Weekly Review August 30 '19

Let's see if I can make any sense when my brain is totally fuzzy and I'm trying to stay awake. Snickers had a bad night last night...as in, he needed to go out every hour and sometimes more than once an hour. From what I can remember (it's all kind of a blur now), I went to bed at 10:30, took him out at 11:30, 12:30, Frank took him out around 1:30 and 2:30, and then I took him out 4 times between 3:00 and 3:15. That's when I gave up on sleeping and decided to lie down on the couch downstairs with him for a while. I was awake until 4:30ish, and by then he was asleep so I took him back upstairs and went back to bed. Frank took him out again sometime around 5:00 and again at 6:15, which is when I woke up again and I've been up since. I'm remembering what it feels like to have a newborn! After all of that, I naturally had to call the vet this morning and get him in to try to figure out what's going on (he wouldn't eat his breakfast this morning either). His blood sugar is a little high, but not incredibly so. He may have a UTI or he may have some sort of intestinal bug, but we don't know yet. We tried to get a urine sample but couldn't (I will take one in later today). So we're not sure what's going on yet but we opted out of doing extensive bloodwork and other expensive tests. We just can't keep shelling out hundreds / thousands of dollars every few weeks. (And the vet was totally understanding and supportive of that. Even with the few tests we did, we still spent over $200 today.) We did get some medicine to help him with nausea and we're just going to see if we can get him to eat again and if the urine sample shows an infection he'll probably be on an antibiotic again. Fun stuff. (Not really!)

So that's today so far--I guess I started out backwards. I haven't done much else except take Snickers out several times and eat lunch. Hopefully I'll get something productive done before the day's over, but I'm not feeling very energetic at the moment.

The weather did cool down this week, as predicted, and that has been nice. Sunday and Monday were particularly beautiful. The humidity level has gone up since then, but with temps in the 80s, it's not too bad. The mornings have been in the 60s and felt quite cool. So strange for August! I would like to have spent more time outdoors this week than I did. Seems like I kept pretty busy getting things done inside, though.

Now I'll go back to the beginning and do this properly!

Saturday August 24th: Frank woke up not feeling well at all. His stomach was upset and he had a bad headache. So he stayed down as much as possible that day. I did the usual Saturday stuff, and got the lawn mowed. I also started sewing one of the doll outfits and got a little fleece jacket mostly made. We had stake conference so that evening I went to the adult session. (Frank wasn't feeling up to it.) The meeting was focused on missionary work and it was really good although I don't remember all the details now other than they gave us a whole bunch of challenges. (I should have taken notes.) President Mutombo spoke / did a presentation for about 45 minutes. He's a pretty good speaker and I always get a kick out of seeing him when I remember he's Izak's mission president.

Sunday the 25th: We went to the general session of stake conference, and it was good too. Frank came with us even though he still wasn't feeling great. They changed the stake RS, YW, and Primary presidencies, and my companion Primary teacher got called to be the secretary in the stake Primary presidency, so I'm afraid that means she won't be able to teach with me anymore. I mean she's teaching this Sunday...but I think she'll probably get released soon. I've really enjoyed teaching with her and the kids love her, so that makes me sad. The rest of the afternoon I was busy getting things ready for the group who were going to sing that night, plus other music calling stuff. I also did the church's online youth protection training. I took a short nap while dinner was in the oven. After dinner, I went with the group to sing for one of our ward members (he's in hospice care). I took Seth with me because I was picking up one of the men in our ward (he can't drive) and Frank wasn't really up to going anywhere. We ended up with a larger group of people than I anticipated, but it went well and I really enjoyed seeing the brother we were singing for singing along with us! His daughter emailed me the next day and said she would like our group to sing at her dad's funeral, when that happens.

Monday the 26th: Mostly just the usual. I called the vet because Snickers is due for a vaccine and a blood test, so I needed to set that up. I set up an appointment for next week, but now that appointment has been cancelled because they did the blood test today instead and they want him to wait until he's feeling better to get the vaccine. I spent my "free" time working on that project for Christmas that I've been working on. (Sorry to be cryptic! It's for my boys and I don't think they read my blog, but you never know. I'll let you all know what it is after Christmas!) We had family night; for the lesson we watched some videos that we were asked to watch at stake conference and we got donuts for treat and played Phase 10 dice (Seth won). Frank was starting to feel better, although he still wasn't 100%.

Tuesday the 27th: Again, mostly the usual stuff. When we were doing brain balance, I noticed some of the essential oils we were using for the smell detection test were basically out so I ordered new ones. Seth also used some of the cat money he earned to order a new Mega blocks Halo toy of some sort, and he was really anxious for it to get here. (It only took one day. I keep telling him that when I was his age, I had to wait 6 - 8 weeks for anything I ordered. I don't think he can even comprehend what it would be like to wait that long!!) I worked on doll clothes--I finished the little fleece jacket (sewed on snaps and buttons). Seth and I took a walk that evening. Frank was working late because there was an issue that came up at one of the stores.

(We walked on a path that runs along the edge of the river. You can't really see the river this time of year, though, because of all the underbrush.)

Wednesday the 28th: Seth was invited to play with our neighbors (the ones who have the cats) so we got brain balance and other chores done before he went over there. I dropped him off and got the Walmart shopping done before going to my religion class, then I picked him up on my way back home. In my class, we were talking about the book of Abraham, and it was pretty interesting. Frank came home from work a little early (not as early as he would have liked) because he had to go back to work that night--they were installing a new digital menu board at one of the stores. I worked on the Christmas project a little bit. After dinner, Frank went back to work and I went to book chat. Seth didn't have scouts / YM, so he just stayed home and played games. We had a small group for book chat but I enjoyed it. Now we are reading a book called The Great Alone (if I remember correctly). Frank thought he would be gone until 1:00 or 2:00 am, but he ended up getting home around 4:00 am. I didn't sleep too well while he was gone, although I'm sure I got more sleep than he did.

Thursday the 29th: Frank was up again by 7:00 or 8:00. He didn't need to go in to work (since he put in an extra 8 hours the night before) except for a meeting that afternoon, but he still left the house by 10:00 because he had some work he wanted to get done for a client. Since I hadn't slept too well, Seth and I got kind of a late start but we got all the chores and brain balance done by mid afternoon. Then we went to Seth's school for the open house--he could meet his teachers and drop off all his supplies. They have a new principal this year and we met her, too. After the open house, I took him to Roy Rogers to get an ice cream cone because he had a token to get a free one (and I got a milkshake too). Then I ran over to the vet to pick up some more syringes because we were out of them, and then hurried back home to make dinner. After dinner, I was visited by one of my ministering sisters. Frank took Seth with him to run an errand at the store and to do some work for a client. They got a little rug to put at the base of the stairs...earlier this week, Frank had the idea that if we put a rug at the bottom of the stairs maybe Snickers would be willing to step onto that. It worked! But we used the mat that we have near the front door where we can put wet / muddy shoes when we first come in and I still wanted that mat near the front door, so they got a new one to put at the base of the stairs. Anyway, I enjoyed the visit from my ministering sister. Snickers whined to go out a couple of times while she was here, though, which I thought was odd, so that must be when he started to feel unwell. Ironically, I was telling her how much better he's doing now! I guess I should have kept my mouth shut.

And that brings us back to today. Frank just got home from work (it's almost 2:00 pm) and now he has the weekend off, which is nice. Hopefully we will both get some rest since it's been a couple of rough nights.

Somewhere in the middle of everything, I remembered to take some photos of the vine growing in our front yard, so here they are:

As you can see in the first photo, there is now a small green fruit of some sort growing on it. Since I took the photo a few days ago, that fruit has grown bigger and elongated a bit--it's looking very squash-like. We'll see what it turns out to be!

Our next door neighbor sold her house this week--she's been living there since before we moved in, so we've been neighbors for nearly 20 years. Her son is in between Scott and Tanner in age, and they played together a lot when they were kids. We're sorry to see her go. The new neighbor hasn't moved in yet, but Frank says he saw her yesterday going in the house with cleaning products. Hopefully she'll be a good neighbor too! (And in case we want to sell our house anytime soon, it was nice to see that her house had an offer within a week or two of putting her house on the market, and the current market value is higher than I thought it would be. Not that we are planning to move anytime soon, though.)

To finish up, Tanner and Darlee got their wedding photos back late last week and they are beautiful!! You probably saw some already on Facebook so I'm not going to put a bunch of them here. But I had to post this screenshot I took of one of our wedding photos next to one of Tanner's:

Unfortunately, I couldn't find one of Frank smiling while standing next to his dad (they really do like each other!) but hopefully you get the idea anyway...Tanner, Frank, and Frank's dad all look a lot alike! I mean, Tanner doesn't look much like his grandpa at this point, but he does look a lot like Frank did at his age.  And Frank looks a lot now like his Dad did when he was that age. I have other photos (not wedding ones) where it is even more noticeable; I'll have to post them sometime, but you get the idea!

Weekly Review August 23 '19

There was not a lot going on this week, either, so I don't think there's a lot to write about. But you know me--I will find a lot to write about anyway! ;)

Saturday the 17th: I got my hair done that morning. Frank ended up doing quite a bit of work for Roy Rogers. I did the usual Saturday things--cleaning the kitchen floor, practicing the ukulele, music calling stuff, and reviewing my Primary lesson. Seth was supposed to get home from scout camp around 6:00 pm, but they actually got done early and his leader dropped him off at our house around 3:30 instead. He was in good spirits and said he had a good time. He admitted that he hadn't showered all week (except twice, after swimming), had only changed his clothes twice (I packed enough clothes that he could have changed every day), and didn't even brush his teeth!! Boys are so gross!!! So we had him dump all his clothes in a basket to be washed (I washed everything, even though he hadn't worn most of the clothes) and made him go take a shower immediately. Jared & Jessie came over for dinner that evening and we played a game and visited a bit too before saying our goodbyes. (They left for Utah the next morning).

Sunday the 18th: As usual, a nice day of rest. After church and lunch, Seth wanted to build this puzzle, so we did that together:

Then scripture reading, indexing, naps, and dinner. After dinner we went on a walk:

And then we had family night. It was a nice day! We had a pretty good lightning storm that night, too. Not a lot of rain, but a lot of lightning.

Monday the 19th: We were watching our neighbor's cats again, so Seth and I went over early to let them in the house. Then we all went that evening to let them back out. The weather changed into true August weather this week, and Monday was particularly hot and humid. (We had temperatures in the 90s and humidity levels in the 90% range all week, though.) Seth and I got back into our routine of exercising, chores, and brain balance. Besides regular chores, I had a lot of extra little things to do like calling the vet, setting up some people in the ward to go sing for a ward member who is on hospice care, and getting Seth to write a letter to one of his classmates (an assignment he got before the end of the school year--he just had to write a letter before the summer was over.) In the evening, when we went to let out the cats, we decided to walk over to the neighbor's house and have that count as our walk (they live on the other side of the main road from us, so it's a bit of a walk). It was seriously miserable, even though the sun was going down. It hadn't cooled down at all!! The sunset was nice, though.

Tuesday the 20th: This day was mostly busy with the normal chores, but I did spend quite a bit of time in the late afternoon and after dinner cutting out some doll clothes. I purchased fabric and patterns for a bunch of doll clothes literally years ago. I made a couple of them and I really had fun doing that, but decided I needed to take a break because there were other more important things that I needed to get done. (I was RS president at the time--yep, that's how long ago it was!) So anyway, I've never gotten back to them. On Tuesday, I cut out the pieces for 2 different outfits. Cutting out is my least favorite part of sewing, but it has to be done carefully and accurately or the pieces won't go together right later. Now I can do the fun part (sewing), but I haven't gotten back to that again this week. After working on cutting for hours, my back really hurt, but thankfully it felt better by morning.

Wednesday the 21st: We went over early to let the neighbor's cats back in. They came home later that day, so we are done with that job. I got the regular chores done and went to religion class. Seth had YM that evening and Frank was busy with some work for clients. Scott also called me that night so I got to talk with him for quite a while. I re-ordered his birthday presents on Monday and he got all of them by Wednesday.

Thursday the 22nd: Seth had an orthodontist appointment that morning. He still has loose teeth that need to come out, and they are going to give it another 4 months. We've been doing this for over a year now, but I'm not really in a rush to start paying for braces, so that's fine. His teeth are REALLY loose, apparently, so hopefully they will fall out before we go back in December. After the orthodontist, we stopped on the way home to fill my car with gas and put air in my tires because I had a warning light that one of my tires was low. And one of them WAS really low--only 26 PSI when I started to fill it up. This tire has this problem periodically, so I really need to replace it soon. After that, Frank invited us to meet him at Roy Rogers for lunch, so we did that. Then we went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Seth and to the store to get a few items. After we got home, we finished up the chores but I decided to skip brain balance. I spent a lot of time that afternoon / evening working on a project for Christmas that I started last week.

Friday the 23rd: So far today I have exercised and worked on this post and guess what I am going to do this afternoon? Yep, update the budget. I am also getting a group put together to go sing some hymns on Sunday to our ward member who is in hospice care. It rained last night and it is raining a bit this morning too. The good news is, the temperature has dropped and we are only going to get up into the high 70s today and we have highs in the 80s for the rest of the week. So much nicer!! I have not mowed the lawn the last few weeks because it's not good for the grass to be cut when it's so hot. Plus it's been dry enough lately that the lawn hasn't been growing that fast. It could definitely use a mow, but it's not super long like it normally would be if I had left it for a few weeks. I wanted to mow the lawn today but I don't think it's going to dry out enough before the day is over. (Originally, it wasn't supposed to start raining until tonight, but the forecast changed as the week went on.) Maybe I will be doing that tomorrow if things dry out enough. Meanwhile, that squash-like plant has been growing like crazy and is growing out onto the lawn. This week it has produced some light brown, soft, short oblong fruit of some sort. Not sure what it is!! I really need to take pictures.

Snickers has continued to do pretty well this week. We sometimes have to take him out in the night and sometimes he doesn't seem to feel too well, but mostly he has had a good appetite and good energy level. He often skids or stumbles when he gets to the bottom of the stairs (going from carpet onto laminate floor) so this week he has started avoiding that. He sits on the bottom step and whines until I come pick him up and put him down on the floor! I just love having an aging dog--NOT!

Jared texted me every day with updates of where they were, and they arrived safely in Utah yesterday. On Wednesday morning, I wasn't too happy when I turned on the weather channel and they were reporting a tornado warning in Iowa, because I knew they had spent the night in Des Moines. It looked like the worst of the storm went south of Des Moines, though. They did get some heavy rain that morning, but they were fine.

Next week is our last week of summer break. I am sorry to see the summer end! I think Seth is always more ready to go back to school than I am to have it start. This summer was busy and therefore it went by fast. I intend to fully enjoy my last week, though!

Weekly Review August 16 '19

This week has been pretty quiet and I don't think it will take much time to tell you about it.

Saturday the 10th: This day was fairly busy. I didn't finish all of the budget updating on Friday, so I got that done on Saturday. Frank took Seth to get a haircut (Frank got one too) and then took him to the store to get some shoes. He acquired some tennis shoes and some hiking boots. Other than that, it was a fairly normal Saturday.

Sunday the 11th: We had to go over to let the neighbors' cats in Sunday morning and let them out Sunday evening. In between, we went to church of course. Frank and I both took naps, I prepared my Primary lesson, wrote the monthly music spotlight for the ward newsletter, and did some indexing.

Monday the 12th: The morning was pretty hectic because I was trying to get the usual chores done, plus help Seth get packed and all ready for Scout Camp, since he was leaving that afternoon. My friend Wanda needed some things from the store, too, so I visited her to get her list. The boys going to Scout camp met at the church at 3:30 that afternoon. Here is Seth, ready to go:

And here are all the boys:

We haven't heard anything from the leader that went with them so I'm assuming no news is good news. Hopefully, he's having a good time and behaving himself.

So since then, it's been pretty quiet around here!! After dropping Seth off at the church (actually, we had to wait a while for his leader to show up), Frank and I went to Walmart to get a few the things my friend Wanda needed, plus a few things for ourselves. We have enjoyed a nice quiet dinner every night and we have gone on a long walk every evening as well. Don't get me wrong--we have missed  Seth, but we have also enjoyed having so much time to ourselves.

Tuesday the 13th: I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah. Other than that, just chores and reading (I still have a lot of new reading material from my birthday.)

Wednesday the 14th: I went to religion class and started working on a project for Christmas. I also bought school supplies for Seth and got a few clothing items for him too. (If he doesn't like them, I will return them.) This week clothes are tax free, so that's why I bought a few things that I think he will need for school. Frank and I went out to dinner that night.

Thursday the 15th: It was Scott's birthday, but sadly he didn't get anything from us because the post office couldn't figure out where he lived for some reason. We ordered some things from him from Amazon that were supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, but they didn't get there and when we checked our Amazon account it said they were all being returned to the sellers because they were "undeliverable--no such address". Never mind that he gets mail at this exact same address all the time. (And yes, I made sure I got the address correct.) So we are going to re-order his gifts and have them sent to his work. I think he had a happy birthday anyway. Thursdays are his day off, and I know he spent some time with Tanner & Darlee. I mostly spent the day doing regular chores but also did some reading, looking into ideas for a new project, and watched Mary Poppins Returns on Netflix (I didn't see it in the theaters.)

Friday the 16th: I haven't done a lot yet today besides exercise and some reading. After lunch, I am planning to update the budget, which won't take nearly as long this time, thank goodness.

I exercised every day, and as I mentioned before Frank and I have also been taking walks every day. (Snickers comes with us and he has really enjoyed that.) The first day while we were walking I stumbled over an uneven spot in the sidewalk and almost fell; the second day I tripped over another uneven spot and that time I did fall. Wow, I'm so graceful!! I scraped up my right palm a little bit but after we got home I washed it, put some antibiotic cream on it, and covered it with a band aid and a few days later it is already mostly healed.

Frank has been very busy with work and he did maintenance for all his clients last night too. But as I said, we've had more time to talk to each other uninterrupted, and that has been nice for a change! We've enjoyed being "empty nesters" for a week, but we will be glad to have Seth back tomorrow night.

The weather has still been not very typical for August. Monday was pretty hot, but since then it hasn't been as hot although it has been more humid. We have had some rain, but overall it's been pretty dry since I got back from Utah (and while I was gone, as well.) A lot of this week has been cloudy and overcast, so it's been kind of gloomy a lot of the time which seems strange for summer. The skies cleared and the sun has come out while I've been writing this post, though. It's nice to see the sun for a change!

Snickers has been doing quite well all week. He's been eating well--he's even eating his regular dog food again! We finished up most of his medications, too, so now we "only" have to give him 2 insulin shots a day, the appetite stimulant in the morning, the liver support medicine in the evening, and the eye drops morning and evening. Hopefully he will continue to do well.

Jared & Jessie have been frantically trying to find a place to live in Provo the last few months, and Jared just called to tell me that they finally found a place. What a relief! They also haven't been getting very many hours at their jobs out here, so they decided earlier this week to head out to Utah this Sunday, so that they can find jobs before school starts (and they thought it would be easier to find a place to live if they were out there too, although that isn't necessary now.) I think they are planning to take about 4 days to drive out there, and Amy has graciously agreed to let them stay with her until they can move into their apartment. We will miss them, but we think getting out there sooner is probably the wisest thing to do.

While we were on our walks, I took a bunch of pictures, so I will finish up with them. This farm is literally just a short walk down the main street that runs by our house. When we moved here, that main street actually ended because the farm was there, but several years ago they extended the street through the middle of the farm. We're guessing that eventually the farm will not be there at all and it will be covered with houses, which is sad. So we're enjoying it while we can.

Weekly Review August 9 '19

I'm actually posting on the correct day, so maybe things are starting to get back to normal! This week was still busy, but not incredibly so. We got back into our normal routine of daily chores and brain balance, mostly. But we did have a few other things going on. Here's the recap:

Sunday the 4th: My Primary teaching partner was gone and my class was kind of crazy!! (I did have a helper with me, though.) It was the birthday of one of the girl's in the class, and my teaching partner had prepared a treat for that (she brought it over to my house Saturday evening). So I decided to save the treat I brought from Utah until this week. Sunday was mostly a much needed day of rest, but we were worried about Snickers the whole day because he wasn't eating or drinking. He even turned away from roast beef! That's not a good sign.

Monday the 5th: I called the vet and got an appointment for Snickers for the following afternoon. He was doing better on Monday, though, thankfully--he started eating again. I had several Amazon gift cards from my birthday, so I went online and ordered some things--7 books and a CD--so the rest of the week I've been getting packages. It's been pretty fun. Thanks, everyone!!! I love having new reading material. I also went tot he dentist on Monday to get my permanent crown. In order to get it to fit just right, they had to keep putting it on and taking x-rays, then taking it off and making adjustments, then trying it on again. They did that several times, but finally got it perfect and it feels and looks great. That evening, we had Jared & Jessie over for dinner. They stayed for family night activity and treat, and Jessie opened a couple of presents that we got her for her birthday. One of them was just for fun--it was a kit to make glitter slime. (Jessie really likes to make slime!) The other present was this clock:

Jessie really likes clocks, and originally I wanted to find one with a picture of the Philadelphia Temple as the background, but I couldn't find one. So I started looking online for clock kits, so I could make one myself, but I didn't find what I was looking for there either. But I did find this photo clock and decided I could put photos of Jared & Jessie in in instead. I used a mixture of engagement photos, "first look" photos, and wedding photos. So that's what I was busy doing last Saturday--choosing, printing, and trimming photos for the clock. I think it turned out nice, and Jessie and Jared both love it:

And bonus--I got to wrap presents in PINK wrapping paper for once in my life!! I could get used to this daughter in law thing! :)

Tuesday the 6th: I feel like I spent the entire day at the dentist and the vet. Yes, I went back to the dentist--this time just to get my teeth cleaned. (I made the appointment 6 months ago, having no idea I would be getting a crown the day before.) Seth got his teeth cleaned too. Thankfully, neither of us have any cavities. Snickers' appointment at the vet was in the afternoon and took a long time. They did an overall evaluation and also checked his eyes because they've been goopy lately (they've been that way for over a month, but his eyes haven't been the top priority). His blood sugar is still pretty high but mostly he is doing a lot better. They increased his insulin dose again and prescribed an appetite stimulant to encourage him to eat more. Since then, he has been doing pretty well. He actually woke up hungry on Wednesday morning and took his pills in cheese and seemed anxious to eat--that was even before I gave him the appetite stimulant. He has been a lot more like himself this week and he has even started eating some of his dog food. (They recommended I start giving him his regular dry food, pounded into smaller pieces, along with a little bit of chicken and a little bit of bread.) Sometimes he takes his pills willingly, wrapped in cheese, and other times we have to force them down, but I am getting pretty good at doing that without a lot of fuss. So overall, he is doing a lot better and I feel like I'm adjusting to the medication and feeding routine. But I do spend the first 30 minutes after I get up in the morning taking him out, preparing his food, and giving him all those medications. Crazy!!

Some of the medicines are temporary, though--he'll only need to take them for another week or so. Hopefully soon we will be down to just insulin, liver support medicine, and eye drops. I have been trying to take him on at least one walk each day and he seems to like that a lot.

(Trying to entertain myself while waiting at the vet.)

Wednesday the 7th: I enjoyed going to my religion class again, for the first time in weeks. It may not last much longer, though. The teacher, who is the director of institute in this area, is retiring in September and may be moving out west. It rained a bit on Wednesday afternoon which was good because it's been pretty dry around here. It has also been hot, and we have had a few humid days but mostly the humidity has been low, which is VERY unusual for August but makes it much more pleasant. Most days we seem to have a slight breeze blowing, which has been really nice. I've been outside a lot more than usual with Snickers, and I have been pleasantly surprised that I haven't been uncomfortable most of the time. On Wednesday evening Seth had scouts and they assembled water balloon throwers and then used each other for target practice. He had a blast, but came home with his shoes soaking wet--and they are still very wet!

Thursday the 8th: I mostly did the usual, but I also spent some time helping Seth prepare for Scout Camp. He goes next week. I went through the list of things he needs to take to assess what we might need to buy, and made a shopping list. Last evening I took him shopping to get a few clothes and he acquired 2 pair of jeans, two swimsuits (they were on sale) and a t-shirt. I'm excited about the jeans--he hasn't owned a pair for years, but decided to give them a try. (He thinks knit pants are more comfortable). I don't mind him wearing knit pants most of the time, but jeans just go with everything. I am mostly excited that he was willing to try something new, because that is unusual for him! We still have a few more things to buy, and he also needs to learn some knots to be prepared for his fly fishing class, so we will be doing those things the next couple of days.

Friday the 9th: Today we started helping with our neighbors' cats again, so we went to let them in this morning. It's only for a few days. I woke up late for some reason, so I haven't accomplished a lot so far today but I am planning to spend the rest of the day updating the finances. It's going to take forever since I haven't done that for about a month! (I could only do the very basics--like make sure bills got paid on time--while I was in Utah.) So wish me luck with that, and hopefully after all the wedding, traveling, and vet expenses there will be something left in the bank account.

I'll finish with a couple of photos I took of the sunset when we came out of the store last night. As always, the photos don't do the reality justice, but it's still pretty: