Weekly Review April 12 '13

While I'm waiting for the guy from the Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation to call me back, let's see how much of this week's post I can get written.  I have a feeling I might get it all done--I'm guessing he's getting a lot of phone calls today from people like me who are trying to figure out their Personal Property Tax Return.  I'm in a grumpy mood about it--if they really want us to fill out a proper return, they should really have better instructions.  If someone like me, who has an accounting degree, reads their instructions and still has lots of questions about how to fill out their balance sheet, then something is wrong.  I'm also feeling grumpy because they insist that we have to report our personal property (this is for the business) when all we have is a computer, a printer, and a desk--all of which are used for other purposes besides the business and all of which were given to us years before we ever considered having a business.  We didn't purchase any of them.  How am I supposed to place a value on those?  I don't even know what they cost originally, let alone what they are worth now (probably nothing). Well, that's the reason I'm waiting for the guy to call me back.

I did take a few pictures this week but now my SD card can't be read so I can't get the pictures off of it.  Fortunately, they are just pictures of flowers and things like that...nothing irreplaceable...and I copy the pictures from the SD card to my computer every week, so all the older pictures on there have already been copied.  But no pictures this week...sorry!

We really enjoyed General Conference.  It is always a great spiritual feast!  That's mostly what we did all weekend.  I did do some house cleaning Saturday morning before the first session.  During the first session we enjoyed sub sandwiches for lunch, courtesy of our ward's cub scout pack--they made them as a fundraiser.  In between sessions, Frank and I went on a walk.  The missionaries were coming for dinner, so they joined us for the second session (for us, it's from 4:00-6:00) and we had dinner right afterwards.  There's a new Elder serving in our ward--Elder Green--who is from Orem.  I knew that already, but when I was able to question him more extensively, it turns out that he lives near the church on the corner of 800 East & 1200 North!  He says he was in the Canyon View 3rd Ward--same ward we were in.  I'm sure we know some of the same people, but of course my mind went blank when I tried to think of the people I knew in that ward.  Besides, I know a lot of people have moved in and out since we were there, and I'm sure the ward boundaries have changed several times.  (As a matter of fact, his address was not in our ward boundaries during the time we lived there, it was just north of our boundaries.)  Anyway, it was kind of fun to find out we lived so close together.

Tanner missed the Saturday sessions of General Conference--he was at the school all day working on sets for the play.  He did get home in time for dinner and went to the Priesthood session with Frank and Jared.  Sunday we relaxed and enjoyed the other two sessions of conference.  I made a few calls for RS to set up some visiting appointments and we had family night that evening. 

I had visits Monday morning...my secretary and I visited two sisters in the ward.  I bought groceries and did laundry.  I did most of the house work without help this week because Tanner and Jared were so busy with the play. (The boys usually help with vacuuming, sweeping, bathroom cleaning, and laundry folding.)  They stayed after school every day for at least a few hours...Tanner was usually there later, until 9:00 or 10:00 at night.

Tuesday we got our federal and state tax returns filed.  I'm glad to have that done...just wish I could get this last personal property tax return figured out so I'd be done with taxes for the year!  We actually have to pay the federal government this year, but we are getting a refund from the state that is larger than what we have to pay to the federal government so it's not bothering me much.  We set aside a portion of the business earnings all year to cover taxes, so now most of that is now our "refund" for this year.

We had our monthly RS evening meeting on Wednesday.  It went well, I think.  We had more sisters come than usual and the speaker was really interesting and fun.  The topic was "speed cleaning".  I don't know if I learned how to clean any faster than I usually do (I already do most of the things she suggested) but I think I came away with a better feeling about the importance of all the mundane cleaning things I do every day and I also felt more motivated to clean / declutter my house.  I have become pretty discouraged about that particular thing over the last few years so I need a boost to motivate me to try again.

Yesterday morning I took Seth with me to take all the seminary kids to the high school (Frank was gone to work already) and between dropping them off at the school and home, Seth started to throw up.  Just out of the blue...didn't even warn me that he was feeling sick!  Thankfully, he hadn't eaten anything yet so there wasn't much to come up and he had a blanket in his lap so the clean up was easy--just throw the blanket in the washer.  However, he was very sick all day.  In spite of the fact that he didn't eat anything, he kept throwing up small amounts of stomach acids all day long (with an occasional tiny bit of ginger ale, since I gave him very small amounts of it off and on, hoping it would settle his stomach.)  He stayed on the couch all day watching television and sometimes dropping off for a few minutes.  I didn't stray too far from him all day--just got a few things done around the house such as laundry and vacuuming.  After Frank got home from work I made a run to the grocery store. 

Seth threw up right before bedtime last night, but then he slept all night without any problems and this morning he is finally keeping down ginger ale, so hopefully he is on the mend.  Thankfully, our carpool family has been able to get their kids to school without my help the last two days so I haven't had to worry about that.  Today I have our personal budget to get updated besides trying to finish the property tax return so I expect I'll have numbers coming out my ears by evening.  Jared is hoping to go to the temple tonight with the youth...he's not sure he can get away from school in time for the appointed carpool meeting time at the church.  Tanner is sure he won't get away in time, so he is not planning to go.  It's too bad the temple trip fell on a week that they are so busy.

As you may have heard, we've finally had some nice weather around here, although it has felt more like summer than spring.  We've had temperatures in the high 80's most days this week.  It was warm enough to comfortably be outside at night in shorts, short sleeves, and sandals!  After a few days of warmth, all the trees exploded into bloom.  Most of them didn't even show signs of budding a week ago--it's been so cold.  So it's been a pretty dramatic transformation the last few days.  Most of my tulips have come up and bloomed, as well.  I got some pansies at the store this week which I planted in pots and put on the front steps.  Jared mowed the lawn last Saturday so the yard actually looks quite nice except for the abundance of weeds in the flower beds.  Frank wants me to wait to weed until he gets some mulch to spread over the beds when I'm done, but he hasn't had a chance to do that yet.  He's been really busy this week still.

Today is more like spring...temps in the 50s, and this morning it rained cats and dogs for a few hours.  We are happy to finally get some nicer weather but I know not everyone has been so lucky.  It's crazy all the places (including Utah) that have still been getting snow this week...some places even a lot of snow.  This is one of the strangest springs I can ever remember.

Frank is putting another server in for another client this week end, so I don't expect to see much of him tomorrow.  I don't know how he keeps up with all the work he has sometimes, but I'm grateful he is willing to work so hard. 

We received another email from Scott on Saturday, which I forwarded on to most of you so you should be up to date about him.  He left the MTC on Wednesday, but we haven't heard from him since then.  We do know he made it up to his mission headquarters because on Wednesday evening (while I was gone to RS) Frank got a call from a lady in Utah who wanted to let us know that "Elder Cleveland" was at her house for dinner and that he was doing well and going to be a great missionary!  She said "I know you can't talk to him, but I just wanted you to know he is here."  I think that is pretty funny!  Frank forgot to ask her where she lived, so we don't know where he's been assigned although when I checked his bank account online this morning he had made a purchase at a Super Wal-Mart in Riverton yesterday, so I assume that's where he is.  I guess we will have to wait until we hear from him to find out.  I think his P-day will probably be on Mondays now, so I don't expect to hear from him until then.

Well, the tax guy still hasn't called me back...I hope I hear from him before closing time.  This return is also due on Monday, so I'm running out of time.  

Weekly Review April 5 '13

I hope everyone had a happy Easter!  Ours was pretty nice.  On Saturday we dyed Easter eggs, in addition to all the other things we had to do.  On Sunday morning, our table looked like this:

 

When I told Seth he needed to eat some breakfast, he looked at the table, looked at me and asked doubtfully "Candy?"  That made me laugh!  No, we didn't have candy for breakfast but we did have hard boiled eggs:

Here is Seth with "his" egg (we each put our name on one with wax crayon before dying it):

Easter Sunday was relaxing because we didn't have any extra meetings.  Frank still wasn't very well, though, so he stayed home from church.  He had a terrible cough still.  (He went to the doctor Saturday morning and was diagnosed with a touch of bronchitis in addition to a sinus infection.  He was treated with two prescriptions: an antibiotic and some cough syrup with Codeine.  But neither one had started helping much yet at that point.)

Having Frank stay home made things a little complicated because I was singing in the choir and was supposed to sit up front for the the whole meeting (we sang three different songs).  Tanner and Jared both needed to help with the sacrament.  So that left Seth sitting alone until after the sacrament.  I debated what to do and finally decided to let him try sitting alone (I did ask the family sitting in front of him to keep an eye on him).  He certainly didn't sit perfectly still, but all in all he did pretty well...at least he didn't make a bunch of noise!  I loved the songs we sang for choir and all the talks were good...it was an uplifting meeting.  I love Easter!

After church we had a nice ham dinner and enjoyed relaxing.  The boys' spring break continued through Wednesday.  I enjoyed sleeping in a bit and not having to be on a set schedule.  Other than that, it wasn't very restful, though...I still had lots to do every day and didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked.  I did have the boys work on some things for scouts and on Tuesday Frank took Tanner to get his learner's permit:
 

I let him drive around the church parking lot a little bit on Wednesday but that's all he's done so far.  We don't want to let him out on the road until he's had a little more experience in the parking lot!  He hasn't taken driver's ed yet so he has no experience behind the wheel other than that.

Monday evening we played some games (Wii sports resort) for family night and then we all watched the movie Wreck It Ralph.  Except I didn't watch the whole thing because part way through it I suddenly started to feel nauseous and I ended up upstairs with a nasty case of the stomach flu.  Again!  That's the second time in about six weeks that I've had the stomach flu and no one else in the family has had it but me.  I find that very strange.  Maybe it was food poisoning, but I also had a fever that evening so that makes me think it was a bug of some kind.  At any rate, after being miserable for a few hours I finally fell asleep and by morning I was weak and a little dizzy, but able to keep down liquids.  I rested for most of the day Tuesday.

Wednesday was the last day of spring break.  Jared went to his friend Ian's house for most of the evening.  I had a presidency meeting that morning and a meeting with the bishop that evening, with Wal-Mart shopping in between, so it was a pretty busy day for me.

Thursday was busy, too.  Everyone went back to school and I got a lot of things done for Relief Society.  Snickers had his teeth cleaned that day...Frank dropped him off early that morning and I picked him up around noon.  One of his teeth was very decayed and had to be pulled (it was practically falling out anyway).  The vet also checked his ears and they don't look completely better yet so we have to continue putting drops in his ears for another 2 weeks.  He's been a little "off" since yesterday--didn't start eating again until late this afternoon and yesterday he whimpered occasionally.  I think the anesthesia made him feel a little nauseated and he just didn't feel quite right.  He is perkier today than yesterday and seems to be getting back to normal.

Tanner and Jared both had to stay after school yesterday for play rehearsal.  They are both helping with sets / lighting / sound for the upcoming play, which is Young Frankenstein. ( I am not very impressed with most of the choices their director makes.)  It starts in two weeks so they are going to be very busy for the next three weeks. 

Today Frank and I went to talk to one of his clients who is a CPA--we had a few questions about our tax return, plus a personal property tax return that we have to fill out for the business.  We are running out of time to get those filed!  He helped with most of our questions, though, so I don't think it will be too hard to finish up now.  I had some errands to run today too, and took cookies to a sister I visit teach (it's her birthday) and worked on the budget and got visiting teaching changes figured out.  It's been another busy day. 

Frank has continued to be very busy also.  He is installing a new server for a client tonight.  Thankfully, he is feeling a lot better than he was although he still has trouble with his cough occasionally.  It seems like Frank is working all the time; at least some of the time he is at home, at least.  It is a great financial blessing but sometimes I wish he didn't have to work so hard.

We got our first letter from Scott on Saturday.  I woke up with this strong feeling that I needed to send him an email that day, and I'm glad I did!  I'm sure it was nice for him to hear from us on his first P-day.  He sounds happy, which makes us happy.  He is in a threesome (he calls it a "tripanionship") and loves his companions.  They are in a district of five Elders...all five are going to his mission together.  He and his two companions are the zone leaders.  He leaves the MTC April 10th (this Wednesday!) and he says they will ride the train to their mission.

Speaking of Scott, I need to write him a letter now, so that wraps it up for this week!

Weekly Review March 29 '13

Certainly this was an eventful week and one we will not soon forget.  As I suspected, it wasn't low stress. 

 

I had Ward Council early Sunday morning.  I wasn't really feeling that great--my stomach started hurting on Saturday and that evening my head hurt too and I was really worried that I was coming down with something.  However, I was no worse Sunday morning (maybe even a little bit better) so I decided to get up and get ready to go and I ended up being fine.  My stomach continued to hurt off and on that day and the next, but it never got worse.  It was strange--I never felt nauseated at all, it just hurt.  Erin said she had felt the same way for a few days earlier that week, so maybe some strange mild virus was going around.  At any rate, I was really glad I was well enough to go to all of my meetings.  I especially wanted to hear Scott's talk, of course--and he did a great job.  Erin joined us for all of our meetings and then stayed for dinner afterwards.  She had to leave shortly after that because she had visiting teaching appointments, but we are glad she could come!  I had choir that evening and we all went to a farewell openhouse for the Schlenz family after that.  Then we had family night so it was a full day--and not very restful! 

 

Our wacky "spring" weather continued this week with a winter storm coming in late Sunday night / early Monday morning.  We got a good 5 inches of snow from that (the snow was still coming down when we got up and continued to come down a good portion of the morning) and school was cancelled for the day.  The roads were not bad, though--really wasn't necessary to cancel it at all in my opinion.   

 

Scott had his wisdom tooth pulled that afternoon.  It didn't take long and it went well.  I had the dentist x-ray his other tooth and it had moved down quite a bit.  He thinks it will need to come out sometime in the next 6 months.  However, in spite of that I decided not to have him take the other one out.  He still would have had to dig for it a bit and I just didn't want Scott to have to deal with both at once while traveling and entering the MTC.  His mission president may not appreciate my decision later when he has to have the other one out, but I still think it was the best decision.  I'm not at all sure that Scott would have got on that plane if he had been dealing with pain on both sides of his mouth instead of just one.  Scott's mouth was pretty sore but not too bad.  He was able to spend some time with a few YSA friends that afternoon.  Also, two girls he knows from high school came to the house to visit with him.  It was a busy day getting lots of last minute things done and I was up pretty late hemming his white pants.  (It took a lot longer than it should have because I was using my new sewing machine so I was learning how the machine worked through the whole process.  Practically every step, I had to go to another part of the instruction book to learn how to do something else.  But I finally got them done and I really like my new machine!)

 

Oh and that evening (before I hemmed the pants) we went out to our stake president's house so Scott could get set apart as a missionary.  He wasn't all that happy when we left the house because he'd just had to say good bye to Allie but it was a sweet experience.  The stake president took the time to talk to us a bit and he asked Scott and I to both share our feelings, which I managed to do without crying (but Scott didn't).  He gave Scott a beautiful blessing, too. 

 

Tuesday morning Scott got up and began to pack, and things were going pretty well until he discovered that he had lost his wallet.  He'd left it in his inside suit coat pocket, and it wasn't there anymore.  We spent the better part of an hour looking for it, and feeling panicked.  Poor Scott was looking at me like "Am I really supposed to be going?"  I'm sure he was having his doubts after all the crazy obstacles that kept cropping up the last week.  We finally called the airlines, and then TSA, and were told that he could probably still fly if he had a copy of his birth certificate and his social security card.  We did have those, so we thought we'd just have to take those and hope for the best.  Then when Scott finished packing and went to put on his suit coat, his wallet went flying out of it!  All three of us had checked the pockets and it wasn't there.  All we can figure is that he put it in his sleeve instead of in his pocket, by accident.  We were just happy it turned up--lowered our stress levels quite a bit!  Besides, now he had access to his debit card and a few other things that he really needed. 

 

Scott's flight left at 4:30 so we go thim to the airport around 2:30.  We took all the other boys out of school early so they could come with us. (Frank worked from home that day.)  We stopped at Wendy's on the way and got frosties for everyone.  I forgot to take the camera, but thanks to Frank's smart phone, we were still able to take some pictures:    

 

 

(It was windy--that's why my hair is in my face)

 We're smiling in this picture because we realized Frank was taking a picture of us, not because we were happy to say good bye.

 There were definitely some tears...mostly just Scott, Tanner and I.  Seth didn't seem to grasp how long Scott will be gone, so he was not too upset.  I did most of my crying AFTER we got back in the car to go home.  But we are so glad he is going to have this great experience!  And I have to admit that the last few weeks have been so stressful that I am really glad that they are over!

Scott arrived in Utah without any trouble, we hear.  Many thanks to Daniel for picking him up and to Mom & Dad for feeding and lodging him and for taking him to the MTC!!!  I spoke to Scott for a few minutes late Tuesday night, after he got to Mom and Dad's house.  He sounded pretty upbeat and reported that his mouth felt a lot better than it had that morning.  I hope it has continued to heal.  Thanks to the Utah folks, I have a few pictures taken there:

With Grandma

Erika, Shellie, Scott, Amy, Mom, Anna, and June

Two missionary cousins!  (Scott and Timo)

Those last two pictures were taken at the cemetary, I believe.  As most of you know, Rachelle's Dad passed away last week and his funeral was Wednesday morning.  So Scott went with Mom & Dad to the funeral before they dropped him off at the MTC.  Since then, we've been wondering how he's been doing and hoping he's feeling ok!  We have no idea what day is his P-day so we don't know when we'll hear from him.  We are used to having him gone, but not used to not being able to communicate.  It will take some adjusting.  We miss him.

Frank woke up Wednesday not feeling very well, and now he is full-blown sick.  He has a sore throat, headache, congestion, and a terrible cough.  He went in to work for a while yesterday and on Wednesday and today he worked from home.  I hope he feels better soon! 

I had visiting teaching appointments Wednesday morning and then got some shopping done.  I ended up picking up two different boys from school for two different friends that afternoon / evening.  The boys had a Court of Honor that evening for YM, but since neither Tanner nor Jared were receiving any awards, Frank and I didn't go.  (Yes, we need to start working on scouting again!)

Yesterday was the first day of Spring Break.  It's been nice to sleep in the last few mornings.  I have not been relaxing otherwise, though, since my work is never done.  I had my annual mammogram yesterday morning; that went fine.  Besides the regular household chores (which the boys helped with) I've been working on taxes and updating the budget.  The budget updating took most of the day today.  Last night Jared went to his friend Joseph's house to play games until late.  Tanner and Jared are at their friend Taylor's house this evening to watch Les Miserables; they are also spending the night there.  So it's down to just Frank, Seth and I at home tonight--something that happens pretty frequently these days.

At Frank's work, the transition of the IT positions has started.  All the available jobs--for both Marriott and for the outsourcing company (Xerox)--are being posted and Frank has to apply for the job(s) he wants.  There have been a lot of problems with the website and the job postings are confusing too because none of the jobs are a complete match to the previous jobs.  So Frank has applied for a couple of Marriott jobs that fit parts of what he's been doing and he will apply for a couple of Xerox jobs as well.  We still don't know how it will all turn out but we are hoping when all is said and done that he will have a job and that he will like it.  It's been quite stressful for Frank the last few weeks but hopefully we'll know where we're going to be soon.

Everyone have a beautiful Easter!  

Weekly Review March 23 '13

Ok, crazy week!  (I'm a day late again.)  Can't say it was one of our best weeks, either--pretty stressful, actually--but everything is turning out ok.

I ended last week by grumbling about the weather.  I am still grumbling but trying to look on the bright side.  I took the photo above and the one below today...so my daffodils are blooming!  It is still very cold (we saw snow flakes flying through the air more than once this week) and often windy, but at least a few flowers are blooming and it is sunny sometimes, too.  I'm also just beginning to see a few trees budding and there are birds everywhere.  So winter may not be giving up very gracefully, but it is going to have to give up eventually.  And I hear all you Utah people have a lot more to complain about than I do, so I should count my blessings.

The majority of the "craziness" we went through this week was related to Scott's mission plans, and in particular to a certain rogue wisdom tooth.  Scott had a couple of bad days the beginning of this week...just not really feeling very upbeat and having a lot of anxiety and fears, and not feeling ready to leave yet.  Which was surprising to us, since he has been so enthusiastic and excited about going on a mission.  After several talks with Frank and I over a couple of days (and I'm sure prayers too), he started to feel a lot better. 

In the meantime, though, he also noticed on Sunday that he could feel something in the back of his mouth behind his back molar and he also tasted blood in his mouth.  I checked his mouth and I could see a little white hard bump that looked like a part of a tooth poking through.  Yikes!  I should explain that his bottom wisdom teeth were removed years ago but he still has his top two.  When he had his dental check up for his mission back in January the dentist said his top wisdom teeth were so high up that it would be very difficult to remove them and he was sure they would not be a problem for the next two years.  Well, I called the dentist and got an appointment for him to get checked on Thursday.  And sure enough, that tooth has moved all the way down and is starting to come in--but sideways, so it has to come out.  He said he would take out the other one at the same time.  The soonest he could get Scott in is this coming Monday, and he insisted that Scott would be ok to travel the next day. 

Well, we weren't so sure!  Too many things can go wrong with wisdom teeth.  So we spent a lot of time on Thursday trying to get in touch with someone in Salt Lake who could tell us what to do.  It took until Friday morning to get anything official, but we finally found out that he could not delay his mission for a week--it would have to be six weeks.  But they left the decision up to us about what we should do.  There were a lot of things to consider.  We really didn't feel good about delaying his mission six weeks, especially after how he'd been feeling earlier this week.  We really feel like Satan has been working overtime on him the last few weeks.  This is such a difficult time and dragging it out 6 more weeks would be torture!  But we also didn't like the idea of putting him on an airplane and having him go into the MTC if he was recovering from having the teeth pulled and was in a lot of pain.  We finally decided that Scott really needed to make the decision.  We had already planned to go to the temple Friday.  He fasted and prayed about it and then we went to the temple.  While he was there, he felt that he should go ahead with his plans to leave this Tuesday.  He felt really good about it; I could tell he was happy with his answer.  We feel good about it too--and very relieved!  We've also decided that we are going to have the dentist x-ray the other tooth, and if it hasn't moved down at all we are not going to have him take it out.  He is much more likely to have trouble with the removal of that one, so we feel better about leaving it in.  He's not going to a 3rd world country or anything, so if the other one needs to come out while he's still on his mission, I'm sure it will work out! 

By the way, our visit to the temple was really awesome!  Another boy from our ward, one of Scott's friends, was going for the first time (he's going to Brazil on his mission).  Also, my good friend Susie and her husband Aaron were there--they are like parents for the boy who was going through (Colton)--so they were his escorts.  Another sister from our ward (Janet) was there as well.  It was really special to all be there together.  After the session, we did some family file sealings for Susie & Aaron and for Janet.  That was really neat, too.  They did some sealings of sons to parents, and we got to be the proxies for the parents and Scott the proxy for the sons for some of those.  How cool is that?  It was just our little group together in the sealing room, and the sealer--knowing that it was Scott's and Colton's first experience doing sealings--took the time to talk with us and to explain a lot of things to us.  It was really wonderful!

After we left the temple, we met up with Janet's daughter Abbie (who is the same age as Scott and Colton) and we all went to dinner together.  It was a lot of fun.  Susie & Aaron are moving to Utah this week--we will really miss them--so we are glad we had that last evening together.  By the way, they are moving into Scott's mission boundaries so they are planning to look after him!

The temple trip took up most of the day (from 3:00 to about 11:00) so I didn't get half the things done yesterday that I needed to do, but that's ok.  It was so worth it!  The most important things got done, right?

So now that I skipped ahead to the end of the week, I should fill in a few of the blanks from the earlier part of the week.  Snickers took up quite a bit of time and money, too.  (I actually spent more on Snickers than I did on Scott this week!)  He went to the groomer on Monday so now he looks great.  He went to the vet for his annual check up on Thursday.  That always costs a lot because he has several tests and shots he needs each year.  But this time it was even more because his ears looked infected so we had to have them tested.  And it turns out they are infected, so he needs medicine too.  Plus he also needs his teeth cleaned--they are looking pretty bad and we put off having it done last year--so he had to have blood work done for that.  I take him back for the teeth cleaning in early April and that will be another decent chunk of money.

Sunday I had PEC before church and visiting teaching and choir practice afterwards.  We had Reuben sandwiches in honor of St. Patrick's Day (well the corned beef part was in honor of it, anyway).

I was supposed to have lunch with my friend Christine on Monday but she had forgotten about it and had to reschedule.  We set it up for Thursday but then I ended up having to take Scott to the dentist instead so we were foiled again.  I think that is the third time we've had to reschedule.  Hopefully it will actually work out someday! 

I helped Scott get his taxes done on Tuesday.  I took him to get a flu shot on Wednesday and we did some shopping on Thursday and Friday.  I hope we are done shopping!  We went to the LDS bookstore before going to the temple yesterday to get the last couple of things.  He will still have to get a bike, lock, and helmet after he gets out there and in the winter he will need to get some boots.

I spent Wednesday morning at the school doing accounting work for the pledge drive.  We were supposed to have a presidency meeting that evening but it didn't work out--one counselor had forgotten that she had to be at New Beginnings for her daughter, my secretary ended up helping one of the sisters she visit teaches with babysitting while she took another child to urgent care, and my other counselor was late because she had to take dinner (at the last minute) to a sister she visit teaches.  Crazy!  The counselor and I chatted for a while about a few things, and we are hoping to meet all together early next week.  Jared helped out with a skit for New Beginnings that night and he and Tanner had a class on gun safety for scouts.

In between everything else, I tried to stay on top of things like laundry and house cleaning.  No wonder I am so tired.

Today was pretty busy too.  I had my hair done this morning:          

Not really a good picture.  I am just NOT photogenic!

Seth had a Primary activity--a pancake breakfast and Easter egg hunt.  The boys did chores, Frank and I went on a walk (Seth came too and we stopped at the park briefly but it was windy & cold), I worked on Personal Progress, finished the budget, and wrote the presidency message for the April RS newsletter.  We had planned to go out to eat together as a family--kind of our last chance--but Scott really wanted Chinese take out, so we ordered in instead.  Now all the boys are watching Avengers and eating junk food.

Tomorrow Scott is speaking in church.  I wish you could all be here.  But Erin is coming, at least! :)  We just found out today that a girl in our ward got her mission call yesterday, and she is going to...Utah Salt Lake City South!  She and Scott are friends, so that will be really fun for them.  I found out about it when her mom sent me an email with the subject line "you are my new best friend".  Cracked me up! :)  She enters the MTC May 8th, so she'll be just one transfer behind Scott.  (Although she'll come home before him, of course.)

Hopefully this coming week will be a little less stressful than this last week, although admittedly--it's unlikely.  Somehow I don't think getting a wisdom tooth pulled and sending a child on a mission is considered low stress.  But we are glad he is going and I'm sure we'll survive.     

Weekly Review March 15 '13

I didn't take a single picture this week.  Honestly, I'm just trying to keep my head above water most of the time and don't even think to grab the camera. 

So last Saturday I was recovering from stomach flu, as I mentioned in my last post.  Scott went with the YSAs to the temple that evening to do baptisms.  It was a pretty nice day, weather-wise--warm and sunny.  The nicest day we've had in a long time, actually.  Frank took Seth outside and tried to help him ride his bike.  That's the second time he's done that but Seth refuses to even try to pedal.  Not sure why he is being so stubborn about it!  Tanner took Seth to the park for a while too, so at least he got some outdoor time. 

I watched a movie called Evening, which was so-so.  It didn't make a lot of sense to me but I enjoyed the 1950's flashbacks.   I also watched the instructional DVD for my new sewing / quilting machine and discovered it has all kinds of cool features: it automatically makes buttonholes the right size to fit your button, it doesn't need a foot pedal, the presser feet can be changed without screwing them on & off, AND it has a needle threader incorporated into it.  Good heavens!  Not to mention all the cool stitches it makes.  I just wish I actually had time to use the thing. :)

Frank wasn't feeling his greatest on Saturday.  He kept worrying that he was coming down with my stomach flu.  Then on Sunday he starting feeling a lot worse and decided to go home after Sacrament Meeting.  That complicated things because we had given rides to church to people and I had to figure out how to get everyone home afterwards.  It was a three ring circus for a while, but we finally worked it all out.  Frank never did throw up, but he felt nauseated, dizzy, and exhausted all day Sunday.  He still wasn't his best on Monday, but he felt well enough to go to work and was feeling a lot better by the time he got home. 

This week has been really busy.  On Monday I had to take Jared back to the orthodontist--he had some bands put on two of his back teeth because the brackets keep coming off.  That evening Erin, Anna, Buck & June came over for dinner.  Anna took some family photos for us first and then we went in to eat.  We were just sitting down for dinner when June threw up.  Things got crazy for a while--June threw up two more times and needed a bath; clothes needed to be washed too.  Somewhere in there we all managed to eat something (not sure if anyone had much appetite left, though.)  They had to be on a plane early the next morning so we were all worried about that.  I guess they were able to move their flight a little later and June did ok on the trip home, but now Anna and Buck are both sick.  The joys of parenthood!

Tuesday the rain came down in torrents all morning. I met with one sister to explain her new calling.  We had presidency meeting that afternoon (by then the sun had come out).  I picked up a little boy in the ward from aftercare at his school and took him home...his mom was at work.  (His older sister was home to look after him.)  In between I tried to get household chores done and other RS stuff done. 

It wasn't my best day, truthfully.  I received a very terse, angry email from a sister in the ward on Monday and I was really upset about it for a few days.  We exchanged a few emails over those two days and I think I helped her feel a little better.  The sort of funny thing is that she was mad that someone had called her and someone else had visited her.  She thought she was being turned into some kind of "project" or something.  Ironically, I have no idea who called her and who visited her--I didn't ask anyone to do that!  So she got the total wrong idea.  She's an active member that we haven't seen much lately at church.  People know her, noticed she was gone, and tried to reach out to her.  It's just too bad that she misinterpreted that.  She is going through some pretty terrible things (I don't think anyone but me and the bishop are aware of that) so I can see how, emotionally, she is not in her best state and could be prone to judge things inaccurately.  But that didn't take much of the sting out of the personal attack I received.  I know I need to have a thicker skin, though!  At first I felt hurt and then I felt mad!  And then I felt a little guilty that I felt mad.

Wednesday evening we had our annual RS Birthday Dinner.  That morning I was at the church for a couple of hours helping to get everything set up for that.  My counselor who is in charge of meetings is very talented at decorating and such so the gym looked amazing when we were done.  I should have taken pictures...it looked like a wedding reception!  Which is kind of what she was going for, since our theme was "Making and Keeping Eternal Families".  We had people sign up to bring casseroles, salads, and bread that were favorite family recipes and we had another sister decorate a cake for dessert.  About seven sisters had been asked to share a story from their family history.  We invited the YW to come too and they sang a song.  Everything turned out really nice and we had a large group of sisters come to the activity.  The only thing I would change, if I could, would be to give the sisters a time limit on their family history stories...because the program went a bit long.  But other than that, it was perfect.

Yesterday and today are parent teacher conferences, so that means the school schedule has been crazy.  Yesterday everyone went in four hours late, and today everyone gets out 3 1/2 hours early.  It was nice sleeping in yesterday, at least.  We got up and got some chores done, then went over to a ward members' house to taste test cereal--for a science fair project for one of her kids.  Then I dropped the older boys off at Seminary.  I went back to get them an hour later to take them to school.  Then I got Seth to school.  I got some shopping done while everyone was at school and then it was time for everyone to come home again.  I had conferences for Tanner that evening.  I met with three of his four teachers, and all three of them said the same thing.  "Tanner is wonderful.  Tanner is brilliant.  I love Tanner.  But I'm a little concerned that the last couple of weeks he's been slacking off .  He hasn't been doing his homework.  If he would do his homework, he'd have an A instead of a B."  This is such a familiar refrain to me.  I heard the same thing about Scott all through high school.  So I came home and had a little talk with Tanner.  Hopefully he will start putting forth a little more effort.  But I can't complain too much--certainly, it could be a lot worse! 

In between all of that, I've been trying to keep up with things like laundry as well as finishing up the things that need to be done for Scott's mission.  I've picked up a few things for him here and there while I've been doing the regular weekly shopping and I've made it through most of the shopping list.  His suits arrived on Tuesday.  Scott and I both think they look a little big.  Frank thinks they are perfect.  I guess he can get them altered a little when he gets out there, if he needs to.  I'm not sure what else to do about it.  There certainly isn't time now to send them back.  I think Scott has done almost everything else that needs to be done.  He's bored.  I feel torn between knowing I'm going to miss him when he's gone and just wishing he could leave already.  If I weren't so busy myself, I could probably find some meaningful things to do together.  I wish I had more time because I know this is probably the last time he'll really be living under our roof.  I wish I were enjoying it more.

This afternoon I have conferences for Jared and for Seth.  The older boys want to go to a play and Frank will be doing some monthly maintenance for clients.  He's been really busy with that kind of work this week but we are really grateful he has work to do.  It's definitely taking most of the stress out of paying for Scott's mission.  We feel so incredibly blessed about that.  It is also looking highly likely that Frank will be "rebadged" at Marriott, which means that the company taking over the IT department will re-hire him.  It's not a definite, but looking pretty good at this point.

In closing I just have to gripe a little about the weather, which is downright cold.  It stays in the 30's most of the day...sometimes gets into the 40s.  And yesterday it was really windy to boot.  Brrrrr!  Not my idea of what ideal March weather should be.  I'm feeling especially grumpy because the forecast for the next week doesn't show any signs of improvement.  Looks like we are going to have a really cold Easter this year.  I've had some croucuses blooming for a while now and my bulbs are starting to come up but not a sign of any leaves on the trees yet.  Hopefully it will warm up in another week or two.        

Weekly Review March 8 '13

Last week I was a day early and this week I am a day late!  That's because yesterday I had a nasty stomach flu complete with fever and body aches.  Actually, the worst of it was in the early morning hours.  I spent all day yesterday lying in bed and sipping ginger ale.  It was boring.  Although I did finish reading the book The Princess Bride, which was pretty good.  Today I am keeping food down again but I'm still achy and I feel totally drained, so I don't expect I'll get a lot done today either.  But I'm glad I'm feeling better than I was.

 

Back to last week, now...Friday was a very busy day.  I decided to take Scott down to the temple in the morning to buy garments, because we were going to be on a tight schedule later.  (We couldn't leave for the temple until 3:00--that's when Seth gets home from school and I have to pick up on Fridays.  His session was at 6:00--the latest one they would let him go through--so they wanted him there by 4:30.  But then they added that he needed to get there 30-45 minutes before that if he needed to purchase garments.  Which put us at a 3:45-4:00 arrival time.  That was cutting it closer than I liked, especially since traffic is unpredictable and rush hour starts around 3:30.)  So anyway, after I finished hanging artwork at the school, we headed down.  We stopped at Frank's work and had lunch with him, then traded cars since his gets much better gas milage.  We were able to get what Scott needed and it did take some time to figure everything out (proper size, etc) so I'm glad we did that earlier and weren't feeling quite so rushed.  We got back home with just enough time to change clothes and go pick up Seth. 

 

We left a little after 3:00 and as it turns out the traffic wasn't bad (it was worse when Scott and I went down earlier!) so we got there shortly after 4:00.  Our friend Aaron Schlenz came down with us.  He had a lot of family file names so while Frank went with Scott for the first part, I took some of his family names and did a few initiatories.  Then I met up with Frank and Scott for the endowment session.  It was great, of course!  A few good friends joined us and it was our stake temple day so we saw many, many people that we know while we were in the temple.

 

Here's some pictures we took before:    

 

 The little person Scott is holding in the pictures is Ammon's "Flat Stanley".  I am kind of kicking myself that we forgot to take a picture without him...oh well!

Here are the pictures we took afterwards:

 It was cold and windy.  We had such a nice experience at the temple.  They always make you feel so special the first time you go to the temple...I remember that.  But when you're the parent of a child going through for the first time they treat you really special too.  Everybody smiles and congratulates you!  Oh, and the other thing I loved was how many of the temple workers told me they couldn't believe I was old enough to have a son going on a mission! :)  I mean, they looked genuinely shocked!  (And the funny thing is...I wasn't incredibly young when Scott was born.  Age 26 is not really considered an early start.)  I see a lot of gray hair and wrinkles when I look in the mirror, but apparently no one else does.

Saturday we had a lot going on.  In the morning Frank was helping set up all the audio visual equipment for stake conference.  The older three boys went to a friend's house to watch the newest episode of Psych--someone had recorded it.  (It comes on at 10:00 on Wednesday nights--way too late for kids going to Seminary to stay up to watch it.)  Then they all went over to help set up chairs at the stake center. 

Meanwhile, I took Seth and Ammon's Flat Stanley to visit some places here in Frederick.  (If you haven't read the book Flat Stanley, it's about a boy who gets flattened by a bulletin board falling on him.  It doesn't hurt him, but now he's flat so he can visit places all over the world because he can fit in an envelope.  So for a class project, Ammon's class read the book, made their own "Flat Stanley"s and over the next few months, they are trying to have their Flat Stanley visit as many places as possible.  Ammon sent his Flat Stanley to us first.)  The first place we went was Harry Grove Stadium, home of the Frederick Keys minor leauge baseball team.  (The team is named after Francis Scott Key, who lived in and is buried here in Frederick.):
      

Seth cracked me up...he didn't want to get too close to that baseball topiary.  He thought it was creepy!

We also went to the Monocacy Battlefield:

In between those two stops, we went to Kohl's so I could return three pair of Seth's pants...we bought them in October and they already had big holes in the knees!  Then I realized I had to buy him some new pants because the only other pair he owned was the one he was wearing!  That ended up being more complicated than I would have liked because of course they didn't have any more pants like the ones I'd returned.  As a matter of fact, there were hardly any pants at all...they have already brought in all the shorts for summer.  The problem is, it's still too cold for shorts!  I did manage to find a couple pair of pants...two of them were even on clearance.  And I also got him some pajamas because he has really outgrown his pajamas.  It took a lot of time, though, and Seth wasn't enjoying the process very much.

After everybody got home, Frank went back to the stake center for the priesthood leadership meeting.  Then Scott and I went to the adult session while Frank stayed home with Seth.  Tanner & Jared went to see Sweeney Todd at the high school...that's the play they've been working on the last few weeks.  Somewhere in between, Frank and I also went on a walk and we got the kitchen floor cleaned.  So it was a busy day!

We were up early Sunday.  We had a visiting general authority for conference this time...Elder Christoffel Golden of the 1st Quorm of the Seventy.  He had a meeting at 8:00 for all prospective missionaries which included all YM and YW who wished to attend, so all three of the older boys went to that.  Frank had to be there even earlier to help with set up.  He took a break later on to come pick up Seth and I.  There were a lot of issues going on during the session with sound and so forth, so Frank never did come sit down with us...he was busy the whole time.  (I didn't notice any problems from where I was sitting.)  Elder Golden is a great speaker and the conference was really good. 

I won't give you a play-by-play of the rest of the week, just the highlighs of the unique things that happened.  On Monday I picked up photos from Costco, updated Flat Stanley's journal, and got him sent on to Erin.  While at Costco, we also got socks and some athletic shoes for Scott.  Tuesday I had a presidency meeting (not that unique, I guess--we have a meeting every week) and that evening I went on some visits with one of my counselors.  We visited two sisters.  One of them I didn't know very well so it was fun to get to know her better.  She hasn't been to church in quite a while and I was glad she was willing to talk about that...now I understand what's going on with her. 

Tuesday night / Wednesday morning we were supposed to get a big snow storm.  They were predicting anywhere from 8 to 18 inches!  By the time we got up Wednesday morning there was about an inch and since all the weather stations were still predicting we were going to get very heavy snow off and on all day, school was cancelled.  We enjoyed sleeping in!  However, the big storm never materialized.  We did get some snow off and on...maybe 3 inches total...and some wind and rain.  But somehow a lot more warm air got pulled into the system than any of the meteorologists expected, so all the snow turned to rain.  They easily could have had school.  Oh well!  We enjoyed having a "day off".  Frank worked from home too, so we were all together all day.  That evening I had my monthly meeting with the bishop and Scott and Jared came over to the church to play basketball.

Thursday was super busy, but mostly just normal chores and lots of RS stuff.  I was planning a date for Frank and I for Friday, so I did some research to get ideas of things we could do.  I also did some more online shopping for Scott--ordered him some shoes.  Shortly before we went to bed I noticed my stomach felt kind of funny.  I was able to get a few hours of sleep before the flu hit.  So much for going on a date Friday night!  Frank was able to take the day off, which I really appreciated since I was in no shape to take kids to school.  He did the budget for me too.  He took care of me and ran the household as well.  No one signed up to feed the missionaries, so Frank took them a pizza.

Today, as I said, I am feeling more human, but trying to take it easy.  Tanner is taking the SAT right now...hope he does well on that.  (He did well enough when he took the PSAT that a million colleges are sending him emails, snail mails, and calling him.)  Scott is at a camp out--he is an assistant 11 year old scout leader.  Frank was asked to give a talk at a baptism...it's the husband of the lady who was baptized in January who's getting baptized, so we're all excited about that.  I was planning to go originally, but now I am staying home.  I'll also be missing a memorial service tonight--it's for the mother of a lady who lives in our ward.  Her mother used to live here and she (the mother) was baptized while she was here so she was in our ward for a while.  She is originally from Nigeria and  had moved back there, and that's where she passed away.  So...a lot going on, but I'm not going to be doing much myself.  And that's about it for this week.

Happy Birthday to Tim today!

Brothers & Sisters

 

June 2010

The set of questions for this post is "How many brothers and sisters do you have?  When were they born?  What memories do you have of each of them from when you were growing up?"

This could take a while, because I am blessed to be part of a large family.  I have five brothers and three sisters.  Each one of them is unique.  As a group, they are some of the most amazing people I know.  I feel so fortunate to have been able to grow up with them!

 

 Mt. Timpanogus Temple-June 2010

Ben, Tim, Hans, Curtis

Amy, Mom, Dad, Erick

Shellie, Me

 



I apologize in advance for not having very good pictures of some of you.  Since (sadly) I don't get to see any of you very often, I didn't have a lot of pictures to choose from.  Most of them are from our most recent reunion in 2010.

My oldest brother, Curtis Gerald Pew, was born September 24, 1957. 

He's nearly 11 years older than me so by the time I was old enough to start paying attention to something besides my own little world, he was graduating from high school and leaving home to go to college...and then on a mission.  So I don't have a lot of memories of him growing up, but he was always an important part of our family.  I imagine it wasn't always easy being the oldest, but Curtis set a good example for the rest of us to follow...doing well in school, working hard, being obedient to our parents, and choosing to live the gospel.  Curtis is very intelligent, and thinks a lot more about important things than I do.  I've learned a lot from him.

My second brother, Frederick Walter Pew, was born August 10, 1959.
 

Ok, every family has one...and Erick is ours.  The family tease!  He was always playing a trick on someone or telling a joke.  The thing I remember most about Erick growing up was hearing the words "...and he comes in for a smashing tackle!"...shortly before I was flattened to the ground by a brother at least twice my size.  Oh, that and "think fast!"...right before a football was thrown in my face.  I did a lot of eye rolling at Erick as I got older (he really likes puns) but I have to say that life was never boring with him around.  Erick is an accomplished actor and singer, and he's been in a lot of plays over the years (most of which, sadly, I haven't been able to see).  In spite of all the silliness, he has a serious side too.  He's also very intelligent, righteous, and talented, and--along with Curtis--he set a good example for the rest of us.

Hans Konrad Pew, brother #3, was born on December 11, 1960.
 

 

Hans is quiet and thoughtful.  He is patient and generous and I don't think I've ever heard him say an unkind thing about another person.  He is courageous and has a great sense of humor.  Like all my brothers, Hans is highly intelligent and musically talented.  Hans is my only sibling who lives on the same side of the Mississippi River as I do, and I have enjoyed being able to visit him and have him visit our family more frequently than my other siblings.

 

My oldest sister, Jana Ruth Pew, was born September 24, 1962.  Her life was short...only about 2 months...so I have not had the chance to meet her in this life.  But I have always felt her influence in our family.  Jana has made our goal to be an eternal family seem more real and urgent...so that we can all be with her again someday.

 

My second sister, Shellie Jo Ann Pew Espinoza, was born October 4, 1963. 

 



Shellie is free spirited and creative.  She has a lot of artistic and crafty kind of talents.  Shellie was the one who always had good ideas of things to do...new games to play, new things to try.  I still remember the "club" we had for a while as kids; all Shellie's idea.  Our club name was "Flower Power" and our motto was "I will be a powerful flower...not a sour grape."  (Still makes me laugh!)  Shellie appreciates art in any form...even if it's a "painting" on her wall made of raw eggs, done by one of her children.  Shellie loves people and cares about others.  I don't know if I ever would have seriously considered going on a mission if Shellie hadn't chosen to go first...and talked so positively about her experiences.  I'm extremely grateful for her example.

Timothy Lee Pew, born March 9, 1967, is my fourth brother. 

 



Tim is only 16 months older than Amy & I, so he lost all his "baby" privileges at a very young age.  It doesn't seem to have bothered him at all.  Tim is one of the most well-rounded, even-tempered people I know.  He's social and everyone likes him.  He's very funny (in a quiet way) and also has the ability to see humor in any situation...even really difficult ones.  Like all my siblings, Tim is musically talented, intelligent, and righteous.  He's so amazing that it was always a little difficult to be in his "shadow" but I've always been proud to be his sister and I look up to him tremendously.

 

My twin sister, Amy Beth Pew Crane, was born July 5, 1968.  (Of course!)

 

 

I can't imagine what it would have been like to grow up without Amy...my best friend, my confidante, my soul mate, my constant companion.  I probably know Amy better than anyone else on the planet (and no wonder, when we shared a room, clothes, and pretty much everything else while we were growing up).  In spite of the many times I've been asked if I could, I cannot read her mind!  But we do think and feel so much alike that it's not hard to figure out and we often say the same thing at the same time or finish each other's sentences.  Amy is tender hearted, loyal, and selfless as well as intelligent, talented, and faithful.  I consider it a tender mercy that I was sent to earth along with her.

 

My 5th and final brother, Benjamin Leon Pew, was born February 5, 1972.   

 

 

(Ben is in the red shirt in the background.)  I was always really grateful to have one younger sibling!  I'm sure being the youngest was trying at times but I don't remember Ben complaining.  Ben had to follow in the footsteps of so many.  Like everyone else, he is very intelligent, musically talented, and righteous.  He is unique, though, and tried new things that the rest of us never tried...such as playing the saxophone and the clarinet (at least I don't think anyone else tried that!) and folk dancing.  Ben is also a gifted writer.  He is a firm, calm, consistent father.

 

Well, I started this post the end of January, and now it's early March.  It took even longer than I thought!  As I said in the beginning, I am very grateful for my brothers and sisters.  Each one of them is a great example to me.  (I could say the same about each of my brothers and sisters in law!)  We didn't always get along perfectly but overall I have numerous happy memories of the years I spent growing up in the same home with them.  We laughed together, played together, and learned from each other.  Now that we are all adults, I love that we all get along so well.  They are all outstanding individuals and I am truly blessed to call them family.