Weekly Review June 24 '16

I have a ton of stuff to get done today, but I don’t seem to be focusing very well. Maybe that’s because I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. We were up until close to 11:00 making sure Jared had everything ready to go for the Hill Cumorah. Then I had trouble falling asleep (hardly ever happens) and then I woke up a couple of times in the few hours we had to sleep (probably my subconscious worrying that we needed to get up). Then we were up at 3:00 am. I went back to bed after Frank left to drive Jared to the airport, but I didn’t go back to sleep until he got home around 5:30. (Seth was awake too!) After all that, the phone rang shortly after 7:00 am and I decided to get up. So if this post doesn’t make any sense, you will know why!!

When I got up at 3:00, I came downstairs and found Jared sitting on the couch ready to go. I asked him if he had gone over his packing list one more time and he said “No, because I knew even if I did that you would want to go over it with me again.” Ha! He knows me too well. (But he had forgotten to put his watch on, so it’s a good thing I made him do that.) Since I didn’t go back to sleep, I texted him a bit while he was waiting at the airport and again when he was waiting in New Jersey to change planes. He reported that he had a pepperoni pretzel for breakfast. So healthy! He made it to Rochester safely and hooked up with some of the other work crew members and “Mama Hess” and now we won’t hear from him again except through the mail. I already wrote him a letter and sent it yesterday, which was weird, but now he will get a letter in a few days. I’m excited for him and I’m sure he is going to have a wonderful experience!

All smiles at 3:30 am!!

This has been a pretty busy week, trying to get him ready and also preparing for our upcoming Utah trip. I’ve continued to get better and although I am sometimes a bit congested, I feel almost completely back to normal. Frank had a busy weekend as I predicted—he worked Friday evening and most of the day Saturday getting work done for a client. The rest of us went to the a friends' house on Friday evening to watch a movie. We watched Finding Nemo, which of course I’ve seen a ton of times but not recently so I enjoyed remembering all the funny moments in that movie. It really is a good one.

On Saturday I had the Sister missionaries over for lunch. Originally, they were supposed to come for dinner, our bishop's family was having a little graduation party for all the Seniors in the ward, so I asked the Sisters if they could come for lunch instead. Then for dinner we went to the our bishop's house—they had made hamburgers and hot dogs and had a cake, and the rest of us brought side dishes. It was nice. The weather was perfect and later that evening we saw the first fireflies of the year. I love those!!

Sunday was Father’s Day and we gave Frank some cards and some candy, but the drone was his real gift. The men all got ice cream during the last hour of church and Frank didn’t have a bunch of meetings so he got to take a nap for once. The only other noteworthy thing I can remember about Sunday is that Seth was asked to share his testimony in Primary and he actually did it (last time he wouldn’t) and he did a great job! Oh, and that evening Seth and I went out back to chase fireflies under a golden moon. It was awesome!

  

Jared worked on both Monday and Tuesday. I had book chat on Monday. We met at a different house than we usually do--at one of the other member's new home in Virginia because she was busy baking a bunch of brownies for her stake’s Youth Conference. So we helped her make brownies while we talked about the book. We are not meeting again until August and after that we are going to have to switch to evening because the lady who hosts the group (she started it years ago, before I even moved here) is going to be doing student teaching this fall.

I didn’t go anywhere on Tuesday, but I was busy all day cleaning and working on Cub Scout stuff and Girls’ Camp stuff. Jared got all of his stuff out for the Hill Cumorah and we marked everything, too. We had at least four separate thunderstorms go through that day, and at the end of one of them the sun came out and we saw a rainbow. I woke up hearing thunder at least twice that night, too, so a couple more storms went through. Some places got much stronger winds, hail, and tornadoes, so we got off pretty easy. We had one bolt of lightning hit really close and the lights went out for a few seconds, but that was the worst of it.

(The side of the rainbow we could see from the front of the house was a lot clearer than the side we could see from the back of the house.)

Jared went to a movie Wednesday morning (Finding Dory) and that afternoon he went with the youth in the ward to do baptisms at the temple. Frank met their group at the temple to help. I did a lot of shopping and Seth and I had den meeting that evening. My boys were pretty wild but at least they came—none of the boys in the other age groups showed up! Wanda (lady in the wheelchair that I help a lot) went to the temple with the youth group and she called me the next morning just to tell me how great it was and that she wants to go to the temple more often, so that’s awesome!

Yesterday I got my hair cut and Jared got all packed and ready to go. He went to a movie too—I can’t remember the name of it! (New Avengers movie, I think.) Frank and I got some shopping done—we needed to get some more luggage because with all the boys going different directions and some of our suitcases getting pretty worn out, our luggage supply is quite depleted!! We were able to find what we need so we are set. Jared got an email saying he could add that last class he needs to his schedule so he is all set for this fall. It's nice that got taken care of before he had to leave this morning.

In between everything else, I’ve been working on Girls’ Camp stuff like crazy so that hopefully I won’t have an overwhelming amount of things to do to prepare for that later. I still have a lot of shopping to do and a myriad of other little tasks to complete before we leave for Utah so I am keeping busy!! 

Yesterday was Frank's last day at work before vacation since he took today off. As usual, he is not sitting around though. He is doing work for clients instead. Work never ends for him. (Or for me either.)

I'd better start chipping away at the rest of my long list of things to do. I will leave you with this photo of a Lego creation Seth made this week:

 He's really into Jurassic Park lately. He created a Spinosaurus. He says the 5 little dots are the people he is chasing!

See ya'll soon!!

Weekly Review June 17 '16

This week has been quite packed with different events and activities. It went by fast. Last Friday evening we had the Cub Scout Carnival. Actually, it was more than just Cub Scouts. Since we have so few in our ward right now (a total of about 10 who come, for all 3 age groups combined) we asked the Activity Days girls if they wanted to do it with us. They did, so they prepared some games and activities too and we invited all the primary kids to come (but they had to have a parent stay with them). I would say most of the families that came had a child in either Cub Scouts or Activity Days, but a few extra primary kids came. It was a nice size group (not too big, not too small) and it went really well. We had a Kung Fu Panda theme and had some carnival games, face painting, a ninja obstacle course, karate demonstration, and some popcorn and oriental noodle soup. It was fun but I kept busy all night and by the time I got to bed, I was sore all over, just from being on my feet. The kids had a lot of fun, though, and I was pleased with how it all turned out.

Seth with his game

One of my other "Bears" with his game

My third "Bear" with his game. I only have 3 boys, but they keep me busy!

Jared put Kung Fu Panda music on his Bluetooth speaker so we had thee music in the background. Jared enjoyed lying on the hill next to his speaker!

Kids enjoying carnival games:

(We made the little chinese hats to put on the ducks during one of our den meetings. They turned out really cute, I think!)

Cute face paint:

This is the RS president with her three youngest kids:

Proof that I was there (I was behind the camera most of the time):

A closer view of the cans for Seth's game. We made the covers to go over the cans during a den meeting to fit the Kung Fu Panda theme. I think they turned out really cute, too!:

Saturday was a really full day. In the morning I went to a RS activity. We combined with Frederick Ward for a “Super Saturday” where we could go to four different classes. I went to classes on voice basics (singing), learning to use a fancy camera, and better communications. They were all interesting and fun. I actually stayed in the camera class for two time slots because she went over a few different things in each class. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on how to use the camera now, but I did learn a few new things. They had some yummy breakfast foods for us too and we also brought spare change from home to donate to help two different charities. That took up my morning. Meanwhile, Jared was out at the farm with another boy hanging the last two signs for his Eagle project. He got that done and got a signature and thank you letter from the beneficiary. Such a relief to have that done—for him, AND for us! In the afternoon Jared went to work and the rest of us went to a crab fest in honor of a family who used to be in our ward who were visiting Maryland last weekend. It was great to see them again. We didn’t pick any crabs (although Seth was interested in watching someone else do it) but we brought pizza to eat and there were lots of sides to share.

On Sunday we got to church early because Jared needed to be there for a song practice. Frank was already at Ward Council and then he went to pick up a couple in our ward who need transportation. Jared gave a talk as well as singing, and he did a great job on both. Especially considering he was stuffed up and not feeling his best! He wore his new suit coat and we decided it wasn’t the right size (not long enough in back or in the sleeves) so we returned it this week and ordered a long size. He tried it on at the store so we knew it would fit (they had it in blue, but he wanted it in black). The new coat just arrived today so we can go pick it up (again!) Hopefully that will be the last time. On Sunday evening there was a stake priesthood meeting which Frank attended but Jared stayed home because he was feeling pretty crummy by then.

I will not give a blow by blow account of the rest of the week, but we stayed pretty busy. Jared felt pretty sick on Monday but started improving on Tuesday and he is mostly back to normal now. Meanwhile, I started getting a head ache on Monday (which is how Jared started out with his illness late last week) and by bedtime on Monday I realized that my throat had that “almost sore” feeling. Sure enough, I woke up Tuesday with a solid sore throat and congestion and a drippy nose as well. Yuck!! I didn’t feel well that day, but Wednesday was my worst day because I also felt feverish and exhausted that day, on top of my other symptoms. By yesterday I was coughing my lungs up (still am, occasionally) but otherwise started to feel better. I still have congestion (and my nose is super sore) and the cough but other than that I am feeling better. I had a lot more energy yesterday and got quite a bit done in spite of the coughing. I haven’t been able to exercise since Monday but I’ll probably be able to do that again soon. Frank took Seth to school on Wednesday so I could sleep in, which I really appreciated.

Meanwhile, life went on and I tried to get as much rest as I could but there was a lot to do so that wasn’t very easy. Jared and I spent a good part of Monday getting all his paperwork updated for his Eagle project. He had a lot of problems with the program and / or the computer so it took a lot longer than it should have and was very frustrating but he got most of it done. He met with the scoutmaster on Tuesday afternoon and got his signature; he had to go back Wednesday night because he realized the scoutmaster was supposed to sign in two places and he only had him sign one. He also drove back out to the farm on Tuesday for the same reason—he needed the beneficiary’s signature in one other place. On Wednesday evening he met with the Scout committee chair and got his signature and on Thursday he added all the photos to his paperwork so by Thursday evening he was ready to meet with the district guy to set up his board of review. We let him drive himself out there and the district guy was a lot nicer to Jared than he was to Tanner—he didn’t comment on his mission plans or anything like that—so hopefully he learned his lesson after we complained about Tanner's experience! He is set up to have his board of review on August 24^th. There were many times I thought we’d never get to this point so I am happy to have that weight off my mind.

Jared also needed to register for classes at BYU-I this week so he spent most of Thursday doing that. (With me helping him most of the time.) It was challenging to find classes he needed at decent times, but he finally worked out a fairly decent schedule although he is on a wait list to get into one of his classes. He really needs that class so he will have enough hours to get his scholarship, but he is only #3 on the waitlist so I think it will work out.

Other things I did this week were prepare for den meeting (I dragged myself to den meeting Wednesday night, even though I was feeling terrible) and started working on some things for Girls’ Camp. I would have got a lot more done if I hadn’t spent as much time lying down in bed on Tuesday and Wednesday. I got shopping and cleaning and things like that done too even though it was difficult. We fed dinner to the Elders on Tuesday and on Wednesday I gave the sister missionaries a ride to an appointment (didn’t want to say no to them, even though I felt terrible). On Wednesday evening for YM / YW they had an evening to honor the graduating seniors. They put together a little video about them and had the other kids talk about what they liked about them and so on. They also did a funny skit about them. I saw part of the video, right after den meeting ended, but I didn’t stick around for the rest since I was feeling so sick. I contributed a few photos (recent and baby photos) for the video. Today Frank and I went to talk with the counselor again. We mostly reported on how things have been going with Seth, and actually they have been going quite well. He continues to be much more calm and cooperative, and the new discipline plan is working out well too. (I really think his former medication was really causing a lot of the problems!) Because all is going well, the counselor decided he doesn’t need to meet with us anymore for now. We will contact him again if we need help in the future, but for now we are going to continue with the discipline plan he gave us and hopefully things will keep going well. I think they will.

Seth and I have done a lot of reading the last few weeks. We finished a book called The One and Only Ivan and then we read The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, The Key to the Treasure (a book I read and loved when I was about his age which is about some kids who solve a family mystery and find a treasure that their ancestor hid for his children generations before), and last night we finished Escape from Warsaw (another book I read and loved at his age—WWII survival story about some Polish children). Seth liked all of them. I’m not sure what we are going to read next.

This was the last week of school for Seth and I don’t think they did much, academically. One day they went to the park for the morning and yesterday they had game day. Today was the last day and they had pajama day and got out two hours early. So now he is home, and I am looking forward to summer vacation!! Seth brought home his report card today and he’s been assigned to Ms. Christine’s class for next year so I am happy about that. She was Scott's teacher in 4th grade and Tanner's teacher in 4th, 5th and 6th grades, and she is an excellent teacher.

Frank is extremely busy. He did maintenance for clients this week and this weekend he is upgrading all the computers to Windows 10 for one of his clients and installing security cameras and a couple of other things too. So he took today off (he needs to use up his days off before the end of June anyway) to get started on that. He will be gone until late tonight and he expects to be gone again for most of the day tomorrow. He has enjoyed flying his drone a few more times this week, but he hasn’t had much time for that.

Jared is spending a lot of tomorrow with Jessie (she has a swim meet in the morning and then he is going to take her to lunch) but that’s the last time they will see each other for a while and they have decided since Jared is mostly going to be gone from here on out that they need to be just friends now. They still plan to keep in touch but will date other people. (Or at least Jessie will—I’m not sure about Jared. He doesn’t really want to get involved with someone else before his mission.) Jared is sad about it—I think he would have liked it if she had said she was going to wait for him, but I think this is definitely the best and wisest thing to do at this point, even if it’s painful. Much better to break things off now than later, and he won’t be home from his mission for at least two and a half years, so that is a long time for any girl to sit around waiting.

Today is a beautiful sunny day although it started out rainy. We had a pretty decent thunderstorm last night (some nearby areas had tornadoes and large hail, but we escaped that). We've had a few miserably humid days this week but we've had some pleasant days too. 

We are excited that we will be seeing many of you soon! 

Weekly Review June 10 '16

We are keeping busy out here! One more week of school and I think I am more excited about school getting out than Seth is. It doesn't help that everyone else all across the country is already out of school and going on fun vacations!

Last Friday we had the Elders over for dinner, along with a family in our ward. They are a young couple with a 6 month old adorable baby girl. The dad is not a member, but he seems pretty open about learning more about the gospel. They are both really nice. We had hot dogs and hamburgers, along with some salads and chips. After dinner, the Elders gave a short lesson focused on Lehi’s dream, and it really brought a peaceful spirit into our home.

On Saturday we were running around to a lot of different things. Jared went to work in the late morning and got home mid-afternoon. Frank was doing some work for some clients and Seth had a birthday party to go to. I had to take Jared to work and pick him back up afterwards since Frank was gone with one car and I needed the other one to take Seth to his party. After Jared got home from work, he took three other priests with him out to the farm and they got all the signs hung except for two that need to be hung in a special way. The lady in charge wasn’t there and he had some trouble getting in touch with her to set up another day to go out to finish up, but they finally connected and he will be going out tomorrow to hang the last two signs. In the meantime, he went to the school yesterday and got the wood cut and the pieces assembled for the brackets he needs to hang the signs. He is also scheduled to meet with our scoutmaster on Sunday and we’re starting to work on getting his paperwork finished up and the Eagle application filled out so hopefully by Thursday evening he’ll have all of that done and will be ready to meet with the guy from the district. He’s definitely not going to have the luxury of putting off doing the paperwork like Tanner and Scott did!

In between all the comings and goings on Saturday I also prepared a Primary lesson because I was asked to substitute Seth’s class on Sunday. I enjoyed teaching his class—I really like the lessons for the older kids! The lesson was about the Zoramites and we made a list of the things they believed that were incorrect. The kids were so funny--they were all totally shocked that anyone would believe that there isn't a Christ or that a group of people would be saved because God chose them to be saved, rather than based on their obedience. It was pretty cool because I was able to point out to them that since they are going to church and praying and reading scriptures and things like that, they are able to immediately recognize false doctrine. I told them it's very important that they keep doing those things so that they won't be deceived.

Seminary Graduation was held on Sunday evening, so of course we went to that. It was pretty nice. We learned about the change this year with Seminary—no more Scripture Mastery! Instead, they will be doing something called Doctrinal Mastery, because they want to make sure that students thoroughly understand the basic doctrines of the church. I can see the wisdom in that, in this crazy world we live in! I’m sure they will still be encouraged to learn important scriptures, too. Anyway, we are proud of Jared (as we are of Tanner and Scott) for being a diligent Seminary student and graduating!

(I had my eyes closed in EVERY picture we took.)

Jared with two other graduates from our ward--Ian and Karolynne. (There were two other graduating Seniors in our ward, but they didn't make it to the ceremony.)

Besides all the usual things I need to do each week, this week was extra busy because of lots of extra things going on. Jared and I went shopping on both Monday and Tuesday and we managed to get everything on his list for Pageant—BAM!! It was tiring, but I’m glad to have that major task checked off my list. We had to order him a suit coat since they didn’t have the right size at the store, but it already came in so we can go pick it up today.

Tuesday evening we had the Sisters over for dinner. One of the sisters (Sister Olson) got transferred this week so we were glad we had a chance to have one last dinner with her. We love her and we are sorry to see her go!!

On Wednesday morning, I had a planning meeting for Girls Camp with the leader for the 3rd year girls and with the Stake YW president who will be helping us with the 3^rd year girls. We got through a long list of things to plan and now we each have assignments to do to get ready for camp. It was fun to plan, and we all seemed to be on the same page already about what we want to accomplish, so that is great. I do have a lot to do, and need to get going on that next week since we’ll be out of town for 2 of the weeks in between then and now.

On Wednesday I also ended up spending some time helping the Sisters with transfers, which I hadn’t really planned to do. They texted me that morning to ask if I could give them a ride to the Frederick Sisters’ apartment, which should have taken about 15 minutes so I said sure. Then when I got to their apartment to pick them up, they had just got a text from the other Sisters saying they were running late, so we had about 30 minutes before we needed to go. We got Sister Olson’s luggage loaded up in the car and then I suggested I take them to get some lunch since they (and I) hadn’t had any lunch yet. We decided to go to Taco Bell since it was close to where we were going. I also decided I could use Jared’s help and that he would probably enjoy going to Taco Bell anyway, so we stopped at our house to pick him up and take him along. We had a quick lunch and then went over to the apartment and still ended up waiting a while for the other Sisters to show up. Then there was a lot of picture taking and luggage loading and unloading and so forth! So in the end that 15 minute ride turned into about an hour and a half. Oh well!

We didn’t have Cub Scouts that evening but I have been trying here and there in between everything else this week to get a few things ready for the Cub Scout carnival that we are having this evening (it’s our Pack Meeting for the month.)

Yesterday I was a chaperone for the 3^rd grade field trip, so I was gone all day. Jared needed the car for a song practice (all the Seminary kids are singing a song for church this Sunday) and also so he could go to the school to get Eagle project stuff done, so he took us to the school and picked us up at the end of the day. For the field trip, we went to Fountain Rock Nature Center. The people at the nature center did a presentation about wetlands and then they took the kids out to a creek and gave them nets so they could catch little critters in the creek and then they identified them and observed them for a while. (They caught about 4 crayfish, a couple of newts, some minnows, and lots of bugs.) They also got to play on the playground, do an outdoor scavenger hunt, decorate sun visors, make “edible ponds”, go on a nature walk, feed the geese, and have grilled hot dogs and watermelon. I think they all had a lot of fun. It was a beautiful day to be outside--just a bit windy and slightly cooler than normal, but sunny and not humid. Much better than being miserably hot and sticky! I enjoyed spending the day outside for a change. Jared kept the laundry going for me so I was able to get everything done I needed to do that day, even though I was gone for most of it.

Learning about wetlands

Scavenger Hunt

Catching critters

The catch!!

Getting a closer look at the critters

 

Visors!

Making edible ponds

And eating them!

Feeding geese:

Sketching in his journal while on the nature walk:

Frank got a new toy the end of last week. It’s actually an early Father’s Day present—a really nice drone. He took it to the park to fly and do some filming on Monday afternoon (Jared and Seth went with him). Then he took it out again Monday evening after family night and flew it around the court a bit. When I went out there, I wasn’t surprised to see several of the men in the neighborhood out there with him! Haha!! Last night he was working late and when he finished, he took the drone out to the pond by his work and flew it around some more and did some more filming. He is enjoying it and has lots of ideas of different things he would like to film.

Jared has been keeping busy as I mentioned already with Hill Cumorah preparations and his Eagle project. He also went to Jessie’s house on Tuesday and YM on Wednesday. He has gone to Seminary every day this week except for Monday. He’s planning to go next week too.

Seth has been doing pretty well with his new medicine. Even with the higher dose, he is still eating full meals and his sleep hasn’t been too bad. He woke up super early yesterday morning but other than that he’s done pretty well. He has also been mostly pretty pleasant and I would say even more cooperative than usual and he hasn’t had any major meltdowns. I have no idea if it is helping him get more school work done (probably not significantly, or I would have heard about it from his teacher) but in general when I have observed him at church and at home (as well as the field trip) he is pretty calm and seems to be focusing most of the time.

Now it is getting late and I need to get dinner made and drop Snickers off at the groomer’s before getting to the church to set up for the carnival, so that's all I've got!