Weekly Review September 27 '19

This week was relatively calm, I think. maybe it won't take me long to write about it.

Friday the 20th: Frank got off work early (remember he had worked 3 days' worth in 2 days) so when he got home we went to the fair. It was nice that we had free tickets for everything (parking, admission, rides) so we only spent money on food. Remember Seth didn't want to go on rides? We did convince him to try out the ferris wheel, but that's all we did. Once he got on the ferris wheel and it started to move, he remembered he was scared of heights and got kind of freaked out and had to close his eyes and hold onto me for a while. But then we convinced him to open his eyes and look around and he liked the view from high up so he ended up having fun. But we couldn't convince him to go on anything else except for a few kid rides like a bouncy thing and a slide. Frank and I would have enjoyed going on the flying swings but we couldn't convince Seth to try that and we didn't want to leave him alone. I also would have enjoyed some of the spinning rides, but both Frank and Seth get sick on those and I didn't want to go on a ride alone, so we just ended up doing the ferris wheel and nothing else. So glad we didn't pay for the ride pass!! Seth wanted to see the animals, so we went through all the animal sheds and saw cows, goats, pigs, llamas, and sheep. (And probably a few other things that I am forgetting.) Then I tortured Seth by making him go through the arts & crafts exhibit (he just wanted to go home by then). But I really wanted to see the quilts, afghans, crocheted items, and sewn items so he just had to suffer. We got him some dippin' dots ice cream so he was happy about that, and we also decided to try some deep fried oreos--they were pretty good, although Seth decided he didn't like them after only one bite. Overall, we had fun but we agreed that we would not want to pay money to go to the fair. It's really expensive if you have to pay for everything.

Views from the ferris wheel:

And other fair fun:

There were 12 baby pigs!:

After we got home from the fair, I updated the budget and Frank and I submitted a bunch of medical receipts to be reimbursed from our health spending account. Seth did some homework too.

Saturday the 21st: I got my hair done in the morning. I did the usual ukulele practicing and worked on stuff for my music calling. (I'm starting to work on the Christmas program). I tried to submit my Arc time sheet, but the online system wouldn't let me log in, even after I changed my password. So I had to wait until Monday to get that problem fixed. Seth did some homework in the morning. Frank was at the church cleaning, as usual. In the afternoon, Seth had a friend come over to play. This is a boy from another ward that he met at scout camp and they hit it off. His name is Jarom and he is a very pleasant and nice boy. He and Seth played well together and they were having so much fun that we extended the play date to evening. (Originally, he was going to stay for about 3 hours). Frank was doing work in his office and I watched quite a bit of the BYU football game although I had to make dinner before it ended so I missed a lot of the 2nd half. It was pretty pitiful anyway. I hope BYU plays better this week! Jarom stayed for dinner and he liked the meatballs that I made (he took seconds) and he thanked me twice for dinner, which I thought was nice. After dinner we took Jarom home. We took Snickers with us and Seth got this photo of me with Snickers:

And here is Seth and Jarom being silly for the camera:

At Jarom's house, we were talking to his dad and grandma for a few minutes while the kids ran all over the lawn and Seth fell and scraped up his knee. It wasn't too bad, but he wasn't very happy about that of course. When we got home, I cleaned the kitchen and bathroom floors.

Sunday the 22nd: My new team teacher and I taught together for the first time, and that went well. She's really good with the kids. Frank woke up feeling sick--headache, dizzy and nauseated--so he didn't go to church. He laid low all day.

Monday the 23rd: Frank still wasn't feeling great, so he took half the day off. He did quite a bit of work from home and he ended up having to go to one of the stores for a while, so he didn't take the whole day off. I was supposed to work with my Arc friend for a few hours, but that fell through last minute. I didn't mind--I had plenty to do. I got the regular chores done, called the vet to set up an appointment for Snickers to get his blood glucose arc, made cupcakes for family night treat, worked on the Christmas project, and went to the store to get supplies for another Christmas project (which I am also going to be vague about since I don't want to give anything away). Seth's knee was hurting a bit still and after school I noticed he sounded a bit stuffed up and he complained that his head hurt. I was afraid he might be coming down with a sinus infection or something.

Tuesday the 24th: Seth didn't feel very well in the morning--his head still hurt and he was still stuffed up, but when I asked him if he needed to stay home from school, he was adamant that he didn't want to do that. I was glad since I didn't want him to miss another day of school already. He continued to be stuffed up for the next couple of days and I gave him both tylenol and a decongestant more than once, but he seems to be feeling better now, so I'm glad that didn't turn into anything full-blown. Tuesday I did mostly the usual stuff but I also went to the library to return books and to get one for Seth that he wanted. (I finished Beneath a Scarlet Sky over the weekend, by the way. It was really good!) On Tuesday evening there was a RS activity, so I went to that. I haven't been to one in 4 or 5 months because something has always come up that I couldn't go, so it was nice to go to one again. We made little care packages for all the YM in the ward, including encouraging notes. That was pretty fun.

Wednesday the 25th: I wasn't feeling incredibly well (headache, slight sore throat, slightly congested) so I didn't do much besides the Walmart shopping. I skipped the religion class and did some reading and watched some episodes of Call the Midwife on Netflix (they just added new episodes that I haven't seen yet). It was nice to relax a bit but I never feel very happy by the end of the day if I haven't been very productive.

Thursday the 26th: I got the regular chores done and I also worked on both Christmas projects. It felt good to be a bit more productive! Seth had YM in the evening; they played a Book of Mormon trivia game and he enjoyed that.

Friday the 27th: I have the budget mostly done but there's a technical issue with the spreadsheet so I wont' be able to enter all the information in there until after Frank gets home and takes a look at it. My nose is running a bit today and my throat is slightly sore again. I'm not sure if it's allergies or something else, but I'm glad I don't feel worse.

I exercised every day this week and we went on a couple of walks too. Seth and I did brain balance every day but I think we are going to take a break from that for a while. It doesn't seem to be helping him much and he is starting to resist the idea of doing it, so it doesn't seem worth the time and effort we are putting into it. He also has a lot more activities going on and he has homework nearly every day so the after school hours are getting really stressful and hectic.

It has continued to be very dry here. Yesterday I was delighted when I heard rain start to come down, but it only lasted a few minutes. We haven't had any measurable rain since August 27th, which is really unusual for these parts. We've had some hot days but mostly the days have been quite pleasant and the nights can get pretty cool. Mostly the weather is beautiful, but it makes us anxious to have so little rain. The pumpkin does not seem to mind, however. (We have been watering it most days). It has continued to grow a bit bigger and to ripen--it's now orange all over. I took this photo on Saturday:

Here it is this morning:

Is that not a perfect looking pumpkin? We are probably going to pick it tomorrow, unless we decide it's not quite ready for picking yet. Kind of cool that we don't have to buy a pumpkin for Halloween this year!

I've probably forgotten something, but that's all I can think of for this week.

Weekly Review September 20 '19

It feels like fall around here. Well, most of the time. We have had several days with highs in the 70s and nights that get down into the low 50s. But then in between we get a day now and again that is in the high 80s or even low 90s. But overall, it's getting cooler. We've turned off the air conditioning several nights lately and I usually don't need to turn it back on until late afternoon. This morning I actually feel a little cold...like a little bit of heat wouldn't hurt! It's still really dry, though. I can't remember the last time we had a really good rain storm, and there's no rain in the forecast for the next week. The last couple of days, my nose has been dry and bleeding a little--my nose thinks it's in Utah!! It's so strange to have that happen out here. Hopefully we will get some rain one of these days. In the meantime, though, most days are sunny and pleasant, and I'm not complaining about that. Our pumpkin has started to turn yellow / orange:

(The first photo was taken on Tuesday; the second one on Wednesday and the third today).

Now that you've heard the weather report, I will move on to what we did this week.

Friday the 13th: After I wrote the blog post, I got the budget caught up and I did some work on the Christmas project. In the evening, I watched a movie on Netflix called The Lake House, which is an old favorite. (Although the time line makes my brain explode).

Saturday the 14th: We cleaned the church in the morning. Most of the helpers didn't show up again. I vacuumed the entire chapel and I was feeling the effects in my neck, shoulder, and back, but thankfully I didn't have a relapse. After we got home, Frank had a lot of work to do for a client. While he was gone, I did the usual Saturday chores and helped Seth get some Spanish homework done. In the afternoon, we went to a birthday openhouse for a lady in our ward--I believe she is the oldest lady in our ward, although I don't know her actual age. She and her sister live together in a little house with a bunch of cats. They also sit behind us in Sacrament meeting nearly every week, so we've gotten to be good friends. Anyway, they have this birthday openhouse every year and we usually go. Seth likes it because they always have ice cream sundaes. We also enjoy visiting with other members of our ward, including some who don't come to church very often. On the way home, I remembered that there might be a BYU game, so I looked it up and sure enough--they were actually at half time. So when we got home, we watched the rest of the game and we were happy that BYU won! Seth even watched it with us and got interested in what was happening. In the evening, we went to s Latin market to get a special kind of cornmeal that Seth needs for a school project for his Spanish class. He thought he needed it for this week, but it turns out he didn't. But he will probably need it eventually.

Sunday the 15th: I was glad to go back to church, after missing a week. My team teacher was out of town, so Frank helped with my class. It was great having him there...the kids were very well behaved for him! (I think he's a bit intimidating, but he made them laugh too!) Frank and I both needed naps after church. In the evening, there was a dinner and workshops for the YM / YW, so Seth went to that.

Monday the 16th: In the morning I got a lot of the regular chores done and I made a few phone calls. First to the child psychologist, where I had to leave a message and I still haven't  been called back. Second, to BYU catering because the charge for Tanner & Darlee's wedding luncheon has never showed up on our credit card bill. I mean, I really didn't mind that, but I figured they'd want to be paid. Turns out they have no record of the charge being made in the first place so we took care of that over the phone. I wonder how long it would have gone without them noticing that they hadn't been paid! In the afternoon, I worked--took my Arc friend to a couple of doctor appointments and then to work. That evening, after family night, Seth started to feel sick and he threw up shortly before bedtime. So of course he had to stay home from school on Tuesday.

Tuesday the 17th: As usual, Seth felt fine and after drinking ginger ale and eating crackers in the morning, he was ready for regular food by the afternoon. And he's been fine since. It would be lovely if we could figure out why he does this periodically, although I'm glad that he doesn't stay sick for days (or even for 24 hours). I got all the regular chores done in the morning and then I had to take Snickers to the vet. They decided his paw needs some antibiotic ointment, so I'm putting that on his paw twice a day now, in addition to wiping it with the medicated wipes. His blood sugar is still very high, unfortunately. So we need to do some kind of further testing to try to figure out what's going on. It's possible that he needs a different kind of insulin (we just started a new bottle on Monday, of course) or the dose may be too high so his sugar is going too low and then his body is trying to compensate, but overcompensates instead. The only way to know for sure is to do a test called a blood arc test (or something like that) which involves leaving him at the vet's for a day so they can check his sugar several times throughout the day. Of course, that's pretty expensive. We can do a less expensive test that might give them some good information but if it doesn't tell them enough, he'd have to have the other test done anyway. So we are trying to decide what to do about that. Sigh!! That evening was Back-to-School night at Seth's school and Frank came with me to that, which made it a lot more fun for me. :) We were able to pick up some homework that Seth had forgotten to bring home on Monday. He was feeling pretty stressed about missing school and all the make up work, so I emailed his teachers about that. They were nice and helped him get caught up on things, thankfully.

(Back at the vet again!)

Wednesday the 18th: Seth went back to school and I had a pretty regular Wednesday, with Walmart shopping and going to the religion class. After the class I went to another store in search of smoked salmon, which I needed for a recipe I was making that afternoon. While I was out on Wednesday, I kept seeing the Goodyear blimp again. I got a better photo this time:

I had book chat that evening and it was my turn to bring the snack. In honor of the book we read, which was set in Alaska, I made smoked salmon dip. I also brought crab dip and a variety of crackers as well as some blueberries. We had a great discussion...at some points I remember laughing hysterically although I don't remember why now. We had definitely moved away from the book at that point and were on to another topic, because the book was not funny at all. It was mostly tragic, although I did like it.

Frank had a big issue at work that he was working on. He was able to work on it at home, so while I was at book chat he was home with Seth but he was down in his office working the whole time. When I got home, we had family prayer and scripture reading and Seth and I went to bed, but Frank said he had a lot more to do. He didn't end up coming to bed until after 5:00 am!! (He did get everything done, though.)  Then he was up again at 8:30 and back at work by 10:30. He said he was going to come home early, but he actually didn't leave work until about 5:00 pm. So he basically worked 3 days' worth in less than 48 hours. Poor guy!

Thursday the 19th: I did regular chores and went to lunch with my friend Rebekah. I always enjoy talking with her and now that I am in Primary I don't usually get a chance to do that at church anymore. We see each other at choir practice, but we haven't been having choir practice lately either so we really needed to get caught up. A friend had asked me to pick up some of her kids from school that afternoon. (They go to the same school as Seth, and they used to live in our ward until they moved to a new house several years ago.) She has four kids at the school, so I didn't have room for all of them but I took two of the kids home first and then circled back towards the school and picked up the other two, who had started walking home. (They could have walked the whole way, but it would have been a LONG walk.)

Friday the 20th: That's today! Seth doesn't have school today because it is "Fair Day". The Frederick County Fair has been going on for the last week and the kids always get a day off to go to the fair. They get in free that day, too. (Just during the day, not in the evening.) We don't go to the fair often, but one of Frank's clients gave us free tickets (for admission, rides, and parking) so we are planning to go later today. Seth actually doesn't want to go on any rides, he just wants to see the animals! But maybe we will convince him to go on something tame, like the ferris wheel. Anyway, it was nice to sleep in a bit this morning. It is a little after noon and Seth is still in his pajamas, playing in his room but I really don't care because he is NOT watching television or playing video games. At some point he needs to take a shower and get some homework done, but there's no rush.

In the pockets of free time that I had this week, I mostly read. (I forgot to mention last week that I had finished the book for book chat, The Great Alone.) This week I started reading the next book for book chat. It's called Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. It's about a young man in Italy during WWII who first helped Jews escape into Switzerland by helping them hike over the Alps. Then he was going to get drafted so his parents made him join the German army and after getting wounded he ended up being a driver for a really important Nazi general. But his uncle was part of the resistance, so he became a spy and would go tell his uncle everything he saw and heard while he was driving for this Nazi general. It's actually based on a true story--the author actually met and extensively interviewed this man when he was much older. It's very interesting and even though it's over 500 pages, I only have about 100 pages left. I worked a bit on sewing doll clothes too and I finished the little skirt I was making and yesterday I started working on a little hat.

That's it for this week! 

Weekly Review September 13 '19

Well, it was quite a week. I'll just jump right in.

Friday the 6th: I did get the budget done, with help from Frank. But remember that my neck, shoulder, and back were hurting? That pain kept getting worse. So even though I was able to lie down after I finished the budget, it was pretty hard to get comfortable. Taking some ibuprofen helped a little bit.

Saturday the 7th: I was pretty much miserable and in excruciating pain all day. I don't even know how to describe it. My neck and shoulder hurt all the time, and moving my head was excruciating. I couldn't turn my head to the side or lift up my chin. I was in a lot of pain if I was sitting up, but lying down hurt too. I couldn't even read or watch a show on my laptop because I had to lie on my side and not move my head at all. So besides being miserable, I was also bored. Frank tried all kinds of things to help me--heating pad, hot / cold patches, ibuprofen, etc. All that stuff he got when he was having a lot of neck & shoulder pain after his second wreck. Nothing seem to help much. Adding to my physical misery was the emotional distress I was feeling because I was supposed to be giving a talk and teaching a class at church the next day and as the day progressed and I got worse instead of better, I was not sure at all that I was going to be able to make it. Frank gave me a blessing in the evening, and that comforted me although I still didn't feel well. I contacted the bishopric member to let him know that I probably wasn't going to make it, unless I had a good night's sleep and felt a lot better in the morning. He was super understanding and nice about it; he said he had it covered and actually encouraged me to stay home and get some rest, so I was grateful for that. Meanwhile, I should mention that Frank had gone to supervise the cleaning of the church that morning (that's his church calling) but no one showed up so he ended up cleaning the entire church and setting up all the chairs by himself. As a result, his back was hurting all day too. Poor Frank! He should have been pampered but instead he spent the day taking care of me and doing all the cooking and everything.

Sunday the  8th: I slept fairly well although I was awake a few times in the night and I definitely felt better than I had the day before, but I was still very sore and the thought of getting up and showering was pretty overwhelming. So I decided to stay home from church, and even though I felt terrible about not giving my talk and lesson, I think it was definitely the right thing to do. I just rested in bed all day, and by evening I was feeling quite a bit better. The pain had subsided a lot. I was able to read a little bit too, so I started reading the book for book chat. (The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah)  Apparently, everything at church worked out fine too.

Monday the 9th: By Monday morning, I was almost back to normal. Just feeling twinges of pain now and again, so I tried to be careful and take things slowly. Actually, I have been trying to do that all week. I skipped exercising until yesterday and although I did jog yesterday and today, I jogged for only 10 minutes each day instead of 30. I was able to get the regular chores done (I did things like taking laundry downstairs in several small loads that I dragged behind me in a bag instead of lifting a full hamper--being careful!!) When I was at the store, I got the things my friend Wanda needed although when I dropped them off she wasn't in her room so I haven't seen her since last week. I contacted a bunch of people too. One of the sisters that I minister to had a health crisis on Saturday, but of course I was having one of my own so I couldn't help at all. So I needed to follow up with her. I also contacted my team teacher for Primary (it was her first week with the class since my former team teacher got released on Sunday--so yeah, I really started out on the right foot with the new teacher by not showing up!) and I contacted the lady I work with at the Arc to see if she wants to start meeting again now that school is back in session. I spread things out all day--do one thing, then rest for a while, then do another thing--and that seemed to work well.

Tuesday the 10th: A lot like Monday; I got the regular chores done and tried to go slowly and be smart about how I did things. I prepared the Primary lesson for this Sunday and did a few things for my music calling. Frank and I also went on a walk, since I was feeling up to doing that. (And so was he. His back was still really sore on Sunday and I'm sure it's still bothering him, but it's a lot better than it was.)

Wednesday the 11th: Again, regular chores. I decided to skip the religion class for two reasons--partly because I didn't want to sit in the hard chairs at the church for too long but mostly because I was watching shows about 9 / 11 on the History Channel and I didn't want to leave. (I always feel compelled to do something on September 11th to remember 9 /11/ 01. Although it's painful to remember it, it's something that I feel like I shouldn't ever forget.) I think it was good to rest on the couch for a while anyway! I worked a bit on the Christmas project too. After I picked Seth up from school, we took Snickers to the vet. He needed one of his routine vaccines. He was also supposed to get his blood sugar checked, but I misunderstood when I made the appointment that they wanted to check it 4-6 hours after he received his insulin shot, not at least 4-6 hours later. So it was actually about 8 hours since he had his insulin shot, which was too late. The day before I had also noticed he was licking a spot on one of his front paws and it looked a little red, so I asked them to look at it too. Turns out that it needs to be examined because he has a lump there and it looks infected. So now I have to take him back next week to have his blood sugar checked and to have his paw examined; in the meantime they gave me some medicated pads and I have to clean his paw twice a day. Aargh!! If I can make it even one week without having to take the dog to the vet and shell out another hundred or more dollars and cope with another problem that requires daily maintenance and / or medication, I am going to be the happiest person alive!! That evening Frank did maintenance for some of his clients, but we had time for a short walk.

Thursday the 12th: I had a pretty busy day yesterday. Right after I got back from dropping Seth off at work, the lady I work with at the Arc contacted me and wanted to know if I was busy. I hadn't showered yet and I needed to both vacuum the whole house and mow the lawn (two things that cause me to sweat a lot and get dirty, so I definitely wanted to do those before showering) so I told her I was busy in the morning but I had some time in the afternoon. So she asked me to come by that afternoon; she needed help with some online training she was trying to complete for her job. So I got the lawn mowed (the back yard needed it desperately; the south-facing front yard not so much because it has a lot of dead patches because it's been so dry and it's also been pretty hot lately) and the house vacuumed and then I showered and ate some lunch before heading to work. I worked for a couple of hours and then picked up Seth from school on my way home. After that, we did brain balance and I finished laundry and made dinner. Seth had YM earlier than normal that evening; they were playing soccer and wanted to start earlier so that they'd have more time to play before it got dark. Frank worked on maintenance for the rest of his clients but got done in time to go with me to pick up Seth from the church. Then we got ice cream cones on the way home.

Friday the 13th: Haha, it's Friday the 13th! I haven't done a lot yet today besides jog, shower, eat breakfast, and take Seth to school. But it's only about 10:20, so that's okay. I will update the budget next and then I will probably have some time to relax. I'd like to work more on the Christmas project plus work on doll clothes--I haven't touched that project for nearly 2 weeks.

Our baby pumpkin is growing up! The photo I posted last week was taken on Thursday the 5th. (I'm adding it again here for comparison purposes):

 Here it is on Monday the 9th:

And here it is yesterday:

(Okay, I zoomed in more on the first photo so it actually looks bigger then than it does now, but trust me--it's bigger now!) It's turned such a dark green that it looks like a watermelon! But I'm pretty sure it's a pumpkin. Seth keeps asking when it is going to turn orange. I have no idea!

When I walked outside on Monday, I heard the sound of a motor overhead. I looked up and saw this:

It's the Goodyear blimp! (I know it's too dark in the photos to tell. It was flying toward the sun, so it was hard to get the lighting correct.) In real life, I could see it much better and it looked a lot closer than it does in the photos too. We saw it flying around for the next couple of days. Not sure why it was here. We do see blimps occasionally because of the airport nearby.

I'll finish with these photos that I took on our evening walk on Tuesday. The moon was up and the sun was setting. It was beautiful! As usual, the photos don't do it justice:

(That's a cornfield...hard to tell with the lighting.)

Just want to finish up by saying how grateful I am that I am healthy 99.9% of the time! There's nothing like spending a few days feeling pain every time I moved to help me appreciate that most of the time I can do so many things--turn my head to look at the clock to see what time it is, lift up my chin so I can give Frank a kiss, lie down in bed, walk around, sit, bed over, the list goes on--without being in pain! I know some people are not so lucky. I usually take my good health for granted. So if nothing else, last weekend was a reminder of how much I am blessed. 

Weekly Review September 6 '19

I'll start this week out with an update on Snickers. We haven't had any more really bad nights with him, thankfully, although he still needed to go out at least once during the night for several nights. He seemed to be holding his own over the weekend (not getting a lot better, but not getting much worse) until Monday afternoon. Frank and I went to the store to get a few things, and while we were gone he had an accident in the house (don't know why he didn't whine at Seth, since Seth was home). When I was cleaning it up, I could see that there was a lot of blood in his stool. So I had to call the vet on Tuesday morning and take him back in. Meanwhile, his urine sample came back showing that he didn't have an infection and he didn't have ketones in his urine either, which means his diabetes wasn't out of control. But he did have diarrhea, and there was a lot of blood mixed in. They decided that the blood didn't mean anything too sinister but they felt like he needed more help getting over whatever intestinal bug he had, so we got an antibiotic and some dog food that's high in fiber and they also gave him some fluids because he was dehydrated. That seemed to do the trick. By Wednesday morning he was much better and his stool was firming up. He's still on the antibiotic as well as an antacid, but he is eating well, seems to be pretty happy, and has not had to go out at all the last 2 or 3 nights. I hope I am not jinxing it but saying that!

At the vet again...Snickers is hiding under my chair.

Okay, so back to the end of last week...

Friday the 30th: I did manage to get the budget done, but that was about it. (Remember that was the day I was exhausted from being up most of the night with Snickers). After getting the budget done, I opted to take it easy, so I watched a movie on Netflix called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's based on a book that we read in book chat several years ago. I remember we all really liked the book but I can't remember much about it, so I'm not sure if the movie follows the story line of the book or if it's embellished a lot. But I did like the movie a lot. It was a nice way to relax! When I was getting ready for bed, I noticed that I had a missed call on my cell phone and a voicemail, so I listened to it and it was a member of the bishopric asking me to speak this Sunday. He finished his message with "have a nice weekend!" Sure, thanks a lot! ;) I talked to him the next day and found out the topic, which is "Self-Reliance: Independence vs. Responsibility". I must have a target on me somewhere that says "Self-Reliance" since this is the second time I've given a talk on that subject, I was asked to be a facilitator for the self reliance program, and Frank & I were asked to teach the 5th Sunday lesson earlier this year on financial self reliance. But it is a topic that I have a lot of strong feelings about, so that's okay.

Saturday the 31st: Frank and I ran some errands in the morning. Then I worked on my music calling, practiced the ukulele, and cleaned the kitchen floor. I worked on the Christmas project and I worked on doll clothes for a while too. I'm working on a pleated skirt now, which goes with the fleece jacket. I managed to get all the pleats sewn (which took a long time) but it doesn't match up as well with the waistband as I think it should, so I'm going to have to figure out what I did wrong. (It might just need one more pleat). I was working on that until bedtime on Saturday and I haven't had a chance to work on it this week...all my spare time has been spent preparing my talk.

Sunday the 1st: Church was really good; I was really feeling the spirit that day. After church I kept busy starting to prepare my talk, preparing my Primary lesson, and choosing the hymns for this Sunday, plus some other music calling stuff. Since Snickers still wasn't doing really great at that point, Frank went home after Sacrament Meeting so we wouldn't have to leave him for 2 hours. Frank hadn't slept well and he was really tired. I was tired too, but when I tried to take a nap I only slept for a few minutes. Oh well! Here are my Primary class holding up their "gifts" (we talked about spiritual gifts). They're so cute!!:

Monday the 2nd: Since it was Labor Day, Frank was home all day which was nice. It was Seth's last day of summer vacation. I mostly did the normal stuff (laundry still has to get done, even if it is a holiday) and I worked on the Christmas project for a bit. I also stopped by to see my friend Wanda--she needed me to get a card for her to give to her son for his birthday, so I got that while I was at the store that morning getting a few groceries for us. She asked me to come back on Wednesday because she needed a few more things from the store.

Tuesday the 3rd: Seth's first day of 7th Grade! I almost forgot to take his picture, but I remembered when we were in the car on the way, so I pulled over to take a photo and this is the best you will get:

He seemed to like school pretty well although he was super tired when he got home and doing brain balance wasn't too fun. Plus, there were a million forms to fill out and letters / syllabuses to read and sign. I never enjoy the beginning of the school year paper avalanche! While Seth was at school, I got the normal chores done, took Snickers to the vet, and worked on my talk a bit.

Wednesday the 4th: I wasn't sure I was going to go to religion class because of Snickers, but he was doing so much better by Wednesday morning that I decided to go. I also got shopping and dusting done in the morning before the class. After class, I ended up staying to talk with one of my friends for nearly an hour. We hadn't had a chance to talk in a long time, and she is also the choir director so we had music stuff to discuss. And specifically, my bishop had asked me to see how she was doing and if she would be okay to continue as the choir director for the rest of the year. She does have some really difficult stuff going on right now, but she said she'd be okay until at least January or February and she is hoping by then a few things will change so that she can continue even longer. She is one of those people that I really enjoy talking to, so I was glad for the chance to catch up! After that I went straight to Wanda's to get the list of things she needed. Originally, I had planned to go to the store to get her shopping done before going to pick up Seth from school but since I talked so long with my friend I didn't have time to do that. I barely had time to get Wanda's list and to trim her bangs (she had asked me to do that too) before I had to leave to pick up Seth. So after getting through brain balance / homework / dinner with Seth (Frank was working late and got home right after we finished dinner), I went to the store to get Wanda's things. But first I went to the library because I had two books for book chat to pick up. My plan was to quickly pick up the books and quickly go to the store and get back in time to give Snickers his insulin shot / medicine, but I ran into two friends from my ward at the library and we ended up talking for quite a while. That's okay though--I really enjoyed talking to them! (I don't really get much time to talk to anybody at church anymore since I'm rushing off to Primary.) Frank was able to take care of Snickers, too, so it all worked out.

Thursday the 5th: After taking Seth to school, I stopped at Wanda's to give her the things I purchased for her the night before. But she had forgotten a few things so now I need to go back and get those. Ugh! I really don't mind helping her most of the time, but sometimes it can be a challenge. I went to lunch with Frank and spent the rest of the day getting the chores done and wrestling to get my talk down on paper. That's always the hardest part of preparing a talk for me. I did a lot of thinking about it and a lot of reading from the time I got the assignment, and I have all kinds of thoughts and ideas and found a lot of good quotes, but taking all those things I've been thinking about and putting it into some sort of logical, coherent form is always difficult for me. I didn't finish it yesterday, but I got a lot of it done. Our ward activity night just moved from Wednesdays to Thursdays, so Seth had YM last night. That will take some adjusting for us. He learned about computer programming, and seemed to enjoy it.

Friday the 6th: Today I decided that I would get my talk finished first because I was feeling stressed about getting it done. So after getting Seth to school I worked on my talk and I did get it done finally. Now I can let it gel for a few days and go over it on Saturday evening to make any final changes. I feel a lot less stressed about it. After I finished my talk, I exercised and showered and Scott called to talk to me for a while. By then it was time to pick up Seth from school (he gets out an hour earlier on Fridays). Now all I have left is making dinner (and pizza dough is already in process) and getting the budget done. I hope the budget won't take too long. I woke up this morning with my neck / shoulder / back hurting and it is really painful! Going to pick up Seth from school was torture because it hurts a lot to turn my head. I have no idea why it's so stiff and sore, but it feels like it's all connected. It actually hurts all the way up into the back of my head, down my neck, into my left shoulder, and then all the way down to my left hip. It's making me want to lie down and do nothing, but I have too much to do. Frank said his back hurt this morning too; I hope he's had a better day than I have had.

We have been having mostly nice weather the last week. Wednesday was really hot--up into the 90s--but the rest of the week was in the 80s and now we have actually dropped into the 70s for highs. It's very pleasant! It's been pretty dry, though. I worry that we are getting into a drought. I'm grateful that we aren't going to get slammed by Hurricane Dorian (poor Bahamas!!) but I wouldn't have minded if getting a little rain from that. Doesn't look like we will, though.

Our new neighbor next door still hasn't moved in and we still haven't met her but she has been having a lot of work done on the house. There have been contractor vehicles parked out front most days and we've been hearing lots of hammering and other noises from over there. Meanwhile, our neighbor on the end on the other side is also getting ready to move and has also been having a lot of work done on his house this week. So we've been hearing a lot of construction noises from both sides!

The mystery vine in our front yard gave birth to a bouncing baby pumpkin!! When I wrote last week, we still weren't sure what it was, but within a few days it grew a lot and it looked like this:

And it has been growing like crazy ever since. The photo above was taken on Tuesday. By yesterday, it looked like this:

I'm pretty tickled about it. I was kind of hoping all along that it was a pumpkin vine (it looked like a pumpkin vine to me) but I kept telling myself that it would be some kind of squash instead. My only hope now is that it ripens before the vine completely takes over our front yard!

And that's all I can think of to report this week.