Weekly Review June 5 '10

Seth is mesmerized by...

t...the recycle truck! (Sorry for the screen door marks. I didn't want to break his concentration by opening the door!) I had to get a photo because he hardly ever sits still for this long.

Mowing the lawn can be so exhausting!

Tanner with his recyclables creation (for art class)--a castle!

Last Saturday didn’t turn out to be all that quiet and restful—my sharing time preparations took a lot longer than I though they would, so I barely got every thing done. I think sharing time went pretty well on Sunday. I discovered a problem late Saturday night and I wasn’t sure how I was going to solve it, but I prayed that I would figure something out, and then I dreamed the answer! I woke up Sunday morning, remembered my dream, and thought “I bet that will actually work!” And it did! I also wore my new dress to church—the one I bought for the wedding—might as well get some use out of it! And I got a lot of compliments--mostly about how it’s a good color on me because it brings out the color of my eyes. Jared and I were the only ones who went to church. Frank, Scott, and Tanner were still sick (although the boys were starting to feel better) and I didn’t want to wrestle with Seth or spread our illness around the nursery (I still wasn’t sure if Seth was going to come down with it) so I left Seth home with the sick ones. As a result, I got a lot more out of Sacrament Meeting than usual, and one of the talks was particularly inspiring—I heard some things I really needed to hear. The spirit was really speaking to me personally about things I can do to meet some of the challenges I’m currently facing. I love it when that happens!

The rest of the week has been busy, busy. I sat down on Monday and made a schedule of the next 2 weeks to make sure I get everything done that needs to be done. That schedule looks pretty daunting, too, but I did manage to stick to it this week.

Everyone was home on Monday for Memorial Day. We didn’t do anything too exciting since Frank and the older boys were still not feeling 100% their best. They definitely were improving by then, though, and everyone was able to return to school and work on Tuesday. The boys got caught up on homework and we did some things for scouts. We grilled some bratwurst and hot dogs for dinner and enjoyed that along with chips and watermelon. It would have been more fun if we had invited someone over to share it with us, but I was glad we hadn’t tried to do that with all the illness going around.

Tuesday was busy with phone calls, e-mails, a trip to the library, and soccer practice. I have a new visiting teaching companion and all new people to visit starting this month and since I’ll be gone a good part of June, I knew I’d better make appointments right away. Frank went to work really early (got there at 4:00 am) but he did not get home early as he had hoped. Some emergencies came up with a couple of clients, and since one of the other IT techs is on his honeymoon (the wedding we missed) they are short a man this week. He was going to try to take Scott to get his learner’s permit that afternoon, but he didn’t get home in time to do that. At the library, I got the book for book chat this month which is called Life Is So Good. It looks like a good book, but I doubt I’m going to have time to read the whole thing before we leave. I don’t dare take it with me because even though I can go online to renew books, if there are any “holds” placed on the book, it won’t allow me to renew it.

Frank came with me to Wal-Mart Wednesday morning. I’m glad he did, because I had a long list and Seth wasn’t feeling very cooperative. I actually had a very short food list, but needed to get a lot of other non-food items such as luggage for our trip and some shorts & shirts for Seth. It took a lot longer than usual. We got an oil change for the Expedition also. I got Scott signed up for a driver’s education class; he’s going to do that in July. (They don’t offer driver’s education in the public schools here; you have to sign them up for a class with a private company. And yes, it’s not cheap!) The boys had scouts that evening. They are going to miss a Court of Honor while we’re gone, so I was getting blue cards filled out for the merit badges they’ve completed so at least they will get the merit badges, even though they won’t be there to receive their awards.

Thursday I spent a good part of the day helping my friend Alisa—she’s the one who has new twin babies. They are a couple of months old now, smiling, and oh so cute! The little boy is quite a bit “chunkier” than his sister now. Seth stayed with his friend Henry again and he had a great time. That evening I had a leadership training meeting at the stake center with a member of the Quorum of the Seventy—Elder Johnson. He’s from England and has a fun accent! He told some amazing stories and the whole meeting was very inspiring. Thursday was field day for Jared and Tanner. The middle school students plan and run the whole thing, so Tanner was running a station all day. Jared said it was a lot of fun, but it was also very hot and humid, so they were both very tired by the time they got home.

Yesterday I took the Expedition to get emissions tested—it passed. Then I went shopping again—I needed to get some things for Jared, who had a camp out that night. Tanner had his 8^th Grade trip—they went to the American History Museum (Smithsonian) and then on a Potomac River Cruise. Two days in a row for Tanner of fun stuff! I’m sure he’s learning a whole lot at this point! He got back late—about 7:30. He said it was fun, but the dinner buffet was open for only about a half hour, so he didn’t get as much to eat as he would have liked. Scott went to sleep over at his friend Ryan’s house, and Jared was on his camp out, so we had a pretty quiet house. I stayed up late watching “You’ve Got Mail”—I got that movie for Christmas, and that’s the first chance I’ve had to watch it. Tanner wasn’t too enthusiastic about watching it, but by halfway through he was totally hooked and laughing at all the funny conversations. He stayed up to watch the end with me, but Frank was exhausted so he went to bed not long after the movie started.

It’s quiet this morning, too—Tanner’s not awake yet and we won’t be picking up Scott or Jared until later. Frank and I both got our exercise time in. I have a long list of things to get done today, so I’d better get this posted and go take a shower!

Erick & Liz, Seth LOVED the e-card you sent him! He asked to watch it a couple of times. So when are you going to post photos of Alaska on your blog? Or are you just going to bring them all with you to Utah so we can see them? It’s hard to believe we’ll be on a plane one week from today!

Weekly Review May 29 '10

Birthday presents!

From Grandpa & Grandma

Seth loves Thomas!

Mowing the lawn

Licking the beater

Playing with his Leapfrog Text & Learn

The cake! Seth picked out chocolate cake with chocolate frosting--smart boy!

Birthday bliss!

This has been a pretty crazy week. It started out with Sunday not being much of a day of rest. I had ward council at 9:00, and it was go, go, go from there! Immediately after church, we had our teacher appreciation luncheon / teacher development meeting. Almost all the teachers came, the food was great, and one of my counselors gave a wonderful little lesson for the teachers so I’d say it was a great success. I was really happy with how it turned out. I think everyone’s favorite part of the lesson was the little video my counselor put together of most of the Primary kids telling us what they like about their teacher, including outtakes at the end. It was very sweet and cute! By the time the luncheon was over and we cleaned up, I had to rush home—Frank was already late for a home teaching appointment. I got dinner made and we ate, and then I took Scott to a youth conference fireside. I took one of his friends home afterwards (his mom had another meeting) so by the time we got home it was about 9:00. Long day!

Back to last Saturday--it was busy also. Jared's team won their soccer game 4-1. It was a good game; I saw a lot of great team work and everyone played HARD the whole game. Our ward picnic went well, although I was very tired and ready to come home by the time it was over. Frank was helping people cook the whole time, which left me to watch Seth and Snickers by myself. (We took Snickers with us so he wouldn't be locked in his crate all afternoon.) We did get rained on a few times, but never very hard. There was a rousing game of rugby going on most of the time, which kept Scott busy. Scott and Jared both got injured--Jared fell off some play equipment right onto his back and knocked all the air out of his lungs. He says his back still hurts (a week later). Scott tripped over the rope that marks the boundry for the parking lot and fell flat on his face. He got scrapes on his forehead and hurt his arm. I think everyone still had fun, though. I paid for all that outside time the next day, though--my allergies were really acting up! I don't think Claritin is doing much for me anymore. I probably need something stronger.

Monday morning I got a call from the stake Primary president. She was supposed to be visiting our Primary tomorrow to present a special sharing time (we had asked her to come), but she had a family crisis—her daughter had just had an emergency c-section that morning and she wasn’t doing very well at all. That meant I needed to pull together a special sharing time this week (the kids had already been promised one) which kind of messed up my plans for finishing Seth’s quiet book. However, I have to record this tender mercy: before I asked the stake Primary president to do this sharing time, I sat down and brainstormed some ideas to get her started. After I confirmed with her (about a month ago) that she was going to be able to come, and I passed along all the ideas I had, I almost threw out the paper where I had written down those ideas. I actually remember almost throwing it out at least 2 times, if not 3. But I just had a feeling I should hang on to it, so I did. After I got the call Monday morning, I remembered those feelings. I know because of that experience that I was just meant to do this sharing time myself. Plus, the Lord knew I was going to have to pull it together quickly and that I would feel much better prepared if I still had all those ideas down on paper! I am really grateful for that. I was especially grateful since I really didn’t get much chance to work on sharing time until Thursday.

On Monday I had shopping to do for a wedding gift and a baby gift, along with the regular grocery shopping, laundry, and vacuuming. Tuesday was busy because I had book chat. One of the women just had a baby, so we had a little shower and gave her books for the baby. I got to book chat a little early that day so I could interview one of the Primary boys who is about to turn 12. (Book chat is at his house, and he’s home schooled, so he was there.) That evening Frank took Jared to soccer practice so that I could go visiting teaching.

Scott didn’t feel very well Tuesday evening, but he still went to Seminary and school Wednesday morning even though he still wasn’t feeling that great. Wednesday morning I went to look at 5 different townhouses. I actually liked 3 of them, but I’m not sure the little bit of extra space is worth the lot of extra debt. We went right from there to Wal-Mart. As I was leaving Wal-Mart I got a call on my cell phone, which I answered immediately, guessing it was a call from the school nurse at Scott’s school. But it was the school nurse at Tanner’s school instead! He was complaining of a stomach ache and really didn’t look so good, so I brought him home. He didn’t get really sick that day, but he did have a little bit of an elevated temperature and just didn’t look very well. Meanwhile, Scott seemed to be fine. He went to YM, where they painted the playhouse they had built on Saturday for the Eagle Scout project. Jared went to scouts also, but Tanner stayed home. Frank was working very late, so he didn’t get home until it was almost time for me to pick them up from scouts.

Scott didn’t feel so well Thursday morning, though, so he came home after Seminary. It’s a good thing, too. He had a terrible headache, and by mid day he and Tanner were both vomiting. They were both pretty miserable all day; Tanner’s temperature went up to 101.6 and Scott spiked a 103.1 fever. Between taking care of them and working on sharing time (not to mention grocery shopping, vacuuming and laundry), I had a very busy day. This particular sharing time is pretty labor-intensive, requiring a lot of cutting, pasting, and laminating. Unfortunately, Scott was supposed to go to the dermatologist that afternoon and I had to re-schedule his appointment (for the 2nd time!) Between our vacation, the doctor's vacation, and scout camp he now isn't going to be able to go until July 12th. Frank had a follow up with the eye doctor that day--he did make it. His eye is doing well although the doctor says he does have a scar on there now. Fortunately, it does not impact his vision at all. By Thursday evening Frank wasn’t feeling very well, either, so I got all of Seth’s presents wrapped myself and stayed up late sewing together quiet book pages. I’d given up on getting it done by that time, though. I still have about 5 pages to make and a couple more are not completely done, but I’m going to try to get the pages that are done put together soon so he can start enjoying them. The book is held together with metal rings, so I can easily add the remaining pages when I get them done.

I didn’t sleep very well that night—got to bed late and then had a hard time going to sleep. I couldn’t have been asleep more than a half hour or so when a big thunderstorm blew in and woke me back up. Snickers didn’t like that much; he was barking like crazy! Then I woke up Friday morning around 5:30 for some crazy reason. I didn’t have to get anybody anywhere until 9:00 since Scott was sick and didn’t go to Seminary or school, so it would have been nice to sleep in, but my body didn’t want to do that. At least that gave me time to play with Seth a little bit after he woke up. Since Scott and Frank didn’t have to leave really early, we were all home when Seth woke up so he was able to open his presents in the morning. I bought him a little lawnmower a few weeks ago and saved it for his birthday. I knew he would be happy with just that and wouldn’t even need anything else, but I decided to get him a couple more things. Somehow that “couple more things” turned into a lot more than I planned, and between that and the present he got from his grandparents, he was thoroughly spoiled! Besides the lawnmower, he received two books, a little plastic pretend camera, Lightning McQueen and Mater little toy cars, a sticker / activity book kit, a toy dinosaur, a little sand toy set, and a Leapfrog Text & Learn. Grandma & Grandpa Pew sent him a really cool Thomas the Tank Engine building block set. Seth seemed very happy with everything, and he had a good time playing with all the different toys all day. I had a hard time getting any good photographs of him because he wouldn’t stop moving long enough!

Frank still wasn’t feeling very well, but he had quite a bit of work that he absolutely had to get done, so he still went in to work for most of the day. Scott and Tanner were both still home from school, but they did start to improve and were able to keep a little bit of bland food down. Seth “helped” me make his cake. I let him lick the beater, but after he had licked it off, he decided he needed more on there, so he dipped it back in the batter before I could stop him! Once the cake was baked, he wanted to eat it right away, but I told him we had to wait until Daddy got home. I thought he’d forgotten all about it, but when Frank walked in around 4:00, Seth immediately said “Daddy’s home! Let’s eat my cake!” I decided getting him to wait until after dinner was not going to be very easy, so I quickly frosted the cake and we sang to him and let him blow out the candles. Only Seth, Jared, and I had pieces of cake since the other three were sick, but my friend Marci was here, so she had some cake too.

Marci and her husband were here on their way back from a cruise, which docked in New York City. They planned to come through here on their way back home (Kentucky) because they were supposed to close the sale of their Frederick house yesterday. Unfortunately, the closing was postponed until Tuesday, but they were able to work things out so that a friend is going to sign the papers for them. Anyway, Marci wanted the chance to visit a little bit, so she came by the house (just in time for Seth’s cake) and then I took her over to pick up our friend Rebecca and we went to Panera Bread to talk. Rebecca was hungry, so she got something to eat at Panera, but Marci and I weren’t hungry so we just talked. It was good to be our little threesome again—I’ve missed those two! I got home kind of late for making dinner, but Seth and Jared were the only ones eating and they didn’t seem to mind. Frank was really feeling miserable last night—he had chills—but I stayed up late again working on sharing time stuff.

It’s been shorts weather all week. As a matter of fact, Wednesday and Thursday were very hot (temperatures in the 90’s) and very humid as well. It felt a lot like late August—ugh! After the thunderstorm Thursday night, the temperature came down to a more comfortable level, but the skies were pretty gray and gloomy all day yesterday, and they are still pretty gray today. However, I am not complaining—I hear Utah got 2 inches of snow Monday morning! I hope it warms up and decides to be summer before we get there.

Seth is adamant that he is not “bigger” or “3” yet! That is mostly, I think, because we’ve been telling him for weeks that he will be too big for diapers when he turns 3. I did convince him to use the potty once on Thursday, though, so maybe some day we’ll get there. On Thursday night, I asked him what kind of presents he wanted for his birthday. He said “umm…blue and red and green and yellow ones”. I guess he meant the wrapping paper! Yesterday was also my 2^nd counselor’s birthday, so I took her a card and a plate of cookies. When I told Seth that it was “Henry’s mommy’s” birthday too, and that I was going to take her a card, he questioned “my Little Einsteins card?” I reassured him that I was going to give her a card that I bought for her, not the one that he got from Grandpa & Grandma Pew!

Today we were supposed to go to the wedding for Frank’s boss’s daughter, but Frank is still feeling rotten and Scott had a relapse and threw up again this morning, so we decided we’d better stay home. I wish I had known that before—I wouldn’t have spent all that time trying to find a dress to wear! Oh well—that’s how it goes sometimes. I would much rather have us all sick this weekend than in two weeks when we need to be on a plane! I hope we all get it out of our systems before then. I feel bad to be missing the wedding, but at least now I have time to finish up all my stuff for sharing time. Maybe I won’t be up late again! Jared does not have a soccer game today because of the holiday week end, but he is going to a birthday party for one of the boys at church this afternoon. Other than that, we don’t have anywhere else to go, so hopefully we will have a nice, restful day.

I'll finish with a little video from Seth's birthday. There's a message for Grandpa & Grandma at the end, so watch the whole thing!

Weekly Review May 22 '10

Well, Seth did surprise me. He actually sat in his chair a good portion of Jared’s game last Saturday, so I got to see most of the game. The teams were pretty evenly matched; Jared’s team lost, 1-0, and most of us agreed afterwards that the other team’s one goal shouldn’t have counted because the kid who kicked it was offsides. I was underimpressed with the officiating for that game, but Jared had fun so it doesn’t really matter.

Frank and the older two boys got back in the late afternoon. Scott liked what he saw at the potential Eagle scout project, so he is going to fill out an application to do it. If it works out, he will be moving a turtle cage to a new location, re-designing the lids of the cage, and building a new path to the new location. This is at an aviary located in a nearby state park. We’ll see if the council approves his project.

After they got home, Scott had two lawns to mow—ours, and a single lady’s in our ward. The YM mow her lawn for her every summer, and it was Scott’s turn that week. Scott had several thorns in his fingers from the service project earlier that day, but he was able to get them out with tweezers. Frank had an emergency come up with a client that evening and he ended up having to go into work Sunday morning, so he missed church. I had a busy day with Primary but I was really happy with how everything went. We’ve been experimenting with seating arrangements, and I think we found one that is going to work well. Teacher appreciation went well—every teacher had at least 2 or 3 notes, along with treats, in their pockets. We didn't label pockets for ourselves, but when I was putting away the shoe holders after Primary I found 2 notes in an empty unlabeled pocket that said "For the Primary President". So sweet! Sharing time also went well, and I managed to keep it down to 15 minutes, which is another thing we’ve been working on. I had to laugh at one naughty little boy during Singing Time, though. We were singing “I Know that My Savior Loves Me”—which is a beautiful song, by the way—and when we got to the line “I feel His gentle touch” he gave his older brother, who was sitting in front of him, a not-so-gentle punch in the back! He didn’t see me laugh, fortunately (don’t want to encourage that sort of behavior…); my secretary, who was closer to him, was reprimanding him!

Frank was gone working until late afternoon. By the time he got home, he was complaining that his right eye hurt a lot. When I looked at it, it was very red and on the colored part I could see a white spot. His eye continued to bother him a lot the rest of the day and was also very sensitive to light, so on Monday he went to the doctor. They diagnosed a corneal ulcer and sent him to a specialist the same day because if corneal ulcers aren’t treated right away, they can be very serious—he could even lose the sight in that eye. The specialist gave him eye drops to put in his eye every hour, and scheduled a follow up appointment for Wednesday. Fortunately, at the follow up appointment, the specialist said his eye is responding well to treatment. His eye isn’t hurting as much, but it is still pretty sensitive to light, and will continue to be that way for another week or two. We’re not sure what caused the ulcer, but it is likely that he got some ash in his eye on Saturday—he was manning the grill at the service project all day. Frank worked from home on Monday and Tuesday but was able to go back to driving on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, back on Monday I kept busy with visiting teaching, grocery shopping, going to the library, laundry, and taking Frank to his doctor appointment.

Tuesday my visiting teacher came, Jared had soccer practice (in spite of the fact that it rained most of the day), I cleaned bathrooms, mopped floors, worked on sharing time and other Primary stuff. Snickers went to the groomer; he looks very handsome now!

Wednesday I was supposed to go to a teaching appointment with the missionaries, but the person they were teaching had to go to a doctor appointment, so that didn’t work out. I had shopping at Wal-Mart to do, though, worked on Seth’s quiet book, and that evening I had a presidency meeting. At Wal-Mart we picked out underwear for Seth and he was very excited about it, but at home when I took his diaper off and put the underwear on, he cried hysterically for a half hour and kept telling me he needed his diaper back on. So I gave up and felt depressed about that for the rest of the day. He also loves the potty training DVDs I got him from the library, but he has no desire to be potty trained himself, apparently. It’s frustrating because I know he would probably be successfully potty trained in a day or two if he would just decide that it’s ok to wear underwear. I guess it really doesn’t matter so much now, but I hope he changes his mind before school starts in the fall. Tanner had a follow up doctor appointment for his foot Wednesday afternoon. Frank took him, which turned out to be good because he had a follow up appointment next week, but the doctor said she could just do his follow up right then instead. Tanner is all done, but Frank is going to have to go back.

Thursday was a little less busy but I still had grocery shopping, laundry and vacuuming to do, along with a few other errands. Jared had a 6^th grade camp out that day. He had to bring all his gear, plus a bunch of soda and our big water dispenser full of water and ice, so I had to park when we got to the school to help him bring all that inside. Luckily, his teacher said I could drive around the front of the school to drop off the water dispenser and the soda right next to the bus, so I didn’t have to lug all of that through the school. Frank had a dentist appointment that afternoon. He doesn’t have any cavities but he does need a crown put in on a tooth that is cracking around an old filling, which is not going to be cheap.

Friday I got caught up on the budget which didn’t cheer me up much since all the doctor visits and field trips and so forth are putting a strain on the finances. But we still can’t complain much; it is clear to me that the Lord always provides a way so that we are always able to meet our needs. That afternoon I went to the home of one of my counselors to help make some centerpieces for our teacher appreciation luncheon on Sunday. I went straight from there to pick up Jared & Tanner at school; Jared was very tired! He said there were girls in the tent next to theirs and they were giggling all night so he didn’t get much sleep. After we got the boys settled at home, Frank and I went to the temple. Frank had lots of work to do still, so we did initiatories to save some time. I love doing that anyway, so I didn’t mind. We didn’t make it to the temple last month, so it was very nice to be there again. We saw several other couples from our ward while we were there, also. After we got home, Tanner went to his friend Ryan’s house to spend the night.

Today started early—Seth woke up at about 5:30, and although he went back to sleep, I didn’t. Jared, who was still exhausted from his camping trip, didn’t wake up until almost 10:00. Scott had signed up to help with an Eagle scout project for another boy in our ward, though, so he was up pretty early since the project started at 8:00. Tanner and his friend Ryan were also helping, so Ryan’s parents drove Tanner over there. Originally, I was supposed to pick up all three of them at 11:00, but when I got there they all wanted to stay until the end of the project (at 2:00) so Ryan made other arrangements to get home later and the plan now is for Frank to go pick them up at 2:00 while I take Jared to his soccer game, which is at 1:00. For the project, they are building a play house near the community pool in one of the neighborhoods in our ward. When I was there at 11:00, they had the frame up and were starting to dig holes for the front porch.

Meanwhile, since I was up so early, I got some exercise done before showering. Then I finished up my preparations for sharing time, which really didn’t take very long. (I remember when I first started working in Primary 10 years ago, it took me a long time to prepare sharing time and I used to agonize over what to do and how to make it interesting for the kids. I guess I’ve learned a few things over the years! The new sharing time outlines are really wonderful, which helps also.) After that I went shopping for birthday presents for Seth. He is very easy to please at his age, so that was pretty easy. Actually, the hard part was choosing what to get among all the many possibilities! I’m enjoying that while I can—it gets so much harder to buy for boys as they get older. (The other hard part was finding a time to go shopping where I didn’t have to have Seth with me—and even then he cried when I left because he wanted to come too!)

This afternoon we have a ward picnic—if the weather cooperates, that is! They are predicting strong to severe thunderstorms for this afternoon, so we’ll see how it goes. The weather was rainy, fairly cold, and cloudy the early part of this week, but Thursday the sun came back out and it felt like summer again! It was a gorgeous day. Yesterday was even warmer; actually, it was pretty hot. Today we are back to clouds, but it is not so hot—pretty pleasant, temperature-wise. Frank has been asked to keep an eye on the grill at the picnic. He agreed to do that before he had the trouble with his eye, but all he really has to do is just make sure nobody breaks it—he’s not going to cook for anybody, just supervise. (Frank was asked to keep an eye on the grill because all the other guys who usually do the cooking at ward functions aren’t going to be able to be there. They were willing to let the ward use the grill, though, as long as someone who was familiar with the grill would be in charge of it, and since Frank is part of the “team” who usually helps with the cooking, they asked him to do it.) Hopefully, the bad weather will hold off and we’ll be able to have a fun time.

A few funny things Seth said this week: At the grocery store, he likes to stop and see the lobsters in their tank. I told him a few weeks ago that people eat them. This week when we stopped to see the lobsters, he said “People don’t eat them because they would crawl away.” Another day when I was waiting for traffic to clear so I could drive across a street, Seth said “Go for it, Mommy!” He also said “Nice turn, Mommy” one day right after I made a turn while driving. Good grief, back seat driving starts early!

It’s hard to believe that Seth will be three in less than a week. School will be out in 3 weeks, and we’ll be on our way to Utah! I, for one, can’t wait. I think I am more excited for school to get out than the boys are! See you all soon!

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?!