Weekly Review June 27 '09

I hope all the dads had a nice Father’s Day! I think Frank did… He didn’t have any presents to open since he got his new grill last week, but we did get him some cards and I took care of everything so he could relax all day. We also made him a nice “southern” dinner—fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, and biscuits—yum!

Scott spent the week helping with cub scout day camp. They always need boy scouts to help the adults with all the different stations, and volunteering helps him fulfill some of his community service hours (he has to have 75 hours to graduate from high school). Day camp was every day—8:30 to 3:30 Monday through Thursday, and noon to 3:30 on Friday. Scott helped with the sports station all week. I was worried that he would find it rather boring and tiring (I always did!), but he never complained and when I asked him on Thursday if he wanted to do it again next year, he said “Yes, it’s fun.” He was outside all day and he got very tan!

Scott's new tan lines

On Monday we had one of Jared’s friends from church here all day (Joseph) because his mom went to girls’ camp and needed places for him to go during the day while her husband was at work. Joseph was well behaved (and polite—he complimented me on both meals and thanked us for having him over!) and Jared enjoyed playing with him so it was nice to have him here. I was busy all day with little chores and I also finished reading the 7th Harry Potter book. It was better than I had remembered. That evening for family night we went for a walk—the whole family, including Snickers!

Jared, Tanner, Seth and I went camping with my friend Jeanine and her two younger boys (Kalvin and Brendan) Tuesday through Thursday. We spent Tuesday morning getting all packed. After Seth woke up from his afternoon nap we headed to the camp ground. We got there in time to unpack and make dinner. Jeanine and her boys got there ahead of us; they had gone swimming and then came back to the campground to get a fire started for us. We had made foil dinners for everybody, so I was glad they had a fire started already! After dinner we made s’mores and visited. We were having so much fun that we didn’t realize how late it was and didn’t get to bed until after 10:30.

Tanner, Jared & Brendan playing games

Jeanine getting a little work done

Unfortunately, Seth liked to hide behind the cabins!

Kalvin was a total angel, though, and followed Seth around and played with him!

Seth refused to sleep in the porta crib, so he ended up with me in my bed which wasn’t too bad since I had a double bed to myself. I discovered that he thrashes around a lot when he sleeps, though! It took Seth a while to settle down—he kept asking “What you doing, Mommy?” “What you doing, Tanner?” “What you doing, Jared?” He finally fell asleep, though. I can’t say I had a great night’s sleep, but I’ve definitely had worse!

In the morning we made French toast with strawberries, bacon, and sausage for everybody. Yummy!! Then we cleaned up and played some games until lunch time. After lunch we went to the lake for a swim. (We were camping at Cunningham Falls State Park—the same park we visited on Memorial Day. They have a beautiful lake there with a nice sandy beach.) The boys had a ball. Seth liked throwing sand and mud, unfortunately, but he also liked wading in the shallow water and helping to build sand castles. We got back in time to make dinner—Jeanine and her boys made us hot dogs. We also had more s’mores as well as roasted bananas. We got to bed a little earlier, but still kind of late. Seth had missed his nap so he fell asleep around 8:00 and slept until 8:00 the next morning (although he was restless again!) Between Seth and some loud people who were making lots of noise around 1:30, I still didn’t sleep too well but it wasn’t too bad. (We were in cabins and we had neighbors on either side of us, but until the last night we were the only four families there. The neighbors on either side of us were really nice. The loud people must have arrived late on Wednesday.)

Tanner & Seth

Kalvin & Jared

Jared & Seth

Teamwork!

Architect at work!

Yehaw!!! Tanner & Seth enoy the twisty slide.

Seth loves the slide

Thursday morning Jeanine and her boys made us pancakes, sausage, and bacon for breakfast. Then we started packing everything up. Jeanine took the boys down to the lake for another swim while I finished packing our car. Seth stayed with me and he was content to play in the front of the car while I put everything in the back. Then I went to pick up the boys and we said good bye to Jeanine and boys. We had a great time and are so thankful they invited us to camp with them! The weather was perfect (not too hot, not too cold, no rain) and we were camping in such a beautiful area. We saw lots of squirrels and chipmunks and even a couple of deer. It was relaxing and fun to get caught up with our friends.

Hunting Creek Lake--the picture doesn't do it justice!

After we got home the boys helped me get everything unpacked and put away. We also washed dishes and got the laundry going. Frank arrived home shortly after we finished all that. He went to pick up Scott from day camp about an hour later. It was nice to see them again—we missed them! The rest of the evening was busy finishing laundry, making dinner, and getting caught up on other chores. Tanner had a summer party that evening from 6:30 to 9:30 with some kids from school. Frank took him to that, too.

While we were gone, Frank kept very busy with work and Scott was busy with Day Camp. They got a pizza the first night we were gone and made pancakes the next night. Scott said on Thursday evening that it was nice to have a “home cooked” meal, which made me laugh since all I’d made was BLT sandwiches! I told him he was just missing that little dose of “mother love” I put in all the meals I make!

Friday started early—we had Joseph over again and he was arriving between 6:00 and 6:30. Actually, he didn’t actually show up until about 7:00, but we were up earlier since we weren’t sure when to expect him. He was only here about an hour because he had 11 year old scout camp that day starting at 8:30. (Jared and Joseph were born in the same year, but Joseph’s birthday is in June so he’s already 11 but Jared won’t be 11 until October so he doesn’t get to go to 11 year old scout camp until next year). Anyway, I had a busy day being “chauffeur” as well as catching up on a lot of things that didn’t get done while I was gone camping. Besides dropping Joseph off at his camp, I also took Scott to day camp at 11:30, picked up Scott at 4:00, and took Scott to go ice skating at 8:00. I also did more laundry, got the grocery shopping done (2 stores) vacuumed, etc.!!! I was exhausted by the end of the day. Frank worked about 4 hours in the morning, came home for a few hours, and then went back to work at 3:00 and didn’t get home until 10:00 (he picked up Scott at the ice rink on his way home). Scott went ice skating with a group of other kids who had volunteered at day camp all week. The other boys and I had movie night.

This morning Frank is back at work (he’s fixing some problems for a new client here in Frederick). The boys and I did scouts, got bathrooms cleaned, and Tanner mowed the lawn. Now the boys are playing games. We’re going to the library later and I’m sure I’ll find lots of other little chores that need to be done before the day is over! (There is always an endless supply of those, it seems…)

Now that our camping trip is over, I hope to get better organized and into a more regular summer routine!

Weekly Review June 20 '09

Monday was Scott’s last day of school; he had a couple of final exams. The high school students didn’t have school on Tuesday unless they missed the Monday exams. Scott didn’t miss them, so he got out a day earlier than the other two. I think he wanted to rub that in their faces, but truth be told—I think he was bored on Monday without anybody to “hang out” with!

We played “hide the button” for family night (Seth loves this game! One time he even found the button before I did.) and then had ice cream in waffle bowls for treat. My idea—if we’d just had ice cream, the boys probably would have complained that we just had ice cream the night before (we have ice cream every Sunday night) but just add something new like waffle bowls and they thought that was really cool! (Sneaky me!)

Jared and Tanner finished school on Tuesday—they got out two hours early so it was a short day, and I doubt they did anything educational anyway! Tanner and Jared both brought home report cards on the last day. Jared did well in everything (he doesn’t get letter grades yet) and Tanner managed to get 3 B’s, a C, and an A.

All the kids around here immediately went into “party mode”. Tanner was invited to spend the night with his friend Ryan Tuesday night, Scott was invited to spend the night with his friend Jordan Wednesday night, and Jared was invited to go home with his friend Sage on Tuesday after school for games and pizza. Besides all that, Scott was invited Friday afternoon to go with his friend Ricardo to another friend’s house for games, Jared was invited to two “welcome summer” parties given by school friends (one on Wednesday and one on Saturday), and Tanner was invited to a “welcome summer” party given by a school friend next week. Crazy!

At home, we celebrated the end of the school year by cooking hamburgers on the new grill for dinner and letting the boys stay up late to watch a movie. I think I have been just as excited about the end of the school year this time as the boys are. I have been so ready to be done with nagging kids to do homework, worrying about grades, and all the papers and other clutter that comes home! I am ready for a more relaxed schedule, too.

Tanner was gone all day Wednesday—he stayed with Ryan all day; they took him to Scouts Wednesday evening and we brought him home after that. Scott was gone all day Thursday—Frank picked him up from Jordan’s house on his way home from work. Tanner went swimming, saw a movie, went fishing, and picked strawberries with Ryan besides the usual video games. Scott went swimming with Jordan, also. Jared did not actually go to the Wednesday party; he didn’t really want to go and I’m pretty sure it was cancelled since they said they’d postpone it if the weather was bad.

Yes, the weather was bad for the first day of summer vacation! It rained, and rained, and rained. I was proud of myself because I got up early and went to pick strawberries. The season is coming to an end but I really wanted to get a few before it was too late. I had to pick through a lot that were over ripe or rotting to find the good ones, but I got plenty of good ones. It was actually a great day for picking because it wasn’t hot, and it started raining as I was driving back home, so I timed that just perfect. I came home and made about 23 jars of freezer jam. We also had strawberry milkshakes with lunch! Thursday morning we had pancakes with strawberries and Thursday evening we had strawberry shortcake for dessert. That was the end of the strawberries!

Making Freezer Jam (a photo story)

Fresh Picked Berries (they were on the plant an hour ago!)

Little helper (with strawberry face--doesn't show up very well in the photo)

Berries Ready to "Puree"

Stirring in the Pectin

Ladling Into Jars

Finished Product

Yummy!!!

(End of photo story)

Wednesday afternoon I had shopping to do—I took Jared and Scott with me. Luckily Seth was napping and Frank was working from home, so I didn’t have to take Seth. It turned out to be a long trip and I know Seth would not have been cooperative for that long! Frank took the boys to scouts Wednesday evening because he was picking up a computer from another member of our stake that he had agreed to fix.

Thursday it rained also, but not all day, at least. I took Tanner to a follow up appointment with the doctor to see how the medication is going. He is going to stay on it for now since it seems to be helping. We also talked about Tanner’s trouble getting to sleep and about the fact that his stomach seems to bother him a lot. The doctor had some good suggestions for both of those problems. He goes back for another follow up in a month.

Thursday afternoon while Seth napped, I helped Jared clean his room. I was proud of him—he actually agreed to throw out a lot of things and give away a lot of things! We filled up a tall kitchen trash bag of each—give away and throw away. His room looks great now! It’s been a long time since it’s been thoroughly cleaned. I just want to start out our summer with a clean house (yes, I know it won’t stay that way)! Thursday evening I worked on sharing time for the next two weeks—we are camping next week so I know I’m not going to have a lot of time to work on it.

Friday morning I did the room cleaning thing with Tanner and Scott. After a fair amount of complaining on their part (“Why do we have to do this? We don’t mind our room being messy!”) they settled down and we got it done. Like Jared’s, their room is dramatically improved. Now if I could just get the rest of the house done…. Scott was gone with his friend Ricardo all afternoon. I found out that afternoon that he was supposed to go to a meeting for day camp that evening (he’s helping with that this year) but fortunately it wasn’t absolutely necessary that he go. I spent some time that afternoon getting all his paperwork filled out, though. That evening Frank went over to the Becks to play some video games with Brody. The rest of us watched Lord of the Rings.

Saturday was crazy busy also. In the morning I went through all the boys’ clothes to see what needed to be thrown away / given away / handed down. We have 2 large sacks of give away items now. Fortunately, the boys don’t need much in the way of clothes for the summer. Scott needs a swim suit, and Tanner and Jared each need a couple of pairs of shorts. That’s it—not too bad. Jared had a party that afternoon; I took him to that and then did some shopping for our camping trip. Meanwhile, Tanner stayed home with a napping Seth while Frank and Scott replaced the front brakes on the Expedition. They went to our Elders Quorum President’s house to do that—Frank really couldn’t do it because of his injuries and he was afraid Scott would not be strong enough to do some of the heavier stuff such as loosening the bolts and removing the tires, so they needed another able bodied male to help them. After they removed the pads, they discovered that we hadn’t got around to changing them soon enough—the rotors needed to be replaced also. (I noticed they were making noise quite a while back, but it took me a week or so to remember to tell Frank, and then between business and his injuries he wasn’t able to get it fixed any sooner.) Thankfully, Brother Matthews let him borrow his car to go buy the rotors. It took longer to fix than we had hoped, but they got it done, and now I don’t cringe every time I step on the brakes! That evening Frank went to a “guys night out” with some other guys in the ward. They went to get hot wings and then they were going to go see the X-Men movie, but there was a power outage at the theater so he got home early. I was busy cleaning floors and finishing up sharing time—I already had the next day’s ready but I was still working on next week’s.

I finished reading Elegance of the Hedgehog early this week—it was very good; I recommend it if you are looking for a good book to read. I definitely felt like I was reading the words of people much smarter than I am—I learned to keep the dictionary handy so I could look up unfamiliar words! (It was translated from French, also. I’ll bet it was a tricky book to translate because there was a lot of deep thought going on in there!) The book had a good message and a surprise ending. Now I am reading the 7th Harry Potter book. When I’m done with that, I’ll start the book chat book for August—I put it on hold a couple of months ago, and it just came in. Then maybe I will get around to reading the rest of the Lord of the Rings series!!

I’ve been having the boys read their scriptures every day. They will also have chores each day and some time to play each day. Other plans for summer: take some field trips, do some reading, work on scout stuff, work on Duty to God and Faith in God stuff, and have the boys help me cook meals so they learn to cook a variety of things. We’ll see how much we actually get done! It is nice to have goals, though.

Poor Frank got a bad cold this week. That means he’s been coughing and sneezing a lot, which is very painful for him. He’s been able to work, though, and has still been able to get plenty of hours so we are thankful for that. Seth has continued to have a pretty yucky runny nose most of the week, but otherwise he seems to be feeling better. I was beginning to think he was about to give up naps, but then on Monday he took a four hour nap and on Tuesday a three hour one. He has continued to take “longish” naps all week. I’m glad because I think he’s needed the extra rest.

It’s been a busy week and I am tired, but I feel like we got a lot accomplished!

Just a cute photo of Seth I took this morning. He was saying to the stuffed zebra "say cheese"!

Fill 'er Up!!

You know how it usually is when you go fill your car with gas? If you watch the numbers on the pump, the numbers in the "sale" columns climb speedily while the numbers in the "gallons" column seem to be going at a snail's pace?

Well, I had this cool experience on Saturday. One of the grocery stores around here (Giant Eagle--I haven't seen this chain in any other states I've been to lately) has this promotion where you can earn discounts on gas (at their stations) whenever you shop at their store. I shop there a lot because it is near the boys' school and seems to have pretty good prices, but for some reason I have never got around to redeeming my discounts.

On Saturday I needed to fill up, so when I drove by one of their gas stations, I pulled in. I scanned my grocery card, and it said I had discounts of $2.69 accumulated and asked if I wanted to redeem them. Of course I did! Well, it turns out that that discount was per gallon, and the current price of gas was $2.59 per gallon, so I had the unique and pleasurable experience of watching the numbers in the "gallons" column go up while the numbers in the "sale" column stayed at zero! I got $55 worth of gas for $0!!! It was awesome!

I think I will be getting gas there from now on....

Weekly Review June 13 '09

Sunday was busy—the first Sunday of the month always is! Church, choir practice, collect fast offerings, Primary presidency meeting, Primary visits, family night, bed! Somewhere in there we ate dinner, too.

On Monday we went shopping for a dishwasher. We decided to get a new one since the repairs on the old one would be nearly as much as getting a new one; besides that, the old one is seven years old, so something else might go wrong soon! We found what we wanted at Home Depot, but they don’t have the dishwashers shipped to the store, they just ship them directly to your house. The earliest it could be shipped was Friday, so we were washing dishes by hand most of the week. It wasn’t too bad, and one evening as I listened to all three of the older boys singing in the kitchen together while they did the dishes, I thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to go without a dishwasher all the time!

The boys got a little distracted on our way into Home Depot!

We got ice cream cones (FHE treat) on the way home from dishwasher shopping. Seth got his own cone and made a mess, of course!

Not the best pictures--from a camera phone!

I had book chat on Tuesday. Only about 6 of us (out of 15 or so) had actually finished the book; I was proud of myself for getting it done! We had already decided to read a book called The Elegance of the Hedgehog next, and I had put it on hold a month ago. I was able to get it on Saturday, so I’ve been reading it all week, and enjoying it so far. We aren’t meeting again until the end of July, so I will have some time to do some reading of my choice! Usually it’s all I can do to get through one book per month, but I’m already over half way through this book.

Tanner and Jared had field day on Tuesday. The middle school students actually plan and run all the events for field day, so Tanner worked hard all day long. They pick a theme every year and this year it was Greek mythology, so Tanner and his friend Matt had planned a station based on Thor, where the kids were throwing wet sponges at targets (Thor throwing his hammer). I saw the PE teacher on Thursday and she told me that Tanner had worked really hard and done a great job with his station. When I went to pick up the kids, everybody at the school (kids and adults alike) looked hot and exhausted! Tanner got a pretty decent sunburn on his face, neck and shoulder—I put sunscreen on him, but his friend dumped water all over him early on, so I guess it all washed off. It was one of those typical hot and humid Maryland summer days—the kind that saps the strength right out of you!

As we were driving home from the school I looked to the north west and I could tell a nasty storm was coming in, just by the color of the sky. By the time we got home the clouds were threatening and a very stiff wind had blown up. The wind was blowing the deck chairs around, so we ran out on the deck and folded up all the chairs and brought them inside. We also took down the umbrella and brought in the recycle bin. We got everything in just in time, right before the rain, thunder, and lightning started. The worst part of the storm blew through pretty quickly, but it continued to rain throughout the evening.

Tanner woke us up in the night around 1:30; he said he hadn’t been able to go to sleep yet. We let him stay upstairs to try to sleep, but he still didn’t go to sleep for at least another hour. One of the possible side effects of the medicine he’s taking is insomnia, so we think that is probably the source of the problem. He’s been complaining about having trouble going to sleep for the last week or so. I have a follow up appointment for him next week, so we’ll see what the doctor has to say about it. In the meantime, I decided to just let him sleep in Wednesday morning and take him to school when he woke up. I woke him briefly right before I took Jared to school to let him know where I was going, and he told me then that he had thrown up in the night, so he just ended up staying home all day. He didn’t seem to be all that sick—maybe just heat stroke or exhaustion (or both)!

Meanwhile, I took Jared to school and then took Snickers to the groomer. I got some shopping done while he was there and then went back to pick him up shortly after we finished shopping. He looks VERY different! The groomer cut his hair very close so that he’d be cool for the summer. Without all that fluffy hair, he looks about half the size he used to be! I kind of miss his beautiful silky hair, but I love that we can see his eyes again! He was getting very shaggy. It’s hard to believe he’s the same animal, but he acts the same and he looks very cute. He smells nice, too! I was worried about how well he’d cooperate, but the groomer said he did great, especially for a first-timer and a small dog.

I had Enrichment Meeting Wednesday evening. The theme for the night was Family History. I went to classes on journal writing (including photo albums) and on the new Family Search program. We had ice cream sundaes at the end and enjoyed visiting. It rained again that evening!

I’ve been pretty lazy lately, so on Thursday I got busy and got a few things done that I’ve been putting off like cleaning the oven. I also got some weeding done. Between that, laundry, vacuuming, and grocery shopping, I was pretty tired by the time the day was over, but it felt good to feel like I’d accomplished something! Jared went to a birthday / end of the school year party Thursday evening (for two friends from church). They went to the park and played games. He came home wet and muddy! We decided to let him go to the party instead of soccer practice. It rained again that evening although not hard enough to mess up the party. The soccer fields are probably pretty wet so maybe they didn’t have practice anyway.

Last week was Scott’s last week of “real” Seminary. This week they got together each morning (except Friday) just to play games, for those that wanted to go. Scott chose to go—pretty amazing! Thursday was the last day. I think he’s going to miss Seminary, but I’m sure he’ll be glad to get more sleep!

Friday was kind of crazy—it was hard to get anything done. Frank’s ribs have been hurting him more since Tuesday, so he went back to the doctor Friday morning and they decided to do another x-ray. The dishwasher was also being delivered and I wanted Frank to be home for that so he came home after seeing the doctor and I agreed to take him back for the x-ray after the dishwasher arrived. He got home just in time to check over and sign for the new dishwasher. Then we went back for the x-ray. They still said they couldn’t find any break (although a hairline fracture wouldn’t show up) so they referred him to a physical therapist. On the way home from there we decided on a whim to stop at our favorite Chinese restaurant and pick up some lunch—bad idea! We ended up waiting a very long time for our food. By the time we got home with our food, ate, and got Seth down for a nap, it was almost time to go pick up the boys from school. Where did that day go?!

The craziness continued into the afternoon / evening because Jared had a birthday party and a soccer game, and Scott and Tanner were helping Frank install the new dishwasher. The party was at 5:00 and the game was at 7:00, so Jared didn’t get to stay at the party very long. It was a sleep over, but he also had a game Saturday morning at 8:00, so he couldn’t spend the night. Anyway, things were pretty chaotic, but in the end, the dishwasher was installed, Jared got to the party, we all had sandwiches for dinner, and we got to the soccer game actually a little early! Unfortunately, only 8 of the kids on his team showed up, so they only had one “sub” which meant everybody had to play almost the entire game. They played well but got tired and ended up losing 2-1. More kids showed up for the game Saturday morning, and Jared’s team was in the lead for a while, but they ended up losing that one also. Not a great way to end the season, but no one seemed to be too down hearted about it. I think their season record was 5-4, so they did win more games than they lost. Jared got a medal and we got his pictures back also.

After the game Saturday morning, we went to Home Depot because they told us when we purchased the dishwasher on Monday that they were going on sale later in the week and if we brought our receipt back in they would credit back the difference between what we paid and the sale price. We ended up coming out behind, though, because while we were there we saw a great deal on a barbecue grill and decided to get one. Not really an impulse buy, since we’ve been thinking about doing that for a while (our other grill was over 10 years old and was so rusted out that it was not really usable). I had been thinking about getting a new one for Frank for Father’s Day, so he just got his present a week early! We didn’t have enough space to get it home with us right then but Frank went back for it later, after delivering our old grill to the recycling part of the city dump.

That evening we had some friends over for dinner—the Paul family. I had planned to make chicken and thought I was going to have to use the broiler or our little George Foreman grill to cook it all—it was really nice to have the new grill instead! We grilled some vegetables also, boiled corn on the cob, cooked rice and baked garlic bread. It was all really yummy! I think all the kids (the Pauls have four girls) had fun playing games while the adults visited. Snickers was really overwhelmed by all the people and hid in his crate for quite a while, but he finally came out later. The Pauls have lots of experience with animals (they own several and Brother Paul is a vet for the army) so they were giving us advice on training Snickers better. After we described some of his typical problem behaviors, they said that Snickers considers me the “alpha male” (I find that funny, since I am the only non-male in the whole household!) so I am the one who has to discipline him. I will be working harder with him now, to let him know what behavior I consider acceptable and what is not acceptable. I hope that will help. Overall, he is very good, but he has his moments! We had a good time, but with all the excitement, I didn’t get time to finish this post.

Seth started acting kind of “out of sorts” on Friday. He didn’t sleep well at all Friday or Saturday nights, and he didn’t nap well either. By Saturday night he was starting to feel warm and his nose started running, so Frank ended up staying home from church with him yesterday. He seems to be a little better today, but he’s still not himself—crabbier than usual. We had an uplifting Sacrament meeting program yesterday—several of the seminary students and both seminary teachers spoke, and all of the seminary students sang a song. All of the students got certificates of completion as well, and Scott got a sticker on his for 90% attendance. I am proud of him—the only days he missed Seminary all year were the days he was too sick to go to school. I am really grateful for the Seminary program—I can see that it has really helped him this year! It is so apparent that there is great power in studying the scriptures and trying to apply them in our lives. I know having that spiritual beginning to his day has helped Scott make good choices.

We had a nice relaxing Sunday—our home teachers came to see us and Frank and Scott went to visit one of their families, but other than that we didn’t have much going on. I opted to take a nap instead of finishing this post, though!

So now it is Monday afternoon and I am going to post this right now before something else comes up!

Hair Obsession

"I love how Seth holds onto your hair!" one of my friends said to me at book club the other day, "it's so sweet!"

What is it about my boys? They've all had a "thing" for my hair! Forget security blankets; mommy's hair will do just fine, thank you!

It started with Scott. As soon as he started a nursing session, his little arm (the one not cradled against my body) would reach up and his hand would grope around until it encountered a lock of my hair. His little fist would close around it immediately, and he would hold on until he was done eating. He started this little ritual when he was only a couple of months old. Scott's love of my hair continued into his toddler years--he would play with a lock of my hair every night while I laid my head next to his on the pillow and sang him to sleep. (I was a new parent, ok? I hadn't figured out how to teach a kid to go to sleep on his own yet!)

Tanner engaged in the same grasp hair / nursing ritual as Scott--is it in the genes? I think he gave up his love of my hair much earlier than any of the other boys, though.

Jared had an extreme case of Mommy-hair-love, and perhaps because no other baby took his place until he was 8 1/2 years old, it lasted longer. Yes, he did the same ritual while nursing. Then as a toddler, he would stand next to me whenever I was standing on the couch, get a lock of hair in his hands, and twist, and twist, and twist....until it felt like the whole lock of hair was going to pull right out of my head!

Jared, Fall 2000

Seth was the only one who didn't hang onto my hair while he was nursing (my hair was really short when he was born) but at a young age he started running his hand through the hair on the nape of my neck. This habit has continued, and now pretty much whenever I pick him up, I immediately feel his little hand slide through the hair at the back of my neck. Sometimes he grasps as much as he can in his little fist and hangs on, other times he continues to run his fingers through my hair over and over. Seth has also learned to climb onto my shoulders when I am sitting on the couch; he'll sit up there and play with my hair for as long as I can stand it. (Sometimes he gets excited and starts pulling!) Actually, he will take just about any opportunity to indulge in this behavior. Even while I've been writing this post, he pulled a chair up behind mine, stood on it, and played with my hair for a while!

Seth, February 2008

Seth, December 2008

Seth, May 2009

Seth's love of my hair has, conveniently, transferred to his own head of hair. I know he's tired when he starts running his hands through his own hair. And more than once when I've put him in his crib half-asleep, I've seen him reach up and start to twist the hair on top of his head, as he drifts back to sleep--nice!
Who knows when Seth will outgrow his love for my hair--the other three all have. I just know that I will miss it when he does because for me, feeling a little boy hand pulling, stroking or twisting my hair is one of the more powerful ways that I feel like a successful, nurturing mother. My little boy might as well be saying "Mommy, I feel safe with you, and I absolutely adore you!!!"

Weekly Review June 6 '09

I should start out reporting that Frank is doing much better now. I really feel like we saw a miracle with him—he was able to work every day this week, and he got plenty of work to do, too! He was still in quite a bit of pain on Monday, but he was able to drive and get some work done. He continued to improve every day, and although I’m sure he is still experiencing quite a bit of discomfort he is just doing so much better. He can’t cough, sneeze, yawn, hiccup or laugh, though—that hurts! Thank you, everybody, for your prayers—I know that has really helped him.

On Monday Frank did some work at a place here in Frederick. He went there early in the day for about an hour, but then they had another issue come up a little later in the day and he needed to go back. Since he had taken a pain pill by then, I drove him over there. The people there thought Seth was so cute, and Seth enjoyed the visit because they gave him candy and the owner of this little place collects model trucks so there were little trucks everywhere!

Tuesday was Frank’s really early day—he had to be at work at 4:00 am. He was supposed to get off work at noon, but they had a big issue come up and he ended up staying until 5:30. So that was a very long day for him, but the miracle was that he was able to handle it, even without pain pills. He has only been taking them at night to help him sleep since then. That night we were awakened around midnight by a big thunderstorm that came through—lots of lightening, and it was close! I was just waiting to hear Seth scream, but he slept right through it! I didn’t hear Snickers make any noise, either, which surprised me since we’ve heard a few rumbles of thunder now and then, and he always growls and barks.

Frank was gone to various clients most of the day on Wednesday, also. The boys had scouts that evening as usual. It starting raining again that evening and never really stopped all day on Thursday, which meant Jared’s soccer practice was cancelled again. The rain continued all night and all day Friday.

Jared’s class did a play on Friday morning, so Frank, Seth, and I went to see that. The play was written by two of the girls in his class and I found it hard to follow—mostly because the kids didn’t speak all that clearly. But I could still tell that the kids had put a lot of effort into it and parts of it were pretty funny. Seth got restless so we spent most of the play in the very back of the auditorium trying to keep him entertained in a quiet way so he wouldn’t disturb the rest of the audience. I’m sure that didn’t contribute to our comprehension of the play, either!

Jared during the play

After the play, with his best friends Alex and Sage

Yesterday morning we discovered that the dishwasher isn’t working. When I emptied it on Thursday I noticed a lot of things didn’t come very clean and I ended up putting a lot of the dishes right back in to be washed again. Then when I started the dishwasher Friday morning I noticed it wasn’t making the usual noises. Frank looked at it and discovered that the water pump is broken so that all the water is staying in the bottom and not spraying up onto the dishes. He went to the store to try to find out what a new pump would cost, but discovered that he is going to have to order the parts from the company directly (as long as we’re at it, we want to fix the dishwasher door, too—Tanner fell on it years ago and broke the springs). When Frank called about the parts we discovered that for the three parts plus tax and shipping it will add up to a couple hundred dollars, so we may end up just getting a new dishwasher instead. In the meantime, we are washing dishes by hand—fun! Makes us appreciate how spoiled we are most of the time. Maybe the boys won’t complain as much about having to load the dishwasher now!

Frank and a "helper" working on the dishwasher

Last night we took our turn helping to clean the church. Then Scott and Tanner went to spend the night with their friend Ryan (in our ward). It finally stopped raining sometime in the night, but Jared’s 8:00 am soccer game was still cancelled because the field is so wet. I don’t know yet if they are going to re-schedule it. He has two games this week (Friday night and Saturday morning) and then the season is supposed to be over.

My week was dominated by reading David Copperfield. I didn’t get much else done besides the basic housework and caring for the family. Because last week I fell behind on my reading, I had to read 100 pages per day, Monday through Friday, in order to finish the book on time. It was very interesting reading, but getting through 100 pages still took a while! I didn’t quite get through my pages yesterday, but I finished the book up this morning. It is well worth reading if you are feeling ambitious. I mostly enjoyed it because of all the interesting characters! I am glad to be done, though—now maybe I will find the time to sew patches on scout shirts, clean the oven, work on Seth’s quiet book, etc….! Oh, and maybe write something on my blog besides the weekly review!

Seth has learned to put on his shoes by himself! He did that this week when I wasn’t watching. He usually gets the shoes on the wrong feet, but still—that’s pretty good for a 2 year old, I think! Now whenever he sees the older boys putting on their shoes, he goes to get his shoes and puts them on. Unfortunately, he can’t always go along wherever they are going—he gets very sad when that happens!

Although Frank was at home yesterday, he had work to do, and with all the work he had earlier in the week, he was able to easily get his 40 hours done this week. His boss told him one day (after Frank submitted his billing for last month which showed that he brought in about $8100 for the company, even though he hasn’t had as many hours as usual the last few months) that Frank isn’t the problem—it’s all the other employees. So we are hopeful that his hourly status is only temporary! In the meantime, we are just grateful that he had a lot of work to do this week and that he was well enough to do it. I mentioned to Frank that he really should start working on his MCSE classes again because being certified would make him more marketable, and then his boss brought the same thing up this week, saying that they would get more business if they had a MCSE in the company, so he has decided that they are all going to take the classes together. I hope that works out—I think it will be a lot easier to get it done when they can help and motivate each other. It’s just really hard to get it done on your own.

Today I was able to go to the temple, which I greatly enjoyed. We had the Becks over for a pizza dinner this evening (impromptu—we do that a lot with them). They brought salad to go with the pizza and s’mores for dessert. We had fun, but we visited later than we should have so everybody got to bed late and now Frank is figuring out how to enlarge some pictures for me for sharing time tomorrow. I guess I’d better go help him so we don’t get to bed too late!

Weekly Review May 31 '09

Scott gave his talk on Sunday, and he did a great job. The last time he spoke in church was exactly two years ago—I remember because it was the day before Seth was born. I think he spoke all of 30 seconds that time. This time he spoke more like 5 minutes (which was what he was supposed to do), and he was just a lot more confident and had some good thoughts to share. It is fun to see how much he has changed in the last two years!

Memorial Day was busy but fun. We hung out with our friends, the Beck family. In the morning we all went on a hike at Cunningham Falls State Park. We hiked to—guess what?—Cunningham Falls! Jana and I stayed with Seth at a place where we could see the falls while the dads and the rest of the kids climbed on rocks up to the falls. Thankfully, nobody got hurt. (That comes later in the week.) When we were leaving the park to head back home, we were glad we got there early—there was a huge line of cars waiting to pay the fee to get in!

The men & kids climbing on the rocks--Jared, Tanner, Brody Beck (McKenna behind him), Ethan Beck, and Frank

Jana Beck with Seth

Scott--victorious rock climber

Cunningham Falls

"Jack-in-the-Pulpit"

Jared & Seth

Lots of hikers

"Hey everybody, look this way!"

Family photo

Crazy kids!

During the afternoon, Seth took a nap while Frank, Brother Beck, and our boys played games. Frank also hung up my quilt for me, and helped make Seth’s cake and some yummy strawberry-banana ice cream. We had decided to celebrate Seth’s birthday that day because Thursday was looking too busy. (That’s probably going to happen a lot—we’ll probably celebrate on Memorial Day pretty often, but that’s totally appropriate since he was actually born on Memorial Day.) After Seth woke up we let him open his presents—3 little trucks, a little garage for some of his other trucks, and a small play dough set. He seemed to be very happy with everything, and has enjoyed playing with the new toys all week.

The quilt's finally done!

Opening presents

One of the trucks

Playing with the garage

After that we went back to the Beck’s house for a cook out. We had lots of yummy food and then had Seth’s cake and the ice cream for dessert. Seth really seemed to like it when we sang to him, but he wouldn’t blow out the candles!

(Sorry--sideways again!)

Seth's cake

Seth enjoying cake and ice cream

(Frank drew the truck on the cake, by the way—he did a much better job than I would have done! It was my idea to use Oreos for the wheels, though.)

It looked like it might rain most of the day on Monday, but luckily it held off until after we went to bed. Then the rain really came down in torrents! I woke up more than once in the night because it was coming down so hard, and it continued to rain all day Tuesday with spurts of more very heavy rain. Scott didn’t feel very well that morning—he felt nauseated and had a headache—but he started feeling better enough that he decided to go to Seminary and then to school. (He missed his ride, so I had to take him to Seminary.) He only made it through one class, though, before he started to feel pretty sick again, so he went to the nurse and I brought him home. Luckily, the call from the nurse coincided with the time I was taking the other two boys to school, so I was able to pick up Scott on my way and didn’t have to make a separate trip. He felt pretty sick at first, and then he slept for a while. After that he felt better enough to eat some toast and by the end of the day he was feeling back to normal. I’m not sure what it was, but I’m glad it was short-lived.

I went to lunch with some friends on Wednesday. That evening was busy because I had a visiting teaching appointment at 5:30 (the only time we could meet this month!) and then at 7:00 was the Court of Honor for the older boys. I got dinner made for everybody else, but I didn’t get to eat until much later! The Court of Honor was nice. I was kind of surprised, though, that out of about 20 boys only about 5 of them had earned any merit badges (two of those boys were ours, and one other was the scoutmaster’s son!) and only 3 had a rank advancement (again, our two boys and the scoutmaster’s son). Our scoutmaster is really good; evidently most of the other parents are not following up with the boys at home to finish up their merit badges. Anyway, Scott got five merit badges (Personal Management, Communications, Cooking, Reading, and Citizenship in the World) and his Life rank; Tanner got three merit badges (Personal Management, Reading, and Citizenship in the World) and his Tenderfoot Rank. (He should have got Citizenship in the Community also, but they forgot to get the documentation that proves he’s done the community service. He’ll get that next time.) I am proud of all the hard work they’ve done.

Tanner "pins" me

Scott gets his awards

And let me tell you…I’ve EARNED those mother’s pins!!!

After the Court of Honor was over, Frank was playing some basketball with a bunch of the boys and he totally wiped out (he was going down the court full speed and was tripped up) and landed hard on his left shoulder and side. He was in a lot of pain that evening and it was even worse the next morning.

Meanwhile, Seth woke up 3 times during the night for some reason and then woke up before 6:00, so I had maybe five hours of very interrupted sleep that night. Frank called and got a doctor appointment at 9:00, so we were trying to get everybody out the door. Then Tanner spilled his hot cereal on the floor and burned his finger and knee with it. I gave up on trying to get a shower and grabbed a granola bar for breakfast! We still just squeaked into the school right at 9:00, and needless to say we were late for the doctor appointment. The doctor sent Frank for x-rays, of course, but we were very surprised (the doctor was also) when they said nothing was broken, cracked, or dislocated. So then we had to go back to the doctor to get a prescription for some painkiller. With all the waiting, we didn’t get back home until nearly noon. Then I got Seth fed and down for a nap so I could go pick up Frank’s medicine and get a few groceries. After that I finally got some lunch and got the laundry going. Then I took a nap until Scott got home! (About 30 minutes.)

Thursday was, of course, Seth’s actual birthday. He ended up spending the morning at doctor’s offices, of course, but that wasn’t such a bad thing since he got to play with new toys, eat a lollipop, and (when the doctor found out it was his birthday) pick out a toy from a big bin (he chose a little fire truck). We saved his biggest present for that day—a little bike—and he enjoyed sitting on it although he hasn’t figured out how to pedal it yet. The present from Grandma & Grandpa came late that afternoon, also. He LOVES the truck! All the boys have enjoyed the Veggie Tales movie, also. For dinner I made grilled cheese sandwiches and we had strawberries because I know he really likes those two things. I was really glad when it started raining in the late afternoon so soccer practice was cancelled—I was exhausted anyway!

New truck from Grandpa & Grandma (Seth likes to lie down and push trucks around.)

This cool truck has tools, too!

New bike!

Frank has continued to really suffer all week end. The doctor asked him to call back on Friday because he wanted to know how he was doing. When he did that, and told them that he was still in a lot of pain and not seeing much improvement, the doctor said he probably has a hairline fracture in one or more of his ribs that just didn’t show up on the x-ray. Meanwhile, I have been feeling like a single mom with an extra child to care for (although Frank really has been a patient invalid). My hat goes off to anyone who has to “go it alone” all the time. I have barely had time for eating and basic hygiene! Frank really does do a lot to help out around the house when he is able, and I really notice a difference when he is not well enough to do that.

Since Frank needed to do some work for one client that he couldn’t do from here, I drove him there on Friday morning. (It’s too painful for him to drive, and even if he could I wouldn’t let him because he’s on a pretty strong painkiller.) He only needed to do work for a couple of hours so while he worked, Seth and I did some shopping at the scout store and the LDS bookstore. At the scout store, they were having a “BOGO” free sale on scout uniform items, so another mom and I had decided to get the boy scout shirts for our sons who are turning 11 this year together. One of them was free, so we each only had to pay ½ price. Scout shirts cost $32 these days, so it was definitely nice to pay half price instead of full price. After we finished shopping, Frank still had some work to finish up, so I took Seth over to the temple visitor’s center. We sat in front of the big statue of Christ and listened to the narrative—Seth actually sat still and listened to the whole thing! Then I let him wander around a while and just look at whatever interested him. After that we went over to the temple and walked around it a little bit until it was time to pick up Frank.

Once again, it started raining that evening so Jared’s soccer game was cancelled—I can’t say I was too sorry about that! It was also Pack Meeting that evening so we were able to go to that instead. I took all the boys with me and Frank stayed home to rest. Jared received his Artist activity badge. He would have received a couple more things except I didn’t let them know he’d earned them because I thought we were not going to be there. We came home and let the boys watch a movie afterwards, so we were up a little late.

Jared’s Saturday morning soccer game was not cancelled (it was sunny and nice) so I took him to that—it was at 8:00 am—yawn!! They played well, but the other team outplayed them, and they ended up losing 7-3. That’s only the second game they’ve lost this season. We came home, worked on scout stuff (we’re starting the Artist Merit Badge), bathed and brushed Snickers, and I got the floors cleaned while Seth napped. After he woke up I took the boys and went to a party given by some friends in our ward. There were a lot of people there and lots of yummy food. We didn’t stay long because I didn’t want to leave Frank for a long time, but we had a nice time while we were there, and brought home a plate of food for him. While we were there I ended up talking to Jenn (the mom of the family) about some of the issues we’ve had with Snickers lately (lots of nipping and barking) and she offered to come over and work with him a little, and to teach me how to train him better. They are real animal people, with lots of pets, so she is really good with them. I am looking forward to that!

While we were at the party, I talked to Jana, the primary president, about the stake leadership meeting that had been held that morning (I had been planning to go, but had to miss it after Frank injured himself). She said “Guess what the meeting was all about? The scout program!” So it’s just really too bad I couldn’t be there! But she said she took notes.

Now it’s Sunday—I didn’t get this posted yet, so I’ll add a few notes about today. Frank stayed home from church and I had choir practice at 8:15 so everybody had to get to church early with me. We had practice before church because we were singing in Sacrament Meeting today. We sang an arrangement of “I Wonder When He Comes Again” which included a children’s “choir” (three Primary age girls sang that part) singing the melody and the choir doing back up. It turned out really beautiful, I thought, with those sweet little girls singing! Seth wasn’t happy about me leaving him to go up and sing, so as I was going up the aisle, Scott was carrying Seth out who was crying “No, Mommy, no!” at the top of his lungs. I saw Scott in the back with Seth while we were singing, though, so he calmed down enough to come back in and hear the song. Scott took Seth to nursery also—I knew he’d never stay if I took him!

After church Frank got a call from one of the stake clerks—some computer emergency—so I had to take him over there to get that fixed. After we came back a couple of our friends from the ward came over to give Frank a blessing. He is doing a little bit better—able to move around a little more without as much pain. We would appreciate all your prayers in his behalf as well—especially that he will be able to work.

This evening I took Scott to a fireside to sign up for and get excited about youth conference. The theme of the meeting was service, and they had asked a couple in our stake to come speak about the service they received after two of their teen age children were killed in a car wreck last fall. They did an amazing job and it was very uplifting!

Everyone have a great week as we move into June!

*Note about the photos--I just noticed as I was adding the photos that the dates are off on most of them. The camera batteries must have died and the date wasn't set correctly afterwards. All the photos taken after the Memorial Day hike are off by about 6 days! I'll have to fix the date on the camera next time I use it.