Weekly Review January 27 '17

Wow, January is almost over already! It hasn’t felt much like January a lot of this month. We are having a fairly mild winter this year. A couple of days this week, it felt more like March than January but today it is cold again and I hear we are supposed to have “below average” temperatures all the way into next week. Oh! We did have some winter weather on Monday. Out of the blue we got freezing rain / sleet late on Monday afternoon. It really came down for a while and we had this slushy snow-like stuff accumulating on the cars and lawns. It just so happened that I was driving right then, too—how fun! We got home without any mishaps, though. It has mostly been cloudy and gloomy for weeks, in spite of the warmish temperatures but we did get a few sunny days this week. I was pretty happy about that! I don’t do well without sunshine. I start to get pretty depressed.

I have been healthier this week than last week. I felt a lot better on Saturday and by Sunday I was practically back to normal. I started taking Melatonin this week so I’ve been sleeping better too. I had kind of an ADD day on Saturday. I kept getting distracted and doing things I hadn’t planned to do instead of the things I had planned to do. I did get a lot done, just not the things on my list! We had the Sister missionaries over for dinner. On Sunday I substituted a Primary class—the 5 and 6 year olds. They were pretty good and I enjoyed being in Primary. It’s fun to do that once in a while. Jared has helped substitute in Primary every week since he’s been back, except last Sunday. I guess we are taking turns. I’m trying to adjust to having church at 11:00 instead of 9:00. I do enjoy not having to get up quite so early, but the time I have to do things after church seems so much shorter! The day just goes by really fast. I was watching more home movies on Sunday afternoon and Jared and Seth were watching with me. I had a choir practice that night (a stake choir practice—we are going to have an Easter program) and I was really surprised when I got back from my hour and a half practice to discover that Seth was still watching home movies!! I didn’t think they would interest him that much but he loved them.

Seth didn’t have school again on Monday. This time it was a teacher work day, since the term just ended on Friday. We are officially half way through the school year! It has gone by fast. Jared had to work that afternoon and since there was an open jump while he was there, I was able to get Seth in for free. He enjoyed playing on the inflatables and a couple of families from our ward were there too so he had other kids to play with. He had a good time. The freezing rain / sleet started coming down right before we left there to come back home.

Tuesday was busy because I had visiting teaching in the morning and Jared had a dentist appointment in the afternoon. While Jared got his fillings done, I went to visit my friend Wanda for a while. She is still happy in the new place and they are even helping her walk with a walker a little bit. They did have a bad stomach virus go through everyone there and Wanda said she had been sick twice since Christmas. As a matter of fact, the day I went to visit her was the first day they were letting visitors back in, so that was fortunate timing! Seth had a busy day at school that day too—his class had a field trip to the Natural History Museum (Smithsonian). He enjoyed seeing the dinosaur bones, Hope diamond, etc. Frank had his follow up on his MRI on Tuesday also. He has two herniated discs in his neck which are bulging and inflamed…they are affecting two of his vertebrae, and that is what is causing all the pain in his back, neck and shoulder. The treatment for this is cortisone shots. If that doesn’t help, then he will have to have surgery. He went to the specialist who does the cortisone shots yesterday and that doctor agreed that he needs to get cortisone shots and see what happens. We scheduled his first shot, but it isn’t for another couple of weeks. The specialist was also concerned that his shoulder hurts and he said if the cortisone shots don’t help his shoulder feel better then he will want to get an MRI done of his shoulder as well. Goodness!! We call this the “accident that keeps on giving”. But we are hopeful that the cortisone shots will help and that he won’t need surgery or further treatment. Please keep him in your prayers!

Seth and I didn’t have den meeting on Tuesday because we have the Pinewood Derby tonight. It was nice to stay home that evening for a change! Jared has been helping Seth get his car made; once again he didn’t want to cut it at all—it’s still a block shape. They painted it to look like Master Chief’s cryo tube. (Yeah, I don't know what that is either. Video game related!) It looks pretty cool; I will include pictures in next week's post. Nothing out of the ordinary happened on Wednesday or Thursday other than my visiting teachers came to see me last night. I have had very few visits from visiting teachers in the last 4 or 5 years, so I really appreciate that these ones are coming! Jared and I have just been working really hard this week to get everything ready for his mission. We did get a lot done…a lot of things are checked off the list now. Jared’s suit coat came in and it fits this time, thankfully, We ordered a few more things which should be here in a few days. We bought him an iPod shuffle for his music; he also needs to download the Book of Mormon in Spanish and the last General Conference talks in Spanish to put on there.  We finally got the packet sent off to his mission and we made a lot of copies of things he needs to take with him and I got his white pants hemmed. He will be speaking in Sacrament Meeting this Sunday because next Sunday is fast Sunday. Jared also finished all the stuff he needed to do on the missionary portal. The main thing we have left to do is purchase his bike. Then all he has left is marking all his belongings and PACKING!! It’s hard to believe he’ll be gone in less than 2 weeks. I’m glad we are almost done with all the preparation things, but I will miss him after he’s gone.

I’m sorry that this week’s post is pretty short, but I can’t think of anything else to tell you about. I have to go get a few things ready for the Pinewood Derby now.

Weekly Review January 20 '17

I just want to say that 24 Hour Sudafed is great. That is what is enabling me to sit upright and feel fairly human today—I took one last night. You’ll remember I had a bit of a scratchy throat and headache when I wrote my post last Friday. The sore throat kind of hung around for several days and I didn’t feel my best, but didn’t feel really terrible either. Then on Wednesday the congestion suddenly got worse and my nose started to run…you know, when you go through a whole box of Kleenex tissues in one day, and they start to feel like sandpaper? Yeah, that was Wednesday. Yesterday was not quite as bad but still not great. Today my nose isn’t running anymore. At least, not much. I still have a slight sore throat and headache. But it is manageable. I’m hoping I’m on the tail end of this thing now.

I didn’t have an incredibly productive week since I haven’t been feeling my best, but I got a few things done. Frank has been super busy—work for clients as well as a lot of meetings and some late days at work. He got home pretty late last night because of a meeting but he said it went great and he and his team got a lot of praise for a project they’ve been working on, so that was good to hear. He was off work on Monday for MLK Day but he was gone almost all day because he drove down to one of his clients to do some work and then had to do more work for another client on his way back. His cold / sinus thing seems to have gone away thankfully but he’s very tired. His knee continues to hurt quite a bit, as well as his back. Every time I hear him going up or down stairs, I feel like we need to start looking for a 1 story house! He says this is only temporary, and hopefully it is, but I am still feeling like we need to start looking into possibilities. Even though his knee will probably improve, neither one of us is getting any younger. His knee may cause him at least a little bit of trouble for the rest of his life, and maybe somewhere up the road I won’t want to be going up and down stairs either. Frank had his MRI on his back on Wednesday. He has an appointment with the orthopedic doctor on Tuesday where he will find out the results of that. I’m really hoping they will be able to do something to help him so that his level of pain will diminish.

I have not been sleeping very well lately, which has not contributed to my productivity. I keep waking up in the early hours of the morning (1:00 ish) and staying awake for 2 or 3 hours. Not very fun! I did that last night as well as the night before. At least last night I wasn’t feeling miserably sick and blowing my nose constantly, which is what I was doing the night before.

Okay, this post is sounding totally depressing!! Life really isn’t that bad. J We are mostly happy! We had Sam come stay with us over the weekend. He arrived Friday evening and stayed until late afternoon on Monday. (He had MLK Day off work too.) We didn’t do anything special, but we enjoyed having him here. Jared and I picked up his suit that we ordered and his new glasses because they both came in. Saturday was Frank’s birthday, of course. He got a few presents and that evening he and I went out to dinner. He had to go to a store near his work to buy some computers for a couple of clients, so we did that first and then went to eat at a place near his work called Copper Canyon. It was a little more upscale than the basic chain restaurant (Olive Garden etc) and we enjoyed it. The food was really good. We were at a table by the windows that looked out on a little lake. It was a nice view, even though it was raining. We were supposed to get snow on Saturday, but we got cold rain instead. Anyway, we had a nice dinner and we were talking about where we are at in life and realizing how blessed we are. Things are a lot better for us than we would have anticipated at this point in our lives. We are grateful!!

Sunday was pretty relaxing for most of us, but Frank had meetings before and after church, so he was pretty wiped out. Jared was going to wear his new suit but when he put the coat on we realized that it was the wrong size (too small, especially in the sleeves). He did wear the pants and they look really nice and fit great. That evening we had cheesecake for Frank’s birthday; it was yummy! 

We also had family night. On Monday Jared worked most of the day and as I mentioned, Frank was gone too. Seth, Sam and I hung out. I got laundry done and stuff like that and also got things ready for den meeting the next day. I had some free time and I got out our old home movies and watched some of them. My boys were so cute!!!! Sometimes it’s crazy to me to realize how grown up they’ve all become. It really doesn’t seem like that long ago that they were little.

On Tuesday I realized that I needed to buy a few things for den meetings and we needed to return Jared’s suit coat and order a different size so we both went to the mall and took care of his suit coat (the new one should be here this week) and then we went to Wal-Mart to get the things I needed for den meeting and we did the weekly shopping while we were there (I normally do that on Wednesday). That turned out to be a really good thing since I felt a lot worse on Wednesday so it was nice that I didn’t have as much to do. It made Tuesday quite busy, but I got everything done that needed to be done. Jared came with me to den meeting that evening to help with building wood boxes. I’m really glad he was there—I really couldn’t have done it without him. Only 3 of the 5 boys came, which on the one hand is frustrating because now two of them are behind on the wood project but on the other hand it was good because it allowed us to give more attention to the 3 boys who came. Plus, we discovered after we got there that we only had one good screwdriver (we had forgotten that Frank needed to use one of the screwdrivers we had put in the box to take with us and it never made it back into the box) so they had to take turns with the screwdriver and that was difficult with 3 boys so 5 boys taking turns would have been a lot worse. We did manage to assemble the boxes and they started sanding them. Next time they will finish sanding and paint!

On Wednesday I tried to take it easy, but I did have a few things to do. I went through Jared’s mission call packet as well as the packet of things we got from his mission and made a list of EVERYTHING we still need to do before he leaves. It’s a pretty long list, but most of them are little things. I had lunch / visiting teaching that afternoon and I went even though I wasn’t feeling great because I didn’t want to reschedule visiting teaching. It was nice and since I took some medicine before I left, I didn’t feel too bad. We went to this Vietnamese place and I got some soup. It was good, but you need a tutorial to figure out how to eat it!! That’s because it had tons of really long noodles and these very thin but very large slices of chicken in it. Nothing was bite sized, and I had a fork, a funny spoon, and chop sticks. No knife. Even if I had a knife, the bowl was steep without much of a bottom so there really wasn’t any way to cut things up. I can’t use chopsticks to save my life. So, I managed to twirl some of the noodles around my fork to eat some of them but really—it was difficult! I ended up bringing most of the soup home. I ate some of it yesterday, after cutting up the noodles and chicken into manageable sizes! Meanwhile, Jared was gone most of the day—he went to the temple with another man in our ward. That’s the third time he has gone to the temple, and he says he’s seen the same movie all three times! That evening we had the Elders over for dinner. Jared went to Jessie’s swim meet.

Yesterday I also tried to take it easy as much as I could. I had an appointment in the afternoon to get my hair cut, though, and I didn’t want to change that. Jared had to work that afternoon…that was Frank’s day that he was at a meeting late, and it worked out that he was able to pick Jared up from work on his way home. So I did have a pretty relaxing evening with just Seth here, which was nice. I’ve done quite a bit of reading while I’ve been “resting” this week, and I read two books and started a third one. They are children’s books (Newberry winners) so easy and quick reads.

Today Frank had organized an “Elders Quorum” lunch (wives and High Priests were invited as well) at Noodles & Co. I decided to go because I wasn’t feeling too bad and he also thought some of the wives would come. It turns out I was the only female there, but it was still okay. A lot of people had said they were coming but almost everyone must have had a change of plans because it was just Frank, Jared, and I plus one other guy. We still enjoyed ourselves, though. Tonight Jared is going to the temple again…he is going to do a session and then he is helping with our ward’s youth baptism trip. 

I can't think of anything else to tell you about, so I guess that's it!

Weekly Review January 13 '17

I guess I did jinx us when I said last week that we’ve all been healthy because Frank has not been feeling very well this week…he’s congested and his voice dropped a couple of octaves like it does when he’s sick. He hasn’t been really miserable or in bed sick, though. He’s been able to manage his symptoms with medicine and he went to work as usual all week and his voice is actually better now than it was. Meanwhile, I started getting a headache and slight sore throat on Wednesday. It magically went away yesterday during the day but the scratchy throat returned last night and today I am trying to ignore the fact that my head hurts, my nose is starting to run, and my head still aches. I’m not doing a very good job, though. Hopefully it won’t turn into anything really bad and I’ll feel better soon.

The weather has been bi-polar this week. Saturday, Sunday and Monday were super cold (highs in the 20s) and sometimes windy too. Tuesday was not quite as cold (high in the 30s) but we got freezing rain that night and we had another 2 hour delay on Wednesday morning. It was warmer on Wednesday, though, and we got regular rain too and the temperatures went up into the low 50s. On Thursday, spring appeared to arrive and the high for the day was 66 degrees! I thought it was wonderful and Frank thought it was disgusting! Never fear, though, today the high is 55 (still pretty pleasant) but tonight it is supposed to drop back down into the 30s and we are supposed to get snow overnight and into the day tomorrow. Happy Birthday to Frank!! One bad thing about the weather flip flopping, though, is that Frank’s knee hurts more when the weather changes and so that means his knee has been hurting fairly constantly this week.

Last Saturday I did mostly Cub Scout stuff—helping Seth do some of the things he needed to do as well as planning. I had just made some comment about being glad I didn’t have to go anywhere since it was miserably cold when the Sister missionaries called and wanted to know if they could get a ride back home from an investigator’s house. So of course I went and got them since I didn’t want them to have to walk a long ways in the cold.

Sunday was really good. I just re-read a Conference talk about true worship this week and I feel like that has been happening to me more lately. All the talks and lessons have been so good lately, and I’ve really felt the spirit while at church. We just started the lessons from the Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley book, and I was reminded how much I love President Hinckley!! He had a way of explaining gospel principles that just makes so much sense to me and is so profound. I can just hear his voice while I read his words. I’m really excited to study his teachings this year. Also, I have a new favorite scripture from this week’s Sunday School lesson: D&C 45:3-5. We read that scripture in class and for a few minutes, I could really imagine the Savior doing that for me—pleading my cause, being my advocate. It’s a hard moment to describe, but it was sweet. Also, read D&C 34:1-6. You will love it!

We have church at 11:00 now and I like it because I have that extra hour or two in the morning before church that I can read the scriptures and the lessons for the day. It’s really nice. On Sunday evening I had to go out in the cold again because we had a meeting to start planning the stake’s Cub Scout Day Camp for this summer. It was only a small group who showed up, but we decided on what dates for the day camp and the place and the theme, so we got a lot accomplished. We’re going to have a Pioneer theme this year and I think it’s going to be awesome!

Monday was really busy because I took Jared to the dentist and to the eye doctor. He has two cavities so he has to go back in a few weeks to get those filled. At the eye doctor, we ordered new glasses for him and he has a new prescription for contact lenses too. We need to order those soon. That morning he got up early to go do some service—helped set up tables and chairs for a free medical clinic that a local charity called The Mission of Mercy was having at a local church (not one of ours). Our ward and another ward were supposed to provide volunteers, but the other ward skipped out on us so when it was time to go back that afternoon to take everything down, I went to help too. (Frank said he would just have to go help, but I told him no way!!) We had to be there right after I picked up Seth from school so he came too and he helped wipe down some of the tables. When we got there, we discovered that there were still a lot of people waiting to be seen so we had to kind of work around things and take down tables and chairs as they finished with them. We still got done in about an hour. I noticed that the guy from Mission of Mercy who was in charge of getting things taken down spoke Spanish to a lady who was there so I told him Jared was going to be learning Spanish soon and it turns out that this guy actually lived in McAllen Texas for a few years! That was kind of cool. It was good to do that service because I found myself reflecting on how blessed we are to have good health insurance and financial security. So many of those people waiting to be seen had kind of a defeated look about them. It must be hard to rely on free medical clinics for your health care needs!

On Tuesday I did some online shopping for Frank’s birthday and for Jared’s mission stuff, and got ready for that evening’s den meeting. It looked for a while like we might not have den meeting since freezing rain was in the forecast and the school system cancelled all their activities after 5:00 pm, but since it looked like the freezing rain wasn’t coming in until later in the evening we did have den meeting and there were no problems with the weather. The rain started to come down just as we were leaving the church so we got home before the roads were bad. For den meeting we didn’t do any building—we’ll start that next week. I gave them time to work on the designs for their Pinewood Derby cars and we talked about the materials they were going to use for their cars and for their other project, which will be a shelf / shadow box. One of the counselors in the bishopric has a lot of scrap wood he is letting us use and he even offered to cut the pieces for us ahead of time, so that is going to help a lot! We also watched a video on how to make the boxes, just to give them an idea of what they will be doing.

Jared had an appointment to get a flu shot on Wednesday morning. I thought he was going to get a meningitis booster as well, but when we got there they checked his records and said he had already had that done a few years ago so he only had to get one shot. He wasn’t disappointed about that! After taking Seth to school (that was the morning he had a 2 hour delay) Jared and I went to Wal-Mart to get a bunch of things on his list for his mission. We also had the regular grocery shopping to do and the place was crowded with long lines, so it took a long time to get all of that done. We went to the Super WalMart on the other side of Frederick because the WalMart near us is closing in a few weeks and a lot of things are out of stock. The new Super Wal-Mart that will replace it doesn’t open until the 25^th (the day after the current store closes). Anyway, it took us longer to get everything we needed because I don’t know my way around that Wal-Mart nearly so well. I’ll be glad when the new one opens and I’ve learned my way around it! We stopped at Costco after that to grab a couple of things and by the time we got home and put everything away it was almost time to go pick up Seth. I wasn’t feeling very well by then either so I spent the evening relaxing.

As I mentioned before, I felt a lot better on Thursday and that was a good thing because we had planned to go to the temple that day. I had a lot to do besides the temple trip, but I want Jared to be able to go as often as possible before he leaves and of course it’s important for me to go, too! As usual, the traffic was bad and we got to the temple shortly after 10:00 so had to wait nearly an hour for the next session. However, Jared needed to get some more garments and we wanted to get him some temple clothes too so we were able to do all that before the session started so that worked out well. After the session, we sat in the Celestial Room for probably 30 minutes talking about various things we noticed / learned and I also ended up explaining more about sealings to Jared so we went up to the 6^th floor so he could see the sealing rooms too. By the time we changed and left the temple, I was shocked to discover that it was nearly 2:00!! How did that happen?? We still needed to go to the LDS bookstore to get some books Jared needs for his mission (they were out of 2 of the ones he needed, though, which was frustrating) and we were starving by then too so we stopped to get some lunch. We ended up picking Seth up on our way back home, and then stopping at the grocery store since I needed to get a few groceries too. We didn’t get home until about 4:15 so that was a long day! It was funny, though—after I got home I managed to get all the other things done I needed to do except for folding the laundry, which I did this morning. It seems like when I take the time to go to the temple, everything else gets done somehow! I really enjoyed being in the temple, too. I always love being there, but being there with one of my boys makes it that much better. I also noticed that once I got there, I wasn’t so worried about all the other things I needed to do that day. I suddenly lost all desire to rush and I just wanted to take my time and enjoy the feeling of being there. It was wonderful!

On Thursday evening there was a RS meeting and I almost didn’t go but I did and I’m glad I went. It always uplifts and strengthens me to spend time with other women of faith. For this meeting, we met together with another ward and they had invited people from a couple of local service organizations to come tell us about their organizations and what service opportunities they have available for volunteers. It was actually really interesting and I found out about one place here in Frederick that offers financial help like free tax preparation and budget coaching. I am really interested in finding out more about volunteering there. It’s too late this year for me to sign up to help with tax preparation because I have to take a fairly extensive training course to do that, but I could sign up to be a budget coach. I’m going to look into that, I think. I know most people would think I am crazy to want to do something like that but for some inexplicable reason, I just really enjoy financial stuff and I know that your finances can have a big impact on all aspects of your life. If you don’t know how to manage them wisely, you can really make yourself miserable! So I get excited about the idea of helping people get in control of  their finances. It’s something that can be life changing.

Last night I didn’t sleep very well so I got up pretty late today and as I mentioned I’m not feeling great so I’ve been trying to take it easy as much as possible. I’ve been trying to get through my list of things to do for the day but I haven’t made much progress yet besides getting the laundry folded and writing to Tanner. Oh, and I re-read a great Conference talk today about being a righteous judge. Amazing! I’m really not sure where today has gone, though! I did leave early to pick up Seth from school—besides the fact that he gets out an hour earlier on Fridays, his class (and all of the other Upper Elementary classes and the Middle School class) had a music concert today a half hour before dismissal which he really wanted me to come to, so I went to that too. It was pretty good, actually. Each class played a song that they had composed themselves, using several instruments. I was kind of impressed!

Frank has had a busy week doing maintenance and other tasks for clients. He also had another appointment with the foot doctor (yesterday) but his foot is doing much better and he doesn’t have to go back unless he has more problems. He got some new special shoes with inserts last week that have been helping with his feet, too. He went to the orthopedic doctor on Wednesday evening and that doctor can’t figure out what is going on with his back, so he is scheduled for an MRI on his back this coming Wednesday. Hopefully they’ll know more after that. It will be nice if they can find something that is treatable (and hopefully easily treatable!) so that he can start feeling a lot better. In the meantime, the doctor prescribed three different medications for him to take which help with the back somewhat but also make him feel dizzy and nauseous, so that is not much fun.

Jared is working on mission preparations. With all the shopping we did this week, we are almost through his entire list of things to buy but we still have lots of things to do like get his driving record and copy his immunization records and so forth. We also got an email from his mission this week with a pretty long list of things he / we need to do as well as a whole lot of information about his mission. The attachment they sent us is pages and pages long and includes a large booklet on bike safety that he has to read because he’s going to be tested on it when he gets there! It turns out that about 5 years ago, 2 missionaries in his mission were killed when they were hit by a car while riding their bikes. It really wasn’t their fault (the car was passing another car and pulled into their lane and hit them head-on), but still—you can tell they are pretty anxious about bike safety in his mission. The booklet lists several possible accident scenarios (they even have names like "The Crosswalk Slam" and "The Red Light of Death") and how you can avoid them. I’m not sure how I am supposed to feel about that! I mean, it’s good that they are helping the missionaries be so aware of bike safety and ways that they can protect themselves, but I never knew there were so many ways to get hit by a car while riding a bike! Wow, I feel so confident that my son is going to be out there on the roads on a bicycle after reading all of that! (Not to mention I have another son out there on a bicycle right now!) We did learn some other things about his mission like a) more bikes get stolen in his mission than any other (oh joy!), b) everyone in the mission (including Sisters) rides their bike all day on Saturdays, and c) EVERY missionary in the mission learns Spanish, and they all have to be prepared to teach all the discussions in either Spanish or English. It is the only “bi-lingual” mission in the whole church. It said that at any given time, 75% of the missionaries in the mission are assigned to Spanish speaking areas, while 25% are assigned to English speaking areas. So Jared will probably teach in both languages at different times during his mission, depending on what area he is assigned to. I think that is pretty cool!!

Jared is also working again. He contacted his old job to let them know he is back in town and they put him on the schedule starting today. As a matter of fact, that is where he is now—at work. He has been trying to figure out how to apply to work for the school system also because his high school theater teacher has some work he needs done that Jared could do and get paid for it, but he has to be a school system employee first. He has been trying to find that application to fill out but he keeps getting the run around—first they told him it was available online (but he couldn’t find it), then they told him he could pick up a paper copy at the office, but when he tried to do that  they told him it is only available online. Never mind that someone from the same office told him an hour earlier that it was only available on paper at their office and he could come pick it up there. Hopefully he’ll figure it out soon. It would be nice for him to earn some money before he goes.

That is all the news we have this week. Sorry no pictures this time!

Weekly Review January 6 '17

Last night it snowed!! We got about 3 inches of snow. It didn’t stick to the roads a lot so school did not get cancelled, but there was a 2 hour delay. It’s the ideal kind of snow because it looks pretty but didn’t cause major road condition problems.. Frank is so happy!! Seth didn’t mind getting out of 2 hours of school, either. Frank worked from home today and the two of us went to lunch. I’ve spent the rest of the day crunching numbers, but updating the finances is one of the chores that I actually kind of enjoy. I mean, I’d rather be reading a good book but as far as chores go, it’s a lot more fun than say, cleaning bathrooms!

I should backtrack to last Friday now. It was Scott’s last day here so we went out to dinner as a family. There was a nice sunset while we were driving to the restaurant:

Boys at the restaurant:

 Then we went to a wedding reception for a couple in our ward (they are both Scott's age); it was really nice. The next day we were up super early because Scott’s flight left at 7:00 am. He wasn’t feeling very well so he asked Frank to give him a blessing before they left for the airport. He did start to feel better and he got home without any problems. I went back to bed for a while after Frank left for the airport. He went back to bed for a while after he got back, too. After I got back up, Jared and I went to the church to help clean. Then I spent most of the rest of the day taking down Christmas decorations (everyone helped). I’m always a little sad to see them come down, but I do enjoy having the house cleaner and less cluttered. I did a lot of planning for Cub Scouts too. Jared went to see Rogue One again with some of the youth from the ward that afternoon. For New Year’s Eve, we did the usual—stayed up late eating snacks and working on a jigsaw puzzle. Actually, Frank went to bed around 10:00 because he was so tired from his early morning trip to the airport and I made Seth go to bed around 10:00 too, but Jared and I stayed up until midnight. I talked to Amy on the phone for a while. We didn’t finish the puzzle that night but we worked on a bit on Sunday and I finished it on Monday.

New Year's Eve shots:

Sunday afternoon:

Finished puzzle on Monday:

Frank did not have extra meetings on Sunday, which was nice, but he did have to speak in Sacrament Meeting. He did a good job on his talk. We came home after church and relaxed. It was a nice way to start out the new year. Frank had Monday off work and Seth didn’t have school either. I kept pretty busy, though, although not doing anything noteworthy. Just the usual things, plus more Cub Scout planning. We had the Elders over for dinner that night, and then had family night.

On Tuesday we had to get back to real life! Frank’s had a pretty busy week at work. Seth and I had den meeting Tuesday evening, and I had Cub Committee Meeting afterwards. Jared came with me to help out with den meeting because the boys were learning about tools and practicing how to use them (hammer, screwdriver, saw, etc.) He was a big help—I never could have managed to keep track of all 6 boys and helped them use the tools all by myself! We are going to be building a project out of wood over the next month, so both Jared and Frank are going to come to den meetings to help.

Learning to use hammers, screwdrivers, saws, and measuring tapes:

Jared and I started hitting the long list of mission preparation items on Wednesday. We mostly just went through the list and took note of what things we need to buy and what things we need to do. I set up an appointment for him to get his eyes checked next week, as well as an appointment to get a couple of shots. On Wednesday evening we had the Sister missionaries over for dinner. Transfers were that day and one of the Sisters got transferred (one of the Elders did too) so we got to meet the new Sister missionary. She is NOT from Utah! She’s from Alabama. Frank missed the dinner because he was working late. He got home just in time to say hi to the sisters before they left.

(This is not the new sister missionary. It's a picture we took with the Sister missionary who just left--she stopped by on Tuesday afternoon to say goodbye. She's the one standing next to me.)

Yesterday morning was crazy!! When I took Seth to school there was an unusual amount of traffic. We barely got to school on time, and a lot of other people were late. It turns out that there was a bad accident on the main freeway that runs north to south through Frederick and they actually had the whole northbound side shut down and they were diverting all the northbound traffic off the freeway. So after I left the school and headed to the grocery store, I ran into all that diverted traffic. It took me nearly 30 minutes to get the grocery store from his school! (That usually takes 5 minutes.) It also took me close to 30 minutes to get back home (usually takes about 10 minutes) because there was no way to get home without going back through all that traffic. Later, Jared and I went shopping for mission stuff. We were able to find him a suit and 3 pairs of slacks that were on sale for really great prices, so that was nice. Well actually, we had to order the suit since they didn’t have his size but it will be here soon. We also went online and ordered all his white shirts and dark socks for great prices, too.

Last night I had book chat and we had a really great discussion. I just love that group of women! We have a lot of fun and have some really meaningful discussions. I always feel uplifted when I go there, even though the books we read are not necessarily uplifting. We usually find ways to apply them to our lives, and relate them to gospel principals. By the time I left book chat, it was snowing and there was already about an inch of snow on the ground.

Frank just got back from physical therapy. He is mostly doing a lot better but he has a spot on his back that is really painful. The physical therapist feels like something is wrong that he can’t fix, and he recommends that Frank get an MRI done on his back.  So he has to go back to the orthopedic doctor next week to get a referral for an MRI. So much fun! He also got an extension for his disability parking sticker because the less he has to walk, the better. So now he’s good for another 4 months. He really is doing a lot better but now that he is back at work he has to do a lot more walking, and it helps him tire a lot less if he doesn’t have to do as much walking. Oh yeah, and I forgot that last week he went to the doctor because his foot was hurting a lot. His plantar fasciitis is acting back up so he got a cortisone shot in his foot and it was wrapped up for a few days He also had to start taking an anti-inflammatory medication again. It feels a lot better now, though. The doctor said this flare up can be directly linked to his wreck because it’s very common for someone who has been down for a few months (not walking much) to have a flare up when they become more mobile again. Frank would like to lose some weight. He gained quite a bit since the accident—one of the medications he had to take caused weight gain and he wasn’t getting any exercise, of course. However, he can’t really exercise yet and he has to eat frequently with the medication he’s on. But hopefully he will be off the medicine soon and at least able to control his diet a bit more although I think exercising is not going to be possible for a long time. I told him we should think about getting a Y membership so that he can swim. That is one kind of exercise that I think he could do.

Meanwhile, I am still exercising regularly—I am proud of myself because I have kept it up pretty consistently for a year now! I have not lost any weight but I haven’t gained any either. Or, to be more accurate—I fluctuate up and down within a 5 pound range. I feel better when I exercise, so I plan to keep it up. I can’t complain about all the aches and pains that Frank has, but the last 3 days my left shoulder and neck have been really sore. I don’t know why—just slept on that side funny or something. It was really bad on Wednesday. It’s better now than it was, but still bothering me. I really need a good neck / shoulder rub, but Frank can’t do that anymore. He did rub my shoulder and neck for me for a little while, but it hurts him too much to do a proper back rub. It is gradually getting better, though, so I’m sure I’ll feel back to normal soon. Other than that, I really can’t complain—a lot of people around me have been sick lately but our whole family has had a very healthy winter so far. I hope I’m not jinxing us to say so, but I am grateful!!