, I did enjoy the showcase. I tried to get some sewing of my own done but so far all I've managed to do is to pre-shrink the fabric (for the three skirts I want to make) and to iron one of the pieces of fabric. Maybe I'll make more progress this week but it's looking like it's going to be pretty busy so I probably won't get very far. The Elders came for dinner on Thursday. Last night I volunteered to help with a stake RS activity called "Give and Get" which is basically a free yard sale. Last night everyone brought their donations, and this morning you could go take whatever you want. So last night I was helping to sort all the donations that came in. There were lots of people to help and it went well. After I got home we watched the BYU game which we could see for once, and we were happy that they ended up winning that game although it wasn't looking very good for a lot of the game. Today I helped Seth work on some Cub Scouts and some Faith in God. I also helped him write a talk for Primary tomorrow.

Last week I weighed myself and was not at all happy with what I saw. I decided I've got to get more serious about exercising and more careful about what I eat. So I've been working on that this week. I have been exercising fairly regularly for the last few years but obviously not as much as I should. I decided I need to jog every day, Monday through Friday. Or at least, I need to try to do that. This week I was successful at exercising every day, and I also went on a walk this morning.

Yesterday we got a security system installed for our house. No reason...we aren't feeling paranoid or anything! It's just that our cable / internet / phone carrier has a deal where we could get faster internet, HD tv, more channels and a security system and it actually cost less than what we were paying already. The security system almost seems more trouble than it's worth since I'm not used to it yet and I'm sure I'm going to forget to disarm it before I open a door one of these days. But I guess once we adjust to the new system, it will be nice.

I'll finish up with a few sunrise photos that I took a few days ago. As always, the photos fail to capture the true beauty that my eye could see. But they are still nice: