Weekly Review December 12 '15

I am actually feeling pretty sick right now. Jared was sick earlier this week and now I've got the same thing…sore throat, congestion, cough, slightly feverish. Not so fun.Jared wasn’t feeling really great on Friday and Saturday but he had the showcase to do at the school so he basically ignored it until he was done with that. (He also went with Jessie’s family to a Christmas Village thing Saturday morning.) Then on Sunday he couldn’t ignore it anymore so he stayed home and he missed school on Monday and Tuesday too. I did kind of the same thing. I started feeling sick on Thursday but I had too much to do Thursday and yesterday so I pretended I wasn't sick as much as I could. Today I don't have a ton of things I HAVE to do, so I am trying to take it easy. Hopefully I will recover quickly.

One of the things I had to do yesterday was march in the parade I mentioned last week. I was dreading it, since I wasn't feeling well but it didn't turn out to be too bad. I took some cold medicine which helped me feel almost normal. The other great thing was that we've been having unseasonably warm temperatures most of the week so we weren't freezing during the parade. It was actually pleasant to be outside, with temperatures in the 50's. We wore coats and we were perfectly comfortable. Here are some pictures from the parade:

 Those photos were taking while we were waiting for the parade to start. We had to be lined up by 30 minutes before the parade was supposed to start, so we had a long wait. (You try keeping 8, 9, and 10 year old boys from banging into each other while wearing large boxes for 30 minutes!) Once the parade started, it went pretty fast. I would say the parade route was only about a mile long so we were done in about 45 minutes. There were a lot of people there to watch and the parade was pretty long...we were the 44th entry out of 79 groups. There were a lot of other kids dressed like presents; we also saw gingerbread people, Christmas trees, angels, and so on. We even saw an abominable snowman! One of the high school bands was a few entries behind us, so we heard them playing the whole time. Overall, it was fun. When we finished, we walked back to where we started and Frank and Jared met us there with hot chocolate. After we got home, Jared went to a friend's house to watch a Christmas movie.

I, for one, have been enjoying the warmer temperatures. (Frank has been complaining loudly.) It gets pretty chilly overnight and in the early mornings, but the days have warmed up nicely. I even made Jared mow the lawn on Thursday! In December! He wasn’t too happy about it but I had just been thinking in the morning that it would be great to get the lawn mowed one more time before winter really kicks in (there were dead leaves all over it, besides the fact that it was all scraggly) and then in the afternoon I heard the next door neighbor mowing his lawn. It was the perfect opportunity, so I made Jared go out and ask to borrow the lawn mower when the neighbor was done. (Our lawn mower isn’t working.) The lawn looks a lot better and now you can actually see the Christmas decorations I put out there…they aren’t buried in leaves anymore. Thursday we had thick fog in the morning, but in the afternoon the sun came out and yesterday was sunny too.

Frank and I went to the Madrigal Feast last Saturday. We had a boy in the ward stay with Seth while we were gone. I thought the kids did a nice job. It was a good showcase for the kids’ talents…not just the ones acting and singing but also for the art students, who did all the decorations (they were really nice). The food was pretty good and the show was entertaining. I was impressed that they sang Christmas carols and talked about the birth of Jesus! The only bad thing about the evening was that Frank was really uncomfortable the whole time because of his back. On Saturday I also took Seth to a little Lego event where he got to make a little Star Wars Lego set and bring it home. Pictures from the Madrigal Feast:

I couldn't get a good picture of Jared in costume because he was supposed to remain in character the whole time, so he ignored me. So the one above was the best I could do.

We sat at different tables, depending on which high school you wanted to support. (The Arts & Communications Academy, who were putting on the showcase, is housed at Jared's school but students from all the high schools in the county participate.) There was a banner behind each table representing the school and their mascot. We sat at the table for Jared's school, of course, which is Governor Thomas Johnson High School and their mascot is the Patriots. Here is their banner:

 This is one of the other banners, for Linganore High School. I had to look up their mascot...the Lancer:
 

There are 10 high schools, so there were 8 more banners. They all looked really nice. I liked these "stained glass" windows they made too, although I didn't get a very good picture of them:

The rest of the week; we did end up having a discussion with the lady investigating at our house on Friday evening. Just a short one because the sisters were close to their curfew. We read some of 3 Nephi 11 with her. She said she would be at church and she also was planning to go to the 1^st Presidency Christmas Devotional. But then she didn’t come to church or go to the devotional. The sisters were able to get in touch with her, though, and they had a discussion with her and one of her daughters Thursday night. (They wanted to do it at our house but I was going to be gone because I had a hair appointment last night.) They are taught her and two of her daughters again tonight, but I couldn’t be there for that discussion either since I had to go to the parade. I’m just glad she’s still meeting with them, though. We ended up having the Sisters over here last Sunday for the devotional, which was nice. It was awesome, as usual, and we made these cookies and ate them:

We had the Elders over to eat again on Monday because no one else had signed up to feed them. They don’t get fed as much as the Sisters—poor guys! I got all the Christmas cards mailed and did some Christmas shopping. I also went to a local store that carries scout stuff to buy Pinewood Derby cars for all the boys in our pack. I wanted to get a belt for Seth too but they were out of those.

I had book chat on Tuesday afternoon. I haven’t finished the book yet but I enjoyed the discussion. That evening I made another present costume for the parade. It was easier to make it at home because we have a utility knife that I could use. At the den meeting, we were using scissors to cut through the boxes, which wasn’t easy.

On Wednesday I went to breakfast with a friend. Then I went to Wal Mart twice…once to get groceries and then back to get a bunch of Christmas stuff. I didn’t do it all at once because the boys got out of school two hours early that day and I wanted to pick up Jared from school and have him do some shopping with me (he helped me pick out some ties for Tanner). I didn’t have time to get everything done before I had to pick Jared up.  Seth ended up not coming home until 5:00 because the carpool family took him to the park after school, then to their house to play for a while, and then to the library for Minecraft Club. Meanwhile, Jared went to Jessie’s swim meet that evening.

Thursday I got together with the other den leader to plan out den meetings for the next few months. Then I did more shopping. I hope I am almost done with shopping!! I got Tanner's Christmas package ready and Frank mailed it yesterday. Maybe my days don’t sound all that busy, but when you mix in all the laundry and cleaning and everything else, I have actually been running from one thing to another all day every day. Frank has been doing maintenance for his clients this week so he’s been busy too.

Yesterday he had an Elder’s Quorum lunch (wives invited too) so I went with him to that. I would have stayed home but one other wife was coming and I didn't want her to be the only one. It was a small group but it was fun. I would have enjoyed it more if my nose hadn’t been running so much. I took some cold medicine before we left and it helped a bit. I also took Seth to the doctor for a follow up visit about his medicine. We ran out of his medicine on Thursday. After talking with the doctor, he decided to increase his dosage a bit, since the medicine seems to be helping a little but not a lot. The doctor wants me to have Seth eat more in the morning and in the evening when he is not on the medicine since it does seem to be suppressing his appetite. He hasn't been eating most of his lunch on a lot of days (he even brings the cookies back home!) and he has lost a few pounds (but grew almost an inch since his last visit about 6 weeks ago). We'll see how it goes.

That brings you up to date on us!