Weekly Review May 15 '10

Did I say that nicer weather was here to stay? How wrong I was! Most of the days this week have felt more like late October than mid May, and we’ve barely seen the sun. It rained all day Tuesday, and we had a more rain on Thursday. So it’s been back to long sleeves and long pants for most of us. Friday was very warm and humid, though, and today it is breezy and pleasant.

I’ve felt pretty swamped with a lot of responsibilities this week. I had long lists of things to accomplish every day. Jared had to finish up his science fair project and of course he needed help—although I didn’t help as much as I’ve had to do in the past. His soccer practice was cancelled on Tuesday because of rain, which helped, and everyone had a 2 hour early release on Wednesday, which also gave him more time, but he still ended up staying home from scouts Wednesday evening to get everything finished. I think his display board ended up looking pretty nice, though. He put the board together by himself because I had to go help with one of the cub scout den meetings that evening.

I also had a lot of things to do for Primary—lots of decisions to make and plans to carry out. We are doing teacher appreciation the next two Sundays. We are going to put up two of those shoe holders with pockets on the Primary room doors, labeled with the teachers’ names, and we have sent out a letter to all the families with Primary children asking them to write notes of appreciation for their teachers and to put them in the pockets. We’re going to have note cards and pencils available for people to do it right then if they want, also. On the second Sunday we are also going to have a teacher appreciation luncheon right after church, along with a brief teacher development meeting. We asked for help from the families with the food for the luncheon, and we immediately got lots of offers for help, so that is great! Anyway, there has been a lot to plan and this week I’ve been busy labeling pockets, making posters, and writing 30 thank you notes! One of my counselors is preparing a small treat and note of thanks for the teachers for each of the two weeks that will be from our presidency, but I also feel the need to write a personal note of thanks from me. (We don’t have 30 teachers, by the way—that number also includes cub scout leaders, 11 year old scout leaders, activity days leaders, music people, and my counselors and secretary.) I think it is going to turn out really nice and I’m excited about it, but it’s taken a lot of time to prepare. I think we had about 20 e-mails going back and forth between my counselors and me on Monday alone! And oh yes—it’s my month for Sharing Time also, so I’ve been working on that too.

It seems like I had loads of errands to run this week, also. There were prescriptions to pick up, a box to mail, trips to the bank, photos to develop for Jared’s science fair project, and so forth. On Tuesday I went to get my driver’s license renewed. In Maryland we have to renew our licenses every 5 years. The first time you can do it online (if your driver record is satisfactory) but every 10 years you have to go in to take an eye test and get a new photo taken, and it is my year to do that. The renewal didn’t take long at all, but I did have to wait in line for a very long time before it was my turn. I am thrilled that the photograph turned out pretty decent, so I don’t have to be embarrassed by it for the next 10 years! While I was at the MVA, I picked up a driver’s handbook for Scott, who, as of today, is now old enough to get a permit, but needs to take a written test to get it. I don’t think that’s going to be too hard—he’s taken some sample tests online and he’s passed every time, without even studying. They are pretty easy! I need to get him signed up for a driver’s education course this summer. (They don’t teach it in the school system.)

Seth hasn’t had any “escapes” this week—thank goodness! The cold rainy weather has been a bit of a deterrent, I think. I’ve decided I really need to get serious about potty training him, so we’re going to be working on that the next couple of weeks. He doesn’t seem to mind sitting on the potty, but he is very resistant to the idea of wearing underwear, so I don’t know if we’ll get very far. With all of my other boys, the only way that worked was to go “cold turkey”. I’ve checked out some DVDs from the library for him to watch, though—I’m hoping that will help!

Mother’s Day was nice, by the way. I received cards from Frank and the boys Sunday morning. (I already had flowers and chocolate covered strawberries.) We had a nice Sacrament Meeting. I pondered a lot about the home I came from and how much my mom, as well as my dad, did to make our home about as perfect as it can be in this life! I always think of Aunt Karen on Mother’s Day also, because she was definitely a mother figure to me and had a big impact on me even though I didn’t get to see her very much. The YW came into Primary the last hour to help so that all the women could go to Relief Society. Apparently, everything went well—I haven’t heard any complaints or disaster stories since then! I enjoyed going to Relief Society and the lesson was good, but I did find myself starting to fidget near the end—I’m not used to sitting still for that long! I am thankful that I feel a part of Relief Society all the time, even though I have spent very little time the last 13 years attending Sunday Relief Society meetings. There is something really amazing about the Relief Society organization and how as women we help and lift each other. I guess I get that through visiting teaching, the women I work with in Primary, and the friendships I have with other women. I really don’t feel like I am missing out, being in Primary. It was nice to talk to Mom later that day also!!

Scott stayed home from school on Tuesday. He went to Seminary, but his stomach was feeling upset, so I let him come home after that. He wasn’t very sick, but he was kind of droopy and I think he just needed a day off. He slept most of the morning, so I think he was just worn out. He felt a lot better after that one day; he was able to go back to school on Wednesday and he’s been fine ever since.

We had the missionaries over for dinner on Thursday; we always enjoy having them here. They gave us a great lesson on the plan of salvation.

Jared had an optional field trip on Friday to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. Only the 6^th graders were allowed to go. We had to pick him up later because they got back at 3:30, and dismissal on Fridays is at 2:45. Jared said he enjoyed the field trip although the museum is, of course, a very sobering place. I asked him if it was disturbing, and he said “yes”! When I asked him what he learned, he said “The Nazis were monsters.” Tanner had his play Friday night also, so he didn’t get home until later. He had practices after school every day but Wednesday so he was very busy this week also. After the play was over, they had a cast party which he attended; I didn’t go pick him up until about 8:00. Meanwhile, Scott and Tanner’s friend Brian came over to spend the night.

This morning there was a service project for all the YM and YW, so we got an early start. They are doing some clean up in Catoctin Mountain National Park, which is about 15 minutes from here. They had to meet at the church at 7:15. Frank is helping cook lunch for all the youth, so he’s gone also. They will be done with the service project around 1:00, but on the way home Frank is taking Scott to meet with a park ranger at Cunningham Falls State Park to find out about a possible Eagle Scout project, so they won’t be back until later this afternoon.

Meanwhile, I went on a long walk with Snickers, another lady in our ward (Jenn Paul), and her two dogs. This family has agreed to watch Snickers for us while we are in Utah, so she wanted Snickers to get a chance to meet her two dogs and see how they interact with each other. She brought her dogs over to our neighborhood to walk on the paths over here. We thought it would be better for Snickers to meet them on his own turf first—but not at our house—so we met up with them out on the walking path. All of the dogs did very well together. Jenn says she is very pleased with how the dogs interacted; she thinks they will be just fine together! Tomorrow Snickers is going to their house with Frank & Tanner when they go over to home teach. While we were on the walk, Snickers rolled around in some dog poop so when we got home him went straight to the bath tub!

Jared’s friend Sage came over this morning also. Their soccer game is in less than an hour, so I will be taking them over to that. I don’t expect to see much of the game since Seth will be with me and he doesn’t sit and watch—he roams. Maybe he’ll surprise me, though.

Well, I need to eat lunch before the game and I have a long list of things to do afterwards, so I will post this and get going!

We’ll be on a plane in 4 weeks!

Weekly Review May 8 '10

Here's our photos for the week:

I didn't take this one, but I think it's sweet! (A little dark, though...)

Seth showing off his new shades and his new haircut

At the park--Seth's favorite place!

Chocolate covered strawberries--yum!!!

And flowers, too!

I said last week that I thought my post would be shorter, but it didn’t turn out to be much shorter, did it? So I’m not going to make any promises this time! It seems like there was less going on this week than last, but we still managed to keep very busy.

Seth and I had haircuts on Monday (I got my hair color done also) so that took a good portion of that day. Jared had soccer as usual on Tuesday. I took Snickers to the vet for a vaccine (actually, this particular medicine just gets squirted up his nose) on Friday. Frank and I went to a silent auction for the boys’ school on Friday evening, which included dinner, so it was our date for the week. We came home with the complete Percy Jackson series, a winter hat for Seth, a case for the PSP & games, and a little stuffed dog in its own crate with a few accessories, also for Seth. We got all of that for $42; since just the books were worth $35, I’d say that was a pretty good deal. We could have spent a lot more than that! Each of the classes did craft projects and put together at least 2 baskets to auction also, and a lot of those items went for pretty big amounts. One basket, which had movies and books, went for $410! Anyway, it was fun to get out for the evening, and the food was pretty good. Tanner joined the “tech crew” for the drama department at school so he stayed after school for a couple of hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to help with that. The play is next week, so they started dress rehearsals on Friday and he will have to attend rehearsals every day next week. I spent a lot of time on Thursday shopping—still in search of an appropriate dress for attending a wedding. I even went to the mall—that’s how desperate I was—but even old “stand bys” like JC Penney and Sears let me down. I did discover that Macy’s has a very nice petites section (just no semi formal clothing) so I guess the trip wasn’t a complete loss. I finished off at a place called Dress Barn, and I did buy a dress there although it wasn’t really what I had hoped to find. I also ordered another dress online to see if it will work. I think that’s all the things we did this week other than the usual.

I was able to get a lot of weeding done, with help from the boys, on Saturday evening. I’m glad we waited until evening because the temperatures cooled down quite a bit and it was actually pretty pleasant outside. We weeded in both front and back, and filled up two large bags. The yard looks much tidier, but the flower beds are quite bare since we cleaned out all the dead flowers. I need to buy some new flowers and get some mulch, also. We wanted to power wash the outside of the house and the deck this week, but Frank reminded me that we can’t use the outside faucet in the backyard (the pipe has a large leak; flooded our basement floor last time we tried to use it) so there’s not much point in renting a power washer until we can do both the front and the back. Frank was going to try to fix the pipe this week, but he ended up working almost all day every day, so he wasn’t able to do it.

Primary stuff has kept me busy, also. We are doing some special things for teacher appreciation this month, including a teacher appreciation luncheon / teacher development meeting. We also have a special sharing time at the end of the month, and we’ve been experimenting with seating arrangements and our Sunday schedule, so there has been a lot of things to plan and prepare for.

I finished the book for book chat (Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet); it was, indeed, a bittersweet story (mostly sweet, I think) and I enjoyed it very much. The story alternates between the early 1940’s and 1986, telling the story of a Chinese boy and a Japanese girl in Seattle. I also finished Harry Potter 6, so now I’m on to #7. I’m also reading a book about the Vietnam War that Scott checked out of the library for his report—that’s a part of history that I’ve always wanted to understand better than I do.

It seems like nicer weather is here to stay, and with that, my allergies are really starting to act up. At least I think it’s allergies. My throat is scratchy all the time, I have a cough, and my nose is running. My head has not been aching, at least, so I still feel pretty functional. Seth loves to be outside, so I’ve taken him out to the backyard to play in the sandbox as well as to the park. I’ve tried to take Snickers on some longer walks, also.

Speaking of Seth loving to be outside, he escaped again this week. This time it was in the evening, though, when we all were home, and no one realized he was gone until he came to the front door! He says he went to the park, and we found the back door open, so he must have gone out that way. (I was in the restroom, so I don’t feel as responsible this time, though!) We are going to have to buy some new locks or something if this keeps up! We are thankful, once again, that he was safe!

Here’s a few “Seth-isms”, while I’m on the topic of our youngest family member. His fascination with lawn mowers has not waned, and he is very interested in weed eaters and leaf blowers, as well. He has started to call weed eaters “mow weeders”, for some reason. He has adopted one of my vacuum’s attachments (a short, hard plastic tube that tapers a little on one end) as his “mow weeder”, and he loves to take it outside and “mow” the grass with it (making appropriate noises the whole time). He likes to carry it all over the house, as well. He has also started calling Oreo cookies “ice cream cookies” for some reason. His newest little trick is anytime someone tells him he can’t do something, he will say (if he is talking to me, for example) “But Daddy said I could have a cookie”. (If he’s talking to Frank, he says “But Mommy said I could…”) He is completely making it up, and it never works, but he keeps trying anyway! Who can fathom the mind of a two year old? He is in a clumsy stage and has three new bandaids on his knees / legs, just from this week!

Today we woke up to cloudy skies and I thought it was going to rain for sure, but it never did. We have had very strong winds all day, though. Jared’s friend Sage got here early—a little after 7:00—because his mom was working. I took Sage and Jared to their soccer game at noon; Sage’s mom met us there and took him home with her afterwards. Their game this week was very different from last week—Jared’s team won, 2-0, with both goals scored near the end of the second half. Jared played goalie the second half, also. Frank had his eyes checked and then he cleaned out both cars and took them to get washed. I’ve done scouts with the boys and Scott and Jared both worked on homework; Tanner mowed the lawn. Just a typical busy Saturday!

I’ve already had Mother’s Day presents—flowers and chocolate covered strawberries were both delivered on Friday. I feel very spoiled! I hope all the moms have a wonderful day tomorrow—especially mine! We’ll be in Utah for Father’s Day, which is now only 5 weeks away. We can’t wait!

Weekly Review May 1 '10

Can it really be May already? Where is this year going? This week was pretty busy, but there’s not a lot to write about unless I were going to go into a lot of unnecessary details. I’m not planning to do that, so maybe this post will be shorter than most.

I had long lists of things to do every day—a lot of it Primary stuff. I had a Presidency meeting Wednesday evening, so I was busy preparing for that, and then after Wednesday I was busy carrying out plans that we made at the meeting. I spent literally all of Thursday morning just sending out e-mails! So Primary issues have definitely been on my brain all week.

Homework took a large chunk of time this week also. Jared is busy with his science fair project. He had to choose a topic by last Friday; he’s decided to see what kind of bread (Italian, wheat, French, rye, or pumpernickel) molds the quickest. It’s a pretty simple project, thankfully, but when I checked his project time line on Monday to see what he needed to do next, I was shocked to discover that the entire project—display board, report, and all—has to be done by May 13^th! They usually have a lot more time to work on their projects than that. I was worried that we weren’t going to get mold to grow quick enough, so I was relieved when mold appeared on two of the different types of bread today!

While Jared was busy with the science fair all week, Tanner has been taking Science MSAs (standardized tests) and Scott has been working fast and furious on a research report for his English class. He didn’t do well in that class last semester at all, so he is trying to do a lot better. I hope he gets a good grade on his report because he certainly put in a lot of effort. He worked all afternoon on Wednesday finalizing his research (with a few “tantrums”; he wasn’t happy about how long it took) and all afternoon on Thursday writing his rough draft. He was supposed to type up his final draft during class on Friday, but there wasn’t enough time for most of the kids to get theirs done, so he was able to bring it home to finish. I read over the final product, and it sounds pretty good to me. His paper is about the Vietnam War; it went along with a book he read about that topic recently.

I got a little work done on Seth’s quiet book—not as much as I’d like, considering how soon his birthday will be here—but I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. There are 19 pages total, and I have all but 6 of them done. (And I’ve already done some of the work for all 6 of those pages.) I also started reading my book for book chat, which is very good so far, and have read a chapter of Harry Potter here and there (I’m in the 6^th book now). Besides that, I of course had the usual cleaning, laundry, and shopping to do along with soccer practice, scout stuff for the boys (the older two needed to choose what Merit Badge classes to sign up for to take at scout camp this summer), a trip to the book store to get a gift for one of Tanner’s friends, and trips to the library, the bank and the post office. Tanner went to a sleep over party for his friend Jonathan Friday night, and the missionaries came to dinner. Frank was very busy with work all week. He had a follow up appointment with the foot doctor on Thursday. His feet are both healing nicely and hopefully his next follow up visit will be his last one! So with all of that, you can imagine there has not been a dull moment.

In addition to all of the above, I have been trying to keep track of Seth, who has had a particularly busy week, as far as getting into mischief goes. He learned how to open the downstairs gate (which is still up not because we’re worried about him falling down the stairs but to keep him out of Frank’s office, Scott & Tanner’s room, and the laundry room—all places where he can get hurt or break something pretty easily—not to mention the back door, which he knows how to unlock and open), managed to get one of the kitchen chairs all the way upstairs all by himself (I was in the bathroom; I still don’t know how he did that!) and the kicker—he went for a walk without me. I had told him we’d take Snickers for a walk in a few minutes, but he decided to go right away. I heard the front door open (thankfully, the screen door squeaks) but by the time I got downstairs he was out of sight. It took me a minute to grab my shoes and keys, and then I went to the park first, thinking that was where he would go. It turns out he had gone in the opposite direction—to the walking path by the river—so it took me a long time to find him and he got pretty far. Ok, it probably only took me about 5 minutes in reality, but it seemed a lot longer to me as I ran all over calling to him and trying not to panic. I said a prayer in my head for help finding him, and that’s when the thought came to me that he may have gone to the walking path since I had said we were going for a walk. I headed that way, didn’t see him, and was about to head back to the park to look more carefully when I decided to bend down so I could see further up the path (there were tree branches obscuring the view) and there he was—way, way down the road!! When I got to him, I had to force myself to stay calm while I tried to explain to him why it is not ok for him to go on walks all by himself! He was quite unruffled: “I was not alone. Monster and I were on a walk. I stayed on the little street (the path) the whole time.” Yes, and thank goodness he stayed on the path, and didn’t wander into the river! I know I had help finding him, and I’m very, very thankful that angels were around him, protecting him. I’m grateful that it’s going to be one of those funny stories we tell about him the rest of his life because it could have been a family tragedy instead.

Seth knows now that he cannot leave the house without me, even if “Monster” is with him. I asked him this week what “Monster” looks like. He said he is blue. I asked if he was furry, and Seth said “No, just blue.” The funny thing about this imaginary friend is that sometimes he does things Seth doesn’t like. At the grocery store this week Seth kept telling monster to stop hitting him. And more than once when Seth is going to sleep at night, I’ve found him crying in his bed because “monster went away”! Now that Seth is almost 3, he has figured out how to have a tantrum. The last month or so he has gotten really angry a few times and just screamed and hit the table (or another hard surface). I can tell he is really frustrated! But it’s funny how I can say something like “if you don’t want to eat that, just say “no thank you”; you don’t need to scream and pound things” and usually he will calm right down. Besides all the things he’s learning that I don’t want him to learn (like how to open the gate and unlock doors) he is also making great strides in learning to ride his little bike. We took it outside Thursday evening and for the first time he actually seemed to be getting the hang of pedaling, and covered quite a bit of ground.

The weather has continued to be colder than usual, but it finally started to warm up a little on Thursday. Jared was outside riding his bike that evening, along with Seth. It was pleasant to be outside watching them, even in bare feet, which was nice for a change!

Frank, in spite of being so busy all week with work, found time to find and destroy the ant’s nest in the laundry room for me, as well as to set up a new computer for me. Not a brand new computer—just one that someone else doesn’t want--but unlike my current computer, the screen works. I am grateful for all that he does for our family!

Today Frank put in a full day’s work while I played chauffeur. I picked up Tanner from his party, along with his friend Ryan, and took Ryan home. I did scouts with all the boys (Jared finished up the Scholarship merit badge) and helped Scott get his homework done. (In addition to finishing his English paper, he also had a paper to finish for his Biology class.) Jared had his friend Sage come over to play for a few hours. They are on the same soccer team, so I took both of them to their soccer game at 2:00. (Scott and Tanner watched Seth for me.) It was an interesting game—the other team only had 6 players, but they still beat Jared’s team, 12-5. In spite of the fact that the other team was winning by several points, they still got very angry whenever they thought the referee made a bad call. One of the parents even came over and started yelling at the referee at one point. Jared took the whole thing in stride, as he always does. It’s very hot today—I’m glad I wasn’t running around in the sun! After dinner, when it cools down a bit, I plan to do some weeding while Scott mows the lawns. It’s May now, and this is the month I plan to work on cleaning up the yard.

That also means that we are coming to Utah next month—only 6 more weeks! Can you tell I’m counting down?!

Weekly Review April 24 '10

Seth got ahold of the camera this week and decided to take some pictures. He took *SEVERAL* photos of his own fingers, but a few turned out pretty well. Here's one he took of Snickers:

And here's one looking out our front door (you can see that most of the flowers are looking scraggly now):

Last, here's one I took of a couple of new tulips that showed up this week:

Well, I had a lot of things to get done when I left off last Saturday. I did manage to get everything done, but I had a little adventure with making the cookies. I’d forgotten that when I tried a new recipe last week (sausage popovers; they were really good), quite a bit of oil had dripped onto the bottom of the oven. I already had the dough mixed most of the way up and the oven was pre-heating when I noticed the room was getting smoky. I immediately remembered the spilled oil, but since I’d already made the cookie dough, I didn’t want to quit. We had to open all the windows and disconnect the smoke alarms all over the house while we baked the cookies; there was pretty thick smoke coming out of the oven the whole time. The cookies turned out delicious anyway, thank goodness! On Monday I cleaned the oven because I wanted to try another new recipe for family night treat—chocolate turtle cake. It turned out yummy, also. I skipped making rolls on Sunday, though—we had store bought bread instead.

Sunday was a busy day. Frank’s feet were hurting him quite a bit, but he went to church anyway and stayed for the first 2 hours. Scott was ordained as the Teacher’s Quorum president at the beginning of the 3^rd hour, but after that Frank went home. I had a visiting teaching appointment right after church and then two visits with Primary children after that. We had some good visits. We haven’t seen either of the families we visited at church much lately, so it was good to touch base with them. At the first house, when it was time to go, the 9 year old little girl said “I don’t want you to go yet” and gave both of us hugs—it was very sweet! After I got home, we had dinner and family night. I was tired that night, but I felt like it was a very productive day.

Monday was also busy—I spent a lot of time getting caught up on Primary things in addition to the already mentioned oven cleaning and my regular jobs (grocery shopping, laundry, vacuuming). Frank did not have a very busy week last week, but starting on Monday, he has been very busy again, working long hours every day. He didn’t get home until pretty late on Monday evening, so the boys and I had family night activity without him. We played some bowling on Wii sports, but we only did one game because it was one of those nights where the boys were all bickering, and I couldn’t stand it any longer. It seems like we had a lot of nights like that this week!

The busy trend continued on Tuesday—I had book chat in the early afternoon, the older two boys had to meet at the church at 4:45 for a temple trip, and Jared had soccer practice at 5:30. Fortunately, Frank got home just in time for me to take Jared to his practice, so I didn’t have to take Seth with me. That was nice because I got to sit in the car (it was windy and chilly) and read the whole practice—peace and quiet!! At book chat, we had a very nice discussion about Man’s Search for Meaning. Now we are going to read a book called The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It sounds interesting, but I haven’t been able to get it from the library yet. Scott and Tanner enjoyed their trip to the temple, but they didn’t get home until 11:00. Scott tried to get up for Seminary the next morning, but he just couldn’t do it, so he missed Seminary that day.

I had a visiting teaching appointment Wednesday morning and Tanner had a check up that afternoon. He also had to get shots, but only 3 instead of 4. He got out of getting the chicken pox booster since he had shingles 5 years ago. I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time at doctor’s visits lately!

On Thursday I went to help my friend with her one month old twins. It was really fun to cuddle with some little babies for a few hours! They mostly took turns being awake, so I got to hold one or the other of them the whole time I was there. My friend was able to get a one hour nap and I got both babies asleep right before I left, so I felt like I did my job! As I was leaving, I got a call from the school nurse—Jared and another child had bumped heads and Jared got a fairly deep cut on his ear, of all places. When the nurse called, she said they were having a hard time getting the bleeding to stop, but by the time I got there they had managed to get a butterfly bandage on it and the bleeding had stopped. I’m glad Jared is ok, and I’m also glad that he timed his injury so well—if he’d done it a couple of hours earlier, I would have had to leave my friend without help. While I was helping with the babies, Seth stayed with his friend Henry (son of Tammy, one of my counselors). I don’t think I’ve ever left him that long with anyone before (4 hours), so I wasn’t sure how he’d handle it, but he did great!

Friday was our 18^th Anniversary. We celebrated by going out to dinner, and then we did some shopping. One of the things I was looking for was a dress that would be appropriate for attending a wedding—Frank’s boss’s daughter is getting married next month. The only semi-formal dress I own is black, which I didn’t think would be appropriate for a wedding. I didn’t find what I was looking for, though, for several reasons. For one thing, casual knit dresses seem to be all that is “in fashion” right now. For another thing, pretty much every semi-formal dress I found was sleeveless. For another thing, dark colors seem to be really in fashion also. Practically every dress I saw (semi-formal or casual) was black or some other dark color. Doesn’t anyone go to weddings anymore?! Anyway, even though I couldn’t find what I was looking for, we had a fun time and Frank was a real trooper for going shopping (especially with his sore feet). Tanner went to spend the night with his friend Ryan that night, and in the morning they went together to do some yard work for a member of our ward. He didn’t get home until late afternoon, but he earned $50 to help pay for scout camp.

Saturday morning I had auxiliary training meeting with our stake leaders. I’m not usually too enthused about going to these meetings, but this one was excellent! One of the counselors in our stake presidency gave a great talk, and then we divided up and all the Primary presidencies met together. We have a brand new stake Primary presidency, so this was the first chance we had to meet them. Each of them did a short presentation and all of them were fabulous. This new presidency is going to do a wonderful job, I can tell! I came home with a lot to think about. Then that evening I read a whole bunch of conference talks that I’d been asked to read for Ward Council Sunday morning (I didn’t find out which talks I was supposed to read until that day) and reading several talks in a row, combined with what I’d heard that morning at the meeting had the effect of just knocking me in the face with some things I need to do. (But a good knock in the face, really!) The message I got loud and clear, is that it’s going to get harder and harder to make the right choices as time goes on, and that it’s vital that the children and youth become strong enough to stand on their own two feet and make the right choices, no matter what. They need to be strengthened, and they need to be given responsibility. I feel a huge responsibility, as a mother and a leader, to make sure that I help them become stronger. And not just the Primary children and my own children, either—I need to be helping all the youth that I know. So I’ve had a lot to think about and ponder since then. I already know a lot of things that I need to start doing.

Meanwhile, Jared had a soccer game Saturday afternoon. The game ended in a tie, 4-4. Frank took him to his game and I stayed home with Seth. We’ve decided to trade off going to his games because Seth runs all over the place and doesn’t really allow us to watch the game if he’s there. I was glad it was Frank’s turn this week because the weather was even colder and wetter than last week.

I had Ward Council Sunday morning, and we started earlier than usual—at 9:00. It was a very good meeting; very inspiring. The choir sang in sacrament meeting and we did something different. We had a “congregational choir”. Those of us who attend practices had practiced “We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet”, but when we got up to sing, we invited anyone in the congregation who wanted to sing to join us. We sang parts the first two verses and unison the last verse, and there was some original accompaniment on the last verse also so it was unique, but not so complicated that those who hadn’t practiced couldn’t follow along. It turned out great—we had a huge number of people join us, including the entire bishopric and quite a few Primary children. Our director says we’ll probably do that about once a quarter. I think it’s a great idea because there are a lot of people who want to sing in choir who can’t make it to the practices for various reasons.

Scott had BYC after church, so I waited to give him a ride home. Our home teachers came to visit us in the afternoon, and in the evening Frank and I went to a stake fireside on strengthening the family, so we were going most of the day. We had a pretty decent thunderstorm last night and today it is still raining. Maybe some day the weather will warm up! We can always use rain, though, so I’m not complaining much.

Frank’s feet have been improving all week and they are definitely much better now than they were a week ago. It’s a blessing that he wasn’t so busy last week when they were really hurting him, and it’s a blessing that he’s busy again now, to make up for last week! We’ve had some rain this week and the weather has mostly been colder—I’ve had to wear long pants and long sleeves most days, although a few days have made it up to the low 70’s. Unfortunately, the colder temperatures seem to have led to an ant invasion at our house. They got into the basement somehow (I don’t normally see ants down there, although I have seen them on the main floor.) and got into the laundry room. When I was doing laundry on Tuesday, I discovered ants and their larvae in the basket of clean clothes! I had to wash two batches all over again. I sprayed for ants all along the floor by the wall, so hopefully we won’t have that problem again.

You’ve probably figured out that I didn’t get this posted on Saturday—It’s Monday now and I have piles of things to do, so I’d better get going. Congratulation to Anna on her engagement!! It was very fun to get Erick’s phone call last night. We look forward to meeting her future husband when we are in Utah, which will be in only 7 more weeks!!

Weekly Review April 17 '10

I'll start this week with a couple of photos of the same tree. This one was taken on April 2nd.

I took this one on April 5th, because all of the sudden the tree had green leaves as well as flowers:

One of the benefits of getting up really early to take Scott to Seminary is that the world is beautiful at that time of the morning. I've seen a lot of gorgeous sunrises this last year. The photo below was taken a little later in the morning, after I dropped him off at school. I just thought the early sunlight looked beautiful!

My irises started blooming last week; now I have a lot of them.

All of the daffodils and most of the tulips are wilting or completely dead now, but a few late bloomers showed up this week, like this dark pink one:

And these four peach ones:

Here is Jared in his new soccer shirt. I'm glad he got a color this year that he hasn't had yet, and I think it's a nice color, too:

I made him do a more normal pose after the first photo:

And here's Seth, who saw me taking pictures of Jared and cried "my turn next!" He tried to make a silly pose like he'd seen Jared doing!

Now, on with this week's events....

I was really happy with the way Sharing Time went for the older kids this Sunday. We were talking about the 1^st Vision, so for a change of pace I asked the missionaries to come in to teach the kids. They did a great job! After they were done I asked the kids a couple of questions and I got such wonderful, thoughtful answers. It was obvious they had felt the spirit and that they were having a meaningful experience. Then the child who said the closing prayer gave this beautiful prayer, referring back to the lesson—not the usual help-us-get-home-safely 20 second prayer! I really love it when that happens!

Frank was working from home all day Monday, so he took me to lunch. We went to a Mexican restaurant—Frank had been there before, but I hadn’t. It was yummy! For family night we went for a walk, stopping at the park to play. Seth loved that!

We are still having a temperamental spring—we had several chilly and / or wet days and a couple of beautiful days. Tuesday was one of the wet and chilly days. One of my visiting teachers came to see me that afternoon. (The other one had twins one month ago, so she didn’t come this time!) Seth enjoyed playing with my visiting teacher’s two boys who are both close to his age—one a little older, the other a little younger than him. Jared’s soccer practice was cancelled that evening because of the rain.

I did a lot of shopping on Wednesday—besides the usual Wal-Mart trip, I also went to JoAnn’s to get some things for Seth’s quiet book and to the grocery store, since I knew I was going to be busy on Thursday (that’s when I usually go to the grocery store). Seth prefers to walk around stores these days instead of riding in the cart, and since he is getting a lot better at staying with me and not getting into things, I usually let him walk. When I was checking out at the grocery store, though, I was in the self check out line, and in the middle of my transaction the lane started to shut down. I couldn’t figure it out until I noticed Seth was opening up a panel that said “Emergency Shut Down Switch”! That little monkey! I was almost done checking out, but I had to start over.

Frank had surgery on his feet on Wednesday afternoon to get both warts removed completely. They really had to cut deep, so he’s been pretty sore since then. I really hope they got rid of them completely and that he’s done with this process! Not just so he won’t be in pain anymore, but also because all these visits to a specialist, plus medication (he’s on a pain killer and an antibiotic now), have been very expensive! Thankfully, he has been able to work in spite of the discomfort. I made the scout / YM run that night, though.

On Thursday I met with my two counselors to finish filling eggs for our Primary Easter egg hunt. Because rain was in the forecast again for Friday evening / Saturday morning, we decided we were going to have to move our activity to the church (we were going to have it at a farm if the weather had cooperated). That meant we had to adjust plans a bit, so I spent a lot of the afternoon sending e-mails back and forth and making phone calls, but we got it all worked out.

Last year I got some black jelly beans for Easter and Seth actually liked them! This year I couldn’t find any black jelly beans, much to my great disappointment. But Frank, being the wonderful husband that he is, heard me lamenting the lack of black jelly beans and surprised me on Easter with a bag of black licorice twists. I wasn’t sure if Seth would still like black licorice, but I tried him, and he does. I was getting a piece out the other day, and Seth said “I want one of those black things.” Smart boy!

I’m not sure if it’s the increased dosage of his medication, or just becoming a teenager, but Tanner has been a lot more irritable lately. I’ve really noticed because he is usually patient and a peace maker. It has really made a difference in the level of contention in our home, I’m afraid. I hope this phase doesn’t last long, but I guess he has the right to be a grumpy teenager once in a while! He had an exciting week at school—his math / science teacher had a baby girl, and his language arts / social studies teacher got a call that her mom was dying and she needed to come right away—both on the same day!

Yesterday was warm, sunny, breezy, and beautiful. I spent most of the day catching up the budget and doing last minute preparations for the Easter activity. The evening ended up being pretty hectic because Frank didn’t get home from work until after 6:30, Jared had a make up soccer practice at 6:00, Scott had been invited to spend the night with his friend Ryan, and Tanner had a sleep over party for his friend Ari (from church) at 7:00 and we still needed to buy a gift. I packed everyone in the car, dropped Jared off at his practice, took Scott to Ryan’s, and then went back to the practice to wait for it to end. I tried to read (I’ve finished Harry Potter 4 and have moved on to 5 now) while Seth climbed happily all over inside the car and Tanner played on the Nintendo DS. The weather was threatening thunderstorm the whole time (we had one go through earlier that afternoon), but in spite of pretty high winds and a few distant rumbles of thunder, the rain held off, and the practice went on. (We had more rain later in the evening.) As a matter of fact, the practice ended late, much to the annoyance of Tanner, who was late to his party. Frank was home by then, so I dropped Seth and Jared off at home, and Tanner and I went on to Ari’s party, stopping at Wal-Mart on the way to get a card and gift. They also had Easter stuff on clearance for 75% off, so we scored a solid Dove chocolate Easter bunny for 94 cents (I gave it to Frank as consolation for his hurt feet) and next year’s egg dye kit for 10 cents. After I dropped Tanner off, I stopped to talk to my friend Rebecca, who was out working in her yard when I drove by, so I got home later than I’d planned. By then, Seth had fallen asleep on Frank’s lap, and I was tired too!

Today has also been very busy. The Easter egg hunt was at 10:00. I got to the church about 8:45 to help set up. That went smoothly—we got all the eggs hidden and everything else set up with over 20 minutes to spare. Some kids actually showed up early and by starting time we had a good crowd—one of the advantages of holding an egg hunt is that everyone knows they need to be on time or they won’t get any eggs! We had a fairly small crowd, for us—I think about 40 kids showed up. We divided into groups according to age and went to classrooms to hold short Easter lessons. I got the Nursery & Sunbeam age group. After the lesson, we moved to another room where the eggs were hidden. We had different rooms for hunting for each age group, also. It was funny to watch the little kids hunt for eggs. Some of them figured out what to do immediately—started scooping eggs into their baskets at top rate! Others (like Seth) meandered around, distracted by the amazing sight of all those colorful eggs, and picking up an egg only now and again. I think Seth’s friend from nursery, Camilla, had 10 eggs in her basket before Seth had even picked up one! There were plenty of eggs, however, so even the slow ones got a nice amount. After finding all the eggs (I helped them find a few stragglers), we went back to the gym where the kids emptied the contents of their eggs into their baskets and returned the plastic eggs, since we use them every year. They also redeemed all their “prize” coupons. We had purchased a few toys and pieces of candy that were too big for eggs and put prize coupons in eggs instead. The coupons were color-coded so depending on the color of the coupon, they got to pick out a prize out of a certain basket. Most of the kids really seemed to like that. After that, we were done—everyone went home! We were completely cleaned up and out of there by 11:30. One thing that really helped me was that Scott came to help out with Seth. Frank wasn’t feeling up to it with his sore feet, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to focus on Seth, so Scott came along as a “surrogate parent”.

By the way, at the activity I had a chance to meet a new family who just moved into our ward from Boston. I was particularly interested in meeting them since their last name is Hatch. I found out that his name is Steve and he’s from Utah, not Arizona, but that’s as far as we got. I’ll have to find out his father’s and grandfather’s names someday. We agreed that we are probably related somehow, although probably pretty distantly. Anyway, they are a nice little family with two young boys.

After we got home, I took Seth to the park for a little while until it was time to take Jared to his 1:00 soccer game. Seth stayed at the park with Scott, but I took Snickers with us to the game. We ended up being there longer than expected because somewhere along the line they had got really behind, so the game before us didn’t end until 1:30. I took Snickers on a long walk around the park while we waited for the game to start. It was very windy and not very warm, so it was too chilly to just sit there. When the sun came out, it wasn’t too bad, but when the clouds covered the sun it got pretty cold. The game went well, however. Jared’s team won, 4-0, with Jared kicking one of the goals. He is on the same team as last season; his coach and most of the kids on the team are the same. However, they looked like a completely different set of kids. Last season they really struggled and never seemed to get the hang of playing together, but today they showed remarkable team work, with lots of good passes to each other, and it paid off. Hopefully, the rest of the season will go just as well.

By the time we got home from the game, Tanner was home also. He had a deacon’s quorum service project at the same house as the party, and they fed them lunch, so he didn’t get home until about 1:30. Now Scott is at a stake youth dinner / dance activity. He has never chosen to go to a dance before, so I was surprised when he decided to go to this one. I hope he will have a fun time and will be more social in the future.

This evening I plan to make cookies to give to the ladies in our ward who usually host the Easter egg hunt at their farm, as a thank you. It didn’t end up raining this morning as predicted, so I feel kind of bad that we moved the activity to the church, especially since I know they look forward to having the Primary kids over every year and I know they were really disappointed when we made the decision to move it. I don’t regret doing the activity indoors—I think it still would have been pretty windy and chilly at the farm—but I would have felt a lot better about it if it had poured down rain! It’s really hard to predict these things, though. Besides making cookies, I also need to give baths to Seth and Snickers (NOT together!) and sweep & mop all the floors, so I have a lot to do before I can go to bed and I’d better get going.

Only 8 more weeks until we will be in Utah!

Weekly Review April 10 '10

Saturday evening, Frank and the oldest two boys went to the priesthood session of General Conference. They had a little activity for the YM and their fathers at the church before the session started—they did a free throw contest and ate ice cream sundaes. Scott came home from the meeting and told me that one of the counselors in the bishopric had pulled him aside and asked him to be the new Teacher’s Quorum president. I think he will be sustained tomorrow. While they were gone to their meeting, the younger two boys and I watched a movie together.

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer Easter. The weather was perfect! Sorry those of you in Utah got snow—we woke up to sunshine and very warm temperatures. The daffodils and tulips in the front yard were all in bloom. It was beautiful!! As always, the Easter bunny brought us tons of candy. We each had a basket on the table, and it was fun to see Seth’s reaction when he came downstairs. He was chattering away, but when he spotted the table he stopped mid-sentence, and said “Hey! That’s Easter over there!” The boys tried to convince him that the Easter bunny brought the candy, but he’s far too wise for that. When they asked him where his chocolate bunny came from, he said “the grocery store.” When they said “Did the Easter bunny bring you that candy?” he said “No, she did!”, pointing at me. It was pretty funny. We had a wonderful day relaxing, listening to General Conference, and enjoying a delicious Easter meal. We have so much, and we are grateful!!

The boys were out of school on Monday; it was the last day of their Spring Break. It was beautiful weather again (actually, a little on the hot side) so they were able to play outside as well as in. Jared had an orthodontist appointment that afternoon—it was a consultation to decide what steps we need to take next. His mouth is a big mess—he has a small mouth and large teeth!! He has four adult teeth that haven’t come in yet because there isn’t any room for them to come in. So the orthodontist determined that he needs to have two more baby teeth fall out (they are loose already) and then he will probably have to have 4 adult teeth pulled so that the other teeth can come in. He said he will probably be ready for braces the end of this year or early next year. I am starting to save up already! After we got home and had dinner, we played speed Uno and ate ice cream for family night.

It was back to work and school as usual on Tuesday. Jared had his first soccer practice of the season that afternoon. He has the same coach as last season, and a lot of the same kids are on his team as well, including his best friend from school, Sage. I’m not sure if that is good or bad, since his team didn’t do so well last season! That evening one of my good friends called Frank and asked him to help her set up a new laptop she just purchased. Seth and I went with him (Seth had taken a very late nap, so we knew he was going to be up late anyway). While Frank worked on the computer my friend and I talked—she has been going through some really horrible things lately and was having a particularly bad day. I was so sorry to hear about the way her life has been going; I knew things weren’t great, but they are much worse than I had imagined. I’m glad we ended up going over there, though—I really think she needed to talk and get some things off her chest. On Wednesday we met at the park for lunch and so our kids could play, and we were able to talk some more. She seemed to be doing a little better that day. I really admire her for the courage she is showing in a very difficult situation. Wednesday evening the boys had scouts as usual, and I had a Primary presidency meeting.

Tanner had a field trip to Annapolis on Thursday. They visited the state capitol building, the Naval Academy, and went on a harbor cruise. He had a fun time, but came home exhausted. He and Frank went home teaching that evening. We had kind of a funny incident happen that morning when I was taking the boys to school. Jared took Seth out with him to get the car started, as he often does, but this time he came back inside the house to get something, and the crazy boy left Seth out in the car by himself, not even buckled into his car seat. Seth climbed into the front seat, locked the doors, and proceeded to turn on the hazard lights, the windshield wipers, and kept pushing the button to wash the windows, heedless of our petitions to unlock the door! It was frustrating, but I couldn’t help laughing also. He went all the way through the windshield washer fluid before we managed to get the door unlocked; I kind of lost my head and was trying to remember the code to unlock the door (dodging windshield wiper fluid, since it was spraying everywhere)—I forgot that Frank has a set of keys that he doesn’t take with him when he’s not driving that car!! Tanner remembered before I did. I’m just thankful Seth didn’t figure out how to put the car in gear—that would NOT have been so funny!

We had a cold front come in Thursday evening, which means we got some rain. We didn’t get the predicted thunderstorms, though. Friday was significantly cooler than the day before—it was actually pretty chilly (never got above the high 50’s, and windy) which was a big change from the 90’s we’d been enjoying up until then. I spent all day Friday, while the kids were at school, getting caught up on a lot of little things that have been piling up. Frank and I had planned to go to the temple that night, but he wasn’t feeling well. He had a bad headache and chills all day long. He took a nap in the late afternoon and after that he started to feel a little bit better. The oldest two boys went to spend the night with their friend Ryan. We got Seth to sleep and then Jared, Frank and I watched New Moon (we rented it). I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would—I remember the book was kind of annoying!

It’s still pretty chilly today, although not as windy. Scott and Tanner spent the morning doing yard work for a ward member to help earn money for scout camp. Scott mowed our lawn, as well. I’ve been busy getting some things ready for Primary—I’m doing Sharing Time tomorrow for one of my counselors who is out of town. I also made copies of flyers for our Easter egg hunt, and had to find someone to play the piano since our pianist’s one month old son had to have surgery today. (Not too serious, thankfully, and he came through the surgery fine.) Now it is very quiet because Frank took the 3 older boys to see Avatar at the dollar theater and Seth fell asleep at 5:00—I hope he doesn’t wake up at 1:00 am, ready to start the day!! I got the floors cleaned and now I am going to watch the first half of The Two Towers. Frank and the boys won’t be back until pretty late.

I spent some time organizing the kitchen this week—I’m still not done, but I’m making progress. One of the things I still want to do is create some kind of recipe index for all the recipes I use the most. Then when I am planning meals, I can just consult the index for ideas instead of thumbing through all the cook books. I got a lot of work done on Seth’s quiet book—I worked on that while I listened to Conference; it was the perfect project since I could be attentive, but it helped me stay awake! I also read all of Man’s Search for Meaning—great book; I highly recommend it—and I’m well into the 4^th Harry Potter book. Seth and I also spent a lot of time at the park. He loves to go there! The days that we had temperatures in the 90’s felt more like summer than spring.

Speaking of being at the park, I get such a kick out of kids! One of the days that we were at the park there were a lot of other preschool kids there. I heard one little boy say (with a smile on his face) “There’s a monster over there!” Then another little boy came running over with a piece of mulch in his hand and said (very excited and with wonder in his tone) “Look! I found a dinosaur bone!!” That really tickled my funny bone. Speaking of monsters, Seth imagines monsters all over the place, but they are all his friends and he talks to them. “Come on monster” he’ll say, “let’s go upstairs!”

My tulips and daffodils are dying already (I think they would have lasted longer if it hadn’t been so hot) so the yard doesn’t look so nice now. But the first couple of iris bloomed this week, so that part of the yard looks pretty.

Happy Birthday to Taran and Julia!

Oh What a Difference 8 Weeks Can Make!

Our house on February 11, 2010:

Our house on April 4, 2010:

All I can say is: WOW!!!