The History Behind Our Christmas Tree

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree that I took this morning. (It's kind of dark.) I've seen a lot of trees that are beautiful works of art. That is not the case with our tree, but I love our tree because our tree has lots of memories wrapped up in it. Our tree has soul! That's because every ornament on our tree is unique and many of them represent a certain year in the life of our family. When Frank and I got married, we decided to get one new ornament for our Christmas tree each year. We tried to find an ornament that would represent an event from that year or something important that had happened to us. In some cases, our year's ornament was something I made myself or else an ornament that was given to us. A few ornaments even came from before we got married. Here is the first one:

I got this ornament at Christmas in 1989 while I was on my mission, serving in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is a representation of a "Moravian star". I had never heard of the Moravian church before coming to Winston-Salem, but there are many members of this church in that area. Many Moravians hang a white, lighted version of this star over their front doors.

I got this ornament at a gift shop in Brevard, North Carolina in December 1990 while I was still on my mission. I thought it was beautiful, and I also liked that it had the cardinal on it, which is the North Carolina state bird. It's nice to have an ornament from Brevard because Frank and I met in Brevard. (The next month, actually--in January 1991.)

I don't have an ornament from 1991, but in 1992 we started our "yearly ornament" tradition in earnest. Of course, this year we had to have an ornament for "Our First Christmas Together" since we got married in 1992. My mother in law got this ornament for us.

We bought our first car in 1993, so our ornament for this year is a car. (Up until then, we were driving cars that belonged to my parents--a silver VW Rabbit and a tan Ford Astro. They were very generous to let us use their cars! I don't know what we would have done without them.) Our first car was not a 1959 sky blue Thunderbird, but it was blue--a 1989 Hyundai Sonata. It was a great car!

I made this ornament in 1994 out of wooden beads. This was also the year we became parents! Pretty momentous, but we didn't find an ornament to represent that. We did add two "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments to our tree that year, but they belong to Scott, not to us.

I made this icicle ornament out of beads the Christmas of 1995. It was fairly simple to make and turned out pretty (it's kind of washed out in the photo). I also made a bell out of beads this year. It was much more complicated than the icicle and turned out beautiful, but unfortunately, it broke several years later and I haven't been able to figure out how to put it back together. I still have it though--I can't bear to part with it because it took so much effort to make!

Tanner joined our family in 1996. He also had a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament. We took a vacation to Washington / Oregon / Idaho this year, but we forgot to get an ornament so the only ornament we added to our tree this year was the gingerbread boy shown above, which was given to us by a neighbor. Sorry, that is not a very good picture!

In 1997, we moved from Utah to New York state. This ornament represents the traditionally harsh winters of western New York, although actually the winter we spent in New York wasn't too bad. We've had more snow in Maryland than we had in New York that year. Frank was very disappointed!

The Christmas we were in New York, I was invited to an ornament exchange party by one of the women in the Fayette Ward. This party had become a tradition in that area; I think it is nice that they invited me, a newcomer. The rule was that the ornaments had to be homemade. There were about 14 people at the party so I have several beautiful hand made ornaments on our tree from that year. I love hanging them up because they remind me of the many wonderful friends I made during the time we lived in New York. The clothespin reindeer above is the ornament I chose to make for the exchange--I had a few left over.

In 1998, we visited New York City (Erick & his family came with us) and saw the Statue of Liberty, so our ornament came from there this year.

I also made this ribbon ball ornament in 1998. I still remember making it because I was very pregnant with Jared at the time and I remember my back was hurting and I was very uncomfortable! But the end result was worth it, I thought.

Our ornament for 1999 was this Delaware Quarter ornament. That's because we lived in Delaware the whole year in 1999. (Moved there in October 1998 and moved away in March 2000.) This ornament is one of Jared's favorites because he was born in Delaware.

We purchased our first house in 2000 when we moved to Maryland, so our ornament for this year is a house. I couldn't find a house that looks like our townhouse, but I thought this little house was cute.

The year 2001 was our first whole year living in Frederick, Maryland so I purchased this "Clustered Spires" ornament. Historic downtown Frederick has many beautiful old churches and the skyline really does look like the one portrayed in this ornament. The phrase "Clustered Spires" comes from the poem "Barbara Fritchie" by John Greenleaf Whittier: "Up from the meadows rich with corn, / Clear in the cool September morn, / The clustered spires of Frederick stand / Green-walled by the hills of Maryland..." Look it up and read it! It's about a legendary event that happened in Frederick during the Civil War.

We took a crazy weekend trip to Nauvoo, Illinois in the spring of 2002 so that we could attend the openhouse for the newly rebuilt Nauvoo temple. I wanted the boys to be able to see the inside of a temple and this particular temple was very special, of course. I was thrilled when my parents sent us this ornament for Christmas--a perfect reminder of something important we did in 2002.

We took a trip to New England in 2003 to visit Hans in Boston. We also visited Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont as well as driving through Connecticut and Rhode Island. We visited many interesting places including the Joseph Smith birthplace and the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory (both in Vermont), which is where we got this ornament. It reminds us of this special trip.

My Mom & Dad came to visit us in 2004. One of the places we visited was Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, near Richmond, Virginia. We got this ornament there.

We visited Utah in 2005, but didn't get an ornament there. However, a friend gave us this ornament when she visited Philadelphia. We watched her three boys for a few days so that she could take this trip with her husband.

In 2006, we took the boys up to the Palmyra New York area and visited all the church historical sites up there. Although we used to live in this area, we wanted to go again because Jared had never been there and the older boys were too young to remember most of those places. We also loved seeing the Palmyra Temple, which was built after we moved away. We got this Sacred Grove ornament to remember our visit to the area. I like the fact that this ornament represents a miracle, also because we found out we were expecting Seth this year, and that was a miracle too!

Seth joined our family in 2007, so we weren't able to take a vacation this year. However, in November we visited nearby Washington DC and took a tour of the Capitol Building--one of the things we had not done in DC yet.

We visited Frank's family in North Carolina during the summer of 2008. One of the things we did while we were there is we camped for a couple of days. I couldn't find an ornament representing camping, so I got this photo ornament and put in a picture of the boys taken in front of our little cabin.

We have two ornaments for 2009. The first one has a photo of Snickers, because he joined our family in January 2009, when he was 6 weeks old.

We also visited Hans and Griffin in the Boston area in August of 2009. One of the things we did while we were there is to visit the Minute Man National Historical Park near Concord. We got this ornament there.

We had a wonderful family reunion in Utah in June 2010. We did a lot of fun things while we were in Utah; one of them was to visit the BYU campus (old stomping grounds for Frank & I). We got this ornament to represent our trip to Utah.

That brings us to this year, 2011! Our ornament this year is very special. We were not able to go on a vacation this year and when I thought back over this year I was kind of stumped about what to do for an ornament. The most significant thing that happened to us this year was we were unemployed for 4 months but what kind of an ornament could represent that? (And who wants to commemorate unemployment anyway?) Then I saw this watering can ornament at the store and this phrase from Malachi 3:10 popped into my head: "...and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." What a perfect thing to remember about this year...that in spite of unemployment, we were incredibly blessed that we never were in want in any way. It was truly a miracle and I feel so grateful every time I think about it. This is what I want to remember about this year...and never forget! So I bought the watering can, created a label with the words from Malachi on it, and added a Christmas pick to make it look more "Christmas-y".

So there you have it! We have many other ornaments that have been given to us over the years to round out our tree. Each of the boys also has an ornament for each year of his life, given to him by Grandma & Grandpa Pew. There are stories behind many of those, as well. Our tree is not a color-coordinated work of beauty, but it is a hodgepodge of family memories, and that's why I love it!

Weekly Review December 9 '11

Can I get this post written while watching "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town"? Well, I'm going to try! These kinds of shows don't seem to interest Seth nearly as much as they did me when I was his age.

We had a very busy week. I don't feel like I was home very much. 'Tis the season, I guess! Last Friday evening I took the boys out shopping for their "Secret Santa" gifts. Since then, little treats have been appearing on pillows and in Christmas stockings. Seth did not grasp the idea of "secret", so we all know who he is giving to!

Saturday morning I got my hair done. When I got back, Frank had the boys outside putting up the Christmas lights. Frank himself was feeling terrible by then, with a nasty cough in addition to congestion, fever, chills, and headache. It was harder to put up the lights than we anticipated because we haven't put up lights for several years and the trees in front of our house have grown a lot since then! The boys managed to get them up, though. I had to go out and buy an extension cord because our long heavy duty extension cord was nowhere to be found. Frank and I just saw it recently, so we can't figure out what happened to it! I took Jared and Scott to basketball games in the afternoon. Jared's team won their game, but Scott's team lost. Scott dived for the ball once and got pretty beat up, but no serious injuries.

That evening we all went to our ward's Christmas party except for Frank. He was supposed to be helping cook food for the party all day, but he was too sick to do it. The party was nice, but rather exhausting for me since Seth was not very cooperative. The theme was "A Night in Bethlehem", so everything was decorated to look like that time period, we were encouraged to dress from that period, and we ate lamb, clementines, pita bread, humus, lentil soup, apples, etc. It really looked nice and the food was delicious. The Primary kids did a little nativity play; they did a great job!

After we got home from the party, we stayed up to watch the BYU game. We were glad to see BYU win so easily! I also worked on the YW lesson for Sunday--I was teaching a combined lesson and I literally didn't have a spare second to work on it all week until then (besides think about it).

Frank was still sick on Sunday so he stayed home from church to rest. My lesson seemed to go ok. That evening we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Seth made a lot of noise, so I didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked, but it was still really good.

The rest of the week has been a blur of Christmas preparations and celebrations. I kind of blitzed the Christmas shopping and got almost all of it done. I also shopped for our traditional 12 Days of Christmas service project, went to the library, took Snickers to the groomer, got packages ready to mail, went to the post office, went to the bank, took Jared to the doctor (he needed an immunization booster), and shopped for gift exchanges.

There were also a lot of activities this week. On Tuesday the former Primary presidency got together for lunch. We miss working together a lot! So we decided we needed to get together just to visit. It was nice! On Wednesday the stake YW presidency had a luncheon for all the ward YW presidencies. That was very nice, also. On Thursday Seth went to a birthday party for his friend Camilla. I had YW on Wednesday night as usual. We had class activities; my class played some games and did a gift exchange. It was fun, and one of the girls who doesn't usually participate decided to participate that night so I was happy about that.

Meanwhile, as I was running off to one place and another, Frank was quite sick for a lot of the week. He didn't go to work until Wednesday. He went to the doctor on Monday and found out that he does not have the flu, but he does have a virus, so they couldn't do anything to help him unfortunately. He is definitely feeling better now than he was but he still has a pretty decent cough.

Scott has had a busy week also. He is doing the sound for a Christmas play / presentation at the high school so he has been staying after school nearly every day until late with rehearsals and building sets. The first performance is tonight and there are two more performances tomorrow.

For family night we got the Christmas tree put up. It looks beautiful, but I haven't had a chance to take pictures yet. Frank has been so great to help with these things as much as he can even though he's been feeling terrible. I feel bad that he hasn't been able to enjoy the Christmas season much yet!

I have a sore foot today. Jared accidentally dropped a keyboard (we borrowed one from some friends so Tanner can practice for his piano class) on my foot last night. Thankfully, no bones were broken and since the sore part is on top, I'm able to walk on it without trouble. It only hurts a little bit.

I've been asked to sing in a quartet for our ward's Christmas program so I've been practicing songs for that. We've also been enjoying Christmas movies--last week we saw "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and this week "It's a Wonderful Life".

Even with all the "busy"-ness, I have really been enjoying the special feeling that is all around this time of year. We feel so very blessed! Have a wonderful week...

Weekly Review December 2 '11

I'm starting this week out with this sweet picture of Jared & Seth. Sorry it's kind of dark--I didn't want to wake them up by using a flash. I took this picture this morning when I got back from taking Scott & Tanner to school. I always wake Jared up before I take them to Seminary and have him get in my bed because when Seth wakes up, he usually goes in my room first. Sometime while I was gone this morning, Seth woke up, crawled in with Jared, and went back to sleep. I think it's cute that they are on the same pillow! (There is plenty of room in the queen size bed for them to spread out.)

I guess we are totally into the Christmas season now. I keep seeing lighted trees in windows and thinking "They got their tree up early this year." Then I realize that maybe it's not so early! It just doesn't seem to me that Christmas should be so soon. In spite of that, I spent some time yesterday putting up decorations around the house. No tree yet, but nearly everything else is up. Seth got to put the first "ornament" on the advent calendar last night.

He's holding his choice up in the picture above, but you can't see it because he has his hands around it. It's a gingerbread man.

Here, he is putting it on the tree.

Going back to last week, we celebrated Tanner's birthday as planned. He had two friends (Ryan and Taylor) over Friday evening for a pizza dinner and cake. He talked us into letting him open his presents that night.

Here he is reading one of his cards.

He was very excited to get the book Inheritance, which is the final book in the Eragon series.

He also got a Batman Xbox game and an iTunes gift card (he can put music on his phone with that; he doesn't have an iPod). From his friends he received a chin up bar and some money. Since he also received a gift card from Grandma & Grandpa, he will be able to go get something(s) nice. He seemed very happy with everything he got.

Ready to blow out candles!

The cake was good!

His friends spent the night as planned. They played Xbox and watched the movie The Prince of Persia.

In the morning, we had waffles, bacon, and hot chocolate. Both of his friends had family plans they had to leave for at 10:00. Frank took Jared & Scott with him to help put up some lights for a lady in our ward. I was hoping they would be able to put up our lights too (the weather was ideal--clear and in the 60's) but our ladder wasn't tall enough and our neighbor with the taller ladder wasn't home until after dark. I did some work for the school's pledge drive, cleaned the kitchen floor, figured out how to get gum out of Tanner's white Sunday shirt, and helped Scott finish up his BYU application. Really exciting stuff, right?

Seth was still coughing a lot on Sunday (although his fever seemed to be gone), so Frank got up earlier and went to Sacrament Meeting with the other ward that meets in our building. Then I took the oldest 3 boys to our regular meetings. We didn't have any extra meetings so we were able to have a fairly relaxing afternoon.

The rest of the week has been pretty busy. I had a presidency meeting for YW on Monday morning; we did it by conferencing over the phone since I kept Seth home to make sure he was well--he still had a pretty decent cough. He was bouncing off the walls by afternoon so I was sure he'd be back at school on Tuesday until...he woke up at 2:00 am Tuesday morning, crying that his ear hurt. He was so uncomfortable that even sitting with him on the couch didn't help and he was mostly awake from then on. He dropped off for brief periods of time, but I never did go back to sleep until after Frank took the boys to Seminary at 6:00. I felt pretty out of it that day! Of course, Seth didn't go to school--he went to the doctor instead. Sure enough, he had an ear infection. The doctor also listened to his lungs and said they sounded horrible--very wheezy. She decided to give him a nebulizer treatment right then and if they didn't sound better after that she said they'd have to do something else. However, the treatment helped a lot. They still sent us home with a nebulizer and instructions to give him at least 2 treatments a day for the next three days. So here is Seth, on a nebulizer again:

He's doing a lot better now. I kept him home on Wednesday as well, but by yesterday morning he was energetic and ready to go back to school. As you can see in the picture, Seth is holding a pencil. He got very interested in writing while he was home this week and started trying to write words by thinking of the sounds they make. He's doing great, too--he spelled several simple words (such as "box") correctly. It seems like the whole reading / writing thing has just suddenly "clicked" in his head. Very fun to watch!

Scott was also sick this week--he seemed to have a milder version of whatever Seth had. Scott stayed home all day Wednesday and yesterday he went to school around lunch time. He's feeling back to normal now, though.

Other things we did this week: Jared had basketball practice and YM. Tanner missed YM because he was writing a paper and Scott was sick that day. I had YW too, of course. I helped with the annual meeting and elections for the school's governing council on Tuesday evening. My responsibilities ended sooner than I expected, so I went to the end of choir also. I took cookies to one of the YW who had a birthday and is coming into Mia Maids. I did a little bit of Christmas shopping. I took everyone but Scott to get haircuts (he got his cut a few weeks ago). I finished reading the book for book club (The Space Between Us) and working on Christmas cards. I took Jared to the orthodontist this morning. Frank worked late on Thursday--he had some work to do for a client.

Today is our stake's temple day. Frank and I wanted to go together, but he started feeling sick last night (same thing as everybody else--cough, congestion, head ache) so I went by myself instead. I just missed the 2:00 session, so rather than waiting for the 3:00 session, I did initiatories. It worked out perfect because a lady came in with a bunch of family names that she wanted to get done before the 3:00 session, so I was able to help her. I also got done in time to miss most of the rush hour traffic coming home.

We continued to have beautiful weather the beginning of this week, but today it is feeling more like winter. Couldn't last forever, I guess!

That brings you up to date on us. We hope you are all well and begnning to enjoy the Christmas season!

Weekly Review November 25 '11

Good morning! Only Seth, Tanner and I are up (and Tanner is in the shower), so the house is fairly quiet. Tanner just got up a few minutes ago. I was very surprised to see him this early--he is NOT a morning person and we all had a late night last night (some of us later than others). Our original plan was for Frank and I to get up early this morning so we could go to the temple, but Seth is sick so we didn't want to leave him. The boys are good at taking care of him, but he needs extra attention when he's sick. He has a terrible cough and a fever. He's had a bit of a cough most of the week, but yesterday the cough got much worse and the fever appeared. It seems like all of our efforts to go to the temple have been thwarted lately, which is discouraging, but hopefully we will get there soon. We may take turns going, if it comes to that! But it is a long enough drive that we really prefer to go together as much as possible (and of course we enjoy being at the temple together).

In spite of Seth being sick, we still had a nice Thanksgiving. Some friends in our ward invited us to their house for dinner. When Seth got sick, we thought we were going to need to take turns going over there so that one of us could stay home with him, but our friends insisted that they didn't mind if we brought him, so we decided to give it a try. We gave him Tylenol shortly before we left, so he perked up quite a bit and actually played most of the time we were there. He didn't eat much, though. When we got home last night he was pretty tired and lay on the couch watching Monsters, Inc. which was on television. When I put him to bed, he went to sleep very quickly in spite of the fact that he was also coughing a lot.

Anyway, dinner yesterday was nice. Our friends had also invited over a couple that he knows from work. They were very nice and it was fun to get to know them. We brough homemade rolls, four pies (apple, lemon, chocolate cream, and pumpkin), layered banana pudding, sweet potato casserole, and an appetizer (sweet & sour keilbasa). Our friends made the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots, jello, and broccoli casserole. The other couple brought apple crisp and a fruit salad. It was all very yummy! After several days of cold rain, yesterday was sunny and the high was in the low 60's, so it was really quite pleasant and mild. After dinner, the three women went on a walk. It was nice to get a little bit of fresh air and exercise! The kids were in the basement most of the afternoon playing games and so forth--we barely saw them.

I had the foresight to bring our camera with me, but then I left it in my purse and forgot about it, so I didn't take a single picture! It's a shame, too, because the Thanksgiving tables looked very nice (much nicer than I could ever do it)!

Last night we were up late because of some "Black Friday" shopping. There was one thing we wanted to get for Tanner for his birthday which was on sale for a really good price starting at 10:00 last night, and there were a few other things that we wanted to get for the kids for Christmas that were also on sale, so Frank decided he might as well brave the crowds and try to go get those things. Tanner and Jared wanted to go too, which made it complicated, but they separated once they got to the store. Frank says it was absolutely insane, but he was successful in getting the things we wanted to get, so I guess it was worth it. I stayed home with Seth and got him to bed. Scott also wanted to go shopping, but he arranged to go with some friends and one of the YM leaders. Frank and the boys got home around 11:30 and we were all in bed by 12:30, but Scott didn't get home until around 3:15. Since he was with an adult, we did not stay up waiting for him, but I did hear him come in. I'm not sure what he bought except there's a coat in the closet (covered with a bag) that wasn't there before, so I he must have bought that. He's been needing a coat and I did tell him that if he found a coat he liked for less than a certain price that he could get it and I'd pay him back, so I guess he did. We'll have to wait until he gets up to find out if he got anything else, but I'm not expecting him to be up anytime soon.

Last Saturday we did a lot of shopping also. All of the boys needed various new clothing items, so we took them all shopping to get what they needed (except for Scott; he was doing the sound for the last two performances of the play at school so he was gone most of the day). Everyone needed socks and underwear, Tanner needed shoes, the older three boys needed coats, and Seth needed pants, shirts, pajamas, and a jacket. I decided to get Seth new pants because they have this new rule at his school that the teachers can't help them zip or snap their pants. He still has trouble doing that; we've been working on it with him for the last few weeks, but he's just not getting the hang of it. One day last week when I picked him up I discovered that his pants were undone and had been that way for most of the morning. Ridiculous! I understand the reason behind the rule (another case of bad people messing it up for everybody else) but I think walking around with your pants undone for hours is a much greater invasion of a child's privacy than having a teacher snap his pants for him. He's been growing out of his pants anyway, so I decided to try to find him jeans and other pants that had elastic rather than a snap and zipper. Thankfully, we were successful, so now I don't have to worry about that anymore. (He still has a few pair that snap so we can have him wear those on weekends and still work on teaching him how to snap.) We found everything we needed for the boys but it took two shopping trips to do it.

The rest of our week has been pretty busy, too. On Monday afternoon I went to my visiting teaching companion's house so we could make cookies for the women we teach. Tuesday evening we had the Elders over for dinner and I had choir practice. Wednesday the boys were out of school two hours early. Frank got off work an hour early, too. We spent a lot of time Wednesday evening and Thursday morning making the pies, rolls, etc. for Thanksgiving dinner. It was nice not to have to do the whole dinner this year, but I was surprised how much time it took to do the things we did! Of course, we fit all that stuff in between the usual grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, etc that we always have to do so most days were quite busy.

Tomorrow is Tanner's birthday, so tonight we are having two of his friends over for pizza, cake, and presents. He wanted to have them spend the night, so we are doing it tonight instead of tomorrow.

We hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! We thought of you all and wished we could celebrate with you, since one of the things we are most thankful for is our wonderful family!

Weekly Review November 18 '11

Frank and I did not go on a fun and somewhat spontaneous road trip this week, so I don't think there is much to write about. We had some beautiful warm days the beginning of the week, but yesterday it got cold again. Today was sunny, though, and I've been enjoying what is left of the fall colors. This is our next door neighbor's tree--it's practically right outside our front door.

I love this tree; it looks fabulous this time of year and in the spring it has beautiful pink flowers. When I got out the camera to get pictures of the tree, Seth insisted on taking a few too. He tried taking some of himself. I told him they wouldn't be good because the camera was too close, but I actually kind of like this one:

Yes, the flash washes him out a bit, but I like how it captured the beautiful color of his eyes! Seth took a picture of me, too. I love how all the pictures he takes of me are from the perspective of looking up at me. Reminds me of Shellie's funny story about one of her boys being shocked when she mentioned that she is short--from his perspective, he thinks she is tall! :)

So back to Sunday...Frank and I drove home that morning. We got home around 2:00, the same time that our church meetings end. Maggie and the boys arrived home a short while later. Maggie had funny stories to tell us, such as the time Seth found her putting on eyeliner and asked what she was doing. She explained that wearing eyeliner made her feel better about herself, and asked which eye looked prettier (she had only applied eyeliner to one eye so far). After contemplating her for a minute, Seth finally decided "They both look ugly!"

We've spent the week getting caught up with chores and trying to keep up with the regular flow of life. Scott has been extra busy because he was doing the sound for another play at school. He had late rehearsals every day, and last night was the first performance. He has another one tonight, and two more tomorrow.

I had a busy week, too. I was out of the house three nights in a row--choir on Tuesday, YW on Wednesday, and Auxiliary Training Meeting for YW last night. (That last meeting had been rescheduled from the Saturday that it snowed.) Tonight Frank and I planned to go to the temple, but his stomach is bothering him, so we are going to go another time. Maybe tomorrow morning, if he is feeling up to it.

This morning I helped at Seth's school all morning. I took kids to the restroom and helped get the snack ready. It is always fun to see what's going on it Seth's classroom. Seth is making great progress with reading. He brings home a reading book every day and this week he read a whole book with hardly any help from me! He was able to sound out all the words except for the word "the". I took a video of him reading today--I will try to post it on here, but it may not work since it is about 3 1/2 minutes long.

Frank is enjoying his job, and all is going well there. We are still playing "catch up" with finances, but we'll be able to start saving again soon. Last week I watched the movie "Cinderella Man" (it's really good, if you haven't seen it) and I couldn't help thinking how fortunate we are that even when we were unemployed for four months we still had a roof over our heads and plenty to eat. (That movie takes place during the Great Depression.)

One of the things Frank brought back with him from NC was a Kitchenaid that his mom had but wasn't using very much. He's been wanting one of those for a long time. He couldn't wait to try it out, so on Tuesday he made cinnamon rolls, complete with homemade cream cheese frosting. They were delicious! That's one of the differences between Frank and I--he sees cooking / baking as a fun hobby. I see it as a chore! We are lucky that we get to benefit from the yummy results of his hobby.

I told you there wasn't much to write about--I think that is it! We hope Mom had a wonderful birthday on Monday!

Weekly Review November 12 '11

So I'm getting our weekly post done late this week because Frank and I were gone this week end. I can't remember a lot about last week now except that it was insanely busy. Our weather here alternates between being cold (remember we had snow already?) and being gorgeous. The picture above is my attempt to show what I see out my front window every day as I am sitting on the couch getting various tasks done on my laptop. As usual, the photo really doesn't capture how beautiful the view is. On sunny days especially, when I look up from my computer screen my eyes are drawn to the window where I see nothing but a mass of green, gold, and red, blazing in sunlight. I love it!

Last week was busy because besides all the usual things I have to do, I was also trying to get everything ready for our trip. "Getting ready" included doing some de-cluttering and some maintenance-type cleaning (like cleaning the oven) because I'm a little crazy and don't like the idea of someone coming to stay at my house when it is messy! Therefore, I had a list of about 20-30 things to do each day. (I got through most of it.) I was also busy writing down all the things I thought Maggie (the babysitter) would need to know. The boys dubbed it "the book" because it was several pages long.

Snickers had to go to the vet for a vaccine on Tuesday; I also had choir that night. On Wednesday we had YW in Excellence. Thankfully, I didn't have to do much for that--two of the Laurels and the Personal Progress Leader did all the planning and preparing, and the other counselor made a salad. All I had to do was show up a little early to help with some of the set up and to say a few words on behalf of the YW president, who was out of town. It was a nice evening, overall.

There were several activities for the YW on Saturday (sorting at the food bank, a Priest / Laurel regional activity and a regional dance) which meant we had a lot of rides to coordinate. That caused me a bit of stress throughout the week, but it all came together finally. Then Thursday morning we got an email from the YW president--as she and her husband were coming home from the airport early that morning (returning from a 10 day trip to Mexico) they hit a deer which demolished their car and gave her minor injuries. Since she was supposed to be driving and chaperoning for the activity and dance, that put a kink in things, but she was able to find someone else to take her place so it all worked out.

Frank and I left Frederick about 4:30 Thursday afternoon. We drove about half way to North Carolina that night--we had a reservation at a hotel just outside Roanoke, Virginia. The drive went fast and it was really fun to talk the whole way without interruptions! Below are a couple of pictures of the magnificent sunset we got to watch as we drove. As always, not as good as in real life!:

We stayed at a Fairfield Inn because we could get a Marriott "friends and family" rate through one of Frank's co-workers. When we checked in, Frank was chatting with the girl at the front desk about how he works for Marriott right now as a contractor. He showed her his Marriott ID badge, and she said "Wait a minute! If you have that, I can give you the employee rate." She put us in a suite, too, so that night we stayed in a huge room with a king bed and sitting area for only $35--doesn't get any better than that! I intended to take photos of the room, but I forgot. Trust me, it was enormous! We could have put about 10 people in sleeping bags on the floor.

Our internal alarm clocks went off at a very early hour (around 4:30) and we never went back to sleep, so we texted Scott and Tanner to see how they were doing (they get up at 5:00 am for Seminary). We got ready for the day and enjoyed the free breakfast, then headed down the road. We had about a 4 hour drive to Brevard, so we arrived around lunch time. We had to make a stop for a few things at Wal-Mart, so we picked up Harry Potter 7, part 2 while we were there, too. After getting to Brevard, we visited with Frank's parents for a few hours and then went to his sister Dawn's house to unload our stuff (we were staying there that night) and to get changed for the wedding. The wedding was held in a restaurant in Saluda, NC--about a half hour drive. Dawn and her husband Mike came with us; we followed Frank's mom & dad. It was a cold and windy day--I wished I had brought my coat! (I only brought a sweater. I checked the weather for Brevard before we left Frederick, but it turned out to be colder than the weather forecast.) Thankfully, we didn't have to be outside much.

The wedding was very sweet. As you can see from the photos below, they had fall colors, which I thought was very pretty. The reason they both have orange on is because of a dream the bride had several years ago, shortly after a divorce where she was wearing white with orange trimmings and there was a boy in the dream who was also in white with orange--so they "matched". She woke up from the dream feeling like there really was someone out there for her and that she would someday find love again.

Both Frank's brother and his bride (Joelle) attend a small non-denominational Christian church. The owner of the restaurant also goes to church with them. The pastor of this little church performed the ceremony. It was very nice. It was interesting, though--at the very beginning, the pastor stood up and welcomed us all to "this celebration of eternal, covenant love". That statement got me thinking about my own wedding, and I spent the whole ceremony feeling tearful because I was so grateful that I was married by someone who had to authority to actually seal Frank and I together in an eternal, covenant relationship. Clearly, the members of this church have the right idea. They are a small group, like a family, and their love for each other and for Christ was obvious. They know how important marriage is. It was so close to the right thing! The ceremony included a sacrament of sorts as well. The pastor spoke of the symbolism of bread and wine and gave some to the bride and groom. But he didn't attempt to bless it, and I was reminded of my own boys preparing, blessing, and passing the sacrament. What an amazing thing that they have the authority from God to do that. Again, I felt grateful for what I have. I hope this doesn't sound negative about the wedding. I'm not criticizing; as a matter of fact, I was really impressed. It was special and there was a beautiful spirit there.

So enough contemplating--here are the pictures! The lighting in the restaurant was similar to the lighting at my kids' school--in other words, it was terrible for photographs but Frank did his best!

Here is Frank's mom, holding Joelle's 3 week old grandson. Yes, she's a grandma! (Although I don't think she's much older than me.) Her oldest daughter (who's 18) just had a baby. Joelle has four children from previous marriages. James has one from his previous marriage. His son, AJ, was best man and can be seen in the photograph below (between James and Joelle, with the "alien" eyes!):

They are exchanging rings here.

And here, obviously, they are kissing!

Mr. & Mrs. James Cleveland

Cutting the cake. The little girl is Joelle's youngest daughter, Selah. She is a cutie!

First dance.

Brothers! Frank is younger, but as you can see, he is the taller one.

There was a nice dinner after the ceremony. We had the chance to talk to Joelle for a few minutes (had not met her before the ceremony) and she was very gracious and nice. When Frank walked up to her, he didn't have to introduce himself. Joelle took one look at him and said "You're Frank, aren't you?"

We got back to Dawn's house around 9:30, and Frank and I were both so tired (remember, we got up at 4:30) that we were both out by shortly after 10:00.

Saturday we had a relaxing morning at Dawn's house. Then we went to visit with Frank's parents for a few more hours before we had to leave. We had a reservation at a Fairfield Inn in Wytheville, Virginia that evening. Again, the drive went quickly and we enjoyed talking the whole way. We got to the hotel around 8:30. We watched the new Harry Potter movie on my computer and then we watched the first half of the BYU-Idaho game. We were too tired to stay up for the whole thing (that would have been about 1:00 or 1:30 am out here) and it looked like BYU had it under control, ahead 28-0 at the half. (We were glad to hear the next morning that BYU did indeed win the game.)

Meanwhile, at home the boys kept busy. Jared helped with scouting for food collection and sorting in the morning. Tanner was going to help too, but he wasn't feeling too great so he didn't go. He did go to the regional dance that evening, though. Scott wanted to have a quiet week end at home for once (he's been pretty busy the last several weeks) so he ditched all the Saturday activities. He did go to a party at a friend's house Friday evening, though--she said she had to have a party to celebrate that it was 11-11-11! Maggie's family was going to the Baltimore Aquarium on Saturday, so she took Seth with her to do that. He had a great time (told me all about the dolphin show on the phone that evening) and her family got a big kick out of all the funny things he said. (Such as claiming that he is a faster runner than everyone in the family--except for me!)

Everyone did great while we were gone, and we are really grateful that we had a chance to get away for a whole week end! We will have to do that again sometime, for sure. We missed our kids, though, and it is good to be home again!

Weekly Review November 4 '11

Ok, so this week I am trying to make up for the lack of photographs I've had in the last several posts. First of all, above is the gorgeous centerpiece I have sitting on my table right now. How did I end up with a beautiful centerpiece? Well, yesterday there was a special luncheon held at our church for a bunch of leaders of charitable organizations in our community. This event was organized by a member of our ward who is the head of the local chapter of the United Way. He wanted to help the leaders in our community become more aware of the kind of charitable work the church is doing as well as to give everyone a chance to discuss ways we can work together. Anyway, they asked the sisters in our ward to plan and prepare the luncheon. I volunteered to make a salad and I also went over to the church for about an hour to help with set up. I was given one of the table centerpieces as a "thank you". I'm not sure why I got one--there were only 6 tables and there were certainly more than 6 women who helped (and many who helped more than I did)--but I am happy to have it! I have absolutely no ability when it comes to arranging flowers or anything like that, so I particularly enjoy beautiful flower arrangements when I receive them. That was a long explanation for one photo! The rest won't be as long.

I didn't get many pictures of the beautiful fall leaves this year, but here are a few. They never look as good in photos as they do in real life! (Unless you are an amazing photographer like Anna.) In the above picture, the sky was so blue and the red against the blue was particularly striking.

In this one, I loved the sunlight bringing out the gold / green of the trees and grass.

Last Friday was International Children's Day at Seth & Jared's school. They had a little costume parade and a short program. Seth was representing France; in the above photo you can see him holding up the flag he made.

Jared's class (the whole middle school) sang a song called "Love In Any Language" and made signs that said "I love you" in different languages. Jared is holding up the spanish sign. I was acutally really impressed with his class's performance. They sounded really good! The lighting in the sanctuary (where they hold all their programs) is really bad, so I can never get good pictures in there.

Here is Seth's costume that he wore to represent France (3 Musketeer). If it looks familiar to you, that's because I "recycled" it. Jared wore the same costume several years ago for International Children's Day. No time to make a new costume this year!

After I took Jared's picture several times, he insisted that it was his turn to take mine. So here are the ones Seth took of me:

(Yes, I was texting someone!)

Friday was also Jared's 13th birthday. Three teenage boys in one house! He had his friends Bryson and Sage over after school. We had pizza and cake, and they spent the night. Here he is opening presents. Here is his "crazy excited" face! He was happy to get a Air Hog remote control helicopter! It is a bit tricky to maneuver, but he is learning how to do it.

Here's the cake--not fancy at all! He wanted a red velvet cake this year.

On Saturday there was snow in the forecast, and we did get some. They said we might get 4-6 inches, and if it had snowed continuously, we probably would have got that much. We got a mixture, though--some snow, some sleet, some freezing rain....It kind of alternated all day, so the end result was 2-3 inches of slush. These pictures were taken near the beginning of the day. We did get more snow later on.

We were scheduled to have a chili dinner and trunk or treat at the church that evening. I was surprised when they didn't cancel that (although the trick or treating was moved to indoors) but I'm glad they didn't because it was very fun for the kids and a lot of people came. The roads were cleared up by then, too. I'm mad that I forgot to take a camera.

Saturday was very relaxing, otherwise. I was supposed to have stake Auxiliary training that morning from 9-11 for YW, but they did cancel that. I'm sure it would have been a good meeting, but I was happy to go back to bed!

Sunday was busier but still nice. I went to Sunday School for the first time in over 3 years--that was kind of strange, but I did enjoy it. Then they had a combined RS / Priesthood for the adults. The YM and YW met together, and I thought I was going to stay with them, but after the opening announcements, the 2 members of the bishopric who were teaching the youth that day said they wanted all of the leaders to go to the adult meeting, so I ended up going to that. It was really good. It did seem different not to go to Primary, but I'm sure I'll adjust soon.

Monday was Halloween, of course. The older boys stayed home and passed out candy while Frank and I took Seth around the neighborhood. This was his first year to really go trick or treating, since Halloween was on Sunday last year. He wanted to wear the same costume he wore to the trunk or treat last year, which was fine with me! Last year, that tail was dragging on the ground--he's grown!

We had him wear his shoes under the socks so his feet wouldn't get cold and wet. We knew it would probably ruin the socks, and it did. You can see his shoe showing through the big hole he wore in the sock!

The rest of the week has been fairly low key. I've been fighting a cold, so I tried to take it easy. Thankfully, I have been well enough to be functional! I've been in the coughing stage the last few days, which isn't fun but means I'm getting better.

Scott worked on Tuesday and yesterday, but those were his last two days. He planned to give his two week notice a few weeks ago, but then his boss told him he had finally found a replacement for him so that worked out perfect. He has a few more plays coming up that he needs to do the sound for, so we don't want him to be too busy. It was very crazy the last few weeks when he was trying to work and do the play at the same time. They left on good terms, so we're glad he got some experience and now has someone who will give him a good reference. It was a good experience for him, overall.

Wednesday was class activities for YW. I had the Laurel class as well as the Mia Maid class because the YW president is out of town. We made taffy and put together some bags of goodies and thank you cards to give to the leaders who were just released.

Yesterday I already mentioned I was busy helping with the luncheon. When I took the boys to school after Seminary, the sun was rising and everything was really misty. It was so beautiful! I tried to get a picture after I got home, but it really didn't come out. Here is my attempt:

The sky was pink, and there was a thick mist hanging on the ground. Neither of those things really came out in the photo.

Today there isn't any school. It was very nice to sleep in! I forgot to mention last week that I have to take the boys to seminary as well as pick them up now. The person giving them a ride to seminary was one of the seminary teachers, and he found out that it's against church policy for him to give any of the kids rides--there are liability isssues. So I've been getting up an hour earlier every day the last two weeks.

Scott and Tanner are at a Teacher / Priest retreat right now; they left last night. They are staying at a cabin that belongs to a member of our ward. They won't be back until tomorrow evening. Jared spent the night with Bryson last night, so it's just Seth and I at home today.

Frank's brother James is getting married a week from today and we got this crazy idea that Frank and I could go to his wedding (leave the kids here). We weren't sure it would work out, but things seem to be coming together. At work they are willing to let him work four 10 hour days so that he can have Friday off, and a young lady in our ward who is leaving for a mission the end of the month has agreed to come stay with the boys and drive them all the places they need to go. We're planning to leave Thursday evening (drive part way down to NC) and come back Sunday evening. I have a lot of work to get done in between then and now to get ready, but I'm really excited that we will get to go somewhere alone together for a whole weekend! We have actually never been away from the kids (both of us together) for more than one night since we started having kids. (And there have been precious few of those nights, too.) Sad, I know! I think it will be really good for us, and for the kids too.

I think that's all the important stuff for this week. Seth is waiting for me to peel an orange for him, so I'd better go do that before he tries to do it himself. :)