It was sunny a lot of today, but now it is raining and the temperature is supposed to be back down into the 40s tomorrow (which still isn't bad, considering it's December). We actually had a lot of rain this week. It was another busy week but I think I am ALMOST all ready for Christmas. Tomorrow I need to make some cookies and wrap a few more presents, but I think that's it! :) Here's what we did this week:
Sunday: Seth had an appointment with the bishop for his priesthood / temple recommend interview. We are still adjusting to the idea that he is going into YM in a few weeks, instead of in 5 months as we had anticipated. I'm still not positive he will be ordained right away because he is still trying to get used to the idea! Seth's first comment when we told him about the changes was "but I can't get the priesthood yet! I haven't finished my Faith in God!" (We've been working on that a lot lately and he is close to being done.) We've talked about it more since then and we thought he understood and was okay with it (and our bishop told him he has until his birthday to finish Faith in God), but just tonight when we were talking about it he said he wanted to wait until February or March. So we'll see. I don't see the need to rush him, but if he is going to wait, I would like it to be for a good reason. I think he will just need some time to think it all over. We had church and I had choir as usual. My Primary class really liked the treats I gave them! After church I met with my self reliance group. We are meeting again tomorrow and hoping to get through the last 3 chapters, since we are not meeting next week.
Monday: I thought I was going to work on Monday, but the lady I assist texted me on Sunday evening and said she couldn't meet this week because she was helping some family members. Then she texted me on Wednesday to let me know she'll be out of town next week, so I won't work again until January. I did do some online training on Monday and again on Thursday (which I get paid for). I also had another job this week--dog sitting. To my surprise, on Sunday a member of our ward (that I don't even know very well) texted me to ask if I could dog sit for them. They hired a teenager in the ward to dog sit and then realized that she would be at school during the day times. So they just needed someone to go over every day in the morning and again at noon to take their dog out, plus be a back up in case the teenager had things come up. I have no idea why they thought to ask me, but I was happy to do it and their dog is really sweet. They left on Tuesday, so I went over on Monday to pick up a house key, meet the dog, and get some basic instructions. Frank came with me, since I knew he may need to take out the dog sometimes. (I wanted to be free to pick up a substitute job if a good one came up.) Anyway, on Monday I also did some work for my music calling and contacted sisters I minister to and all the regular Monday chores, so it ended up being pretty busy. That evening Seth talked us into taking him to the library to pick up some books he had put on hold, and then we had family night. They had a lot of Christmas lights up in downtown Frederick (where the library is) and they looked pretty cool (picture doesn't do it justice):
Tuesday: This was mostly a normal Tuesday, besides my three trips to walk the dog. (The teenager had a doctor appointment after school, so I went an extra time). We also had a guy come look at the oven to see if we could get it fixed. He couldn't find anything wrong with it--it worked fine for him, of course!! Which didn't surprise me too much, since it often works for us too. He did say, though, that he's seen a lot of ovens like ours have trouble when the storage drawer underneath is full--the pans bang around in there and that seems to cause the oven to short out. So we are going to be more careful about opening and closing the drawer (and we also removed one pan) and see what happens. For that sage advice, we paid $99, but it will be worth it if we don't have any more trouble with the oven.
Wednesday: They needed more parent chaperones for Seth's class trip to the library so I signed up to help with that, last minute. Frank did the lunch time dog walking for me, since I was gone on the trip. I enjoyed it, but I was really tired afterwards! (They walk to the library because it is only a mile or two from their school.) I started noticing on Wednesday that my legs were really sore--like I'd been exercising muscles that I don't usually use. I'm not sure why, but I think it is from the dog walking! Now, I jog 5 times a week normally so it's not like I never use my leg muscles! But I think because this dog is a lot bigger and heavier than our dog that I have to brace my legs when she starts walking really fast. I am mostly feeling it in my calves, shins, and feet (on top). Kind of funny! At any rate, between that and walking to the library and back (and just being on my feet for most of the day--I went grocery shopping too) I was really wiped out by Wednesday evening! Frank took Seth to scouts and back, which I appreciated. One of the members of our bishopric showed up that evening and he brought us some gift cards from the ward, to help us out with Christmas. We didn't ask for help, but we appreciate that they thought of us and it will help us out later on. We are grateful!
Thursday: I did all the usual chores, plus a lot of present wrapping (and dog walking too, of course). I got one more package sent to Utah for the older boys--one thing that I ordered for them didn't get here in time to send with the first package. I was rushing to get the box ready to mail shortly before I had to leave to pick up Seth from school (I wanted to mail it on the way home). I was putting the last piece of tape on the box and the tape ran out right as I finished:
I was so grateful that I had just enough! After dinner I started making buckeye candy--I made the filling and rolled them into balls. Then I let them sit overnight to firm up. That doesn't sound like a lot, but I was busy all day. Frank ended up spending most of the day helping a client with a computer emergency, which involved traveling to work onsite, and this client is about 90 minutes away. Plus the traffic was terrible. So it was his turn to be wiped out in the evening.
Friday: Today was one of those days where I feel like it took me twice as long to get anything done because I kept getting interrupted, but I am finally finishing up my "to do" list for the day. I walked the dog three times today, too, because the teenager had an after school activity. (Today was my last day walking the dog. I really enjoyed walking her!) Look how cute she is! (Her name is Sadie):
The weather was so nice today that I took our dog on a walk too!
Besides that, I ran to the store to get a few last minute Christmas things, took Seth's old coat (which I washed yesterday) to my friend Renata because her son Sammy will fit in it, wrapped a few more presents, and updated the budget. I also finished the buckeyes (dipped them in chocolate), with a lot of help from Frank. This was Seth's last day of school for 2018 and they had pajama day and did a lot of fun crafts. Frank was busy all morning and into the afternoon doing work for clients and he is still working on the aftermath of the computer emergency for one of his clients.
Besides all of that, I exercised every day and we did brain balance. I didn't make a lot of headway with A Christmas Carol because I've been more interested in another book I'm reading, but I'm almost done with it now so then I will focus on A Christmas Carol. I have really enjoyed what I've read so far and it is quite short so I'm sure I'll finish it soon. Seth is really into a series of books he is reading right now called Wings of Fire (something to do with dragons). He has been reading them voraciously and he's in the 7th book in the series. I told him we were going to be stuck in The Long Winter forever (that winter is even longer than it should have been!) so I wouldn't let him read anything in Wings of Fire each day until we read one chapter in The Long Winter. So we've read a chapter each day and we only have 4 or 5 chapters left now. And speaking of reading--I am going to finish the Book of Mormon today! (I only have 2 chapters left). Even if President Nelson hadn't asked us to read the Book of Mormon between General Conference and the end of the year, I would have done it anyway because a few weeks before General Conference, at our Stake Conference, our stake president asked us to read at least 20 minutes in the Book of Mormon each day so I started doing that. I've found that for me, 20 minutes usually means 3 chapters (give or take--depending on the chapter length) and guess what? You can get through the Book of Mormon pretty quickly if you read 3 chapters a day. (Previous to Stake Conference, I was reading 1 chapter each day.) So anyway, I've been reading 20 minutes each day and I'm actually finishing early. (But I'll keep reading 20 minutes a day because our stake president didn't put a time limit on it.)
One other exciting thing that happened this week is I randomly decided to try on my wedding ring and it fits again! (It hasn't fit for years--I couldn't get it over my knuckle.) I guess my knuckle shrunk. It's nice to be able to wear the real thing again, instead of the fake ones I've been wearing.
I've communicated with the older boys a bit this week and both Tanner and Jared are done with finals now. Hopefully they passed all their classes. Thank you to all you Utah folks for taking them in for Christmas--they are looking forward to spending time with all of you!!
That's all I can think of to report. Everyone have a wonderful Christmas--we love you!!
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