It seems like there has been quite a bit going on but I will
try to keep this short. Here’s the daily summary:
Saturday: It was a busy day, starting with helping a lady
who is investigating the church get to an appointment. I just had to drop her
off. Then I worked on some Cub Scout planning and Frank helped me finish making
the chart for my afghan so that I could start working on it. We had the Sister
missionaries over for lunch because one of them was having a birthday that day.
Dinner time was tricky because we had stake meetings that evening so we just
did lunch instead. We had chicken enchiladas (the birthday girl’s request) and
chocolate cake.
After lunch, Seth went to play with his friend Krish while I
mowed the lawn and cleaned the kitchen floor. Frank had a stake leadership
meeting starting at 4:00 and then we both went to the adult session of stake
conference that evening at 7:00. As always, it was a really good meeting.
Afterwards, the Sister missionaries came back over because one of them needed a
blessing.
Sunday: We had the general session of stake conference and
it was really good too although I was having a hard time focusing for some
reason. They broadcast the meeting to our building so we didn’t have to fight
the crowds at the stake center, and that was really nice. That evening I went
to a training meeting for this new self-reliance program that we are starting
in our stake. I went to that because I have been asked to be a facilitator for this
program. That means that I will meet with a group of people who want to be more
self-reliant and go through the course with them. I don’t teach it, I just use
the materials that the church has provided to direct the meetings. The group
meets for 12 weeks for 2 hours each week and they have assignments and
commitments that they need to do in between meetings. There are four different
courses that people can take—one for managing finances, one for finding a job
(or getting a better job), one for starting or growing a business, and one for
getting an education. I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday reading through a
lot of the materials and it seems like it is a great program. I really felt the
spirit while going through the materials and I can tell that this program is
inspired. I don’t know yet if I will be meeting with a group starting next week
or if I will be doing it in the future. It all depends on how many people in
the stake decide they want to participate in the program. When I went to the
training meeting, there were about 35-40 people who have been asked to be
facilitators, so not everyone is going to be needed right away. There is a kick
off fireside for the program on Sunday that I will be attending also and after
that I will know if I am going to be facilitating a group right away or not. I
am kind of nervous about it, but mostly excited because I really believe in
being self-reliant and I have a strong testimony that when we do all we can to
reach that goal that the Lord will help us and provide miracles that will allow
us to be self-reliant.
Monday: Just a regular day, other than I had to take
Snickers to the vet to get some more blood drawn. We had family night that
evening. For the activity part, Seth chose to play bowling on the Wii and he
beat me playing 100 pin bowling! It is strange to hold family night with just 3
people, but we keep doing it because we know it’s important! We always have
fun, even with just 3 of us.
Tuesday: This was a busy day with the regular stuff plus
lots of little errands. We had den meetings that evening but we couldn’t have
them at the church because it was also primary election day (for mayor and some
other local political positions) and the church was being used as a polling
place. So the wolves and the bears came to our house and the Webelos went to
the Webelos leader’s house. It was a bit crazy having those boys running around
our house, but it worked out. Before den meetings I went to the Back to School
night at Seth’s school. I don’t go to those often but since his teacher is new
this year I wanted to hear what she had to say about how she plans to run the
classroom and so forth. It turns out that I didn’t get to hear his teacher’s
presentation because the first part of the evening—which was introducing the
staff and so forth—took a lot more time than I thought it would so they didn’t
get to the teacher presentation part until I needed to leave so I’d be home in
time for den meeting. All I had time to do was go up to Seth’s room and grab
the written information she had ready and explain why I was leaving, so that
was kind of frustrating. During the first part of the meeting something kind of
interesting happened, though. The principal mentioned to the assembled parents
that the school is celebrating its 15th year this year. Then she
asked all the parents to stand up if they had a child attending the school for
5 years or more. A lot of people stood up. Then she kept adding on…6 years, 7
years, and so forth and parents kept sitting down. She got to 13 years and the
last parent besides me sat down. She looked at me and asked how long I had had
a child attending the school and I said “I have had at least one child
attending the school every year since the first year the school opened 15 years
ago.” Everybody gasped and clapped—hahaha!! I actually think our family is the
only family with kids at the school now who has been with the school since the
beginning. I mean, I may be wrong, but most people around here don’t have more
than 2 or 3 kids and most people also don’t have a 8+ year break between kid 3
and kid 4!
Wednesday: Pretty much a normal day. I went to the religion
class again and it was really good. The class focuses a lot on The Family: A
Proclamation to the World, and that is such an amazing piece of revelation! It
is really great to discuss it in detail and talk about how it applies to us. I
went shopping that day to get some new pillows because I decided most of our
pillows are really old, flat, and disgusting. I got the pillows, but I also
ended up getting new towels, bath mats, and welcome mats, plus a couple of
throw pillows for the couches. So now a lot of things around the house look
pretty and new. J
Thursday: Snickers had his surgery so he was at the vet for
most of the day; Frank dropped him off in the morning on his way to work and I
picked him up right after I picked up Seth from school. He had a bladder stone
removed, had two growths removed, had his teeth cleaned, and had a sample taken
from his liver for a biopsy. So much at once, poor guy!! He has a pretty long
incision in his abdomen and he obviously isn’t feeling really great but they
say in a few more days he should be feeling a lot better. He didn’t eat at all
last night which is typical for him when he’s been under anesthesia. I don’t
think he slept very well last night because we heard him making noise a few
times and when I checked on him he was wide awake. Then this morning he still
wouldn’t eat anything—even his treats!—so we were kind of worried about that,
especially because we needed to give him two kinds of medicine which both needed
to be taken with a meal. I decided he might be more willing to eat soft dog
food so I went to the store and bought some of that. Sure enough, he gobbled
that right up so we were able to give him his medicine. He has been pretty
quiet all day and still isn’t himself—he hasn’t barked at all, even when I took
him out and we met another dog!! I can also tell that he is uncomfortable
because he spends a lot of time sitting in an awkward position. He has been
lying down a lot more this afternoon, though, and seems to be a bit more
comfortable. Hopefully his recovery will be quick. By the way, the vet showed
us the stone she removed from his bladder and it is huge! Probably a quarter
inch in diameter with spiky things all over it. That must have been so uncomfortable,
but he never acted like it was bothering him. The vet also told us that it was
a good choice to have his liver biopsied because when she went in yesterday to
get a sample, his liver definitely looked abnormal. So that is a bit of a
worry, although his liver readings came back normal (for the first time in
months!) when they did the bloodwork this week. We will just have to wait and
see what the results of the biopsy are, but we won’t get them until sometime in
early October.
Snickers last night
Snickers this morning
Friday: I have mostly covered today already. I just spent
the day taking care of Snickers and updating the budget. I mowed the lawn too. I think Sam will be
coming tonight to spend part of the weekend.
Other than that, I did get started on the new afghan and I
have finished 19 rows already.
I also spent quite a bit of time reading this
week. Mom & Dad sent me three books for my birthday and I hadn’t read 2 of
them yet so I read one of them this week and started the second one today,
which is a sequel. (I enjoyed the book a lot, by the way.) I have also been
reading more to Seth again and we are almost finished with the fourth book in
the Percy Jackson series. Seth is still doing well with the limited screen
time. He complains about it sometimes but most of the time he is really good
about it. He is also doing a lot better at getting up and getting ready for
school and making his own lunch without me nagging him to do it, so that is
nice. I signed him up for swimming lessons this week, which will start in the
middle of October. (It’s indoors!) Hopefully those will go well and he will
make a lot of progress in swimming.
That's all there is to report this week.
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