When I wrote last week, Seth had been sick but was getting better. He's been fine since and thankfully Frank and I have been well too...we didn't get whatever he had. I have had a few headaches and my throat has been slightly sore at times...I suspect that's allergies, though.
Saturday was the 4th of July, of course, and it was pretty quiet for us but that's okay. No parades, no patriotic breakfast, no fireworks. Seth & Frank played games together for a few hours while I read and enjoyed quiet time. We did hang up our American flag, had a traditional American dinner, and we set off a few small fireworks of our own since the city of Frederick cancelled all their 4th of July festivities.
A lot of people got their own fireworks this year and we could hear a lot of others going off (and saw a few illegal ones too) while we were setting ours off (although no one else in our part of the court set any off). Some of our neighbors came out and watched ours. Frank set off most of them, but his finger was hurting so I did some of them. I've never done that before and don't like getting anywhere near fireworks but I managed to do it without blowing myself (or anyone else) up. We heard lots of fireworks going off, even late into the night. (Actually, we heard a lot of fireworks the night before and the night after the 4th as well). We are grateful to live here and love America...even with all the crazy stuff going on lately, we still have it better living here than anywhere else!
What always follows Independence Day? Yep, my birthday of course. It was kind of quiet since it was a Sunday this year but it was really nice. Our ward had an online testimony meeting in the morning. After that I opened presents and got thoroughly spoiled--I can't believe how many presents Frank got me! They won't even all fit in one picture.
Shoes
Boots
No, that's not a real diamond! But my real wedding ring doesn't fit right anymore so he got me this set so at least I look married. :)
Jelly beans, paperdolls (yep, I'll never grow up), 2 scarves, a nerdy historical book about the Apollo program, and a Newbery book.
A game
And a rotary cutter
Besides that, I got a ton of lovely text messages and Facebook good wishes from friends and my older boys called me AND I got a nap!! So it was pretty much a perfect day. Later on we had a yummy ham dinner and even later we had blueberry cheesecake:
So all in all, birthday #52 was pretty great!
On Monday one of the sisters I minister to was moving so I spent most of the morning and early afternoon helping her. A few other women helped too and we managed to get nearly all of her smaller stuff moved over to her new place (which is a super cute little old house) so I felt like we accomplished a lot. The men in the ward went over last night to move all her furniture / bigger stuff. It was a really hot day so after doing that I was pretty tired. I still had to get some groceries, though, so I did that...Frank went with me. He worked from home on Monday and he and Seth kept the laundry moving while I was gone so all I had to do was fold it. We had family night activity and treat that night before Frank had to go to work for another overnight install. (We did the lesson part of family night on Sunday.)
On Tuesday I met several friends from my ward at a park and we ate lunch and visited (still keeping somewhat far apart). That was really fun! Frank had a follow up visit to see how his finger is healing and thankfully it is healing great!! (That doesn't mean it doesn't still hurt though...it does!) He can straighten out his finger now if he wants to and he graduated from the splint to this:
It's much easier to get on and off (fastens with Velcro) so that is making his life much easier. My older boys sent me this great birthday gift, which arrived that day:
On Tuesday evening we did a video chat with the missionaries in our ward who are new, and they are Sisters now instead of Elders. It was nice to get to know them! Then Frank went to bed because he only had about 2 hours of sleep Monday night. My lower back was twinging quite a bit that evening which had me worried but it wasn't any worse on Wednesday.
I had my annual well woman exam / mammogram on Wednesday, which should have happened in April but they weren't seeing anybody in April except for emergencies / health concerns. That all went fine, but while I was waiting to be seen I noticed a spot in my upper back, near my shoulder, was starting to hurt. After the doctor visit, I had shopping to do and then I was thankful to come home and relax because my back / shoulder / neck were really bothering me by then. It felt a lot like it did last fall when I had that really excruciating back / shoulder / neck pain, and I really didn't want to go through that again! So I spent most of the evening lying on a hot pad while reading a book, trying to take it easy in the hopes that it wouldn't get a lot worse.
Thankfully, that seemed to work because it felt quite a bit better on Thursday morning. It's still bothering me (maybe a bit more today than yesterday) but it didn't get worse and even improved so I'm grateful for that. I tried to take it easy yesterday, too. Seth helped me get some vacuuming done as well as the laundry but I didn't do much other than that. I read a lot, and finished the book for book chat (The Giver of Stars). It was an interesting book...a bit rough in some places, but overall I liked it. Actually, it was funny how many similarities it had to the last book we read, although I liked this one better. I didn't love either book, but this one was pretty good. There was an online Primary activity yesterday afternoon which only a few children attended but I got to see one of my girls and it was fun. Seth's activity for Deacons got cancelled because both of the leaders couldn't come. There was only one other boy in town or able to come besides Seth anyway, so that was probably for the best.
Yesterday morning I heard chain saws and looked out to discover that our next door neighbor was having the trees in her backyard cut down. They were pretty Japanese maples, so it was kind of sad to see them go but they had definitely gotten too big for her tiny yard and one of them has been encroaching on our property for years and creating so much shade in our yard that our garden and some of our grass wouldn't grow. So overall, I was glad to see that tree go even though I'm always sad to see trees get cut down. (You just really shouldn't plant trees in tiny townhouse lots!) She also had a large bush cut down which was also growing into our yard and making it difficult to mow the lawn so I am happy about that too. I'm pretty sure she is going to have a fence put up...that's probably why she's having the trees and bushes cut down near the property line. Anyway, it looks really different and we have a clearer view of the hill behind our house now.
I noticed when we went outside to watch fireflies last night that we could see a lot more. It was definitely a nice night for fireflies! They'll probably only be here for about another week, so we're enjoying them while they last.
Today I haven't gotten much done yet besides this post and reading scriptures. I'm feeling kind of achy and I'm still trying to take it easy a bit because of my back / shoulder / neck, and I haven't exercised since Tuesday but hopefully I'll be able to start doing that again on Monday.
That's all we've been up to this week!
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