Weekly Review December 29 '17

Well, here goes my last weekly review post for 2017!

Here's what we did this week:

Saturday: It was a very busy day--making all the final preparations for Christmas! I did the final present wrapping and got out the nice dishes, candles, napkin rings, etc. for our Christmas Eve dinner. When Jared got off work, we all met him there to have a late lunch. Then the boys went shopping to get presents for each other while I got started on cookies. I made two batches of cookies and I also made a gingerbread house. (We had leftover supplies from our Cub Scout gingerbread house projects, so I decided to make one myself.) I have actually never made a gingerbread house before--just helped my kids or other kids make them. It was fun and I was happy with the way it turned out except for the roof. I had to make a flat roof because I couldn't get the roof pieces to stand up.

The boys enjoyed painting our traditional paintbrush cookies, but none of them wanted to decorate with frosting, so I ended up doing most of the frosted cookies myself. I used leftover gingerbread house icing on some of them, and they turned out nice. The paintbrush cookies turned out really yummy this year--just the right mixture of soft and chewy. I'm afraid that I have eaten far too many of them!!

By the time all the cookies were done, it was quite late and I was tired so I settled for just sweeping the kitchen floor instead of mopping it too.

Sunday: Christmas Eve! :) We went to church in the morning, of course. Jared and I had to be there early for a short choir practice so we could go over our songs that we were singing that day. We only had Sacrament Meeting and it was very nice with mostly a lot of beautiful music (and just a couple of short talks). The choir sang two songs, one of which Jared directed. Jared also directed the Seminary students for the song they sang and he sang in a men's trio for another song, so he was really busy!! The choir sang a version of Angles We Have Heard On High and another song called "That Silent Night". I really liked that song. The tune is an original composition, but parts of the tune of "Silent Night" are woven into the accompaniment (which includes piano and violin). The words to the song are beautiful!!! The whole time we were practicing, I kept thinking how much I loved the words but I tried not to think about them too much because if I did that, I would cry and it is hard to sing and cry at the same time. I managed to be pretty successful at not thinking too hard about the words, but when we did the actual performance, the words of the 3rd verse (especially starting with the 3rd line) just got to me and I ended up crying (and trying to sing) for the remainder of the song. I'm sure I didn't contribute too much to the musical beauty of the song, but I was definitely sincere! Here are the words to the song--I want to remember them!:

That Silent Night

Verse 1:
How I would love to kneel at the manger,
Touch His small hand and look on  His face.
Angels above would sing a chorus
Wise men would follow a star to that place.
Mary would sing Him a sweet lullaby,
Peaceful, gentle, soft as a sigh
Joseph would give her his cloak for a shawl,
filled with care for his family so small.

Verse 2:
What would I bring to give to the baby?
Wood for a fire to warm the night's chill
Oil for a lamp to light the darkness,
Wool for a coat from the sheep on the hill.
Mary would sing Him a sweet lullaby,
Peaceful, gentle, soft as a sigh
Joseph would giver her his cloak for a shawl,
filled with care for his family so small.

Would I have looked to the heavens?
Would I have seen the star?
Would I have followed the wise men
bringing their gifts from afar?
Oh, holy, silent, holy night, Ah, silent night

Verse 3:
I was not there that night in the stable
I did not see His bed on the hay,
Yet I believe my King, my Savior
came to the world on that holy day
Bethlehem baby now grown as a man,
Patient, lowly, meek as a lamb
Son of the Father who walked among men,
Healer, Redeemer, who loves without end,
The Babe in the manger,
my Savior, my Friend.

After church ended, we visited for a little while with others, wishing them a Merry Christmas before we came home. Frank was not feeling well at all on Sunday. After he went to the doctor earlier in the week, he improved slightly but by late Saturday he was feeling even worse than before. So after church he tried to go to the doctor. However, even though the recording at the office said the walk in sick clinic was open until 4:00 pm, it was closed when he got there (around 1:00 pm). Jared went to his friend Jessie's house after church and spent the afternoon with her and her family. I spent the afternoon making our Christmas Even dinner. We had invited the Elders to join us. Everything turned out really nice. Here is everyone ready to eat:

(Here's one without Seth trying to put food in his mouth):

Yummy food!!:

After dinner we watched the Joy to the World DVD (which includes music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and recitations of the scriptures from Luke, Matthew, and 3 Nephi). Then the boys each got to open a present, including the Elders. We got each of them a mug with hot chocolate, a cookie pop, and a tie. One of them opened his mug and the other one opened his cookie pop. They saved the ties for Christmas day, but we did get a text message from them on Christmas saying how much they liked the ties.

After the Elders went home, we quickly got ready for bed and Frank and I got the stockings and other Santa things ready, which didn't take very long because I had already done a lot of the stocking stuff, and Santa doesn't bring many gifts anymore. We were happy to get to bed after a long day!

Christmas: To my surprise, Tanner was the first one up (he is not a morning person)! He actually woke me up. We later found out that he had set an alarm--we told him we wanted them to get up around 7:30, and he took us seriously!! At any rate, it took a while to get Jared up but we finally made it downstairs to open presents. Everyone seemed to be happy with what they got. We spent the day playing with new toys, reading new books, taking naps (Tanner took two!), playing games, and generally relaxing and enjoying the day. Oh, and we all ate a lot of yummy but not very healthy stuff! A few pictures:

Remember those blankets I've been working on all year? One of them was for Tanner. Each row represents one of the days in the last year of his mission, and the color of the row reflects the high temperature for that day. Here is Tanner in his blanket. Jared is wearing the shirt that Seth gave him.
The other blanket I made was for Scott. We got to Skype with him on Christmas night and he had his blanket on and he said it was the best present he got this year! (I sent the blanket out to Utah with some friends who were driving out there, and they got it to him sometime on Christmas Day.)

Seth got a lot of Legos, as usual, and he spent a good part of the day putting together three different sets. This one is a Joker car (from the Lego Batman Movie).

Snickers isn't sure what to make of everything, but he did enjoy the treats we gave him.

The Christmas salt & pepper set that I got. I'm trying not to get a lot of new sets, but I actually don't have a lot of good Christmas sets and this one is so cute!!

Here's my stash. A lot of books, as you can see. I also got a shawl /wrap thing and an Ancestry DNA kit, which I forgot to put in the picture. Jared got me the watch. The two small round tins are from Seth. One is scented lip balm and the other is a scented candle. He made them at school. When I opened them, I asked him if he made them and his response was "Yes, we made them on craft day and I didn't want them so I decided to give them to you." Well gee, thanks Seth! :)

Most of Seth's gifts. He had a couple more Lego sets that he was already building at this point. His wish list is always exclusively Legos! This year we got him some of the Legos on his list, but Frank and I also discussed getting him a few things he didn't ask for that we thought he would like--hoping to encourage him to expand his interests a little bit! So we talked about other things we thought he would like and ended up getting him a blank comic book (he gets to create his own comic strip in it). He also likes music and Jared has an iPod shuffle he is no longer using so we had Jared put a bunch of music on that--CDs we already have like Lion King, Lilo & Stitch, Veggie Tales, Star Wars, Chronicles of Narnia, etc.--and we got him some headphones to go with it. The nice thing about the Ipod Shuffle is that it only plays music. No internet access or apps or anything like that. The other thing we talked about doing was getting him some sort of robotics / coding kit. That one kind of backfired on us, though, because when we looked at robotics kits, the one we thought would be the best ended up being a Lego robotics kit. Whoops!! :) On a whim, I also got Seth a white dress shirt, new dark blue dress pants, and two ties and to my surprise he was really happy when he opened those. He had mentioned once recently that he would like to have a white shirt and a tie (the dress shirt he's been wearing to church the last year or so is blue plaid, and no tie) but I really didn't think he'd care that much about them. He actually cheered when he saw what was in that package, though!

Now Seth is putting together a Batmobile set.

Hans & Griffin sent us this yummy chocolate dipped fruit! They also got us a game and a 3-D puzzle.

Tanner taking one of his naps under his new blanket.

Seth reading one of the books that Grandma & Grandpa sent him.

I read some of my new books too, but I also finished reading the book we are reading for book chat (The Case for Christ).

Frank was feeling somewhat better on Monday, which we were grateful for. I didn't get any pictures of his gifts. He only got a few small things because he already got a 3-D printer last month. He got a few ties and the crock pot in my gift picture was also partly for him. He gets to get a few Kindle books too.

I also didn't get any pictures of the older boys' gifts. Besides the blanket, Tanner got some fun socks, some winter gloves, and a hoodie. He also got some money so that he can buy some more clothes. Jared got warm clothes (including a coat) so that he won't freeze when he gets to Idaho and a smart watch. Both he and Tanner got gift cards and all four of my boys got a copy of a photo book I made for them which includes all the portraits we had taken of them over the years. All in all, it was a nice Christmas!

The rest of the week: It has been a relaxing week overall, with no school or activities. Frank took the week off work also. Jared was supposed to work every day but Monday but on Wednesday they took him off the schedule because of some sort of training that was going on and Thursday and Friday he ended up calling in sick. So he only ended up working on Tuesday. I'm not sure yet if he will make it to work tomorrow. He still isn't feeling well. He never did get totally better after he went to the doctor last time, although he improved somewhat for a while. He went back to the doctor yesterday and the nasal infection he had still hasn't cleared up. It turns out that he wasn't taking the medicine they gave him last time correctly--he was supposed to take two capsules twice a day, but he thought it was only one capsule twice a day. That meant some of the bacteria were getting killed, but the rest of them were developing a resistance to the antibiotic, which is why he started getting worse again. Now he is on a different antibiotic and he made sure he read the label carefully this time! He just started taking that yesterday, though, so it hasn't started to have much of an effect yet.

Meanwhile, Frank seemed to feel a little better for a few days (which is why he didn't go to the doctor on Tuesday) but by yesterday he was coughing even worse than before and feeling worse again, so I convinced him to go back to the doctor today. It turns out that his sinus infection has not cleared up completely but now he also has full blown bronchitis. The doctor said his lungs sound terrible. She called in 3 different prescriptions for him and she also told him to get 3 different over the counter medications and to start drinking a lot of juice. So this evening I went with him to the store to get all of that stuff, plus a few more things that we needed. Hopefully all this medicine will start working soon and he will start feeling better.

It hasn't all been sickness this week. On Tuesday we all went to see Star Wars : The Last Jedi. Frank and Jared had already seen it, but Tanner, Seth and I had not. I was surprised at how much I liked it! We had a fun time. Jared went ice skating with Jessie on Wednesday evening and last night he and Tanner went to a wedding reception for a girl in our stake that they are friends with. She went to the same school as they did and she and Tanner really liked each other when they were little. (He's not heartbroken though!) On Wednesday Jared and Seth also got haircuts. Seth has homework to work on over the break and he did a little bit of that every day. This afternoon he went to play with the carpool boys at their house. I have been doing all the usual chores (laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping never go away!) but I enjoyed not having long lists of Christmas preparations to do as well. I did a lot of reading and playing games and puzzles and relaxing. It's been nice.

It has definitely turned winter here. It rained a bunch on Saturday but now it is really cold. We might get a little bit of snow tomorrow. We saw a few snow flurries one other day too. (Can't remember which day that was, now.) Yesterday it was absolutely frigid and today, with a high in the 30s, felt warm by comparison. They say we are going to have more really frigid temperatures going into January. Well, it's that time of year, I guess! On a happy note, we get a few extra minutes of daylight each day now so we are working our way toward warmer days.

That's everything we have to report. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Weekly Review December 22 '17

Hello Everyone! I am going to go back to a day by day summary for this week. There was a lot going on and I think I am going to forget a lot if I don't do it that way.

Friday: Remember that last week I mentioned Seth was working on a project on Martin Luther King Jr, and it wasn't going so well because he was having meltdowns and not focusing? Well, that is all we did for the rest of the day on Friday is work on that. Actually, I'm positive he spent more time having meltdowns and being distracted than he did working on the project. We literally worked on it from about 2:00 to 10:00 with only breaks to pick up Jared from work and have dinner, and all he managed to get done is a list of events that he thought he should include in his report, and writing a few paragraphs of his rough draft report. It was a very long and frustrating night for us, and I admit that I was not very patient with him. Sam came to spend the night and I asked him if he were seriously thinking about not having kids and he said "yeah, maybe not" but he laughed when he said it! I won't go into all the details, but Seth was really being very unreasonable and difficult.

Saturday: Seth had swimming lessons in the morning and that went pretty well. After he got back from that, he took a shower and then we started working on his project again. I expected another difficult day, but this time he sat down quietly and worked steadily without any meltdowns and in less than 3 hours he had finished writing the rough draft and created a poster with a timeline of Martin Luther King Jr's life. We also sat down together while I offered suggestions for a few changes to his report and then typed up the final draft. It's amazing what his ADHD medicine will do for him! (It's usually starting to wear off already by the time he gets home from school.) Sometimes I don't think it's helping him much, but in this case it was obvious to me that it made a big difference--not just with focusing, but with being more cooperative. It's a good thing it didn't take Seth a long time to get his project done because we had our ward Christmas party that night and I had volunteered to help with decorating and the Elders Quorum (Frank) was in charge of setting up all the chairs and tables. After Jared got home from work we headed to the church to help with that. Not very many people showed up to help with the set up, but those who came worked hard and they managed to get it done. There was a better turn out of decorating help and it looked really nice when we were done. The decorations were actually pretty simple but it's amazing what a few centerpieces can do! For dinner we had potluck soups, salads, breads, and desserts. There was plenty of food and it was really yummy. Frank had volunteered to make some wassail--mostly to help it smell better in the gym (there were basketball games going on in there up until less than 2 hours before our party started!)--and we had some trouble finding a recipe that used ingredients that we had on hand, but we finally figured something out. It turns out that it tasted completely delicious and a lot of people wanted the recipe. Funny! The Primary kids did a live nativity program which was really cute. Seth was one of the wise men. He wore his Jedi cloak (without putting up the hood), tied with a belt and--of course--a crown. He also had a "gift" to carry. He looked really cute, but I forgot to take a picture! Jared helped with the music / technical stuff, so he was busy all night. The High Priests were supposed to be in charge of clean up, but none of the group leadership showed up for the party so the whole ward worked together to get things cleaned up. As usual, Frank did too much for both the set up and the clean up, and he was really hurting by the time we got home (and the next day as well).

Sunday: This was the first Sunday in 12 weeks that I didn't have a 2 hour self reliance class, and that was definitely nice! Jared and I did have choir practice. We also had tithing settlement and the Elders came over for dinner.

Monday: Jared had the day off work so he got the leaf blower out and mulched and bagged all the leaves on the front lawn again. The neighbor's tree is bare of leaves now so we won't have to do that again this year. Jared also got up early and went to Seminary because they asked him to help them learn a song that they will be singing on Sunday. I kept busy all day just doing the usual stuff--laundry, grocery shopping, vacuuming, crocheting, and preparing for the next day's den meeting. I also wrapped some presents (more things have been arriving in the mail) and we had family night. Frank started feeling kind of sick on Sunday and by Monday he wasn't feeling well at all. He has been quite sick all week, with head ache, body aches, feeling cold / hot, congestion, and a terrible cough. He went to the doctor on Wednesday morning and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. He is taking an antibiotic but so far he hasn't improved much. In spite of that, he worked every day this week. Most of the time he worked either from home or at the Frederick location, but he even went down to the Gaithersburg office one day. Hopefully he will start feeling a lot better soon!

Tuesday: This day started pretty abruptly when I woke up at 10 minutes to 7:00 and realized that Jared was supposed to be at work in 10 minutes and he wasn't up yet. I managed to get him to work just a few minutes late. (His alarm didn't go off.) This day was also busy with the usual things. I also took a Christmas gift over to one of the sisters that I visit teach. The Elders in the YSA ward came to visit with Jared for a while, to talk about ways he can help them. For den meeting that evening we had all the dens meet together and the boys made gingerbread houses. It was crazy but fun!

Wednesday: Jared was supposed to work but when he got up and checked his schedule, he wasn't on the schedule to work anymore. He texted the manager and found out that they had hired a new person and needed to train the new person that morning, so they took Jared off the schedule. (They intended to give him a different shift instead, not realizing that he was scheduled to work every day the rest of the week already.) Anyway, he went back to sleep for a while but I didn't, which was kind of annoying! I wish they had let him know sooner that they had changed his schedule. (Frank didn't sleep well most nights because of his terrible cough, so I didn't sleep well either.) Anyway, Wednesday was once again busy with the normal things (Walmart shopping, crocheting). I didn't have the religion class but instead I spent that hour visiting one of the sisters I visit teach. After I got back from there, Jared and I went shopping. I wanted to get some ties for the Elders in our ward and I wanted him to pick them out. I ended up getting a few presents for a few other people while we were at the store, too. The line to buy things was long and it was getting close to the time that Seth needed to be picked up from school, so Jared went to do that while I stood in line and then they picked me up afterwards. I did a bunch more present wrapping when we got home. Jared went with the YSA Elders that evening to teach a lesson to a new member. Or rather, the Elders went with him since Jared was the one who drove. It was a long drive so he was gone a lot of the evening.

Thursday: Jared went in to help the Seminary kids again, then I took him to work.  (He says while at work that 40-something women customers keep telling him he's adorable and wanting to set him up with their daughters! He also occasionally gets to take orders in Spanish. If a customer sounds like they are struggling with English, he asks them if they prefer to order in Spanish. They are always surprised that he knows Spanish, since he obviously isn't Latino. Apparently he has a really great accent, too.)  Anyway, I had my last physical therapy appointment that morning. The rest of the day I did the usual things, plus I made two batches of fudge. I also finished crocheting the afghan I've been making. It turned out to be even bigger than the first one I made (the yarn I used must have been "loftier"). It covers my entire king size bed, and then some! I think I will take a break from crocheting for a while now. Well, maybe I will make myself a scarf first! :)

That evening Seth and I went to my friend Renata's house for a little gathering. One of her sisters is visiting from the Ukraine, and she played an instrument (I forget the name of it) and sang for us. They also had a few treats. The music was really beautiful and it was fun to hear some Ukrainian songs. Renata was telling us how they learned Christmas carols when they were children (in the early 80s) but they couldn't sing them in public at all because the Ukraine was still a communist country then. So sad!

(The two children in the picture are Renata's children.)

Jared went to Institute that night and then he did some Christmas shopping on the way home.

Friday: I spent most of the day getting the budget updated, which is why I didn't post yesterday (I started writing this, but didn't have time to finish). When I picked up Seth from school, he had a gift from his teachers. The teacher's aid in his class knits, and she had asked all the children in the class what their favorite color was and then knitted a winter hat for each of them in their favorite color. His teacher got them each a pair of gloves. I thought that was so cool! Here is Seth in his new hat:

 Jared went to work later than usual, but had to work until 8:00. We thought we were going to be rushing to pick up Tanner at the airport as soon as Jared got off work (his flight was supposed to come in at 8:40), but then Tanner's flight got delayed by a couple of hours so he didn't get in until after 10:00. Scott dropped Tanner off at the airport in Salt Lake City before he went to work, so Tanner ended up spending 7 hours at the airport before his flight left! He said it wasn't too bad since he ran into some friends to talk to. He also ended up sitting next to another friend on the flight home--a girl from our stake who also attends BYU. Anyway, we're glad he got home okay and it is great to have him here!

Blurry photo of Tanner walking toward us.  Jared said "he looks like a college student!"

They hadn't seen each other for 2 1/2 years. I actually let Jared hug Tanner first!

Seth hugging Tanner while we wait for his luggage (and Frank coughing!)

When we got home from the airport it was close to midnight so we all went to bed--except Tanner, who is still on Utah time. I'm guessing he was up half the night, and we probably won't see him until sometime this afternoon. Jared had to be at work early this morning but the rest of us slept in. I have a busy day of baking cookies ahead of me, so I should get going on that now.

We are glad that Dad is home from the hospital and doing better. We will keep praying for him! We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!

A few pretty sky pictures I took this week, to finish up:

Weekly Review December 15 '17

Here we go again with categories. They seem to be working well lately.

Weather: It is winter now! We got about an inch and a half of snow on Saturday, a dusting of snow on Wednesday night, and it is snowing again right now (although not very hard so it will just be another dusting). It has also been very cold! A few days earlier this week we had highs in the 20s and with the wind chill it got down to 5 degrees. Yesterday we got into the high 30s and that felt kind of warm! Today it feels colder again (I think it's mostly the humidity) although at least it isn't windy. Here's our yard with snow on Saturday night (it all melted within 24 hours):

Bedroom painting project: I made a little bit of progress on that this week. On Saturday I finally sanded down all the spots I had patched about 3 weeks ago. Then Jared put primer on the large area that needs to be patched. On Tuesday I patched the large spot on the wall and later (after it dried) I sanded it. Now we are ready to prime the entire room. I wanted to start on that yesterday, but instead I spent the evening helping Seth with a school project (more on that later). Maybe we will get time to start priming tonight or tomorrow, but it is doubtful.

Ward Breakfast: The Elders Quorum planned a ward breakfast for last Saturday (Frank's idea). Unfortunately, it didn't happen because on Friday they were predicting that we were going to get 2-5 inches of snow on Saturday, so the decision was made to cancel the breakfast. The snow was supposed to start coming down after midnight and we were supposed to have a couple of inches by 9:00 am, the scheduled start time for the breakfast. Instead, it didn't start snowing until around 8:00 and we didn't get as much as predicted (2 inches, tops) so the breakfast could have happened. Oh well!! Instead, we went to a local restaurant that has been doing all you can eat pancakes or biscuits with sausage gravy for $1.99.

Baptism: We had another baptism in the late afternoon on Saturday--the wife of the guy who got baptized last week got baptized this week. It was cool to have baptisms 2 weeks in a row!! The lady who got baptized (Julie) asked Frank to be one of the people to stand in the circle when she was confirmed the next day.

Festival of Lights: On Saturday we also went to the Festival of Lights at the temple grounds / visitor center. They have a concert of some kind every night and on Saturday it was the Mormon Choir of Washington DC. This choir has done concerts in Frederick a few times and they are really good! They actually did a concert in Frederick at our stake center on Sunday but I couldn't go to that because the time conflicted with my self reliance group meeting. So when I saw that they were performing at the visitor's center on Saturday night, I made the executive decision that we were all going to go to that! The concert was wonderful, the lights at the temple were beautiful, and the huge display of nativity sets from around the world was amazing. The newly fallen snow added to the atmosphere as well. We got to hear a bell choir perform a few numbers while we were waiting to go into the concert, too. The concert was kind of difficult for Seth--he was kind of bored and wiggly and some of the time he was practically squirming out of his chair. But then at the end of the concert the choir walked up the steps on either side of the auditorium holding small lights and surrounded the audience as they sang the last song. We were on the end of our row, right next to the steps so some of the choir members were right next to us. I looked at Seth at one point during the song and his face was all lit up. I whispered to him to ask him if he liked it and he said "Shhh!!! It's too beautiful!!" So I was glad that he had a positive experience in the end! The whole evening really helped me to feel the spirit of Christmas, which I was grateful for.

(If you look closely at the picture above, you can see that it is still snowing!)

Self Reliance Group:  We had our last meeting on Sunday and it went well. The group members did a great job on their presentations. I brought spinach dip & crackers and other people brought cake, ice cream, and brownies. I am glad that I got to participate in this group and I really enjoyed getting to know the group members! They are amazing people. I am happy to have my Sunday evenings back, though. It's been hard on our family to have me gone every Sunday night.

Cub Scouts: We had den meeting as usual this week and I was able to finish up an adventure with my two Bears. Next week we have a special activity planned for den meeting!

Christmas Parties: Frank went to three work related Christmas parties this week--three nights in a row! The first party was on Tuesday night with one of his clients for his business. I was also invited to this party. We had dinner at a restaurant in downtown Frederick. It was as enjoyable an evening as possible when you are spending the evening with people you barely know. :) Actually, they are really nice people who really try to help me feel included and comfortable, which I appreciate. The second party on Wednesday night was with a vendor he works with at Marriott and the party last night was the Marriott party. Today at his work they are also paying for everyone to go see the new Star Wars movie, so that should be fun for him. Since Frank was gone those nights, Jared usually ate at work, and Seth doesn't eat much, I didn't bother to cook dinner any of those nights. We had lots of leftovers in the refrigerator that I could eat. No cooking for three nights in a row = Merry Christmas to me!

12 Days of Christmas: I got a box and got all of the presents labeled and put into the box, and on Wednesday evening the boys and I delivered the box. Actually, I drove the car and Seth sat in the car with me. Jared was the one who actually carried the box up to the doorstep, rang the doorbell, and ran--so he had the hard job.

Dentist: Seth and I had our 6 month check ups at the dentist on Wednesday. Neither of us have any cavities. Bonus: the lady who cleaned my teeth is one of the sisters I visit teach, so I got to find out how she is doing.

Snickers: I took him to the groomer yesterday. About an hour later, the groomer called to say that while she was trimming the hair on his ears she nicked one of his ears. There is a veterinarian there too (Snickers goes to Pet Smart for grooming) so they took him over there and had the vet look at it. They got him fixed up, but decided that he should wait and come back in a week to get the hair cut finished. Luckily, he was almost done when she nicked him so he doesn't look too strange. The hair on his ears is still long and there are a few places on his face that need trimming so he looks a little funny but not too bad. The good news is that they didn't charge us anything.
 
Physical Therapy: I went to physical therapy yesterday morning. I only have 2 appointments left. I haven' t made any appointments for next year because our insurance company is changing and the physical therapist doesn't accept our new insurance. However, at this appointment she said that she thinks I've progressed enough that I probably only need one more visit so I can cancel one of the appointments that I have left. I have been feeling better the last week or so although I still feel pain in my hips sometimes. At any rate, I had decided to stop physical therapy for a while anyway and see how it goes, so we are on the same page.

Seth: He came home from school on Monday not feeling well. He said his stomach hurt although he never threw up. Within an hour or so he had a fever, though. He lay on the couch huddled up in a blanket all evening and even took a nap for a while. At bedtime, Frank and Jared gave him a blessing and in the morning he had perked right up and didn't seem sick at all. I still kept him home from school on Tuesday, just in case, but he was ready to go back to school on Wednesday. He does seem to be a little stuffed up now but other than that he is fine. Unfortunately, things aren't going so well right now with school work. On Wednesday he told me that he had a project on Martin Luther King, Jr. which was due the previous Friday and that he hadn't started it yet. What?!! I knew he had a project but I had no idea when it was due or that he wasn't working on it. He had forgotten to bring home the instructions that day so we couldn't work on it but yesterday he brought home the paper and I tried to help him work on it. Not any fun for either of us--there was weeping & wailing & gnashing of teeth! I think he had about 20 meltdowns in the course of 2 or 3 hours. Then he finally settled down and got the things done that I told him he had to get done that night. Unfortunately, today has been more of the same. He's been home for nearly 2 hours (they had a 2 hour early dismissal today) and hasn't accomplished anything yet except for several more meltdowns. He's currently in his room pouting. Wow, it's going to be a fun weekend. This is where having an ADHD child can become really trying. It's not easy with any kid to get projects done but with Seth it's harder because he has no concept of time management or setting priorities. I am going to have to communicate a lot more with his teacher than I have been up until now. On a happy note, his swimming lesson on Saturday went well again.

Jared: He has also been sick this week. Remember how last week I mentioned he's been sick off and on since he got home? Well, he came home Friday feeling really wiped out and unwell. I decided he really needed to go to the doctor but of course the doctor's office was already closed. So I told Jared to ask for Monday off so that he could go to the doctor then. He didn't have to work over the weekend so he felt a little better and was able to get some things done. On Monday, he was diagnosed with a nasal infection and he was given an antibiotic. He was supposed to work on Tuesday but he ended up not having to go in because an extra person came in and they knew he had been sick so they just texted him and told him he didn't need to come in. It was really nice for him to have that extra day to recuperate. Frank also gave him a blessing on Monday night. He is not 100% well yet but he is feeling a lot better. On Sunday he helped direct the choir at practice (he is going to be the director for one of our Christmas songs) and he also taught the missionary prep class. (I saw the high councilman in charge of that later this week and he told me Jared did a really good job.) He worked early morning  (opening) shifts on Wednesday and Thursday. Today he went in later but tomorrow he opens again. Last night, he went to Institute and then he went to see the new Star Wars movie with a couple of guys from work so he was up really late but he didn't have to be at work until 10:00 today, so that was good. He mostly enjoys work, it just makes him tired. Sometimes he gets to speak Spanish with people. He also talked to his manager to let her know that he's going back to school and she actually said that they might be able to get him a scholarship...how nice would that be?? I am pretty impressed with Chick fil a as a place to work, overall.

Frank: He has been busy as always. Besides going to Christmas parties, he also did maintenance for all of his clients this week. On the way home from the Christmas party last night, the traffic was so bad that he decided to stop at a store to look at computers to give time for the traffic to clear up. He has been needing to buy a new computer for his business because the laptop he's been using needs to go with Jared to college next month. He found what he needed, so he bought it last night. He hasn't had time to set it up yet, though.

Annette: I covered most of what I did this week in all of the other categories. Of course I did all the cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, etc as usual. I exercised most days although my leg was hurting one day (I think I pulled a muscle in it) so I didn't exercise one day. I have continued to crochet every day and will finish that project on Thursday. I visited my friend Wanda on Monday. I went to the religion class on Wednesday--that will be our last one this year, since we aren't meeting the next two weeks. I also did some more shopping--I've got everyone covered now except for my dear darling husband, who still hasn't given me a list. I wrapped all the new things that I bought (or that arrived) so I am caught up on wrapping. All in all, I am feeling pretty good about everything getting done before the big day!

I hope that the rest of you are getting things done and having some time to enjoy the wonderful spirit of the Christmas season.