Weekly Review March 19 '11

Another busy week has gone by. I had sick kids again this week (remember Scott and Tanner weren't feeling very well last Saturday?) I think this time they both caught that nasty virus that Frank and I had right after Valentine's Day. They both missed school on Monday and Tuesday, and Scott missed Wednesday as well. I took Scott to the doctor on Monday to make sure he didn't have strep. The rapid strep came back negative, but his throat looked yucky enough that the doctor put him on an antibiotic anyway. It didn't seem to help much, though, so when I found out (yesterday) that his culture for strep also came back negative, I wasn't surprised. Tanner wasn't as sick (no high fever like Scott had) and he was planning to go back to school on Tuesday, until he woke up in the night with an ear ache. So he went to the doctor on Tuesday, but to my surprise he did not have an ear infection. Thankfully, his ear didn't hurt him after that and he was able to go back to school on Wednesday.



Meanwhile, Jared had a bad head ache on Saturday night and Sunday, so he stayed home with Scott and Tanner on Sunday. Since Seth still had a cough and runny nose (still does), we decided to have him stay home from church with the older boys as well. So Frank and I set off to church alone together...for the first time since August 14, 1994--the day before Scott was born! It seemed kind of strange to sit by ourselves.



I would have to go back to check, but I am pretty sure that between snow days, holidays, delayed openings, early closings, and sick kids that we have not had a single week since Christmas break where all four kids were in school all day (or in Seth's case, half a day) for 5 days in a row. Crazy!



There is hope that the snow days, at least, have ended, though. The weather this week was mostly rainy or cool, but we got a gorgeous spring day for St. Patrick's Day, and then yesterday was even nicer. On Thursday my daffodils started to appear:

Take that, winter! Today is not quite so warm, but it is still nice. I can tell that the end is in sight!

We didn't have any extra meetings or anything on Sunday; it was nice to come home from church and relax a bit. The missionaries came over for dinner, and we enjoyed getting to know them better.

We played Taboo for family night activity on Monday. Then we had pie for treat--we had to do that because it was pie day!

On Tuesday I went to the library to get new books for Seth and to pick up a book for book club. We are reading two books this month because they are both children's books and a little shorter, but with a similar theme--both about refugees. The one I am reading now is called The Road from Home by David Kherdian, and it is about an Armenian girl living in Turkey who survived the genocides that took place in that area during World War I. It is a true story--the author is telling the story of his mother's life. I'm about half way through, and so far it is very interesting and a good story, although not happy, of course. Tuesday evening we had a RS activity. We usually meet on Wednesday, but this time we had a combined RS birthday activity with the other ward who shares our building. The theme was "Celebrating the Relief in Relief Society", and for most of the evening we did various service projects. There were 8 different projects going on at once. I chose to help make "wheelchair bags" since that was one of the projects that required sewing. I got one done and started on another one. Afterwards, we all had cake. At the beginning of the activity, they had 12 tables set up--one for each month of the year. We were asked to sit at the table of our birth month. Each table had a cake in the center decorated to represent that month. So those were the cakes we were eating (although we could have any of the cakes--didn't have to eat the one for our birth month). I thought that was a fun idea!

The boys had basketball practice and YM as usual Wednesday evening. Scott didn't participate in the practice, since he was just getting over being sick, but he did make it to YM. They had a missionary work themed activity, and from what I heard it was really good. I wasn't feeling very well that evening--I had a scratchy throat, runny nose, and head ache. I was really worried I was coming down with the same thing the boys have had, but fortunately, it hasn't turned into anything serious. I still have a slight scratchy throat and runny nose, but my head feels better so I've been functioning!

Snickers had his teeth cleaned Thursday; I had to drop him off at the vet's that morning. He was done and ready to be picked up by lunch time, so I went to get him after I picked up Seth from school. I spent that morning at the school doing pledge paperwork. Snickers was a little groggy most of the day and he didn't eat much, but by the next day he was back to being his usual frisky self. Jared bought himself a ticket and went to a play at his school Thursday evening. The play was called "Into the Woods, Jr." He said it was really good. We all stayed up too late that night watching the BYU basketball game, but at least they won the game this time! (We were very disappointed by Saturday's game--the first one we've been able to see all year, and then they choked!)

Frank has been exercising and watching what he eats this month, and so far he has lost 13 pounds! Go Frank! He found a program online where you can keep track of your calorie intake. I was doing that with him for about 5 days (last week) but I gave up on it already! I got depressed when I went over my calorie allotment every day. I don't eat a lot, but apparently I eat things high in calories. Who knew? The whole process was very educational and now I am paying a lot more attention to what I'm eating. Actually, the thing that was really contributing to my going over was my milk intake. I guess I should switch to skim milk--I drink 1% most of the time. I also made the mistake of saying I wanted to lose a few pounds instead of just maintaining my weight (I'm not overweight, but I weigh a few pounds more than I have most of my adult life), so it had me on 1200 calories per day. That sounds like a lot, but it's not--try it! Especially when 3 glasses of milk (2 cups each) add up to 780 calories! I was hungry all the time and felt like I should be drinking less milk, but I need to drink milk because I'm at high risk for osteoporosis. So I stopped keeping track, and now I'm just trying to be smarter about what I eat. Frank looks great, by the way! He still wants to lose a lot more, but he is off to a great start.

One of my visiting teachers came to see me Friday morning. I exercised and got the budget caught up. The day went by very quickly! In the evening, Tanner and Scott went to the church to help finish making decorations for tonight's dance. Then Scott and Tanner went with some friends to get pizza. After that, Tanner and Jared went to spend the night with Ryan and Bryson. Seth and Frank were watching a guy movie on tv, so I watched Ramona and Beezus on my computer. I enjoyed the movie--cute, sweet, and funny!

This morning I went to a baby shower while Frank took Scott to his basketball game. Then Frank and I both went to Jared's basketball game. Our teams lost both games which means they are done for the season. This was the first round of the tournament, which is single elimination, so they are out. Both teams played well, though, so we are proud of them. The officiating was good at both games, also, so at least it wasn't really frustrating! It's kind of for the best that they lost, too because a lot of the boys on both teams (including my boys) are doing a lawn aeration project next Saturday. If they had needed to play a game in the middle of that, it would have made things pretty complicated!

Tonight the older two boys are going to a dance. The rest of us are planning to watch the BYU basketball game. After that, I will have to go straight to bed because I have Ward Council in the morning, early.

Weekly Review March 12 '11

When I put the camera memory card into the computer today to transfer this week's photos onto my computer, I was suprised to discover several images that I did not take, including the following photos:



(Kitchen and living room)

(Back deck)

(Our little garden plot)

(the backyard) It didn't take much imagination to figure out who the culprit was, especially when I got to these pictures:

Hmmm, who do you think took those pictures? I got a good laugh out of this! (And a shudder, also--it's probable that the backyard picture was taken by leaning over the railing a bit!)

We had a fairly busy week; there were a lot of things going on. Our stake conference was held last weekend. Both of the meetings (adult session and general session) were wonderful and inspiring. For the general session they had a youth choir sing two songs. They were fabulous and really brought the spirit into the meeting. Scott and Tanner were both in the choir, so they were sitting up on the stand for the whole meeting. The visiting area authority seventy told a great story about his family traveling from Richmond, Virginia to the Salt Lake temple to be sealed back in the 1950's. The boys were amazed when they heard that this area was in the Salt Lake temple district back in those days! Anyway, you wouldn't believe all the crazy things that went wrong on that trip, but they finally made it. I couldn't help thinking that even though we don't have nearly so far to go to attend the temple these days, it can still be just as hard to get there. So many times when we have planned to go, the kids get sick or the car breaks down!

After the meeting on Sunday, our good friends the Koettings came over; that has become a tradition and we always look forward to having them over! We had a yummy ham dinner. I had to take a picture of Snickers, who was very attentive while Frank was carving the ham. I'm sure he was hoping a few tidbits would drop to the floor!:

The boys hung out together most of the afternoon, but eventually they "paired off" by age. Here's Scott and Joey:

Tanner and Kalvin:

Jared and Brendan:

Seth didn't sleep well the night before, and shortly before the Koettings left, we found him crashed on the living room floor:

He slept for a couple of hours like that, and then, of course, he was up late since he wasn't sleepy at bedtime.

We had a lot of rain on Sunday. One of my windshield wipers broke on the way home from stake conference, so we had to get those replaced this week. The temperatures were fairly mild on Sunday but it got a lot colder that night and the next morning the schools had a 2 hour delayed opening because the roads were a bit icy and in some areas of the county they actually got a couple of inches of snow. We would not have even thought to check if school was delayed except when our alarm went off at 5:00 a guy on the radio was talking about the icy roads. The boys enjoyed sleeping in a little, and Seth is always happy to stay home from school with me. The change in school hours made things a little crazy for me because I had scheduled Snickers's annual check up for 9:30 that morning. Thankfully, Frank was working from home that morning so I didn't feel as rushed to get back home. I did end up getting back from that just in time to take Jared and Javy (our carpool boy) to school, which started at 11:00.

Snickers actually wasn't feeling too well on Monday; I could tell something was going on with his stomach. He was sick for a few days but he's better now. The vet didn't think it was anything serious. His check up went well except that his two very back teeth on top are looking infected. So now he is going in for a teeth cleaning, which is expensive because they have to knock him out. I said I would never have my dog's teeth cleaned, but those teeth do look really bad and I'm afraid if we don't take care of it now the problem will spread to his other teeth and he'll end up having to have a lot of teeth pulled, which will be even more expensive. We now have a toothbrush and toothpaste for him, too. Dogs these days are so pampered!!!

Monday afternoon I went to visit a little boy in our Primary who had his tonsils removed last week. He seems to be doing pretty well, and I had a fun visit with him, his mom, and his visiting grandma. One of my counselors came also, and all the kids (including Seth) enjoyed playing together for a while.

Tuesday I had book club. Wednesday morning I helped at the school. The older kids were taking MSA tests and the teacher who usually helps with the two "Primary" (preschool / kindergarten) classes was helping with that, so she asked for parent volunteers to come in and take her place. My job was mostly to escort kids to the restroom; I also helped with snack time. In between taking kids to the restroom, it was pretty fun to just observe the kids and notice all the different dynamics going on in the class room. Seth ignored me the first couple of hours and was very busy doing various activities, but around 10:30 he came to me and told me he was ready to go home! The last hour he was a little more "clingy", but not too bad. By the time we got home, I had a headache and I actually took a short nap! Seth came down with a cold this week and he hasn't been sleeping great at night, so I've been more tired than usual. Frank took the boys to scouts / YM that night because they had basketball practice before that, and he is in charge of the practices. He also had a scout committee meeting that evening.

Thursday was the busiest day of all. I spent the morning at the school working in the office on pledge drive stuff. I don't know why, but I love doing that! It's fun to do some "real" accounting again. Then I ran to the grocery store with Seth. Scott had an appointment with the dermatologist, which I had to move to 2:00 because we also had dentist appointments (I had forgotten all about them when I made the dermatologist appointment) so I had to pick him up early from school and go to that. Then I had to pick up Jared early from school so that we could all get to the dentist on time. To further complicate matters, Jared has been having trouble with one of his wires coming out of the brace on one of his teeth, so I also wanted to get him in to see the orthodontist, if possible, while we were out that way (the orthodontist and dentist are close to each other, but they are both about 25 minutes from our house). I had called the orthodontist office and they would be closed by the time we finished our dentist appointments, so I dropped Tanner and Scott off at the dentist and took Jared to the orthodontist while they had their teeth cleaned. We got back to the dentist in time for Seth and Jared to be seen (the orthodontist put a new wire on Jared's braces) but the lady who was supposed to clean my teeth had to leave early so they had to re-schedule my appointment. Scott has one cavity to be filled so he will have that done at the same time that I have my cleaning done. Everyone else had no cavities, but they all need to brush their teeth better (with the exception of Seth--his teeth are beautiful).

After we got home from all that, we quickly made dinner and read scriptures because I had signed up for an online video workshop about tips on getting funding for college. I suspected that it was really more of an advertising ploy than anything else, but it seemed worth trying since it was free. I was right--they mostly just gave tidbits of information and then wanted us to sign up for a free one hour consultation in which I'm sure they'd try to get us to hire their company to help us with college funding / planning. Even so, I don't think it was a waste of time because I did learn quite a bit about the college application process that I think will be very helpful. I took notes! But while I'm on the topic, if any of you folks who have already sent kids to college have any words of advice or pointers, I'd be very grateful if you'd share them!

It rained hard almost all day on Thursday so yesterday the river looked like this:

We haven't had any nice warm days this week although the cold is definitely weakening. Even so, I am getting impatient for some more nice spring days!

On Friday morning I got a call from a lady who is moving to this area soon; she wanted information about the schools and neighborhoods. Someone else in the ward gave her my number so that I could give her information about the boys' charter school. She said her husband is the brother of our former bishop's wife (did you follow that?!). It would be nice if they end up in our ward, but they don't know what part of Frederick they are going to live in yet. Anyway, she said the information I gave her was very helpful.

The rest of the morning, as I worked on other tasks, I had the television on so I could keep up with what was going on in Japan / Hawaii / western US coast with the earthquake / tsunami. Pretty frightening stuff! I feel sorry for those who were caught in the middle of all of that.

Both our federal and state tax returns came in last week, so following Cleveland family tradition, we took the whole family out to eat Friday night. We had a good time. That's not something we can do very often anymore, with 3 teenage boys who eat a lot! Afterwards, we dropped Scott and Tanner off at the church so they could help make decorations for a dance that's happening next week. Frank had to go make copies of a flyer for a lawn aeration fundraising project that we are doing with a couple of other families in our ward to help raise funds for scout camp. Jared played video games and I watched Pride and Prejudice (on my computer), which we just got from Netflix on Thursday. Seth interrupted me a lot, but I still enjoyed it. It's the version that was made for the theaters a few years back; I've never seen it since no one else in my household is interested in seeing a movie like that!

We got a letter from Seth's teacher this week letting us know that his class is going to do an "operetta" in May. Seth has been given the part of Neil Armstrong. We need to come up with a costume for him, but I don't think that will be too hard. If anyone has a good idea for the helmet, though, let me know! That is the part I am having a hard time envisioning. He has a speaking part of about 4 lines. I have my serious doubts that we will actually be able to convince him to say it, but I'm hoping for the best.

Seth's quote of the week, speaking to Frank about Frank's new IPad: "Can I borrow that for a minute?" Frank actually doesn't have his IPad right now because he took it back to exchange it for the new IPad 2 that just came out. He won't be getting the new one until sometime next week.

This morning Frank took Tanner and Jared to help pass out the flyers for the aeration project. They were gone about 4 hours. Scott didn't go because he wasn't feeling well. He had a headache and stomachache, and when I took his temperature it was slightly elevated. Tanner came home complaining that his head hurt a lot and his nose is starting to run, also. So it looks like another round of something is going to go through the family. I wish we could all get well and stay well! I've had a lot of headaches this week, too.

I've kept busy today doing various jobs around the house that I've been putting off, like sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor.

We are looking forward to watching the BYU basketball game tonight. Go cougars! And don't forget to "spring ahead" one hour...

Weekly Review March 5 '11

It's March! We are that much closer to spring! Back in January I purchased a couple of things to hang on the front door (remember, I was looking for something "wintery", but couldn't find anything?). It was fun to hang up my new door hanging for March:





We are also starting to see other signs of spring, such as these flowers starting to come up in the front flower bed:

One day this week when we were walking up the front walk to our door, Seth said "Hi, guys! How are you doing?" I asked him who he was talking to, and he replied "Those plants that are starting to grow."

The pansies I planted last fall are starting to open back up, also. Those pansies have been visible (although pretty shriveled up at times) all winter long. Even after they were buried in snow they re-appeared as soon as the snow melted. I was amazed! How did the word "pansy", when applied to a person, come to mean "weakling", anyway? Because in my experience, pansies are one hardy flower! They are also one of my favorites, because of the huge variety of beautiful colors that they come in.

In spite of these hopeful signs, most of this week has been pretty frigid. But the sun has been out more, and one or two days we actually made it up into the 50's. So we know winter can't hold out forever!

Well, now that I have spent several paragraphs discussing the weather, I will move on to something else! (It's just that my life kind of revolves around the weather this time of year!) It was not a very eventful week, so maybe this post will be short. Sunday was the usual busy day with ward council, church meetings, choir practice for me, a visit from our home teachers, family night lesson, and a choir practice for Scott and Tanner in the evening. Scott and Tanner are singing in a stake youth choir for stake conference this week end. I was amazed when they told me about it, until they told me that one their friends in Tanner's teacher quorum signed them all up for it! I know they never would have volunteered to do that on their own.

On Monday when I took Seth and Jared to school, I stuck around so that I could do some volunteer work. In years past, I have helped enter pledge drive information into quick books on the school's computer. I haven't done it since Seth was born, but now that he is in school part of the day I asked if they would like my help again, and I got a very enthusiastic "yes"! So I will probably be doing that about once a week. I really enjoy it, because it involves basic accounting, which is something I don't get to do very often (with the exception of our family's budget, but that's a bit different). This week I was trying to remember how to do everything, but I found most of it came back pretty quickly. Plus, the detailed notes I had written 4 years ago for the benefit of the auditor really helped!

For family night activity that evening we played Uno and let Seth play, too--he did pretty well with some help from me. We couldn't play Speed Uno with Seth playing, though, so the older boys thought it was pretty boring!

The boys had half days on Thursday and Friday because of parent /teacher conferences. They went in 4 hours late on Thursday (Seth didn't have school at all) and got out 3 1/2 hours early on Friday, which means everyone got out about the same time as Seth does. Tanner and Scott had Seminary at 10:15 on Thursday morning; they slept in a lot that day! While everyone else was at school, Seth and I went shopping. We had three places to go, so it took a long time but Seth did very well. He's been getting into the older boys' Lego people lately, so I got him a little set with a Lego person of his own in the hopes that will keep him busy. So far, it's working very well!

I signed up for parent / teacher conferences on Thursday afternoon and evening. I only signed up for 2 each of Scott's and Tanner's teachers since there really wasn't anything to talk about with the other ones. Scott's chemistry grade is pretty low still, but all of their other classes are going well. Scott started getting tutoring (through the NHS) for chemistry this week--he will be staying after every Wednesday for that. He wasn't too thrilled about the idea, but after his first session he changed his tune because he feels like he understands chemistry a lot better now! So hopefully that will help him a lot and he will be able to bring his grade up. Both of Scott's teachers told me I don't look old enough to have a son Scott's age--that always cheers me up!

I talked to Seth and Jared's teachers in the evening. Seth had another couple of bad days this week when he didn't want to cooperate so we talked about that. His teacher thinks it is mostly just "3 year old behavior"--he is one of the youngest kids in the class. Hopefully it won't become a big problem! Academically, Seth is doing great and he is well behaved with those few exceptions. Jared is doing really well in everything. I found out he does not have to do a science fair project this year which made me extremely happy! His social studies & language arts teacher was describing some of his characteristics to me and I kept saying "Ooops...that sounds like me!" I don't think I ever realized before how much alike he and I are.

Jared was supposed to go home with his friend Sage on Friday to help celebrate Sage's birthday, but then he threw up once in the night. He wasn't sure if he was truly sick or just ate something that disagreed with him. So I kept him home from school that day and we decided that he would go over to Sage's later if he was able to eat and keep food down. He was able to eat some bland foods and keep them down, but by mid afternoon he still just wasn't feeling his best, so he decided that he'd better not go.

Meanwhile, Frank and I went to the temple. We dropped Tanner off at Ryan's house on the way so that he could "work out" and then spend the night there. Frank and I were asked to be the witness couple for our session--something we haven't done in a long time. I wasn't feeling my best--I had a headache and my stomach felt a little funny all day--and shortly after the session began my heart started beating fast so I felt a little dizzy also. That meant it was a bit hard for me to concentrate and enjoy the session, but I was thankful I made it through without passing out or anything like that! It was our stake temple day, so there were many familiar faces in our session and afterwards in the hallways / dressing rooms we saw lots more people we know. That always makes being the temple especially nice.

After we got home, Frank went to the stake center to help set up the audiovisual stuff for stake conference. Jared watched a movie from Netflix--The Last Airbender. Scott started to watch it also, but decided he didn't like it enough to watch the whole thing, so he went to bed. While Jared was watching his movie, I watched part of The Diary of Anne Frank on my computer. It was good, but long, so I didn't want to stay up to watch the whole thing.

This morning Frank, Scott and Jared went over to the church to help set up chairs for stake conference. Since they got back, we've been deep in homework projects--Chemistry for Scott and a book project for Jared. Tanner will have science to do when he gets back. Frank has a stake priesthood leadership meeting this afternoon and then we will both go to the adult session of stake conference tonight, so it's going to be a busy day. Stake conference is always good, though--I'm looking forward to it!

Frank got an IPad this week. A lot of his clients have IPads now, and they are starting to have questions about them and to need help when problems crop up, so Frank's boss decided it was important for Frank to own one of his own so that he could become familiar with them. Of course, Frank didn't mind one bit! He is really enjoying getting acquainted with his new "toy"! Work definitely has it's perks sometimes.

Weekly Review February 26 '11

The question of the week is: Will the day come that everyone in the Cleveland household is well? I'm sure that wonderful day will come some day, but it hasn't yet. Frank and I both started getting our energy back on Monday. I have some lingering mild stomach upset still, but other than that I feel pretty good. It's nice to be back on my feet! Frank was able to go to work on Tuesday and he has worked hard all week. Meanwhile, Seth threw up once early Monday morning. He seemed to be fine that day and ate whatever he wanted, but he started having some diarrhea that day, which lingered throughout most of the week. I didn't feel comfortable sending him to school until Friday. Jared threw up several times early Wednesday morning, so he spent Wednesday and Thursday at home. Tanner and Scott both felt sick Thursday morning and stayed home from Seminary. I made Scott go to his chemistry class, which is 2nd block (starts at 9:00) and he stayed at school for the rest of the day, even staying after to make up a quiz he missed last week, but he didn't feel very well and after he came home from school he laid around all evening and didn't eat much. Tanner stayed home all day but didn't seem to be all that sick; I was about to tell him Thursday evening that he needed to go to school on Friday but then he started throwing up, so he stayed home Friday also. Scott went to school on Friday, to my surprise, and when he came home he said he was feeling better. Tanner was feeling mostly back to normal by last night, but then Frank started feeling sick to his stomach and he is still feeling pretty sick today.



No one had school on Monday because of President's Day. Frank had the day off as well. We didn't do anything special because we were just trying to recuperate from being sick (or just getting sick, depending on who you are).



No one had school on Tuesday, either, because Monday night we got about 4-5 inches of snow and freezing rain. Tanner and Jared went to help shovel snow at the church that morning and then spent most of the day at Ryan & Bryson's house. It was strange to have all that snow again after our warm temperatures of last week--almost all the snow had finally melted! I'm still mad that I was too sick to really enjoy the beautiful weather we had last week! We've had some really cold days this week, but the temperatures are back up a little now, and yesterday it rained most of the day and most of the snow melted again. I hope we get some more nice days soon!



Other than people being sick, this week was pretty uneventful. I've been trying to get caught up on things I didn't do last week. I went visiting teaching on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I had a presidency meeting Thursday morning. Last week when I was sick, I finished the book for book club (Evidence of Things Unseen) and also finished a newberry medal winner called Rifles for Watie. I started another newberry winner--M.C. Higgins the Great, but haven't got very far into it yet.

Last night we had a ward activity--a light dinner and a talent show. For dinner we had soups, salad, and rolls along with some appetizers and desserts. The talent show was long, but what I saw of it was very good. There was a variety of talents including singing, piano solos, dancing, magic tricks, etc. They also had displays of talents--photography, artwork, needlework, crafts, etc. (I displayed my friendship quilt and some embroidered pillowcases.) I didn't see a lot of the talent show because I was making trips home. First I took Frank home because that's when he started feeling sick. Then I took Seth home because he was getting tired and restless. I went back to get Jared and by the time I got back home, Seth was sound asleep on the couch! Scott was invited by our bishop's daughter to go to her house, along with some of the other youth, to play some games after the talent show. Then he went to Ryan's house to spend the night.

The sister missionaries got transferred out of our ward this week and now we have Elders again. We haven't had Elders for about 5 years. We were sitting next to them last night and while getting acquainted with them and introducing them to our boys, we discovered that their first names are Scott and Tanner--we thought that was pretty cool!!

Frank and I had planned to go to the temple today. He wasn't feeling up to it, but I still went and really enjoyed being there again. There is such a great feeling in the temple; it can't be beat! Scott had a basketball game; they lost as usual. Now all the boys are playing games. Jared's friend Joseph, from church, is here because his parents had to go to a swim meet for his older brother and I am going to give him a ride, along with our three oldest boys, over to an activity tonight. The activity is a reward dinner for all the youth in our ward who met a scripture reading challenge that our bishop gave them last year. I am really proud of all of our boys for meeting the challenge!

I think that is everything for this week. Two things I forgot to mention last week: Scott had to get his blood drawn (for some acne medication he was starting) and to my surprise he wanted me to go back with him. I jokingly offered to hold his hand, and he said "actually, I really want you to do that. I hate needles!" So I held his hand. The lady who drew his blood thought that was so sweet! She also expressed surprise that I was his mother--she was assuming I was his older sister. I love it when that happens! The other thing I forgot is that Seth had a rough day at school one day. His teacher called and asked us to come inside when we picked him up because he had refused to do his work that day and to clean up the work he was supposed to be doing. She told him he couldn't have a snack if he didn't clean up, and he refused and didn't get a snack. So she told him he needed to clean up or he couldn't go outside to play, and he still refused to clean up. So she told him he was not going to be able to go home until he cleaned up! That's why she asked us to come inside. I was sick that day so Frank picked him up and by the time he got there, Seth had decided to clean up. We never could find out what got into him, but he has been very cooperative ever since. The next day he brought home a big paper sun with a note saying that he did all his work and cleaned up; he was pretty happy about that. Who knows what gets into his little head sometimes!

We hope you are all happy and much healthier than we have been!

Weekly Review February 19 '11

When I left off last week, we were about to go to Scott's basketball game. That game turned out to be a very frustrating experience. The other team was very good and no doubt would have beat Scott's team pretty soundly no matter what, but we were all pretty unhappy with one of the referees. Frank heard the two referees conversing at half time. The first one said to the other "you need to call the fouls that you see". The second one replied "Look at the score...it won't make a difference if I do". Scott came home very upset because he was pretty blatantly fouled while making a shot but no foul was called. He said "I looked right in the eyes of that referee and he looked right back at me and didn't call the foul." It's frustrating when things like that happen, but we try to use them as learning experiences!

Sunday was busy; I had ward council before church (while I was at the meeting my counselors and secretaries were busy putting up hearts on the Primary teachers' classroom doors--we had the kids make valentines for their teachers) and that evening we had a Baptism Fireside for all the kids who are turning 8 this year. The fireside went well, in spite of several "glitches" that came up at the last minute--among them a sick teacher who was supposed to give one of the talks (I did it instead) and a misunderstanding about talk topics so that two people prepared talks on the same topic (my counselor gave an amazing talk that she came up with on the spur of the moment!)

Valentine's Day dawned beautiful:

The boys received cards, chocolates, and lollipops:

I had my hair done that day, which is always fun for Seth because he gets to play with his good friend Tyler while Tyler's mom cuts my hair. Tyler gave Seth one of those fun dip candy things. Can you tell what color the powdery stuff was?

I made Valentine cookies for family night treat:

Seth took care of the leftover frosting!:

These roses arrived that evening; we've been enjoying them all week!:

Tuesday morning, after getting the kids to school, Frank and I went out for a belated Valentine's Day breakfast date. (We had originally planned to go Monday morning, but Frank had too much work to do that day). We also had to take the Expedition into the shop to get fixed. I had noticed that morning when I picked the boys up from Seminary that it was unusually "bouncy" so I mentioned it to Frank. He checked it and discovered that there was a problem with the air suspension system in the back. (The Expedition does not have shocks and springs like many cars do, it has air bags.) One of the bags has corroded and needs to be replaced. The part has been ordered but won't arrive until Monday, so we've been down to one car all week.

Having one car has not been as big a problem as it normally would have been because Frank and I have both been sick most of the week. I started feeling sick Tuesday evening and was down and out by Wednesday morning. Frank started feeling sick Wednesday afternoon and was truly miserable by Wednesday evening. We have both had high fevers, chills, body aches, cough, congestion, and stomach upset. When I nearly fainted on Friday morning, Frank decided I needed to go to the doctor. I was diagnosed with "flu-like illness"--they tested me for influenza, but it came back negative. Since then, we have both been improving and most of our symptoms have abated but we are both extremely weak and exhausted. That was one nasty illness!

We are both home from church today, recuperating. I feel really bad about not being there because one of my counselors and my secretary are both out of town this week end and my other counselor has been very sick all week also. We had to call one one of the counselors in the stake primary presidency (who is also in our ward) to ask her if she could conduct for us today and for sharing time the kids are going to watch a movie. We didn't know what else to do! How often does it happen that the entire Primary presidency is out?!

Meanwhile, the boys have mostly been going strong. Tanner is home with us today because he says he isn't feeling too well and Scott and Jared both stayed home from school on Thursday because they had sore throats but other than that they have been fine and none of them seems to be falling victim to the same nasty bug that Frank and I have had.

Scott and Tanner had an overnighter at their YM president's house Friday night. They were originally going to go camping in snow caves, but we had a really beautiful "warm snap" this week and all the snow melted! (It's too bad Frank and I were feeling well enough to get outside and enjoy it. We've had temperatures in the high 60's and it feels like spring!) They were disappointed about not being able to build and sleep in the snow caves, but I think they had fun anyway. Jared spent Friday night at his friend Bryson's house, so we only had Seth which was nice since we were feeling pretty yucky.

Jared had a basketball game Saturday afternoon--he got a ride with one of the other boys and his family. They lost their game; neither one of our ward's teams is doing well this year! Tanner and Scott both went to a youth dance in West Virginia last night--they say they had fun.

This morning Frank, Tanner and I listened to a talk from last General Conference and since then I've been listening to music from past General Conferences--very beautiful and uplifting!

We hope we're all back on our feet this week, with two working vehicles! We are very grateful that we don't get sick very often. Everyone enjoy your President's Day!

Weekly Review February 12 '11

This is the only picture that was taken this week, and I didn't take it. Jared had Tanner take it so that he could have a new profile picture on Facebook. He wanted an interesting photo, and I think he succeeded!



I take that back--I did take one picture, but it's on my phone because I forgot to take the camera with me. It's the last picture I have of Jared before he got braces on. I haven't taken one of him with braces yet, but there'll be plenty of chances to do that over the next year or two. I did remember to take the camera with me one morning when I went to pick up the boys from Seminary. I've been thinking I should do that so I could get some good sunrise photos. Then of course that morning there wasn't much of a sunrise! (Unlike the morning before, when the whole eastern sky was a vivid pink / red! It was gorgeous, but of course I didn't have a camera with me that morning.)



Anyway, back to the beginning of the week. Sunday was nice. The youth in our ward recently completed a scripture reading challenge and our bishop invited them to share during testimony meeting what they had experienced while completing the challenge. We heard a lot of great testimonies from many of the youth in our ward, including Scott and Tanner, so that was extra nice. I got up too--that's probably the third time I've done that in the last 6 months, which is a lot for me. I'm finding it gets easier if I don't put it off too long! Scott was set apart as the 1st assistant to the bishop in the priest's quorum at the end of our meeting block. Frank got to help with that and I got to be there, too. Scott is very excited about the opportunity to serve and we are glad he feels that way!



I forgot to mention last week that we had a really great sharing time with the senior primary kids. We talked about the scriptures throughout the month of January, and for that last week my counselor had asked a few of the kids to share how they feel about the scriptures. Then she invited any of the other kids who wanted to share their feelings to do it also. Several kids got up--mostly from the oldest class--and the things they had to say were amazing! Not only are they reading them, but they are finding that reading the scriptures gives them strength to make correct choices. You had to be there, but it was so powerful. I was particularly happy about this because that oldest class has been a real handful and they have been the subject of a lot of discussion and prayer as well as fasting on my part. They've been doing a lot better the last month or so, and we finally feel like we are figuring out things to do to reach them better. After that week, one of my counselors had the idea to have the bishop come to visit senior primary and give them their own scripture reading challenge, like he did for the youth. So he did that on Sunday and we are hopeful that many of the older kids will choose to meet the challenge. The youth are working on a new challenge now, also.



Now that I have talked extensively about Sunday, I will try to sum up the rest of the week in a few short paragraphs! I had book club on Tuesday. The boys had basketball practice and scouts on Wednesday. Frank coached the practice--their regular coach has a class that just started on Wednesday nights, so he asked Frank to take over the practices for the rest of the season. While the boys had scouts, I had a RS meeting. We had a mini lesson on 72 hour kits and then we talked about depression--recognizing the signs, mostly, and things that are helpful or not helpful to say to someone who is suffering from depression. I was sitting there thinking about all the people I know who have in the past or are currently suffering from depression, and it was amazing how many there are. It really is something everyone should know about because it touches so many people in this day and age. Afterwards, several of us were talking in the hall; I think that's the part of RS meetings I enjoy the most--the social interaction! I always come away from conversations with other women feeling blessed and happier.



Jared got his braces on Thursday morning. He only has them on the top teeth so far, but they will be putting them on the bottom in a few months, probably. His teeth have been very sore since then, so we've been eating soft foods like macaroni & cheese, eggs, and stroganoff. I stopped at Burger King on the way back from the orthodontist's office and bought him a milkshake. I can feel empathy because I can remember how much my teeth hurt when I first got braces!



Tanner went home from school with his friend Ryan on Tuesday and Thursday--they lift weights together. Tanner wants to get in better shape, and I don't want to discourage that desire! I took him Thursday evening to get some new jeans because he is growing out of his. We only found one pair that fit--typical! I'm going to have to order some online, I think. He got a couple of t-shirts also, which made him happy. Tanner and Scott both had to register for their classes for next year this week. Scott's last year--so hard to believe!



Frank has been working long hours again this week, which I guess is good since braces are not cheap! We would like to have him home more often, but really appreciate how hard he works and of course we are grateful he has a job, and a good one at that.



The weather has mostly been nasty this week--very cold and on some days windy also. There have also been a lot of gray days, but we have had some sunshine, too. On those days, I open all the blinds and let the sunshine in! Snickers likes to find the sunshine patches on the floor to curl up and take his naps. Smart dog!



Seth says cute things all the time and I forget most of them. He brought home some things he cut out at school and when I asked him about them, he said that he cut them out with his "zizzors from my supplies box". I love the way he says "scissors"! One day this week I heard him say to Scott "you're killing me!" and just so you know that drama is not totally lacking in this house of all boys, a few weeks ago Seth came sobbing to me that "Scott is ruining my life!"



Good movies I've seen this last week: How to Train Your Dragon and The Young Victoria. (After I watched that second one, I had to go online and read about the real Queen Victoria to see how accurate the movie was. I always end up doing that when I see anything historical; it always piques my interest! It turns out that the movie was pretty on target with what actually happened, except for a few minor details.) I've also been enjoying watching the television show Eureka, starting with the first episode. I watch that while I'm folding clothes. We are really enjoying our Netflix trial!

Last night we were invited over by another family in our ward to play games and eat snacks. That turned out to be a lot of fun, although to our disappointment Frank wasn't able to go. He had been on the phone with tech support for the couple of hours before we needed to leave trying to resolve a problem for a client but they were unsuccessful. They bumped the problem up to the next level and promised they would call back "within two hours", so he had to stay home for when they called back. They didn't call back until 3:30 am, though! Wish we had known that; Frank could have come with us. They did get the problem solved, but not until about 5:30 am.

I had to get up at 6:00 to attend the Worldwide Leadership Training Broadcast, which was at 8:00. It was very good, though. The rest of the day has been a blur of errands, chores (I had a very long list of things to do), and basketball games. Jared's team played this afternoon and lost by 4 points. It was frustrating because they were actually ahead by about 12 points when there was only about 4 minutes left in the game. They played well, though, and I was proud of them--they only had 6 players and the other team had 10, so they got more chances to rest. We are leaving to go watch Scott's game in a few minutes.

We hope everyone has a very happy Valentine's Day--we love you!

Weekly Review February 5 '11

Happy Birthday to Ben!! I had to say that before I forget!


I'll start out with some photos I forgot to post last week. First, here is Snickers with his nice new hair cut:

Doesn't he look cute? He is one handsome dog! I admit I don't really understand dogs. I wonder every day when I take him outside, why he has to sniff and sniff to find the spot that "smells right" before he'll poop. Wouldn't any patch of grass do? (Preferably, one right next to the front door!) When it is cold outside, I would especially like it if he were not so picky! He is fun, though, and I admit that it is good that he gets me outside a lot more than I would be otherwise. I think the outdoors is beautiful, but I tend to stay inside too much. Anyway, here is a picture of Scott and Tanner, also with new haircuts:

I meant to post that one last week. Now, on to this week! One of the benefits of being up early to pick up the boys from Seminary, as well as being forced to take the dog out early every morning, is that I see a lot more sunrises than I used to see. (While Snickers has his nose to the ground, sniffing for the "right" spot, I am looking up at the sky!) Like this one, on the last day of January:

As always, the pictures don't do it justice. These photos were taken after I got back from taking the boys to school. On the way to pick them up, it looked incredible also--the sky was a little pinker and a little sliver of a moon was still up. I didn't have a camara then, though!

Now for the weather report. Today it is "misting". It is wet, cold and miserable. It rained on Wednesday but the temperatures were in the mid 40's, so it felt a bit balmy and after the sun came out if was actually quite nice--until the sun went down and the temperatures dropped. The rest of the week has been cold gray winter. The huge storm we were supposed to get did not really materialize. We did get some freezing rain Monday night and it was a bit icy Tuesday morning, but everyone was still surprised when Frederick County cancelled school that day. What was that about? The kids were thrilled, of course, but I found that day rather trying. I had a lot of work to do and the boys weren't too happy about helping with that. They also weren't happy that I made them do some scouts and some Duty to God stuff, but I am a mean mom so I made them do it anyway. We got a lot done, but it took most of the day and I was exhausted from all the contention! Seth got ahold of the camera and took this blurry photo of Scott playing games (after the work got done):

That's Jared in the background, and in the foreground you can see that Tanner is on facebook, getting caught up with "his peeps", as he calls them.

I think even the kids were glad when normal life resumed on Wednesday and they were able to go to school, basketball practice, and YM. I had a presidency meeting that evening while they were at YM. Frank had work to do, so Seth came with me.

Scott started a new class on Wednesday--he transferred out of his AP Environmental Science class because he found out he was supposed to take Chemistry first, which he hasn't taken. He wanted to take Physics instead, but the counselor insisted that he take Chemistry and he is not happy about it. It's not going to be a fun semester. He can be very stubborn when he doesn't get what he wants. We are already struggling to get him caught up on the things he missed before he transferred into the class. He thinks there is no way that he can pass the class, which is not a very good attitude to have going into it.

Tanner and Jared went to spend the night with Ryan and Bryson last night, so it was just Seth, Scott and I after school. I took this picture of Scott holding Snickers because I thought it was so cute:

Scott had some friends over last night. I've been encouraging him to do some group dating, and he finally got around to getting something organized with some of his other friends. Each of the boys invited a girl and they all came to our house to make dinner, play games, and watch a movie. Scott made lasagna and cheddar biscuits (with my help), Neil (boy in the center) brought a salad, and Ricardo (on the far left) made a cake. They are playing tennis with Collette and Ellen in the picture (yes, that's me with Snickers on my lap in the background):

Scott and Abbie (the girl he invited) are watching:

Ellen came with Ricardo and Neil came with Collette. (Ellen is the girl that Scott took out once this summer--they have the same birthday).

After dinner, they watched a movie (How to Train Your Dragon). Seth really enjoyed having all the "big kids" over. He flirted shamelessly with all the girls. Here he is making himself at home in between Scott and Abbie:

I think everyone had a good time, judging by the amount of laughing going on and how long they stayed up (about 11:00 before everyone started heading home). When I was cleaning up the dishes, I found this on one of the cake pans:

Cute, eh?! I have no idea who wrote it, although it doesn't look like Scott's handwriting.

Since we were up pretty late, we slept in this morning. It's been a bit of a stressful day (mostly because of chemistry) but we are hoping to relax and have some fun together as a family this evening. I have a baptism to attend in a few minutes, so we are waiting until I get back.

The rest of this week was the usual busy stuff. Frank had a lot of work to do. I also did a whole lot of cleaning and organizing on the main level and although I wore myself out a bit, the house does look a lot better. It's amazing how little time it takes for the house to get messy and unorganized! But for now, it looks great, and I breath a deep sigh of satisfaction every time I look around. (But don't ask me to go down to the basement!)

We feel very blessed and we are glad that it is February!