Weekly Review February 28 '09

I was right—this week was busier than last week! In an effort to make this post shorter, I’ve decided to give you a summary of the unique events of this week:

Tuesday: Book chat in the afternoon, visiting teaching in the evening
Wednesday: Doctor appointment in the morning
Thursday: Orthodontist appointment in the afternoon, baby shower in the evening
Friday: Camp out for Scott, Pinewood Derby for Jared
Saturday: Scott gone all day on camp out, Hike for Tanner in the morning

Besides all that, my daily schedules were thrown off by sick people! Frank started feeling sick Saturday evening. He had a terrible headache, chills, and mild stomach upset. He was miserable for days—missed church on Sunday and stayed home from work on Monday and Tuesday. He went back to work on Wednesday, although he still didn’t feel too great. Tanner was home on Monday with a stomach ache and came home early on Wednesday because his chest was hurting. Jared stayed home on Wednesday with a stomach ache. He went back to school on Thursday, but came home early because he started feeling yucky again. (Seth had just gone to sleep when I got the call; I had to get my neighbor to come stay with Seth while I went to the school!) I kept Jared home on Friday although he probably would have been ok—I just wanted to make sure he was really better, I wanted him to feel well enough for the Pinewood Derby that evening, and I preferred keeping him home to making another drive to the school in the middle of the day to pick him up! There seem to be a lot of illnesses going around these parts lately. Everybody I talk to has had someone (if not more than one) person in their family sick, and there were a lot of people missing from church on Sunday.

Jared also had a weird allergic reaction to something (we’re still not sure what.) He mentioned Monday evening that his legs were itchy. Then on Tuesday evening he started complaining again and said that his stomach and back itched also. I checked, and discovered that he had hives on his upper thighs and most of his trunk, front and back. We gave him an antihistamine. Shortly after that he said that he felt like he was having to take deep breaths to breathe, which worried us quite a bit, of course, and Frank immediately called our doctor. They told us the antihistamine should start working shortly, but said if he had more trouble breathing to take him to the ER. Fortunately, the antihistamine kicked in not long after that, and his breathing got better. We had him soak in the tub with baking soda for a while to help with the itching until the hives started going away. The next morning they were all cleared up (his stomach was hurting, though) but that afternoon he started complaining about itching again. I looked, and found hives on his upper legs and a little on his stomach and back again, so I gave him the antihistamine again. We are really mystified about what could be causing the hives! He’s been mildly itchy once or twice since then, but I haven’t seen any more hives. Hopefully it is a “freak” thing that won’t happen again.

Just a few notes about some of this week’s activities:

At book chat we always have a potluck lunch, and in February it has become a tradition (a Valentine’s Day thing) to have fondue. One of the women has two fondue sets, so she always makes chocolate and cheese fondues. The rest of us bring things to dip. We had two kinds of bread, broccoli, cauliflower, kielbasa sausage, strawberries, apples, pound cake, shortbread cookies, pineapple, etc.! It was yummy! Our group is growing and I think we had more people there this time than we’ve ever had—at least 11. Now we are reading the Grapes of Wrath, which amazingly quite a few people in our group have never read. Those of us who have (me among them) don’t mind reading it again. I haven’t read it since high school—more than 20 years ago—so I don’t remember it well and I’m sure I’ll have a different perspective now anyway.

When I got to my doctor’s appointment Wednesday morning, they did not have me on their schedule. The doctor I was supposed to see wasn’t even in that day! I’m not sure what happened, but thankfully they fit me in to see another doctor, and I even got to be seen right away. I arrived about 10 minutes early for my 9:30 appointment, and I was out of there by 9:33! The last time I went there I had to wait close to an hour, so I guess that evened things up.

When I took Scott to his orthodontist appointment, I went back with him and asked his orthodontist about his wisdom teeth. I wanted his opinion on whether the top ones need to come out, because if he has them all out at once it will cost me a significant amount more, but if he ends up needing them out before this year is over anyway, it would cost even more to have them done later. The orthodontist said we are only having the bottom ones out because we have to (they are in sideways and preventing the 12 year molars from coming in properly) and he reassured me that the top ones do not need to come out; as a matter of fact, he thinks they will probably erupt without trouble in a few years, so they will be much easier (not impacted) and less expensive to pull later if the need arises. He was pretty disgusted with the oral surgeon for suggesting they come out now. I have come to really appreciate this orthodontist for his integrity—he really seems to have the health of his patients as his prime concern, not the money he might make. Although we are certainly paying plenty for Scott’s braces, they charged us less than they could have and have allowed us to make payments over time without charging any interest. He also pulled a few of Scott’s teeth free of charge, and he has made several trips to third world countries to perform complimentary surgeries to correct cleft palates and things like that. I’m sure he has made his share of money, but it is nice that there are still people out there who aren’t in it to make as much as they possibly can!

The baby shower on Thursday was fun. They had a chocolate fountain with lots of yummy things to dip. I really don’t know the mom-to-be all that well, so I was surprised to be invited at all, but I did know a lot of the other guests well (and I’m pretty good friends with a lot of the organizers, which may be why I was invited) so it was a fun evening out with the girls! I also enjoyed getting to know the expectant mother better. I ended up sitting right next to her for the games and opening of the gifts, so I got to chat with her a bit. While I was gone, Frank helped Jared paint his Pinewood Derby car—nothing like procrastination!

The Pinewood Derby turned out great. We had 17 kids participate. Jared’s car came in 6th overall. I helped think up unique awards for each of the cars—every boy got a certificate. I think all the boys had fun. Jared’s car is the one that looks like a pencil. He came up with that idea himself—pretty creative! I think it turned out looking pretty nice.

Frank always helps weigh the cars.

Jared watching the races (blurry)

As I anticipated, Tanner wasn’t too thrilled about getting up this morning for his hike, but we managed to get him out the door on time. When I took him over to the church, the other four boys were already there, so as soon as they came over and started talking to him he cheered up! Before the hike was over, he called me to see if he could go play with one of the boys afterwards, so he isn’t home yet, but he said he was having a good time. (I knew he would!) Scott isn’t back yet, either—he won’t be back until late this evening. Hopefully he is having a good time, also. They went to a cabin in Pennsylvania that belongs to one of the YM leaders, so they were not sleeping outside in the cold. Today they were supposed to be hiking a lot, so it wasn’t a completely “take it easy” outing!

I’ve been getting Sharing Time ready for tomorrow—March is my month for that. The topic tomorrow is fathers, which normally would be easy, but I’m trying to be sensitive to the kids who don’t have fathers in the home. We just found out this week that a couple in our ward is getting a divorce—that was a big shock. This couple has been “team teaching” Jared’s class, so the bishop contacted the Primary president to let her know we need to get substitutes for that class for a month or so. The father will not be in our ward anymore and the mother needs some time off. Actually, I’m guessing that the mother will probably get released from Primary. I feel so sad about the whole thing! I like them both, and they are great teachers. Anyway, I am particularly worried about this topic being difficult for their little boy who is in Primary, since his father just moved out. There are other children who don’t have dads in the home also. It’s so sad.

We had a few nice days this week—yesterday we had warm rain, even. But today it is quite cold again, and we are supposed to get snow tomorrow night. Still, I know winter can’t last forever! I am really happy that tomorrow it will be March. By the end of this month, we should be having warmer temperatures on a much more consistent basis. It’s the beginning of the end!

Seth is talking so much these days! He says several new words every week. I often tell him the names of different objects, and he will always repeat what I say. He is particularly interested in vehicles of all types. One of his books has a picture of a taxi in it. One day last week when we were in the car, he started saying “taxi”, and sure enough—there was a taxi going by. I was surprised that he remembered that word and that he recognized the real taxi because we hadn’t talked about it much. One of his new words this week is “hippopotamus”. He was telling me that he wanted to read the book “But Not the Hippopotamus”.

Snickers is doing well, but he got a little too aggressive a couple of times this week, and ended up in his crate. He is still a puppy, so he nips all of us pretty often. Seth tolerates a pretty substantial amount of jumping and nipping (he usually laughs, as a matter of fact) but a couple of times this week Snickers nipped him hard enough that he cried. That’s why Snickers got put in his crate. I know he is still learning, but when I have to choose between the puppy and the baby, the baby ALWAYS wins!

Now, let's march into March....!

Weekly Review February 21 '09

This week was quite busy. I think next week is going to be even busier!

Saturday evening we had the missionaries over. We were a little surprised when 3 of them showed up instead of 2! But there was plenty of food, so it didn’t matter. One sister is waiting on her visa so she can go to Mongolia.

Sunday we had ward conference; it was good. I had to be at church early because the choir was singing and we had a practice before church. We were busy after church because Frank and Scott had a home teaching appointment and I had a presidency meeting after that.

The boys were out of school on Monday. We took advantage of the opportunity to take a short day trip. After some debate, we decided to go to Fort McHenry. Snickers and cousin Jeremy’s “flat Stanley” came with us. They have a really cool free presentation (always very moving) at the visitor’s center, which we enjoyed. Then we walked around the grounds out to the fort. We’ve been in the fort before and we were short on time, so we decided not to take the tour of the fort (Snickers was not allowed inside, either.) It was cold and windy, so we didn’t stay long, but it was nice to get out and do something. I’ve decided I really don’t like driving in Baltimore, though. Every time I go there I miss an exit! I don’t have this problem in other cities, so I am blaming it on Baltimore’s highway signs. I read the signs, I get in the proper lane, and then at the last second I discover that I’m not in the right lane after all—it’s weird! At least this time I was able to get off at the next exit and get right back on and get to the exit I’d missed. I was pretty tired by the time we got back home. Frank got home pretty late.

Frank went to Mt. Airy on Tuesday evening to set up a computer for one of the wards in the stake. He was supposed to go to Westminster to do that ward’s computer on Wednesday evening, but I forgot that I had agreed to help drive for a YM / YW activity that evening, so he had to change his plans.

Wednesday started early—the girl who usually gives Scott a ride to seminary called to say she was sick, so I got to do the driving that day. When I took Scott to school after Seminary, I went in so I could sign up for parent / teacher conferences. Right before it was time for the younger boys to go to school, it started snowing and came down pretty hard for a while. Jared had a field trip that day, so he was worried school would be cancelled or get out early, but that didn’t happen. The snow turned to rain and all the snow was gone by the end of the day. Jared’s class went to a farm in Pennsylvania where they learned about making maple syrup—they got to go out and gather sap from the trees and everything. Sounds pretty cool to me! He talked about it a lot afterwards, so he seemed to think it was pretty interesting also.

Seth has started taking shorter naps—usually less than two hours. On Wednesday while he was down for his nap I literally spent the whole time on the phone! I had several phone calls to make, but the majority of that time I was talking to the insurance company and to an oral surgeon about getting Scott’s wisdom teeth pulled. I made an appointment for a consultation for him on Friday. One of my other phone calls was to the vet to set up a check up for Snickers. They actually had an appointment open for late Wednesday afternoon, so I took him in that day. They checked him over and he got a shot; overall he behaved quite well. I got home barely in time to eat dinner and then we were all out the door for scouts and YM, picking up the new kids in our ward on the way.

The YM / YW had a service activity. They divided them up into 6 groups and each group went to three different houses. At the first house, they read and acted out a story for the kids. At the second house they put together a 10 minute family home evening. At the third house, they did five chores (chosen by the homeowner) while singing. Afterwards, they all went back to the church for brownies and ice cream. My group was a little quiet! Tanner was in my group, and he participated better than most. I think overall most of the kids had fun, though, and the families they were serving seemed to enjoy it. We got home pretty late, though.

Frank worked from home on Thursday. He got us some Chinese food for lunch—our “date” for the week. Friday was one of those days when I spent a lot of time trying to get just a few things done. Seth is getting into things a lot more than he used to (this morning he was found getting into the syrup right after Frank had dressed him—he got a bath and a complete clothes change), and Snickers is still in the chewing stage, so I felt like I was constantly cleaning up a mess or preventing a mess before it happened! The boys were out of school 2 hours early. Scott went to a friend’s house after school until it was time for me to take him to his consultation with the oral surgeon. Unfortunately, Seth took a “power nap” in the car when I went to pick up Tanner & Jared from school, so when I tried to put him down for a real nap, it didn’t work.

Frank was able to get home in time from work to stay with the other boys while I took Scott to his appointment. That ended up taking a really long time, which was frustrating, but it was necessary, I guess. The good news is that I found out it’s not going to cost as much as I feared. However, they tried to talk me into getting all four teeth out instead of just two of them, as long as they have him knocked out anyway. I would be willing to do that except that our insurance has a maximum per person they will pay per year, and he’s going to go over that maximum either way. So having all four taken out will cost us about $500 more than just doing two. I’m going to double check with the orthodontist, but unless he says he needs all four out now, we’re going to stick with just the two.

Jared had his friend Evan over to spend the night last night. Today Frank, Seth and I went to Scott’s basketball game. My friend Jeanine was there, so I didn’t end up watching the game very closely, I’m afraid! Seth liked watching Scott play. We’ve spent the rest of the day working on homework and scout stuff. Frank and Jared are over at another ward member’s house cutting out his Pinewood Derby car right now.

No pictures this week—sorry! I guess we were too busy to pull out the camera!

Seth's "To Do" List

• Dump out Snicker's water bowl...check!


• Eat "titis" (cookies)...check!


• Pull books off bookshelves (rip a few pages, maybe)...check!


• Pull Snicker's hair...check!


• While in the car, point out all the buses and "big trucks" to Mommy...check!


• Run fingers through Mommy's hair every time I get a chance...check!


• Dump out Snicker's food bowl...check!


• Empty containers out of lower kitchen cupboards...check!


• Play in my tent...check!


• Totally charm and melt the hearts of everyone...CHECK!

Weekly Review February 14 '09

We had really nice, warm weather on Sunday. Of course, my new blouse that I FINALLY finished has snowflakes on it! But it also has short sleeves, so it worked. (And lots of people said it looked nice.) Jana, the Primary president, couldn’t be at church that day, so the two “newbies” and I got to handle everything. (We just got a new counselor and a new secretary last week.) It went fine, thankfully. All the teachers showed up, which was very helpful! The new counselor did sharing time and she did a great job!

Here's the picture I promised to post of my blouse:

Can you tell I was feeling self conscious? I don't like getting my picture taken!

After church (and a nap) we all went for a walk, Snickers included. We went quite a ways, and Snickers got tired so he got to ride in the stroller for a while (Seth enjoyed walking)! When we got home we discovered that not only were his feet muddy, he also had two burrs caught in his fur by two of his feet, so he got a bath and Frank held him while I snipped the burrs out.

The wedding reception on Saturday was nice, by the way. They had soup in bread bowls. The bride was very grateful to Frank for helping with the food because her dad got to enjoy the reception. We had a chance to talk to the groom’s mother about their ancestry—we were interested because the groom’s last name is Bracken and Frank’s mom’s maiden name is Bracken. She said they are from Pennsylvania and Delaware, so we’re pretty sure they’re related since we know some of Mom’s family came from Delaware. Small world!

Tanner had a fun field trip on Monday—his class went to the Baltimore Aquarium. They were actually supposed to go a few weeks ago, but that turned out to be a snow day. Tanner was disappointed (one time he actually didn’t want to have a snow day!) but they got lucky because the weather was so much nicer the day that they ended up going.

We took dinner over to a new family in our ward on Tuesday. They just got here about 2-3 weeks ago and they are only going to be here for about 2 months. Their youngest daughter (18 months old) is in John Hopkins Hospital—she’s having liver problems, among other things. They are still trying to figure out exactly what’s wrong. I talked to the mom on Tuesday morning and I could tell she was pretty stressed about having all this happen when they are so far away from all their family. (They are from Idaho.) I really felt for her—I’ve been there! She did say, though, that she was amazed at how much the ward was doing to help them. This family has a 13 year old son, so we gave him a ride to YM on Wednesday evening. I had a cub committee meeting that night, so we got home late.

On Wednesday afternoon when I went out to pick up Jared & Tanner from school, the car wouldn’t start. I quickly figured out what was wrong—I had let Seth play in the car earlier that day while I carried in groceries, and he must have turned on the headlights—the battery was completely dead. Luckily, just then one of my neighbors came home and asked if I needed help. She let me use her van to go pick up the boys, and Frank was able to jump the Expedition after he got home from work.

Scott was tired this week. On Tuesday Frank woke him up right before he left for work, but Scott fell back asleep. I didn’t wake up until nearly 6:00, so I got him up then and took him to seminary a little late. Then on Thursday he said he was too tired to get up, but about 10 minutes later he did get up and was able to get ready in time for his ride. It’s been an “exciting” couple of weeks at his high school. Last week a kid from his high school was shot (not killed, but injured) a few blocks from the school—apparently gang-related. Then this week there were a couple of guys who got in three fights. Scott saw the last one—on Thursday morning before school started. That one involved a metal chair, two vice principals getting injured, and the police getting called. Scott said he saw one of the vice principals trying to intervene, but then he (the vice principal, not Scott) got hit in the face, so he “did this cool wrestling move” and that ended the fight. I hope those two kids are suspended now! What a world we live in….

My friend Starr invited Seth and I to come over on Friday. Seth and her daughter Kate played, Starr and I visited, and we had lunch. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the chance to talk with Starr, so I enjoyed that. She is such a good person; it is always uplifting to talk to her! We are going to try to get together more often than we have been doing. Friday night we had our friends the Becks over for dinner. We made omelettes, hash browns, and OJ. They brought bacon, pancakes, and bagels. It was yummy! We stayed up too late, though.

Here’s what our table looked like this morning:

Lots of Valentine’s cards and treats!

(Earlier this week, Frank got me an early Valentine’s gift—a mouse. The kind for the computer, that is. Not very romantic, I guess, but it’s what I wanted!) Seth woke up early, but I got him to go back to sleep. Frank and I went to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast, which was fun (and yummy!)—we were trying to remember the last time we went on a date together without Seth! (It’s been a long time.) Frank got me another Valentine’s gift, too—some cute salt & pepper shakers that I liked at the Cracker Barrel gift shop. These ones are for Valentine’s Day:

He also got me some for Easter, but I will post a picture of them later.

After breakfast we went to a furniture store to look at couches, just to see what they had. We’re hoping to replace our beat up couches soon. The salesperson that was trying to help us (we didn’t really need any help!) probably thought we were crazy because we have so many stipulations—has to be a dark color that won’t show dirt easily, has to be sturdy so it won’t have holes worn through it in a couple of months, can’t have “flaps” at the bottom or piping around the cushions because the puppy will chew on them, can’t have the back cushions attached because they rip and shed stuffing after kids have climbed over them a few times…. Basically, they have to be kid- and puppy- proof! I don’t know if such a thing exists, but we did see a few things we thought might work. (Our current couches don’t meet any of those stipulations, by the way, which is why we know what we don’t want.) We didn’t buy anything, in spite of the fact that we could have got a free picture of President Obama if we had made a purchase of $50 or more—so tempting! (Can you hear my voice dripping with sarcasm?) Knowing how things go, we will probably end up spending all our tax return on things like dental bills anyway, so the couches will have to wait.

When we got home, we were surprised to find out that Seth hadn’t been awake very long—he slept until about 10:00! This afternoon Scott has a basketball game and this evening we are having the missionaries over for dinner. We hadn’t planned that, but we got a call last night asking if we could feed them because they didn’t have an appointment. We are always happy to do that—both Frank and I remember how much we appreciated dinner appointments when we were missionaries! (A very rare occurrence—for me, anyway. I think Frank fared better than I did.)

Scott had to get his registration for next year in this week. I took him over to the high school on Tuesday evening for a while so that he could ask some questions about some of the classes he was thinking about taking…they had the department heads available that night to answer questions. He has to take English, Science, Math, and History, but he gets to pick 4 other classes. He is looking into taking a Criminal Justice class at the local community college, which would count for 2 classes, but there’s a lot of demand for that, so it’s hard to get in. In the meantime, he has signed up for German, Tech Ed (a required course he has to take sometime in high school), Intro to Business, and Microsoft Certification. If he gets into the other class, he will drop the business classes.

Snickers is doing well with the house training thing—hardly any accidents anymore. (Although he did have one this week. He and Seth “ganged up” on me. First Seth dumped out Snickers’ food bowl on the living room floor. While I was cleaning that up, he dumped Snickers’ water bowl. I ran upstairs to get a towel and Seth dumped out the food bowl again. While I was still coping with the food and the water, Snickers chose that moment to pee on the carpet! Lots of fun!) Now I am working on “watch me” with him. After he learns to do that, we will move on to things like “sit” and “come”. I have a book I’m reading about training small dogs, and that helps. It’s too bad Seth is not old enough to be potty trained yet, because he’s learning a lot about that process right now. We are teaching Snickers to go when we ask him to (so we can have him go before we leave the house, or before bedtime) so we sometimes put him on the puppy pad and say “potty”. Whenever he goes, we say “good potty” and give him lots of praise and attention. Sometimes we give him a treat, also. One time this week, Frank saw Seth tell Snickers to “potty”, and Snickers did. Another time I saw Seth observe Snickers going, then Seth said “good potty!” It’s just really funny to see such a little guy do that, especially one who isn’t potty trained himself!

Seth had some stomach troubles this week, and so did Tanner. I let Tanner stay home from school on Thursday because he was in the bathroom so much that morning. (Tanner’s word for the problem is “sloppy”—I kind of like that better than the medical term!) He still didn’t feel very well on Friday, either, so he stayed home from school that day also.

Frank was really busy this week. He got home really late on Monday because he had to go to a client all the way down in La Plata (about 3 hours from Frederick). He did some work on the computers at the stake center on Tuesday and for some ward members on Thursday. He always has so many projects going on.

I did a lot of reading this week. I finished the book for book chat, which is called The Miracles of Santo Fico by D. L. Smith. It’s a really good book; I enjoyed it a lot! I would recommend it if you want a fairly quick, entertaining, sometimes humorous, and very heart warming read! Once I finished that, I went back to Breaking Dawn. It’s getting pretty interesting; I’ll probably finish it in the next day or two.

The weather was nice for most of the week (it was in the 60’s on Wednesday—loved that!), although it’s back to being colder again now. When the cold front came in on Wednesday evening / Thursday morning, it got extremely windy, and a lot of places lost power, but we didn’t. It kept Frank busy, though, helping clients who did lose power get things running again.

Frank was supposed to have Monday off, but their client down in La Plata needs a new server set up while their office is closed, so Monday is the ideal time to do that. I’m bummed about it because I wanted to do something together as a family, but I can’t really complain since he does have a job! He is going to get a day off another day instead. Maybe in a month or two when it’s warmer!

Everybody have a nice President’s Day week-end and a Happy Valentine's Day! We love you!

Weekly Review February 7 '09

We made it through this week with only one delayed opening, and who knows why we had that…we’re all still trying to figure that out because the weather was fine. My friend Rebecca said the sun must have been too bright!

Sunday was the Super Bowl, as I’m sure you are all aware, and the boys were excited about it for some reason—it’s not like they watch any of the other football games! I was annoyed with them because they all said they were rooting for the Steelers for some reason. I mean, what ties do we have to Pittsburg, after all? I personally wanted the Cardinals to win, because they are from the great state of Arizona where my parents, most of my grandparents, and many of my great grandparents were born and raised. (And besides, I always have a soft spot for the underdog.) We did not all sit down and watch the game, however. I only saw bits of it, and Tanner and Scott went to a fireside right in the middle of it and all the boys went to bed before it ended. So Frank was the only one who saw most of it. I saw part of the 4th quarter and thought for a while that the Cardinals just might pull it off! Oh, well….

Frank went in to work really early on Tuesday, only to discover that FSA had changed their locks and forgotten to give him a key! So he sat outside and hooked up remotely and did some work in the hallway until somebody else arrived to let him in. He wasn’t able to do some of the things he needed to do while everyone was out of the office, though, so he had to go in really early again on Thursday morning. I didn’t go back to sleep very quickly after he left Thursday morning, so I was pretty tired that day also (but not as tired as Frank was.)

I made chili for dinner on Monday (my favorite chili recipe, by the way—it’s lower fat than most, but yummy) and as usual Jared didn’t want to eat it. He thought it was “too hot”. It was a little bit spicier than usual—I must’ve added a little more red pepper than usual. Anyway, Frank told him he couldn’t have FHE treat if he didn’t eat all the chili in his bowl (a very small amount, by the way) and I was trying to think of a way to convince Jared to eat it when I got an idea. The boys love a show on the travel channel called “Man vs. Food” where this guy travels to restaurants all over the country taking on their food challenges. (Like eating an enormously huge pizza without throwing up, or eating incredibly hot buffalo wings…) So I told Jared we’d do our own “Man vs. Food”—I’d give him 10 minutes to finish the chili, and I’d even videotape him doing it. It worked! He got it done in less than 4 minutes. I’d post the video tape, but I used my video camera instead of my camera, and I don’t know how to get the clip off that particular video camera onto the computer. It’s too bad, too because Jared was very entertaining! Maybe someday I’ll figure it out and you’ll get to see it. I was just proud of myself for coming up with that idea, because I’m not usually very creative.

I was really late picking the boys up from school on Tuesday because I was buying a wedding gift that afternoon and got hung up at the store a lot longer than I had planned. We’re supposed to pick them up by 4:00 and I didn’t get there until 4:10, but they know me well enough that they know I’m never late, so they hadn’t sent he boys to after care yet. The car line was just getting finished when I got there, and they had Tanner and Jared waiting in the hallway for me. I apologized to the teacher running the car line for being so late, but she was very good natured about it. I thought that was really nice of them!

Wednesday was the day we had the mysterious delayed opening at the schools. After we got all the kids to school, I got together with Rebecca & Marci for lunch. Before we went to lunch, Rebecca let me use her sewing machine, and I actually got my buttonholes done! Finally!!! I bought some lubricant to put on the needle that helps keep the thread from getting tangled up, and it worked. That evening I went to scouts with Scott so I could meet with the other scouts and see how they are doing on the Personal Management merit badge. I got a few things passed off with a couple of the boys, and one of them is actually almost done with the whole merit badge, but most of them have not been working on the things at home like they were supposed to be doing. That didn’t surprise me a whole lot, though! While I was talking to the boys individually, the rest of them were doing an activity and then practicing basketball. Tanner didn’t come because he’s decided he doesn’t want to play basketball, and he didn’t need to meet with me since we’ve been doing that at home. Jared didn’t go to scouts that night either because he had homework to finish.

One of the things we received when someone was doing 12 Days of Christmas for us in December was a gingerbread house kit. We didn’t have time to put it together then, so on Thursday evening the boys and I did that. I decided we’d make a Valentine’s house since it is a lot closer to that holiday. The kit came with a few decorations (including Hansel, Gretel, and the “witch”—she looks pretty pleasant to me) and I bought some Valentine candy to add to that. We had fun and I think it turned out cute! Scott did a good job with the frosting—it was very thick, so it was hard for me to squeeze out of the decorating tube. Scott took over that part for me!

Report cards came home this week. Jared did great; Scott and Tanner not as well, although neither of them got below a C. Scott says he knows he could have done better, and he’s mad at himself for that (which is good—I think he’ll put forth more effort this semester). Tanner just needs to be more organized, pay better attention, and put forth his best effort. We really do need to get him tested, I think. He just can’t seem to keep track of all his assignments. It’s frustrating to us and to him also, I’m sure.

Frank had some work to do on Friday, but it could all be done at home and a lot of it he had to do in the evening, so we decided to take turns going to the temple. I went first—I made it to the 12:00 noon session, and got back to Frederick just (barely) in time to pick up Jared from school on my way home. (Tanner was already home because he wasn’t feeling well—his stomach was giving him some problems. I picked him up from school right before I went to the temple.) Frank left for the temple shortly after I got home. He got home late because he ended up stopping to do some work for a client on the way back home. It has become more difficult to time temple trips now because they have decreased the number of sessions during the day on week days—now they are held every hour instead of every half hour. Kind of a bummer for us, but I can understand why they did it—there were still only 15 people in the session I went through. However, it was wonderful to be in the temple! I’ve done sealings or initiatories the last several times I’ve gone, so it’s been quite a few months since I went through an endowment session. I was reminded of how much I love that particular part of temple work.

The weather was actually pretty warm on Sunday, so the boys took Snickers for a walk. He got dirty, though, so Frank gave him a bath. He didn’t like that much. Can you tell? He looks so forlorn!

It got cold again and was quite frigid for most of the week, but today it has warmed up again. We are enjoying the warm days whenever we can get them!

Today has been busy with errands, helping the kids with homework, and working on scout stuff with the boys. Scott finished up his Personal Management merit badge and Tanner is almost done. Jared finished up the Family Member activity badge. We also worked on Citizenship in the World. Tanner is finishing up a book report project on Joseph Smith. I got the buttons sewed on my blouse, so I’m planning to wear it tomorrow—I’ll post a picture next week! Tonight Frank and I are going to a wedding reception. Actually, Frank is over at the church now helping get some of the food ready for that. There are two men in our ward who run a small catering business; they do the food for most of the ward activities and many wedding receptions, and Frank likes to help them. It’s the daughter of one of these men who got married today, so Frank offered to go help so that hopefully her dad will get to enjoy her wedding day more. Frank spent most of the morning working on computer stuff for a client, so he’s had a busy day also.

I need to get ready to go now, actually, so that's it for this week. I'm including a few pictures of Seth. The boys told him to "make a face"!

Temple Blessings

Next to this place...


...this is the place I love to be the most:

I was there today. I was reflecting on what this place has meant to me. Because today was an anniversary of sorts, you see. I remembered this morning when I was dropping the kids off at school--it's February 6th. Eight years ago today I had to go to the hospital to have a D&C, because 5 days earlier I had gone to one of my pre-natal appointments and was told that my unborn baby (my 4th child) had died. (I felt my heart pinch just a little bit when I remembered--I guess that will always happen.) The next day (February 7th) I started writing in a little journal because I needed a place to write down all my conflicting feelings. I had no idea then how much I'd be writing in there, and for how long! I made my last entry in there over 6 years later. In February 2001, I embarked on a long and painful journey.

But in this special place I experienced a miracle. In September 2005, I wrote this in that little journal:

"The most amazing thing has happened to me over the last several months! It happened so gradually that I'm nost sure when it really happened, but I know I'm a different person today than I was a year ago. Sometime last spring I realized that emotionally I was feeling a whole lot better. I wondered how that had happened, and immediately felt that it had to have something to do with my regular temple attendance over the last year. Things that used to hurt me weren't hurting so much anymore. I felt a real difference--it was different from the brief periods where I wasn't feeling so bad, which I have experienced over the years. If I had to describe how I've been feeling emotionally over the last 4 1/2 years, the analogy I'd use would be that of a person who keeps falling in a hole, over and over again. Every time I fell in, I would hit bottom, and boy would it hurt! After lying stunned at the bottom of the hole for a while, I would shake myself, get up, brush myself off, and start the long climb out. Usually I'd get almost to the top when I'd slip and fall all the way back down. I just couldn't get all the way out. But now I feel different. I FINALLY got all the way out of that hole, and I can tell that I'm not going to fall back in. It is the most wonderful feeling! I've been feeling so very grateful these last few months. I'd worked all this out in my mind, and then we got the July Ensign. James E. Faust wrote an article in there called "He Healeth the Broken In Heart," and in that article he talks about the things that are available to us to help us heal. The very first thing he lists is going to the temple. Speaking of the temple, he says "In these hallowed sanctuaries, God 'healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.'" I read that, and I knew that's exactly what has happened to me--I've been healed! The real miracle to me is that my trials have not changed, but I've been healed anyway. I still don't know if we'll ever have another child, or what is right for my family. I have not given up on the idea; it's still always out there, always in my conscience. But it's not hurting me the way it did. My prayers were not answered the way I wanted; I didn't get my miracle baby, but I've been healed anyway and that is the greatest miracle of all!"

Today I sat in the temple again, and I thought about that miracle again. I thought about many other sweet and tender experiences I've had within those walls since then. I also thought about how much my ancestors have blessed my life through their faithful temple service and through keeping their temple covenants--my parents first, of course. I also thought of some of the ones who have gone to the next life--all four of my grandparents, my Aunt Karen (I have her name) and my Uncle Laurence (my oldest son has his name). I know they loved the temple! I hoped that somehow they knew where I was today, and that I was thinking of them and feeling grateful to them. I fervently hoped that I will be a strong link in that chain--that I can pass on those same blessings to my children.

I love the temple because while I'm there I'm reminded of the incredible love Heavenly Father has for me and for all His children. I love the temple because this place was so vitally important to my own personal journey to come unto Christ.

I shed a lot of grateful tears in the temple today.

Weekly Reveiw January 31 '09

This week was all about snow days, as far as the kids were concerned. We had a few inches of snow on the ground Tuesday morning, it continued to snow off and on all day Tuesday, and then Tuesday night we got freezing rain, which put a coating of ice all over the snow. Because of all that, there was no school on Tuesday and Wednesday, and on Thursday there was a delayed opening. The roads really were pretty messy all those mornings, so it was nice that we didn’t have to go out. (And very nice to sleep in a little bit!) The boys enjoyed having a snowball fight on Tuesday, and sledding on Wednesday (the coating of ice over the snow made snow balls impossible on Wednesday).

I had book chat on Tuesday afternoon, and I was glad they decided to go ahead and hold it in spite of the weather, since I missed it the last couple of months. Besides, since the older kids were home, Seth didn’t miss his nap—I was able to leave him home, asleep, with them. Actually, Jared came with me so he could play with his friend Joseph—book chat was at Joseph’s house.

The boys helped me get chores done on the mornings they were here. I also gave Snickers a bath Tuesday morning, which traumatized him a bit, but he smells a lot better! Other than that, I spent too much time those days reading Eclipse. I finished it, though. I started Breaking Dawn, but I’m taking a break for a little while, so I probably won’t finish it any time soon. (It’s a long book!)

Back to Sunday, I think the baptism fireside went really well. The kids were very anxious to participate—all of the speakers (including me) asked questions as part of their talks. Afterwards, we had refreshments—we had a chocolate fountain with lots of cookies, pretzels, and fresh fruit to dip—yum!

Frank has been working really hard this week. He went to a new place on Monday and Wednesday—down in DC near the Capitol Building—and he got home really late those nights. We did a short family night Monday evening, but we still haven’t done the activity part.

The boys and I had dentist appointments Friday morning (so they missed more school—it took a few hours because our dentist is about 20 minutes away and there were four of us being seen!) Will they ever have a normal school week again? Well, there’s another big storm predicted to come in on Monday, so it’s not looking too good right now. It’s that time of year, though—they always have most of their snow days in January and February. Anyway, back to the dentist—it was mostly good news. Nobody has any cavities. Tanner just needs to go back to have a seal replaced. Since Frank needs to get a crown and Scott needs two wisdom teeth pulled, that is good news indeed! Oh, and the other good news is the hygienist told me my boys are “so polite” and “the nicest kids who come to our office.” It’s always nice to hear things like that!

Snickers is doing well—he seems to be adjusting to us and us to him. It is funny to see him bark at other people and he also gets very excited when we come home from somewhere. I guess he is starting to consider us his family! He has slept well in his crate every night this week—hooray! He is still kind of touch and go on the house breaking thing, but that’s pretty normal for a puppy his age. I call him my personal foot warmer because he likes to lie on my feet when he’s tired. Seth calls him “puppy” most of the time, but this week he has started calling him by his name. It’s very cute because he can’t really say it right, but I can tell that’s what he’s trying to say! I think Seth got cuter this week—really!

Tanner went to a sleep over party on Friday night. He was a little late getting there because I made him get caught up on some homework first. He also had to work on homework most of the day Saturday after he got home from the sleep over. The rest of us watched Iron Man Friday night. Scott played in a basketball game Saturday afternoon. They lost again, but not by very much, so they are getting better! Scott & Tanner’s friend Ryan came over for a few hours before the basketball game to play. We were trying to find out if he would be bothered by Snickers, because he is very allergic to dogs. However, we read that Maltese are a fairly hypo-allergenic breed. Ryan didn’t have any trouble (usually dogs make him wheeze) so I guess what we read is true. Now Ryan is bugging his parents to get him a Maltese!

In the evening we invited Jana Beck and her kids over to have pizza with us. Her husband was gone, so we thought they might be lonely! We also wanted Snickers to meet more people, and Jana brought her sewing machine for me to borrow. After dinner Jana showed me how the buttonhole feature on her sewing machine works. I tried to make the buttonholes on my blouse, but unfortunately the machine kept having problems. Some of my practice buttonholes came out great, but on others the thread got all knotted up. I finally got brave enough to try one on the blouse, but of course that one knotted up! Unpicking buttonholes is no small task, so I gave up at that point. I’m starting to feel like this blouse is cursed or something! I’ve been almost done with it for a couple of years, and I’ve been trying desperately to finish it for the last 2 months. If I ever do get it done, I will definitely post a picture of me in it!

After all that, we got to bed really late, so now it’s Sunday afternoon and I’m late getting this posted. Things were pretty crazy / busy in Primary today because we had several new teachers as well as a counselor and secretary called. Besides all that, we had one class with no-show teachers and a new family moving in with 3 Primary-aged children. So that was fun, but we survived and got a lot done!

I didn't get any pictures of the snow, but as a postscript to my post about winter, Scott and I took some pictures of the four cardinals in a tree outside our kitchen window this morning. We could see them a lot better than you can in the photograph, but hopefully you'll get the idea!

I’d like to take a nap now, but I’d better go get dinner ready instead!