Weekly Review June 11 '11

Greetings! I guess I'll start with the bad news and get it over with (for those of you who don't already know). Frank was laid off on Thursday. As you know, we knew this was a possibility but we were still taken a bit by surprise since he actually was pretty busy this week. Frank thinks the other 3 employees weren't as busy and haven't been for the last few weeks, so we think that is why they decided to let Frank go, so there would be more work for everyone else to do. I really feel like things are going to work out in the end, but yesterday a lot of issues came up that have made things very stressful. Much to our surprise, one of the clients Frank was working with contacted him at home and told him that they were dropping Griffin as their IT company and asked Frank to do some work for them. When this client contacted Griffin, Frank's former boss called him, very angry about it and accusing him of "stealing my client". He brought up a non competition agreement that Frank signed when he was hired. We can understand that he's upset, but don't appreciate the accusations. Frank would never try to take clients away from Griffin--he has no intention of contacting any of his former clients and only considered doing any work for this client when he was sure that the client had no intention of giving the work to Griffin even if Frank wouldn't do it either. We're not sure yet how it's all going to pan out at this point. We feel really bad, though, that things are ending on a such a sour note. He really had a great working relationship with this boss and considered him a friend. I hate conflict and I hate being made to feel like the "bad guy". We've had some fairly sleepless nights; it hasn't been fun!

Now for the better stuff: I've been pretty busy this week with Primary tasks. I had a mini presidency meeting on Tuesday evening. It turned into a mini meeting when my secretary, who hasn't been feeling too well the last few weeks, was ordered to bed for 3 days because she may have pneumonia. One of my counselors was already not going to be coming to our meeting because she has a less than two week old baby. (Although she made it to church on Sunday--I was surprised!) So my other counselor and I got together to discuss the activity we were planning for today. We had to finalize plans and decide who was going to do what. So we were able to get that done, at least! The rest of the week I've been doing my assignments and attending to other Primary tasks, such as figuring out how we are going to split the nursery now that we have enough leaders to do that, contacting new nursery leaders, and making appointments for visits. You get the idea!

We had a great Primary moment on Sunday wit the older kids. One of my counselors taught sharing time and at the end she read them a scripture about the stripling warriors, and then asked the kids how it might apply to them. Everyone was quiet for a minute and then one ten year old girl said "Well, we're in a war fighting Satan and if we do the little things like read our scriptures, we can be protected too, just like the stripling warriors..." I can't really explain what that meant to me, but in my mind as I listened to her, I thought "they are getting it! They're really getting it!" Preparing these kids to stay strong and righteous in the world we live in now is one of my greatest desires.

Another great Primary moment from last week: I was teaching about testimonies. With the younger kids, I started out by asking them what a testimony is. I was getting all these answers that clearly meant they didn't understand the question and I was about to re-word it and ask again when a little visiting Sunbeam on the front row, who wasn't very happy and had been periodically calling out for her daddy (and who I didn't think was even listening), piped up "a testimony is that we know that Jesus lives." Kids are just amazing sometimes!

Monday we played a game called "Aye, aye Nephi" for family night. Tanner claims he's never won a round of this game in all the times we've played it over the years. He was completely chagrined when we let Seth play (for the first time ever) and Seth won the very first round! But then Tanner won the next round....

Tuesday was my errand day. Among other things, I took Seth to the library to get new books. The book I put on hold for book club next week finally came in, so I got that too. I only have a week to read it, but I think I'll make it--I read about 70 pages the first day without too much effort, and the book only has 280 pages. (Although I haven't made much progress the last few days.) It's interesting--it's a historical fiction book about the father in "Little Women" called "March". I'm not sure how much of it is true. Some of it probably is, but since I just read a book about Louisa May Alcott's life recently (Invincible Louisa) I am already seeing discrepancies. I've also been trying to read the book we read last month (I didn't get a copy in time to read it before our discussion.) That book is Out of Africa, and it is very beautifully written but so far isn't holding my interest much (I've also been too busy to give it much of my time). I just watched the movie of that one and enjoyed it much more than the first time I saw it (way back when it came out). I loved the scenery and the music back then, but the story depressed me. I think I understand the story a lot more now, and it seemed a lot more hopeful this time.

When I was coming in from some of my errands on Tuesday, I saw this little guy hanging out in the leaves right by the front steps:

Actually, he's not all that little--he's a pretty decent sized black snake. It's not the first time I've seen him, so I suspect he is living somewhere nearby. Maybe under the neighbor's steps. Thankfully, he looks pretty harmless. I wouldn't want to get too close to him, but he's not too frightening.

Tuesday was also the day that Tanner's Seminary class had a "Second Coming Breakfast". They've been studying about the signs of the 2nd coming, so his teacher told them that sometime in the next few weeks they were going to have breakfast at his house. He gave them several "signs" to help them know it was coming up but didn't tell them the exact day. He also told them that they would have to be on time to Seminary that day because they would leave right at 6:15 and anyone who wasn't there by then would get left behind (and have to attend the older kids' class that day). I thought this was a really cool idea. A couple of the kids were late that day and got left behind. Tanner and those who made it on time felt bad about that. A pretty memorable object lesson, I think!

I took dinner over to my counselor with the new baby on Tuesday also, so that was definitely a busy day. My counselor looks tired. Evidently, little Jacob is not sleeping very well yet! I remember how that feels....

Seth is still enjoying the presents he got for his birthday. It's nice to have new toys--keeps him busy! Here he is, playing with his new Zhu Zhu pet.:

One of the highlights of Seth's week is his show and tell day at school. This week he decided to take his Tanner bear. (It really is named Tanner--the tag says so.) He was afraid he'd forget to bring it, so he slept with it the night before. Here he is, looking so cute!:

(He's on the floor next to our bed because he woke up and came in sometime in the night. And yes, I know he is growing out of those pajama pants!)

Wednesday the boys had YM and I had RS. The boys played a game of capture the flag, using socks full of flour as "weapons". They had a lot of fun, but got very hot (and flour-y) because temperatures were back up into the low 100's that day, with high humidity. All three of them took showers before going to bed. For RS we did a twist on "speed dating"--we did "speed chatting". Basically the same idea as speed dating--we sat across from one sister and chatted for 5 minutes, then moved around the circle to the next person when the time ran out. We had snacks to enjoy while we were chatting, too. I had a lot of fun and got to talk to a few people that I haven't had a chance to talk to lately. Seth came with me because Frank had a lot of work to do, but there was a nursery for him so he had a lot of fun too.

Shortly before I was about to drive Jared and Seth to school Thursday morning, I got a phone call from one of the teachers at their school. The air conditioning was not working so they had cancelled school. (It was another 100+ degrees day, with a heat advisory from noon to 8:00 pm.) Talk about a dream come true for the kids! So what does a kid who gets a very unexpected day off school look like? Like this:

We still had to go to the school later that day for a meeting (I'm helping with the 8th grade ceremony) and right after that Jared had an orthodontist appointment. Having the school closed simplified my day a bit also, since I was planning to work on pledges that morning. Since the grocery store I normally shop at is near their school, I decided rather than driving over there I would check out the brand new Wegman's grocery store that just opened up on Sunday--it is very close to my house. It was a little bit overwhelming--that store is HUGE!!! (Pretty crowded, too, but I hope that will change when the newness wears off.) But they do have some really good prices, so I may be shopping there more often. The other thing that will be nice about it is that they will probably have all of those harder-to-find items that sometimes crop up in recipes. And they have a large food court area, too, with soft serve ice cream, pizza, breakfast sandwiches, subs, etc. The bad thing is that the increased traffic to that area (there used to be nothing but fields where the new shopping center now stands) is really messing up the traffic patterns at the closest intersection, which is one that we go through a lot, since it's the way we get on the main freeway that goes through Frederick. They did add a lane and change the intersection a bit before the shopping center opened, but I don't think it was enough!

Today has been busy and tiring, but good. We got up fairly early because Scott was taking the ACT and had to be there at 8:00. The rest of us helped clean the church in the morning and then this afternoon everyone helped me with our "Scripture Splash" Primary activity. The boys helped us set up, and all four of them were soaking wet before the activity even started! We had this activity as a reward of sorts to celebrate the kids' progress in reading their scriptures. We had four different water games; each related to a scripture story or concept. For example, my station was called "crossing the ocean"--they had to run from one side of a field to the other repeatedly while "Laman and Lemuel" tried to squirt them with water guns. The kids who got wet had to sit down where they were when they got hit. The last two kids standing got to be Laman and Lemuel for the next round. We related this game to the story of Lehi and his family crossing the ocean to the promised land and how Laman and Lemuel's attitude and wickedness kept everyone from progressing toward their goal. All the kids got wet and had a great time, I think. Frank was a real sweetie and filled in for the bishop and the bishopric counselor, both of whom couldn't come at the last minute--he had to sit in a chair blindfolded with a water gun (representing Laban) while the kids tried to "steal" the "brass plates" from him, which were under his chair. He would listen for the kids and try to squirt them; if a child was successful at getting the plates without getting squirted, that child got to dump a cup of water on him.

At the end of the activity we had lemonade and popsicles for everyone. (And the bishop made it to pick up his kids at the end; a water fight of sorts ensued and he got wet after all!) It was quite hot today and being out in the heat really drained me, but being with the kids really cheered me up! One of the ten year old boys came to me at the end and offered to help clean up and sincerely thanked me for planning the activity for them. What a sweetie! (And he is one of the more mischevious ones, which made it even better.)

After we got home, Frank and I both took a short nap and got showers. Now Tanner is babysitting and Scott is at a party for his Seminary class. Scott will be speaking in church tomorrow; they are focusing on Seminary. I'm sure it will be great. We are looking forward to a day of rest and some spiritual uplift--we really need that right now and are so grateful for the strength the gospel gives us.

Weekly Review June 4 '11

This week started out with a busy Sunday. I had Ward Council before church; choir and a Primary visit after church. We were "one man down" during Primary because one of my counselors (Michelle) had a baby Saturday evening (yes, we were expecting that to happen any day). My secretary was also out of town, but we have an assistant secretary now and she did a good job of filling in, even though she is very new and still learning. In between choir and the Primary visit, my other counselor (Tammy) and I went to visit Michelle and her new baby. It was very sweet to hold such a new little one. He is beautiful! Michelle has 3 girls; this is her first boy. We had a very nice (although short) visit with her. We were excited that Michelle had her baby on the 28th. That means he shares a birthday with Seth as well as Tammy. As Tammy says "Now we are all connected forever!"

Our ward had a picnic at the park to celebrate Memorial Day. Frank helped with the cooking, as usual--we had hamburgers and hot dogs. The food was very yummy and it was pleasant to visit with other ward members, but it was very, very hot and humid so no one hung around long after we ate. We all came home and kind of collapsed for the rest of the day--and felt very thankful for air conditioning!

The extremely hot temperatures continued into Tuesday and Wednesday, but after that we got some relief. As a matter of fact, Thursday was perfect--sunny, dry, and temperatures in the 80's. By a very happy chance, Thursday was also the day that was scheduled for Field Day at Jared and Seth's school. They really hit the weather jackpot with that one! A few weeks ago I was wondering if they would ever get a day without rain. Jared was very involved with Field Day because the Middle School kids plan and run all the stations. Seth didn't participate in Field Day at the park with the rest of the school--they have the preschoolers stay at the school and do activities in the courtyard, since they are only there for a few hours. He came home very enthusiastic about all the fun activities he had done. Jared came home tired!

The rest of the week has been blessedly uneventful. It has been so nice to have a little bit of "down time"! The boys had YM Wednesday evening as usual, I had a routine doctor appointment that morning, and I worked on pledge drive stuff at the school on Thursday. We got our copies of the new family cookbook on Thursday and I'm enjoying looking through it. Erin did such a great job putting it together--it looks fantastic! And I'm looking forward to trying out the recipes!

Seth kept busy playing with new toys. Here he is trying out his new "Moon Sand":

Another exciting event for him was the arrival of the ice cream truck on our street!:

(Tanner and Jared both bought ice cream, too.)

Frank had his last day at FSA on Thursday. He's been working there either full time or as a contractor for nearly 7 years; it seems strange that he won't be going there anymore. (Although I suspect he will still get a phone call or two from them, at least at first.) He went in really early on Thursday, but that is the last time he'll have to do that. Next week we'll see how things go with his hours. Hopefully, his time will be filled up with other things.

One other thing that kept me busy this week was planning for a Primary activity that we are going to have next week. We're having it as sort of a "reward"--to celebrate how well the kids are doing on reading their scriptures.

Last night Frank and I escaped for a quick date. We picked up some Mexican food at Chipotle and took it to a nearby park / nature center to eat. Then we walked around the pond at the nature center. We saw lots of turtles and fish! The weather was beautiful again so we really enjoyed that.

Tanner and Jared went to spend the night with Ryan and Bryson last night, but Scott stayed home and went to bed at a reasonable hour because he had to take the SAT this morning. After Scott got done with that, we got some shopping done. We had a lot of different things we needed to get--a few groceries, sandals for me, shorts for Scott and Frank, and so forth. We were unsuccessful in finding a Sunday suit for Scott--nothing in his size, as usual! We didn't find any shorts for him, either. We started looking at lawnmowers and weed eaters because ours are not working anymore and when we looked into getting them fixed, it was going to cost more to fix them than to replace them. (One of our nice neighbors edged our lawn for us today, and although it could use some mowing, it's not looking too bad so mowing can wait a bit longer.) We were tired after all that shopping!

This evening we are looking forward to a visit from Frank's cousin, Phil, who is here at the Frederick airport with the MetLife blimp--he's one of the mechanics. He was here last fall also--we got to see the blimp up close that time.

Only 1 1/2 more weeks of school!

Weekly Review May 28 '11

Happy Birthday to Seth! It is hard to believe that our "baby" is four years old today! He opened his presents in the early afternoon and we had cake and ice cream this evening.

A new "Cars" themed plate. He got a matching fork & spoon, too.

"Mater's Tall Tales"

That's one of the cars he "sorted" at the grocery store a few weeks ago!

A wooden train set

All the loot--are you seeing a theme here? Everything was either cars or trains! Even Grandma & Grandpa were coordinated with us, without any planning!

Cool Hot Wheels toy from Grandma & Grandpa

Playing with the train

The cake (see explanation about cake near the end of this post.)

Ready to blow out the candles

It was good!

We had a busy week again, with school in the "winding down" stages. Mentally, the boys are already "done". They are ready for school to be out, and so am I! It feels like summer now, too. We've had more than one day with temperatures in the 90's. There has been some rain, but not as much as we've been having and most of the severe thunderstorms missed us.

On Sunday I got to church early for choir practice--we sang that day. I had a Primary visit that afternoon and that evening I took the oldest two boys to a fireside--the purpose was to get them excited about Youth Conference. The fireside was excellent; a real spiritual feast! They are going to Kirtland this year. I am really excited for them! On my way out, Jolie (Ridd) Smith stopped me to introduce me to "another Oremite" as she called her, who has recently moved into our stake. The new sister said "you probably won't remember me..." but when she said her name is Daelyn Dorr, I said "Yes, I do!" I thought that would interest those of you who remember the Dorr family. She's married now--I think she said her last name is Heaps. She said her husband may remember Ben, because they are close in age. Her family moved to this area 4 months ago, but they came from Pennsylvania so it's not a big culture shock for them to be here.

Monday I was supposed to work on pledge drive stuff, but I forgot so I did that on Wednesday instead. I was busy with Primary stuff, phone calls, and emails all day that day. After family night and all the kids were in bed, Frank and I ran to the store to get a few things we needed and while we were there decided to get Seth's birthday presents. On Tuesday my visiting teaching companion and I had the two ladies we visit teach over to my house and we all had lunch together. That was very nice! I think it was that evening that the boys got out Seth's new sidewalk chalk. It was funny to see that the big boys were just as interested in the chalk as Seth was!:

They made some pretty colorful creations. The fun thing about this sidewalk chalk is that it is "3-D". After finishing a drawing, you can view it through these special 3-D glasses that came with the chalk and it makes the picture look 3-D. It actually worked--I was surprised!

Scott had a doctor appointment (dermatologist) Wednesday afternoon. We also picked up Tanner's prescription and took it to the pharmacy. When I went to pick it up later (after taking the boys to YM that evening) the copay was more than double what it has always been. I called the insurance the next day and discovered that a generic drug just became available, and since we got the name brand it cost a lot more. It would have been nice to know that! We'll be asking for the generic drug from now on.

Thursday I made two batches of cupcakes for Seth to take to school:

I have certainly had my share of cupcake and cake baking lately! On Thursday I also worked on Sharing Time for a few hours and got a much needed haircut and color touch up. Frank was supposed to have a meeting, but it got cancelled. He had a pretty busy week again at work, though.

At Seth's school they do a special ceremony called "walking around the sun" for their birthdays. They have a light in the middle (representing the sun) with the names of all the months of the year in a circle around the "sun". The child holds a globe in his hands and, starting at the month he was born, walks around the circle one time for each year of his age. We also had to put together a timeline with a photo for each year of his life, along with a few sentences about something he did during that year. He will add to the time line each year until he is 10. Because Seth's birthday is on Saturday this year, he got to "walk around the sun" yesterday. He also was allowed to bring three items that are special to him to show. Frank and I both went in to attend his little ceremony. Here he is eating his cupcake:

After the kids got home from school, Frank and I went to the temple. We were both feeling sleepy and they needed help in initiatories, so we decided to do that. We tried a new restaurant on the way home that was recommended by friends. It was a greek fast food place, and the food was really good.

Besides celebrating Seth's birthday, we have been busy today with several other things. Everyone but Seth and I went to help a family in our ward who are moving to a different house. (They will still be in our ward, thankfully!) Everyone but me got a haircut. Frank and I ran to the store for a few things. I baked a cake for Seth--not that we really need more cake around here! But he saw a Mickey Mouse theme cake online when I was looking for ideas for his party, and he insisted that he had to have that cake. (I thought it was a little strange looking, but he loved it!) I really preferred to do cupcakes for his party, so I promised him I'd make the cake for his actual birthday, so that's what I did. It turned out looking almost as good as the one in the photo online, except that the icing I used to write his name was not the right consistency so the letters kept running! I was also busy today trying to finish up preparations for sharing time. Since this is a 5th Sunday, I had to come up with the whole thing by myself. We had the Elders over for dinner tonight, so they got to share Seth's cake. All of that has filled up our day.

Now we are looking forward to teh Sabbath day, as well as a day off for everyone on Monday. We hope you all have a great weekend!

Weekly Review May 21 '11

Blogger is acting strange tonight, so I hope I'm able to get this week's post written without too much trouble. We'll see how it goes. For starters, it won't let me type above the photo above, so I couldn't start out by explaining that the first couple of photos are of iris blooming in our front yard. I took them last week, but forgot to include them in last week's post. Most of the iris have died now, but a few of them are still hanging in there. They were really pretty while they lasted!

The weather was funny this week--we had several days that alternated back and forth between sunshine and thunderstorms, all day long. Today is about as good as it gets, though--bright sun, no humidity, and perfect temperature; not too hot or too cold.

We had a very busy week. I was making all the final preparations for Seth's birthday party, for one thing. Besides that, there were just a lot of other things to do, too. I helped with pledge drive accounting on Monday, went to the library and had book club on Tuesday (I made little mini cheesecakes to take to that), had a presidency meeting on Wednesday, had a doctor appointment (just a check up) and took Jared to a city council meeting on Thursday, and went to Seth's "operetta" on Friday. Today was Seth's birthday party; in addition to that, Jared had to be at a Citizenship Merit Badge Day at 7:30 this morning (it lasted until 4:30) and the other two older boys had a service project from 8:15 to about 2:00. So we've just been running all over the place!

A few notes about some of the above activities. I took Jared to the city council meeting to fill a requirement for the Citizenship in the Community merit badge. I expected to be quite bored, but as it turns out I found the whole thing rather fascinating. (And I found out that the Maryland Shakespeare Ensemble wants to start holding a Shakespeare Festival in Frederick every year. I think that would be awesome!) Besides that, when we first got there the mayor came over and shook Jared's hand and asked what his name was and what troop he is in. Then when the meeting started, he formally welcomed him, along with another group of scouts who were visiting from another troop. I thought that was kind of cool.

The operetta that Seth's class did was very cute! Seth did a great job on his part. I videotaped it, but because the acoustics in the room aren't all that great, it's hard to hear him on the tape. So when we got home, I had him say his part again while I taped it. That video clip is at the bottom of the post--for some reason blogger won't let me put it anywhere else. I hope it works! And sorry it is sideways--I don't know how to fix it! Seth was extremely cute when he did his part--he kind of galloped over to the microphone and then galloped back when he was done. The little girl right after him was the one who stole the show, though. She got to the microphone and then said "I'm scared!" Seth's teacher was trying to let her know it was ok and she didn't have to do it, I think, but she kept saying "I'm scared!" into the microphone. Then after a minute or so, she sobbed out "I'm Sally Ride. I was the first woman to go up in space." The whole auditorium erupted into cheers! Softie that I am, I actually got all choked up.

The pictures below are from the play. The stage was decorated with artwork done by the kids. The one here is Seth's, of course!

So today was Seth's birthday party. He chose a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. It was pretty fun to put it together. Here is Seth with his friends, Paul and Henry, showing off their mouse ears. (An idea I found online. Very easy to make, using girls' headbands. The ears for the girls have a red bow on them.)

For each of the games, they needed a "tool". Here's the tool bag:

To get the bag, they'd have to say "O, Toodles!"

One of the games was "pin the ear on Mickey". Frank figured out how to get a large picture of Mickey. We printed one up from the internet on regular size cardstock. Then we cut it out, held it up, and shone a light on it to make a larger shadow on the poster. I traced the outline of the shadow on the poster. Then Frank used a marker to outline the outside and fill in all the details. I think he did a great job! (Hard to tell since most of him is covered up by ears.)

Here's the party table:

Opening presents:

We served lunch--Mickey shaped pizzas and fruit salad:

Henry enjoying his lunch!

Amber and Camilla chatting:

Logan, Tyler, Seth, Henry, Amber, Camilla, Melissa, and Paul--the whole gang:

Then we had cupcakes. I love this fun little cardboard cupcake stand I found at the store!:

Focused on cake!:

All the presents! That's a moonsand playset in front. (I haven't been brave enough to open up the sand part yet, but Seth seems perfectly happy to just play with the truck!) He also got lots of cars, a bubble wand, some action figures, a "grabber", a Zhu-Zu pet, and 3-D sidewalk chalk. It has all kept him pretty occupied for the rest of the day.

The other video clip at the bottom of the page is the kids singing Happy Birthday to Seth. Once again, sorry it is sideways.

Frank was insanely busy with work this week which I am certainly not going to complain about. But he hasn't been getting enough sleep and so he's very tired. He was a great help with the party today and now he is at a dance with the oldest two boys. They needed more people to help drive, so Frank ended up doing that.

We had a rough week with Scott. He got in a disagreement with Frank Sunday night and was so upset about it that on Monday morning he refused to get out of bed and didn't go to Seminary or school. Thankfully, he just needed to regroup for a day and he was ok after that, but it was a stressful day. Today he had another disagreement and he ended up leaving the house for awhile. It ended up with me taking him for a drive and talking with him. I think he feels better now, but it is hard being a teenager. And even harder to be the parent of one!

Tanner met with his guidance counselor about a month ago and this week he found a paper the counselor had given him which tracks his progress (he had forgotten all about it) and decided to give it to me. I was rather surprised to see that on the line for class ranking, it said 1 / 341. He's ranked first in his class? Well, his GPA is 4.0, 4.5 if it's weighted for his honors classes. I'm guessing that he is probably tied for first with at least a few other kids, but still--that's not too shabby.

Jared got a "100% A+ Great Job" on a poetry packet he did recently. He had to pick 4 different kinds of poems and write one for each type. I read them and I thought they were pretty good. He says I can share them with you, so here they are:

This first one is an example of Diamante (it was originally diamond shaped, but I can't reproduce that here.)

My Dog

Snickers

Fast, Barker

Barking, running, slobbering

White, small, black, small

Running, purring, licking

Caring, loving

Cats

The second one is a Haiku:

Storms

The wind comes in strong

The rain is going crazy

But calm in the end

This one is an Etheree:

Dissolve

My body, dissolving into nothing,

The pain of living on is too much.

Around the corner, I see light.

That will lead me to my end.

It is impossible

To turn back and look,

But I still try

to look back,

and see...

Nothing.

(By the way, he wrote this as if he were dying, but he says he doesn't really feel like the "pain of living on is too much". Good to know!)

The last one is an example of Nonet:

The thing that destroys all deathly Things

The thing that shoves out all darkness

The thing that helps all living

Secretly slipping in

and also leaving

without a trace

It destroys

It lives

Light

We only have 3 1/2 weeks left of school. I'm not sure who is happier about that--me or the kids!

Everyone have a great week!

Weekly Review May 14 '11

Since I so often whine about the weather, I thought I'd start off my post this week by saying we had absolutely beautiful weather nearly all week. Cool in the mornings, highs in the 70's, and lots and lots of sunshine! We've had a very wet spring, so it was particularly nice to see the sun so much this week. Yesterday and today we are back to cloudy with rain, and it looks like we are going to have at least some rain every day this coming week. But at least we had the chance this last week to soak up lots of sunshine!

Right now I am sitting in a very quiet house, although that's not going to last for long. Our stake had a fathers and sons campout this weekend, and Frank took all four boys to that last night. They are on their way home now, so in about 15 minutes chaos is going to descend on this very quiet and uncluttered house! I am ready to have them all back, though. I enjoyed the quiet, but I missed all of them, too! I didn't sit around all by myself all night, though. I invited some friends to have a girls' night out. We met at a restaurant for dinner first, and then we came back to my house to watch a "chick flick". It was only a small group, but it was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed all the "girl talk." The movie we decied to watch was called The Lake House. My friends had seen it before, but I hadn't. A time travel story of sorts, with romance thrown in. It was a good movie. My friends went home around 11:00, but one of them left a couple more movies with me that I haven't seen yet, and since I wasn't feeling very tired I watched one of those before I went to sleep. (Charly--and even though I read the book years ago, I was surprised at how much it made me cry!) So I was up very late (or should I say very early?) and then I didn't sleep in much so it was a short night. A nap might be in order later! (Although I probably won't get a chance--it's going to be a busy day.)

Speaking of busy--that's what this week was. I like being busy (up to a point), though. It feels good to get to the end of the day and know that I got a lot accomplished. I had a lot of Primary issues to handle and a lot of shopping to do. I took Scott and Tanner shopping to get them some shorts on Tuesday. We found a few, but still need to get a few more. I finished planning Seth's birthday party and did all the shopping for that on Thursday. I am also helping give a baby shower this afternoon (for one of my counselors) and one of my jobs was to get the prizes for the games, so shopped for those, too, as well as a baby gift for my friend. I did a little bit of preliminary scouting for birthday presents for Seth, and of course had the usual grocery shopping to do. My grocery list was longer than usual this week, so all in all I spent a lot of time at various stores. I wanted to do some shoe shopping for myself as well, but just ran out of time to do that. (My sandals are falling apart and my loafers have a hole in them.)

Besides shopping, I took Snickers to the vet on Tuesday--he was due for a vaccine--and Jared had his annual check up on Thursday. Poor Jared was due for a lot of boosters, so he ended up getting 4 shots. He got his DPT booster, chicken pox booster, a shot for meningitis, and his first Hepatitis A shot. (He has to go back in 6 months for the 2nd one.)

There was a RS meeting Wednesday evening. Frank ended up working really late that night, so I took Seth with me, but there was a nursery provided so that worked out great. At the meeting we talked about a book by Gerald Lund called "Learning to Hear the Voice of the Lord" (or something like that...) It was very uplifting, and as always I felt strengthened by just being with and talking to other women. While I was at RS, the older three boys were making pizza with the YM.

Scott had an extra busy week--he helped do the sound for a couple of different events at the school on both Tuesday and Thursday. He didn't get home until nearly 10:00 on Thursday; he didn't even come home in between school and the concert. His hard work paid off, though--he got paid yesterday for all the jobs he's been doing, and it was a pretty sizable amount.

Yesterday Frank and I went over to the annual Greek festival to get some gyros for lunch--yum! I was busy in the afternoon making spinach dip and chocolate mint brownies for the baby shower this afternoon.

Besides the baby shower this afternoon, I will be making cookies for the Primary teachers--we are doing teacher appreciation for the next couple of weeks. Frank is going to go help cook for a wedding reception for the rest of the day. By the way, his toe is still very sore, but he is doing much better. He was able to work all week, and thankfully he had plenty of work to do.

I'll end this week with a kind of funny incident that happened with Seth. I had him with me at the grocery store one day this week, and while I was checking out, he was playing with some toy cars in a display in the check out lane. When I finished checking out, I turned to him and discovered that he had sorted all the cars by color into the different boxes in the display! That child definitely has my genes!!!!

I hope all the moms had a nice Mother's Day. I got to take a nap and I didn't have to cook--doesn't get much better than that! In spite of his wounded toe, Frank hobbled around and not only made dinner, but also made a couple of strawberry turnovers for all of us to share. What a great husband!

PS to May 7 '11 Weekly Review

I forgot to mention that I sent Seth's costume into school on Monday with Jared. When Seth returned to school on Wednesday, I got a very enthusiastic response from his teachers over his costume! One of them told me I should make costumes for a living. Well, fat chance that will ever happen, but I was pleased that they liked it so much!

Weekly Review May 7 '11

I'll start with some photos of Scott's Eagle scout project. He and Frank went up on Saturday to get a thank you note from the park ranger, and to have her sign some of his paperwork. They also took a few final pictures:

I think it looks much nicer where it is now, and with the new lid. Now if he will just get the paperwork done...

When I left off last week, I was hoping to go to church on Sunday. I was starting to feel better on Saturday and by the time I went to bed that night I was planning to go to church. But then...Seth woke up in the night crying. He claimed that his "cheek hurt". He insisted that it was not his ear, but I had my doubts. He felt really hot, too. After he tossed and turned for an hour or more, I gave up and took him down to the couch to sleep. Once he was propped up against my chest, he went right to sleep, but I didn't. I didn't get much sleep for the rest of the night, so by morning I was just too tired to go anywhere. I also noticed while I was up in the night that every time I moved around my head would start to hurt like someone had put a clamp on it. So I stayed home from church with Seth and with Jared, who was still coughing a lot. Fortunately, the sharing time I had prepared was pretty simple and easy for someone else to do. I really didn't feel well on Sunday at all, so it's probably for the best that I stayed home, although I was sorry to miss church.

I hear we had a really nice Sacrament Meeting. Scott and Tanner both bore their testimonies--sad I missed that! They also read a testimony written down by a member of our ward who had been very sick and was not expected to live through the weekend. Happily, he didn't die and has improved quite a bit this week. They think he's going to be ok after all, although he is on dialysis now.

Seth seemed perky and happy all day Sunday, although he got pretty crabby that evening--we were sure he was pretty tired after his restless night. We decided to wait until Monday to take him in to the doctor, though. He was pretty restless again Sunday night, but not as bad as the night before. We all got a little bit more sleep. He had a pretty high fever Monday morning, though. When we took him to the doctor on Monday, he did, indeed, have an ear infection. So he's been on antibiotics all week. He was quite a bit better on Tuesday and on Wednesday he was well enough to go back to school. He was pretty sick on Monday, though. He actually fell asleep while we were waiting for the doctor to come in to see him, and he fell asleep later that afternoon, too:

I thought he and Snickers looked so cute, napping together!

Meanwhile, I have been improving all week although some days I have still had headaches and all the sinus congestion hasn't gone away yet. Frank still has a pretty wicked cough, but it doesn't trouble him quite as frequently.

Life goes on, though--we certainly didn't lie around getting rest all week. I was back at the doctor on Tuesday afternoon with Scott and Tanner for their annual check ups. Tanner has reached the 6 foot mark, and Scott is nearly 2 inches more than that. It was interesting to talk to the doctor about their high school--he has a daughter who goes to the same high school that they do. We talked about how very little homework they have. It was nice to hear another adult express concern / doubts about that. We both agreed that their high school is definitely not adequately preparing them for the work load they are going to get in college!

I have even more doubts after I've been hearing from the boys all week that they haven't been doing anything in classes because a lot of the students are doing AP testing. They moved one of Scott's classes out of their regular room because they needed to use the computers in that room, but it's an architectural drawing class, so they can't do anything without the computers. Then his tech theater class got kicked out of the auditorium for the same reason and on Friday he was texting me, begging me to come get him because he was just sitting around--they couldn't work on building sets if they weren't in the auditorium. Tanner also told me they were watching the movie Castaway in his science class. I asked him what that had to do with science, and he said "I don't know." Yeah, me either...

Anyway, I worked on pledges at the school Wednesday morning, had a presidency meeting Wednesday evening, helped take kids to the school library Thursday morning, went to a meeting at the school Thursday afternoon (to help plan the 8th grade ceremony--they want 7th grade parents to help with that so that the 8th grade parents can just enjoy it), and completely forgot to take Jared to his annual exam on Thursday evening. I had to call Friday morning to re-schedule that, and thankfully since I've never no-showed before, they waived the fee. I really think I am staring to lose my mind. I have been so forgetful lately. And out of sorts...and have no energy. I hope it's just because I've been sick...but I've been feeling this way since the last time I was sick, which was in February.

Actually, I think I am just feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of being the mother of a child who is finishing high school in just one year. I'm trying not to let it get to me...it's his responsibility to choose a major and a college and all of those things, after all...but he doesn't seem to see the need to make any decisions yet. I have more than once decided that I need to let him make his own decisions and experience the consequences of his actions, but it is hard to sit back and watch your child make mistakes. My parenting instincts kick in and I want to "save" him from future difficulties by trying to influence him to make a smarter choice now. But it doesn't work...why do teenagers think that their parents don't know what they are talking about any way?! So I had kind of a meltdown Thursday morning after a frustrating conversation I had with Scott. He didn't know about the meltdown because it happened after I dropped him off at school. But I talked with him some more after school and I feel a little bit better now. He really is a good kid overall, but he can be so stubborn about some things! All of you who have been through this stage of life already--how'd it go for you? Because it's really freaking me out! Any advice?

After the boys got home from school on Friday, I had them go through all their clothes to determine what they've grown out of and what new things we need to buy for summer. I went through Seth's clothes, also. We have 3 big bags of clothes to give away now. The list of things to buy is actually shorter than I expected it to be. As usual, Scott needs more than anyone else because everyone else gets "hand me downs". I have a friend who gives me a lot of things for Seth also.

Frank and I went out for a quick dinner Friday evening. After we got back, I took the three older boys plus their friends Ryan and David out to the house of one of the counselors in our bishopric. All the youth got together at his house that night to make cookies--I suspect they are for Mother's Day. It is a fairly long drive out there, but well worth the time because of the incredible scenery I saw along the way. It's always a beautiful drive, but last night it was particularly so because of a storm that was passing through. There were these enormous marshmallow-looking clouds like I've never seen before, distant lightning flashes, a bright rainbow, and beautiful lighting caused by the combination of clouds and sunshine. I wish I could describe it, and I wish I could have somehow captured it all on film. But even if I'd had a camera, I'm sure it wouldn't have done justice to the wonder of it all. I thoroughly enjoyed that drive! The older three boys went home with Ryan to spend the night, so it was just Frank, Seth and I at home last night.

Today we've been busy with yard work, chores, and scouts. I took Jared to the Monocacy Battlefield, to fill a requirement for Citizenship in the Nation. Jared has been watching the national news all week to fill another requirement for that merit badge--it turns out it's been an interesting week to watch the news, with the capture and death of Osama bin Laden and all the information that was obtained from his hideout. Frank hasn't been able to do a lot today because his left knee has been hurting him a lot. He thinks he tweaked it this morning, trying to avoid tripping over Seth. Then this evening he knocked a heavy power source for a phone right onto a couple of toes of his right foot, so now he can barely walk on either leg. I'm pretty sure he broke a toe or two, but he doesn't think going to the doctor would help much.

In between all the other busy things, I've been doing some reading. I read Invincible Louisa over the weekend and Strawberry Girl this week. They are both Newberry award winners, and I enjoyed them both. I finally made it through the pile of used books I purchased last summer. I guess it is time to go get some more! We have this really great used book store in Frederick with a huge selection of children's books for really cheap prices. It is dangerous to the pocketbook to go in there...so I don't go there very often.

We have some potentially bad news about Frank's job this week. FSA, the client that he goes to twice a week (he used to work there full time, you may remember) has been contemplating hiring a different company to do their IT work for the last month or two. They finally made the decision this week to try another company. Frank will continue to work there through the end of May, but with reduced hours. Frank's boss told him last week that if they lost this account, he wasn't sure he'd have enough work to keep Frank on full time. The situation is frustrating for several reasons--first, because they have lost several clients recently, but not because of anything Frank has done. It's mostly been because of mistakes made by others. But if the company doesn't have enough work to do, Frank will be the first to go. Frank is one of four IT techs that works for the company. One of the other ones is the company owner's son, and another is the company owner's son-in-law. The third one has been working there for much longer than Frank and he has a lot of knowlege and experience. So even though Frank works harder and produces more income than anyone else (he's the only one who submits all of his hours on a timely basis), family comes first. There's not much he can do about that. At this point, it looks like they are not going to lay Frank off immediately. But I suspect that within a week or two he will not be getting enough hours to meet our needs. We'll just have to see how it goes. It may turn out better than we expect. In the meantime, Frank is getting his resume updated and starting to put out "feelers". If any of you hear of anything in your area, let us know! We really don't want to move, but we will do it if we have to, of course. I am honestly not too anxious about the situation. I feel like things will turn out ok, somehow. The last two job changes turned out to be huge blessings, so I have faith that this could be another "blessing in disguise".

I'll finish up this week with a couple of pictures of Jared & Seth. Those two definitely have a love / hate relationship! In their better moments, I often find them like this, though:

It is moments like this that I am very grateful to be a mom!