Weekly Review October 28 '11

Happy Birthday to Jared! It is hard to believe that he is 13. Where has the time gone?

Well, my hope that this week was not going to be quite as busy wasn't realized. Maybe it was a little less busy, but I didn't really notice. I had fewer places that I had to be, maybe, but a lot of extra things to plan and work on while at home.

Saturday Scott was gone most of the day--there was a matinee as well as an evening performance of the play he was helping with. Frank and I did some shopping; he got a few new shirts for work since most of the work shirts he owns say "Griffin Networks" on them, and he has no desire to be an advertisement for them. That afternoon we watched the BYU game via the internet--it was really nice to see it live this time! (Last week's game I had to watch the rebroadcast, and it was very late at night. Plus I already knew the final score, so it wasn't nearly as exciting as it would have been.)

Sunday was busy, of course. It was going to be busy anyway, and then to add an extra hitch in the plans, Seth woke up in the night throwing up. So we didn't get a lot of sleep and Frank had to stay home with him. I was terrified that I was going to come down with it, too--I just couldn't miss church that day of all days! Thankfully, I didn't get sick. I had Ward Council that morning before church. The program went great, of course. The kids all did a great job! Our presidency got released as planned, so it was kind of emotional, too. I managed to hold it together until the closing hymn (I Am a Child of God) but then I gave up and cried through most of that hymn. For Sharing Time we watched movies about the scriptures and had a treat for the kids. We all said our farewells, and it was sad, but good. The chorister got released too and she cried as much as the rest of us!

I had to leave the last few minutes of Primary because Tanner was getting set apart as the secretary in the Teacher's Quorum. Then as soon as church ended, I had to take Jared & Tanner home and pick up Frank so that he could be there when I got set apart for my new calling (I got set apart twice because they accidentally set me apart to be the 2nd counselor instead of the 1st). I also found out I had a visiting teaching appointment right after that, so I didn't get home until nearly 4:00. It was a good day, but quite emotionally draining.

The rest of the week has been filled with lots of activities and chores. Monday I took Seth to the library and my visiting teachers came to see me. I have new ones this month; they are closer to my age and I think will be more consistent thanthe ones I've had the last few years. I'm glad about that; they will be my only link to RS since RS activities are held on the same night as YW.

Tuesday I had book club (I made apple cake to take to that), choir practice, and took Scott to work. Frank and I squeezed in a trip to Wal-Mart before choir practice since I knew I would not have time to go the next day. I also needed a few things for YW. Wednesday morning I had presidency meeting. Then I picked up Seth and we went shopping--I needed a few more things for YW and I also needed to find some things for his Halloween and International Children's Day costumes. One of our stops was Party City, which was all decked out with fake smoke drifting around and a ghost at the door that moved and made scary noises. Seth was quite intimidated by that! I don't like the gory / creepy side of Halloween. For me, it's all about kids getting to play make believe and getting candy. After our shopping trip we hurried home because Seth's friend Henry was coming over for a play date. They had a great time; I wished I'd had the time to sit and listen to them talk!

In between all of that, I was busy planning / getting ready for the YW activity Wednesday night--we had combined YW and the Mia Maids were in charge, so that's me. My planning was complicated by the fact that I could not get in touch with the Mia Maid class president until Tuesday evening. But it all worked out. We did "reverse trick or treating"--dressed up in costumes and visited several people in the ward, bringing them treat bags. I think most of the girls had a fun time. I didn't have time to come up with a real costume, so I settled on being a hiker--I wore a plaid shirt, jeans, hiking boots, and a bandana and borrowed one of the boys' camel backpacks. Scott had his Eagle Board of Review that evening also, so Frank took him to that with Seth in tow; Seth wet his pants while they were waiting so Frank had to bring him home to change him. It was a stressful night for Frank, but the review went well and Scott is now an Eagle scout. He says when they told him he's an Eagle scout now he said "That sounds so good!" and they all laughed. I'm glad it feels good to him. It was certainly a lot of work for him (and for Frank and I) and I'm glad he is feeling that all the hard work paid off. I guess we have an Eagle Court of Honor to plan some time soon.

I was totally exhausted by the time Wednesday came to an end. I hope not every week is going to be like that!

Thursday I helped at the school--took kids to the library from Seth's class and then made copies for someone else. In the afternoon I had a visiting teaching appointment and then took Scott to work. I had a couple of things to do to get Seth's costumes ready so I worked on those, too. Frank and I did a little research on our new health / dental insurance options and then Frank got us set up for that. Seth had a bad afternoon--he was up really late Wednesday so he was tired, and it was pretty obvious! I got him to bed by 8:00, but he was overtired by then and didn't go to sleep until after 9:30--he was having a complete melt down! He finally gave up--I went in and sat by his bed, he started playing with my hair, and he was asleep within a minute! At 10:30 I was wrapping Jared's birthday presents, but we finally got to go to bed.

In a few minutes I will be leaving to go to a costume parade / program at Jared & Seth's school for International Children's Day. Jared has two friends coming home with us from school to have pizza, cake, and to spend the night.

Besides all of that, I've been on the phone with the YW president at least once a day discussing and planning things. We had to decide on a few callings, but I think we've got all of that figured out now. She is going out of town on Tuesday for 10 days, so there is a lot to get in place before she leaves.

One of our friends discovered that Tanner is taking piano at school and has no way to practice, so they loaned us a keyboard that they are not using. That has been very popular with all the boys. It was very nice of them to let us borrow it! I've heard both Tanner and Jared practicing on it, and I am surprised at how much they can do after so few lessons.

That's it for this week. I will try to have pictures up next week of costumes and birthday celebrations!

Weekly Review October 21'11

Whew! What a week this has been! I feel like I ran from one thing to another all week long.

Saturday was actually pretty nice--I made all the boys stay home Friday night so that we could get up and get some chores done. We'd fallen behind on a lot of things since the boys (particularly Scott) have been so busy during the week. So Saturday morning we got caught up on all the chores that had been piling up like laundry folding and vacuuming. We got the lawn mowed and some weed pulling done, too. The thing that was really nice about it was that everybody pitched in and nobody complained (except about the weed pulling)! After we were done, we took the boys to lunch to reward them for their hard work (and lack of complaints). I spent the afternoon getting things ready for the Primary program practice. The Elders came over for dinner that evening.

Sunday was not as restful. Our practice for the program didn't go as well as the first time--it was quite chaotic, actually. Then right after church Frank and I had to talk with the bishop--I got my new calling, and it really blew me away. I'm going to be the 1st Counselor in YW. I just really wasn't expecting that right now; I was hoping to get a more "laid back" calling for at least a few months! There were some other things really troubling me that day as well (I won't go into details) so between all that, I admit I felt a lot like I'd been flattened by a truck and I shed a lot of tears on Sunday and Monday too. But thankfully, after some prayers I started feeling a lot better about the calling, and now I am kind of excited about it. I just needed a day or two to wrap my mind around it, as well as to accept the fact that I am not going to be getting a break and all those projects that have been waiting around for the last 3 years are probably going to have to wait a few more.

I met on Sunday afternoon with the incoming Primary president for about 3 hours. Then we met again today for a couple more hours, although it wasn't all about Primary. That's because by some quirky twist of fate, she is currently serving as the 1st Counselor in YW--so we are trading jobs! So she had information to convey to me about YW as well. I think we are mostly through all the basics, although I'm sure there will be a lot of phone calls between us for the next few months. We are also visiting teaching companions, so we've had a lot of reasons to communicate with each other! Seth came with me today and had a fun play date with the incoming president's daughter; they are good friends.

The rest of the week has been crazy; for starters the school schedule was pretty ridiculous. Monday was a normal day, but Tuesday all the elementary schools started 4 hours late (the high school had a normal day again, though, so I still had to get up early to pick up the boys from seminary). Wednesday everybody started 4 hours late, Thursday everybody got out 3 1/2 hours early, and today there was no school at all. Seth didn't have school at all on the days it started late, so he only went to school on Monday and Thursday. It was pretty hectic trying to keep up with all the different schedules and altered pick up / drop off times. The crazy school schedule was due to parent / teacher conferences.

I had a visiting teaching appointment on Monday. Tuesday I had to get Scott to work and back. I also had choir practice as well as parent / teacher conferences for Jared and Seth. (They are both doing great!) Wednesday I had parent / teacher conferences for Tanner and Scott. They are both doing well overall, also. I'd like to see Scott bring up his grade in statistics (as usual, he's not giving it his best effort) and unfortunately Tanner has become a bit lazy with homework this year, too. (Although he still has As or Bs in all of his classes so I can't complain too much.) My most interesting conference for Tanner was with his piano teacher, who started out by saying "This boy has talent!" Apparently, he has picked up piano very quickly. She asked him to consider joining the percussion section for the band, which really surprised me. I hope he will consider it--I think that would be a great experience for him. It would be a considerable time commitment and I'm guessing a financial one as well, but I would like him to develop his musical talents and have some new experiences. We'll see what he decides. We'll need to find out more about it before we make a decision.

We went straight from parent teacher conferences (in torrential rain) to YM. Scott was supposed to have a mock board of review but it didn't end up happening. They had a fun "Where's Waldo" game at the mall, though. This has become a tradition in our ward--they get 3 or 4 adults to disguise themselves and hang out somewhere in the mall, then they take the kids over there in groups and they try to find the "hidden" ward members. The kids really enjoy it, and I think the adults do too.

Yesterday Scott was supposed to work also, but it was the first night of a play at the high school as well and the person who was supposed to handle the sound for that in Scott's place bailed out on him at the last minute. Thankfully, Scott's boss was very gracious about allowing him to skip work at the last minute, but it was pretty stressful until we got all the details worked out. Scott had a very busy week also because he had to stay after school for rehearsals every day. Yesterday he never came home in between the end of the school day (at 10:50 am) and the play; he didn't get home until after 11:00 pm. I was so glad there wasn't school today--he was able to sleep in until 10:15, get some chores and school work done, and relax before he had to be back at the school tonight for the second performance.

In the middle of all the chaos, I took a break Thursday evening for a "Girls' Night Out". We went to see the movie The Help, which is showing at the "dollar" theater now. (The dollar theater actually costs $3.50, but that's a lot less than the regular theaters charge.) A small group of women from our ward went together. We were laughing when we got there--it was packed with women, and my friend said "Look at all the other moms here, trying to get away after this crazy school week!" The movie was very good. I read the book some time back, so I knew the basic story line but it's been long enough since I read the book that I wasn't annoyed by any differences from the book. If you want to see a good movie with some great messages, this is one not to miss. I'm very glad I got to go, because I really needed a break from the pressures of this crazy week!

Meanwhile, Tanner and Jared spent the night with Ryan & Bryson, so Frank and Seth had an evening to hang out together. Tonight Scott is at the play (they have another performance tomorrow, also) and Tanner and Jared are at a "black light" party given by another boy in our ward. They will all be home later, though.

Frank enjoyed his second week at work. He has more to do now, and it is getting more interesting for him. He's tired because he's been going in really early, but I'm sure we will all adjust to the new schedule soon. He likes going in early because that way he misses the worst of the traffic both ways.

In between all that other stuff, I've been trying to make all the final adjustments for the Primary program--it hasn't been easy to find the time! I totally gave up on finishing The Brothers Karamazov, and from what I've heard from most of the other women in the club, they have too. It is not a book that you can read in 10 minute snatches, and that's about all anyone has had. I also cleaned out my Primary binder so that it will be ready to give to the new president on Sunday. It's hard to believe I only have 2 more days to go.

The weather has gotten quite chilly here the last couple of days--even with a jacket on, I feel a little cold. I guess winter is really on it's way. The trees are all beautiful colors, though, and I have especially enjoyed the times this week that I have had to drive out into the country.

That's quite enough for this week, I think! I hope next week is more relaxing, although I don't expect to be lying around doing nothing.

Weekly Review October 14 '11

Sorry there are still no pictures this week. My memory card on my camera is full. I don't want to delete the pictures off of the memory card until I have them backed up in two places. They are on my computer, but I haven't been able to send them to Costco yet (my 2nd backup). I tried to do it 2 weeks ago and there was something wrong; Frank hasn't had time to help me figure it out yet. So in the meantime, I haven't been taking any pictures.

Last Saturday Frank was gone most of the day--he was helping with the catering for a wedding. I kept busy with last minute preparations for the program practice, including a trip to the church to make a lot of copies.

Sunday was fast Sunday for us; we had a really great meeting with a lot of powerful testimonies. Scott was one of the people who got up, and he always says such insightful things. This time he drew an analogy--he mentioned that he had noticed earlier in the meeting that Frank had allowed Seth to go out to the hall by himself to get a drink of water. He waited to see if Seth would come back; of course he didn't! So Frank went out in the hall to find him, and brought him back into the meeting. He said as he watched this happen, he realized that is a lot how Heavenly Father works with us--he gives us our agency, but when we don't make the right choice, He always comes looking for us and brings us back. I thought that was quite profound! (And I was happy to know that he is seeing God like qualities in his own father.) He also mentioned that the main thing he got out of General Conference is that he needs to serve a mission, which is music to a parent's ears.

Our first practice for the Primary program went remarkably well; I was very pleased with how it turned out! I was really glad I didn't have to cook dinner when I got home, though, because I was also on my feet for most of the two hours. Frank brought home a lot of leftovers from the wedding the day before, so all we had to do was warm up plates of food. It was all very yummy, too.

The rest of the week has been quite busy. The four boys and I had dentist appointments on Tuesday. None of us have any cavities, which was great news. I had choir practice Tuesday evening while Frank took Scott to meet with the district Eagle scout commissioner. He now has his official board of review set up for October 26th. The scout committee in our ward is going to do a mock board of review with him this Wednesday, to help him prepare.

Scott worked on Wednesday and Thursday, and he'll be working again tonight. I met his boss (Casey) this week (usually I just drop Scott off) and he is a very nice man. He spoke very highly of Scott to me and in particular mentioned that Scott really knows a lot about religion and that when he speaks about it, he can tell it is coming from Scott's heart. He insisted on making a pizza for me and sent it home with Scott when we picked him up that night. Last night I took Seth with me to pick Scott up, and he gave both of us sodas and asked Seth what his favorite pizza toppings are so he can send a pizza home for Seth tonight. He speaks with an accent, so I asked Scott if he knew where Casey is from, and Scott said "I think Armenia". He is going to find out for sure; I'm sure Casey would be interested to know that we have family members who have been there.

Wednesday night I went to Relief Society; we talked about eating healthy. There was a lot of good information, and I could definitely make some improvements in that area! Scott and Jared had orthodontist appointments Thursday afternoon--I had to take them both out of school early for that. Scott got a full mouth x-ray and a new retainer; Jared got braces on his bottom teeth. Jared's teeth have been pretty sore since then; he's been mostly subsisting on milkshakes.

We were supposed to have a ward activity tonight--a chili cook off, campfire, and campout--but it has been cancelled because of the weather. It rained all day yesterday and it is still raining hard today. I suppose the chili cook off part could have been moved to the church, but they are re-gluing all the carpets in our building so we can't use it except for Sunday meetings.

Frank did start his new job on Monday as planned. It hasn't been too exciting for him yet--he had to fill out a lot of paperwork and it took until yesterday to get his Marriott ID. Until he got his ID, he couldn't start doing his real job, so he was spending most of the time just reading about what he would be doing. Hopefully he is getting to do more today. I'm sure he will enjoy the job more once he gets going and we are very thankful that he has a job, of course.

I felt like I ran from one thing to the next all week, taking kids to appointments and to work, running errands, and keeping the household running. In between all that, I've been working on preparations for our 2nd practice and for the program, and trying to read the Brothers Karamazov; it is not a book that you can read very effectively in snatches. My counselor who had her gall bladder out is recovering pretty well from her surgery. When I talked to her on Monday, she sounded completely wiped out, but when I talked to her yesterday, she sounded much better. She's hoping to make it to church this Sunday, but she might not.

Primary things are not going to be keeping me busy much longer, though--I found out on Wednesday that I am going to be released soon. (I think it's ok to say that since I'm sure no one from around here reads my blog.) I knew this might be coming, so it wasn't a huge shock, but it's still kind of hard to believe. I feel sad about it, but I also feel peaceful about it--I know it's the right time. We are getting released the same day as the program, though--I think that is going to be a very emotional day!!! I will miss the kids and I will miss working with the other women in the presidency. We have had a lot of fun together. I feel so very blessed that we have all got along so well and have enjoyed working together so much. I couldn't have asked for two better counselors, and both of my secretaries have been fantastic, too! I will not miss all the organizational details, and trying to figure out who to get to fill callings, etc.! Maybe I will have time to write a little more on here, besides weekly reviews. (Although I don't know what I'll be doing next--I guess it could be worse!) In the meantime, though, I still have a little over a week to go, and it is going to be a very busy week, getting ready for the program and trying to orient the new president. There is certainly a lot of information to convey to her; that's going to take some time. I already talked to her for about an hour last night and barely scratched the surface.

So to end on a happy note, this week I had two separate people (the dental hygienist and Scott's boss) comment on how young I look. Apparently, I could pass for a woman in her late 20's! That's always nice to hear. Payback for all those times I was mistaken for a kindergartener when I was actually in 3rd grade. :)

Weekly Review October 7 '11

We hope you all had a great General Conference weekend--we did! The boys (with the exception of Seth) are getting a lot better about listening quietly to the talks. Tanner was even taking notes! There were so many good talks that I felt applied to me in one way or another. It feels good to set some goals and to try to do better! It's always exciting to hear about the new temples, too. Two more in Africa! I was also really excited to hear that they are going to restore the Provo Tabernacle and make it a temple because I always loved that building. It's so beautiful (well, was...before the fire) and I have some good memories of singing in concerts there. I hope I'll get to go there sometime after it is completed.

The weather cooled down quite a bit this week, but we didn't have a lot of rain. The last three days have been crisp in the mornings but warm and sunny by mid morning--beautiful!! We have certainly been soaking up the sun, after all our cloudy rainy days. The trees are starting to turn colors, too. I just love autumn!

Most of you have heard by now that Frank will be starting his new job on Monday. The Marriott manager did call on Monday and on Tuesday he went down to sign all the paperwork. He had to get a drug test and a background check but all the paperwork came back in time and he passed the drug test and the background check without any problems, of course! So he is good to go-finally!!!! We are so glad. Frank had a busy week between all of that and doing more work for the stake computers. He also had several odd jobs to do for friends and former clients. He worked all day on Wednesday.

There is not a lot written on my calendar this week, but I was still very busy. That's mainly because my counselor who is in charge of the program found out late last week that she had to have her gall bladder removed immediately--she had surgery today. That means she won't be at church for our first practice this Sunday, obviously! She might miss the next practice also. She had the program mostly ready to go, but I wasn't planning on being in charge of the practices so I had to think through a lot of the logistics to make sure things go as smoothly as possible. There was a lot of planning and communicating to do. I hope I didn't forget anything important! I guess I'll find out on Sunday. It's ok if I did--I've had enough experience with Primary programs to know that the practices are usually chaotic, but the actual program always turns out wonderful anyway.

I shuttled kids around and did some reading. We are reading The Brothers Karamazov for book club. I figured out that I need to read about 40 pages per day to finish in time (it's a long book) but so far, I've only made it through about 20 pages in 3 days. That's not because the book isn't good...I actually think it's going to be excellent...I just haven't had time to read more than that!

As part of my scripture study I started reading the new history of the Relief Society, Daughters In My Kingdom. I have found it to be extremely uplifting so far--if you haven't started reading it yet, you should! I've loved reading about the women who were followers of Christ when He was on the earth as well as about the women in the early days of the restoration. Women really haven't changed that much! I've been able to see how the gospel and keeping covenants helped them with the challenges of their day in the same way that that the gospel and my covenants are helping me with the unique challenges of our days. It has also been humbling for me to see that even for me, who has spent virtually 14 of the last 15 years serving in Primary or YW, that Relief Society is still very much a part of my life. I mean, I knew that already, but reading this book has really reaffirmed that. It's hard to put into words what I am feeling; hopefully that makes sense!

Scott worked on Tuesday and Thursday. He is probably going to continue working at this pizza place for a while. Hopefully we will be able to work things out so he can get his license soon--it will be easier if we don't have to drive him there every time he works. (Not that he'll have his own car or anything--but at least some of the time he'll be able to take mine.)

I took Seth to the park yesterday to enjoy the beautiful weather. Today he had a playdate with his friend Henry (from church). He had a great time, apparently. He is starting to try to sound out words, and today with a little help, he figured out the words "sat" and "mat". I think he will definitely be reading before this school year is over.

Jared has his friend Sage over to hang out this afternoon. They've been friends since 1st grade; this is their last year together since they will be going to different high schools next year. Jared is taking a keyboard (piano) class at school but he isn't liking it. He says he isn't learning anything. I think he just doesn't like the way the teacher teaches. He's finding it pretty boring. I've been encourging him to give it some more time--he may actually be learning more than he thinks he is. Tanner is also taking a piano class, and he loves it. I have no idea how they are doing because they can't practice at home--we don't have a piano or even a keyboard. I was planning to buy one before the job loss occurred, but now it has to wait. Fortunately, they aren't required to practice at home, but I've been wanting to take them over to the church so they can practice on the pianos there. We just haven't had time to do that yet.

Frank had to talk to someone at the DLLR (unemployment office) this week because they sent us a letter saying they had evidence he might be self employed or working for commissions while collecting unemployment. He had to explain again that he does not own a business or have a full time job (yet)--he has just been doing odd jobs that are offered to him. After he explained the situation, the guy he was talking to cleared him. He could see from their records that Frank has reported all of his earnings accurately. Frank asked him where they got their information that he might be self employed, and the guy said it was an anonymous caller. We're pretty sure it was Frank's former boss--we can't think who else would have done that. It's incredible to me that they would stoop that low--try to cause problems for us. It's hard to believe how vicious some people can be! We just have to shake our heads.

Well, I didn't mean to end on a negative note, but that's all I can think of to say about this week. We hope Shellie had a happy birthday!! (There, that's positive!)

Weekly Review September 30 '11

How's that for a nice view? For famliy night this week we drove up to Pen Mar Park. I went there earlier this summer and was very sorry that I didn't have my camera with me, so I made sure to bring it this time. The rest of the family had never been there, so I wanted them to see it. There was one complication in the plan, though--we didn't know the park closes at 7:00, and we didn't get there until about 6:45. So we didn't get to spend as much time there as we would have liked, but the boys enjoyed playing on the playground for about 10 minutes.

The Appalachian Trail runs through this park, too. Anyone want to go to Maine? How about Georgia?

Scott contemplates the sunset.

Looking at Pennsylvania

A couple of monkeys!

Whee!!!

There were some really cool slides at the park--Seth loved them!

Going back to Friday, we stayed up kind of late watching the BYU football game. We were very happy it wasn't a repeat of last week, and especially happy that BYU pulled off a victory in the end. It was just Frank & I watching the game because the oldest 3 boys spent the night with their friend Joey, who lives just down the street.

Saturday was busy with a birthday party for Seth to attend, a baby shower for me to attend, and the RS broadcast that evening. Our stake did something different this year for the broadcast. Instead of watching at the stake center, we were divided up into small groups and watched the broadcast from homes. There were 8 women in my assigned group. We each brought something to snack on while we watched. Of course, the meeting was fabulous as always. I particularly enjoyed President Uchtdorf's talk. It was so sweet and encouraging! After the broadcast ended, we all started visiting. We were having so much fun it was hard to leave, but we didn't stay long since it was already pretty late (we're not on Utah time, of course, so the broadcast doesn't end until 9:30 for us).

Sunday was also busy with Ward council before church and BYC after church. It was mid afternoon before I got home. Tanner & Frank went home teaching and we had family night.

The rest of the week was fairly busy, but not incredibly eventful. Scott and Tanner both had doctor appointments--Tanner a check up because of his medication and Scott a follow up with the dermatologist after his first round of acutane treatments. His skin cleared up beautifully while he was on the medication, but now that it is out of his system he is breaking out a bit. The dermatologist says that is normal, though, so he will follow up again in a few months to see if he needs another round of acutane or not. It would be nice if he didn't need another round, but I'm not feeling too optomistic about that unless he clears up again soon. Oh well--the joys of being a teenager! At least his acne is moderate, not severe.

I had book club Tuesday afternoon and choir practice that evening. Scott worked Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and he is back at work again this evening. He's been filling in for his friend David when he couldn't be there, but this week David decided to quit completely, so now Scott is filling in for all of David's hours--at least until the owner of the pizza place can find a replacement for David. Scott could have the job if he wanted it, but we haven't decided if it is worth the 15 minute drive. It would be a lot easier if Scott had his driver's license so he could drive himself there and back. (Scott could probably pass the test if he took it, but we can't afford to add him on to our insurance right now, so it has to wait.) We may decide to have him take the job anyway, but we wanted to think about it. In the meantime, he is earning some money and being a missionary--he gave a Book of Mormon to the owner this week.

I had a bad headache most of the day Wednesday, so I tried to take it easy. Frank was a big help to me. There was a Court of Honor Wednesday evening, so we all went to that (except Scott, who was working). Tanner received 3 merit badges and Jared received 4. Tanner should have received 2 more and Jared should have received 1 more--they missed a few! Neither of them were ready for a rank advancement yet, but hopefully by next time they will be. Jared has enough merit badges to get his Star rank but he hasn't finished all the requirements for 1st Class yet. Tanner was only 2 days away from being able to get his Life rank, but then I discovered that they haven't given him a chance to fill a leadership position lately, so he has to wait another 6 months now. They are both making progress, though, and we hope to have Tanner starting on his Eagle project as soon as he gets his Life rank. He already has almost all the merit badges for Eagle completed. Scott had his application for Eagle approved last week, so now he has to meet with the district guy and set up his board of review. We are getting there...!

The kids were out of school on Thursday because of the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah. They also got out 2 hours early today, so they've had a nice break from school the last few days. Yesterday I went to get my hair done, so Seth got to play with Tyler again. He had fun except for when he hurt his finger. He was playing on a scooter and decided to put his finger in the open end of the handlebar--it was very sharp and he got a pretty decent cut on his finger, including part of the fingernail. It bled a lot, but doesn't seem to be too serious.

It has rained a lot this week again, but Thursday was mostly sunny (except for a brief thunderstorm in the afternoon) so we decided we'd better get some yard work done while we had the chance. Tanner mowed while Jared and I did a lot of weeding. Jared used the weed eater on the edges, too. (Frank didn't help because it was his turn to have a bad headache that day.) After all the rain, our yard was really starting to look like a jungle, so it looks pretty great now, by comparison. We weren't the only ones who had that idea--while we were out there working, we could hear lawn mowers going all over the neighborhood! Quick! Mow the lawn before it starts raining again!

Actually, today was sunny all day also (although it is looking cloudy now). Frank and I wanted to go to the temple today, but Frank didn't sleep well at all last night and he still wasn't feeling his best, so I went solo. (Plus, Scott had to work tonight so we couldn't both go anyway.) I left after taking the kids to school--Frank handled all the pick ups for me. Everyone got home before I did since they were out 2 hours early. The temple was wonderful! I feel like I've been pretty low, spiritually, lately, and that was a big boost. I was listening to hymns the whole way there and back, also, which was very uplifting.

The news on the new job is somewhat hopeful this week. Once the position was approved, it had to be posted. That was supposed to take just a few days and it took over a week, but that did finally happen today, and the manager put Frank's name in for the position. The next step is for the manager to call Frank for a follow up interview (just a formality), which will hopefully happen on Monday. It is looking hopeful that he will be able to start working on the 10th. We certainly hope it works out!

Frank has continued to be busy with stake computer stuff this week. He is at our building right now setting something up.

We are looking forward to being spiritually fed the next couple of days. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly Review September 23 '11

This weekend we had Stake Conference. (I hear most of the rest of you did, too.) Frank and I didn't make it to the meeting at the temple Friday night because neither of us was feeling very well. Frank had to help get all the video feeds set up for stake conference on Saturday morning. He was supposed to have a meeting at 4:00 that afternoon, but after working on the video feeds all morning, he was wiped out and had to come home and crash. I did make it to the adult session at 7:00, and it was really good. The whole meeting focused on strengthening the family. It was very uplifting, and I really felt the spirit. I ended up sitting next to a member of our ward who has recently started coming to church after being less active for many years. It was really nice to chat with her--got to know her better and she had a very inspiring story to tell about her choice to return to full activity.

I got home from the meeting shortly before the kick off for the BYU football game. You all know what a fiasco that turned out to be, so I won't go into it! None of us stayed up to watch the whole thing--it would have been about 1:30 am if we had--but we stuck it out until the score was 33-10. When we heard the final score, we were really glad we gave up and went to bed! We hope they had some good practices this week and will perform better tonight. I don't think I've ever seen so many things go wrong in one game!

We were up early Sunday since Frank had to be at the stake center pretty early. The boys and I arrived later--about a half hour before the meeting started. They had a Primary choir, which was sweet, and the whole meeting was very good. We did not have our friends the Koettings over afterwards as we usually do--they had visitors from out of town. (We missed them!) Instead, I went to see a new family in our ward who have three kids, all Primary age. Scott went home teaching and to a prospective missionary fireside.

Monday morning I had a load of errands to run, including taking Snickers to the vet. Frank came with me. I had to take Jared to the orthodontist that afternoon--his wire came loose again (at least the 3rd time that's happened) over the weekend, so I called that morning to get him an appointment.

Frank and I had Merit Badge Counselor training on Tuesday evening. It actually wasn't a complete waste of time (I can't say the same for any other BSA training I've attended); I learned a few things I didn't know. It was also a lot more fun to go with Frank--we could make faces at each other if we got bored! :) We got ice cream cones on the way home--figured we ought to make it a date, as long as we were out. It was nice to get out of the house for an evening together and to chat on the drive there and back.

Scott worked on both Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. He missed YM, but he got to answer a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and the church--the guy who owns the pizza place was asking him about that. Scott really enjoyed being able to share his testimony!

Frank had work to do all day on Wednesday, which will help out. We are still waiting on the job to work out. We hear they are making progress and they are hoping he can start October 3rd; if not they think it will be October 10th. Frank has been very busy with work for the stake computers and phone systems as well; in some ways I guess it's a good thing he hasn't had a job because I don't know how he would have found time to do all the things for the church if he was also working full time. They are trying to update the internet connection at the stake center (for the family history library) and to set things up so they can do audio /video feeds from the stake center to our building. (They want to be able to broadcast stake conference at our building since the parking at the stake center is completely inadequate for the number of people who come). There have been a lot of details to work out, and it has been a lot of work for Frank the last month or so.

Last night Frank and the boys (except Scott, who was at work) watched the movie Thor. I think they really liked it. I wasn't paying very close attention, but what I saw looked fairly interesting--I may try to watch it before we send it back.

This morning I took the youngest three boys to get haircuts. Seth enjoyed that, since it means he got to play with his buddy Tyler (his mom does our haircuts). The kids all have the day off school for "Fair Day". The Frederick County Fair has been going on all week. I bet they haven't had a great turn out this year because it's been raining a lot this week. It rained in torrents Wednesday evening and all night that night; today it has been raining mostly all day as well, sometimes very hard. The river is looking pretty high.

I've been busy this week with Primary stuff (we're getting ready for the program, coming up next month; I updated the budget as well). In my spare time, I've been reading Harry Potter. I finished the fourth book at the end of last week and now I'm about half way through the fifth. We have book club next week, so I'll have something new to read then. I haven't felt well this week, off and on--cough, some congestion, and bad headache--so I have been trying to take it easy. Frank started feeling better on Sunday, but he is starting to feel sick again today, with a bit of a sore throat.

I guess this wasn't a very exciting week, because that is all I can think of to write about. Well, boring can be good--too many kinds of excitement are not the good kind. I'd rather have dull than that kind of excitement. :) Tomorrow is going to be busy, so maybe I will have more to report next week.

Weekly Review September 16 '11

I thought last Saturday was going to be busy, and it was...but not as busy as I originally thought it would be. Frank was helping to cook lunch for a big conference they were having for all the LDS family services employees in the area, so he left early. The rest of us were helping with our stake's day of service, planned as part of the commemoration for the church welfare system's 75th year. The project was supposed to go from 9:00-1:00. We signed up for 10:00-12:00, but by the time we got to the stake center around 8:45, almost everything was already done! We helped finish putting together a few hygiene kits and food boxes, and then went home. (Everything the stake was doing was to benefit a local charity called the Frederick Rescue Mission.) Jared & Tanner met us at the stake center; they'd spent the night with Ryan & Bryson.

Frank got home in the late afternoon. The oldest three boys had been invited to a surprise birthday party for one of the girls in our ward, but Tanner didn't go because he'd been fighting a cold all week and didn't feel very well. We had the Elders over for dinner--we fed them mostly leftovers from the lunch which Frank had brought home with him; very yummy! The Elders had just been made a threesome, so it was kind of a good thing Scott & Jared were gone--we would have been very crowded around our little kitchen table! After the Elders left, we watched the BYU football game. Of course, we were disappointed with the outcome. Better luck this week, I hope.

We are enjoying not having to get up so early on Sundays. We watched some of the 9/11 coverage that morning. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years. I still cry every time I think about it.

Monday I ran errands--went to the library, returned the nebulizer to the doctor, etc. After school i took Scott to get a haircut. Frank got one too. On Tuesday, Snickers went to the groomer, I had choir practice, and Scott got his picture taken for the yearbook. I wasn't very impressed with the company that took the photos--they were running an hour behind schedule and we had to pay a $25 sitting fee, just to get his picture in the yearbook. The yearbook photos are free the other 3 years of high school--I don't see why we have to pay for it his senior year.

Wednesday Frank spent the whole day at the church cannery / bishop's storehouse doing service. He went down with two other men from our ward. They helped load 8 big pallets of supplies to be sent to the storehouse in Baltimore. The cannery is close to Andrew's AFB; he saw Air Force 1 landing there. The boys had YM that evening, and I had RS. The boys were supposed to mow some lawns (service project) but that didn't work out because there was a huge thunderstorm. In RS, we had a fun scripture chase activity. It was fun to see who got competitive! I did better with the hymn scripture chase game (she played the first 4 or 5 notes of a hymn, and we had to be the first one to locate the correct hymn in the hymnbook)--I got to 4 of those first!

Scott missed YM because he was working. His friend David has a job at a pizza place nearby, but he just got a temporary job working on a play so Scott is going to fill in for him at the pizza place while David does the theater job. On Wednesday he went with David to be trained. He also worked last night. It will only be a few week nights or week ends for the next month or so. It doesn't pay a lot, but will be good experience for him and help him earn a little.

We also got a package from Hans on Wednesday--thanks, Hans! Lots of fun and yummy stuff inside!

We are having stake conference this weekend, so tonight we are hoping to go to the temple--our stake is having a special meeting there. However, Frank started feeling sick last night. He is nauseous and has a bad headache. I am still fighting a cold and have had a headache, congestion, and cough on and off all week. So we may have to sit this one out! Frank has a lot to do the next few days to help get all the audio video stuff set up for stake conference, so hopefully he will be feeling better soon. He has also been busy working on the computers and phone system for the family history center.

The news we got about Frank's job this week is pretty much the same as before. We're still waiting. Apparently, Marriott (have I ever mentioned the offer came from Marriott?) has just set up a new system for hiring and Frank is the first person they have hired with the new process. So he gets to be the guinea pig--great! The way it was explained to us is that first the position has to be approved and then they have to approve the person for that position. They say the approval for the position finally went through on Thursday, now the manager who wants to hire Frank has to put his name in for the position and send that in to get approved. They say that should happen on Monday or Tuesday, so that they can get the offer to him on Wednesday. We'll see...I've heard that one before! I can't say I am too impressed with their new hiring procedure, but apparently they have been working out a lot of the bugs with Frank's application. They are hoping he will be able to start on the 26th. In the meantime, Frank is still looking elsewhere and he recently applied for a few positions with the church. He is also working on applying for a position at BYU Hawaii. I think it's a pretty long shot that one will work out (although he's certainly qualified) so don't pull your hula skirts out yet! :)

In the meantime, the boys qualified to receive free lunch at school. They are pretty tickled about it because that means they don't have to make their lunches for now. I told them not to get used to it--they probably won't be doing this for long. I was surprised when I talked to the lady on the phone about it, though. I told her it would probably be for a short time, until my husband got a job, and she said that once they qualify for free lunch, they can get free lunch for the whole school year. She suggested we may want to do it all year, until we recover financially. Well, I hope it doesn't take us that long to recover. Another example of government waste! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, though--it will really help us out right now until we get some income coming in. Those boys eat a lot!

We still had rain / thunderstorms this week, but we saw the sun a lot more and most days were warm. The mornings have been cool, though, and yesterday afternoon the temperatures really cooled down and the high is only going ot be in the 60's today. It feels like fall already. We definitely had a cooler than normal August, though, so I can't complain. One nice thing about the cooler weather is that I can pull out all my sweaters--I have a lot more cool weather wardrobe options than I do in warm weather ones. I love fall--I just wish winter wasn't coming behind it.

I need to go make some soup for Frank, so that's it for this week.