Weekly Review October 11 '19

I don't think this post will be as long as last week's, but we'll see. I didn't work on projects at all this week--just got the normal chores done--but that's mostly because there were other things I had to do most days. This week was still fairly stressful. I think Seth had a better week and I'm feeling better (my cough is almost gone) but we were still stressing about Snickers and the problem with Frank's CPAP still hasn't been resolved. Besides that, there's some things going on with one of my callings that has me stressed and I talked with Scott a couple of times and he's not in the best place emotionally or spiritually so I'm worried about him too. (I do enjoy talking with him, though). So I've had some days where I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed with everything, but this too shall pass, right? I hope.

First, an update on Snickers. I took him to the vet to have his blood sugar tested twice this week. The first time was on Monday, and his sugar was over 750! When the technician who had tested his blood brought him back out to me, she brought the veterinarian with her, so I knew it wasn't good news. They questioned me about how he had been behaving--was I seeing signs of distress? Well, yes--he definitely hasn't been feeling well. We talked for quite a while and I told them we had decided if this insulin doesn't work that we were done trying to treat him and they said that would probably be best. However, they did think we should try increasing his dose again and get him rechecked, so that's why I took him back on Thursday. He started acting a bit more perky on Wednesday so I wasn't surprised that his blood sugar had improved. It was in the 500s, which is still quite high, but definitely better. So they've increased his dose a little bit again and he will be checked again on Thursday. We feel torn between feeling glad that he is doing better and anxious that we're going to struggle along with him for a month or two more and then have something else go wrong. A part of us just wants off this very expensive and emotionally draining roller coaster ride and we don't want him to suffer anymore! I hope that doesn't make us horrible people.

Frank has been handling all the phone calls and such about his CPAP, so I don't know all the details of what's been going on, but after a week of trying to get an answer from this company of when he get his loaner CPAP, they finally called him last Friday and told him that they actually don't accept our insurance so if we get a CPAP from them it would be "out of network" and we'd have to pay for it ourselves. Why it took a week for them to figure that out, I will never know!! So we've been trying to find out if there is a company that does accept our insurance, but that's been slow going too. Mostly I think because Frank's been pretty busy at work and with clients and hasn't had a lot of time to make phone calls. So that means another week of unsatisfactory sleep for both of us. The last couple of nights Frank was so tired that he decided to try using the old CPAP again, even though it makes noise that wakes us both up, and both of us have actually slept better in spite of the noise from the machine, so he'll probably keep using it until we can work through the hassle of getting a new one. But what a pain!! Why do things like this have to be so complicated??

We actually got some rain this week on Sunday and Monday, so things aren't quite so dry here. The temperatures have cooled off and we are having cold nights and beautiful, mostly sunny days with temperatures in the low 70s. We're starting to get some fall colors, but the best is yet to come with that still!

Here's the daily summary of the other things we did:

Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th: General Conference pretty much dominated both days. I think the talks get better every time! We had the Elders serving in our ward over to watch the first session on Saturday with us, and we fed them lunch while we watched. Plus we had a ton of yummy snacks. I went to the women's session at my stake center. I kind of had to talk myself into that; I really wanted to stay home and watch in my pajamas! But I wasn't sure Seth would leave me alone the whole time, so in the end I took myself to the stake center and I did enjoy some visiting time with other sisters before the session started and it felt nice to watch with other women (I never get to do that at home, of course). I ended up sitting by myself on a short row, but partway through the session the girl in front of me (who is in our ward and Seth's age), invited me to come sit with her and her mom and sister. (They had been talking to me before the session started, so it's not like they ignored me or anything!!) Anyway, I thought that was sweet. I didn't mind sitting alone, but I think she was worried that I felt lonely. Then I also coughed a few times (because I'm getting over a cough, remember) and the first time she looked at me with great concern and whispered "are you all right?" and the second time she said "you should probably get a drink of water when you get home." It was really the cutest thing, but I also tried not to cough again because I didn't want her to be distressed! On Sunday I was supposed to go play the ukulele for a member of our ward but he had a bad night so his daughter asked if we could postpone it. Which was fine with me, since I wasn't feeling my best yet. Overall, I loved General Conference. What a spiritual feast!!

Monday the 7th: Besides the usual chores and taking Snickers to the vet, I also made some soup for the family in our ward whose daughter died--it was for the meal they were having after the memorial service the next day. I made it a day early because is was ham lentil soup, and it tastes even better the day after you make it because the flavors have had a chance to blend better. I also got a card and gift card ready to send to a friend who was getting married on Thursday, went to the library to get a book for Seth, and that evening I had a song practice for the songs I was singing with a small group for the memorial service the next day. The practice went well; we were able to learn / polish all three songs in about an hour and I remembered the parts I had gone over at home much better than I thought I would.

Tuesday the 8th: I spent the morning doing the usual chores. Seth got out of school 2 hours early that day which worked out perfect since I needed to be at the church for a final song practice right after I picked him up. (If school had been out at the regular time that day, I would have had to find someone to pick him up and take care of him while I was at the practice and the service which followed.) Well, actually, it was still cutting things pretty close and I was a few minutes late to the practice--especially since I had a crock pot full of soup in the car so I had to drive really slow so it wouldn't spill! But it all worked out and the memorial service was really beautiful and we only made one (kind of big) mistake while we were singing one of our songs. I saw a lot of old friends, too! Frank didn't come to the service because he had a dentist appointment. He went straight from that appointment to do some work on location for one of his clients, over an hour away, and he was gone all evening. I had skipped lunch so on my way home from the memorial service I stopped and got some dinner for Seth and I. Frank didn't get home until bedtime. He got pulled over on his way home because one of his headlights was out (he knew about that) and both of the lights around his tag in the back were also out. (He didn't know about that). But he just has to get them fixed within 10 days; he didn't get a ticket or anything like that.

Wednesday the 9th: Seth didn't have school (it was Yom Kippur). I got the usual shopping done and went to the last religion class. We had decided to surprise the teacher with a potluck lunch and there was a ton of food--and he was surprised. It was nice and I enjoyed the class and I will miss it, but I had been starting to feel like I needed to spend my time doing something else, so the timing is actually good.

Thursday the 10th: Just the usual chores, taking Snickers to the vet, and I did a bunch of stuff for my music calling. Seth didn't have YM because they have a campout tonight. I'm a little stressed about the campout because I know Seth is supposed to bring some food but I don't know exactly what yet. They are leaving in 5 hours, so I hope I hear something about that pretty soon!

Friday the 11th: Well that's today, and I haven't done much besides write this post yet. I exercised, showered, got Seth to school and read my scriptures and ate breakfast. I'm going to as a chaperone with Seth's class to the park for an hour this afternoon and of course I need to update the budget and get Seth ready for his campout. So I'm sure today will be pretty busy and I'd better go get started on all of that!

It was fun to spot both Shellie and Tim in the choirs at General Conference (although I was disappointed that they didn't show either of them much at all). It's also cool that they are building temples in both Orem, Utah and McAllen, Texas! I remember when Jared was on his mission in McAllen that they were really working hard to prepare to have a temple there, so it's great that the temple is going to be a reality. No temple in Frederick, though! :( I know--they actually will never put a temple here because we are only an hour from the DC temple. But I keep hoping they'll put one in Gettysburg, since that's only 30 minutes north of us and would be much easier to get to with traffic. But it's a small city and there's probably not a lot of members there so if they put one up in that direction, it would probably be Pittsburgh or someplace like that, which is a lot farther away from us. But I can dream, right? I just feel so temple starved right now, and with all the problems with Snickers lately we can't even get to the Philadelphia temple. They can't finish the renovations on the DC temple soon enough for me!!

And on that complaining note, I will end for this week. (Sorry!)