Usually when I report on two weeks at once, it means I've been on vacation for one of them. A vacation would have been nice, but that's not what happened this time. I was just totally swamped the last few weeks. All the normal stuff, plus throw in a birthday party, mission preparations, trips to the temple, buying a car, a continuing Eagle project, another house showing, a husband who can't do much, and yes...I'm still the RS president. Most days lately I feel like I am going crazy! That's the short version of the last few weeks, and you can stop reading now if you don't want to wade through all the details. But for those who like to torture themselves, I'll write the longer version.
Sunday the 24th Frank made it to church long enough to take the sacrament, but then he went home because he really wasn't feeling well. He had arranged for a substitute to teach his class again. i don't remember anything else about that day...it was just a regular busy Sunday.
Our ward had a picnic for Memorial Day, but the kids didn't care if we went or not and Frank definitely wasn't up for it, so we didn't go. It turned out to be pretty busy day anyway so if we had gone I wouldn't have finished everything I needed to do. I don't remember details now, but one thing that took a lot of time was shopping for Seth's birthday. I realized over the weekend that I hadn't purchased any presents for him, so I needed to get going on that. He had pretty specific things that he wanted and after going to several stores I had only found a few things. I ended up having to order some other things online and one present (the one he wanted most!) didn't arrive until this week but he was pretty happy with everything in the end, so it didn't matter too much.
Frank had his first physical therapy appointment Tuesday morning. He planned to go to work afterwards, but after checking him over very thoroughly, the orthopedic physical therapist said he was in no shape to work and wrote him out until at least June 12th. So he came home and collapsed instead. We weren't too thrilled about that but he really wasn't feeling well at all so it's what he needs, I'm sure. After weighing our options, he decided to apply for short term disability so he wouldn't have to use up all his days off for the whole year. It's been complicated and we're still trying to figure everything out. There have been lots of phone calls to make and paperwork to fill out. Thankfully, Frank has been able to handle most of that because if I had to do it on top of everything else I have to do, I would definitely lose it!! It's been a bit stressful worrying about his job and the projects he's supposed to be working on but later that week he was finally able to talk on the phone with his boss (who has been out of town) and his boss told him not to worry...his job will be waiting for him when he gets back and he should just concentrate on getting better. So that has helped a bit.
The bishop told Tanner he should go the temple once a week until he leaves on his mission, so on Tuesday he and I did that.
We decided to do sealings so that Tanner could experience that. We ended up in a pretty lively group of temple workers and we were doing family names for one lady who was very grateful! It was a pretty sweet experience. The sealer told Tanner he wasn't sure where he had picked up this person who was impersonating his mother, who was obviously too young to really be his mother! I must look even younger in the temple than I do anywhere else. We came home and I tried to get all the other things done that needed to be done, including some mission preparations for Tanner. Then we drove to Gettysburg to meet some friends for dinner...they live in Washington state, but were in Pennsylvania for an event. We had a nice dinner and visit with them, although Frank was hurting the whole time. I had to do all the driving.
Here's my "to do" list for Wednesday the 27th, just to give you an idea of what a typical day is like: Exercise, Wal-Mart shopping, dust, prepare for presidency meeting, wrap presents, party preparations, Jared Eagle planning, order cake, call groomer, make eye doctor appointments. Besides that, Jared had drama awards that evening and Seth went to his first Cub Scout den meeting. Funny story about that...he has been saying for weeks that he didn't want to go to Cub Scouts, and on that day he was saying the same thing and kind of having a tantrum about it, and insisting that he didn't want to go. I asked him why he didn't want to go and he said his friend Luke goes to Cub Scouts. He wouldn't say anything more specific than that other than that Luke had to wear a uniform. Later on, I was thinking about it and I had one of those (rare) parenting moments when I got a flash of insight. I found Seth and asked him "Have you seen Luke's uniform, and you think it looks dumb?" Seth said "yes!" I asked him if Luke had to wear a hat and a neckerchief and everything, and he said he did. I told Seth he didn't have to wear all those things, and took him to the closet to show him the blue shirt that he would wear. I showed him what the patches look like on the shirt, and told him the blue shirt was the only thing he would need to wear...he could wear it with his regular jeans or shorts, and he didn't have to wear a hat or a neckerchief. After that, Seth said "Ok, I'll go then." And he did go, and he had a GREAT time! For this particular den meeting, they visited a local museum called the Schifferstadt Museum...it's a house built in the 1700s. Later on, one of the den leaders told me that Seth was trying to persuade one of the older scouts who didn't want to participate to come in the garden and check out the plants. She thought it was pretty sweet that he was a brand new scout but was trying to help one of the older boys.
Thursday the 28th was Seth's 8th birthday. I had a presidency meeting that morning. Seth opened presents after school:
Card from Grandma & Grandpa!
He got a Lego Star Wars game, a Lego set, some books, a couple of Batman toys, as well as cards and money from both sets of grandparents. He spent the rest of the evening playing with new toys. Because we were having cake at his party, we didn't have cake on his birthday but we ordered pizza for dinner and we got some donuts too.
Friday I had to finish up everything for Seth's birthday party...I'd been working on things here and there whenever I could squeeze it in throughout the week but there was still a ton to do. Besides that, Frank wanted me to go look at a car. He did some "shopping" online throughout the week, getting an idea of prices and what cars he wanted to look at. On Thursday after his PT appointment, he stopped and looked at a few he was interested in and test drove one of them. I was working on the budget, trying to get that done before jumping into the final party preparations and going to look at the car, when I got a desperate call from a sister in the ward who needed someone to watch her daughter. And of course, I couldn't find anyone to do it so I ended up doing it myself. She was only here for a few hours and she was not any trouble but it did complicate my plans. We did go drive the car, taking her with us, and by the end of the day I got everything ready for the party, with a lot of help from Jared. Tanner helped too but that evening he was gone to a Baltimore Orioles baseball game with a friend.
So when I planned to have the party at a nearby park, I didn't stop to think that meant everything for the party would have to be transported from the house to the park! That made everything extra complicated. And it's amazing how much "stuff" you need for a party! Here is the kitchen table and floor on Friday evening, with all the party stuff finally ready to go:
Plus this box full of stuff had to go too:
The white paper on top is my detailed plan of everything that needed to be done...I had copies for Jared, Tanner, and Frank so that I would not have to constantly tell them what to do. Since we were going to be transporting stuff and we also needed to cook all the food Saturday morning, I knew I wouldn't be able to be at the park for all the set up.
We got up early Saturday morning and got going on all the preparations. Everything took longer than it should have and so we were still finishing up when all the kids started arriving. So much for taking pictures of everything ahead of time! There were a ton of kids, and I was actually too busy to take pictures at all, but between Tanner, Jared, and Frank we got quite a few.
The party itself was crazy and nothing went the way I'd planned but the kids had fun so that's the important thing, right? Just a couple of things I learned:
- Don't make centerpieces with balloons for an outdoor party. The wind will destroy all of them within 15 seconds! (It doesn't even have to be a strong wind...a little breeze will do.)
- Don't expect 8 year olds to be able to keep track of a bag with their name on it. And don't use paper bags...use something plastic, because 8 year olds can destroy paper bags within seconds, without even trying. I thought I understood kids better than this. I wouldn't expect anyone under say, 6 years old to keep track of and not destroy a paper bag, but I thought 8 year olds could handle it. I was wrong!
- If you give any 8 year old a water gun, he is going to immediately start squirting everyone around him or her, even if the object of the game is to shoot ping pong balls down with the squirt gun, not to get other people wet.
- Don't expect girls to be calmer than boys. The girls at this party were wilder than the boys, I think!
So we had a carnival theme for this party. As the kids arrived, we had a little photo booth set up for them to get their picture taken. We had various hats and props that they could choose to wear for their photo. Some of my favorites:
Seth is ready to party!
One of our carpool boys really getting into the fun of it!
Little beauty queen!
Where is he?
There he is!!
Another beauty queen...and twin sister of the first one.
The girl from Seth's class that he says he is going to marry someday!
Besides the photo booth, we also had a big jar full of jelly beans...they all had to guess how many jelly beans were in the jar. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it. (Remember, no time for that!) The kids also enjoyed playing at the playground until everyone arrived:
Then we divided into groups and there were different carnival games to play. We had a beanbag toss, the formerly mentioned squirt gun game, a duck matching game, and a game where they tried to knock over cans with bean bags. These aren't very good pictures, but you get the idea:
Bean bag toss
Squirt gun game (from a distance)
Knocking over cans (Jared ran this game).
Tanner ran the bean bag toss game
I was in charge of the squirt gun shoot game
Frank supervised the duck matching game.
After games, we served lots of carnival food: corn dogs, hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, big pretzels, fruit (ok, not really carnival food, but my attempt to have 1 healthy item!), cake, and ice cream cones. Oh, and lemonade to drink, of course!
While everyone finished eating, I took the kids over to the prize table to cash in the tickets they earned while playing the games. After we cut the cake, Frank admitted that he needed to lie down. He had helped a lot more than he should have with set up and then keeping the party going, so he had overdone it. So he went home and Jared and Tanner helped me with the rest of the party and then with all the clean up.
Meanwhile, Seth opened presents:
And everyone kept squirting their squirt guns, and playing, and eating!
We also announced the winner of the jelly bean jar game. Their were 1,238 jelly beans in the jar and the winning little girl guessed 1,089. After all the kids went home, a few of the parents from the ward who had come to pick up their kids stayed and helped us clean everything up, which I appreciated SO much!! There was a lot to do and of course everything had to be transported back to the house when we were done. After making the 2 or 3 trips home, Tanner, Jared, and I were exhausted!!! It was a nice day but got pretty hot by afternoon so moving everything in all that heat really wiped us out.
Even Seth was tired...he was supposed to go to another birthday party for a friend that afternoon and he refused to go! He stayed home and rested, and put together new Lego sets instead. Meanwhile, Frank was insisting that we needed to go buy the car we looked at...we had decided to buy it and the rental car we had needed to be returned on Monday so after cleaning everything up and resting a while, I agreed to go. Of course, that ended up taking a couple of hours. We didn't actually bring it home, just got all the paperwork done so we could pick it up on Monday. (We didn't have the check from the insurance company yet.) Have I mentioned that I hate car buying? It's a nice car and I'm sure we'll be glad we have it over the years, but I am still trying to reconcile myself to going back into debt when we were so close to being out of it. And yes, we did get another Prius! They are really good cars and after Frank's experience with his wreck, we feel pretty good about the safety rating of this car. Everyone says we should get a bigger car, but he really does need a good commuter car (not a tank!) and the Prius is surprisingly roomy inside. I haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but further down you'll be able to see it in the background of another picture.
On Sunday the 31st Frank was able to teach his lesson, although he had to go home after that. It was the usual busy Sunday; we also had the Elders over for dinner. We had a pretty decent thunderstorm that night. We've actually had a lot of rain this week. The last 3 or 4 days have been constant "Maryland mist". I will be happy to see the sun again when it decides to come back out! But rain is a good thing, too. It just hasn't felt much like June yet, though.
Frank has had 2 PT appointments this week, too. They do seem to help. They do exercises, and electric shock, and have him lie in beds of a warm, rice-like substance. He is slowly improving. The first couple of weeks after the accident I really didn't see much change in him...he seemed to be in just as much pain as he was the first day. But this last week he started to improve a bit, the last few days in particular. He still gets tired easily and he always has some sort of pain or stiffness in his back or neck, but it's not as intense as it was. So we're hopeful that he will recover completely someday and more immediately that he will be able to go back to work after the 12th, as planned.
Tanner taught Seminary two mornings this week...Monday and Thursday. On Monday I took he and Jared to the eye doctor. Their prescriptions have changed a bit so we ordered new glasses and contact lenses. We returned the rental car and picked up our new car on Monday, too.
Snickers went to the groomer on Tuesday. Frank had a follow up appointment with our primary care doctor. I had my monthly meeting with the bishop. We ordered a bike for Tanner...in his mission, they need to have a bike delivered to the mission home before they get there so it's ready for them when they arrive.
I spent a lot of Wednesday and yesterday working on RS stuff. I have a long list of things that I haven't been able to get to lately, plus visiting teaching changes for June needed to be figured out. The bishop told me when I met with him Tuesday night not to feel bad that my mind hasn't been on RS much lately (with all the things that have been going on in the family) but I still have been feeling the need to get caught up on some things. Plus some callings need to be figured out right away, too.
Besides that, the realtor called on Monday and said the people who looked at our house about a month ago wanted to come look at it again...could they come on Wednesday? Well, sure...why not? Our lives are already chaos so why not throw a house showing into the mix? We have kept the house relatively tidy since the last time they came, but some clutter has crept in and it needed some touching up. Tanner helped me a lot with that on Wednesday. Apparently, they are trying to decide between our house and one other nearby. I can't decide if I'd rather have the house sell or not. There are pros and cons to both alternatives. I've definitely been more anxious about the idea of moving since Frank's accident, so if they decide they don't want to buy our house it would be a bit of a relief in many ways. I guess it's good that we don't get to decide! Whatever they decide to do, I will be happy about it and roll with it!
On Wednesday evening while the house was showing, Seth was at Cub Scouts and I went with Jared to YM because they were working on his Eagle project that evening. They spray painted one side of all the plywood and PVC signs white. The PVC was already white, but had some stains so we wanted to cover those up. It went well, although we ran out of paint and I had to run to the store to get more. Of course, the store closest to us (Lowe's) didn't have any so I had to drive to the other side of Frederick to Home Depot to get what we needed. But the boys played a game of basketball while they were waiting for me to get back, so they didn't mind. Here's some pictures:
Ok, maybe not! For some reason, blogger won't let me upload any more pictures. So I will have to put them in a separate post, which I will do as soon as I finish this one.
On Thursday besides RS stuff, we ordered a suit for Tanner. We have not had time to go out shopping yet; hopefully next week! But we are getting little things done here and there. Today I took Tanner to the temple. We did initiatories this time. Temple trips always seem to take most of the day. But we enjoyed it.
Maybe that doesn't sound incredibly crazy, but I left out all the usual grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry, etc. plus several errands like trips to the library and filling prescriptions and so forth. Not to mention the spiritual exhaustion of trying to make a lot of decisions. That's it for this week!
