Weekly Review August 11 '17

This week was fairly eventful; hopefully I can keep this post a reasonable length. Here’s what’s been going on:

Friday: As I mentioned in last week’s letter, I went to the doctor to have my hips checked. At first he thought I might have bursitis or something like that, but after talking to me about it and examining me, he decided that I just need some physical therapy. So I have a referral to do that, but since we are going to Utah next week and I’ll be gone for nearly 3 weeks, I decided to wait until after I get back to start physical therapy. Hopefully it will help. I noticed after that appointment that my hips hurt more—even when I’m walking sometimes. It’s not really bad, thankfully. I’m hoping physical therapy will clear things up though. Frank and I also went to the temple Friday night, as planned. We did sealings, and we were able to get all the sealing ordinances done (couples and children sealed to parents) that Jared has sent us so far.

Saturday: Sam arrived around lunch time and he stayed until Sunday afternoon. Tanner mowed the lawn so I didn’t have to do it for the first time this year. J He also went over to a family in our ward and mowed their lawn for them. Frank and I went to the store to pick out a new door for the front of the house, as well as a new screen door. We ran some other errands too. I spent most of the day finishing up the budget because I didn’t have time to work on that very much on Friday. That evening we went to a friends' house for a barbecue. They had hot dogs and hamburgers and we all brought side dishes. They also had cake. It was a fun evening—a lot of other families came from our ward too. I was talking with one sister in my ward and discovered that she has family from Mesa Arizona. Then she said that her grandmother was born in a little town in Arizona called Woodruff. She started to explain where Woodruff is located, but I just nodded my head—yeah, I know where that is. She looked amazed and asked “How is it possible that you know where Woodruff, Arizona is?” and I said “because MY grandmother was born in Woodruff, Arizona too!” So I asked what her grandmother’s maiden name was (it’s Brinkerhoff) and when I told her my grandmother’s maiden name is Hatch, she said “The Hatches lived right next door to the Brinkerhoffs!!” She has actually been to Woodruff to visit family members there, although I have not. I texted mom and she said that she remembers her mother talking a lot about the Brinkerhoffs and that one of her uncles married a Brinkerhoff. It’s probably his descendents who still live in Woodruff. So, what a small world!! (By the way, I looked it up, Mom, and you were right--it was Zina who was a Brinkerhoff and she married your uncle Albert.)

Sunday: Once again, I’m having a hard time remembering much about Sunday. It was fast Sunday and the testimonies and lessons were all really good. Tanner came to our ward meetings, but he did go to a “break the fast” potluck dinner with the YSA ward. Oh, and one other funny thing—a sister in our ward came over to Tanner after Sacrament Meeting and said “Tanner, you should really ask my niece Natalie out”. The funny thing about it was that Tanner HAD just asked Natalie out a day or two before! (They are going out this afternoon.) Natalie went on a mission to somewhere in South America, and she got home from her mission the same day that Tanner did. So anyway, this sister in my ward was happy that Tanner had already asked this girl out. That evening we had family night.

Monday: Tanner got up early to do some service—he helped set up chairs and tables for a free medical clinic that is held at a local church every month. (Jared and I have both helped do it before.)  I had agreed to water some plants for a family in the ward while they are out of town so I planned to do that  on Monday but then it rained most of the day so I didn’t need to go that day. I don’t have much written down for Monday, so I guess I just did the usual things like laundry. We did have family night activity that evening. Tanner went to dinner with two of the neighborhood boys and they enjoyed talking about all the things they all did together when they were little boys. (One of these boys is in between Scott and Tanner in age and the other one is in between Tanner and Jared in age, so between our three boys and those two boys, we had a nice group that played together a lot!)

Tuesday: I called the temple to get a baptism trip set up for tomorrow and I visited my friend Wanda that afternoon to help work out the details, which included figuring out when a member of the bishopric could come visit her to do a temple recommend interview. She had a current recommend, but she couldn’t find it so she needed a new one. That all got worked out, though, so we should be able to go to the temple tomorrow. (Wanda has been asking to go to the temple again so I have been trying to get a trip down there worked out. She's in a wheelchair so can't get there by herself.) Sometime that morning the roofer guys showed up to drop off all the supplies for the new roof. All of the families in our row of townhomes except one decided to get our roofs done at the same time, so they brought supplies for all of those roofs and we all had bags of shingles sitting up on our roofs until the next day. That evening Frank had a stake meeting where they talked to all the leaders about this self reliance program that they are going to start doing in the stake. Seth and I had den meetings. Another ward was doing some sort of activity in the building that night where they needed the whole building so we had to meet offsite. We decided it would be a fun night to take all the boys swimming, so that’s what we did. The boys did have a blast, too, but it wasn’t the best night for swimming because the water was pretty cold. It only got up to about 82 that day and by evening it was in the 70s. So not cold, but kind of cold for swimming. I wore my swim suit but decided not to get in and none of the other leaders got in either but all the boys jumped right in and a had a great time even though their teeth were chattering. We’ve actually had a lot of weird weather this summer. A lot more rain than usual and although we’ve had some really hot and muggy weeks, it has been a lot cooler the last couple of weeks. I love it, but it’s unusual! Usually August is incredibly miserable here.

Wednesday: Tanner got up really early again because he had agreed to do a shift at the Bishop’s Storehouse. They were meeting at the stake center at 6:15 to drive down. He didn’t get back until about 2:30 that afternoon. He said he helped fill food orders and re-stocked shelves. Meanwhile, the roofer guys showed up really early…I opened the door to let Snickers out at about 6:40 and they were already out there and there was equipment and stuff all over the lawn! They started working before 7:00 am, which technically they aren’t supposed to do (because of the noise) but I don’t blame them for wanting to get an early start, before it got too hot. Actually, it was only in the 50s that morning so rather chilly!! It only got up into the lower 80s that day again, so it was mostly pretty pleasant but I imagine if you are working hard and up on a roof, the 80s can get pretty hot. We had a pretty noisy day with them banging around on the roof (and the neighbors roofs) all day but by the end of the day we all had new roofs. Meanwhile, the guy who is doing all the other projects for us also showed up and worked all day. (He is a member of our stake and his name is Matt.) He removed the front door and installed the new one so the door was open most of the day and that added to the noise, dust, and general chaos. Poor Snickers!! He doesn’t like it when there is a lot of noise going on and we also had to barricade him upstairs most of the day to keep him from barking at the workers or running out the door when another dog walked by. I did take him with me when I went over to water the plants for the family in our ward and he enjoyed the walk and getting away from all the noise. However, while I was watering plants he managed to find some dog poop and he rolled all over in it so when I got him back home I had to give him a bath. Silly dog! On Wednesday I also went to the adult religion class which I always enjoy. I didn’t get the Wal-Mart shopping done until evening because I figured it would be difficult to carry several bags of groceries into the house with someone working on the door and things falling from above! Dad came with me to Wal-Mart. We also went to Lowe’s to get new doorknobs, a new doorbell, and a peephole to be installed in the front door.

Thursday: Matt was here again all day working on projects. He brought his daughter with him too. She painted the new front door and all the shutters while he worked on installing the new back door and finishing the frame around the front door and so forth. They haven’t installed the new screen door yet and it is really weird to open the front door and not have a screen door there! The new door and the shutters look really nice, though, and so does the new back door. I can't get pictures yet without getting in his way but I will include some in next week's post. Anyway, yesterday I also went to lunch with a friend and then went straight from there to get my hair done. We spent quite a bit of time in the evening killing flies since a lot of them got in the house the last couple of days with the doors being open so much! Tanner went to Institute last night. He said not many people were there, though, because two of the YSAs got married yesterday so almost everyone went to their reception. Tanner got invited to the reception also but he felt kind of weird going to that since he didn't know them very well so he didn’t go.

Friday: Matt is here again today working on the doors although he came later than usual and I don’t think he is going to stay all day because it is supposed to start raining. That means I will not have to water the plants again—that didn’t turn out to be a very big job! It’s still pretty early, so I haven't done much else today besides write to Jared. 

I will be seeing many of you soon, which I am happy about! :)

Blogger won't let me add pictures for some reason, so I guess I will include pictures of the Cub Scout swimming activity next week too.

Weekly Review August 4 '17

We have had a pretty busy week. Here is what we did:

Friday: I think Seth enjoyed having Day Camp indoors. We all went to the chapel that evening for a potluck dinner and to see the skits the boys had prepared. It turned out to be quite an adventure because partway through the dinner the power in the building went out. Then someone accidentally set off the fire alarm! Good times! J Thanks to Frank’s quick thinking, they managed to call the fire department to tell them it was just a false alarm before the fire department showed up. However, the power didn’t come back on and it was pretty dark inside so we had to go out to the parking lot for the skits and of course it started raining really hard again. (It rained on and off all day long—sometimes hard, sometimes not so hard.) The boys were really good sports about doing their skits in the rain, but it was rather chaotic and noisy so it was really hard to hear the performers most of the time. I couldn’t hear a thing that Seth said in his skit—is this really the boy that I have to tell at least 10 times a day to talk more quietly???!! (Well, he did have his back to me.) I KNOW he can talk louder than he was speaking during the skit, though.

Saturday: The rain had mostly stopped, so they were able to go on their hikes for the last day of day camp as planned. They did have to change the location for the hikes, though, so that they were hiking on a paved path. The original location was too wet and muddy. Seth came home tired but not complaining, so that was nice. He’s done two 3-mile hikes already since he became a Webelo. There was supposed to be a Primary activity that afternoon (postponed from the week before) but Seth said he was too tired to go. Then they ended up cancelling it anyway because it was raining again. I kept busy with lots of little things that day like sewing a patch on Seth’s Cub scout shirt, cleaning the stove, cleaning out my desk, and going to Kohls to spend a gift card I got for my birthday (I got some jewelry).

Sunday: I have nothing on the calendar and I can’t remember much! It’s nice to have a day of rest without a lot going on, though! I do remember that another returned missionary spoke in Sacrament Meeting. Tanner came to our Sacrament Meeting to hear her talk (they've been friends since they were 3), but he also went to the YSA ward that day. He says he didn’t like it a whole lot, though. We also had family night. That’s all I can remember! With our church meetings in the middle of the day (11:00-2:00), it seems like Sundays go by really fast. We don’t get much done before church other than getting ready to go and by the time we get home and eat something, it is close to dinner time!

Monday: Tanner was at another ward member's house most of the day helping them move furniture around because they were getting new carpet put in. He was supposed to be there at 7:30 but neither of us woke up until 7:40!! Tanner had set an alarm, but he accidentally set it for pm instead of am. I have no idea why I slept that late—that is unusually late for me. It turned out it didn’t matter that he was late, though, because the carpet people were late getting there too. He says he actually sat around waiting a lot more than he worked. He did earn a little bit of money, though, which is nice. I had a really busy day with the usual work plus doing a bunch of Cub Scout planning, getting a car rental set up for our Utah trip, and a few other errands. Frank and I went to the bank that afternoon to get a check—we are using our home equity line of credit to get some projects done on the house starting next week. The main thing is that we are getting the roof replaced, but we are also replacing our front door and the door to the deck, getting a new retaining wall put around our garden plot in the backyard, getting a shed in the backyard, having the shutters painted, and a few minor repairs. We are also getting a patio put in back and a retaining wall put in front of our front yard flower bed, but we haven’t got the quotes for that part of the work yet.

Tuesday: This was also a busy day with a lot of extra things going on. I mowed the lawn because it was too wet on Saturday to do it. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to charge the batteries for the lawnmower and the weed eater. I got the edging done, but I was about 2/3 through mowing the front lawn when the battery died on the lawnmower. (I had already put the battery for the weed eater in the lawn mower, because the battery for the mower was completely dead.) So we had this rectangular patch of grass right in the middle of the front yard that was several inches longer than the rest of the lawn! It was kind of funny. It had to stay that way for about 24 hours until after the battery charged and I had time to finish mowing. Frank had physical therapy that afternoon and he did some Elders Quorum visits that evening. Tanner took his friend Elisabeth (she's the one who just returned from her mission) out for ice cream that afternoon and they mostly talked about their missions. He said it really wasn’t a date, just a chance for both of them to feel less awkward talking to the opposite sex. Seth and I had den meeting that evening. We all met together and went on a field trip to the fire station. It passed off a requirement for all of them and they were having a community event there that evening so they had all the fire trucks and some ambulances out with the doors open so the kids could climb in them. They did a K-9 demonstration where the dog sniffed out some “drugs” and all the kids got fire hats and they had free hot dogs, chips, popsicles, and cookies. So I think the boys had a good time! After den meeting we had Cub Committee Meeting and then I went right from there to the Stake Center where I met the rest of the family. Tanner had been asked to report to the high council that evening and we were invited to come too. It was cool and interesting to listen to his report. One of the questions they asked him was about ward councils and how effective he thought they were in the various wards he served in and when he responded that the most effective ward councils were the ones where the bishop focused on people instead of calendar items during the meeting, they asked him if he would come to a meeting this Sunday morning at 7:00 am to tell all the bishops in the stake! So I guess he will be doing that.

Wednesday: Another busy day! Tanner had a doctor appointment in the morning to follow up on his medication and in the afternoon he went to the eye doctor. He took himself to the doctor appointment but Frank went with him to the eye doctor so he could pay for it. I had forgotten when I set up the appointment that I had also signed up to feed the missionaries, so that’s why Frank went with him because the two appointments were only an hour apart. It’s a good thing, too, because they didn’t get back before the Sisters arrived. They did get home about 15 minutes into the meal, though. That day was actually transfers and we had two new Sister missionaries transferred in. We are still surprised that they took BOTH of the Sister missionaries out at the same time (especially since one of them was on her last transfer and the other one was only on her second transfer and she was being trained still), but sometimes that happens. Both of the new Sisters seem to be really nice. Besides all that, I also went to my religion class (we talked about how the Book of Mormon can protect us against the false doctrines of the last days, which is totally true!!) and Frank met with the bishop that evening (his regular monthly meeting) and the guy who is doing all the work on the house (besides the roof) came over to take some measurements.

Thursday: Maybe not quite as busy, but Frank had physical therapy again. I feel like he is groaning a lot more when he moves lately. He had a brace for a while that really helped but then the physical therapist told him to stop wearing that and to tape it instead, which he did for 2 or 3 weeks. Then he told him to stop taping it also, and it’s been since he stopped taping that I feel like he has been in more pain. I guess it’s part of the process though—they don’t want him to be dependent on a brace or taping for the rest of his life. I don’t either, but sometimes I wonder if they are moving too fast. Hopefully in time it will feel better. Anyway, that night Tanner went to Institute and I spent the evening hemming some white temple pants for Tanner. He outgrew the ones we bought before his mission.

Friday: Today is going to be busy too. I am trying to get the regular chores done because tonight Frank and I are going to the temple (it’s ward temple night; Tanner is going to stay with Seth) and this afternoon I have a doctor appointment. I’m getting my hips checked because they have been hurting for several months—mostly my left hip, and mostly just when I lie on my left side but sometimes both of them hurt, especially if I have been sitting down for a while and then get up. They don’t usually hurt when I walk or anything, so it’s not a big deal, but I’d like to figure out what’s going on. We’ll see what the doctor says. I already took Tanner back to the eye doctor for his follow up and we ordered some new lenses for him because his prescription has changed (he wants to keep his frames). We will get him some contact lenses when we get out to Utah.

That’s the rundown of our week by day, just a couple of other things: 

I haven’t really mentioned this before, but having Tanner home is really great! I have especially enjoyed talking with him all about his mission and we usually end up swapping mission stories which is really fun. It will definitely be good for him to get back to school—I don’t think there is much for him to do here—but I am enjoying having him home while it lasts.

We hope Dad is feeling much better now and continues to recover from his fall!

I think that's it!