Weekly Review March 1 '13



I'm posting a day early this week (although I'm pretending it's Friday) because tomorrow is going to be a busy day.  It's our stake temple day (stake conference is this week end) and Scott is going to go to the temple to receive his endowment.  He is excited and we are excited for him!

 

Last Friday Frank & I went to our ward activitiy (for adults only).  We had a fun time.  We played a "Ward Jeopardy" game with questions about different members of our ward.  There were different categories such as "Sisters" (questions about sisters in the ward), "Callings", "YSAs", "Families", "Work" and so forth.  They rigged it up on the computer so that the game board looked just like the one on the show.  We didn't have just 3 "contestants" though.  When a question was asked, whoever got their hand up first got to answer the question.  And anyone getting a correct answer got a little candy bar.  Frank and I both got several questions right.  There was a lot of joking going on and it was a lot of fun.  After the game we enjoyed the desserts everyone brought and we got to vote for our favorite.  They gave awards based on the number of votes each dessert got, and guess who came in first?

   

Frank did, of course!  You can see him above with what was left of his "Chocolate Cavity Maker Cake".  He was awarded the "1" candle as a prize.  Ok, in all honesty he tied for 1st place.  Another dessert received the same number of votes so they tossed a coin to determine which dessert got 1st place and which one got 2nd place.  But still, pretty good, right?  Besides, the person he tied with is the stake RS president. :)  The cake was very delicious.  I hope he makes it again soon.

They also gave out some "door prizes".  They were pretty creative...one of them was a certificate exempting the holder from fasting next fast Sunday!  I said I would rather have an exemption from giving a talk...or better yet, from accepting a calling! :)

Seth was still sick on Saturday but he didn't seem to be too bad.  But that evening he started to feel worse and when Frank carried him up to bed he suddenly announced that he had to throw up.  Thankfully, he made it to the bathroom in time.  And even more thankfully, that was the only time he threw up.  He did complain that his stomach hurt occasionally and he certainly didn't eat very much throughout his illness, but mostly he just had a fever (very high at times) and some congestion / cough. 

Saturday was fairly busy.  Scott worked from 10:30 to 4:00, running sound and lights for a spelling bee.  Jared had a basketball game at noon.  Tanner stayed with Seth so Frank & I could both go to the game.  It was the end of season tournament, but they lost the game so they didn't have any more games after that.  It was a little frustrating to watch but they are good sports about losing and the team is definitely improving.  We also worked on taxes a lot and we mostly have that done.  The good news is that it looks like we'll only have to pay a little bit to the federal government (a lot less than we set aside) and we're actually getting a refund from the state.  I was surprised about that because we usually owe more state taxes than federal.  But I'm not complaining!

Scott's friend Colette came over Saturday night and she and the older boys played games and watched a movie.  They were up pretty late and Colette needed a ride home.  Frank ended up going with Scott to drive her home because Scott was really sleepy.  So he was up until the early hours and wasn't too happy on Sunday because he was really tired.  I went to bed because I had Ward Council at 7:15 Sunday morning.  I woke up in the night a few times and realized that my throat and head were hurting but in the morning I didn't feel too bad so I was able to go to all my meetings.  Frank stayed home with Seth.  Tanner was giving a talk (he did a good job) so it was only Scott, Jared and I sitting together which seemed a little weird.  Scott and Jared talked to each other a lot, too...the little rascals!  You'd think by now I wouldn't need to sit in between them!

I did decide to skip choir practice Sunday evening because I still wasn't feeling too great.  I continued to have a headache and to generally not feel really great for a couple of days, but it's never turned into anything serious, thankfully.  Seth still had a fever Sunday morning but by afternoon he was bouncing off the walls.  I figured Monday would be his "stay home just in case day" but then Monday night he totally crashed.  His fever went back up (way up) and from about 6:00 on he kept falling asleep.  We put him to bed at 8:00 and he slept through the night.  About half way through Tuesday he started feeling better again but since he still had a fever that day, I kept him home Wednesday.  He finally went back to school today (Thursday).

So besides taking care of Seth and the usual household chores, these are other things I did this week:

Monday I went to the library to pick up the new book for book chat.  It's called The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Children on 25 Words or Less".  It's a fascinating, somewhat sad but also funny true story.  I'm about a third of the way through it and enjoying it so far.

Tuesday I had a presidency meeting.  We had the Elders over for dinner.  And I made some phone calls and was thrilled when I actually got in touch with two hard-to-reach people who both agreed to let me visit them.

Wednesday I spent a lot of time trying to decide on clothes for Scott's mission.  We did a lot of searching online and finally figured out what we needed to do and got his suits and shirts ordered.  We also went to a shoe store to have his feet measured.  We still have some shopping to do but we have a lot of the major things done.

Today I volunteered at Seth's school--took kids to the library and took down some artwork.  I'm going back tomorrow to take down more artwork and hang some new artwork up.  I exercised for the first time in ages, bought groceries, got the laundry done, and updated the budget.  It's been a very productive day but I'm tired!  Scott went to appointments with the missionaries for a few hours this afternoon and now he is at Institute. 

I'll finish up with a few pictures.  I took a picture of our dinner last night because I thought it looked like something you'd get at a restaurant (tasted good, too).  This is one of the recipes from a new low fat cook book I've been using a lot lately:    
  

 It's shrimp and sugar snap peas in a lemon dill sauce, over rice.

Since today is the last day of February, I got out new salt & pepper shakers for March:

I found these rainboots at a grocery store last year.

And I found this leprachaun & pot of gold online, shortly after St. Patrick's Day last year.  I've been waiting almost a whole year to use them!  Pretty cute, right?

I'm feeling cheerful because March is the beginning of spring!  We had a lot of rain on Tuesday but it was pretty cold.  Wednesday got into the 50's which was very pleasant and both yesterday and today were sunny, which I enjoyed.  I don't do well with gray skies, day after day.  Our high temperatures are usually still in the 40's but it's uphill from here! (Mostly) 

Weekly Review February 22 '13

We had a nice sunrise one morning...it looked even better in real life than it does in the picture!  This is the reward I get for picking kids up from Seminary twice a week. :)

I left off last week talking about mice, so I'll just mention that we caught another one a few days later.  Yikes!  But no more since then, so hopefully that's all of them.  Unless the other two had babies before their demise.

So this was one of those crazy RS weeks.  It started Saturday morning when I got a call from one sister who was worried about one of the sisters she visit teaches--this sister had a son in the hospital who wasn't doing well.  (It's a grown son, with a wife and child of his own.  No one in the family is active except for one daughter, who recently moved to North Carolina.  So very few people in the ward know this family.)  I actually already knew he had been sick...I talked to his mom the previous Saturday to see how he was doing.  At that point she thought he might be sent home soon, and actually he was sent home later that day.  But then on Friday they had to rush him back in.  To make a long story short (and to leave out a lot of the complicated details), we arranged to have some food dropped off at their house Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings to help the family since they were spending most of their time at the hospital.  Then on Tuesday afternoon I received a text message from the active sister letting me know that her brother had passed away.  (His liver failed.)   I immediately contacted the bishop, who contacted the family and then let me know that they didn't need any help...the son's wife had made all the funeral arrangements already and had help from people at her church.  Wednesday evening, late, I received a call from the active sister who was flying in the next morning and needed a ride from the airport.  Since it was such late notice, I didn't have time to ask around so I told her I'd pick her up.  That worked out fine, but I had just dropped her off and was hurrying to a presidency meeting when I got a message from their home teacher saying they wanted a dinner after all...oh, and they needed it the next day (Thursday)!  I had to contact the bishop again to make sure he was ok with that (he was) and by then it was late afternoon and I had less than 24 hours to get a dinner put together for 60 people.  So I called my compassionate service leader and she came right over and we got the ball rolling.  It was a very hectic 24 hours, but we managed to get it all figured out.  The dinner was nice (in spite of the fact that I forgot the bags of lettuce and left them in my refrigerator...and didn't notice until I got to the dinner, which was a good 30 minutes from my house!) and I could tell it meant a lot to the family.  Oh, and they asked me to say the blessing on the food!  So I think it was a good thing and worth all the effort.  (And I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining because I'm not.  I was glad to do it but I won't deny it caused me a great deal of stress!)  My compassionate service leader was awesome, too--she made all the soup herself!  And a bunch of other people contributed bread or desserts.  I didn't get home from the dinner until nearly 7:00 last night, though, so I was pretty tired.

Ok, so back to Saturday...in between all the RS phone calls I got chores and other RS tasks done and Frank and I went to lunch together at the Olive Garden...he had a gift card from Christmas.  Frank took the Tanner and Jared to a dance that evening.  I worked on Personal Progress, helped Seth prepare a talk for the next day and prepared for a meeting.  Scott and I watched one episode of Dr. Who...I've managed to watch two of them now!  At this rate, I'll finish them all in 5 or 6 years.

Sunday started early...I had PEC before church (I only go once a month).  After church I went to the missionary coordinating meeting (Scott was invited too).  I had choir later and then helped take food out to the family mentioned earlier.  Finally after all that I came home and got to rest a little!

The kids were out of school and Frank was off work on Monday for President's Day.  We had planned ahead of time to take a family we know to lunch.  They've been unemployed for nearly 6 months, so you can imagine it's been hard for them.  When Frank was unemployed a family in our ward took our whole family to lunch once.  I remember feeling kind of guilty about the expense, but I also remember how much we appreciated that.  It really lifted our spirits!  So we decided to do the same thing for this family.  We have been so blessed lately that it wasn't a hardship for us to do that.  I wasn't sure they would let us, but when we explained that someone had done it for us and that someday when things are better for them they can do it for someone else, they agreed.  We all went to Red Robin and we had a really good time.  I'm so glad we could do that!  Oh, and the good news is...they got a job offer later this week and accepted it yesterday.  (Although it's in Utah, so they'll be moving...sad for us.)  We've been friends since we moved here 13 years ago.

Tuesday I had book club.  We discussed The 5000 Year Leap and Dad will be glad to know that everyone loved it and they have plans to pass it on to parents, children, etc.  And one lady said we should raise money to buy more and provide them to the schools!  We had a very interesting discussion about it too, and a lot of discussion about what we should do to help educate more people about the principles behind the Constitution.  Also on Tuesday I took Scott shopping and we acquired one pair of pants and two white shirts.  We have a long way to go, but that's all the time I had that day and after that my week went crazy so we haven't had a chance to look anymore.  Frank went to the dentist...they got his appointment right this time...and he has no cavities which is always nice to hear.

I already talked about Wednesday...trip to the airport, presidency meeting and meal planning took up the whole day.  I didn't make it to the store as I intended so on Thursday I had three different stores to visit.  Shopping and then the dinner itself took up that whole day.  The laundry didn't get done but Scott did vacuum the whole house for me; bless him!  And Frank made dinner for our family.  And put in a full day of work plus did lots of work for clients.  So he was a champion, too.

Tanner had a day that was as busy as mine...he helped with a talent show after school and never even came home from school in between school and the talent show, and he got home after I did...not until nearly 10:00.  Scott went over to help with that too.  I didn't wake up this morning to pray with the boys as I usually do (my "internal clock" usually wakes me up, but this time it didn't wake me up until 6:30)...around 7:50 I was surprised when Tanner appeared.  He had been asleep that whole time!  He decided to skip Seminary because he was so tired but then he overslept and didn't get up in time for school either.  I assumed he was gone...didn't check his bed!  I did check for backpacks when I got up to make sure they had gone to Seminary but I thought the one backpack I saw in the closet was Scott's, not Tanner's.  So he was late for school...at least I had Scott to take him over for me and Scott also took a lunch over to Jared later because he forgot to make one.  Tanner and Jared stayed after school again today--they are preparing the sets for a show.  Scott just went to get them (it's 5:00) so it's been another long day for them. 

Today I've been "regrouping".  I got the budget done and the laundry is mostly done now.  We have a ward activity tonight (just for adults) that Frank and I are going to.  After getting home from work, Frank made dessert to take to that.  We have to include a "heart healthy" ingredient, so he made a dark chocolate cake.  It smells delicious!  After Seth got home from school, he was playing Minecraft (a video game--it's even slightly educational!) when he suddenly curled up and stopped playing.  He said his head hurt.  I took his temperature and it is 102.2!  I guess he's finally picked up the flu that's been going around.  I hope he doesn't get the upset stomach part.

That brings you mostly up to date on us.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something but life's been pretty hectic so my brain is a little frazzled.  I'm trying not to think about the things I haven't been getting done...like dusting...and painting the bathroom...and exercising...not to mention shopping with Scott...well, you get the picture!  

February 15 '13



It was a busy and eventful week for the Cleveland clan! 

 

Saturday we had lots of chores to do and errands to run.  Frank and I met with a sister in the ward to help her with her computer.  (Frank did most of the helping, of course!)  We met her at the church and when we got there we found out there was no one to help the facilities guy clean the church so we had our boys come over to help.  After the church was clean, they went back home while Frank and I ran errands...checked on one of my visiting teaching sisters (Wanda) to see if she wanted to come to church the next day...she did.  (She's in a nursing home so she needs transportation.)  We also went to the library and to Costco to get a few food items as well as some shirts and socks for Frank.  We had lunch there...it was our "date" for the week!  The boys got the kitchen floor cleaned while we were gone.  After we got home, I worked on Personal Progress and did some RS stuff while Frank ran to the bank and he and Scott got both of our cars washed.  (They looked terrible after all our recent small ice / snow storms).  We were really busy all day and didn't even think to check the mail until after Scott left for work (he was doing lighting & sound for a show at the high school).  Tanner went with him.  We were shocked when Jared returned from the mailbox saying "It's here...his mission call is here!"  Scott wasn't supposed to be home for hours but we texted him and he was on a break so he ran home to open it, thankfully--I don't think we could have waited 4 or 5 hours for him to open it!

 

Here's some pictures:

We videotaped it too, but it's on Frank's new video camera and I don't know yet how to transfer files from that to my computer.  But I will try to figure it out and post it for you sometime.  I think most of you already know that he is going to the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission and that he enters the MTC March 27th.  We were very surprised he was sent to Utah; we all laughed pretty hard.  But he is excited about it and we are happy for him.  I can see that he has a lot of strengths that will make him a great missionary in that area.  The next day we were talking about it and he said "you know, every time I visited Salt Lake last semester I found myself really liking it...and I had a strong feeling I'd live there someday."  That happened sooner than he expected! 

For those of you who may be wondering, his mission covers the south part of the Salt Lake valley (including the areas where the Draper, Oquirrh Mountain, and Jordan River Temples are located) and a large area east of the valley, including Park City. 

My friend Jeanine's son, Joey (who is Scott's good friend), got his mission call the day before Scott.  He is going to the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission and he goes into the MTC the same day that Scott does.  Pretty cool!

After Scott went back to work, we spent the rest of the evening working on our income tax return.  It seems like it gets a little more complicated every year.  We worked on it some more on Tuesday and we still aren't done.  It's looking like we'll probably have to pay rather than get a refund--the first time that's ever happened.  But since we've been setting funds aside for that possibility all year, we will be ok.

Sunday morning was busy...we went to pick up Wanda to take her to church.  She enjoyed being there and I'm glad she made it.  The choir sang and one of the speakers was a girl who was about to enter the MTC...she's going to Las Vegas West.  She did a good job.  I'm always busy at church...it seems like someone always needs to talk to me!  I did get a short nap after church, before I went back over for choir practice.  We are singing again this Sunday (not usual...we usually sing once a month).

Frank woke up Monday not feeling well...he had a sore throat and chills, and his voice was mostly gone.  His ear hurt, too, so I told him he'd better go to the doctor.  He took a sick day and stayed home.  At the doctor he found out he didn't have an ear infection...just a virus, so they couldn't help him.  He had lesions in his throat, too.  He hasn't had much of a voice all week and since he is supposed to teach Elder's Quorum this Sunday, he tried to rest his voice by whispering.  (He didn't have much of a voice anyway, even if he had tried to speak out loud.) 

I spent Monday doing the usual housework.  I also tried (fairly unsuccessfully) to set up some visits and visiting teaching appointments.  That afternoon, I got together with my two former Primary counselors, just to visit!  We don't see each other enough anymore.  It was fun to chat and get caught up on each other's lives.  Scott drove out to a place that was hiring temporary workers to see if he could get a job, but they had hired everybody they needed already.  Transportation for that job was going to be difficult anyway, so it's probably for the best.

We had a nice sunset that evening:

Nothing out of the ordinary happened on Tuesday except that the Elder's Quorum president (and one of his counselors and his secretary) came over that evening to set Frank apart as an Elder's Quorum instructor.  Frank had been feeling better enough to go back to work, although as I said--he still couldn't talk.  While the Elder's Quorum president was there, they gave Frank a blessing too.  Scott was able to do the annointing and to assist with the blessing, so that was nice.

Wednesday I had a visiting teaching appointment, followed by a RS visit and then shopping.  That took up the whole morning and the early afternoon.  We had our monthly RS evening meeting that night.  In honor of Valentine's Day we talked about our hearts.  One of the sisters in our ward who is a nurse (she's also my visiting teaching companion) did a presentation on women's heart health.  It was really good and I learned a lot of interesting information.  She also did blood pressure checks for all of us (assisted by one of the young men in our ward--Scott's age--who is studying to become a nurse.)
 

It rained Wednesday afternoon, turning to snow that evening.  The roads were icy Thursday morning, so there was a 2 hour school delay.  Kind of a nice Valentine's gift--two extra hours of sleep! :)  We gave cards and small boxes of chocolates to each of the boys:

Frank also got a card and some chocolate, too:

And I received a card, some chocolate, and these beautiful roses:

After getting all the kids to school, I had a presidency meeting and then went grocery shopping.  By then everyone was coming home again.  It took the rest of the evening to get laundry done and other household chores.  Then I stayed up late waiting to hear about Timo's mission call.  So cool that he's going to San Antonio, Texas!  Amy, Anna, and Erin were all on facebook waiting for the announcement too...so we were having a conversation and it was kind of funny.

This morning Scott and I started looking online for some of the things he needs for his mission.  I measured him and tried to figure out what size suits, pants, and shirts he needs.  I wasn't sure I was measuring right so I had a conversation on the phone with a nice guy from Mr. Mac's.  We haven't purchased anything yet...just trying to get the process started.  This afternoon I went on another RS visit...I was supposed to go with my secretary but she isn't feeling well so I went alone.  It was a fun visit and I stayed longer than I intended.

Seth came home from school shortly after I got back, carrying a bag of Valentines (they postponed their celebration one day because 2/3 of his class wasn't there yesterday--the preschoolers don't have school at all on delay days) and sporting a General George Washington hat.  They've been talking about Chinese New Years and Presidents Day the last week.  He looked really cute in his hat; here he is telling his men to "go that way"!:
   

Later I realized he had the hat on sideways, so I took another picture of him wearing it the correct way:

Doesn't he look cute?  (He's playing a video game; hence the riveted attention!)

I worked on the budget this evening and made Thai Chicken Flatbread for dinner.  (I thought it was pretty good.)  Now it is pretty late.  Frank is doing maintenance for one of his clients and the boys are watching Pirates of the Caribbean.  Seth added a cape to his outfit--I should really take another picture because he looks really good!  Tomorrow will be another busy day, I'm sure.

For those that are wondering if we are planning to come out to Utah with Scott, the answer is--probably not.  We talked about taking a family vacation then instead of waiting until summer but there are a lot of complications.  They really discourage missionaries to arrive in Utah more than a day or two before going into the MTC because they need to be set apart at home before leaving.  We could come out right before he goes in and then stay for a while afterwards...the boys actually have spring break starting the day after he goes into the MTC so that would work well.  But that means they'd miss the last day or two of the term and it's likely they will have tests those days so they'd be bad days to miss.  The real clincher though, is that Frank really can't miss work.  Although he has days off accumulated, he is in the middle of a large project that goes until June.  Plus they are in the middle of the IT outsourcing and he still doesn't know how that's going to affect him.  So it's a good time to be around a lot, and to be seen working hard!  He does know that his boss is recommending him to be rebadged (and he had a great performance review last week) but they have no idea if the new company will listen to their recommendations or not.  We are still hoping to come for a visit this summer, so hopefully that will work out and we will be seeing many of you then.

We are having typical temperamental weather.  Some days have been extremely cold and windy, some days we've had snow, other days rain, and some days (like today) have been pretty nice--temps in the 50's.  I'm seeing a lot more birds around and there are lots of little green spears poking up in my flower beds so I can tell winter is not going to hang around forever.  I think this weekend is supposed to be very cold again, though.

One other thing that happened this week...Jared got a new bag of cereal from downstairs and then discovered it had a hole in it (thankfully, before he ate any of it).  So we suspected a mouse and set some traps.  This evening the boys discovered that we had indeed caught a mouse in one of them.  They were all too squeamish to do anything about it (they are definitely related to me!) so Frank had to dispose of the mouse.  I hope that's the only one, but we are leaving the other trap out a few more days to be sure.  That's about the third or fourth mouse we've caught in this house, plus 2 others we found already dead...not too bad in 13 years' time I guess.  I think we get more of them here because we are right by a river.  With the exception of one place we lived in Provo, we've never seen any mice in any of  the other places we've lived but then...we didn't stay in any of them more than a year or two.  And I'll never forget the night we discovered a BAT in our New York house!  Definitely, I prefer a mouse over a bat.   

Weekly Review February 8 '13

Well, I do have a few pictures this week.  Not many, but a few.  Hopefully next week we will have pictures of Scott opening his mission call! 

 

These are just random pictures, so I'll put them at the beginning of the post.  I thought these ones of Seth were so cute--prehistoric creature meets modern technology!:  

 

He always looks so cute in that costume.  I'll be really sad when he outgrows it (and outgrows dress up in general).

Here's Tanner; we had to take his picture so we'd have one to submit with his registration for the SAT.  You can't take the test now without submitting a picture.  He'll be taking the SAT March 9th.  He has done really well on the PSAT--we've been getting piles and piles of junk mail from colleges for him ever since he took it.  And emails too!  Everybody wants him.  (Or our money, I should say.)

These last two I took this morning before Seth left for school:

In the last few weeks, he has sprouted holes in the knees of ALL of his pants, as well as holes in the front of both shoes.  Sigh!  More clothes shopping for us.  He got all of them after school started this year.  Sure didn't last very long.

So, on to what we did this last week.  We did make it to the temple as planned and that was really nice.  Saturday morning I got my hair done.  Then I went to the baptism...it was awesome!  Except that I got called on to speak without any warning.  But I half expected that so it wasn't too bad.  The rest of the day was full with finishing up my lesson, printing visiting teaching slips, household chores, etc. 

My lesson went fine on Sunday.  I really only had to ask a couple of good questions and that was about it.  We had a great discussion, and didn't have much time as I would have liked.  I was relieved to get that over with, though.  I went back to church later for choir--we are meeting at 4:15 now; it's about the only time we can get a spot to practice now that there are three wards meeting in our building.  I don't like having to go back to the church later (and getting dressed back up--we practice in the chapel) but it's really the only way we can have choir practice, so I go.  I always enjoy it.  We have a great bunch of people!  Tanner & Jared had a fireside which I was pleased they chose to attend, since it was right in the middle of the Super Bowl.  They say the fireside was really great.  I had lots of RS stuff to do which I worked on all evening (also talked to Amy for a little while) so I didn't pay much attention to the game.  I really don't care that much about it.  But I was glad the Ravens won since they're from Baltimore.  We've been living in Maryland long enough that I feel at least a little loyalty for their sports teams!  (Although Frank has actually been a SF fan since high school.  So he was hoping they would win.  And admittedly, they certainly earned a win.)

This week was not quite so busy as the last few have been.  Maybe I'm getting the hang of things?  A little?  I think it helped a lot that I wasn't trying to prepare a lesson and finish up visiting teacher assignments, on top of everything else.  The sad thing is, I don't think I got much accomplished.  Not sure why...I certainly wasn't sitting around doing nothing.  I went with one of my counselors on Tuesday night to make visits.  We visited the sister who just got baptized as well as a sister who recently moved into our ward.  Both are amazing!  The one who just moved in is a single mom, working two jobs, both kids have health issues, she's a convert of a few years...originally from Pakistan and a Muslim...her family is in the area but don't communicate with her since she joined the church.  And she's still happy and eager to serve!  Man, I was so impressed. 

On Sunday the sister who was just baptized and her oldest daughter (who didn't get baptized after all; not sure why) both said a few words in Sacrament Meeting which I thought was brave of them.  There was a family in Frederick who had a house fire last Thursday night; it destroyed their home and two of their little girls died.  I cried a lot when I heard about it!  Anyway, this family also had a house fire a while back but thankfully all of them got out.  Like the other family, they have four little girls, so news of this recent tragedy really hit them.  The oldest daughter said that she knows God watched over them and that they survived because their work on earth isn't finished yet and they needed to find this church.  I smiled through my tears as I thought "You have no idea!"  I'm sure God has a lot of work for that family to do!

Wednesday evening I had a presidency meeting and then a meeting with the bishop.  Yesterday I went during the day to visit another sister.  She is one of the ladies who watched Snickers for us over Thanksgiving so I took him with me--she enjoyed seeing him again.  She is alone a lot, so I think she gets lonely.  Other than that, I had several emails to send and so forth but overall, the RS work load was a lot lighter than it's been.  I was able to get some exercising done, some extra things done around the house (like cleaning out my desk and cleaning out my email inbox) and I even watched a couple of Netflix movies.  One was Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella from 1957 (with Julie Andrews).  I've seen a more recent version of it and I was surprised that part of the story line and some of the music was different.  Overall, I think I like the newer version better--even though it is kind of crazy, with multi-cultural actors!  I thought the relationship between the prince and Cinderella was a little bit better developed in the newer version.  (I've never been a big fan of love at first sight.  I'm too logical for that!)  But I did enjoy the 1957 version too.  The other movie was also from 1957--An Affair to Remember.  I've always wanted to see it, ever since I saw Sleepless in Seattle! :)  It was pretty good but maybe a little too melodramatic and cheesy for my tastes.  I know it's a classic so you can "boo" me if you want.   

The boys had a 2 hour early release from school yesterday.  We got a little bit of snow this morning but no school delay (thankfully).  It's cold and windy.  But, I'm noticing that it's not getting dark quite so early at night--that really cheers me up!  Scott had Institute last night.  Today I worked on the budget (as usual) I haven't been feeling really great--I have a headache and my throat hurts a little.  I hope it doesn't turn into anything nasty!  Tanner hasn't felt really great this week either--he even stayed home from school on Wednesday. 

We are waiting anxiously for Scott's mission call to arrive.  Our bishop sent us an email Saturday evening saying that he had received word that Scott's call had been mailed.  I'm not sure it's actually been mailed, though--it would have been here by now.  I think maybe his call has been decided but it's still being processed.  I've talked to more than one person who says that even after the bishop gets notified it can take a couple of weeks to arrive.  So maybe this coming week it will really get here.  In the meantime, I think the text message exchange I had with Scott when I got the bishop's email was pretty amusing.  (Scott was working--doing lights & sounds for a show at the high school when I got the email.)  Me:  Your mission call has been mailed. :)  Scott:  AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!  Me:  I know, right?!!!  Scott:  I can't even sit down!!!  Me:  Are you pacing?  Scott:  No, I'm bouncing!  Me:  Tigger!  Elder Tigger, that is.

Dinner's ready and it's homemade pizza, so I'm done for this week!          

PS to Weekly Review February 1 '13

How could I forget?

Scott had his interview with the stake president on Sunday and his mission papers are in!  It's just possible that his mission call is already on the way here.  Maybe.  We'll see!

Also, I forgot about our fun trip to school yesterday morning.  I was driving down our street (well, actually, the road that turns into our street) and nearing the intersection where it meets a somewhat major road when I saw a large brown animal turning left ahead of me.  At first I thought it was a very large dog.  Then I saw several more brown animals following the first and as we got closer I realized they were cows!  Yep, a little herd of six or seven bewildered cows was running up the street in front of us.  We also saw a woman in a silver pick up truck and 2 or 3 City of Frederick trucks in hot pursuit.  The cows ran down the street a little further, then veered to the left, running in between two houses where they stopped, thwarted by a chain link fence.  Seth laughed & laughed when he saw them.  It was kind of a fun way to start the day (for us, probably not for the cows' owner)!

Weekly Review February 1 '13

Ok, sorry...no pictures this week either!  If you want to stop reading now, I'll understand.

Last week when I left off, I was going with the Elders to visit a sister in the ward.  Tanner came with us, too.  She was very nice and agreed to have visiting teachers assigned to her (she's been on a writing list) so I felt like that visit was definitely worthwhile.  Frank went to get a haircut while I was gone and took Jared & Seth with him because they needed haircuts too.  After the appointment, I took Tanner to get his hair cut.  (We were the only customers...because it had snowed, nobody else was out and about.  Sometimes it's really useful to be a Utah transplant living in Maryland.)  I didn't have time to get mine done (I need the color done too) but made an appointment to get it done tomorrow--pretty excited about that since my hair has gotten to the difficult stage.

Saturday was busy too.  Frank took his car to get the emissions tested...it passed.  On the way home, he passed a local donut place and decided to stop and get donuts.  I've never had them before because their hours are pretty strange--they close at 2:00 in the afternoon.  They were very yummy, but I only ate one because I had brunch to go to that morning at 10:00.  My visiting teachers had a brunch for the women they teach.  It was delicious and we all enjoyed visiting with each other.  Jared had a basketball game at 3:00.  Frank and I went to that...they lost, but they played pretty well.  Jared had a birthday party that evening from 6:00 to 9:00...Frank took him to that and picked him back up; I was grateful because I was busy doing RS stuff.  In between everything else, I cleaned the kitchen floor, worked on Personal Progress, and started my lesson which I'm teaching this Sunday.  Frank gave Seth a bath too...I am so grateful for his help!

I tried to get to bed on time Saturday because I had Ward Council at 7:30 Sunday morning.  Our ward was having Ward Conference, so the stake presidency came to Ward Council.  All the meetings were good.  We had a short meeting right after church with the stake RS presidency, then I met with the YSA representative for our ward to discuss the YSA program.  Then it was home for a few hours and then back to the church for choir practice.  We haven't had choir in over a month; it was nice to get back together.  When I came home from choir, Erin was here...she and Frank were making little pies and he fried them in his new deep fat fryer.  We had dinner and enjoyed visiting with Erin.  The pies were good, too!

Monday morning we had yet another 2 hour delay--this time for freezing rain.  That messed up the schedule pretty effectively...we were supposed to have a presidency meeting that morning and we ended up having to move it to Wednesday.  After getting everyone to school, I did the usual chores for that day--laundry, vacuuming, grocery shopping...and then went to my secretary's house to help clean bathrooms.  Well, actually it was her former house...they just moved to a new house last week end...and she was trying to get the old house all cleaned up for inspection (they were renting...bought the new house).  Frank was supposed to have a dentist appointment that afternoon; he drove all the way out there and found out there was some mix up and he was supposed to be there earlier that day.  We had to convince them that the mistake was on their end!  The appointment card said 3:10 and the confirmation email they sent us also said 3:10.  We still don't know why they thought he was supposed to be there at 11:50!  It was kind of annoying because it's a half hour drive to the dentist from here.  If we miss an appointment, we have to pay a fee, but if they mess ours up, well...we don't get anything.  I don't think that's very fair. 

I picked up Seth & carpool boys every day but yesterday this week, so I had to do that.  After we got home we had family night and dinner immediately because Frank had to go in to work (he worked from home the earlier part of the day).  He had a class he had to teach (remotely) to a bunch of people in Asia / Pacific area so it was at 10:00 pm our time.  He got there a few hours early to prepare and then did the class.  I didn't hear him come in; he says it was around midnight or 1:00 am.  Meanwhile, the boys and I did family night activity after he left.  We played Clue--Scott won the game, but I was pretty proud of myself that I had also nearly figured everything out--just by observing carefully.  I kept rolling low numbers so I did not get to make very many guesses myself and I only had 4 cards (everyone else had 5).  Plus I didn't have a weapon card at all, which can be a real disadvantage when you're trying to find out something specific.  So, as I said...I was proud of myself! :)

Tuesday I spent the morning at Seth's school doing pledge drive updates.  Jared had an orthodontist appointment at 2:00.  In between I just tried to get a few things done around the house.  I went shopping at Wal-Mart that evening...usually I go on Wednesdays but I knew Wednesday was going to be too crazy.  I ran into four people from church at Wal-Mart!  I hardly ever see even one person I know, let alone four. 

Wednesday I had presidency meeting.  Then my secretary and I tried to go on some visits.  Most didn't work out, but we stopped at one sister's house on our way back home and had a nice visit with her.  By the time I got home it was 2:00.  A storm was coming in so I sent Scott to pick up Tanner and Jared from school.  It was quite warm that day, but windy, and starting in the afternoon we got a lot of rain.  It rained most of the night and the river was quite high yesterday.  Jared had basketball practice that evening and Scott was helping with the 11 year old scouts--did I mention he got called to be the assistant 11 year old scout leader?  Well, he did.  There was not a YM activity because they are having one tonight instead.  Jared hung around and played basketball while I got a few things done at the church, then we came home.

Yesterday morning I took kids to the library, then I went visiting teaching (yes, on the 31st!  What a great example I am!  I did try to go earlier, in my defense.)  I had another visit after that as well.  Then I got groceries and came home.  Scott vacuumed the house for me and kept the laundry going while I was gone.  I'm not sure how I'm going to manage after he leaves, actually!  I was supposed to go on a visit last night--to see a new sister in the ward--but she had to cancel on us because she ended up having to work.  Frank was doing some work for a client yesterday evening and Scott went to Institute.  I didn't even hear him come in.  I am sleeping like a log most nights lately.

I found out last night that we're going to have a baptism tomorrow.  One of the investigators who came to church a few weeks ago decided to get baptized.  Actually, she started coming to church the Sunday I was sustained and she has been at church every week since.  Her husband and four daughters have also come every week, with the exception of last Sunday.  Her oldest daughter (who is 11) is getting baptized too.  Exciting stuff!  So today I've been looking over the visiting teaching lists, trying to figure out who to give her for visiting teachers.  Yet another change!  I'm actually handing out new assignments on Sunday so at least then I won't have to change anything until next month!

In between all the busy-ness, I've been trying to get a lesson ready for Sunday (nearly there, I hope) and I read a fun book called Austenland by Shannon Hale.  It was nice to have something entertaining to take my mind off all the serious stuff.  I also managed to exercise twice--it is not easy to find the time to do that! 

Today I got the budget caught up (not too complicated again, thankfully).  We got a little bit of snow this morning and it is very cold and very windy.  No delayed opening for school, though.  We enjoyed having two somewhat mild days (Tuesday and Wednesday) but now we are back to winter.  Can't last forever, though, and overall I'd still say we've been having a fairly mild winter again.  I am happy that it's February now...usually we start getting some decent days in March.  

Frank and I are planning to go to the temple this afternoon and tonight all the boys have activities planned.  Scott is going to miss at least part of his so he can babysit for us.  I am not looking forward to going out in the cold but it will be nice to go to the temple again. 

Weekly Review January 25 '13

I didn't even take any pictures this week.  How boring!  Well, that's January for you--unless you are Anna, and create your own holiday.  Really should do that...if I only had time. 

There may not be pictures, but there was a lot going on all week.  I am busy, busy, busy all the time.  The life of a Relief Society president is busy...and exhilirating...and overwhelming...and discouraging...and wonderful.  And somehow worth it, after all is said and done.  But it doesn't make for very exciting reading, I have to admit.  I feel like I am still at the stage where I'm spending a lot of time "administrating" and just figuring out what I'm doing and not nearly enough time doing the really important stuff.  But I'll get there.  And I'm also learning that I have to pace myself, because the reality is that there is always something else that could be done. Sometimes I have to say to myself "Ok, you've already spent 5 hours doing RS related stuff today.  So now you need to stop.  Everything else can wait for another day."

Saturday morning Frank got a call from one of the wards who had a big computer problem come up so he was gone until afternoon.  (He still wasn't feeling well.  As a matter of fact, he is just now starting to act like himself again.  He didn't feel well enough to go to church on Sunday--kept fluctuating between freezing and being too hot.  He had Monday off, thankfully, and he worked from home on Tuesday.  He did go into work on Wednesday, Thursday, and today but hasn't been feeling his best.  Mostly he is just very tired.  But he's doing a lot better than he was.)

The older three boys went to help with a move Saturday morning and went from there to Jared's basketball game, which they actually won.  (Doesn't happen very often.)  Decisively, in fact.  Jared probably broke his finger again, though.  It was all bruised & swollen.  I had to go out on Monday and buy him a splint for it.  (Don't know what happened to the splint he used before.  It disappeared, of course.)  I wanted to go to the game but didn't want to take Seth (who doesn't sit still for more than a minute of two) so I stayed with Seth and got the kitchen floor cleaned, did some Personal Progress, and worked on the ever present RS stuff.  After the boys got back, I had them plan meals for an upcoming camp out and make a list of what they needed and then went shopping.  I got back just in time to get dinner made; the Elders were coming over for that.  One of them is a vegetarian; I tried a cheese enchilada recipe that turned out to be pretty good.  It was productive talking to them about what they'd been doing all week--I discovered that they had gone to find / visit nearly every "mystery person" on my list of RS sisters and could tell me something about them.  Go Elders!  (The reason we have some mysteries is that when the ward boundary changes were made, they automatically sent everyone's records to the ward boundary in which they reside.  There are several people who, for whatever reason, had their records in another ward but who actually live in our ward boundaries.  And virtually all of them are in some stage of inactivity, so it's not like they showed up at church saying "Hey, I'm in your ward now".  Only because I used to be the Primary president, I know who a couple of them are, but most of them are a mystery.)  I had put all of the sisters that I didn't know on a writing list for visiting teaching until I could find out if they would accept visitors or not but thanks to the Elders I already know that some of them would be fine with visitors, some need to stay on the writing list, and some of them have actually moved.  (So yes...I already need to make changes to visiting teaching.  But I'm pretty sure that's always how it's going to be.)

After dinner, Tanner and Jared left for a dance.  Scott helped me clean up dinner and he also helped me get stew made for dinner the next day--it cooked in the crock pot all night.  I kept waking up and smelling it! 

I was up early Sunday because it was my week to go to PEC meeting (I only go once a month).  It was a good day--I got to meet a sister who had just moved into the ward (she usually has to work on Sundays) and the Elders had two investigators come to chuch who stayed for Relief Society, sat on the front row, and seemed to really enjoy it.  We had a really great lesson, too...I was really glad they were able to hear some of the things that were said.  One thing that is nice about early church...I had time to take a short nap that afternoon!  The boys had a fireside that night.  I took them over because I had books to give to some of the people I knew whould be there.   Scott went back later to pick them up, though.

The kids had only 9 hours of school this week.  That's because they were out on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we had a 2 hour delay yesterday because of snow and today they got out 2 hours early--also because of snow.  It's been very cold here.  I know--not as cold as it's been out west, but still...highs in the 20s or 30s and lows in the teens.  Brrr....  Today is especially frigid because the humidity is high.  It FEELS much colder than it is, and it's only about 25 degrees. 

So of course, since it's so cold, the scouts had a camp out planned.  They hardly ever have camp outs, and it seems to me that the only time they actually plan them is in January and they always pick a week end that turns out to be extremely cold.  It never ceases to amaze me...why they don't plan camp outs for the more pleasant months is something I just can't fathom.  At any rate, they decided to take advantage of the days off school and planned a 2 night camp out for Monday through Wednesday.  All three of the older boys went up for the first night.  Scott had planned to come home Tuesday because he had splits with the missionaries that evening.  Tanner ended up coming home with him because all of his extra clothes, sleeping bags, and blankents got packed into a trailer next to an ice chest that unfortunately leaked so all his stuff got soaking wet.  He didn't realize it until he started to get ready for bed.  And, being Tanner, he didn't tell any of the leaders.  So he spent the night (with temps in the lower digits) absolutely freezing and didn't get any sleep.  Please let it be noted that when the boys were packing up, Frank and I repeatedly told Tanner to put his sleeping bag and bedding in a plastic bag to protect it from getting wet.  And Tanner repeatedly rolled his eyes at us and said "How's it going to get wet?  It's not supposed to rain!"  Actually, the whole packing experience was very unpleasant because all three of the boys resented my suggestions, saying things like "I've been camping a million times.  I know what to pack!"  (Yes, and they always forget something important.  I'm not kidding!)  So by the time I dropped them off at the church I was totally frustrated with all three of them.  Tanner was pretty humbled by his experience.  When he called me to say he was coming home, he started out by saying "Mom, I'm sorry, you were right..." and he thought I was going to be mad at him for coming home!  I refrained from saying "I told you so"...I think his miserable night taught the lesson I wanted him to learn quite effectively.  Maybe next time, he'll listen to me...MAYBE!  (Probably not.)

Monday evening Seth and I went with Frank to his office...he needed to get something off of his computer and he didn't want to be in the office when other people were there and pass on whatever illness he had.  So now Seth and I have seen where he works.  It's quite nice!  Hopefully he'll get to keep working there.  (No updated news on that.)

There's nothing very noteworthy to say about Tuesday...Scott & Tanner came home and Tanner took a long nap.  They smelled like campfire and left a lot of dirty clothes in the laundry room.  Scott went on splits that evening as planned and got to experience a few rejections and then an awesome teaching appointment.

Wednesday morning I had a presidency meeting.  Then I went to Wal-Mart.  Then I had to go back to the church to pick up Jared.  After that I worked on RS stuff most of the day.  I met the VT coordinator at the church that evening and she showed me how to print up some reports that I'll need.  I was hoping to put some changes in but hadn't had time to get that figured out.  (And still haven't.)  That was one of the discouraging days.  I always have lots of emails to send or answer, and phone calls to make.  Oh yeah, that was the day we had a flood in the basement too.  The boys were doing several loads of laundry--they had lots of nasty stuff from their camp out--and I forgot to tell Tanner that you can't put more than one sleeping bag in the washing machine at a time.  Hence the flood.  Thankfully the floor is cement but we did have to move a lot of stuff that got wet, including the Christmas tree box.  Everything seems to be fine now, though.

I didn't sleep well at all Wednesday night / Thursday morning.  Woke up before 2:00 and couldn't go back to sleep until after 5:00.  I was pretty thrilled when Jared poked his head in our door at 6:00 and said there was a two hour delay.  I needed those couple "extra" hours of sleep!  (We only got about an inch of snow, though.)  I wasn't feeling all that great most of the day...I had a bad headache and my eyes were watering a lot, in addition to being really tired.  I did get a lot done though, including calling a sister that I had just found out had shingles.  And then calling someone else with a visiting teaching question and finding out that she was at the hospital with her daughter, who has diabetes and had just had a scary blood sugar episode.  I don't feel like I've been able to do much visiting yet, but I have certainly done a lot of "phone visits".  Scott had Institute that evening; he got home late.  I was falling asleep when I heard him come in.

Today after dropping Seth off at school I met with the new YW 1st Counselor to hand off all my YW stuff to her.  (Yes, I got released from that calling on Sunday. And they ended up changing the whole presidency, except for the secretary.) Right after I got home from that I found out that school was dismissing 2 hours early.  I got the budget done before I had to go pick kids up (thankfully, the budget was much, much simpler this week.)  Scott did some work in the downstairs bathroom--he pulled down almost all of the rest of the wallpaper.  The wallpaper that Frank started pulling down last January!  I know, sad.  That's how thing roll around here, though.  Maybe in another year we'll get around to actually painting it.  I was going to try to visit a sister this afternoon but I couldn't get in touch with her.  Next week, hopefully.  It did start to snow around 2:00, as predicted, and it is still coming down 2 hours later.  It's very tiny flakes so it's not accumulating much but it's supposed to get pretty slick.  The Elders called me an hour or so ago and asked if I wanted to go with them to visit a less active sister--I do; she's actually one I've been wanting to meet--so I'll be leaving in a few hours to do that.  In between, I'm sure I'll keep busy getting dinner made, which is what I need to go do now.

 I'll try to have some pictures next week.