Weekly Review October 14 '11

Sorry there are still no pictures this week. My memory card on my camera is full. I don't want to delete the pictures off of the memory card until I have them backed up in two places. They are on my computer, but I haven't been able to send them to Costco yet (my 2nd backup). I tried to do it 2 weeks ago and there was something wrong; Frank hasn't had time to help me figure it out yet. So in the meantime, I haven't been taking any pictures.

Last Saturday Frank was gone most of the day--he was helping with the catering for a wedding. I kept busy with last minute preparations for the program practice, including a trip to the church to make a lot of copies.

Sunday was fast Sunday for us; we had a really great meeting with a lot of powerful testimonies. Scott was one of the people who got up, and he always says such insightful things. This time he drew an analogy--he mentioned that he had noticed earlier in the meeting that Frank had allowed Seth to go out to the hall by himself to get a drink of water. He waited to see if Seth would come back; of course he didn't! So Frank went out in the hall to find him, and brought him back into the meeting. He said as he watched this happen, he realized that is a lot how Heavenly Father works with us--he gives us our agency, but when we don't make the right choice, He always comes looking for us and brings us back. I thought that was quite profound! (And I was happy to know that he is seeing God like qualities in his own father.) He also mentioned that the main thing he got out of General Conference is that he needs to serve a mission, which is music to a parent's ears.

Our first practice for the Primary program went remarkably well; I was very pleased with how it turned out! I was really glad I didn't have to cook dinner when I got home, though, because I was also on my feet for most of the two hours. Frank brought home a lot of leftovers from the wedding the day before, so all we had to do was warm up plates of food. It was all very yummy, too.

The rest of the week has been quite busy. The four boys and I had dentist appointments on Tuesday. None of us have any cavities, which was great news. I had choir practice Tuesday evening while Frank took Scott to meet with the district Eagle scout commissioner. He now has his official board of review set up for October 26th. The scout committee in our ward is going to do a mock board of review with him this Wednesday, to help him prepare.

Scott worked on Wednesday and Thursday, and he'll be working again tonight. I met his boss (Casey) this week (usually I just drop Scott off) and he is a very nice man. He spoke very highly of Scott to me and in particular mentioned that Scott really knows a lot about religion and that when he speaks about it, he can tell it is coming from Scott's heart. He insisted on making a pizza for me and sent it home with Scott when we picked him up that night. Last night I took Seth with me to pick Scott up, and he gave both of us sodas and asked Seth what his favorite pizza toppings are so he can send a pizza home for Seth tonight. He speaks with an accent, so I asked Scott if he knew where Casey is from, and Scott said "I think Armenia". He is going to find out for sure; I'm sure Casey would be interested to know that we have family members who have been there.

Wednesday night I went to Relief Society; we talked about eating healthy. There was a lot of good information, and I could definitely make some improvements in that area! Scott and Jared had orthodontist appointments Thursday afternoon--I had to take them both out of school early for that. Scott got a full mouth x-ray and a new retainer; Jared got braces on his bottom teeth. Jared's teeth have been pretty sore since then; he's been mostly subsisting on milkshakes.

We were supposed to have a ward activity tonight--a chili cook off, campfire, and campout--but it has been cancelled because of the weather. It rained all day yesterday and it is still raining hard today. I suppose the chili cook off part could have been moved to the church, but they are re-gluing all the carpets in our building so we can't use it except for Sunday meetings.

Frank did start his new job on Monday as planned. It hasn't been too exciting for him yet--he had to fill out a lot of paperwork and it took until yesterday to get his Marriott ID. Until he got his ID, he couldn't start doing his real job, so he was spending most of the time just reading about what he would be doing. Hopefully he is getting to do more today. I'm sure he will enjoy the job more once he gets going and we are very thankful that he has a job, of course.

I felt like I ran from one thing to the next all week, taking kids to appointments and to work, running errands, and keeping the household running. In between all that, I've been working on preparations for our 2nd practice and for the program, and trying to read the Brothers Karamazov; it is not a book that you can read very effectively in snatches. My counselor who had her gall bladder out is recovering pretty well from her surgery. When I talked to her on Monday, she sounded completely wiped out, but when I talked to her yesterday, she sounded much better. She's hoping to make it to church this Sunday, but she might not.

Primary things are not going to be keeping me busy much longer, though--I found out on Wednesday that I am going to be released soon. (I think it's ok to say that since I'm sure no one from around here reads my blog.) I knew this might be coming, so it wasn't a huge shock, but it's still kind of hard to believe. I feel sad about it, but I also feel peaceful about it--I know it's the right time. We are getting released the same day as the program, though--I think that is going to be a very emotional day!!! I will miss the kids and I will miss working with the other women in the presidency. We have had a lot of fun together. I feel so very blessed that we have all got along so well and have enjoyed working together so much. I couldn't have asked for two better counselors, and both of my secretaries have been fantastic, too! I will not miss all the organizational details, and trying to figure out who to get to fill callings, etc.! Maybe I will have time to write a little more on here, besides weekly reviews. (Although I don't know what I'll be doing next--I guess it could be worse!) In the meantime, though, I still have a little over a week to go, and it is going to be a very busy week, getting ready for the program and trying to orient the new president. There is certainly a lot of information to convey to her; that's going to take some time. I already talked to her for about an hour last night and barely scratched the surface.

So to end on a happy note, this week I had two separate people (the dental hygienist and Scott's boss) comment on how young I look. Apparently, I could pass for a woman in her late 20's! That's always nice to hear. Payback for all those times I was mistaken for a kindergartener when I was actually in 3rd grade. :)

Weekly Review October 7 '11

We hope you all had a great General Conference weekend--we did! The boys (with the exception of Seth) are getting a lot better about listening quietly to the talks. Tanner was even taking notes! There were so many good talks that I felt applied to me in one way or another. It feels good to set some goals and to try to do better! It's always exciting to hear about the new temples, too. Two more in Africa! I was also really excited to hear that they are going to restore the Provo Tabernacle and make it a temple because I always loved that building. It's so beautiful (well, was...before the fire) and I have some good memories of singing in concerts there. I hope I'll get to go there sometime after it is completed.

The weather cooled down quite a bit this week, but we didn't have a lot of rain. The last three days have been crisp in the mornings but warm and sunny by mid morning--beautiful!! We have certainly been soaking up the sun, after all our cloudy rainy days. The trees are starting to turn colors, too. I just love autumn!

Most of you have heard by now that Frank will be starting his new job on Monday. The Marriott manager did call on Monday and on Tuesday he went down to sign all the paperwork. He had to get a drug test and a background check but all the paperwork came back in time and he passed the drug test and the background check without any problems, of course! So he is good to go-finally!!!! We are so glad. Frank had a busy week between all of that and doing more work for the stake computers. He also had several odd jobs to do for friends and former clients. He worked all day on Wednesday.

There is not a lot written on my calendar this week, but I was still very busy. That's mainly because my counselor who is in charge of the program found out late last week that she had to have her gall bladder removed immediately--she had surgery today. That means she won't be at church for our first practice this Sunday, obviously! She might miss the next practice also. She had the program mostly ready to go, but I wasn't planning on being in charge of the practices so I had to think through a lot of the logistics to make sure things go as smoothly as possible. There was a lot of planning and communicating to do. I hope I didn't forget anything important! I guess I'll find out on Sunday. It's ok if I did--I've had enough experience with Primary programs to know that the practices are usually chaotic, but the actual program always turns out wonderful anyway.

I shuttled kids around and did some reading. We are reading The Brothers Karamazov for book club. I figured out that I need to read about 40 pages per day to finish in time (it's a long book) but so far, I've only made it through about 20 pages in 3 days. That's not because the book isn't good...I actually think it's going to be excellent...I just haven't had time to read more than that!

As part of my scripture study I started reading the new history of the Relief Society, Daughters In My Kingdom. I have found it to be extremely uplifting so far--if you haven't started reading it yet, you should! I've loved reading about the women who were followers of Christ when He was on the earth as well as about the women in the early days of the restoration. Women really haven't changed that much! I've been able to see how the gospel and keeping covenants helped them with the challenges of their day in the same way that that the gospel and my covenants are helping me with the unique challenges of our days. It has also been humbling for me to see that even for me, who has spent virtually 14 of the last 15 years serving in Primary or YW, that Relief Society is still very much a part of my life. I mean, I knew that already, but reading this book has really reaffirmed that. It's hard to put into words what I am feeling; hopefully that makes sense!

Scott worked on Tuesday and Thursday. He is probably going to continue working at this pizza place for a while. Hopefully we will be able to work things out so he can get his license soon--it will be easier if we don't have to drive him there every time he works. (Not that he'll have his own car or anything--but at least some of the time he'll be able to take mine.)

I took Seth to the park yesterday to enjoy the beautiful weather. Today he had a playdate with his friend Henry (from church). He had a great time, apparently. He is starting to try to sound out words, and today with a little help, he figured out the words "sat" and "mat". I think he will definitely be reading before this school year is over.

Jared has his friend Sage over to hang out this afternoon. They've been friends since 1st grade; this is their last year together since they will be going to different high schools next year. Jared is taking a keyboard (piano) class at school but he isn't liking it. He says he isn't learning anything. I think he just doesn't like the way the teacher teaches. He's finding it pretty boring. I've been encourging him to give it some more time--he may actually be learning more than he thinks he is. Tanner is also taking a piano class, and he loves it. I have no idea how they are doing because they can't practice at home--we don't have a piano or even a keyboard. I was planning to buy one before the job loss occurred, but now it has to wait. Fortunately, they aren't required to practice at home, but I've been wanting to take them over to the church so they can practice on the pianos there. We just haven't had time to do that yet.

Frank had to talk to someone at the DLLR (unemployment office) this week because they sent us a letter saying they had evidence he might be self employed or working for commissions while collecting unemployment. He had to explain again that he does not own a business or have a full time job (yet)--he has just been doing odd jobs that are offered to him. After he explained the situation, the guy he was talking to cleared him. He could see from their records that Frank has reported all of his earnings accurately. Frank asked him where they got their information that he might be self employed, and the guy said it was an anonymous caller. We're pretty sure it was Frank's former boss--we can't think who else would have done that. It's incredible to me that they would stoop that low--try to cause problems for us. It's hard to believe how vicious some people can be! We just have to shake our heads.

Well, I didn't mean to end on a negative note, but that's all I can think of to say about this week. We hope Shellie had a happy birthday!! (There, that's positive!)

Weekly Review September 30 '11

How's that for a nice view? For famliy night this week we drove up to Pen Mar Park. I went there earlier this summer and was very sorry that I didn't have my camera with me, so I made sure to bring it this time. The rest of the family had never been there, so I wanted them to see it. There was one complication in the plan, though--we didn't know the park closes at 7:00, and we didn't get there until about 6:45. So we didn't get to spend as much time there as we would have liked, but the boys enjoyed playing on the playground for about 10 minutes.

The Appalachian Trail runs through this park, too. Anyone want to go to Maine? How about Georgia?

Scott contemplates the sunset.

Looking at Pennsylvania

A couple of monkeys!

Whee!!!

There were some really cool slides at the park--Seth loved them!

Going back to Friday, we stayed up kind of late watching the BYU football game. We were very happy it wasn't a repeat of last week, and especially happy that BYU pulled off a victory in the end. It was just Frank & I watching the game because the oldest 3 boys spent the night with their friend Joey, who lives just down the street.

Saturday was busy with a birthday party for Seth to attend, a baby shower for me to attend, and the RS broadcast that evening. Our stake did something different this year for the broadcast. Instead of watching at the stake center, we were divided up into small groups and watched the broadcast from homes. There were 8 women in my assigned group. We each brought something to snack on while we watched. Of course, the meeting was fabulous as always. I particularly enjoyed President Uchtdorf's talk. It was so sweet and encouraging! After the broadcast ended, we all started visiting. We were having so much fun it was hard to leave, but we didn't stay long since it was already pretty late (we're not on Utah time, of course, so the broadcast doesn't end until 9:30 for us).

Sunday was also busy with Ward council before church and BYC after church. It was mid afternoon before I got home. Tanner & Frank went home teaching and we had family night.

The rest of the week was fairly busy, but not incredibly eventful. Scott and Tanner both had doctor appointments--Tanner a check up because of his medication and Scott a follow up with the dermatologist after his first round of acutane treatments. His skin cleared up beautifully while he was on the medication, but now that it is out of his system he is breaking out a bit. The dermatologist says that is normal, though, so he will follow up again in a few months to see if he needs another round of acutane or not. It would be nice if he didn't need another round, but I'm not feeling too optomistic about that unless he clears up again soon. Oh well--the joys of being a teenager! At least his acne is moderate, not severe.

I had book club Tuesday afternoon and choir practice that evening. Scott worked Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and he is back at work again this evening. He's been filling in for his friend David when he couldn't be there, but this week David decided to quit completely, so now Scott is filling in for all of David's hours--at least until the owner of the pizza place can find a replacement for David. Scott could have the job if he wanted it, but we haven't decided if it is worth the 15 minute drive. It would be a lot easier if Scott had his driver's license so he could drive himself there and back. (Scott could probably pass the test if he took it, but we can't afford to add him on to our insurance right now, so it has to wait.) We may decide to have him take the job anyway, but we wanted to think about it. In the meantime, he is earning some money and being a missionary--he gave a Book of Mormon to the owner this week.

I had a bad headache most of the day Wednesday, so I tried to take it easy. Frank was a big help to me. There was a Court of Honor Wednesday evening, so we all went to that (except Scott, who was working). Tanner received 3 merit badges and Jared received 4. Tanner should have received 2 more and Jared should have received 1 more--they missed a few! Neither of them were ready for a rank advancement yet, but hopefully by next time they will be. Jared has enough merit badges to get his Star rank but he hasn't finished all the requirements for 1st Class yet. Tanner was only 2 days away from being able to get his Life rank, but then I discovered that they haven't given him a chance to fill a leadership position lately, so he has to wait another 6 months now. They are both making progress, though, and we hope to have Tanner starting on his Eagle project as soon as he gets his Life rank. He already has almost all the merit badges for Eagle completed. Scott had his application for Eagle approved last week, so now he has to meet with the district guy and set up his board of review. We are getting there...!

The kids were out of school on Thursday because of the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah. They also got out 2 hours early today, so they've had a nice break from school the last few days. Yesterday I went to get my hair done, so Seth got to play with Tyler again. He had fun except for when he hurt his finger. He was playing on a scooter and decided to put his finger in the open end of the handlebar--it was very sharp and he got a pretty decent cut on his finger, including part of the fingernail. It bled a lot, but doesn't seem to be too serious.

It has rained a lot this week again, but Thursday was mostly sunny (except for a brief thunderstorm in the afternoon) so we decided we'd better get some yard work done while we had the chance. Tanner mowed while Jared and I did a lot of weeding. Jared used the weed eater on the edges, too. (Frank didn't help because it was his turn to have a bad headache that day.) After all the rain, our yard was really starting to look like a jungle, so it looks pretty great now, by comparison. We weren't the only ones who had that idea--while we were out there working, we could hear lawn mowers going all over the neighborhood! Quick! Mow the lawn before it starts raining again!

Actually, today was sunny all day also (although it is looking cloudy now). Frank and I wanted to go to the temple today, but Frank didn't sleep well at all last night and he still wasn't feeling his best, so I went solo. (Plus, Scott had to work tonight so we couldn't both go anyway.) I left after taking the kids to school--Frank handled all the pick ups for me. Everyone got home before I did since they were out 2 hours early. The temple was wonderful! I feel like I've been pretty low, spiritually, lately, and that was a big boost. I was listening to hymns the whole way there and back, also, which was very uplifting.

The news on the new job is somewhat hopeful this week. Once the position was approved, it had to be posted. That was supposed to take just a few days and it took over a week, but that did finally happen today, and the manager put Frank's name in for the position. The next step is for the manager to call Frank for a follow up interview (just a formality), which will hopefully happen on Monday. It is looking hopeful that he will be able to start working on the 10th. We certainly hope it works out!

Frank has continued to be busy with stake computer stuff this week. He is at our building right now setting something up.

We are looking forward to being spiritually fed the next couple of days. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly Review September 23 '11

This weekend we had Stake Conference. (I hear most of the rest of you did, too.) Frank and I didn't make it to the meeting at the temple Friday night because neither of us was feeling very well. Frank had to help get all the video feeds set up for stake conference on Saturday morning. He was supposed to have a meeting at 4:00 that afternoon, but after working on the video feeds all morning, he was wiped out and had to come home and crash. I did make it to the adult session at 7:00, and it was really good. The whole meeting focused on strengthening the family. It was very uplifting, and I really felt the spirit. I ended up sitting next to a member of our ward who has recently started coming to church after being less active for many years. It was really nice to chat with her--got to know her better and she had a very inspiring story to tell about her choice to return to full activity.

I got home from the meeting shortly before the kick off for the BYU football game. You all know what a fiasco that turned out to be, so I won't go into it! None of us stayed up to watch the whole thing--it would have been about 1:30 am if we had--but we stuck it out until the score was 33-10. When we heard the final score, we were really glad we gave up and went to bed! We hope they had some good practices this week and will perform better tonight. I don't think I've ever seen so many things go wrong in one game!

We were up early Sunday since Frank had to be at the stake center pretty early. The boys and I arrived later--about a half hour before the meeting started. They had a Primary choir, which was sweet, and the whole meeting was very good. We did not have our friends the Koettings over afterwards as we usually do--they had visitors from out of town. (We missed them!) Instead, I went to see a new family in our ward who have three kids, all Primary age. Scott went home teaching and to a prospective missionary fireside.

Monday morning I had a load of errands to run, including taking Snickers to the vet. Frank came with me. I had to take Jared to the orthodontist that afternoon--his wire came loose again (at least the 3rd time that's happened) over the weekend, so I called that morning to get him an appointment.

Frank and I had Merit Badge Counselor training on Tuesday evening. It actually wasn't a complete waste of time (I can't say the same for any other BSA training I've attended); I learned a few things I didn't know. It was also a lot more fun to go with Frank--we could make faces at each other if we got bored! :) We got ice cream cones on the way home--figured we ought to make it a date, as long as we were out. It was nice to get out of the house for an evening together and to chat on the drive there and back.

Scott worked on both Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. He missed YM, but he got to answer a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and the church--the guy who owns the pizza place was asking him about that. Scott really enjoyed being able to share his testimony!

Frank had work to do all day on Wednesday, which will help out. We are still waiting on the job to work out. We hear they are making progress and they are hoping he can start October 3rd; if not they think it will be October 10th. Frank has been very busy with work for the stake computers and phone systems as well; in some ways I guess it's a good thing he hasn't had a job because I don't know how he would have found time to do all the things for the church if he was also working full time. They are trying to update the internet connection at the stake center (for the family history library) and to set things up so they can do audio /video feeds from the stake center to our building. (They want to be able to broadcast stake conference at our building since the parking at the stake center is completely inadequate for the number of people who come). There have been a lot of details to work out, and it has been a lot of work for Frank the last month or so.

Last night Frank and the boys (except Scott, who was at work) watched the movie Thor. I think they really liked it. I wasn't paying very close attention, but what I saw looked fairly interesting--I may try to watch it before we send it back.

This morning I took the youngest three boys to get haircuts. Seth enjoyed that, since it means he got to play with his buddy Tyler (his mom does our haircuts). The kids all have the day off school for "Fair Day". The Frederick County Fair has been going on all week. I bet they haven't had a great turn out this year because it's been raining a lot this week. It rained in torrents Wednesday evening and all night that night; today it has been raining mostly all day as well, sometimes very hard. The river is looking pretty high.

I've been busy this week with Primary stuff (we're getting ready for the program, coming up next month; I updated the budget as well). In my spare time, I've been reading Harry Potter. I finished the fourth book at the end of last week and now I'm about half way through the fifth. We have book club next week, so I'll have something new to read then. I haven't felt well this week, off and on--cough, some congestion, and bad headache--so I have been trying to take it easy. Frank started feeling better on Sunday, but he is starting to feel sick again today, with a bit of a sore throat.

I guess this wasn't a very exciting week, because that is all I can think of to write about. Well, boring can be good--too many kinds of excitement are not the good kind. I'd rather have dull than that kind of excitement. :) Tomorrow is going to be busy, so maybe I will have more to report next week.

Weekly Review September 16 '11

I thought last Saturday was going to be busy, and it was...but not as busy as I originally thought it would be. Frank was helping to cook lunch for a big conference they were having for all the LDS family services employees in the area, so he left early. The rest of us were helping with our stake's day of service, planned as part of the commemoration for the church welfare system's 75th year. The project was supposed to go from 9:00-1:00. We signed up for 10:00-12:00, but by the time we got to the stake center around 8:45, almost everything was already done! We helped finish putting together a few hygiene kits and food boxes, and then went home. (Everything the stake was doing was to benefit a local charity called the Frederick Rescue Mission.) Jared & Tanner met us at the stake center; they'd spent the night with Ryan & Bryson.

Frank got home in the late afternoon. The oldest three boys had been invited to a surprise birthday party for one of the girls in our ward, but Tanner didn't go because he'd been fighting a cold all week and didn't feel very well. We had the Elders over for dinner--we fed them mostly leftovers from the lunch which Frank had brought home with him; very yummy! The Elders had just been made a threesome, so it was kind of a good thing Scott & Jared were gone--we would have been very crowded around our little kitchen table! After the Elders left, we watched the BYU football game. Of course, we were disappointed with the outcome. Better luck this week, I hope.

We are enjoying not having to get up so early on Sundays. We watched some of the 9/11 coverage that morning. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years. I still cry every time I think about it.

Monday I ran errands--went to the library, returned the nebulizer to the doctor, etc. After school i took Scott to get a haircut. Frank got one too. On Tuesday, Snickers went to the groomer, I had choir practice, and Scott got his picture taken for the yearbook. I wasn't very impressed with the company that took the photos--they were running an hour behind schedule and we had to pay a $25 sitting fee, just to get his picture in the yearbook. The yearbook photos are free the other 3 years of high school--I don't see why we have to pay for it his senior year.

Wednesday Frank spent the whole day at the church cannery / bishop's storehouse doing service. He went down with two other men from our ward. They helped load 8 big pallets of supplies to be sent to the storehouse in Baltimore. The cannery is close to Andrew's AFB; he saw Air Force 1 landing there. The boys had YM that evening, and I had RS. The boys were supposed to mow some lawns (service project) but that didn't work out because there was a huge thunderstorm. In RS, we had a fun scripture chase activity. It was fun to see who got competitive! I did better with the hymn scripture chase game (she played the first 4 or 5 notes of a hymn, and we had to be the first one to locate the correct hymn in the hymnbook)--I got to 4 of those first!

Scott missed YM because he was working. His friend David has a job at a pizza place nearby, but he just got a temporary job working on a play so Scott is going to fill in for him at the pizza place while David does the theater job. On Wednesday he went with David to be trained. He also worked last night. It will only be a few week nights or week ends for the next month or so. It doesn't pay a lot, but will be good experience for him and help him earn a little.

We also got a package from Hans on Wednesday--thanks, Hans! Lots of fun and yummy stuff inside!

We are having stake conference this weekend, so tonight we are hoping to go to the temple--our stake is having a special meeting there. However, Frank started feeling sick last night. He is nauseous and has a bad headache. I am still fighting a cold and have had a headache, congestion, and cough on and off all week. So we may have to sit this one out! Frank has a lot to do the next few days to help get all the audio video stuff set up for stake conference, so hopefully he will be feeling better soon. He has also been busy working on the computers and phone system for the family history center.

The news we got about Frank's job this week is pretty much the same as before. We're still waiting. Apparently, Marriott (have I ever mentioned the offer came from Marriott?) has just set up a new system for hiring and Frank is the first person they have hired with the new process. So he gets to be the guinea pig--great! The way it was explained to us is that first the position has to be approved and then they have to approve the person for that position. They say the approval for the position finally went through on Thursday, now the manager who wants to hire Frank has to put his name in for the position and send that in to get approved. They say that should happen on Monday or Tuesday, so that they can get the offer to him on Wednesday. We'll see...I've heard that one before! I can't say I am too impressed with their new hiring procedure, but apparently they have been working out a lot of the bugs with Frank's application. They are hoping he will be able to start on the 26th. In the meantime, Frank is still looking elsewhere and he recently applied for a few positions with the church. He is also working on applying for a position at BYU Hawaii. I think it's a pretty long shot that one will work out (although he's certainly qualified) so don't pull your hula skirts out yet! :)

In the meantime, the boys qualified to receive free lunch at school. They are pretty tickled about it because that means they don't have to make their lunches for now. I told them not to get used to it--they probably won't be doing this for long. I was surprised when I talked to the lady on the phone about it, though. I told her it would probably be for a short time, until my husband got a job, and she said that once they qualify for free lunch, they can get free lunch for the whole school year. She suggested we may want to do it all year, until we recover financially. Well, I hope it doesn't take us that long to recover. Another example of government waste! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, though--it will really help us out right now until we get some income coming in. Those boys eat a lot!

We still had rain / thunderstorms this week, but we saw the sun a lot more and most days were warm. The mornings have been cool, though, and yesterday afternoon the temperatures really cooled down and the high is only going ot be in the 60's today. It feels like fall already. We definitely had a cooler than normal August, though, so I can't complain. One nice thing about the cooler weather is that I can pull out all my sweaters--I have a lot more cool weather wardrobe options than I do in warm weather ones. I love fall--I just wish winter wasn't coming behind it.

I need to go make some soup for Frank, so that's it for this week.

Weekly Review September 9 '11

It's raining, it's pouring...that pretty much sums up our week. It rained all week long. I shouldn't complain--we needed rain and I know a few places that need rain desperately, but a whole week of not seeing the sun is not very good for my emotional state! The river is definitely up now (it was VERY high yesterday) but although it has flooded its banks it has not come anywhere near flooding our house; we are grateful.

You may remember that Seth was sick last Friday. I expected his fever to spike back up that night, but it didn't. We all stayed home and watched a movie except for Tanner, who went to his high school football game (his school won). Seth's temperature was a little elevated Saturday morning, but by mid afternoon it was down to normal and he was running laps around the house, so we figured he was better. Frank and all three older boys went that morning to help a new family move into our ward. (They have 3 Primary age kids. We are up to 112 kids in Primary now!) One of my counselors and her family invited our family and several others to their house Saturday afternoon to watch the first BYU football game of the season (and their very first game as an independent team). We all went except for Scott; he and Allie were invited by another friend to watch the game at her house. Most of you saw the game so you know it wasn't very exciting until the 4th quarter, but the ending was worth the wait! I still can't believe that incredible fumble recovery / touchdown at the end--awesome! It was really fun to watch the game with other Cougar fans. We haven't done that in a long time--not since we left Utah, as a matter of fact.

Seth woke up in the night with a horrible croupy-sounding cough. He had a fever Sunday morning, also, so Frank stayed home from church with him. We didn't have to get up as early because our meeting block just switched to 11:00 instead of 9:00. (We always switch at the beginning of the school year instead of the calendar year; I'm not sure why.) In Primary, we had a high councilman visit us. He was talking to the children about preparing for baptism and wanted to ask them what they should do to prepare. But the way he worded the question was "What do you need to be baptized?" Immediately, a little Sunbeam piped up "Water!!" Love it! Honestly, I don't get people who don't like serving in Primary...there is never a dull moment! Scott went to church at Allie's ward because she was flying out to Utah that afternoon so that was his last chance to see her. (He misses her, but he says he's not heartbroken!) The boys had a firside Sunday evening, which I think they enjoyed.

Seth seemed to be doing better on Monday, so we accepted the invitation of another family in the ward (the Croys) to go to lunch and on a hike with them. We met at Red Robin for lunch; it was yummy and the Croys wouldn't let us pay for ours, which was very generous considering there are 6 of us. (I hope we can return the favor one day.) Then we went to a place called Washington Monument State Park, which has a short hike up to...guess what?...a monument dedicated to George Washington. Apparently, it was built long before the more familiar white pillar in Washington, DC so it is the "original" Washington Monument. During the Civil War, the monument was used as a lookout and signal tower. You can climb the stairs to the top, where there are sweeping views of three states and several points of interest, as you can see from the plaques that Jared photographed:

(If you can't read them, the labels include several roads and towns, a mountain, a ski resort, Antietam Battlefield, and Pennsylvania and West Virginia, as well as Maryland.) The view probably would have been even better if it hadn't been so cloudy.

At the base of the monument, on the back side, the boys enjoyed climbing over a field of large rocks.

I tried to photograph a church in the distance--can you see it?

The Croy Family: Danny (he doesn't like to be photographed), Kathy, Elton, and David. This is the family we purchased our home from when we moved to Maryland!

And here we are!

The monument looks a lot like a honey pot, we thought!

Like so many of the structures built pre-Civil war, it has a treacherous spiral stair. Thank goodness for the railing, or I never would have made it to the top!

The Appalachian Trail also runs through the park. A brief part of our hike was on the trail:

Seth on the Appalachian Trail:

Tanner trying to carry Jared "piggy back":

We were really fortunate; it was threatening rain all day, but the rain didn't start until we were leaving the park (and it has pretty much been raining ever since). After we got home, Frank took Scott & Jared to the church to play basketball with a few other families in our ward. It was a tiring day in some ways, but it really lifted our spirits to get out and do some fun things with other people. We're really grateful we could have a fun day like that!

The day turned out to be too much for Seth, though--his fever went back up that evening and he didn't sleep very well, so on Tuesday we took him to the doctor. He has a virus, but because of the nasty croupy cough, the doctor sent us home with a nebulizer and a prescription for arbuterol. Here is Seth, getting his medicine:

The medicine has seemed to help, as well as the humidifier we started using at night, but his fever still went up and down all day Tuesday and Wednesday and he didn't sleep well either. Between him and Snickers (who was upset by some of the storms we had in the nights) we had some pretty sleepless nights. He finally started to show some real improvement yesterday and last night he slept solid all night long with no coughing, so today he finally went back to school! He still coughs some times, but I hope we are over the worst of it. Seth's teachers were very glad to see him!

Meanwhile, we had a lot of other things going on. I spent most of Tuesday visiting teaching. That evening I had choir practice. The boys had YM Wednesday night; I had an appointment with the bishop to talk about Primary stuff. Seth came with me to that because Frank was helping with board of reviews for the scouts. Thursday evening I went to an appointment with the missionaries--they are teaching a girl in the ward who is turning 8 soon; she hasn't been able to come to Primary very consistently. I took one of the other girls in her Primary class with me. This afternoon I took Seth to get some new shoes and a few pairs of jeans--he is growing out of a lot of his clothes. Thank goodness Scott came with me (he had some purchases he wanted to make) because the trip turned out to be a bit of an ordeal. Tonight Scott had a babysitting job, Tanner & Jared went to spend the night with Ryan & Bryson, and I went to a baby shower. Oh, and it rained. Did I mention already that it rained? This evening the clouds did start to clear up and we actually saw the sun for an hour or so before it went down. It was very exciting!

From Netflix this week I got the first installment of The Blue & the Gray, a mini-series about the Civil War. I saw it once before as a teenager and remembered that I liked it. Now that I am seeing it again as an adult, I am not quite so impressed. It's a bit melodramatic at times and there's a lot of poor acting. It's still an interesting story, though, and I enjoy the period costumes and the historical details. I also managed to finish the 2nd Harry Potter book and read all of the 3rd book.

Frank has been very busy with job hunting, working on computers for the stake, and helping me take care of Seth. The recruiter called him Tuesday to say that the job is still a go but the approval process is going to take longer than anticipated. They are now planning to have the official offer to us on Wednesday (the 14th). They originally wanted him to start on the 12th, now they have moved it back to the 19th. So we are still waiting! It's getting old, but if he has a job in the end I won't complain. Our health insurance check was delivered on Saturday, so hopefully that problem has been resolved as well. Frank is trying to get his exercise program going again. He did very well last week, but he hasn't felt very well this week so his plans got derailed a bit. Hopefully this coming week will be better!

We have a very busy day tomorrow, so I will post this and get to bed!

Weekly Review September 2 '11

When I signed off last week, we were waiting for Hurricane Irene to arrive. As you all probably know from watching the news, we didn't get much from the storm in our area. It turned out to not be a big deal at all for us, so we were lucky! Saturday we stayed close to home for the most part, and it was gray and overcast all day. We had a few showers now and then, but the heavier rain didn't start until evening. It did rain from early evening until the wee hours of the morning, sometimes very heavily, and there were wind gusts also, but that's about it. The main result of Hurricane Irene for us was the loss of a good nights' sleep! Between the changing intensity of the rain, the wind gusts, and a very nervous dog, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep. I had Ward Council Sunday morning also, so I had to get up pretty early for that. It was still raining lightly when I left home, but stopped on my way to the church. I didn't see any downed trees or even branches, and no flooding, either. By early afternoon, the sky was clearing up and by mid afternoon the sun was shining brightly and we had a gorgeous clear blue sky. Everything looked very fresh and clean! What surprised me was that the river behind our house didn't flood at all. It usually floods if we get a decent rain. So that was that--we're very thankful to have come through both an earthquake and a hurricane without any damage!

On the job search front, things have been very quiet this week. We still don't have a written official offer so we are playing the waiting game and not enjoying it very much. However, the recruiter has been in contact with Frank 3 or 4 times this week, the latest less than an hour ago, and every time he's talked to the manager that Frank interviewed with he says he definitely still wants Frank and they have it approved through HR, they just need a sign off from the VP, and that hasn't happened yet. Now we'll have to wait until at least Tuesday, since Monday is a holiday. We are hoping it will really work out, but it's hard not to have doubts at this point. Other than that, Frank had one follow up interview on Tuesday, but that's about it. He did spend most of the day working on Thursday, though, so that will help out.

School started on Monday, and Seminary started for the oldest two boys on Tuesday. I wasn't very excited for school to start, but it has been nice to get back into a somewhat normal routine. I feel like I get more done when I'm in a routine. The boys have adjusted well to school and everything seems to be going smoothly so far. Tuesday I had book club, Wednesday I had a Primary presidency meeting, and yesterday I took Jared to the orthodontist and Scott had his conference with our scoutmaster so that he can move forward with his Eagle Scout application. Frank has been busy getting some new computers set up for our stake's family history center, as well as job searching.

For book club we decided that this month we are going to read a book called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It was an easy read--I'm already done with it! The book is unique because it is written from the perspective of an autistic boy. I really enjoyed it (except for the bad language). It was really quite fascinating, and made me wonder what really goes on in the minds of autistic people. I kept thinking about a boy in our ward named Danny, who is autistic, and wondering what really goes on in his head!

Besides reading the book for book club, I also finished the first Harry Potter book and read the second one. I don't expect to get through the later books that quickly, but the first 2 or 3 books are fairly short.

Last night we had a thunderstorm in the night which got Snickers upset again, and then Seth came in our room (he often does) and crawled into the "nest" of blankets and pillows we have on our floor for him. He usually goes right back to sleep, but this time he kept thrashing around. I kept waking up because I heard him moving, and I finally woke up enough to think that maybe he was sick or something so I got up to check on him. Sure enough, he was burning hot to the touch, so I got him some Tylenol and a drink. He finally settled back down to sleep. He was still warm this morning and had a slight temperature, so here he is at home, having a sick day, and it's only the first week of school! His temperature went up later this morning, though, so I know I did the right thing to keep him home although he has been pretty perky overall. I suspect his temperature will spike up again tonight. Jared hasn't been feeling his greatest either--he's had a cough and some congestion for weeks, actually, but we thought it was probably allergy related. Jared doesn't have a fever, though, and he still opted to go to school today. Hopefully he will get rested up this week end and be feeling better by Tuesday.

Today has been kind of stressful because we discovered that the certified letter we sent last week with our health insurance premium for the month had not been delivered. The USPS attempted delivery, but no one was home, so they left a notice on the door but the people at Griffin Networks never went to pick it up. This caused us great consternation, since the premium was supposed to be delivered no later than the 1st. Frank was finally able to talk to someone at Griffin, who claimed they never saw a delivery notice, but she said they would still process our premium if we had it delivered again. So Frank had to call the post office to request a redelivery. Hopefully it will all work out. Unfortunately, we can't leave it in Griffin's hands--we can't trust them to treat us right. We are pretty thoroughly sick of the whole situation and that is another reason why it would be really nice if we can find new employment soon and get our own insurance, so we don't have to deal with them anymore.

We were supposed to have dinner tonight with the family we carpool with, but we had to postpone it since Seth is sick. I think Frank is going to make fried chicken for us instead--he has been perfecting a recipe lately, and he's finally got it figured out so that it's really yummy!