Weekly Review February 22 '19

Just for a change, I am going to do categories this week.

Cub Scout Cake Bake Off: On Friday evening the Cub Scouts had a father / son cake bake off and a game night. This normally would not impact me at all, since I am no longer a Cub Scout leader and I also don't have a son in Cub Scouts anymore. But since they knew they would have a lot of extra cake, they decided to invite all the Primary teachers to come share the cake. And since I used to work with the boys and I knew that Seth would enjoy a game night, Seth and I went. (Frank tries to avoid places where people are eating cake!) We got there late because our dinner took a lot longer to cook than it was supposed to, but there was still plenty of cake left and we both got to join in and play a game, so it was fun. I played a game I had never played before called "Dead Ringer". It was fun and very simple (easy to learn). I'm glad we made the effort to go. 

Valentine's Day breakfast: Frank and I went to Cracker Barrel on Saturday morning as a late Valentine's Day celebration. It was nice, and besides a great breakfast I also acquired a new set of salt & pepper shakers. They always have lots of cute S&P sets in their store, but I'm pretty good at resisting purchasing them. But how was I supposed to resist these?:

While we are on the subject of Valentine's Day, here is a better photo of my roses, looking red instead of pink:

Stake Conference: We had stake conference this weekend, which is always nice. Frank didn't have to attend the leadership meeting on Saturday so we were able to go to the adult session together, which was also nice. We had to go to the stake center for the adult session, but the general session was broadcast to our ward building so we went there on Sunday. (Thanks to Frank, who pulled all the cable in the building years ago when he was the stake IT clerk!) This stake conference was particularly exciting and emotional because we got a new stake presidency. I don't know any of the new presidency particularly well, but the new stake president and one of his counselors were (are still) serving as bishops of their wards, so there will be lots of changes up the road for some of the other wards. The other counselor was (is) serving as the stake YM president, so there's another change coming up too. I'm sure they will be great! And I feel very grateful to the outgoing presidency...they were wonderful!

Jobs: Frank's new job seems to be going well. He had lots of meetings this week and he is learning everything that he is supposed to be doing. They also encourage him to go to the local restaurants for lunch (he doesn't have to pay for it) and to introduce himself and get to know the managers and people working there. On Monday he decided to go to the restaurant closest to our house and he called and invited Seth and I to come over for lunch too. (Seth didn't have school because of President's Day. Our food isn't free, but we do get a discount.) Frank has also been doing work for clients in the evenings and sometimes in the early morning, so he is keeping pretty busy.

Meanwhile, one of his clients needs someone to update their website (add photos, etc) and they asked if I would be interested in doing it. It would only be a few hours a week and I can do it from home, so I decided to give it a try. I also started another job today--helping a lady who just had hip replacement surgery. She is the caregiver for her 93 year old mother, so she needs some help for herself and some for her mother. It's 3 hours each morning, but it will only be for 2 weeks. Another sister in our ward is going to do some of the days (mostly the days that I am supposed to work at the Arc). I really don't feel like I was very helpful today--I did make breakfast for them and took out some trash and let their dogs outside once. The rest of the time I was just talking with them. But she said that is mostly all they need--just a little bit of help, and someone to keep them company.

I didn't end up working at the Arc this week so that job continues to be very sporadic and unpredictable. My RS president also called me this week to tell me that a sister in our ward who does bookkeeping from home 2 days a week wants to retire at the end of this summer and is interested in training someone who could then apply to take her place (no guarantees, I guess). She wanted to know if I am interested. So I will have to think about that! I probably won't need to work long term but if I have learned anything the last several months it is that it would be a good idea for me to get some more recent experience in the accounting field, just in case. So this job sounds pretty ideal for that. I just want to make sure that my family doesn't suffer because they are my top priority. The last several months has reminded me of that, too!

Taxes: We filed our tax returns on Monday but received emails on Tuesday saying our returns were rejected because of an error. We were supposed to include an explanation to go with one of the forms and we didn't. Don't ask me why our tax software didn't alert us to this fact when it "checked for errors" and found none. At any rate, once I looked at the form and all the calculations that go with it, I could not figure out why we have to file it in the first place. So I'm still trying to figure it out. It's too complicated to explain in detail, but basically the explanation we omitted is an explanation for why we underpaid our taxes last year. The trouble is...we didn't. We actually overpaid. Go figure.

Snow days: We had another snow day this week, on Wednesday. They actually decided to cancel school the evening before because it was supposed to start snowing early in the morning and it was predicted that we would get 5 - 8 inches of snow. It did snow pretty hard, and we got about 6 inches of snow and the roads were a mess so it was nice that we didn't have to go anywhere. I actually forgot about my religion class, but I'm pretty sure it was cancelled. Seth didn't have YM that evening either. I usually go grocery shopping on Wednesdays, but Frank was smart and suggested I go Tuesday evening instead (he came with me to help me) so I didn't even have to do that. We're up to 6 snow days this year now and school is not going to get out until June 19th. Thursday morning we had a 2 hour delay so the school week was pretty chopped up. I doubt it was very productive!

Quilting: I've been working on the quilt whenever I get the chance. I enjoy it, and it's not hard, but it is going to take forever to finish it!! Here's how it looks now:

I'm working on the third square out of 25. At this rate, I might finish it by June. Wish me luck!

Other things: Besides everything else, we fed the missionaries on Saturday and on Tuesday evening (after grocery shopping) I had book chat. We have a tradition that every February we have fondue--both chocolate and cheese. One of the ladies in the group makes really delicious cheese and chocolate fondue. The rest of us bring things to dip--cookies, cake, fruits, vegetables, pretzels, keilbasa, etc. It's always really yummy!! Oh, and we had a good discussion about Before We Were Yours as well. Now we are going to read a book called Confessions of a Domestic Failure.

I was working on financial stuff this afternoon, as I usually do on Friday, and I realized again--as I was looking over the numbers--that the Lord really has looked out for us and taken care of us these last several months. Just one example--I had to move funds from the business account to our personal account to cover all the expenses for the last couple of months. (Although Frank is working now, he hasn't received a paycheck yet.) I also paid tithing on the income that has come in from the business for the last couple of months. (I set tithing money aside when income comes in, but sometimes it accumulates for a while before I remember to actually pay it.) And guess what? The tithing I paid was almost exactly 10% of the amount I had to move over. So in other words--the amount of income that the business brought in was almost exactly the amount we needed to cover all our expenses. Normally, the business doesn't bring in that much. Another thing that I've noticed is that we don't run out of stuff as often. (You know, things like toothpaste, paper towels, shampoo, etc.) I'm sure that's not a coincidence either. I've actually been praying that we would be able to manage our resources wisely and that what we had would last longer. That prayer has definitely been answered. Just wanted to record that so that I will never forget!

I've managed to exercise every day and while I am exercising, I have been watching a show called Victoria, which is about Queen Victoria. It's pretty interesting and I've mostly enjoyed it. They definitely embellish the facts a lot, or move actual events to different time periods to make things more dramatic or help the story line along. (I can't watch anything historical without checking the facts!) But anyway, it's pretty good. It also helps jogging go faster if you have something interesting to distract you!

That is everything I can think of to report this week but I have to finish up with this cute photo of Snickers curled up on a pillow on the couch:

 

Weekly Review February 15 '19

Why do Fridays always go by so fast? Seems like I just got up, and it's already almost dinner time. We had a pretty full week. Here is what we did:

Saturday: I can't remember Saturday all that well, but I think Frank was pretty busy finishing up work for clients that he wanted to get done before he started his new job. So he was gone a lot of the day. I did the usual--filled out my time sheet for my Arc job, cleaned the kitchen floor, practiced ukulele, worked on the quilt. I also did some wedding related stuff and worked on our tax return.

Sunday: I can't remember anything out of the ordinary about Sunday except that we sat with my friend Wanda on the front row. (Several families take turns sitting with her to help her if she needs it.) I love Primary! I think the new curriculum is the best. When we start talking about the subject of the lesson, all the kids' little faces light up and they say "we talked about this at home!" and they have all these great things to say about the topic. It's the best. I am really enjoying having church in the morning and having the rest of the day to read scriptures and so forth. I actually have a hard time fitting in all the things I want to do!

Monday: It snowed a few inches on Sunday night and the roads were icy, so school was cancelled. Seth actually did something besides watch television all day:

He's playing a game called "Dog Pile", which I got him for Christmas. I got it on a whim, and I'm glad I did because he really likes it. Plus, it's the kind of game that makes you use your brain. Shhh...don't tell him!

Frank started his new job so he has had a very busy week. He worked at his office on Monday, mostly getting oriented and filling out paperwork. But he rest of the week he was working at one of the restaurants in Hagerstown (about 30 minutes northwest of Frederick) because they wanted him to see the technology in action--how it works at the stores. He was mostly there to observe and to be trained, but he did jump in and do everything from flipping burgers to working in the drive through too. He seemed to really enjoy it! (But he says he would never want to work at a fast food restaurant as a regular job!) I didn't work on Monday (the lady I support had to watch her nephew) but I managed to keep pretty busy anyway. It's been a bit of an adjustment this week to have Frank gone all day. I've grown accustomed to having him around a lot more! I miss him, but I'm not complaining that he has a job. Monday evening we had family night and then Frank and I went to the store to get him some clothes--he needed black pants for working at the restaurant this week (they gave him 3 polo shirts to wear), and for the office he needs to wear nice pants and button up shirts (not necessarily white, and he doesn't have to wear a tie) most of the time. He really doesn't have a lot of clothes like that. He mostly has polo shirts and he only has one pair of church pants and 2 button up shirts, both white. We got him two pair of black pants and 2 or 3 shirts (they were all patterns--plaids or stripes), but I wanted to get him some more pants (colors other than black) and a few more solid colored shirts, so I went online last night and ordered 2 more shirts and 3 pairs of pants. The shirts are both blue (but different shades) and he now has navy blue, dark gray, and khaki pants too. I was actually thrilled that he was forced to buy new clothes for himself. He hates spending money and he hates shopping and therefore he hardly ever gets new clothes, and mostly wears ratty old polo shirts with holes in them. I told him very firmly that it really is okay for him to invest in a new wardrobe and I also made him go to a store other than Walmart, hoping to get a bit higher quality. I'm looking forward to seeing him in some nice clothes!

Tuesday: Frank had to be at work at 9:00 am. School was cancelled again--I'm not sure why, because the roads weren't too bad and I think a 2 hour delay would have been fine. I kept busy all day with the usual things and I also finally got the quilt put together--backing, batting, and top--so that it was ready to start quilting. That evening we had a RS activity where we had a "pink elephant" exchange (basically the same as a white elephant, they just called it pink in honor of Valentine's Day). I actually didn't feel like going out much but I made myself go because I knew I would have fun if I did...and I was right!

Wednesday: Frank had to be at work at 7:00 am so he left pretty early. I had a bad night--didn't sleep well at all--so I got a late start and didn't have time to exercise. I got everything else done, though, and enjoyed going to the religion class again after a few weeks of it not being held. Frank was busy after work with some work for some clients and I took Seth to YM and picked him up again afterwards. I got started on quilting too. He had a project for school that he had to finish that evening and we (Seth and I, not Frank) ended up staying up until midnight while he got this done. (It was actually embroidery that he was doing--they are embroidering quotes on quilt squares and his teacher is going to make it into a quilt.)

Thursday: Happy Valentine's Day! It started really early because Frank had to be at work at 5:00 am. I fell back asleep right after he left, though, and once again woke up late enough that I didn't have time to exercise. I worked for a couple of hours, did some more quilting, and finished up our income taxes. We're getting a refund this year, thank goodness! Frank got off work at 2:00 but he had to stop by his office after that and then he to go to a couple of his clients and handle an emergency for one of them, so he didn't get home until after 5:00 and he was working in his office all evening, until about 9:00 so it was a really long day for him! We did get each other cards for Valentine's Day, and on Wednesday he brought home some beautiful roses and some chocolates for me. We are planning to go to breakfast tomorrow morning too--we decided to do that instead of going to dinner together because we want to avoid the crowds. Plus, look at the awesome dinner I made at home:

(I don't know why the roses look pinkish in the photo; they really are a dark red!)

Friday: As I said, today went fast. Frank had to be at work at 9:00, so he didn't have to get up so early and I woke up kind of late once again. I got most of the budget done and exercised and showered before picking Seth up from school. I'm hoping to get some more quilting done after dinner. I enjoy quilting, but it is going to take a long time to get this quilt done!

To finish up, here is a photo I took from our back deck a few days ago:

Sometimes I completely forget that there is a river behind my house! Most of the year, the river is hidden by all the foliage on the trees and bushes growing along the banks but in the winter, we can see it. One of the (only) nice things about winter.

Weekly Review February 8 '19

It is feeling a lot like spring around here, although I know it really isn't yet. After having some really frigid sub-zero temperatures last week, things started to warm up on Sunday and we've had temperatures way above average for a lot of the week--50s, 60s, and even up into the low 70s one day! Our little "honeymoon" is going to end soon since temperatures are supposed to plunge back down to a high of 36 tomorrow, but I have enjoyed the reprieve from the normal miserable winter weather as long as it has lasted. Here's a summary of this week's important (and not so important) happenings:

Saturday: I worked on the quilt, worked on our tax return, and worked on my church callings. I guess I really didn't work on the quilt, but I went to the store to get some needles since I didn't have any quilting needles.

Sunday: Seth was recognized in Sacrament Meeting for finishing his Faith in God, and he recited the 4th Article of Faith. After church, Frank ordained him a Deacon. Other than that, it was a regular Sunday with lots of scripture study, indexing, and so forth.

Monday: Work got cancelled for me on both Monday and Wednesday this week. I am grateful that we are not depending on my income for survival! Instead of going to work, I went to the fabric store to get some more quilting items and I got all the regular chores done. The afternoon / evening was busy because I had a doctor appointment in the afternoon (just an annual check up). Frank picked Seth up from school because I was still at the doctor. He also picked up 2 other kids--the ones that we have picked up a number of times because their mom has been having complications from surgery and having medical procedures done. She had to have another procedure done (unexpectedly) on Sunday. Her original operation was last March, so this has been going on almost a year--what an ordeal for them!! After the problems she had over the weekend, they have decided that the procedures they've been doing aren't really working, so they are trying to figure out what to do instead. I'm sure that is very discouraging and frustrating for them. I'm glad we've been able to help them with their kids, but I wish there was more we could do. Anyway, I got home right after the kids were picked up by their dad and we barely had time to make and eat dinner before our next appointment. A lady in our ward came over to interview us because we are going to be the spotlight couple in the next issue of the ward newsletter. After that, we had family night. So as I said--it was a busy evening. Oh! I almost forgot! Frank sent in his acceptance for the job offer that he got also. So that was pretty important!

Tuesday: I had all kinds of errands and other jobs to get done on Tuesday. I started out by visiting a number of craft  and party stores, looking for a topper for Jared & Jessie's wedding cake. Most places didn't have any at all, but I did find a few at the party store that I thought were good possibilities, so I took pictures and sent them to Jared for his opinion. They really liked one of them and asked me to get it, so I went back and bought it the next day. I visited my friend Wanda (she wanted to give me a list of things she needed at Walmart), sent out some emails to organize some musical numbers (for church), practiced the ukulele and called the vet to set up some appointments for Snickers. Besides all that, I worked on the quilt--I got the backing cut and sewed together. I didn't get all the regular chores done but I decided I really wanted to get some work done on the quilt and that it wouldn't matter if the bathrooms were dirty for one more day. (And I was right! And I did get them cleaned on Wednesday, so no harm done.) That evening we decided to go out to eat to celebrate Frank getting a job (plus we had a gift card). It didn't turn out the best, though, because Frank's meat was raw in the middle (he has the WORST luck with that! Happens to him all the time!) and he also started realizing during the meal that he really wasn't feeling that well.

Wednesday: My religion class got cancelled again because the teacher was out of town. I used the day to catch up on all the regular chores, plus I practiced the ukulele again and bought the wedding cake topper and worked on our income tax return, which is almost done now. I took Seth to YM and picked him up again later. Frank was pretty miserable all day, with some sort of intestinal illness. He felt really nauseated, but he was able to keep food down, which is good since his blood sugar can get all messed up if he doesn't eat.

Thursday: I mostly spent the day getting the regular chores done. Last night I started marking the quilt top (so I will know where to put the quilting stitches). I got some of it done, but I ran into a lot of problems with one of the pencils I was using so I didn't get a lot done. I'm not looking forward to finishing that job, but it needs to be done so that I can actually start quilting. Frank started feeling a bit better, thankfully.

Friday: Today I haven't accomplished a lot so far--mostly because I woke up later than normal. I did exercise this morning at least. Frank is feeling better and he wanted to go to lunch together since this is his last "day off"--he starts his new job on Monday. So we did that, and it was much nicer than our attempt to celebrate on Tuesday. I have to go pick up Seth pretty soon, and then I will get the budget updated.

So a few details about Frank's new job, since you are all probably wondering! He is going to work for Roy Rogers, which is a local fast food restaurant. (Their main menu item is fried chicken, but they do have some burgers and things like that too. It's actually pretty good. We've eaten there occasionally.)  They have restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. The headquarters are here in Frederick. He's going to be their main IT guy. (His official title is "Senior Manager of Information Technology".) He will need to work onsite at different locations occasionally, so he will have some travel--they said about 25% of the time. For his first week, he will be spending a lot of time at one of their restaurants to see how the system works. He will be working different shifts so his work schedule next week is kind of crazy. Usually he will be working during normal work hours, though. He is excited for the challenge and we are very happy, of course, that he has a new job. They are fine with him continuing to run his business, as long as it doesn't interfere with his work. He's been pretty busy this week (even when he was sick) finishing up projects for clients. He also visited (or called) all of his clients to let him know about the new job and they are all fine with him not being available to help them during normal business hours. So we'll see how it goes. He was able to manage it with his Marriott job and hopefully he will be able to do the same now.

That's all I can think of for this week and I need to go pick up Seth from school in a few minutes, so I will sign off.

PS to Weekly Review February 1 '19

I knew I was forgetting something...

Frank got a blanket for Snickers this week. I think he likes it:

Also, I forgot to mention that last night we looked outside and discovered several police cars, two fire trucks, and and ambulance (all with lights flashing) blocking off the end of our court. We wondered what was going on and later we found out that one of our neighbors (we didn't know her at all) overdosed on drugs. They tried to save her, but it was too late. So that is super sad!
 
On a happier note, I also forgot to mention that I spent quite a bit of time working on wedding stuff for Jared, and we had a number of conversations with him about wedding plans. We have found someone to make the cake, which was one of our assignments, and we are working on figuring out the dinner (we're having a dinner the evening before the wedding, instead of a wedding luncheon or breakfast) which is our other assignment. I'm glad we are making progress on the wedding plans! And I'm even more glad that we are the groom's family and aren't in charge of the whole thing!

I think that is really it for this week!

Weekly Review February 1 '19

It's February! We're that much closer to warmer weather. :) We had a pretty busy week. Here's the details:

Saturday: Seth had a YM leadership training meeting in the morning. They fed him breakfast too. Frank wasn't feeling very well--he had a bad headache--so I picked Seth up from his meeting. Frank did quite a bit of work for clients, in spite of the headache. I kept busy that day working on our tax return, cleaning the kitchen floor, working on wedding stuff, working on stuff for my music calling, submitting my time sheet for my job, and working on the quilt. I got the rest of the squares sewed together. That evening I had my last meeting for my self reliance group. I am glad to be done! I did enjoy this group overall, though.

Sunday: The choir sang in Sacrament Meeting. My Primary class is the cutest! One of the boys gave me a picture he drew for me during Sacrament Meeting. They are a wiggly class, though. It can be a challenge to keep their attention. After church I kept busy with the usual scripture study, indexing, and so forth. I really like the new curriculum. I also prepared my Primary lesson for this Sunday. We worked on Articles of Faith with Seth and he has learned all of them so he is done with Faith in God! One of Frank's clients had an emergency so he had to do some work for them in the afternoon.

Monday: There wasn't school because it was a teacher work day (Friday was the end of the 2nd term). I did go to work, but Frank was home with Seth. Seth had an orthodontist appointment that afternoon. They still don't know exactly what treatment he is going to need because he has a lot of baby teeth that still need to come out. He's lost 4 teeth since the last visit, though. He goes back in 3 months and at that point he will probably have to have some teeth pulled if they haven't come out on their own. Shortly after we got home from the orthodontist, Seth threw up. As usual, he was fine after that and never got sick again but since he had thrown up, I had to keep him home from school on Tuesday.

Tuesday: We weren't sure that he was going to miss any school because we were supposed to get snow on Tuesday morning. As it turned out, the storm came later than they originally thought, so there was school on Tuesday but they got out 3 hours early. So he only missed a short day. He was actually upset about missing school at all, though. What kid gets upset over missing school?!! I really don't get it. He says he "might miss something important". We ended up getting 3 or 4 inches of snow. Seth had an appointment with our bishop that night to have him sign his Faith in God book. He will be recognized for that on Sunday and he will also be ordained a Deacon on Sunday. Meanwhile, I had a productive day on Tuesday (Tuesday seems to be my best day for some reason) and got through a long list of chores plus practiced the ukulele and worked on the quilt.

Wednesday: School was cancelled because of the snow. My religion class was also cancelled because there wasn't any heat at the Stake Center. We did the Walmart shopping and we made Seth come with us. When we came out of Walmart, it was snowing! We got this little snow "squall"--it snowed really hard and the wind blew really hard, but it only lasted for about a half hour. We probably got a half inch of snow, and all the trees and light poles had a thin layer of snow caked on one side of them. It also got a lot colder. Temperatures dropped a LOT and we had temperatures in the negative digits overnight and in the single digits on Thursday. We did not get it as bad as the midwest, though, so we are grateful for that. Seth played with some friends for a few hours on Wednesday afternoon and Sam arrived for a visit on Wednesday afternoon also. He is done with his class in Virginia and will be heading to Texas for his new assignment soon. In the meantime, he has some time off so he came for a short visit. He and Seth went with Frank on Wednesday night to pull some cables for a client. While they were gone I worked on taxes some more and I also worked on the quilt and got the quilt top done:

Now I need to get the back prepared and the batting cut to size, and then I need to figure out how to quilt it!

Thursday: There was a two hour delay because of slippery roads and extreme cold. I didn't end up working so I spent some time working on the income tax return instead. Seth and I had dentist appointments, so I had to pick him up a little early from school for that. (Yes, he hasn't spent much time at school this week!!) It was just our check ups and neither of us have any cavities, so that's good news.

Friday: Today school began at the regular time and got out at the regular time, and Seth was there for the whole day! We had snow showers predicted in the morning and it did indeed start snowing. There was probably half an inch all over everything when I took Seth to school. The surprising thing is that it continued to snow all day! It didn't snow hard, but we probably got another 3 inches of snow. We didn't really expect that. But as I said, they didn't let school out early or anything so that was good. After I got Seth home from school I shoveled the front walk. An hour later it looked like this:

I think it has mostly stopped snowing now, though. Sam left this morning, and he is headed south--he's going to Florida to go to Universal Studios before going on to Texas. We've enjoyed having him live nearby and we are sad to see him go. Frank has been very busy with clients all week and today he had to go onsite to do some work with a client that is a couple of hours away. He is back from there now, but he is gone again--pulling more cable for another client.

The big news of the day, however, is that he got a job offer!! Remember that job that he was depressed about last week because he didn't think he got it? Well, he did get it. They just took longer to make a decision than they told him originally. It is a good offer and we will probably accept it, but we are going to think about it and pray about it over the weekend. One of the great things about it is that it is right here in Frederick, so no commuting!! He will have to go on a couple of training trips in Dallas in March, though. Anyway, we are very happy that he has received an offer. Life is going to be so much easier on so many levels when he starts working again. We're very grateful!!

That's all the news from these parts for this week, and I need to get some dinner made so that's it for today.