This post is going to be crazy and mixed up. That's because all the pictures are mixed up and I don't have the time or energy to fix them. Plus I have two weeks to cover. Besides that, the last two weeks have been ridiculously crazy anyway. So I guess this post will be a fitting representation of what our life has been like.
So let's start with the pictures I promised you from Jared's Eagle project work day from a few weeks ago. These pictures were taken on Saturday, March 28th. Everyone is coloring pictures that are going to go on some of the signs:
Jared found black and white pictures of the animals we needed on his computer. Then he projected the images onto the wall, where we had put up large pieces of white paper, and traced them:
And that's all of those pictures. Today we met again and finished up the coloring. We wanted to start putting letters and pictures onto the signs, but we had a number of complications come up so we didn't get any of that done. It wasn't worthless...we learned what not to do, and got some ideas of what we might do instead...but we still have a lot of work to do and a lot of things to figure out and decisions to make. This project is becoming a lot more complicated than we anticipated, and we are learning as we go. Some good news, though...a ward member heard about Jared's project and he had a lot of scrap birch plywood and scrap PVC which are the materials we need for the signs so he not only donated what he has (saving us a lot of money) but he even cut all the pieces the sizes we need (saving us a lot of time). So that is very much appreciated!! Note to self, though: when Seth gets old enough to do his project, make sure he picks something that we already know how to do! With preferably no building involved. And also make sure he gets started on it earlier--like age 14--before he gets really busy with a lot of other activities. You would think I would have learned that the first 2 projects we did.
That week end was really busy. I attended the General Women's meeting that evening. A sister in my ward invited me and a number of other women to watch it together at her house, which was really nice. I was up late, though, since the meeting doesn't end until close to 10:00 in our time zone.
Sunday always starts out early for me and is packed full of meetings, but just to liven things up a bit more, Seth woke up in the night complaining that his ear hurt. We warmed up our rice filled sock for him and got him settled on our floor with blankets & pillows and then he started to throw up! This was distressing not only because we didn't want Seth to be sick, but as you may remember, Scott had just returned home from his mission that Wednesday and he was scheduled to speak in Sacrament Meeting. And since you don't have a child return home from a mission and speak in Sacrament Meeting everyday, naturally we both wanted to be at church to hear him speak. I went to my ward council meeting but skipped choir practice. Frank took Seth to the Sunday walk in clinic at the doctor's office (second week in a row...the Sunday before that we were there having Frank's foot checked) while I took everyone else to church. The doctor confirmed that Seth had a very nasty ear infection. Frank got done with the doctor in time to hear Scott's talk. I sat out in the foyer with Seth because we weren't comfortable taking him into the meeting since he might throw up again. Although there were a few people from another ward sitting out in the foyer talking through the whole meeting, I was still able to hear most of what Scott said. And miraculously, when the other ward got out of their meetings they didn't make a lot of noise then. As soon as Scott finished speaking, I took Seth home. Frank stayed to teach his Sunday school class. Because it was a fifth Sunday, we had a combined priesthood / RS class so I wasn't needed as much as usual. Seth was pretty miserable all day. He couldn't keep anything down and later on--while the rest of us were at the Easter musical fireside and Frank was staying with him--he started crying that his other ear hurt too. The doctor had given him two medications--one for nausea and the other an antibiotic--but the antibiotic takes a while to work, of course.
The musical fireside was really good...you may remember that Jared and I were singing in the choir for our stake. Another choir from the community came and sang a couple of songs too. They were really good. After the fireside ended, a couple of the members of that choir came up to us and were raving about how great our choir was. They couldn't believe we'd sung 3 songs from Handel's Messiah so well, and with only 4 practices! They said our harmony and everything was perfect. That was nice to hear. I did really enjoy singing in that choir.
Seth was a pretty sick boy for a couple of days. Although the ear pain started to resolve on Monday and he also started keeping food down, he was feverish and quite weak and he didn't have much of an appetite:
The good news is, both of the medications the doctor prescribed for him were pills and he was able to get those down without any trouble! He must have his dad's genes in that regard and not mine. And it was much easier to take pills on our trip than it would have been to take liquid medicine (that would have had to be refrigerated, no doubt) so that was a real blessing. Unfortunately, he missed the whole week of school because he was too sick to go on Monday and Tuesday and on Wednesday we left for our trip. You've probably forgotten by now that he missed 3 days of school the previous week (for a nasty cold, which is very likely why he got the ear infection) so that is a lot of school to miss so close together. I did send an email to his teacher and she gave me a few ideas of some things we could do with him while we were on vacation.
The few days before we left were crazy...along with taking care of Seth, we had packing to do. Scott had a dental check up, Jared met with a couple of men in the ward to talk about ideas for his Eagle project, and I had a meeting with the bishop because he had some concerns about a particular family that he wanted to share with me before I left. We somehow got everything done and Seth got well enough that we could leave as scheduled on Wednesday the 1st.
The pictures from vacation are not in order so I will just explain quickly what we did each day and then you can scroll through the pictures and try to figure out what picture goes with what day! Wednesday was spent just driving down to the Charlotte area. We got almost to our destination and all of the sudden we noticed that there were flowers on the trees! We finally got far enough south that spring had arrived! That was a nice change. The first night we got checked into our hotel, went to a little barbecue place for dinner (very yummy) and then swam in the hotel pool.
We spent Tuesday at an amusement park called Carowinds. Frank's brother James and his family live in the Charlotte area now and they met us at the park. We enjoyed spending the day with them. I spent most of the day taking Seth on all the little kid rides. I did get to go on a few of the more adult rides that I wanted a few times. I'm not much of a daredevil anyway. Jared is like me...he didn't want to go on the huge roller coasters. Frank and Scott were game for anything and went on all the incredibly insane looking rides, including the newest roller coaster (called The Fury) which is apparently the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world at this point. Tanner wouldn't get on that one, but he did get on several others (the Vortex, Afterburn, the Intimidator) that I would not get on, even if you paid me a million dollars! (My big problem is long steep plunges. I am pretty good with anything else...upside down, incredibly fast, turns, twists, smaller dips...you name it! As a matter of fact, I love all those things. But long steep plunges are my nemesis. I like to breath, that's my problem.) Seth was willing to try all kinds of crazy rides last year at Lagoon, but this year he got chicken about everything and even refused to get on some of the kiddie rides that I thought looked really fun. Hopefully he'll grow out of that some day. We talked him into trying a few things...one of them was a kiddie roller coaster. As our cars were climbing up the first "big" hill, Seth turned to me and said "Um, why is this ride in the kid section?!" That made me laugh! We stayed at the park until it closed, then went to our hotel and collapsed.
On Friday (the 3rd) we went to the lake with Frank's brother James and his family. They have a boat so we rode on the boat out to a little island on the lake, cooked hamburgers, and just hung out. The kids enjoyed playing in the sand and skipping rocks. The weather was a bit iffy...we kept worrying that a storm was going to blow in because it was windy and clouds kept rolling in, but thankfully that never happened. However, it was a bit on the cool side. We all wore swim suits to the lake but after dipping our toes in the water, all of decided that it was way too cold to go swimming! We also got a bit cold riding on the boat to the island and back because the wind would really blow through the boat when we got up to speed. But it was still a nice outing and a fun day. We drove that evening to Brevard and checked into a hotel there.
Saturday morning we hung out at the hotel getting laundry done and listening to the first session of General Conference. Scott had been sick in the night (stomach) so he was able to get some more rest too. Thankfully, he didn't get sick again and later in the day was able to eat and didn't have any more problems--and no one else got sick either (although Tanner felt rather ill on Sunday evening, but he never threw up). Jared got up that morning with a swollen right cheek. His cheeks never did swell up right after he got his wisdom teeth pulled, but now all of the sudden he had a chipmunk cheek and that side of his mouth was sore. So I had to make a call to the oral surgeon that morning too. He said that some food had probably got lodged in the socket back there and caused an infection, so he called in an antibiotic as well as a rinse that helps with swelling.
When Frank called his parents that morning, we found out that his sister Becky was in the hospital because she had just had a stroke. At that point, she wasn't doing too well...slurred speech and whole left side was paralyzed. We were able to visit her Sunday evening and by then her speech was clear and she was able to move her left arm and fingers a bit. We don't know what the long term effects are going to be but she does seem to be improving...she has been able to walk with the aid of a walker since we got home. I'm sure she has a lot of rehab ahead of her, though, and it is troubling that she had a stroke at such a young age. (She's only 41.)
We joined Frank's parents at the local chapel to watch the second session of General Conference on Sunday. They had a nice meal of ham, potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw, rolls, and cake for us too. We also watched both Sunday sessions of conference with them at the chapel. The missionaries serving in the area came to the chapel to watch most of the sessions too, but other than that, we were the only ones there. I guess everyone else stays home and watches from there--that's what we usually do. Frank, his dad, and the older 3 boys went to the Priesthood session too. As always, General Conference was pretty amazing.
We checked out of our hotel in Brevard Sunday morning and checked into a hotel in Ashville that evening. On Monday we drove home The trip was pretty uneventful. We were able to get home, unpack, and go to dinner in time for Scott and Tanner to attend the YSA FHE. I guess that description of our trip wasn't very quick! Believe it or not, I left out a lot of details.
Jared's mouth continued to bother him quite a bit and the swelling didn't really go down, even after he had been on the antibiotic for a few days, so I took him in to the oral surgeon on Tuesday. (He wanted to check him anyway.) Jared felt pretty yucky Tuesday and stayed home from school. The oral surgeon cleaned out all the food debris and that has helped the swelling to go back down and he's feeling a lot better. He will be going back in for another check up this week.
Meanwhile, since being back home life hasn't slowed down any. We've been trying to get caught up on all the things that we got behind in and trying to get back into a normal routine. I had my monthly meeting with the bishop Tuesday evening, we had our monthly RS meeting Wednesday evening (we worked on family history), and on Thursday I had a presidency meeting. I got caught up on budget and bills, picked up books at the library, filed out income taxes, and got the personal property tax return for the business filed too.
Scott went to the doctor on Wednesday...while we were on our trip he informed me that he had a bump on his lower back that was bleeding a little, and by the way...it had been there and bleeding off and on since about November. Not sure why he didn't do anything about it before! On Monday evening it bled quite a lot, so I got him an appointment to have it looked at. It turns out that he has a cyst and it needs to be removed. He has an appointment with a specialist to have it looked at this week.
On Thursday Snickers had his teeth cleaned. He also had two growths on his back and one on his tail removed at the same time, since they already had him knocked out. (It still cost a small fortune.) The one on his tail turned out to be quite deep. He has five stitches on his tail and two stitches on each of the spots on his back. He hasn't been a very happy dog the last couple of days. He's on an antibiotic and a pain medicine and unfortunately since we caught him chewing on his tail, he's had to wear an e-collar (the boys call it the "cone of shame") unless someone is able to keep a close eye on him. For some reason he doesn't think he can walk when he has the e-collar on, so you can imagine how fun that has been. Plus, he can't fit in his crate with it on and we don't dare let him go in there with it off so he is banished from his crate and that is his favorite spot. He usually sleeps in his crate too...instead, he's been sleeping in a dog bed we have on the floor in our room. Thankfully, he has been pretty quiet and hasn't got up and walked around or anything (although we have to put the e-collar on at night, so he thinks he can't walk...I guess that's to our advantage at night!). It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks until all his incision sites heal up. And by the way, you don't truly understand the word "reproachful" until you see your dog looking at you from the depths of an e-collar!
In between everything else we were trying to get things ready for Jared's Eagle project which was challenging since Jared has barely been home. Yes, another play begins next week and he had rehearsals after school every day this week. All of these things have added up to more than a little bit of stress and I have felt on the verge of a nervous break down more than once, but we're surviving.
Today after the Eagle project, we came home and weeded the front flower beds and the boys mowed the lawns. Then this evening Frank went and bought some sod to spread over some bare spots in the front lawn. We also put sod over the front flower bed that runs along the front walk because we want that to be grass now instead of a flower bed. We still have a smaller flower bed right under the front windows of the house. It already looks a lot better. Then we did some (not nearly enough, but it's a start) cleaning in the basement to make room to store all the wood and PVC pieces for Jared's project. So it's been a busy day and I feel pretty sore. It feels good that we got so much done, though.
If you have managed to stick with me this long, you can now look at a bunch of pictures if you wish!
From our day at Carowinds:
Me, pretending that the carousel is a really thrilling ride:
Seth refused to ride on a horse! He sat in a carriage that didn't go up and down. He did love this plane ride, though:
Waiting in line for the Scrambler, which is one of my favorite rides:
Dippin' dots!:
On the train:
And a boat:
All the boys got hats for souvenirs:
Collapsing at the hotel after Carowinds:
Our room at this hotel was really interesting. The bathroom was in two parts, and each part had a sliding frosted glass door, which didn't even lock. Kind of strange, but it worked ok. This part of the bathroom had the shower on one side:
And a sink and mirror on the other:
That mirror was annoying to someone my height since the bottom of the circle piece went right through my face!
The other part of the bathroom had a tiny sink and a toilet:
Driving to the lake...all the boys are still wiped out from the day before:
I had another picture with Scott asleep (I couldn't get all four of them in one picture) but for some reason that picture didn't come out. All the boys were really tired the whole trip and complained that they couldn't sleep at nights because Frank snores. I can usually sleep through his snores, but they aren't used to it. I think we finally convinced him that he needs to get a sleep study done, though. Scott had a companion on his mission with sleep apnea, and he says Dad sounds like his companion. I think I actually (for the first time) heard him stop breathing a few times one night. I've been telling him for years I think he should get checked for sleep apnea but he doesn't want to do it. But after this trip I think he will.
Here's the cake that Frank's parents had for us on Saturday. Their anniversary is the 18th of this month and ours is the 23rd:
Frank's mom gave us these little chocolate bunnies; I thought they were so cute:
Now to be really out of order, this picture was taken before we left home. I just thought it was funny that all four boys are staring at a screen of some kind. And I'm also still enjoying having all four of them together again. It won't last long:
These pictures were taken on the way to North Carolina:
At a rest stop, Scott and Tanner:
This was the first real warmth we'd felt in a LONG time! (It's been mostly cloudy and pretty cold since we got back home, too, although today was pretty nice.)
The boys were playing around with the camera and took a lot of pictures at the rest stop. You'll see as you scroll down that they even tried some special effects:
When we were almost to Charlotte, we took a short detour so I could visit one of my former areas from my mission (Cornelius, NC...my second area). Here I am in front of my old apartment:
It looks almost exactly the same except that it's been painted another color. It was actually a really odd feeling because it had changed so little (it's been 25 years since I served here!). Still the same circular gravel drive around the building with lots of potholes in it, still the same wooden beam along the edge of the parking spaces where we used to park our little white VW Golf, still the dumpster next to the apartment in the same spot. This was actually one of the worst apartments I was in...it was very tiny, all one room with a little kitchenette in one corner. The only other room was the bathroom. I could swear that this building used to be a cheap motel! Anyway, it was a fun jaunt down memory lane. The town has grown and changed so much that it was hard to recognize it at all until we got onto the historic main street...then it looked like the cute little town that I remember.
Here are Jared & Scott, ready to go swimming at the hotel the first night:
A whole bunch of lake pictures:
At the church with Frank's parents:
Another special effect experiment:
At Frank's parent's house:
After we got home, we found out that three of the four Elders in our ward were getting transferred. They came by on Tuesday to say goodbye. We will miss them:
Tanner went out with the Elders yesterday for a while, by the way.
And that is FINALLY it, folks!!
