Weekly Review September 30 '16

This morning I mentioned to Seth that it is the last day of September, and he was surprised. “Really?! September went by fast!!!” I feel the same way. It is cloudy and raining today. We got a lot of rain Wednesday night and yesterday too, but that’s good because things have been pretty dry here the last few months. I miss the sunshine, but we really need the rain.

Last Friday we had Pack Meeting—the Space Derby that we have been preparing for. It went pretty well; it was kind of chaotic because it took a lot longer to get the rockets ready—wound up and on the track—than we thought it would, so there was a lot of down time and the kids got bored and ran around the gym a lot. There were also a lot of malfunctions with the track, like rockets getting stuck at the beginning and stuff like that so they had to re-run almost every heat. But the kids really didn’t seem to care and no one seemed upset if their rocket didn’t go very far—they just had fun and each boy seemed to be really proud of his rocket, so I’d say overall the evening was a success. By the way, I think Seth’s rocket was the slowest! :) Frank didn’t make it through the whole evening because his knee and back were hurting too much, but he did come for the beginning of the event.

Saturday I mowed the lawn and cleaned the kitchen floor as usual. I don’t think I’ll be mowing tomorrow because it will still be raining. Anyway, in the afternoon Frank and I watched the BYU football game. Even though they lost again, we were encouraged that the offense is starting to look better. I actually had to leave before the game ended to go to the broadcast of the Women’s Meeting. I invited one of the sisters I visit teach, who is less active, to go and she accepted so I picked up her and her daughter and we all went together. There was food and visiting for an hour before the meeting started which we enjoyed and then the meeting was AWESOME as always.

On Sunday I taught RS and it went pretty well; my only complaint is that the time was too short! We watched President Uchtdorf’s talk from last conference called “In Praise of Those Who Save” and discussed it briefly. I’m glad I got to do the lesson because as always when you prepare a lesson, I learned a lot. I was really impressed that there was so much wisdom from a prophet of God in this talk. It was just full of gems. We are so fortunate to have prophets to lead us through the crazy world we live in today! I’m really looking forward to hearing what they have to say in the next few days. I’m sure it will be wonderful!

Frank’s right knee started hurting a lot on Saturday, and now it hurts just as much as his left knee. So on Monday he went back to the orthopedic doctor to have that knee looked at. He saw a different doctor this time, who insisted that he has gout in his right knee. Frank is still skeptical about that, but it is possible that gout can be triggered by trauma so maybe it is. They did blood tests to confirm and the results were not entirely conclusive, but he has an appointment on Tuesday to find out more about that so we’ll see what they say then. In the meantime, he’s been pretty miserable this week in spite of the various pain pills, anti-inflammatories, and muscle relaxants he’s been taking. Seriously, we have enough different medicines in the house to start a small pharmacy! It’s kind of frustrating that none of them are helping much. Because of the increased pain in his right knee and an extreme lack of sleep (Frank can’t sleep more than a few hours at night because of the pain), we decided over the weekend that he needed to take a leave of absence from work immediately, rather than waiting until after his surgery. He was really struggling to get any work done, even from home. So at least Frank hasn’t had to worry about that, and he’s been able to take medicine more consistently and sleep during the day whenever he needs to, which has helped. We’re still working out all the details, but he will get paid part of his salary while he is on leave (through short term disability) and he’ll be able to recover all his lost wages from the car insurance company so financially we’ll be okay even though it will be messy for a while.

Meanwhile, someone was supposed to be calling to schedule his surgery and when they didn’t, Frank called them and the lady told him they were scheduling out to the first part of November so couldn’t get him in for surgery until then. What?!!! Frank explained that there was no way he could wait that long and the doctor had told him it would only be a few weeks. So she said she’d talk to the doctor and get back to him. They finally worked that out yesterday, and he is scheduled for surgery on October 13^th which is still two weeks away, but much better than over a month away. I can’t imagine him having to go another month in the pain that he’s been in, although of course he will be in pain after the surgery too—but at least he will be in the recovery stage instead of just waiting for the surgery that will get him on the road to recovery.

Last Friday Frank went to the dentist because his teeth have been bothering him—ultra sensitive to heat and cold and hurting a little—ever since the accident. The dentist checked his teeth and said there weren’t any cracks or anything like that, but then he checked his jaw and it was very painful in one spot. He said his jaw was dislocated, and he needed to go to an oral surgeon to have that evaluated. So I took him to the oral surgeon on Wednesday. The surgeon said it’s not really dislocated, but he has TMJ and the joint is inflamed. The normal way to treat it is to wait a month or so and take anti-inflammatory drugs to see if it will heal on its own. If that doesn’t work, then the next step is usually to make some sort of a mouth guard, but he’s not sure that will even be possible in Frank’s case because he has a pretty severe under bight (he’s had that his whole life). So if they can’t do that, then they can try cortisone shots which are really painful, but they actually knock you out to do them so you don’t feel it. So anyway, we are in the waiting game on that one. The pain in his teeth & jaw are not severe, fortunately. He is supposed to eat soft foods so he is doing that.

Frank mentioned to the oral surgeon that he had his bite analyzed by a dentist about 20 years ago (when we lived in New York) and that they told him in order to fix it he would need surgery which would involve breaking his jaw in at least 3 places. At the time, we decided not to do anything about it because the surgery obviously sounds major and the problem with his bite was not causing him problems (he can eat, he can talk…). The oral surgeon said he could understand why he wouldn’t want to have that done, but he told him he might want to re-consider having that done someday. (And he came right out and said “I do that kind of surgery, but I promise I’m not trying to drum up business for myself!”) The reason why is that he said Frank’s bite is very unstable and as he gets older, he will likely have more problems with TMJ. He also said that his bite is actually contributing a lot to his sleep apnea problem, because when you have an under bite, it obstructs your airway. I had no idea there was any connection there. He said if he had the under bite corrected, it probably wouldn’t eliminate his sleep apnea but it would probably be much less severe. So maybe we will look into that someday, but obviously right now would not be a good time to do something like that. (By the way, we’re still waiting for them to do anything about treating Frank’s sleep apnea, which I find frustrating.)

Well, this post is turning into a medical journal! On to other things. On Monday I ran a bunch of errands and in the afternoon I babysat for a little while. A young mom is here staying in our ward with her husband's family while he is doing some military training and she just had a baby last week. So I was asked to go watch her little boy (he’s about 15 months old) for a few hours so she could get some rest. He is a really cute and smart little boy, so that was kind of fun. We had the Elders over for dinner that evening. On Tuesday my visiting teachers came to see me. I haven’t been visited (although they have contacted me in other ways) for several months, so that was fun to get a visit. We had den meeting that evening and got a lot done. The Wolf leader moved and they still haven’t called a new leader so one of the parents came to help me, which I was grateful for. She can’t come next time, though, so I need to try to find someone else to help. (It’s not just that it’s hard to handle 6 boys by myself, the BSA requires “2 deep” leadership.)  On Wednesday afternoon I worked at the school library again and once again it was very slow but there were even more books that needed to be shelved, so I spent nearly an hour doing that. That evening they had a little baby shower for the young mother I mentioned earlier, so I went to that. They had yummy food and we visited and it was a lot of fun—I really needed to have some girl time at that point!!

Yesterday I took Seth to the orthodontist for an evaluation. His teeth are not very crooked (yet!) but the x-rays showed that some teeth are going to have trouble coming in. The orthodontist thinks his upper jaw might be a little on the small side. He asked me “is there any history in your family of under bight?” Hmm…funny thing--we were just at the oral surgeon the day before learning all about Frank’s under bight! Anyway, Seth might need to have a couple of baby teeth pulled to facilitate some of the permanent teeth coming in correctly and he may need to wear an expander to spread out his upper jaw. But it’s hard to tell for sure what would be the best thing to do, so the orthodontist decided to give it 3 months and then do a full battery of x-rays and such to get a better idea of what treatment he might need, and when. Oh, and Seth’s teeth are pretty worn (no surprise to me—I hear him grinding his teeth at night all the time) so he may need to wear a mouth guard at night but the orthodontist says he usually doesn’t do that for kids this young. I really like this orthodontist (always have) because every time I talk to him it is obvious that he is doing this because he wants to do it and he’s not out to get as much money out of it as he possibly can. Incidentally, when I mentioned to the orthodontist that Frank has severe sleep apnea but hasn’t been treated yet, he said “that will be life changing for him, to get that treated.”  I think so too, which is why I wish they would get a move on with the treatment. I mean, imagine not getting a decent night’s sleep for years on end. I know he’s going to feel a lot better when he can sleep again. Anyway, I made an appointment for Seth for the end of December. Jared needs to go in too because his retainer has a crack in it, so I was able to get them both in at the same time. (Yes, the crack appeared right after he got to Idaho!)

Last night we had the Sister missionaries over for dinner. We also Skyped with Jared and it was nice to see him and get caught up on what he is doing. He seems to be doing well. He will probably be in Utah this weekend again for General Conference. Then he's going to stay put for a while!

I really wanted to go to the temple this week (the DC temple finally opened back up, after being closed for about 6 weeks) but between taking Frank and Seth to appointments and trying to keep everything else running smoothly, I didn’t have much time. I was going to try to squeeze in a trip yesterday but then I slept terrible on Wednesday night so I knew a drive down there and back was not a good idea. I will go this coming week, for sure!!   

It is nice to have Frank around all the time, but seeing him in pain all the time is the worst. It’s been pretty stressful for me, and obviously no fun for him either. He is trying to rest as much as possible, though, and the last couple of nights he has been sleeping much better. Because his right knee hurts now too, it’s very hard for him to drive so I’ve been taking him to his appointments and plan to keep doing that until he’s better. Although it hurts him to move, he is also going a bit stir crazy just lying around all the time, so when I go places he sometimes decides to go with me. When I go to the store he comes along—he gets on one of those carts so he doesn’t have to walk and follows me around the store. I do enjoy having his company and it’s good for him to get out of the house a little. Don’t worry about him or me too much, though. We will be fine!! Just keep us in your prayers, please--especially Frank.

In little snatches I have been trying to get some reading done. I finished the last Newbery book I was reading (The Hero and the Crown--which I liked in some ways but mostly I'm disgusted with it) but I haven't started a new one because I'm trying to get Plato's Republic done for book chat. It's somewhat interesting, but it's not my favorite. I'm not making a lot of progress.

Sam (Curtis & Julia's son) is coming to stay with us this weekend. He is stationed at Fort Meade now, which isn't too far from us. A couple of guys in our ward work near there, so one of them is picking him up on his way home from work today. I think he is going to stay until Sunday afternoon. It will be nice to have him here for General Conference. We hope we will get to see him often while he is here.

That's all the news from these parts.

PS to Weekly Review September 23 '16

Oh, I forgot one more thing that happened this week. Not to be outdone by Frank, on Wednesday when I was carrying groceries into the house my sandal got caught on the threshold somehow and, juggling bags, I lost my balance and went down with a spectacular crash of cans on the tile floor. I landed on my left arm and knee, and I banged my knee really hard on the floor. However, my left knee inexplicably does not hurt at all. My left arm (especially the wrist) has some tender spots and sometimes it aches slightly and sometimes it twinges. But really, it’s not bad either. Good thing I wasn’t going 35 mph when I hit the floor. That really helps. I’m very grateful that I didn’t break anything. With Frank already limping around, that would not have been a good thing if I broke my arm! Good thing I’m a tough old bird.

Weekly Review September 23 '16

This week has been a bit trying, but I’ve had worse ones for sure. Mainly it was trying because Snickers has had some kind of intestinal illness. He threw up a couple of times and he had diarrhea too so he had to be taken out a lot—including 3 or 4 times during the night most nights. And even then there were a few messes to clean up on the floor a few times. So yeah, lots of fun. It started late Sunday and by Tuesday I decided I should probably take him to the vet the next day but then he slept through the night Tuesday night and seemed to be feeling better on Wednesday. Until evening, that is, and then he had another bad night so I did take him in yesterday. We are still waiting on a test to see if he’s picked up a parasite or something. In the meantime, the vet said we could treat his symptoms so he’s on an antibiotic and a special food and I am seeing improvement already. He didn’t have to go out at all last night and so far only once today which is normal. So that is the good news for today! He never seemed to be incredibly distressed…he still ate mostly normally (although Monday morning he didn’t eat his food for a couple of hours after I put it in his bowl) and he was fairly perky and still chased after squirrels and such, so we weren’t too worried. It’s just been draining and a bit time consuming too.

The other big event of the week is that Frank got an MRI on his knee and the results came back today showing that he has a torn ACL and a torn meniscus (yeah, I have no idea what those two things are). The good news is, it’s treatable. The bad news is, he has to have surgery. He will probably have surgery the week after next and the doctor says that he will need to be on crutches for at least a month afterwards. He will need physical therapy afterwards too. So the next 6 weeks are going to be fun, but at least this is progress in the right direction. I’m also thankful that the auto insurance company has to pay all the medical bills and not us. (Although I'm sure there will be some hassle involved for us. I've already had to make several phone calls about bills we've received that we shouldn't have to pay.) Not sure what he will do about work—he can work from home sometimes I think, but he will probably have to go out on short term disability for a while. We still have to figure all of that out. By the way, his spine x-rays came back normal so at least there’s no damage there. It will just take time for his back and neck to stop hurting.

Let’s see, now that I have told you all the “exciting” things, on to the more mundane. Last Saturday I got up pretty early and got the lawn mowed (that’s my job now, but the new lawn mower is pretty nice so it’s not bad) and took Snickers on a walk and cleaned the kitchen floor. Seth went to a friend’s house to play that afternoon. Meanwhile, Frank had a 4 hour meeting at the Stake Center with…Elder Oaks!!! I guess that isn’t very mundane. It was a meeting for stake presidencies, bishoprics, EQ presidents, and ward mission leaders only for the 7 stakes in this area. (There was a fireside with Elder Oaks the night before for all the youth and their parents in the same stakes, but since Jared was our ticket into that meeting and he’s in Idaho now, we couldn’t go to that.) Anyway, Frank actually made it through the whole meeting, which is a miracle considering how he’s been feeling, and he seems to have enjoyed it a lot. They got to ask a lot of questions. So that was pretty cool.

On Sunday Frank went to Ward Council but he was pretty worn out from the day before and hurting a lot so after taking the sacrament, he went home and took a nap. We were supposed to have the sister missionaries over for dinner but one of them had pink eye and didn’t want to infect us so I took some dinner over to them instead.

The rest of the week was pretty routine except for the things I just mentioned. I did all the regular chores and took Snickers outside a lot!! I went to lunch with a friend on Monday and on Wednesday I worked at the school library for a couple of hours. As usual, it wasn’t very busy so other than shelving a lot of books, I spent most of the time reading. I did some cub scout planning and did a few things to help prepare for Pack Meeting, which is tonight. I got asked to substitute teach the RS lesson on Sunday, so I’ve been working on that too. It's on President Uchtdorf's talk "In Praise of Those Who Save." Yesterday Seth got out of school two hours early and today he doesn’t have school. It’s “Fair Day”. (The Frederick County Fair is going on this week.) I asked Seth if he wanted me to take him to the fair, but he said no. There’s no way Frank’s up to walking all over the fair, so I guess we’re skipping the fair this year. Which we usually do anyway, come to think of it. No funnel cake again. Sigh!!

Other than that, I’ve been doing some reading. I just started reading a book to Seth called The Whipping Boy, which is a Newbery Award winner. It’s very short, so we will probably finish it in a day or two. I got several other Newbery Award winning books for my birthday, so I have started reading those and read two this week (The Summer of the Swans and Sounder) and started on another one (The Hero and the Crown). I also started the next book for book chat which is Plato’s Republic. I reserved it at the library a few weeks ago but it still hasn’t come in. Yesterday I thought to check to see if I could get an electronic version on my tablet, and it only cost 99 cents, so I went ahead and bought it. Big time spender, I know.

Jared’s mission papers went in yesterday, so maybe in 3 or 4 weeks we will know where he is going, and when!! He did finally get into the theater class he wanted to get into, and he has enough credit hours for his scholarship, so that is a relief. He seems to be enjoying college so far, from what I’ve heard. His companion from the HCP work crew is giving his mission farewell talk somewhere in Utah this Sunday, so he found a ride down there so he could go to that. This means that some of you may be seeing him soon. He's planning to stay with Scott, though, so I'm not sure if he will make it down to Utah Valley or not. There is a possibility that he will be there for General Conference weekend too. I would like for him to be able to attend a conference session at the Conference Center--he's never done that before. For that matter, neither have I, but I have been to a few sessions in the Tabernacle, back in the day. I think the last time I went was when I was about 14. 

That’s all the news I have for this week. I know I whined a lot about the weather this summer so I should mention that the weather has become mild and quite pleasant most days lately. I was profoundly grateful this week, when I was taking Snickers out over and over again, including in the middle of the night, that he chose to get sick in nice pleasant autumn instead of in the heat of the summer or the dead of winter! I love autumn!!

Weekly Review September 9 & 16 '16

I have two weeks to cover and I was out of town one of those weeks, so there is a lot to remember. It's a good thing that I have a schedule on my tablet to refer to. The last few days before Jared and I flew to Utah, I was mostly busy trying to get ready for the trip, trying to help Frank as much as possible, and keeping up with the usual chores. On Saturday (the 3rd) I spent quite a bit of time sorting through Legos, and finished sorting the big bin I was working on. There are still 3 bins downstairs under Jared's bed which I need to do, but I am making some headway. I am still shocked at how many Legos we've managed to accumulate over the years! I took Jared to get a haircut on Saturday too.

On Sunday (the 4th) after church I helped Seth build some Lego sets. Our goal is to eventually put as many together as we can, and then take them apart and put them in bags with their directions. Then anyone (mostly future grandchildren?!) can put a set together if they want. I've been finding pieces to quite a few really old sets that I forgot we had.

Monday (the 5th) was Labor Day of course, so everyone was home. It was mostly a normal Monday; I did drive Frank to the store so he could buy something for a client, and while we were there we ran into his manager at work, who said "Wow, you don't look very good!" (Frank was wearing his knee brace and limping quite a bit.) Jared and Jessie got together for one last time that evening--they went to dinner and got frozen yogurt. Frank, Seth and I played golf on the Wii for FHE activity.

On Tuesday (the 6th) Frank was able to go into work and put in a pretty full day, but he talked with his manager and arranged to work from home the rest of the week. This was helpful not only because he isn't feeling well but also since I would be gone and he needed to get Seth to school and back every day. A ward friend who also has kids at his school took Seth to school Tuesday morning so that Frank could go into work earlier (before Seth left for school). We could get a rental car through the car insurance but since I was about to leave for nearly a week, it didn't really make sense to get one. We got one after I got back, since my car wasn't done yet, but we only needed it for a few days.

I was busy on Tuesday with all the usual chores, plus packing. Jared was still working on his room and we took a load to the storage unit that evening right before YM / Cub Scouts. At den meeting, the boys continued to work on their rockets and most of them finished carving and got their rockets painted too. I had a Cub Committee meeting after den meeting so we got home late.

On Wednesday (the 7th) Jared and I flew to Utah. Getting to the airport was a bit of an adventure because the traffic was bad plus we had to turn around and go back home shortly after we got on the freeway because I realized that I had forgotten to put my wallet in my backpack. Frank asked me if I had any cash, and I started to say "Yes, I have some in my wallet" when I realized that I had forgotten all about my wallet! I still shudder to think what would have happened if I had got all the way to the airport before I realized I didn't have it! As it was, it just put us behind so that we got caught in Baltimore morning rush hour traffic. Not fun. We got to the airport only about an hour before our flight left and then one of Jared's bags was overweight (we had also forgotten to weigh bags) so that delayed us a bit too. I asked the lady how much we had to pay for the extra weight and she said it was $75. But then she said that we could purchase a duffel bag from the airline for $25 and shift some of his stuff to that bag if we would rather. Since that would save us $50 and get a duffel bag into the bargain, we did that. I had only brought one bag, so we were able to check the duffel bag too. Anyway, doing all that took time but thank goodness the line for security was really short. We made it to our gate and barely had time for a restroom stop and purchasing some food for lunch before they started boarding. The flight itself was uneventful (just how I like it!) and we arrived in Salt Lake City about 20 minutes early. We had no trouble picking up the rental car for once, either, so we got to Mom and Dad's house about the time that we thought we would be picking up the rental car.

Oh, I forgot! When I flew out to college with Tanner, someone we talked to at the airport thought we were siblings! Well, the guy sitting next to Jared and I on the plane on this trip said he thought I was Jared's girlfriend!!! What in the world???? Anyway, we spent the rest of Wednesday just resting and visiting with Dad & Mom. In the evening, Tim, Emily, and Gwen came over as well as Amy, Shellie and Christian, and Scott. I'm really glad I got to see all of them!

On Thursday (the 8th) Jared and I headed up to Idaho. The traffic was nasty going through Salt Lake City but since there were two of us we were able to use the HOV lane and we mostly sailed through. We took a different route than normal because we wanted to visit Franklin, Idaho on our way. Our ancestor, Lorenzo Hill Hatch, built a house there which is still standing so I wanted to see that. Plus, there is a Sister missionary who served in our ward earlier this year who is from Franklin and we wanted to meet her family. This was particularly convenient because her dad happens to be the president of the Pioneer Association in Franklin and he has the keys to the house and to a museum there that we also wanted to visit. So, we got to visit the house and the museum and we visited with her family and they are really lovely people. When we were getting ready to leave, they gave us a big bag of snacks to take with us--water, apples, grapes, bugles, Chex mix, granola bars, Nibs, nut rolls, and best of all--homemade cookies!! We each got a huge snicker doodle and  a chocolate chip cookie, plus a somewhat smaller oatmeal raisin cookie. The snicker doodles were soft and were literally the best snicker doodles I have ever tasted. We didn't even stop for lunch that day because we had so much good food to snack on. I thought that was so nice of them to do that for us!

Old store in Franklin

A chest made by Lorenzo Hill Hatch

Cradle made by Lorenzo Hill Hatch

Jared and I with Sister Olsen's parents, in the museum

 

Me with Sister Olsen's mom

Jared with Sister Olsen's brothers (Yes, they are twins!)

Lorenzo Hill Hatch's house

A monument for the founders of Franklin. I am pointing to Lorenzo Hill Hatch's name on the plaque.

On this plaque, it mentions that when Brigham Young visited the community, he usually stayed at the Hatch home.

The bag of treats!!

Incidentally, the lady who took us through the Hatch house looked at my eyes and mentioned that she's noticed that most of the Hatch descendants have blue eyes. I have the Hatch blue eyes, apparently!!

After we left Franklin, we drove up to Idaho Falls and checked into our hotel. Then we briefly visited the Idaho Falls Temple visitor center (the temple itself is closed right now for renovations) and then drove to Bed, Bath and Beyond and picked up the stuff we had ordered for Jared here in Frederick. After that we went to dinner and then we spent the evening trying to negotiate the BYU-I website so we could plan everything we needed to do the next day. I forgot to mention that our route through Franklin also took us through Logan, so we drove around the temple there too so that Jared could see it.

We left early the next morning (Friday the 9th) for Rexburg. The main road to Rexburg had road construction and there were supposed to be significant delays possible, but thankfully the traffic was fairly light and we got there quickly without any trouble. At his apartment, they had a "drop off zone" set up so that you could pull in and unload your vehicle before parking, which was helpful. It was organized chaos, a lot like move in day for Tanner at Helaman Halls. I got a kick out of a lot of the conversations I overheard and just the sight in general of all these people and piles of stuff everywhere. One guy was wheeling a cart across the street with 3 or 4 large clear bins and all the bins were full of...Nerf guns!! Anyway, Jared got registered for orientation and we got all his stuff into his room. He was the first one in his apartment to arrive. The apartment itself is very nice. It looks brand new. It has a large kitchen with more counter and cupboard space than I have in my kitchen, plus two refrigerators. They have their own washer and dryer in the apartment. They have two small bathrooms plus a big open area with two extra sinks. There are closets and storage cabinets everywhere. He can see the top spire of the Rexburg temple from his bedroom and living room windows. (The Rexburg Temple is closed right now, too, though!)

Move-in day chaos:

I took a ton of pictures of Jared's building and apartment because Seth wanted to see exactly what it is like. Here is a common area on his floor:

Here is the large kitchen in his apartment:

I liked this picture on the wall in his kitchen:

This is the hallway from the kitchen to the bedrooms. Bedrooms are on the right and the laundry area and bathrooms are on the left.

Jared's bedroom (mostly empty at this point):

Two large closets in his bedroom. They each have built-in shelves and cubbies inside:

Open area with two sinks, in between the 2 bathrooms. Lots of storage cabinets on the left!

One of the two bathrooms:

Looking down the hall from Jared's bedroom, toward the laundry area and kitchen (lots more storage cabinets!):

The sink area again, with a better view of the storage on one wall:

The other bathroom, on the right:

The long hallway leading to Jared's apartment:

The hallways have tons of nice pictures of Idaho farmland, which I thought was cool. A few examples:

Plus, this picture of the Rexburg Temple is just across the hall from Jared's front door:

Jared at his apartment door. He loves that to get in, all he has to do is swipe his I-card. No keys needed!!:

Jared in the living room of his apartment:

Can you spot the Rexburg Temple spire? (View from the living room window.):

Sign in front of his apartment complex. We walked past it MANY times that day on our trips back and forth across campus.

After we got stuff into Jared's room, we walked up to the other end of campus so he could get his ID card and pick up his books and some bedding we had ordered. They actually had things very well organized so that didn't take very long. Then we had lunch. And guess what? They have BYU Creamery Cookies & Cream milk at BYU-I too! (I'm sure they also have the chocolate milk, but they must have been out of it because I didn't see any.)

 After that we went to WalMart to buy some groceries and other things Jared needs. It was, of course, an absolute madhouse so that took a lot longer than we wanted. All the check out lines had about 10 people waiting but then Jared had the bright idea to go to the garden area check out and there were only 2 or 3 people in line there so we got out a lot faster than we would have. We still barely got his stuff dropped off at his apartment in time for me to drop him off where he was supposed to meet his "I group". They had an activity and then there was a big introductory meeting / devotional for both the students and the parents. Then all the students went to meet with people about their majors while the parents had a question and answer session with the Dean of Students and other head honchos, including the president of BYU-I and his wife. The meetings were really good and I was once again really impressed with the school as a whole. I feel very thankful that my boys have the chance to go to universities where the faculty and staff are not just concerned with educating them, but also have a goal to help them become who the Lord wants them to become. Especially in the crazy world we live in these days!!

Seth wanted pictures of campus too, so I took some of those. He actually said that--"Make sure you take some pictures of the campus for me!!" I didn't know he even had the word 'campus' in his vocabulary!! I liked all the inspirational signs in the Manwaring Student Center.

I think this is the Snow Building:

The Manwaring Student Center:

You can sort of see the Rexburg Temple:

We walked up this hill a bunch of times:

After all the meetings, we picked up Joey Koetting (son of my very good friend, Jeanine) at his apartment and took him to dinner. (He is attending BYU-I also.) I haven't seen him since before his mission (he's Scott's age) and it was really cool to see him again. He looks mostly the same to me, just more mature and shorter hair. :) But he has also grown up a lot and turned into a great young man. I always knew he would. His mom worried a lot more about him than I did!

 We had a long dinner since we were visiting, so after we took Joey back to his apartment and stopped at Jared's apartment briefly it was nearly 8:30 and time for me to go. We said our goodbyes and I dropped Jared off across campus so he could attend a talent show they had that evening. He got to meet up there with his district leader from the HCP work crew, so that was fun for him.

I drove back to Idaho Falls with one slight adventure--I got on I-15 going the wrong way and had to go 8 miles before the first exit so I could turn around and go back!! The same thing happened to me when I dropped Scott off four years ago and I was determined not to do the same thing again. I blame the GPS, plus the signs at that intersection are misleading! I did manage to get back to the hotel in one piece.

Saturday morning (the 10th) I accidentally slept in but I still got on the road in good time and had an uneventful trip back to Salt Lake City. Dawn (Frank's sister) and Mike (her husband) met me at the rental car return and gave me a ride back to Mom and Dad's house. Then Scott came down for a short visit and he took me to Bed, Bath and Beyond to return one thing that Jared didn't need. I wanted Anna to take some pictures of Amy and I together so I was trying to get that coordinated and I got some laundry done. All of that took time. I wanted to go to the temple but there just wasn't time to do that. The BYU - University of Utah football game started at 5:30 and most of Tim's and Amy's families came over to watch that.

It was really fun to watch the game with all of them, even though BYU lost (again!!!) Amy and I left at half time to go with Anna to get photos taken so we missed some of the 3rd quarter. The photos turned out really nice, though. Here are a few:

Sunday (the 11th) I could sleep in as late as I wanted, so of course I woke up at 5:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep. I finally gave up and got up and Skyped with Frank and Seth. They seemed to be holding up okay, and it was great to talk with them and see them. They didn't go to church that day though (it was our Stake Conference) because Frank was hurting quite a bit.

I talked to Jared a bit on Saturday (the 10th) and he seemed to be doing well. All but one of his roommates had arrived and he was surprised to find out that one is from Virginia and one is from Washington DC. The other two are from Nevada and Salt Lake City. He was doing some juggling with his schedule.

Frank finally heard back from the doctor about his sleep study while I was gone on my trip, and he has severe sleep apnea. So he will need to sleep with a CPAP machine. He's not thrilled about it but I hope it really helps him and that getting a decent night's sleep will make a difference for him. I think it will. We are still waiting on the insurance to get the CPAP machine though. It is taking a lot longer than I would like.  

On Sunday (the 11th) I went to church with Mom & Dad.. Mom taught the RS lesson, and she did a really good job. After church, Scott picked me up and took me to meet a few people from his mission. Then we went to the Higgs house (another family from his mission--one he spends a lot of time with) for dinner. They fed us salmon, roast beef, loaded mashed potatoes, green beans, fruit, Texas toast, and ice cream with homemade caramel sauce. It was all really delicious!! Jared texted Scott a picture of his dinner—ramen noodles—with the caption “Dinner of Champions”. So Scott took a picture of our dinner and sent it back with the caption “Dinner of Celestial Beings”. It was pretty funny!

Monday (the 12th) was spent mostly just getting home. The flight went well and I got home on time. I read most of the way home and finished the book I was reading, which is called Island of Saints. It was really good. Frank & Seth met me at the airport, and we stopped on our way home to get dinner. I got unpacked and we went to bed!

Tuesday (the 13th) was busy because I was trying to get caught up on everything I missed while I was gone. I did laundry and went to both the grocery store and WalMart. I also did a bunch of planning for cub scouts, including preparing for the den meeting we had that evening. I did a bunch of other things like random cleaning (floors, etc.) plus paying Jared’s tuition and putting money on his I-card. This was a rather expensive week with all of Jared’s stuff but there is still money in the bank, I’m grateful to say. At den meeting, the boys were finishing up their rockets for the space derby and it was kind of crazy because it is hard to help 5 or 6 boys all at the same time. Seth had a bit of a meltdown too, which didn’t help. But by the end of the evening, most of the boys had their rockets fully assembled.

By Wednesday (the 14th) I was starting to get caught up on things and life was getting close to back to normal. I did more cleaning and helped Seth finish putting together his space derby rocket (he didn’t finish his at den meeting, because of the melt down.) I also picked up a rental car. Frank wanted to go into work on Thursday, so I needed a way to get Seth to school and back.The car I got was red and it had New York license plates.

Seth had a field trip at school on Wednesday—they walked to a place at a nearby elementary school called the Earth Space Science Lab and he says they saw some cool things there.

Yesterday (the 15th) I was back on a normal schedule, which meant I did laundry and grocery shopping and vacuuming. I had a visiting teaching appointment in the afternoon. I also switched the wreath on the front door so it doesn’t look like Independence Day anymore—now it’s fall. :) I changed out the S&P shakers too—from sea shells to roosters and a squirrel holding acorns. I knew today was going to be busy so last night I sat down and got the budget all caught up. (I usually do that on Friday.) I’m glad I did, because it took hours and I definitely would not have had time to do it today.

The reason I was busy today is that I spent the morning helping some sisters in our ward who are moving. The big move is tomorrow but today they wanted help boxing up smaller items and moving a few things over to the new house. So a few of us went over there to help this morning. I got back around noon and then exercised and then showered and by then it was almost time to go pick up Seth from school. (He gets out at 2:30 on Fridays.) The place that has been fixing my car called and said it was ready to be picked up (it wasn’t supposed to be done until Monday, but I am not complaining about that) so I dropped Frank off at that place. After picking up Seth, I took the rental car to put some gas in it and then returned the rental car. Frank met us at the rental car place with my car and we all came home. It is really nice to have my car back! However, I need a new “Y” sticker for the back. They replaced the whole hatchback, and my “Y” sticker was on that piece, so it’s gone. I am sad. :(

Frank has been able to work from home every day this week except yesterday (and that day he went in because he really wanted to get some things done at the office). His manager is being really great about letting him work from home, which we appreciate. He had a follow up visit with the orthopedic doctor on Wednesday, and since his knee is still really hurting a lot, the doctor scheduled him for an MRI. He also wants him to do physical therapy, but not until after he gets the MRI and they find out what’s really going on with his knee. Unfortunately, he can’t get the MRI until Wednesday—not sure why it takes a whole week to get in to get that done! Frank asked the doctor if there was a possibility that he could get a temporary disability placard (so he can park in handicap parking) and the doctor said “Oh, sure!” and filled out the paperwork for him right then.  He got a placard for each car and they are good until December. Hopefully he will be feeling a lot better by then! In the meantime, he went to the store with me this evening and it was kind of fun to park right up front. He has been getting the motorized carts to ride around on in the stores too. I think he’d enjoy all of this a lot more if he weren’t hurting all the time. Because his neck and back are also hurting a lot, he went in to see our primary care physician today about that. The doctor was feeling all up and down his spine, and he got to one spot that really hurt, so he sent Frank over to get x-rays of his spine. We won’t know the results of that for a few more days. He has also been noticing that his back molars hurt and have been hurting since the wreck, so he thinks he may have cracked or chipped something and he needs to get that checked too. So yeah—he’s been pretty miserable and I’m not sure how he managed while I was gone. It seems to me that he’s getting worse, not better. I hope they can figure out what is really going on and get him some treatment that will bring some relief soon. On the upside, Frank says that Seth helped him a lot while I was gone and Seth has continued to be quite helpful since I’ve been home. I notice that he usually jumps up and does things right away without complaining when we ask him to.

Jared seems to be doing well. He reports that he likes his roommates and classes are going well so far. He is still trying to get his schedule finalized, which stresses me out a bit because he currently is not signed up for enough credits to get his scholarship. He is still trying to add one more theater class. If he can add that class, he will be set.

I think that is everything that we have to report. My trip was definitely not restful, but I am grateful I could go and it was really nice to see a lot of you!